Ollie vs Spot & Tango Fresh Dog Food Comparison (2024 Update)

As we learn about dogs and their health, we know more about how their diet affects their bodies. As such, more and more dog parents are turning to fresh food for their pets rather than store-bought kibble. And because of the interest in fresh dog food, more and more companies offering fresh food are popping up.

Two popular fresh food companies are Ollie and Spot & Tango. Both companies are meal subscription services that offer freshly cooked meals with wholesome ingredients and no artificial fillers, preservatives, or flavors. Both also provide meal plans customized to fit your dog’s specific nutritional needs.

In this article, we’ll be taking a look at Ollie and Spot & Tango to see how they square up when it comes to quality of food, pricing, customer service, reviews, and more.

A Quick Comparison

Brief History of Ollie

Founded in 2016 by Alex Douzet, Gabby Slome, and Randy Jimenez, Ollie’s aim has been to become a transparent company that builds trust with pet parents and one that provides healthy, nutritious, delicious meals for your pet. This U.S.-based company focuses on three main ideas to create a happier, healthier world for our dogs:

Ollie has a team of nutritionists, scientists, and behaviorists who work together to inform each of their meal recipes, so it’s guaranteed to be as healthy for your pet as possible. And as a direct-to-consumer company, they can build relationships with their customers that enable them to tailor meals to a dog’s individual needs, plus educate pet parents on ways to improve their pet’s overall quality of life.

Brief History of Spot & Tango

Spot & Tango got its beginnings in the kitchen of its founder, Russell Breuer, back in 2017, where he was making fresh meals for his pup – meals that were based on Russell’s research into canine physiology. Since Jack, his dog, seemed to love the homemade meals, Russell decided to find a way to build these meals into a business. Now those same recipes are available to your pet.

With personalized meals for each dog made from whole, fresh ingredients and created with the help of veterinary nutritionists, Spot & Tango guarantee their meals meet all nutritional requirements put forth by AAFCO. Their recipes are designed to improve your pet’s health in a variety of ways, such as improving energy, boosting the immune system, improving digestion, relieving allergies, and more. Spot & Tango food is also suitable for dogs no matter what life stage they’re in.

Spot & Tango use only locally sourced, human-grade ingredients with no artificial fillers. They also promise they use only the most demanding quality control protocols so that each product they make is at its best.

Ollie Manufacturing

Ollie food products are made in the United States, in a 3rd party kitchen in Pennsylvania that is regulated by the USDA. They source their ingredients from both the United States and Australia and work directly with suppliers to cut out the middle man, so they know exactly where each item is coming from. All chicken used by Ollie is hormone-free to meet federal poultry regulations. Every ingredient used is human-grade, so it’s safe enough for people to eat.

Because they are partnered with veterinary nutritionists, they guarantee that each meal they create will meet the nutritional requirement standards of AAFCO. All food is cooked in smaller batches in their kitchen to ensure safety and quality and is also cooked at lower temperatures to retain the most nutritional value.

Spot & Tango Manufacturing

Spot & Tango’s products are made in the United States, in both Wisconsin and New York. They are created in SQF Level 3, state-of-the-art facilities audited by the USDA. They follow the highest level of quality control from beginning to end and audit each of the suppliers of ingredients to guarantee quality. Recipes are only made in small quantities to preserve control over safety and nutritional integrity. Each batch of food made is also tested for bacteria like E. coli and salmonella before being packaged. Spot & Tango further ensure the freshness and quality of their meals by flash freezing each one before transporting it to your home.

Ollie Product Line

The Ollie product line consists of four fresh-cooked dog meals: Beef Dish with Sweet Potatoes, Chicken Dish with Carrots, Lamb Dish with Cranberries, and Turkey Dish with Blueberries. Each meal involves the least amount of processing possible and is cooked over low temperatures to help preserve the number of nutrients your dog gets. Meals contain no soy, corn, or wheat, and all food used is human-grade.

Every meal cooked is customized with the help of veterinary nutritionists to fit your dog’s age, breed, and level of activity. And Ollie takes things a step further by offering feeding guidelines tailored to your pet to help you keep them on a healthy eating schedule.

Spot & Tango Product Line

The Spot & Tango product line consists of a fresh food line and a dry food line.

Fresh Food Recipes

Spot & Tango’s offers a line of freshly cooked meals—Turkey and Red Quinoa, Beef and Millet, and Lamb and Brown Rice—created with only the best whole ingredients and no artificial preservatives, fillers, or flavors. Meals are also hormone and GMO-free.

Each recipe is balanced nutritionally to meet the needs of dogs in any stage of life from puppy to senior and meet AAFCO nutritional standards. Recipes are cooked in a USDA kitchen in small batches to ensure the quality of nutrients in the food.

