To prove two things are isomorphic, it's enough to find a mapping which is an isomorphism. However, to prove two things are not isomorphic you have to prove that no mapping will be a isomorphism! Because there may be too many maps to check, one most often has to find a relevant Invariant (a property invariant under a certain class of maps), that is different in the two spaces, to prove this.
Some isomorphisms are natural, and others not. Example
An isomorphism in a Category C is an arrow such that there exists an arrow such that i.e. and .
Gives Bijection for category of sets