The Farmer's Dog vs Ollie (2026): Which Fresh Dog Food Wins?
Both deliver vet-formulated fresh food to your door. The right pick depends on your budget, your dog's pickiness, and whether you want an all-in switch or a topper strategy.
Both companies solve the same problem: gently cooked, human-grade fresh food, portioned to your dog and delivered on a schedule. On our Fit Analysis, the split is clean.
Pick The Farmer's Dog if you want the all-in fresh switch done as simply as possible: fresh-only recipes, pre-portioned day packs you tear and pour, and the most streamlined feeding routine in the category.
Pick Ollie if you want flexibility on price: alongside fresh recipes, Ollie offers baked options and half-fresh mixing plans, which makes it the easier way to get fresh-food benefits without fresh-food-only costs.
Either way, run the company's own quiz with your dog's real weight and activity level before judging the price. Quotes vary so much by dog that any single number you read online, including ours, is only an illustration.
What you're actually buying
Strip the marketing and both services sell the same four things:
Formulation. Recipes developed with veterinary nutritionists to AAFCO complete-and-balanced standards, cooked gently rather than extruded at high heat like kibble.
Portioning. You fill out a profile (breed, weight, age, activity, body condition) and food arrives portioned to your dog's calorie target. This is quietly the biggest benefit: portion creep is how most dogs get fat, and pre-portioned packs make overfeeding harder.
Logistics. Insulated boxes on a recurring schedule, frozen or refrigerated on arrival, freezer storage at home.
A subscription. Both are easy to pause or cancel online, and both use an introductory trial box at a steep discount to get you started.
Head-to-head
| The Farmer's Dog | Ollie | |
|---|---|---|
| Food style | Fresh only | Fresh, baked, and half-fresh mixing plans |
| Packaging | Pre-portioned day packs | Tubs with a measuring scoop (fresh), bags (baked) |
| Price flexibility | Lower, fresh is the only tier | Higher, baked and mixed plans cut the cost meaningfully |
| Feeding routine | Tear, pour, done | Scoop and portion yourself on tub plans |
| Best for | Full switch, simplest routine | Budget control, toppers, picky-dog experimentation |
The cost math, honestly
Fresh food is priced per calorie, so your dog's size dominates everything. As a rough mid-2026 illustration from the companies' own quote ranges:
- A 10 lb dog might run roughly $2-4 per day on fresh plans
- A 40 lb dog might run roughly $5-8 per day
- An 80 lb dog can clear $10-12 per day on fresh-only plans
That last number is why Ollie's mixed and baked plans matter: feeding a big dog half fresh, half quality kibble captures much of the palatability and portion-control benefit at closer to half the cost. For small dogs the whole question is easier, fresh-only is often just a few dollars a day more than premium kibble.
Treat these as illustrations, not quotes. Run both quizzes with your dog's real profile; it takes about five minutes each and the trial-box discounts change often.
Where each one loses
Applying our Fit Analysis, the honest knocks:
The Farmer's Dog has no budget lever. If the quote is too high, your only option is leaving. The soft packs also need freezer space and a day of fridge thawing, and a torn pack is a mess in a way a tub never is.
Ollie's flexibility cuts both ways: tub-and-scoop plans reintroduce the exact portioning slop that pre-portioned packs eliminate, and the menu of plan combinations makes the signup flow noticeably more complicated.
Both share the category's real limits: you need freezer room for weeks of food, travel gets harder than scooping kibble into a bag, and the peer-reviewed evidence that fresh beats quality kibble for a healthy dog is thinner than the marketing implies. The clearest reported wins are for picky eaters, sensitive stomachs, and weight management.
Fresh dog food delivery: FAQ
Is The Farmer's Dog or Ollie cheaper?
For the same dog on fresh-only plans, quotes usually land in the same neighborhood. Ollie becomes the cheaper option when you use its baked or half-fresh mixing plans, which The Farmer's Dog doesn't offer. For a genuinely tight budget, a mixed Ollie plan or a fresh topper over quality kibble beats forcing a fresh-only subscription.
How do I switch my dog to fresh food?
Transition over 7-10 days, mixing an increasing share of the new food into the old. Both companies print a transition schedule on the first box. Going too fast is the number one cause of the loose stools people blame on the food itself.
Do vets recommend fresh dog food?
Vets recommend complete-and-balanced diets appropriate to the dog, and both services meet AAFCO standards with veterinary nutritionists on staff. Most vets will tell you a healthy dog also does fine on quality kibble. If your dog has a medical condition, ask your vet before switching, some conditions need prescription diets these services don't replace.
Can I feed fresh food as a topper instead of a full switch?
Yes, and it's the most cost-effective way to use these services for medium and large dogs. Ollie supports this directly with mixing plans. With The Farmer's Dog you'd portion packs across more days yourself, just keep opened packs refrigerated and use them within the window printed on the pack.
Related reading
These two aren't the only players: the full field, including Nom Nom, Spot & Tango, and JustFoodForDogs, is compared in best fresh dog food delivery services. Still deciding whether the category is right for your dog at all? Start with is fresh dog food worth it. And whichever you pick, transition your dog properly, it's the difference between a smooth switch and a week of mess. See how our scoring works.