Dry Food Recipes

Spot & Tango also has a unique line of dry food known as Unkibble that consists of the recipes Duck & Salmon, Beef & Barley, and Chicken & Brown Rice. What makes Unkibble different from regular doggie kibbles? Unkibble uses real, whole meat in their recipes instead of meat meals or unknown powdered meats.

Like their fresh food line, Unkibble recipes are made with fresh, whole ingredients that don’t include any of the bad stuff. Meals are also created with the nutrition of dogs in any life stage in mind and rise to the standards of the AAFCO. The difference between Unkibble and their freshly cooked meals is that Unkibble is turned into dry food with Spot & Tango’s personal FreshDry process that retains the nutritional value of the food.

Ollie vs Spot & Tango: Price

Obviously, the cost of a product will come into play when you’re making a decision about it. Because both Ollie and Spot & Tango are meal subscription services, pricing works a little differently. As a result, they may be a tiny bit pricier than you’re used to, but not overwhelmingly so.

Ollie

As they customize their meals, dog food from Ollie is priced differently for each individual dog. So, pricing is based on not only the meal plan you’ve chosen but how many calories your pup is consuming. Generally speaking, though, all meals and meal plans will only cost a few dollars a day at most. You’ll find out your personal price after you’ve gone through the process of filling out a profile on your pet so meals can be tailored to them. If you aren’t ready for a whole meal plan, they also have partial plans with less food than the full plans that cost less.

Spot & Tango

Much like Ollie, Spot & Tango meals and meal plan prices are based around the customizations your dog requires for their diet. Overall, though, prices are in the range of just a few dollars a day. For an exact price, you’ll need to fill out a questionnaire on your pet’s needs. When it comes to their Unkibble, Spot & Tango claim it costs about 40% less than competitor’s fresh meals.

Spot & Tango do offer a trial that consists of two weeks of food for your pup, so you can try before you commit. Getting the trial offer will automatically enroll you in a subscription, but you can cancel it if your dog isn’t a fan of their food.

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Ollie vs Spot & Tango: Guarantees

You never know for sure whether your dog will like a new dog food or not, so it’s best to find out if a company has a refund policy or guarantee.

Ollie

When it comes to Ollie, they only offer a money-back guarantee on their starter boxes. After that, there are no refunds on the meal boxes you get – unless shipping it to you was an error.

You can change your subscription when you want, but you must make any changes 24 hours in advance. You can also cancel at any point, but you won’t be able to receive a refund, partial or otherwise. Upon cancellation, your subscription will run till the end of your regular term expiration.

Ollie also reserves the right to change the pricing for subscriptions at any point. They will provide notice, but they do not offer refunds in this case.

Spot & Tango

If you decide to start with Spot & Tango’s trial order, they offer a 14-day Happy Pup Guarantee. That means if you and your dog determine Spot & Tango isn’t for you within 2 weeks of ordering, you just need to contact them for a refund.

If you have any problems with a regular subscription order, you won’t be able to return the food, but you can contact customer service to tell them of the issue, and they’ll make sure it’s taken care of. Spot & Tango promises that if something goes wrong and they can right what’s happened, they will!

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Ollie vs Spot & Tango: Customer Service

Customer service is another important aspect of trying out a new product and company, especially when it comes to a long-term commitment like subscription services.

Ollie

You can reach out to Ollie’s customer service by email, phone, or social media. You can also browse their FAQ section to find immediate answers to any question.

Facebook, in particular, seems to be a commonly used method of reaching out to customer service, with replies to inquiries coming quickly. One user said that Ollie has the “best customer service” and that whichever way you reach out to them, you’ll receive help in a timely manner.

Spot & Tango

Spot & Tango provides a plethora of ways to get in touch with them or find help. For one, they have an extensive FAQ section you can use at any time. If that doesn’t answer your question and you need to speak to a real person, you can email them, text, call, or live chat. Email and text are available 7 days a week from 10 AM – 6 PM; phone and chat are available during the same hours but only Monday through Friday. If none of those options work for you, you can also reach out to them on social media via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

One thing of note is that there have been several complaints about Spot & Tango’s customer service made to the Better Business Bureau. Complaints involve instances of replies not coming quickly, resulting in people being charged when they were trying to cancel and not accommodating those with disabilities.

Head-to-Head: Ollie Product vs Spot & Tango Fresh Beef Recipes

Both Ollie and Spot & Tango offer meals with beef as the main ingredient.

Ollie’s Beef with Sweet Potatoes is made with regular meat and organic meat to boost the nutritional value. Other ingredients include sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, carrot, potatoes, blueberries, fish oil, and rosemary. This meal provides your dog with 9% crude protein and 7% crude fat.

