Last Updated on April 9, 2026 by Kieran Beckles
Have you decided to ditch regular dog food in favor of a fresh approach, but you can’t decide whether to sign up to The Farmer’s Dog or The Honest Kitchen?
The Farmer's Dog Or Honest Kitchen Quick Verdict |
 The Farmer’s Dog is my top pick overall — it offers fully fresh, pre-portioned meals with the simplest feeding experience. Best overall: The Farmer’s Dog Best for value: The Honest Kitchen Best for: • The Farmer’s Dog → fully fresh meals, pre-portioned, maximum convenience • The Honest Kitchen → lower cost, shelf-stable, scoop-and-serve simplicity Price difference: The Honest Kitchen is significantly cheaper than The Farmer’s Dog, largely because it doesn’t require refrigerated shipping or storage. Skip The Farmer’s Dog if: • You want a more affordable, lower-maintenance option Skip The Honest Kitchen if: • You want fully fresh, ready-to-serve meals My take: This comes down to price vs freshness — The Farmer’s Dog is the premium, all-in option, while The Honest Kitchen is the smarter choice if you want to save money and keep things simple. |
Having experienced a lot of issues with my Alaskan Klee Kai and their diet, we decided to ditch regular kibble in favor of fresh dog food with human-grade ingredients.
I’ve reviewed over 30 dog food brands in the US in my search for the pet food my fussy Alaskan Klee Kai would consistently eat and finish at mealtime.
In this dog food comparison review, I’ll share my insights after testing The Farmer’s Dog and The Honest Kitchen on my Klee Kai for a month to see if their recipes would satisfy my mini huskies.
We’ll examine the fresh dog food recipes that they’ve got on offer, how their subscription plan works, the latest pricing in 2026, and sharing our experience feeding these two fresh food brands to our Alaskan Klee Kai.
UPDATED: April 2026
We updated this review in April 2026 to reflect the latest pricing updates and our most recent test of The Farmer's Dog and The Honest Kitchen. We also added an at-a-glance table comparing these two brands. As always, this article follows our dog food testing process to ensure accurate, honest, and experience-based recommendations.
The Farmer’s Dog Vs The Honest Kitchen At-A-Glance Table
| Brand | The Farmer's Dog | Honest Kitchen |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Yes | Yes |
| Available in stores | No | Yes |
| Meal customization | Fully personalized | Custom meal plan |
| Recipes | 4 core recipes | Multiple formats |
| AAFCO compliant | Yes | Yes |
| My monthly cost | $251.04 | $160-$240 |
| Cold storage required | Freezer | Shelf stable |
| Picky Eater approved | Liked it | Loved It |
| Best For | Tailored experience | Different textures |
The Farmer’s Dog Or The Honest Kitchen: Our Verdict
We believe in feeding fresh food, and of these two brands, we’d go for The Farmer’s Dog. The fresh dog food format has worked well for our Klee Kai dogs.
We really liked that The Farmer’s Dog takes into account your pet’s unique characteristics, such as your dog’s health and any food allergies your pup may have.
While The Honest Kitchen does have more options when it comes to human-grade recipes, The Farmer’s Dog still offers four different proteins to provide decent variety.
What I really liked about The Farmer’s Dog was the pre-portion element to their human-grade dog food. Copper and Skye need different meal plans because our male Klee Kai needs to lose weight and our female Klee Kai needs to gain weight.
It was great that The Farmer’s Dog labeled their individual meals to ensure we were feeding the right dog food to the right dog to meet their weight goals.
Not only that, but The Farmer’s Dog clearly displays how much food to feed at each mealtime. It takes the brainwork out of feeding human-grade food to your pet.
Compared with other human-grade fresh foods in the pet food market, The Farmer’s Dog is competitively priced. This remains the case in 2026, with very little change in price. We paid $251.04 per month for Copper and Skye’s meals, which is cheaper than most fresh dog food brands I’ve reviewed.
While we recommend The Farmer’s Dog based upon our experience, you won’t go wrong if you opt for The Honest Kitchen and their range of human-grade dog foods, either.
The Honest Kitchen has created shelf-stable food that doesn’t require freezer space, so that’s a plus. They’ve got grain-free and grain-inclusive recipes, too.
Who Is The Farmer’s Dog?
The Farmer’s Dog is a fresh dog food company in the USA who have created a popular range of human-grade dog food formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists to ensure their meals support your dog’s diet.
They’ve made feeding fresh food convenient, creating a range of products containing real human-grade ingredients such as high-quality meat and fresh vegetables, in balanced, complete recipes free from any meat meals, brown pellets, fillers, artificial preservatives and nasties.
We found it easy to get started with The Farmer’s Dog, filling out their sign-up questionnaire in less than five minutes. We answered questions about Copper and Skye, such as breed, health, activity level, current food and any health issues they may be facing.
Once The Farmer’s Dog got all the information, they suggested a meal plan. I wasn’t sure how customized the meals would actually be.
When we retested The Farmer’s Dog in early 2026, we ordered all four recipes: beef, chicken, pork and turkey.
We made freezer space for their dog food, and the meal pouches were easy to stack, maximizing space. I kept a few defrosted in the fridge, ready to serve Copper and Skye as we started to test The Farmer’s Dog out.
We decided to give The Farmer’s Dog a try after reading positive reviews from dog parents about their human grade dog food and seeing some of their social media campaigns.
With a picky eater, we liked that The Farmer’s Dog had four recipes on offer. It isn’t as diverse a range as some human grade dog food companies, we considered it an acceptable range. We paid $251.04 per month for our Klee Kai dogs, which is a $60 increase from what we paid in 2023.
