Top 10 Online Eyeglasses Providers: Buyers Guide

Are you tired of paying more than you need to for your glasses?

To help you out, we have compiled a comprehensive list of the top 10 online eyeglasses providers and analyzed them to help you find the best deals. In order to do so, we used data from: Good Housekeeping, Top Ten Reviews, Clark.com, CNN, The Wire Cutter, Mashable, Esquire, Business Insider, Frugal Rules, 20somethingfinance.com, techlicious.com, The Healthcare Hustlers, Trust Pilot, and Well Kept Wallet. 

So what are the top 10 online eyewear providers? Here is our list:

1. Warby Parker
2. Zenni Optical
3. GlassesUSA
4. EyeBuyDirect
5. 39dollarglasses.com
6. Eyeconic
7. LensCrafters
8. Coastal
9. Proof Eyewear
10. Felix + Iris

Below we will discuss best pricing for frames, lenses, blue light protection, light-responsive lenses, as well as which of these companies also offer sunglasses and contact lenses. Keep reading to see which of these companies is going to be the best for you, your budget, and your needs.

Best price for frames — EyeBuyDirect and Zenni Optical

Though it may come as a surprise, pricing for a basic pair of frames ranges from $6.00–$199.00 depending on the provider. When looking at the top 10 online glasses providers, EyeBuyDirect and Zenni Optical frames are priced much lower than the competition. Though these frames are not guaranteed to be as durable as other more expensive options, they are known to hold up fairly well if used efficiently.

Though EyeBuyDirect technically does sell frames for a little bit less than Zenni Optical, it only offers a couple of options for that price. Zenni Optical offers a wide variety of lenses for just $6.95. It may be worth taking a look at both to see if you are interested in any of these styles before selecting more expensive frames.

Charlene Hess, a mom and blogger for Hess Unacademy said, "I have always been very happy with my experience with Zenni Optical. It is really easy to shop around and compare frames based on style, design, and price. I can sort the frames by price so when I'm buying frames for my son, I can buy him the really inexpensive frames."

Best price for basic lenses — Multiple options

After you have selected your frames from an online provider, you will need to select your lenses. All of these companies, excluding EyeBuyDirect and LensCrafters, provide basic lenses for free. It is common for these lenses to come with basic anti-scratch and anti-glare coatings. You will want to make sure that this is the case before moving forward.

If you are just looking for basic lenses for nightly or light daily use, basic lenses are by far the cheapest option.

The chart below shows the pricing for the most basic of lens options:

Best price for blue light lenses — Felix + Iris, EyeBuyDirect, Zenni Optical, and GlassesUSA

The next step in the online eyeglasses buying process is choosing addtitional lens coatings and features. A common feature that most people add to their lenses is a blue light protective coating. This helps to lessen stress on your eyes during screen time.

The four cheapest options for blue light protections are Felix + Iris, Eye Buy Direct, Zenni Optical, and GlassesUSA. The prices listed in the table below are for the basic blue light coatings. Other blue light protection options are available with a number of these providers, but are more expensive.

Best price for light-responsive lenses — EyeBuyDirect and GlassesUSA

Are you a fan of sunglasses? Do you struggle with any sensitivity to light? If you wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun, you may consider investing in light-responsive lenses that are clear while you are indoors and darken according to the amount of direct sunlight when you are outdoors. In essence, they provide you with prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses in one.

The two companies that provide the best pricing for light-responsive lenses are EyeBuyDirect and GlassesUSA. If you are hoping to stick to a fairly low budget, EyeBuyDirect light-reponsive lenses are almost half the cost of GlassesUSA lenses.

It is important to note that two of the top ten online eyeglasses providers offer light-responsive lens options. Zenni Optical and Proof Eyewear do not have any information about these lenses online. If you are set on having this feature for your pair of glasses, you will need to look elsewhere.

Which of these providers offer sunglasses? All of them

For those who wear prescription eyeglasses, purchasing sunglasses is not necessarily a simple task. The majority of glasses wearers will order prescription sunglasses so that their vision is not impaired while wearing them. Conveniently, all 10 eyeglasses providers offer prescription sunglasses in addition to prescription eyewear.

Do they offer contact lenses?

Though contact lenses are not used by all glasses wearers, there are many who do use them. For convenience, it is much easier if you can order all of your eyewear products from one provider. Half of the top 10 online eyeglasses provider do sell contacts online. These companies include Warby Parker, GlassesUSA, 39dollarglasses.com, Eyeconic, and LensCrafters.

The other half of the top 10 online eyeglasses providers, Zenni Optical, EyeBuyDirect, Coastal, Proof Eyewear, and Felix + Iris, do not sell contacts online.

Testimonials and reviews

If you have made it this far and still are struggling to choose the right online eyeglasses provider for you and/or your family, here are some testimonials and recent reviews that may help you. 

Zenni Optical

Recent customer reviews have said, "We have purchased numerous pairs of glasses from Zenni and have been very satisfied with their service. Their glasses are good quality and are very well priced. They are easy to order online and their photos and customer service are very helpful in choosing glasses. In the few cases where we have not been satisfied with the look or fit of the glasses, they have been very helpful in securing a refund or replacement for us. Zenni offers a quality product, good service, and great pricing."

Warby Parker

Rachel Bodine, a writer for Effortlessinsurance.com said, "I have purchased multiple pairs of glasses from Warby Parker. I had a great experience buying glasses from them, and I will continue to buy glasses from them in the future. I used the home try-on option at Warby Parker rather than visiting a store in-person. I picked five pairs of frames and they were sent to my house for free (I did have to enter a credit card number as security). I then had five business days to try on the frames before I had to ship them back with the free shipping label."

EyeBuyDirect

A recent four-star customer review said, "While quality may be lacking for EyeBuyDirect glasses, it always has great sales and promos that make getting trendy fashion glasses realistic and cheap."