Sherwin Williams Vs. Benjamin Moore: Which Is Better?

There’s nothing like a fresh coat of paint to bring an otherwise dull part of your home to life. Apply the right paint to that area and you could quickly turn it into a place you show off instead of hiding away.

In the world of paint, who you buy from matters. There are many different brands to choose from. However, time and time again, consumers find themselves drawn between two options; Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore.

If you’re choosing between Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore, you can’t go wrong. Both brands are on the cutting-edge of home paint products. They each offer both products and prices that are very similar to the other. However, there are some differences that exist between Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore that are worth exploring. Keep reading to learn more.

One factor that you might consider while purchasing a can of paint is who you’re actually buying it from. In other words, are you giving your money to a corporation? A local business? Or something in between?

Many consumers value spending their money at retailers who are integrated into their local community. If that’s the case for you, then Benjamin Moore may be a better option. All Benjamin Moore stores are locally owned.

Sherwin Williams stores, however, are not locally owned. The company operates under a corporate model. So, when you shop at Sherwin Williams you’re supporting a broader corporation instead of a local business.

This may or may not matter much to you based on your preferences. However, it’s something worth considering before we get into the differences between these brands’ paint products and costs.

Price is one area where Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore are very close. The average cost of a 2-gallon can of paint from Benjamin Moore is between $45 and $50. Sherwin Williams comes close to matching this. However, their paint may cost just a little bit more than Benjamin Moore’s in some scenarios.

Of course, this is a price comparison for the average cost of a 2-gallon can of paint. However, these two brands also offer high-end paint products that are similarly priced.

For example, Benjamin Moore’s top-of-the-line paint is called Aura. It typically sells for about $72 per gallon. Sherwin Williams sells Emerald latex paint, which is advertised as comparable to Aura and sold at a similar price.

The two companies even have similar prices for their hybrid paints, which are water-based alkyds. Sherwin Williams sells Emerald urethane enamel for $93 per gallon. Benjamin Moore has hybrid paints that cost almost identical to this.

Essentially, this means that when you’re choosing between Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore, price probably won’t be a huge factor. These two brands each sell high-end paint products that cost more than many other brands on the market.

Therefore, if the cost of paint is important to you, you may want to consider other brands. Check your local hardware store to see what’s available and how the costs of those options compare to what’s offered by these two industry leaders.

When making a purchase, one of the most effective ways to determine which company you should buy from is reading customer reviews. These consumers can offer a firsthand account of what makes a company great and what holds them back from being perfect.

Purchasing a can of paint is no different. If anything, you should spend more time considering your options, as the paint you purchase will line your walls for years. That’s why it’s worth considering customer reviews before making a decision between Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore.

Consumer Affairs is a trusted online resource for vetted customer reviews. On their website, Sherwin Williams has a rating of 2.8 stars out of 5 while Benjamin Moore has a rating of 3.5 stars.

Positive reviews praise each company’s products for their durability and bright, lasting colors. It is worth noting, however, that these ratings and reviews are taken from a small sample size. Additionally, consumers are more likely to visit websites like Consumer Affairs when they have something to complain about.

Keeping all of that in mind, there are some indications that customers are generally happier with Benjamin Moore products than they are with Sherwin Williams ones. This data is worth considering before you make a purchasing decision.

This is one category that’s very difficult to make a distinction in. Each company prides itself on offering all of the colors that a consumer could ask for. Therefore, you won’t find that either Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore has more options than the other.

Although the colors offered by these companies may not vary in number, they can vary considerably in shade. For example, each brand may sell Chelsea Gray paint. However, the color of that paint could be darker or lighter from each company.

This means that it’s a good idea to compare offerings from each of these brands once you figure out what color you’d like to choose. Doing this will give you a better sense of what the differences are between the two companies’ offerings and how that will affect your painting process.

Maybe you started painting with one brand of paint and you’d like to switch to another. If you take your old can of paint to a store for matching, the sales associate will probably tell you that they can do it.

However, it’s usually not a good idea to try to match paint from one of these two brands to the other. There are a few key reasons for this.

First, manual matches take time and patience. This is a process of trial and error that an average sales associate may simply not want to go through. They could end up saving the match is good enough even when it isn’t actually perfect.

Another factor to consider is that paint colors darken when they dry. Paint that’s been applied to a surface can take up to 24 hours to cure. Because of this, it’s virtually impossible to ensure that a cross-brand match is perfect before you leave the store.

Finally, the tool that’s used for matching colors (called a spectrophotometer) is only accurate 90% of the time. It’s another factor that could limit how close your cross-brand match can get to recreating the paint you purchased before.

For all of these reasons, it’s usually a better decision to stick with paint from the same brand once you’ve started a project.

As you can see, there are a few key differences between these stains that are worth considering. Most importantly, Benjamin Moore’s Arbor Coat has a semi-solid dry, whereas Sherwin Williams’ Deckscapes has a semi-transparent one. Additionally, Arbor Coat dries in 4 hours, whereas Deckscapes can take up to 24 hours to dry.

Ultimately, each of these products is fine to stain your deck with. The best option for your needs will come down to what you value in a deck stain. Either way, you can have confidence in the fact that you’re using one of the top-rated stains on the market.

There are factors that matter when considering a paint’s performance. The first is coverage, or how many coats it takes to cover a surface. Paints with good coverage shouldn’t require more than a second coat to get the job done. Paints with bad coverage require more coats, costing painters more in the long run.

The second important category is touch-ups. Essentially, this means that the paint should be able to blend into the rest of the wall if it needs to replace a chipped portion of it. Good paints do this well, while bad paint products can’t handle it.

Both Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore’s paints knock the performance category out of the park. Each provides excellent coverage and can handle touch-ups without issue. It’s why the two brands are consistently graded above the competition.

That being said, many professionals call Benjamin Moore products their favorite. They claim that the company’s paints go on easier, are more durable, and are more cleanable than Sherwin Williams’ products.

You’ve seen all of the information about price and products and company information. Even with all of that data, you may still be asking yourself whether Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams makes the best paint.

To a certain extent, this is to be expected. Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore are about as close as two companies can get to one another in terms of quality, performance, and cost. There really is no wrong answer if you’re comparing paints from these two companies.

If you need to settle the issue, then you’ll have to look to the margins to determine which company is the best to buy from. There are differing opinions here, but our money is on Benjamin Moore.

Benjamin Moore edges ahead of Sherwin Williams in our rankings for a few reasons. First, they have better online reviews. Second, they also are the preferred paint product of more professionals. Given how similar these two brands are, these two factors are enough to make Benjamin Moore the better company to buy from.

Related Questions

Is Behr or Benjamin Moore better?

Behr is another extremely popular paint brand that hasn’t been discussed in the sections above. However, this is intentional. While Behr makes some great paint products, those products don’t quite reach the level of Benjamin Moore or Sherwin Williams.

What are the different grades of Benjamin Moore paint?

Benjamin Moore sells its paints in four different grades. Going from low to high, they are Super Hide, Super Spec, Regal, and Aura. Expect to pay the most for Aura and to get the best deal on the company’s Super Hide-graded paint products.

Does Home Depot have Benjamin Moore paint?

No, as mentioned earlier, Benjamin Moore operates under a local ownership model. Home Depot claims that they can match the color of Benjamin Moore paint products with what they do sell. However, as we know from the section above, this process isn’t always reliable.