Raw feeding used to mean a chest freezer, a meat grinder and a lot of guesswork. In 2026 it mostly means choosing between two formats sitting side by side in the same store: frozen raw patties or nuggets that live in your freezer, and freeze-dried raw that lives in your pantry and rehydrates in a bowl of warm water. Both start from the same idea — minimally processed muscle meat, organ, bone and produce — but they cost different amounts, keep differently, and suit very different households.
This is a genuine head-to-head, not a sales pitch. We looked at four brands that dominate the premium raw shelf: Smallbatch Pets, Stella & Chewy's, Primal Pet Foods, and Instinct Raw. Each does something meaningfully different — one is the sourcing purist, one is the distribution giant, one is the format innovator, and one is the mass-market on-ramp. Where you land depends on your freezer space, your travel habits, your dog's or cat's gut, and how much you're willing to spend per day.
Check the freeze product's temperature range and thawing time before purchasing, as some freeze toys require overnight refrigeration while others can be used immediately after a few hours, which affects how well they fit your pet's play schedule and environment.
Below we break down what each brand actually does well, where the prices land in 2026, and which pet owner should buy which. Spoiler: the best answer for a 90-pound Labrador is almost never the best answer for a 9-pound cat.
Before brands, understand the trade-off. Frozen raw is the cheaper of the two per calorie — typically 30–50% less than the freeze-dried version of the same recipe — because you're not paying for the energy-intensive lyophilization process. It also arrives with its natural moisture intact, which matters enormously for cats and for dogs with kidney or urinary history. The catch is logistics: it needs freezer real estate, overnight thaw planning, and it's a nightmare for travel, boarding or hurricane season.
Freeze-dried raw costs more per calorie but is shelf-stable for a year or more, weighs almost nothing, and can be fed dry as a topper or rehydrated into something close to the frozen original. Nutritionally the two are very close — freeze-drying preserves far more heat-sensitive nutrients than kibble extrusion or canning — though it does not reliably kill pathogens on its own, which is why brands use high-pressure processing (HPP) or test-and-hold protocols. That distinction is where the brands below genuinely diverge.
Smallbatch is the smallest of the four and leans hardest into sourcing transparency. Their proteins come from named regional ranches and farms — pasture-raised chicken and turkey, grass-fed beef and lamb, wild-caught fish — and all produce in their blends is organic. Critically for raw purists, Smallbatch does not use high-pressure processing on its frozen raw; it relies on a rigorous test-and-hold pathogen program instead, which preserves the food's native enzyme and protein structure. They make frozen raw sliders and bulk chubs, freeze-dried sliders and bites, lightly cooked meals for owners who want raw-quality ingredients without raw feeding, plus frozen bone broth and single-ingredient freeze-dried treats. Expect roughly $6–$9 per pound for frozen raw and $30–$45 for a 14-ounce bag of freeze-dried, depending on protein — mid-to-upper premium, but not the most expensive on this list. Availability is the real limitation: Smallbatch is heavily independent-retailer and direct-to-consumer, so you often need to order directly from Smallbatch Pets rather than grabbing it at a big-box store. The frozen shipping cost is real and worth factoring into your monthly budget.
Stella & Chewy's is the most widely available true raw brand in North America, and its Freeze-Dried Raw Dinner Patties are arguably the category's default product. A 25-ounce bag of dog patties typically runs $45–$55, roughly comparable per ounce to Smallbatch's freeze-dried but available at Petco, Chewy, Amazon and thousands of independents — often on subscription discount. Stella's uses HPP on its raw products, which is a safety plus if you have immunocompromised humans or young children in the house, though raw purists argue it slightly alters protein structure. The ingredient panel is solid — 90–95% meat, organ and bone with organic fruits and vegetables — but sourcing is less granularly disclosed than Smallbatch's ranch-level detail, and the recipe lineup is broader and more commodity-driven. Their frozen raw line exists but is less consistently stocked than the freeze-dried. Best pick if you value never running out and being able to buy it anywhere at 9pm on a Sunday.