Spot & Tango’s Beef & Millet recipe contains beef, millet, peas, spinach, cranberries, eggs, carrots, and parsley. It provides your pet with several essential vitamins, including vitamin B12, vitamin D3, and vitamin E. It also contains 11.85% crude protein and 5.85% crude fat.

Our Verdict:

The ingredients for both beef meals are quite similar, but since Spot & Tango provides more protein and less fat, we’re designating it as the winner.

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Head-to-Head: Ollie Product vs Spot & Tango Fresh Lamb Recipes

If you want to get your dog a meal that’s a bit different than the norm, you can choose from Ollie or Spot & Tango’s fresh lamb recipes.

Ollie’s Lamb Dish with Cranberries recipe claims to be great for dogs with allergies. Its main ingredients are lamb and butternut squash, but it also contains kale, cranberries, chickpeas, rice, green beans, and potatoes. The butternut squash provides your pup with fiber, minerals, and vitamins; the kale provides beta carotene for a healthy coat and skin. This recipe contains 10% crude protein and 7% fat.

Spot & Tango’s Lamb & Brown Rice is made from lamb, brown rice, carrots, eggs, spinach, peas, parsley, and blueberries. It contains a handful of minerals and vitamins necessary for your dog’s health, such as magnesium, folic acid, iron, and vitamin D3. The Lamb & Brown Rice recipe provides your dog with 11.80% crude protein and 6.64% crude fat.

Our Verdict:

This one seems to be a toss-up. Again, Spot & Tango offers more protein and less fat for your dog, but we love that Ollie’s lamb recipe is good for dogs with allergies.

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Head-to-Head: Ollie Product vs Spot & Tango Fresh Turkey Recipe

Everyone loves turkey, including dogs, so it’s always good to have turkey meals on hand.

Ollie’s Turkey Dish with Blueberries may be created around heart-healthy turkey, but it contains plenty of other ingredients that are great for your pup. Blueberries offer antioxidants, while carrots keep your dog’s eyes healthy and chia seeds provide a boost of magnesium. Other ingredients in this meal include kale, coconut oil, lentils, and pumpkin. It also contains 11% crude protein and 7% crude fat.

Spot & Tango’s Turkey & Red Quinoa meal gives your pet plenty of protein, magnesium, folic acid, and vitamins B12, D3, and E. Ingredients include turkey, red quinoa, peas, eggs, apple, spinach, and carrots. This turkey meal offers 13.69% crude protein and 5.86% crude fat.

Our Verdict:

Ollie’s Turkey Dish with Blueberries may contain a bit less protein and a bit more fat, but it provides your dog with a ton of good stuff from antioxidants to minerals and vitamins, making it the winner. Unfortunately, this meal is currently not being offered due to a national turkey shortage.

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Overall Brand Reputation

So, how do Ollie and Spot & Tango compare to each other in other areas such as the taste of the food, customer reviews, and shipping?

Food Taste

Edge: Tie

When it comes to the taste of food, Ollie and Spot & Tango seem to be on fairly equal footing. There are plenty of reports from customers of both saying their picky eaters that wouldn’t touch previous food brands now seek them out at mealtimes to be fed.

Price

Edge: Spot & Tango

Despite both Ollie and Spot & Tango offering pricing based on an individual dog’s needs – meaning costs will be varied – both brands are relatively comparable price-wise. However, Spot & Tango has the edge as their meals generally seem to be a few dollars cheaper on average than Ollie’s.

 Customer Reviews

Edge: Ollie

Plenty of pet parents seem to adore both Ollie and Spot & Tango. Still, given the several negative reviews about Spot & Tango’s customer service to the Better Business Bureau, Ollie has the definite edge here. Ollie has had a few complaints to the Better Business Bureau, but not nearly as many as Spot & Tango. Plus, Ollie seems to have taken more steps to aid customers with their complaints than Spot & Tango.

 Shipping

Edge: Tie

When it comes to how orders are shipped, Ollie and Spot & Tango both have some pros and cons. Spot & Tango offers free shipping on all orders, while Ollie doesn’t indicate whether they do or not. And both companies only ship to the lower 48 states. However, both have had serious complaints regarding food delivery on TrustPilot and the Better Business Bureau.

Conclusion

Ollie and Spot & Tango seem to be on nearly equal footing when it comes to which fresh dog food company is better than the other. However, we believe Spot & Tango has a slight edge over Ollie (despite some complaints about customer service and delivery) because they also offer a fresh dry food line, higher protein in their recipes, free shipping, and a trial package.

Fans of fresh food for dogs will likely enjoy either company, though, as they offer similar fresh food recipes that provide plenty of nutritional value to your dog, customized meal plans, and comparable pricing.

Related Reads:

• Nom Nom vs Ollie: Which Fresh Dog Food Is Better?
• Nom Nom vs. Farmer’s Dog: Which Fresh Dog Food Brand Is Better?