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Ask HN: Where to buy cheap but good quality glasses in Europe?
After reading this (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33525673), I felt scammed for buying my glasses for 400 euros, hence the question. The thread talked a lot about Zenni Optical, any other option for EU people?
- timonoko 4y agohttps://www.favoptic.se/ https://www.favoptic.se/ They do not have English webface, which is strange, but they do deliver to most other countries. 39€ seems to be the cheapest. Also bi- & multifocals are crazy cheap, IMHO. But good.
- m00dy 4y agolooks like a scam website.
- timonoko 4y agoYou need better glasses. I have about 30 favoptics.
- timonoko 4y agoApropos. I remember one disaster. I wanted "Leningrad Cowboys" wraparound sporty glasses, but they informed that they do not work too well beyond -2 . I ordered anyways, and they sort-of worked, but while rollerskating all those peripheral distortions threw me of balance and I broke my rib. Money refunded, no hard feelings.
- mvdwoord 4y agoThis is another. Haven't tested myself, yet, not am planning to. https://www.charlietemple.com/ https://www.charlietemple.com/
- bouk 4y agoI've ordered a couple from here and they're decent! Make sure you get the slightly better lenses, the cheapest ones are very reflective which is annoying.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rapsey 4y agoWhy not just Zenni?
- nannal 4y agoBecause they don't deliver to europe.
- nivenkos 4y agoAnd if it gets stopped in customs, the handling fees, etc. will wipe out any saving.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y agoVery dependent on which country you're from and how expensive your order is. Mine tended to be well below the local threshold which means customs can rummage around all they want, it's not gonna cost anything.
- rapsey 4y agoI don't know where you are from but from my EU country I would pay whatever the tax is and not much else. Still vastly cheaper than anything local.
- glogla 4y agoThey don't? Is that a new thing? I have like four Zenni glasses.
- tsingy 4y agoHow much did they end up costing after border taxes?
- glogla 4y agoMy previous glasses were about 700 EUR from local shop. I got two pairs of Zenni glasses that cost 120 EUR together with all taxes, shipping, etc. This was few years back. I think they didn't end up caught at the border, but if they did, I'm pretty sure I would still fit into like 10x cheaper than local. Now I'm a special case, due to crazy level of astigmatism glasses were always very expensive for me. For someone with more normal eyes, this might not be worth the hassle - but what I really like the most is that I can have more pairs to wear depending on my mood and if I break one pair I'm not out of Macbook money.
- nivenkos 4y agoI used Glasses Direct - https://www.glassesdirect.co.uk/ https://www.glassesdirect.co.uk/ a few years ago and they were pretty good for the price. I bought them temporarily but ended up using one pair for 3 years.
- ChrisRR 4y agoI use them in the UK too. Had 4 pairs from them now and never had an issue Of course this doesn't help if they're in mainland Europe
- iainmerrick 4y agoAnother UK one -- I recently used The Glasses Company and was very happy with the result. To check the quality, I got good brand-name frames at what seemed like a low-markup price (exactly the same as my existing frames for half the price) and their cheapest lenses, and I'm really happy with the results. I'll probably put in another order with fancier lenses.
- marijnz0r 4y agohttps://www.aceandtate.com https://www.aceandtate.com is an option as well.
- pantalaimon 4y agoIn Germany two big chains for affordable glasses are https://www.fielmann.de/ https://www.fielmann.de/ https://www.robinlook.de/ https://www.robinlook.de/
- F30 4y agoNever heard of Robinlook in southern Germany. I would have said the other large chain besides Fielmann is Apollo (known as Pearle in another European countries).
- puszczyk 4y ago++ for fielmann, I’ve used them in Poland a couple of times (so possibly they are in more countries as well). Good quality and a decent price. Note they have a lot of options, also including more “designer” frames, which are getting expensive. Their brand frames are good quality though if you can find some that you like.
- boruto 4y agofielmann is bad if you want to reasonably thin glasses with myopia north of -6.
