We do not sell contact lenses. We ranked these on six things we could actually verify: the price they show, the price they charge, how long you have to return an unopened box, whether they take your insurance, whether they answer complaints, and whether a regulator has ever had to intervene. Prices come from our price index, checked 23 August 2026.
1. Costco — cheapest, if you can get to it
The one lens we managed to price at Costco beat every online retailer we checked. They employ optometrists, take most insurance, and take FSA and HSA. The catches are real: a paid membership is required, they cannot ship to Arkansas at all, and Costco’s famously generous returns have a carve-out for prescription eyewear.
They also block automated price checking and pay publishers nothing, which is why you will rarely see them in a comparison table. We earn nothing if you buy there and we would still check them first.
2. ContactsDirect — the best safety net
A six-month return window on unopened boxes, which is by far the longest we found and genuinely valuable if you buy an annual supply and your prescription then changes. In-network with five major insurers including EyeMed. Trustpilot 4.2. Prices mid-pack, cheapest of anyone on Biofinity, expensive on Acuvue Oasys 2-Week. Free shipping but slow, at seven to ten business days.
Owned by EssilorLuxottica, which also owns EyeMed — worth knowing if you are on that plan.
Read the full ContactsDirect review →
3. 1-800 Contacts — best service, hidden price
The most reliable operator in the category on everything that happens after you pay: free shipping with no minimum, free returns, self-service subscription cancellation, an A+ from the BBB with 37 complaints closed in the last year, and in-network status with six insurers.
It also will not show you a price until you have chosen a pack and started entering prescription details, and it has spent twenty years litigating to keep competitors’ ads away from its brand name. Excellent if service matters most to you. Not where to start if price does.
Read the full 1-800 Contacts review → · 1-800 Contacts vs Lens.com →
4. LensDirect — competitive, and we owe you a proper review
Consistently second-cheapest in our index behind Lens.com, and unlike Lens.com the discount is applied automatically at checkout rather than requiring a rebate. Free shipping over $49. BBB B, accredited since 2014, though with 112 complaints filed — a high raw number. Trustpilot 4.7 across several hundred reviews.
We have not published a full review because too much about them is undocumented: we could not confirm ownership, verification mechanics or insurance handling from primary sources. Promising, unproven. A full review is on our list.
5. Warby Parker — strong company, weak file
The most flexible prescription verification of anyone, a publicly listed and publicly accountable company, and a 30-day return window. It also carries an F from the BBB for failing to respond to complaints, and 1.5 on Trustpilot — though that file covers a business that is overwhelmingly about glasses, not contacts. We could not verify their lens prices at all.
Read the full Warby Parker review →
6. Discount Contacts — middling on everything
The most expensive of the four retailers we could fully price on most lenses. BBB B-, not accredited. Third-party review samples are too small to draw conclusions from. No regulatory action against them.
Worth knowing they also trade as AC Lens and DiscountContactLenses.com — one company, one stock, three names, so reviews spread across those domains all describe the same business.
7. Lens.com — cheapest listed, and be careful
Cheapest on eleven of the twelve lenses we tracked, on the product page. Then Truth in Advertising documented more than $100 in fees appearing at checkout, and the very lowest advertised prices need a bulk purchase plus a mail-in rebate that customers report widely as denied or never arriving.
The BBB rates them F and records that they have not responded to any of the 27 complaints filed against them. That is the part that decided our ranking: when you buy from the cheapest seller you accept some risk, and here there is a documented pattern of no recourse.
Read the full Lens.com review →
8. Hubble — we would not
The only retailer here with a confirmed regulatory finding of substituting a different brand than the one prescribed, including after doctors had explicitly refused verification. The FTC fined Vision Path $3.5 million in January 2022 and refunded 30,172 consumers. Current customer complaints describe the same trial-to-subscription pattern the order was meant to stop.
Not ranked: Walmart Contacts
Not because they are bad, but because they cannot be compared. Walmart sells contact lenses as a separate listing per lens power rather than one price per box, so there is no single number to put in a table. Most listings we checked were also out of stock. Their 90-day return window is generous. We could not verify their reputation data from a source specific to the contacts storefront, so we are not going to characterise it.
Whoever you choose, do these three things
- Get a copy of your prescription. Under the FTC Contact Lens Rule your optometrist must give you one after your fitting, free, whether or not you ask. Without it you are a captive customer rather than a shopper.
- Take the order to the final payment screen before comparing. Two of the retailers above show a price on the product page that is not what you are charged.
- Check what arrives against what was prescribed — brand, base curve and diameter, not just the power. Those parameters were fitted to your eye. A lens with the right power and the wrong curve can sit too tight and starve the cornea of oxygen.
Contact Lens HQ does not sell contact lenses. Some links on this site earn us a commission. Costco, which we ranked first, pays us nothing. Reviewed by Dr. Teresita Bollar, OD.