Dry kibble vs frozen gently cooked
tails.com vs Different Dog on price
One plan is dry kibble scooped out of a cupboard; the other is cooked, frozen in packs and delivered in an insulated box. tails.com and Different Dog both build the order around your answers rather than a published price list, so we completed each signup ourselves at six dog sizes and set the ongoing prices next to each other. The questions each one asks turn out to matter almost as much as the food.
- Ongoing prices at six dog sizes, once the opening offers end
- Which answers each signup charges for, and at what size they start to count
- A year on each, and whether switching changes the first one
Ongoing prices for a neutered 14kg adult dog on typical walks. Both verified 14 Oct 2026 from the brands' own quote processes.
Both plans at six dog sizes
Every row prices a neutered adult on everyday walks, at the rate that runs after any opening discount. Neither brand prints a price list, so each figure comes from a quote we completed in that brand's own signup, and the daily column for tails.com is its calendar-month bill spread across an average month.
| Dog | tails.com Personalised kibble | Different Dog Gently cooked |
|---|---|---|
| Chihuahua 3kg | £0.52 (cheaper for this dog) | £1.64 |
| Dachshund 9kg | £1.00 (cheaper for this dog) | £3.32 |
| Cocker Spaniel 14kg | £1.25 (cheaper for this dog) | £5.29 |
| Border Collie 19kg | £1.47 (cheaper for this dog) | £5.82 |
| Labrador 30kg | £1.95 (cheaper for this dog) | £7.00 |
| Rottweiler 40kg | £2.26 (cheaper for this dog) | £7.44 |
Cheaper by weight
- 2–60kg tails.com
Measured as a multiple, the distance between these columns is greatest for the smallest dog and broadly shrinks as dogs get bigger. Measured in pounds a day it does the reverse and grows at every step. Both readings are correct, and which one matters depends on whether you think of the food bill as a share of the household budget or as a sum leaving the account each month.
What if your dog won't eat it? Compare tails.com's and Different Dog's terms.
A year on either plan, offers included
Joining either brand starts a fresh introductory offer, and the two are built differently. tails.com discounts its first calendar month, while Different Dog discounts its first two boxes, and how long two boxes last depends on the size of the dog. The block below runs a full year on each for a mid-size adult, with each offer counted at its real length.
- £122.79 more a month on Different Dog, once both are at their ongoing price
- £1,472.34 more a year at the ongoing prices, for the same dog
- 0 days that Different Dog's offer keeps its running total below tails.com's: its discounted price is already above the other's ongoing price
- £1,899.93 a first year on Different Dog with its offer, against £457.20 staying on tails.com
Your present plan is taken at its settled rate, since its own offer is presumably behind you. If the newcomer's discounted daily price is still above the other plan's normal one, no stretch of discounted days evens the totals, and the block states that instead of giving a date.
Brands that cost less than both
Nothing we track comes in below both of these for this dog. With a dry plan in the pair, that is what our coverage predicts: kibble costs the least to make and to deliver of any format we sample, and we have no second dry brand on our books to test it against. A different dog size, or the next round of sampling, could change the list.
Same questions, different consequences
Both signups ask how much exercise your dog gets, and both act on the answer, but not in the same way. tails.com moves its price in both directions: a quieter routine brings the quote down, and a very active dog is charged a good deal more for a larger portion. Different Dog, with a mid-size dog held steady, cut the portion and the price at its lowest exercise band and changed neither when we chose its highest, so extra activity costs nothing more on that plan at that size.
Neutering runs the same way. tails.com charges an entire dog more than a neutered one while sending an identical portion, so the difference is in the blend rather than the quantity. Different Dog asks the question too, and at mid size the answer left its quote unchanged. For a very large dog both answers started to count on Different Dog as well, so the tidy contrast above belongs to ordinary sizes, and the calculator applies each brand's own measured figures to yours.
What arrives, and where it goes
Different Dog cooks its recipes, freezes each pack and ships them frozen, so a delivery goes into the freezer and a day's food comes out to thaw ahead of time. The packs get bigger with the dog, from small ones for a toy breed to kilo packs for a large one, and a bigger dog also means a delivery every fortnight rather than every four weeks. tails.com posts a sealed bag of dry food that sits in a cupboard and is measured with its own scoop.
Freezer space never appears on an invoice, yet for a large dog on a frozen plan it is often the first practical limit a household runs into. It is worth checking before either price is.
How we arrived at each column
For tails.com we record the kibble-only plan and turn down the wet food pack offered part way through signup, since that pack is priced in steps by dog size and would describe a different plan. Its monthly figure is the amount that reaches your statement.
For Different Dog we read the full plan, which its signup labels as the most popular option, and price the ongoing box that follows the starter box at the rate its checkout gives, plus the delivery charge it adds to every ongoing order. The plan step shows the starter box only. It also sells a partial plan it presents as a topper, at a little over half the full daily amount for a mid-size dog, which suits anyone planning to mix fresh food into a dry diet. The table does not price that option.
Cheaper of the two for a typical 14kg adult dog
tails.com £1.25/day · £38.13/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 Different Dog 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 Different Dog: your questions
Which of the two costs less per day?
tails.com came out below Different Dog per day at every size in the table above when we last checked them, by a wider margin in pounds for larger dogs. The switching block sets a year on each side by side for a mid-size adult. The calculator prices your own dog, including the activity and neutering answers that shift tails.com more than most.
Can I feed Different Dog alongside kibble?
Different Dog sells a partial plan for mixed feeding, which it presents as a topper and portions at a little over half the full daily amount for a mid-size dog. Our table prices the full plan only, so a mixed diet of the two would normally land somewhere between the two columns. Each brand's own feeding guidance is the place to check the combined daily amount.
Does Different Dog's opening offer close the gap?
The switching block works this out for a mid-size adult and prints the result. An opening discount only reorders two plans while the discounted daily price sits below the other plan's ordinary one; where it stays above it, the running totals never meet however long the offer lasts. Different Dog's opening offer has changed several times while we have been sampling it, so rely on the figure computed on this page over one remembered from an advert.
Why does gently cooked food cost more than kibble?
Gently cooked food keeps its moisture, so a day's meal weighs more than the same dog's kibble, up to nearly twice as much in our samples, and it has to be cooked in batches, frozen and kept cold all the way to your door. Dry food is made at scale and travels at room temperature. Those costs are in the product before either brand sets a price, so the gap says more about the two formats than about either company.