- sparsely 4y agoI've been to Lunettes pour Tous stores https://lunettespourtous.com/ https://lunettespourtous.com/ in the past. It felt revolutionary, because you could walk in, get an eye test, and have your glasses made within 30 minutes at the same store, at a very reasonable price. It looks like they deliver as well. Hard to describe their price range as they have a million options you can pick as part of the ordering process - easy to end up with something well under 100EUR though without picking all the cheapest options.
- riadsila 4y agoI second this recommendation for lunettes pour tous!
- 1983054105 4y agoI haven't tried "Lunettes pour tous" yet but I usually go to "Générale d'Optique" [1] where the basic glasses cost 25€. Your advice has less shops in France but it seems very interesting and I'll definitely buy from them in the future if I have to. Générale d'Optique has a very restricted choice of frames which is why your link seems better. [1]: https://www.generale-optique.com/ https://www.generale-optique.com/
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- indiantinker 4y agoIf you are in Spain : https://greyhounders.com https://greyhounders.com
- VPenkov 4y agoCharlie Temple are cheap and okayish. If you don't use glasses full-time, they're a good option, otherwise not so much. Or at least this was my impression from 3 years ago. My partner is a full-time user or Ace & Tate and she's happy with them.
- edu 4y agoIn Spain, Miller and Marc. Not sure if they deliver internationally. https://www.millerandmarc.com https://www.millerandmarc.com Edit: add link
- gitmaeker 4y agoIn France and the UK: Jimmy Fairly https://jimmyfairly.com https://jimmyfairly.com
- m000 4y agoAce & Tate [1] are becoming fairly popular across Europe. They go for 110EUR for frame + base lenses. They're also very internet-oriented. You can book an eye-test appointment online. Even get sample frames sent at home to choose from (at least pre-Corona). Anecdotally, they also seem to have pretty good quality. An optician in a country where they don't operate appraised my 160EUR Ace & Tate prescription sunglasses pair in the 400-500EUR range. [1] https://www.aceandtate.com/ https://www.aceandtate.com/
- vasco 4y agoA couple of years ago I was about to go with aceandtate, ended up going with specsavers because they had a thing where you'd get sunglasses with prescription lenses too for free when you bought the normal ones. If you nab some promotion like this it's really good value. Ended up being under €150 total for both pairs (1 normal, 1 sunglasses), and this is with max durable lenses and I'm blind enough that my lenses are also not the cheapest cause they're too fat for that. Was the cheapest acceptable ones I found and they have some that look as trendy as the A&T ones.
- s_dev 4y agohttps://www.selectspecs.com/ https://www.selectspecs.com/ Caveat: they stock both Luxottica and non-Luxottica brands. You'll just have to guess which is which based on price and know your prescription already. I will define cheap as anything under €30. I managed to get three pairs of different frames with three pairs of custom lenses for €55.
- tecleandor 4y agoWell, having around -7 in each eye plus some astigmatism, I define "cheap" anything under €300-400. Lenses get expensive quickly!
- gizajob 4y agoThere seems to be loads of cheap glasses websites in the UK that I imagine would post to Europe. I use spex4less.co.uk However in the past I used a similar website and got 3 pairs for about €40, but they didn't have the correct prescription in them, they were generic prescriptions but each of my eyes needs a different strength. Also these websites offer cheap frames, but the dimensions of them are often not very good, ie, their Wayfarers which I wear are nowhere near as good as the RayBan frames I wear, so I ended up buying RayBan frames, albeit at a large discount of around 50% online compared to the high street. If you already have your prescription finding cheap glasses online should be a no-brainer though.
- Semaphor 4y agoI just went to Mister Spex [0], they are more expensive than Zenni, but far cheaper than where I got my glasses before. My lenses at Zenni end up $221, at Mister Spex I paid 285€ (For comparison Optiker Bode: 524€). I paid 115€ for the frames, but that was because I actually liked those, they have cheaper frames going down to 20-30€ as well. [0]: https://www.misterspex.de/ https://www.misterspex.de/
- rale 4y agoMister Spex is utter trash, the way they fit the lenses in the frame is atrocious. My gf brought one of their glasses to a third-party optician for repairs, and it turned out they had used superglue to fit the much thicker lenses inside the frame. It was very visible and low quality.
