Personalised kibble vs gently cooked
tails.com vs Butternut Box on price
Two of the best known dog food subscriptions in the UK, and a pairing where the brands are not selling the same kind of food at all. One sends personalised dry kibble and bills a calendar month; the other sends gently cooked meals portioned into pouches and bills per box. Both quote at the end of a signup questionnaire rather than from a published price list, so this page puts their ongoing prices side by side at six dog sizes and works out what a full year on each comes to.
- Ongoing prices at six dog sizes, not the opening offers
- A full year on each, with the offer counted at its real length
- Which questions each brand asks, and which of them move your price
Ongoing prices for a neutered 14kg adult dog on typical walks. Both verified 28 Aug 2026 from the brands' own quote processes.
What each costs at six dog sizes
Both brands size the plan to the individual dog, so the figures move with how much your dog eats rather than with a plan tier you choose off a page. Neither publishes a table, so these come from quotes we recorded in each brand's own funnel. They are for a neutered adult on typical walks, at the rate that applies once any opening discount has finished.
| Dog | tails.com Personalised kibble | Butternut Box Gently cooked |
|---|---|---|
| Chihuahua 3kg | £0.52 (cheaper for this dog) | £1.80 |
| Dachshund 9kg | £1.00 (cheaper for this dog) | £2.52 |
| Cocker Spaniel 14kg | £1.25 (cheaper for this dog) | £3.26 |
| Border Collie 19kg | £1.47 (cheaper for this dog) | £3.77 |
| Labrador 30kg | £1.94 (cheaper for this dog) | £4.88 |
| Rottweiler 40kg | £2.25 (cheaper for this dog) | £5.40 |
Cheaper by weight
- 2–60kg tails.com
The distance between these two columns is mostly water and heat. Kibble ships dry, keeps at room temperature and is made at scale, while gently cooked food is cooked, portioned, chilled and shipped cold, then wants freezer room when it arrives. That difference is settled before either brand quotes you, so the question worth asking here is what each format costs your own dog, not which of the two columns holds the lower number.
What a year on each comes to
Moving to either brand starts a new plan, which means a new opening offer, so a first year is not what the years after it look like. The block below runs a complete year on each for a mid-size adult, counting each offer at the length it actually lasts rather than at its headline size.
- £61.19 more a month on Butternut Box, once both are at their ongoing price
- £733.76 more a year at the ongoing prices, for the same dog
- 0 days that Butternut Box's offer keeps its running total below tails.com's: its discounted price is already above the other's ongoing price
- £1,144.26 a first year on Butternut Box with its offer, against £456.14 staying on tails.com
It assumes you are already past your current brand's opening period, so your existing plan is priced at its ongoing rate. Where one brand's discounted price still sits above the other's ongoing price, the offer never closes the gap, and the block says so rather than quoting a crossover that does not happen.
Anything that undercuts both
Nothing else we track lands below both of these for this dog, and the reason is worth having rather than taking on trust. One of this pair is a dry food, which is the least expensive format on this site to make and to ship, so a list of things cheaper than both is really a list of things cheaper than dry food, and we do not currently track one. That says nothing about which of the two suits your dog, and it can change with dog size or after any re-sample.
The two brands ask your dog different questions
Butternut Box prices on your dog's weight and on whether it is still a puppy. We held every other answer steady in its funnel and changed one at a time: activity level left the quote where it was, the senior band left it where it was, and neutering is not asked about at all. A quiet older dog and an athletic young one of the same weight are quoted the same figure.
tails.com works the other way round. It is the most activity sensitive brand we track, and the walk length you enter moves the portion and with it the price. It also asks whether your dog is neutered and does something with the answer, which is not true of the others on this site. The consequence for this page is that the distance between the two columns is not a fixed thing: it is widest for a quiet neutered dog and narrowest for a large unneutered one that runs all day, so the calculator is the only way to see where your own dog lands.
How we got these two numbers
tails.com quotes a calendar month rather than a box, so its monthly figure is the one that reaches your statement, and the per day column is that figure spread across an average month. We record the kibble only plan and decline the wet food pack offered alongside it during signup. The pack steps up with dog size rather than scaling smoothly with it, so folding it in would misstate the plan being compared here.
Butternut Box quotes per box, and we read it at the plan step with the default recipe selection untouched, since that is what someone who accepts the suggested menu is shown. Its recipes carry individual prices, so a menu rebuilt from the cheaper ones lands under the table and one built from the pricier end lands above it. That spread is a real feature of the brand, and it is why a single quoted number describes this one less completely than it describes the other.
Cheaper of the two for a typical 14kg adult dog
tails.com £1.25/day · £38.04/month ongoing
Take either one on its own
What tails.com costs
Prices by dog size, what the introductory offer does, and every brand we track that undercuts it.
What Butternut Box costs
Prices by dog size, what the introductory offer does, and every brand we track that undercuts it.
Fresh food only
Raw, gently cooked and dehydrated plans compared without kibble in the ranking.
Gently cooked only
Butternut Box and Different Dog head to head, at the price that applies after the offer.
tails.com vs Butternut Box: your questions
Which of the two is cheaper?
tails.com and Butternut Box sit a long way apart at every size we have sampled, and the table above gives a figure for each at six dog sizes rather than one answer covering every dog. The more useful comparison is a full year on each, in the block above, because the opening offers run for different lengths and a short comparison flatters whichever brand is currently discounted. The calculator prices your own dog against both and against everything else we track.
Can you compare kibble and gently cooked food on price alone?
Kibble and gently cooked food can be compared on price only once you know what the price is buying. Kibble is dry, shelf stable and made at scale, and most of the weight of a gently cooked meal is water that a dry plan never ships. That accounts for the bulk of the difference between the two columns, so it is better read as two products at two prices than as one being the better deal.
Would switching save money in the first year?
Whether a switch pays off in the first year depends on which direction you are going, and the block above works it out for a mid-size adult. An opening offer only changes the comparison for as long as it runs, and where a discounted price still sits above the other brand's ongoing price the offer never closes the gap at all. Neither brand required a minimum term at the point we sampled them.
Do both prices include delivery?
Both tails.com and Butternut Box build delivery into the prices shown here, but the two arrive on different rhythms. tails.com bills a calendar month while Butternut Box bills per box, so the two do not line up on a statement even when the annual totals are close. We convert both to a daily figure so the columns can be read against each other, and the annual figures are the ones to work from for a real comparison.