In search of the best fresh dog food for our canine companions, most pet parents unfortunately simply go for the brand that’s most popular. Often this just leads to disappointments or simply not knowing about other options that could actually give both dog and owner the benefits they are seeking. In this review, I’m going to compare PetPlate vs Ollie’s fresh dog food, which I think is really important for pet parents because both of these companies are really well known. PetPlate in particular appeared on Shark Tank and went absolutely popular. In my experience as well as to be straightforward, having eaten both of them a couple of times, I have to admit that they’re kind of gross. I think your dog deserves better!
Nevertheless in this comparison I’m gonna go over how PetPlate and Ollie stack up in terms of Quality that is how they look, how they smell, how they taste, and what the ingredients are. I’ll also evaluate each in terms of Convenience for the pet owner—things like managing your subscription, how fast shipping speeds are, and how the food is packaged. And of course, how do these foods stack up on Cost? I’ve done the math to make sure that we’re comparing them on an apples to apples basis.
Who should get PetPlate?
PetPlate’s a better choice over Ollie. It is a bit more affordable and the food is a bit more tolerable.
CLICK HERE: Get my best deal for PetPlate →Who should get Ollie?
Frankly, I don’t think anyone should buy Ollie. I don’t think it’s good enough for you, and I don’t think it’s good enough for your dog.
CLICK HERE: Get my best deal for Ollie →On one hand, if value is your biggest deciding factor in fresh dog food, then I would recommend you check out Nom Nom fresh dog food. Nom Nom’s food is really excellent and the price comes in very low comparable with PetPlate. On the other hand, if you don’t mind spending a little bit more money on your dog and you’re also looking for great quality in the food, then I’d highly recommend you to check out The Farmer’s Dog. Both of those companies are going to be much better options for you and your pup when it comes to fresh dog food based on my experience.
But whatever the case, if you do decide to go with either PetPlate or Ollie for your pup, make sure to use my links above to get the best discount that I currently have access to. Right now that’s 50 off your first box with Ollie and I’ll keep those links updated.
Quality
To look at the quality of a fresh dog food, I check the appearance, smell, taste, and ingredients used. See how PetPlate and Ollie’s beef and chicken recipes compare.
Appearance
I first examined the beef recipes from each of these companies. Comparing PetPlate’s Bark and Beef against Ollie’s Beef Recipe with Sweet Potatoes, you can see right away that the biggest difference is that with PetPlate you’re getting nice large chunks of the ingredients. You can see whole green peas and nice cubes of sweet potato, although the meat itself does look a little bit mushy and the colors are a bit drab. I would say it is not so fresh looking or vibrant. I think the big chunks of ingredients do a lot of heavy lifting, but overall it does slightly have the appearance of a regular dog food.
When you look at Ollie’s beef recipe, on the other hand, there’s really not much nice that I could say about it. The consistency is almost homogeneous—there’s maybe little flakes of color in the food but there’s not much going on in terms of whole chunks of ingredients. The meat itself looks almost granular and pasty—nothing about Ollie’s beef dish looks appealing whatsoever. It resembles canned dog food or even cat food that our pets have been eating for decades now—definitely not an elevated fresh dog food experience like we’re hoping for.
When I compared the Chompin’ Chicken from PetPlate and Chicken Recipes with Carrots from Ollie, it was clearly a very similar situation. On one hand, PetPlate does have really nice chunks of green beans, whole red lentils, and cubes of either sweet potato or carrot—there’s definitely big pieces of the ingredients there, but again, the meat could look better. Although the color of the meat is a little bit drab, it’s not the worst fresh dog food I’ve seen. On the other hand, Ollie’s chicken recipe, just like their beef recipe, has a few little specks of color in there but overall the meat looks really quite granular and not all that much nice. Both dishes give off a regular dog food vibe.
Smell
The next thing I look at when evaluating a fresh dog food’s quality is its smell. Does it smell appetizing, or something I’d want to eat?
PetPlate’s Bark and Beef surely does not smell too bad. You can definitely smell the green peas, and although the beef aroma is a little bit strong, there is nothing that is overwhelmingly alarming off the get-go. When I smelled Ollie’s Beef recipe with Sweet Potatoes, it really brought back some bad memories with the food itself from when I first tried it. That has a really strong smell—like traditional wet dog food for lack of a better term. There’s a little bit of sourness going on from the greens, not like spoiled sour, however. The meat itself really smells quite heavy and potent—definitely not something I would be interested in sticking a fork into and tasting.
The chicken recipes are sort of similar in my opinion. PetPlate’s Chompin’ Chicken smells fairly nice. There’s a little bit of a sweetness to it and the chicken meat definitely smells like food—perhaps a little bit strong. The overall smell of PetPlate’s chicken dish doesn’t smell off-putting in any way, however, it also doesn’t necessarily peak my appetite. Ollie’s Chicken Dish with Carrots fortunately doesn’t smell nearly as strong as Ollie’s beef recipe, but at the same time, it doesn’t really smell all that great either. It has a bit of a heaviness to it. I’m not entirely sure what this heaviness is from—it could be the greens or the use of too much organ meat. Other fresh dog foods use organ meat all the time and many of their recipes were delicious nonetheless. It is possible that Ollie just uses too much in their recipes.
At the end of the day, when it comes to smell, PetPlate is the clear winner in that department.
Taste
For us humans, taste is a major factor in quality testing. So if I want the best for my dogs, I’d make sure they are eating delicious food too. How do PetPlate and Ollie’s beef and chicken recipe taste?