- Semaphor 4y agoConveniently, I currently have exactly the same frames, so I’ll be able to compare.
- RicoElectrico 4y agoWould love to hear recommendation for Poland as well. Really don't want pay the Luxotica racket.
- jack_pp 4y agoI've got mine from https://www.luneteyewear.com/en https://www.luneteyewear.com/en
- te_chris 4y agoCubitts is good for the price - UK based, handmade acetate frames.
- walthamstow 4y agoAce & Tate Beloved by hipsters all over Europe Free eye test, glasses around £100 a pair I personally love the clip on shades which have made summer actually enjoyable
- stijnveken 4y agoI will second Ace & Tate. I have three pairs, two of which have a clip on. Very happy customer.
- OJFord 4y ago> Beloved by hipsters all over Europe They sell frames, but no lenses?
- ampham 4y ago+1 ace and tate. I got my glasses there for around 160, costed extra for me cuz I needed the thinner lens. You can get cheaper glasses though depending on the style.
- jsumrall 4y agoDon’t forget all the UK based options now incur VAT costs, so better stick with mainland EU.
- jfk13 4y agoWe used to use Zenni, until they stopped shipping here. More recently, my wife tried https://www.polette.com/ https://www.polette.com/ and has been quite happy with the result.
- tmikaeld 4y agoI've used Polette two times, both times have been wonderful. Just keep in mind, most of their glasses are very wide! So check the measurements.
- colinjoy 4y agoWhat constitutes good quality glasses? Or rather: good quality lenses? The frames are mostly a matter of taste, but for the optical component, is a €150 piece of glass significantly better than a €100 piece of glass? Who has the lead in material science here? Japan, Germany? Any good sources on that topic?
- buybackoff 4y agoEssilor 1.7 aspheric lenses cost me 235 euros each. An alternative is Japanese Seiko and German Zeiss. Essilor is probably the cheapest of them. Good lenses cost much more than a nice Luxottica frame and are covered by insurance in France. A frame is covered by up to 100 euros. Good lenses are not a piece of glass (very dangerous for eyes) or just a piece of plastic, they have multiple anti-reflection and protection layers and must be very precisely done. High refractive index is also very important for a reasonable thickness at edges. So I would not go for some no-name cheap lenses. Given the math, the price of a frame becomes less important.
- jsmith99 4y agoGood lenses are important - I was sceptical but I'm much happier with my Seiko 1.74 double aspheric than with my old glasses which were Specsaver's 1.74 aspherics: flatter front and less distortion and rainbow effects (chromatic aberration). If you have money to burn you can also get personalised 'free form' lenses made using the same machines used for custom varifocals. However this only becomes important if you have a strong prescription and buying online is dangerous if you have a strong prescription, especially astigmatism. You can send them your horizontal PD but they have no way of knowing the vertical component without seeing how the frames sit on your face (which depends on your nose and ears). Some of the better online specialists will send you the frame with dummy lenses for you to mark your pupils on with a marker, and you then send them back to be glazed.
- Ao7bei3s 4y agoMore expensive lenses get you: * A material with a higher refractive index (-> thinner glasses) and higher Abbe number (-> less dispersion). Scroll down to the "Optical Glass Selection" in this article for a diagram: https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/optics/optical-glass/ https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-no... - the stronger the prescription, the more it matters, but generally the step up from the cheapest material is much more significant than from the mid priced tier to high priced tier. * Coatings (anti reflective, anti scratch / oil / water, and for sunglasses also: polarizating, and the tint itself of course, ...). These are all worth it in my opinion. I cannot praise the polarizing coating on sunglasses enough. And the anti reflective coating. "Computer vision" coatings are not useful in my opinion. Mirror coatings for sunglasses are a personal/aestetic choice. * Glasses for people with astigmatism or with both near and far prescriptions are more expensive. More expensive frames get you: * Lighter, thinner frames and frameless options. * Hinges that open a bit more than 90deg and flex back with a spring, so the temples will adapt to the head better. Better hinge materials (e.g. I've had hinges wear out). * Titanium or memory metals instead of plastic of aluminum. * "Aesthetics" and minor add-ons like laser engraving. Obviously price only correlates with quality, paying more doesn't guarantee getting more.