Primal sits closest to Smallbatch philosophically — organic produce, antibiotic- and hormone-free proteins, strong cat-specific lineup — but has considerably wider distribution and a more inventive product range. Their frozen raw nuggets run roughly $7–$10 per pound; freeze-dried nuggets land around $35–$50 for a 14-ounce bag. Primal's differentiators are its Raw Frozen Bone Broth, its Pronto lightly-cooked-adjacent line, and Edible Elixirs — functional liquid toppers that no one else does as well. Primal uses HPP on some but not all SKUs, so check the specific product. For cat owners in particular, Primal's feline recipes and small nugget sizing are among the best executed in the category. The knock: recipe formulations have shifted over the years as the brand scaled, and some long-time feeders report less consistency batch to batch than they get from smaller producers.
Instinct is the value entry point and the biggest operation here, owned by Agrolimen. Their Raw Frozen Bites run roughly $5–$7 per pound and Raw Boost Mixers — freeze-dried raw meant as a kibble topper — start around $15 for a 5.5-ounce bag, making Instinct by far the cheapest way to get real raw nutrition into a bowl. Everything is HPP-treated. The trade-off is ingredient tier: Instinct uses conventionally raised proteins and doesn't make organic-produce claims, and its complete freeze-dried meals are pricier relative to their ingredient quality than the frozen line. If you have a large-breed dog where full raw feeding on a premium brand would cost $8–$12 a day, Instinct — or Instinct as a partial topper over a quality kibble — is the pragmatic answer. If you're feeding a 10-pound dog or a cat, the cost gap between Instinct and Smallbatch narrows to a couple of dollars a week and the sourcing upgrade becomes easy to justify.
Rough daily feeding cost for a 50-pound dog on complete raw: Instinct frozen, about $5–$7; Stella & Chewy's freeze-dried, about $12–$16; Smallbatch frozen, about $7–$9; Smallbatch or Primal freeze-dried, about $12–$18. For a 10-pound cat, all four brands land between $1.50 and $4 a day — which is why premium raw makes far more financial sense for cats and small dogs than for giant breeds. Most large-dog owners realistically end up doing a hybrid: a base of frozen raw or high-quality kibble with freeze-dried used as a topper for palatability and nutrient density.
There's no single winner here — there's a right answer per household. Buy Smallbatch Pets if you're a sourcing-driven feeder with a cat or a small-to-medium dog, you want non-HPP frozen raw or organic-produce freeze-dried, and you're willing to plan orders around shipping. Their lightly cooked line is also the best off-ramp in this group for owners who want raw-grade ingredients but aren't comfortable feeding raw. Buy Stella & Chewy's if convenience and availability matter more than ranch-level transparency, or if HPP-treated raw is a safety requirement in your home — you'll never be stuck without food. Buy Primal if you have a cat and want the strongest feline-specific lineup plus bone broths and functional toppers, and you can accept slightly higher frozen pricing. Buy Instinct if you have a large or giant breed and premium raw simply doesn't pencil out — using Raw Boost Mixers as a topper over good kibble delivers most of the palatability and a real chunk of the nutritional benefit at a third of the cost. On format: frozen raw wins on price and moisture, freeze-dried wins on convenience, travel and storage. Most owners we'd advise end up running both — frozen at home, freeze-dried in the travel bag.
Shop Smallbatch Pets →Very nearly. Freeze-drying removes water at low temperature under vacuum, so it preserves heat-sensitive vitamins and amino acids far better than kibble extrusion or canning. The main losses are moisture and some fragile enzyme activity. Rehydrating freeze-dried food with warm water before serving closes most of the gap — and is essential for cats, who don't drink enough water on their own.
HPP uses cold water pressure rather than heat to reduce pathogens, so the food is still legally and practically raw. Purists argue the pressure denatures some proteins and enzymes; the counter-argument is a meaningful reduction in salmonella and listeria risk. Stella & Chewy's and Instinct use HPP; Smallbatch relies on batch pathogen testing instead. Choose based on who else lives in your house.
Yes, and it's the most common real-world approach. Concerns about raw and kibble digesting at different rates are largely unsupported for healthy dogs. Start with about 10–20% of daily calories from freeze-dried raw as a topper, reduce kibble accordingly to avoid weight gain, and transition over 7–10 days. Instinct Raw Boost Mixers and Smallbatch freeze-dried bites both work well for this.
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