The Farmer's Dog vs. Din Din 4 Dogs: An Honest Comparison
How The Farmer's Dog and Din Din 4 Dogs compare on flexibility, ingredients, pricing, and who each one is best for — written by a fresh-food brand, kept honest.
By The Din Din 4 Dogs Team · 8 min read ·
TL;DR
The Farmer's Dog is a polished subscription with algorithm-set portions. Din Din 4 Dogs is a flexible, no-subscription-required fresh food service built by Sunfare's founders (since 1997). Both are human-grade. Din Din wins on flexibility: no questionnaire, no required subscription. 100% money-back guarantee on your first order: if your dog doesn't love it within 30 days of delivery, we'll refund the food. *Restrictions apply.
What most fresh dog food services get wrong
Fresh food is great. The way most services sell it isn't.
Almost every major fresh dog food brand uses the same playbook: take a quiz, get assigned a meal plan, lock into a subscription priced for *their* algorithm. It works fine if you have a 25 lb dog with predictable habits. It falls apart fast for large dogs, picky eaters, multi-dog households, and anyone who wants to actually choose what their dog eats.
We built Din Din 4 Dogs because the founders of Sunfare — a Los Angeles fresh-meal delivery company that has been cooking human food since 1997 — kept hearing the same complaints from customers about their dog food: too rigid, too expensive at scale, and not enough control.
Here's how the two services actually compare.
How The Farmer's Dog works
- Onboarding: quiz about your dog's age, weight, breed, activity, and health.
- Recipes: a handful of gently cooked recipes (beef, chicken, turkey, pork).
- Portions: algorithmically calculated and pre-portioned per meal, per dog.
- Pricing: subscription only. Cost scales with dog size — for a large or giant breed, it can run $10–$15+ per day.
- Flexibility: you can pause, skip, or change recipes, but you can't easily order one-time or buy "just the proteins your dog likes."
If you have a 20 lb dog, you don't think about it much. If you have a 90 lb retriever, the math gets painful.
How Din Din 4 Dogs works
- Onboarding: optional 90-second plan builder, or just buy what you want.
- Recipes: four human-grade proteins — Bountiful Beef, Chow Down Chicken, Sensational Salmon, Tasty Turkey. All AAFCO-aligned for adult maintenance.
- Portions: pre-portioned 4oz (small breed) or 8oz (medium/large) meals.
- Pricing: $5–$10/day small dogs, $12–$17/day medium/large, $17–$23/day giants. Buy a sampler, a single case, or subscribe — your choice.
- Flexibility: order what you want, when you want. No locked plan. Pause, skip, or cancel a subscription with no fees.
Ingredient comparison
Both brands are human-grade — every ingredient meets the safety standard for human consumption. Both publish full ingredient lists and AAFCO statements. Where Din Din 4 Dogs differs:
- Canine supplement blend in every recipe: Probiotics, Prebiotics, Digestive Enzymes, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM, Hyaluronic Acid, Omega-3, and a full vitamin pack. We also add Chicken Powder, Goat Milk Powder, Dried Pumpkin, and Rosemary Extract.
- Cooked in a Grade A inspected human-meal kitchen. It's the same Los Angeles facility Sunfare has used to cook food for athletes, executives, and families since 1997.
The Farmer's Dog cooks to similar standards. The difference isn't kitchen quality — it's flexibility and pricing structure.
Pricing reality check
We're not going to claim we're the cheapest. Fresh, human-grade food costs what it costs: small dogs (5–25 lbs) run $4–12/day, medium and large dogs (25–75 lbs) $8–28/day, and giant breeds (75+ lbs) $18+/day.
The real difference is control, not price. There's no questionnaire setting your portion and no required auto-ship, so you decide how much to buy and how often. Many large-dog households use fresh as part of the bowl — 4oz Tasty Toppers over kibble — instead of an all-or-nothing plan.
What real customers say about switching
We see two versions of the same review repeatedly:
"I loved [other brand] but it became too expensive when my dog got bigger. Din Din lets me feed the same quality without the algorithm telling me how much to buy."
"My dog wouldn't eat [other brand] after a few weeks. With four proteins to rotate, the variety alone fixed it."
We're not saying The Farmer's Dog is a bad product. It isn't. It's saying that one model doesn't fit every dog or every owner.
The honest summary
| The Farmer's Dog | Din Din 4 Dogs | |
|---|---|---|
| Human-grade | Yes | Yes |
| AAFCO-complete | Yes | Yes |
| Subscription required | Yes | No |
| Custom portions per dog | Yes (algorithmic) | No (pre-portioned 4oz/8oz) |
| Buy one-time | No | Yes |
| Best for giant breeds | Plan-set portions | Buy only what you need |
| Phone support | Limited | Yes (833.4DINDIN) |
| Heritage | Pet-food native | Built by Sunfare (since 1997) |
Where to start
If you want fresh dog food without a subscription, read our full guide to fresh dog food without a subscription. It compares Din Din 4 Dogs to The Farmer's Dog, Ollie, and Nom Nom on questionnaire, minimum order, and auto-ship requirements.
If you've never tried fresh food, start with our Sampler — all four recipes for $48, a one-time purchase with no subscription required. 100% money-back guarantee on your first order: if your dog doesn't love it within 30 days of delivery, we'll refund the food. *Restrictions apply. Ordering a full case? Use code TRY50 for $50 off orders over $100.
Common questions
Is Din Din 4 Dogs cheaper than The Farmer's Dog?
We don't claim to be cheaper. Our published pricing is $4–12/day for small dogs, $8–28/day for medium and large dogs, and $18+/day for giant breeds. The difference is that there's no required subscription and no algorithm setting your portion, so you control how much you buy.
Do I have to subscribe to Din Din 4 Dogs?
No. You can order a sampler or a one-time case. Subscriptions are optional, and you can pause, skip, or cancel any time with no fees.
Is The Farmer's Dog better quality?
Both are human-grade and AAFCO-aligned. The Farmer's Dog and Din Din 4 Dogs cook to similar safety standards. Din Din's distinguishing factor is the canine supplement blend in every recipe and the Sunfare kitchen heritage since 1997.