Eyewear retailers are part of a medical device and part of a fashion accessory. Whatever your reason, you will get a pair at a doctor’s office, an eyewear chain or online retail stores. Different vendors have pros and cons. Thus it is overwhelming to decide which is best.
Many eyewear retailers are striving to offer high-quality, cheap eyewear on a quick timeline. Many offer the same services and price, making it hard to determine which retailer meets your eye needs the best.
In this piece, we’ll compare the leading eyewear companies to help you make an informed decision. Let’s get into the details.
Table of Contents
LensCrafters vs Visionworks
LensCrafters and Visionworks are two leading eyewear providers with independent doctors of optometry and accept most primary insurance plans to meet your eyewear needs. Here is a glance at their comparison
Side-to-Side Comparison Table between LensCrafters and Visionworks
| LensCrafters | Visionworks |
| Pros | pros |
| Offer a range of products | Variety |
| Great selection of frames | Better try-on options than LensCrafters |
| Frequent discounts and promotions than Visionworks | Better Insurance payment Policies than LensCrafters |
| Great brand recognition | Visionworks has 2 active coupon codes |
| Better in-house prescription than Visionworks | Cons |
| Offers Affirm financing support and Zip Financing Support. | Doesn’t accept Affirm financing support and Zip Financing Support |
| Has 3 active coupon codes | |
| Cons | |
| Poor health insurance payment policies than Visionworks |
About LensCrafters
For over 30 years, LensCrafters, a national eyewear retailer in the U.S., has offered quality, specialized, and affordable eyewear. The brand provides in-store services, including lenses and frame purchases. It also offers online services to make it convenient to get prescription eyewear.
The company offers eye exams through independent doctors’ optometry at most in-store or next-to-store locations. Eyewear retailers accepts vision insurance to aid cover the cost of exams and new glasses and lenses.
Prescription glasses orders take 3 to 7 days to receive. However, the wait time varies based on special requests. For highly specialized lenses and frames, it can take two weeks but still, same-day services are available.
Services and Products
- Services and Products
- On-site or next-to-store eye exams
- Online or in-store purchase options
- Prescription for glasses, sunglasses, and contacts
- It offers free shipping and returns for both in-store and online purchases. Additionally, it offers a 30-day complete satisfaction guarantee allowing free repairs or exchange within 30 days from purchase except for scratches, breakages, and accidental damage.
- Everyday discounts, savings options, and member benefits
LensCrafters Prices
The cost of a new pair of glasses varies per your prescription needs and choice of frames. Discount and store-brand frames are available. Designer brands and prices differ, respectively.
Frames differ in price from about $70 to over $500. You need to add the lens costs to the frame cost to get the total sum. Therefore, your lens choices impact heavily on the full price of your new glasses, including:
- Anti-reflective
- Blue light filtering
- Progressive
- Polarized
- Expand view
- Transitions
- Modern lifestyle
The company accepts various insurance plans in-store and online to mitigate the cost of new glasses. Additional selected programs are only allowed in-store, with a few out-of-network plans, and FSA benefits are also used.
Eyewear retailers effortless to confirm your vision insurance coverage through their e-insurance eligibility platform.
About Visionworks
It is an eye care franchise that provides fast, affordable eye care. It offers vision exams and a broad spectrum of eyewear products, including frames, prescription lenses, contact lenses, and sunglasses.
The company accepts major vision insurance plans and offers promotions to make eye care more convenient for you.
Services and Policies
Visionworks collaborate with independent Doctors of Optometric care. Most of their locations have in-store labs meaning specific product prescriptions may be ready to take home within an hour.
The company utilizes the OptoMap system to obtain high-quality retinal scans without dilation. It offers free lifetime cleaning and adjustments, including nose pad and screw replacements.
Visionworks offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee return policy.
Visionworks Prices
Your personal needs and location determine how much it will cost you.
Lenses
LeftCrafters creates custom lenses from-39 plastic, polycarbonate, and high-index 1plastic. The most popular types of lenses include:
- Bifocal lenses
- Progressive or no-line bifocal lenses
- Trifocal lenses
- Single-vision lenses
The company also offers a variety of lens features and improvements such as digital eye strain reduction technology, scratch-resistant coatings, etc.
Visionworks formulates hand-crafted lenses from high-quality materials such as CR-39 plastic and trivex. Here are the popular types of lenses:
- Plano lenses
- Single-vision lenses
- No-line bifocal lenses
- Multifocal lenses
They also provide lens enhancement like mirror coating, scratch coating, and ultraviolet treatment.
Frames
LensCrafters and Visionworks have frames from many stylish brands like Armani Exchange. However, you can filter by gender, color, face shape, style, and price when browsing for LensCrafters frame online and Visionworks frame online for details.
Contacts
LensCrafters have several contact lenses for a range of eye health needs. From daily disposables to reusable models that are to be worn for up to 2 weeks, below is the contact lens it provides:
- ACUVUE
- AIR OPTIX
- DAILIES
- SoftLens
- Biofinity
- Proclear
Visionworks consist of daily, two-week, monthly and color selections. Examples of lens brands it offers are:
- ACUVUE
- AIR OPTIX
- Aqua Tech
- DAILIES
- Pure Vision
- Proclear
Insurance and Discounts
The cost of a pair of glasses, an eye exam and a contact fitting depends on your eye health and location. That said, LensCrafters and Visionworks offer affordable self-pay options and allow the use of most major vision insurance plans.
Each franchise also offers occasional promotions to help pay back the money spent on exams, lenses, and frames.
LensCrafters provides a variety of discounts and savings options to assist your eye care and eyewear more attainable. For instance, AAA members are eligible for the same values and 10% off contact lenses.
LensCrafters also offers a store credit card without interest if it settles within 6-12 months based on your creditworthiness, while current deals often change; hence check their offers on their website.
Visionworks feature special offers that differ according to location; thus, check with Visionworks near you or on their website for more discounts and promotions.
LensCrafters and Visionworks are both great companies aiming to give you affordable eye care services and eyewear products that meet your needs. Both offer vision exams, prescription lenses, sunglasses, frames and contacts.
So it is good to check their insurance to see the one that suits you. For promotions and discounts, check their websites for more information to help you decide. Because prices vary based on personal needs and location, it is hard to say which is more affordable.
Although several optical retailers nationwide and online are waiting to handle your eye care needs, exploring these two companies will enable you to receive high-quality eyewear that suits your budget.