Finding the right pair of glasses for you can be tough. With multiple brands and hundreds of styles, sometimes it feels like there are too many options out there. Which is why we’re here to help.

As of now, two of the top-rated glasses in the business are Warby Parker and Ray-Ban. Each provide statement, high quality glasses with a story, founded by people for people to give you the very best of choices in glasses. To help you with your decision, we’ve boiled down the specifics of each brand to compare and contrast.

Behind the Glasses: Warby Parker

Founded to make eyewear accessible for everyone, Warby Parker is one of the leading socially conscious businesses in the world. For each pair of glasses bought, Warby Parker donates a pair to a person in need, and has donated over 5 million glasses to over 50 countries since its foundation. Named the ‘Most Innovative Company’ in 2012, its mission is to be more than just a glasses brand, but a transformative lifestyle brand, making shopping for glasses easy and fun. Warby Parker frames are made with high quality, custom colored acetate sourced from Italy, cut using high-tech machines before being hand – assembled and hand – polished. Lenses are custom cut and polished so they can become scratch, impact, and smudge resistant, anti-reflective, and 100% UVA and UVB ray blocking. Frames and lenses are then assembled and inspected by hand before being sent to you!

Behind the Glasses: Ray-Ban

Ray-Ban glasses are the quintessential American glasses. First made in 1937 by Bausch & Lomb, Ray-Ban glasses were created to protect aviators in the U.S. Army Corp from sun damage without taking away from their looks (which is where all ‘aviator glasses’ stem from). The glasses jumped into popularity in the 80’s, and again the early 2000’s largely because of their presence on the faces of movie stars and cultural legends. Since its founding as an American company, Ray-Ban been sold to the Italian company, Luxottica. Glasses are currently made in both Italy and China, but there are a lot of knock-off companies out there, so be sure to buy from reputable sites.

Warby Parker Selection

While Warby Parker is a more recently founded company, their designs are completely inspired by vintage trends, coming in dozens of styles for both men and women. Warby Parker’s selection includes sunglasses, eyeglasses, blue light glasses, and even monocles! Their eyeglasses cover non-prescription glasses (with or without magnification), prism correction glasses, single-prescription glasses, progressive glasses, polarization, and come in a variety of colors (blue, green, grey, brown, black). If you need help with your prescription, Warby Parker offers eye exams at or near many of its locations, letting you extend or renew your prescription before ordering your new glasses.

Ray-Ban Selection

Ray-Ban has one of the largest selection of designer glasses in-stores or on the web, with dozens of different styles in sunglasses and eyeglasses for men and women. Ray-Ban eyeglasses come in non-prescription, prescription, blue light glasses, and are 100% UV protected. You can also choose to add your prescription to a pair of polarized glasses, or even create your own pair of custom Ray-Ban glasses!

Pricing: Warby Parker

Dedicated to making glasses accessible to everyone, Warby Parker keeps prices low: starting at $95 (with additional costs for add-ons). Warby Parker also lets you apply your insurance discounts, flexible spending account (FSA), and health spending account (HSA) dollars to any and all prescription glasses, eye exams, prescription sunglasses, and contact lenses to lower the overall cost to you.

Pricing: Ray-Ban

As a more established designer brand, Ray-Ban glasses are a little more expensive. Eyeglasses start at $143 and go anywhere up to $223 without customizations. Sunglasses are around the same, starting at $123 and going into the 200’s. Like Warby Parker, Ray-Ban also lets you use your FSA, HSA, and insurance benefits for discounts on certain products.

Returning Warby Parker

Warby Parker’s Home Try-On lets you try five glasses of your choice, for free, for five days! This way you can try out the glasses you like without having to go into the store, or ending up buying a pair of glasses you don’t like online and having to return them! When you find the pair you like, you order a new pair to be sent to you online, and send the five pairs you tried on back in to Warby Parker at no cost to you.

Returning Ray-Ban

Any product purchased from the Ray-Ban site can be returned for 100% back for the first 45 days after purchasing. Ray-Ban will pay for your return shipping. Additionally, Ray-Ban will replace faulty products!

The Verdict

While the competition was close between Warby Parker and Ray-Ban, in the end Warby Parker won. The ease and efficiency Warby Parker offers through letting you schedule eye exams at or near its stores, along with trying your glasses on at home before purchasing them, really took the cake for us. Warby Parker’s price is also hard to beat when it comes to high-quality designer glasses. Ray-Ban will always be a statement American glasses, but Warby Parker is and up-and-coming classic that will be staying for a long time.