PetPlate’s chicken dish was definitely a little bit more palatable than the beef which was was hard for me to stomach; whereas Ollie’s recipes are both really unpleasant to eat. The first time I ate Ollie’s food, I woke up in the middle of the night sort of tasting them on the back of my palate. Obviously it wasn’t a real thing but it was just like mentally I was still thinking about it all those hours later. I did try it again when I was comparing it with another fresh dog food, and that was the exact same experience so I’m definitely not going to try it again. Suffice to say that Ollie’s texture itself is really unpleasant; it’s quite grainy, pasty and dry. It’s a little bit of a struggle to get it down the back of your throat and the flavor is strong and offensive. I really would not be serving that to my dog under any circumstance. Fresh dog food is much more expensive than other types of dog food; and if I’m gonna spend the extra money to make sure my dog’s happy with the quality of their food, it should be something that I’m happy with as well.
Ingredients
Just a bit more about what goes into these recipes, worth noting is that PetPlate offers a bit wider range of flavors than you see with most fresh dog food companies—they currently offer six, while Ollie offers four recipes. Both of these companies make fresh dog food designed by veterinary nutritionists, although PetPlate states that their vet nutritionists are board certified whereas I can’t quite find that with Ollie. It might be the case with Ollie as well, but I haven’t seen it. The recipes from both companies are nutritionally complete and balanced to make sure that they meet the standards set by AAFCO. Moreover, both of these companies make their recipes in USDA kitchens so the safety standards should be just as high as you get with human food.
In terms of nutrition, the biggest thing I always look at is the protein content as fed. The recipes from PetPlate range from 8% to 11% as fed, whereas Ollie’s recipes range from 9% to 11%. They’re quite similar in that regard and very much in line with what you typically see with most fresh dog food.
Convenience
To assess the convenience of PetPlate and Ollie for pet owners themselves, I looked at their performance when it comes to purchasing, shipping, and packaging.
Purchasing
Both PetPlate and Ollie do require that you have a subscription in order to purchase the fresh dog food for your pet which is a standard amongst fresh dog food companies. In both cases, it’s really easy to cancel your subscription if you decide it’s not the right choice for you or if you just want to take a break. Whatever the case may be, all you have to do is go into your account dashboard on their website, click a few buttons, answer a few questions, and you won’t get any more shipments or bills. You are all set and there is no need to call customer service—it’s very easy to manage your subscription.
Shipping
In terms of the shipping experiences with both of these companies, PetPlate was actually a bit on the longer side. I placed my order with them on a Sunday night and I didn’t receive it until two Tuesdays after—so it took a total of six full business days before I received the shipment on my porch. With Ollie, on the other hand, I placed my order on a Saturday night and the order was at my doorstep on the following Friday—it took only four business days. It’s a little bit better with Ollie, but of course the shipping times might vary a bit based on your location in the United States
Packaging
Keep in mind that most of these companies pack their shipments really well on dry ice so they’re nice and frozen when they get to you. Both PetPlate and Ollie use shipping materials and insulation that are completely recyclable so once you’re done unpacking it, all you have to do is put the packaging materials in your recycling bin, which is a nice touch. Some of these companies use cellulose insulation which you have to dissolve and rinse down your sink—often, it could get a little messy.
In terms of how the food itself is packaged PetPlate does this pretty well; they give you 12-ounce plastic tubs or about 340 grams of food. This is a nice amount of food to give your dog without a huge risk of going to waste if Fido doesn’t finish it. The tubs also have the nutrition information [1] on them as well as the ingredients. With Ollie, my meals came in really large blocks so it was a lot to defrost at one time. Each block was a pound and a half to a pound and three quarters depending on the recipe which is definitely the most of any fresh dog food brand I’ve tried. This becomes especially important when it comes time to serving because after you’ve defrosted it overnight in the fridge, with PetPlate you have up to a week to make sure your pup eats it, while with Ollie you only have four days.
One thing I liked is that Ollie does give you this “puptainer” and a scoop which are both fairly decent quality. I’m guessing that’s why they give you a bit more dog food in each package to make use of the puptainer and the scoop.
Cost
Of course no comparison be complete without discussing how these dog foods compare on cost. The way I always do this is to calculate the cost on the dollars per pound basis. This helps keep things even when comparing from brand to brand because they all calculate your dog’s nutritional needs a little differently. Their dollars per week plans give you a different amount of food each time which is not really a fair comparison.
So when I did the math and converted the costs to dollars per pound, PetPlate comes in at about $4 per pound, whereas Ollie comes in at about $6 per pound. At $4 a pound, PetPlate’s about as low of a price as you’re going to see with fresh dog food. The only other one that’s going to be that cheap is Nom Nom which I do think is a better deal than PetPlate. At $6 per pound, Ollie comes in right in the middle of the spectrum for what you see with fresh dog food. Based on the quality of Ollie’s food, they’re just really not the right choice for anyone in my opinion.
If you’re looking for better value I’d absolutely go with PetPlate over Ollie, or better yet Nom Nom over Ollie. If what you’re looking for is quality, The Farmer’s Dog and Spot and Tango are two of the best options out there. In any case, if you do choose PetPlate or Ollie for your pup, remember to use my links below to get the best discount that I’m currently aware of. I hope this helps you find a delicious fresh dog food for your pup!
CLICK HERE: Get my best deal for PetPlate → CLICK HERE: Get my best deal for Ollie →