The Best Places to Buy Glasses Online

Depending on your needs and preferences, you can save hundreds of dollars by buying prescription eyeglasses online instead of through an optician. After performing more than 120 hours of research over four years, talking to eight eye-care professionals, and testing dozens of comparable frame-and-lens pairings from 12 retailers since 2017, we recommend that you start your online glasses search at Eyebuydirect . It offers an extensive, easy-to-search selection of quality frames, multiple lens and coating options, and affordable prices when compared with the prominent competition .

Our pick

Eyebuydirect

Superior selection, consistent quality

Most everyone can find frames they like and lenses that suit their prescription at Eyebuydirect. Prices are in the mid-range, and the return period is shorter than most, but our testers consistently rated Eyebuydirect glasses as being better than the competition.

Buying Options

Buy from

Eyebuydirect

Buy1 Get1 (non-sale $15+) w/code BOGOWC

With single-vision Rx eyeglasses starting at $13 and going up to $233 during our test period (depending on frame and lens options), plus a 14-day, no-questions-asked full refund policy, Eyebuydirect is a great place to begin your online glasses search. Confirming what we found in our 2018, 2019, and 2020 testing, the glasses we ordered from Eyebuydirect in 2022 were of high quality, and the company’s customer service was reliable. Although Eyebuydirect doesn’t offer in-home frame trials, we found that its virtual try-on tool provided us with an adequate representation of what the glasses we chose ended up looking like on our faces. Plus for around $20, the company offers two-day shipping for a wide variety of frames. (A 2020 test pair of single-vision prescription glasses arrived in just 33 hours.)

Advertisement

Also great

Zenni Optical

A budget option—sort of

It’s possible to score a great pair of prescription eyeglasses from Zenni. And judging by customer reviews, as well as our own testing, many people do, sometimes at astonishingly affordable prices. But this retailer offers only store credit or partial refunds for returns, making it a higher-risk choice.

Buying Options

Buy from

Zenni Optical

If you’re comfortable taking a risk on a retailer that offers an inferior return policy, you may be surprised at how little you need to spend at Zenni Optical for prescription glasses that are on par with those you’d receive from an optician. Despite Zenni’s ultra-low prices, we found that it surpassed our expectations, sometimes impressively so. A tester who ordered $19 glasses from Zenni was perfectly pleased with them. Another tester preferred the $149 progressive-prescription glasses she received from Zenni to the comparable, $295 pair from a competitor. Zenni’s frame selection is the largest of all the companies we tested. If the glasses you order from Zenni don’t work for you, though, prepare to accept store credit (worth 100% of your original purchase price) or just half of your money back, excluding shipping.