- Tepix 4y agoIf you're in Germany, read https://www.mydealz.de/share-deal-from-app/396772 https://www.mydealz.de/share-deal-from-app/396772 In other words, take advantage of Fielmann price matching.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y agoI would just go with Zenni, but if for some reason you can't or don't want to: - Fielmann is likely the cheapest with in-person stores and optometrists, but of course significantly more expensive than the online options. I believe they exist in many countries, although there may be better local alternatives. - brillen.de and brille24.de are two options that used to be decent, but may have changed in the many years since I used them (especially the former seems to have raised prices significantly). Probably only ship to Germany. One of them also used to offer local service at an optician if you needed adjustments etc. Shipping times can be long even with "local" online stores because they have the glasses made abroad (typically on the same machines everyone else uses).
- Euphorbium 4y agoGet laser eye surgery. No touch no pain procedure once, under 30 seconds in duration which will permanently improve your life. One eye for 400 eur.
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoCan I ask where it's so cheap? In Austria it's 2000/eye. Granted, my eyes are the one place where I'm the least likely to penny pinch so I'm definitely not gonna choose a place based on cost alone.
- Majestic121 4y agoIt can be that cheap, or same order of magnitude, if you have a good complementary health insurance. I got mine done for 1500 per eye, reimbursed 600 per eye, but you can probably find cheaper
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoIn which country?
- MonkeyClub 4y agoI’ve gotten the same advice multiple times (short sighted, ~ -5 each), but I’ve resisted for a simple (stupid?) reason: I can take a very brief break from anything and everything simply by taking my glasses off. Bonus points, reality becomes acutely Impressionistic.
- Majestic121 4y agoYou can still take breaks afterward, I promise ! Bonus point, if you're into sports, it's really a great change for ball games and skiing.
- technofiend 4y agoIf you're on the fence about Lasik, just know that there will come a time when your doctor says "oh, sorry. you're too old to get it now."
- cbg0 4y agoWhen it comes to frames, you can buy cheaper frames if you don't care about the brand and put whatever lenses you want in them, but you don't want to use cheap lenses, as those don't offer fantastic visual clarity and could even damage your eyesight if not properly fitted. Some of the online shops that offer cheap lenses, like Zenni won't really be as good quality as some Zeiss ones. It's about a lot more than just the blue filter and how thin they are.
- colourgarden 4y agoI've been using VIU for a couple of years and can highly recommend. Good quality acetate frames, decent pricing and good in-store service. https://shopviu.com/en_int/viu-stores/ https://shopviu.com/en_int/viu-stores/ My partner previously also used VIU and recently had a good experience with Ace & Tate (who have been recommended already).
- kappuchino 4y agoThe german store greets me in germany with 185€ and up. I'm reading/writing this with my <25 € Fielmann Glasses ...
- whazor 4y agoI can recommend http://polette.com/ http://polette.com/ with glasses for 60 euro. I am happier with these than the more expensive ones I had before.
- erwan577 4y agoThis is not exactly in Europe, this online shop is China based and not recognized by the health care system in France.
- buggythebug 4y agoI know this guy on a street corner in Athens - dm me - I'll send you the address
- seaghost 4y agohttps://www.aceandtate.com/ https://www.aceandtate.com/
- jfrej 4y agohttps://iolla.com/ https://iolla.com/ makes decent ones at £85 a pair. It's a Scottish company but seems to be shipping internationally. Good customer service from my experience.
