I compared PetPlate and Ollie - both fresh dog food delivery services kept my 14-year-old pup happy

Winner: Both companies offer recipes with chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb as the main ingredient, but Ollie's recipes appear to offer more variety.

PetPlate offers chicken, turkey, beef, and lamb recipes. The secondary ingredients for each include sweet potatoes, apples, broccoli, and a host of vitamins and nutrients. Ned tried all four of these recipes and seemed to show the same amount of pizzazz for each.

Ollie offers the same protein options as PetPlate but gives them fancier names: Healthy Turkey Feast, Hearty Beef Eats, Chicken Goodness, and Tasty Lamb Fare. More importantly, the secondary ingredients appear to be more varied. For example, the turkey recipe also features pumpkin, carrot, lentils, kale, blueberries, and more. While, the lamb has butternut squash, rutabaga, chickpeas, cranberries, and more. All of the options are packed full of vitamins and nutrients. Ned only tried the lamb.

Winner: This is a draw since both companies offer similar delivery options.

Ollie has two main delivery plans. There is the full meal plan with which you receive a box with 14 trays delivered every two weeks. You feed your woofer half the tray in the morning and half at night. The second plan is meant to supplement your dog's regular food with seven trays delivered every four weeks.

With PetPlate's full meal plan, you get 14 20-ounce containers every two weeks. You feed your pup half the container twice a day. With the topper plan, you get 14 containers delivered every 4 weeks.

Both services allow you to cancel, skip, pause, and make changes at any time.

Winner: I liked PetPlate more because it was easier to reseal the container.

Both companies send their food frozen in an insulated cardboard box with dry ice on the bottom.

PetPlate has resealable containers and most of their shipping materials are recyclable, including the packaging liner, which also features a compostable interior. The only packaging that isn't recyclable is the plastic bags that contain the dry ice.

Ollie's trays are not resealable. They consist of a thin plastic seal over the top of the container. The plastic doesn't peel back too easily, so I sometimes had to make an incision with a sharp knife. Everything but the dry ice bags is recyclable.

Winner: Based purely on subjective appearance, I would say that PetPlate looked consistently more appetizing and therefore of a better quality, but Ned didn't seem to have a favorite.

I think the best measures of quality are whether your dog will eat the food and how healthy they seem afterward. Ned scarfed his meals down in no time, regardless of the brand. To get a clear gauge on how well the food was treating his body, we refrained from giving him scraps or any other treats while he was eating the delivery service food. And, during the test period, he didn't have any digestive issues.

With Ollie, there was one delivery that appeared to be a little less appetizing than the others. Instead of having vegetable bits mixed in with the grayish protein-like mush, the contents of the tray appeared to be uniformly grey, though there was clearly vegetable matter in there as well. Ned chowed down all the same.

Lastly, when given the opportunity, I like to review items firsthand. So, I had a small sample spoon of each brand. Both were evocative of unseasoned shepherd's pie. My tasting might speak to the high quality of the ingredients, or it might show you how gross I am. I'll let you decide on that one.

Winner: If resealable containers are important to you, then I would recommend going with PetPlate. If the pricing is your main consideration, then Ollie is your best option.

Ned is approaching the end of his time with us. He has limited sight and hearing. Being able to try healthy delicious foods was a treat for him. He clearly looked forward to meal times and indiscriminately gobbled up his portions. When we tried taking him off of the good stuff, there was a noticeable decline in his mood and health. So, we are going to continue our subscriptions. I'm telling you all of this to say that I strongly recommend choosing a dog food delivery service if you can afford it and want to treat your loyal friend.

But, which is better: Ollie or PetPlate?

If the prices were the same, I would lean toward PetPlate because I appreciate their packaging more. However, Ned seemed to like both equally. And, when two products are equal, I use the price as the deciding factor. In which case, Ollie holds the edge.