I have worn prescription glasses for a long time, and one thing that I know to be true is that they can be costly. Traditionally, going to the eye doctor WITH vision insurance would still cost me, out of pocket, between $100 – $400 easy. This amount includes any on-going sales the vision center might be having at the moment. Typically, I would go for the frames that were on sale and not the name brand ones. The name brand frames would send that price up higher, so I usually avoided them. When picking frames, especially when you aren’t looking to spend a lot, the glasses available aren’t always the ones you absolutely love. Every year or two, I would repeat this cycle when I had to get new glasses until I found out about the beauty of shopping online for new glasses.
One day, I was casually talking with one of my co-workers about the pains of shopping for prescription glasses and how much I wished there was a better way to do things. At that time, she shared with me how she purchased her glasses online from a specific company and how much she enjoyed the process. This little tidbit of information sent me on a mission to research online companies that allowed me to order some new glasses. My research showed me a lot of alternatives, but I’ve only ordered from three. Below, I will share the three companies that I purchased glasses from so far and give you my thoughts on the ordering process and the glasses.
Warby Parker
My co-worker told me about Warby Parker. She said that she got her frames and lens together for $100 through their website. I was astonished. One Hundred dollars for frames AND lens… No Way! I thought, but after going through the process, she was right.
On the Warby Parker website, you can browse through the assortment of eyeglasses and sunglasses that they have available or, you can take a quiz that helps you narrow down your search based upon your face shape and specific likes and dislikes. The quiz gives you a listing of glasses that you can look at. You can choose 5 pairs at a time to try-on. They will mail you those 5 pairs in the mail to try for 5 days. After you have tried them, you send the test pairs back, and you can purchase any or all of them if you want. If none of them
The process was seamless. I received the 5 frames to try-on relatively quickly and made my selection out of those. The pair I chose is in the photos above. One good thing about Warby Parker is they have brick and mortar stores, so if you need to go in for anything, you can search your location to see if they have a shop near you.
Zenni Optical
Zenni, Zenni, Zenni… Oh, how I love my Zenni’s. As you can see from the photos above, my Zenni collection is large. I think that I’ve gone a bit overboard, but the price, quality, and assortment of glasses they have has been amazing to me. With Zenni, I have purchased glasses for as little as $12.00, including lenses (with anti-glare). I have bought so many glasses from Zenni, and each pair has not disappointed me. I have been able to buy various colors and styles (as you can see above) that I probably would not have purchased from a vision center. You can upload a photo of yourself and virtually try on the glasses that are on the website. One important thing to note is that you will need to know your pupillary distance or PD and have to have your eyeglasses prescription.
Zeelool
I found out about Zeelool through a social media influencer that I follow on Instagram. She did a video on the glasses that she purchased, and I thought they were pretty nice. So, I checked out the website. After searching through the site, I found a few glasses that I wanted to purchase. I was able to upload a photo of myself and do a virtual try-on of the glasses. You will need to know your pupillary distance, just like with Zenni. Also, note that these glasses ship from China so, it takes a couple of weeks for you to receive them in the mail.
Many more online eye stores are out there, but I wanted to give you an overview of the three that I have personally used. I have bought my son a few pair, and I recommend it to everyone I know who wear glasses. I now have an assortment of glasses to switch up when I’m trying to create different styles. Hopefully, if you’re looking for a new pair of glasses, you’ll find some you like too. If you have experience with any of the other companies, let us know about them in the comments.
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