UK fresh dog food head to head
Butternut Box vs Bella & Duke on price
The two best-known fresh brands in the UK, and the pair people most often shortlist together. One cooks, one doesn't, and that shows up in the price rather than only on the plate. Both quote you at the end of a signup quiz, so this page puts their ongoing prices next to each other for six dog sizes, then works out what moving between them actually costs over a year.
- Ongoing prices side by side, not the first-box prices
- What a year costs each way, with the new brand's offer counted in
- Any brand we track that undercuts them both is named below
Ongoing prices for a neutered 14kg adult dog on typical walks. Both verified 26 Jul 2026 from the brands' own quote processes.
Price by dog size
Both brands portion to the individual dog, so their prices track how much food your dog eats rather than a plan tier. Neither publishes a curve, so these come from prices we recorded ourselves. Figures are for a neutered adult on typical walks, at the ongoing rate that applies once the introductory period is over.
| Dog | Butternut BoxGently cooked | Bella & DukeRaw |
|---|---|---|
| Chihuahua3kg | £1.80 | £0.79 (cheaper for this dog) |
| Dachshund9kg | £2.52 | £1.65 (cheaper for this dog) |
| Cocker Spaniel14kg | £3.26 | £2.09 (cheaper for this dog) |
| Border Collie19kg | £3.77 | £2.56 (cheaper for this dog) |
| Labrador30kg | £4.88 | £3.61 (cheaper for this dog) |
| Rottweiler40kg | £5.40 | £4.81 (cheaper for this dog) |
Cheaper by weight
- 2–60kgBella & Duke
Raw is the less processed format but the cheaper one, which surprises people who expect the two to move together. The gap is mostly labour and heat: cooking, portioning into pouches and chilling all happen before the food ships, and raw skips them.
What moving between them costs
Switching means starting a new plan, which means a new introductory offer. That makes the first year cheaper than every year after it, and it is the reason a switch can look better than it settles at. The figures below are for a mid-size adult dog, comparing a full year on each brand.
- £35.61more a month on Butternut Box, once both are at their ongoing price
- £427.05more a year at the ongoing prices, for the same dog
- 39days before Butternut Box has cost more in total than Bella & Duke, starting its offer today
- £1,144.26a first year on Butternut Box with its offer, against £762.85 staying on Bella & Duke
The comparison assumes you are already past your current brand's introductory period, so it is priced at that brand's ongoing rate against the other brand's first year including its offer. Both are worked out from the same sampled models the calculator uses.
Cheaper than both, for the same dog
Narrowing to two brands is not the same as those two being the only options. Everything else we track, priced for the same dog, showing whatever comes out below both of them. Ranked on price alone, and some of it is a different kind of food, which is noted against each.
- tails.comPersonalised kibble£1.25/day
Raw and cooked are not the same job
Bella & Duke delivers uncooked meat, bone and offal, frozen. Butternut Box cooks human-grade ingredients at low temperature, then portions and freezes them. Both arrive frozen and both want freezer space, so that particular practical difference, which does separate fresh brands from each other, is not one that separates these two.
What does separate them is handling. Raw needs defrosting with a bit of thought about the surfaces it touches, and households with very young children or an immune-compromised adult sometimes rule it out for that reason alone. Cooked pouches go from freezer to bowl with none of that. If you are weighing the two, that is a real difference and it is not a price one.
Where each brand's quote comes from
We recorded Butternut Box at the final review step of its wizard with the default recipe selection in place, because that is the number someone who does not edit their menu is shown. Its recipes are priced individually and the default mix leans premium, so a plan built from base recipes only comes out below what the table shows.
Bella & Duke we take from its own public estimator rather than a completed signup, which is the one methodological difference between the two columns worth knowing about. The brand states the estimate excludes offers and assumes a standard delivery size. Our next full sampling cycle cross-checks it against the live funnel.
Cheaper of the two for a typical 14kg adult dog
Bella & Duke£2.09/day · £63.62/month ongoing
Take either one on its own
What Butternut Box costs
Prices by dog size, what the introductory offer does, and every brand we track that undercuts it.
What Bella & Duke costs
Prices by dog size, what the introductory offer does, and every brand we track that undercuts it.
Gently cooked only
Butternut Box and Different Dog head to head, at the price that applies after the offer.
Fresh food only
Raw, gently cooked and dehydrated plans compared without kibble in the ranking.
Butternut Box vs Bella & Duke: your questions
Which is better value over a full year?
Work from the annual figures on this page rather than the daily ones, because the introductory offers distort a short comparison and the two brands' offers are different lengths. The switching block above gives a full year each way, with the new brand's offer counted in, for a mid-size adult dog. The calculator does the same for your dog's actual weight.
Does Bella & Duke being raw make it cheaper?
In part. Raw skips the cooking, pouching and chilling that a cooked plan pays for before the food ships, and that shows in the price. But format is not the whole story: the two dehydrated and cooked brands we track sit either side of each other depending on dog size, so it is worth reading the numbers rather than the category.
Can I feed both, or move gradually?
Both brands sell in daily portions rather than fixed pack sizes, so running one alongside the other for a transition week is straightforward in practice. What it does mean is paying two subscriptions briefly, which the annual figures on this page do not account for. Neither brand requires a minimum term at the point we sampled them.
Do these prices include delivery?
Yes. Both brands build delivery into the plan price at the point we record it, so the figures here are what lands on the card rather than a subtotal. Delivery frequency differs between them and can shift the per-day price on some fresh brands; where that happens we record the default cadence, which is what you are quoted unless you change it yourself.