When Copper and Skye’s pet food arrived, I was impressed to see their fresh food frozen thanks to the dry ice in the delivery box. Picking up one of their meal pouches, I was impressed to see The Farmer’s Dog had labeled Copper and Skye’s individual meals.
Unlike many fresh dog food brands, The Farmer’s Dog kept its promise to formulate and pre-portion my Klee Kai’s individual meals.
Copper needs to lose weight, and Skye does too, so it was significant that the human-grade dog food brand went to the trouble of labeling their meals. It’s a small detail, but I haven’t seen this level of attention to detail from other pet food brands.
We really like that The Farmer’s Dog indicates how much to feed by including a graphic on the front of each meal pouch that displays the portion size. We’re talking about little things, but it makes feeding fresh much easier and hassle-free.
Copper and Skye enjoyed their fresh food meals, especially the beef and pork recipes. Copper finished every meal, but Skye took her time. That said, Skye would usually eat all her human-grade food. So The Farmer’s Dog remained a success after retesting.
Who Is The Honest Kitchen?
The Honest Kitchen is a fresh pet food company that provides a wide range of human-grade dog food. They’ve got clusters dry food, wet food, wholemade dehydrated food, and wet food.
You have a lot of variety if you’re a dog parent who likes to vary your dog’s diet with different pet foods. In the spirit of transparency, the brand sent us dry food, wet food and dehydrated dog food to give to Copper and Skye.
Having launched in 2002, The Honest Kitchen is one of the most experienced pet food manufacturers. Naturally, the business has evolved to offer an ever-growing range of dog food.
The Honest Kitchen sources human-grade ingredients from responsible suppliers before its dry food is cold-pressed into bite-size clusters, then roasted and dehydrated to lock in all the nutrients.
Their dehydrated dog food uses real, whole food ingredients such as cage-free turkey and cage-free chicken, alongside other human-grade ingredients like vegetables. Dog owners will need to add warm water to transform the dehydrated food from dry dog food into dehydrated meals.
The Honest Kitchen recipes include wet dog food in the shape of slow-cooked stews that are complete and balanced, cooked in small batches and free from any nasties. Pet parents can simply pour over your dry dog food or dehydrated dog food as a tasty topper.
As we disclosed above, The Honest Kitchen sent dry food, wet food and dehydrated food to try. Typically, we wouldn’t feed dry dog food or wet dog food because my Klee Kai are picky, so we tend to feed other pet foods.
Unfortunately, as I anticipated, Copper and Skye weren’t big fans of either dry or wet food, despite numerous attempts to encourage them to eat.
Of course, every dog is different, so your pets may love the dry food and wet food, so I’d still recommend giving it a try if you know your furry friend likes these dog food markets.
While my Alaskan Klee Kai didn’t like this type of dog food, we’ve previously tried a British dehydrated dog food brand, so we were hopeful they’d enjoy The Honest Kitchen’s offering.
Of course, dehydrated dog food does require a little more work on the part of the pet parent because you’ve got to create their fresh meals. Copper and Skye did finish their dehydrated dog food, especially enjoying the dehydrated chicken.
The Honest Kitchen offers a variety of subscription plans, and thanks to their diverse range of human-grade dog food, you’ve got a lot of choice when deciding on the fresh foods to give your pet.
While The Honest Kitchen provides a feeding calculator and feeding guideline, you don’t get the option to sign up for a customized meal plan. You can choose to have your dog food shipped automatically.
We priced out ordering from The Honest Kitchen, and our monthly price ranged from $160 to $240, depending on the pet food format. I would say this falls within an acceptable price range.
Who Should Pick Which Brand
✔ The Farmer’s Dog Best for:
- Dog owners who want a custom meal plan
- Pet parents who value portion guidelines
- Dogs who love fresh food
- Slightly fussy eaters
✔ Honest Kitchen Best for:
- Multiple pet food formats
- Recipe variety
- Buy in local pet stores
- No long-term commitment
The Farmer’s Dog Vs The Honest Kitchen FAQ
The Farmer’s Dog offers fresh dog food recipes that require fridge and freezer space. The Honest Kitchen provides dry food clusters, wholemade dehydrated food, and wet food. They don’t offer fresh dog food recipes.
Every dog is different, and dog owners’ preferences will differ, too. My Alaskan Klee Kai dogs preferred The Farmer’s Dog over The Honest Kitchen, but they like the fresh dog food format more than dry food.
The Farmer’s Dog is more convenient because its dog food comes in pre-portioned meal pouches. It’s as easy as rip-and-serve. The wholemade dehydrated food needs to be made by combining water and the air-dried food.
The Honest Kitchen is more affordable than The Farmer’s Dog because you can select from multiple pet food formats. However, you get more of a tailored service with The Farmer’s Dog.
My picky eaters preferred The Farmer’s Dog over The Honest Kitchen when we retested their food at the start of 2026.
Wrapping Up
We’ve reached the end of our comparison dog food review, having shared our perspective after retesting these two dog food brands in 2026.
We still recommend The Farmer’s Dog based upon our success feeding their fresh food to Copper and Skye since first reviewing their fresh dog food over three years ago.
We like the convenience and level of detail in feeding their pet food to our Alaskan Klee Kai, with pre-portioned pouches and individually labeled meals.
While you won’t go wrong with The Honest Kitchen, we believe The Farmer’s Dog offers a slightly elevated human-grade fresh food service that suited us and our dogs preferred.
Kieran Beckles is an NCTJ-qualified journalist, a former pet nutrition student, and co-founder of Life With Klee Kai. He has been reviewing pet food and products since 2018, testing over 50+ brands, and has raised his dogs, Skye and Copper, since 2017. His work blends hands-on testing and nutrition knowledge to help pet owners make informed decisions.