- guywithahat 4y agoI know this isn't a popular opinion on the internet but I don't think Luxottica is a "scam", I think this is just what most people want to spend on glasses. Your glasses sit on your face, are an integral part of your look, and need to last for a long time while being as clear as possible. People don't want $30 glasses because they're a piece of junk and will break on you when you most need them. You can make mass market glasses for ~$100, but I think most people want a more specialized look to their face. A few hundred dollars just happens to be the sweet spot where people get to buy a product which is purchased infrequently in a store, get a high quality item, and get good customer service/support. It's sort of like an iPhone. People want to pay a premium for a device they use every day for years which will be fast and just work. Apple doesn't have a monopoly, they just provide a better service
- more_corn 4y agoI have $30 zenni glasses. I love them. I got some prescription sunglasses too. Best sunglasses I’ve ever owned. I was so mad when I lost them. Then I was like. Bitch, $30 and bought another pair. I’m all in for less than a hundred (glasses, sunglasses and replacement) and could not be happier. My sister needs bifocals and couldn’t afford them. She literally was just going without. I just had her send me her prescription and bought her a pair. You need glasses to see, to live. Making them retarded expensive is a crime. Offering them at an affordable price should be praised and supported.
- pipodeclown 4y agoThe thing is, the quality is not that high and the look not that great. It's just extremely well known and you people know what they are getting. If you know where to look and especially if you are willing to go online, you can het the same quality and look for half or a third of the price.
- Helmut10001 4y agoTake a Shot [1] is a German Sunglasses producer from Leipzig. They are producing sustainable for about 60 to 120 per sunglasses. I own glasses from them and was very happy so far. [1]: https://www.takeashot.de/ https://www.takeashot.de/
- fxtentacle 4y agohttps://www.fielmann.de/brillen/ https://www.fielmann.de/brillen/
- nicbou 4y agoFielmann is great. The process of getting glasses there is quite streamlined. Their Null Tarif glasses are really cheap. They also offer polycarbonate lenses - blender plastic. I pay extra for that because I like riding a motorcycle with the visor up. They just paid for themselves this month: there's a big dent right in front of my retina from a rock thrown by another vehicle.
- nicbou 4y agoI wrote a guide about paying less for glasses in Germany: https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/eyeglasses https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/eyeglasses It explains how your insurer or your employer can pay for your eyeglasses.
- dotcoma 4y agoIn Spain, https://greyhounders.com/ https://greyhounders.com/
- boruto 4y agoI get mine from lenskart when I visit home, get a pair of normal ones and sunglasses for less than 100 EUR. I guess they ship to EU too. I have -6 so I get 1.7x<something> the thinnest possible.
- stev-0 4y agoThis is my preferred supplier https://www.aceandtate.com/ https://www.aceandtate.com/ My glasses aren’t super cheap. I think I pay €170 for a pair with extra thin glasses. I really like the frames they have.
- tjansen 4y agoIn the last >10 years, I have ordered all my glasses from brille24.de and mrspex.de. Pricing usually starts at around 30 EUR for no-name frames, and even the no-name options are really good. Never had any problems. I am usually buying the more expensive photochromic lenses, but I also had the cheapest ones and they are fine, too.
- benibela 4y agoIn Germany, I bought mine from lensbest Not sure if they are high quality. When I compared sites a few years ago, they were the cheapest I am really troubled with the cylinder for my astigmatism. Many sites only sell glasses with 2.5 cylinder. Lensbest sold 3 diopter cylinders. The eye scanner at the optometrist said I need a 3.75 diopter cylinder. Although the optometrist said, I still get full vision with 3 diopter. I wanted to buy cylinder-only glasses for computer work. Because my normal glasses also have spherical component against nearsightedness, but the screen is near enough that I can see everything without that and the correction is only causing eyestrain. But I cannot buy them. The cylinder is too high for the sites, and the local optician said I do not need such glasses
- pipodeclown 4y agoDepends on where you are of course but I swear by Ace and Tate. About 100 euros for personalised high refractive index coated glasses, price includes a frame. Glasses seem higher quality than my previous expensive Zeiss lenses. In my opinion the frames are some of the most beautifull on the market, I get compliments on the sophisticated look all the time.