James Allen vs Blue Nile (Which Is Truly Better?)

Last Updated on June 21, 2023 by Juli "Jewels" Church

When it comes to James Allen vs Blue Nile they are both popular diamond retailers, but which is the very best?

James Allen is known the leading online retailer in the diamond industry, but Blue Nile is just as renowned...

So who wins?

Blue Nile vs James Allen review

Why you should trust us

At LearningJewelry.com, we understand that trust is a vital factor in the diamond buying process. That's why we want to assure you that our articles are written by experts who have extensive knowledge and experience in the diamond industry. 

Our primary author Juli Church is a certified diamontologist with over 7 years of experience in sorting and evaluating diamonds for quality and value. She worked at retail stores for Kay and Zales where she learned industry secrets and now uses her insider knowledge to help readers like you to save big on the perfect gem for their needs.

Juli has written hundreds of jewelry and diamond articles and spends much of her free time browsing and helping out in ring buying Facebook groups to keep up with the latest diamond and wedding trends. Her wealth of knowledge and experience has given her a unique perspective on what information truly helps our readers find and buy the perfect diamond engagement ring or piece of jewelry.

With our team of experts and our commitment to providing accurate and trustworthy information, you can trust LearningJewelry.com to guide you through the diamond buying process with confidence.

Bottom Line Up Front: James Allen is a better online retailer of jewelry, with a more seamless, lower stress buying experience. As an online jeweler, they specialize in online sales with their 360° HD Images of every diamond, 24/7 customer service, and hassle free return policy.

The combination of online experience, customer service, and warranty policies makes James Allen an overall better option than Blue Nile. They are are changing the jewelry industry for the better, and we are proud to recommend them to you. 

>>Click here to see James Allen's current promotions

James Allen vs Blue Nile Shopping Experience

Between Blue Nile vs James Allen, both are large, primarily online diamond retailers with only a couple showrooms or stores.

I compared their products, services, and customer experiences to make an informed decision on how they stack up to each other where it matters most.

While online retailers don't have to sell or make sales goals to their customers, they still offer a great shopping experience by making it easy for you to purchase, customize, and return if there are any issues.

Blue Nile

Blue Nile has a library of loose diamonds to choose from of varying carat weights, color grades, and clarity grades. You can easily shop and educate yourself about diamonds through their platform.

Blue Nile offers their customers a 360° view on some of their loose diamonds, but there are many that come with not-so-appealing pictures like this Asscher cut diamond view from Blue Nile.

I definitely wouldn't want to make such a large purchase based on these pictures alone:

Blue Nile diamond  side view
Blue Nile diamond viewer

They carry a vast collection of fine jewelry, both gemstone and diamond. Additionally, they have a great selection of men's wedding rings in alternative metals. I was able to quickly consult with their customer service representatives for advice during my website visit.

As far as returns go, they offer a 30-day return policy, but anything special ordered is not eligible for returns. Shipping options, costs, and delivery times are also important factors to consider when planning your purchase.

One of the biggest advantages of Blue Nile is their price match guarantee. They claim that if you call them with another GIA certified diamond on the same kind of market, they'll match it. I found this to be a helpful option to help save while also being able to purchase from a well-known retailer.

Read Also: Should you buy from Blue Nile?

Blue Nile has partnered with Mondiamo to do a diamond buyback program, allowing diamond experts to award cash for customers selling their diamond from home.

Additionally, I noticed they also offer upgrades for your diamond engagement ring, but the upgrade policy states that the diamond needs to be GIA or AGS certified to be eligible.

James Allen

The James Allen website has a larger collection of loose diamonds than Blue Nile. They have almost 300,000 stones, while Blue Nile's library is just under 200,000.

Additionally, they carry loose gemstones and fancy colored diamonds. They also have a decent collection of fine jewelry, but I think Blue Nile has the better selection with more popular styles. When it comes to maintenance, I can follow their jewelry care guidelines to keep my pieces looking pristine.

I found it straightforward to track orders and register for an account with James Allen to receive personalized recommendations.

Unlike Blue Nile, James Allen has both HD pictures and 360° view technology on ALL of their diamonds, not just some of them. When I look at James Allen's high-quality photos, I feel more confident in making such an important purchase.

James Allen 360 diamond viewer
James Allen diamond viewer

Also unlike Blue Nile, James Allen does not buy your diamonds. However, they do have a lifetime upgrade policy that allows you to trade your loose diamond for full credit towards a diamond that is 2x the value. All grading reports have to be with the diamond to be eligible.

They don't do any kind of price matching, as there are very few high-quality diamonds on the market that are less expensive than James Allen. All customers receive a 30-day money-back guarantee and free return shipping.

Trusting the reputation, experience, and expertise of James Allen will help you make important jewelry purchases with confidence.

Customer Service

Customer service is key when shopping at an online diamond retailer like James Allen or Blue Nile because it is the only way you can interact with them. 

As a customer, I found it easy to consult with their representatives to make informed decisions. They both have showrooms but mainly function online.

So, how does Blue Nile's customer service stack up against James Allen?

Blue Nile

Blue Nile offers 24/7 customer service through online chat and different phone numbers depending on which country you are calling from. However, I tried to use their online chat, and it took over 6 minutes for someone to connect me (I had already given up at that point). 

On Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau, you might not find many reviews on Blue Nile. They have some, but it looks as there are as many good Blue Nile reviews as there are bad ones. It is essential to review these feedbacks to gauge their reputation and reliability for yourself.

Blue Nile has responded to some of the complaints on the BBB, with the exception of the ones about their financing:

Blue Nile reviews

https://www.bbb.org/us/wa/seattle/profile/jewelry-stores/blue-nile-inc-1296-15026564/customer-reviews

This isn't the first time I've read about their bad credit card program. Apparently, it has caused a lot of issues for Blue Nile buyers and has caused many people to shy away. While reviews are to be taken lightly, there are an overwhelming number of bad reviews concerning the financing program.

I believe great, trusted customer service should strive to fix the issues, and it seems that Blue Nile remains ignorant of these complaints. While the customer service may be great when purchasing and asking questions, the fact that they ignore popular complaints doesn't make a great example of customer service.

James Allen

James Allen also has 24/7 customer service through online chat, phone number, and email. I've used James Allen's online chat many times to ask for clarification and am instantly connected. Their customer service has been excellent in my case and maintaining communication with James Allen's representatives was a hassle-free experience.

Most customers feel the same about James Allen. On trusted customer review sites like Trustpilot, the Better Business Bureau, and Consumer Affairs, James Allen has an overall great response. Being able to trust these sources helps me make important jewelry purchases with confidence. 

The Better Business Bureau collects most of the bad complaints rather than positive experiences. James Allen has over 30 complaints, but the company has taken the time to answer every single complaint. Many of them are even resolved.

Many complaints have to do with customers not getting shipments on promised days, but most of that is due to holiday traffic. Shipping conditions can interfere with promised dates, things happen with the carriers, and other untold issues. Sometimes it's a lack of attention.

From what I've seen, James Allen at least attempts to do their best to get rings out on time. Check out this review:

James Allen reviews

https://www.bbb.org/us/md/frederick/profile/jewelry-stores/jamesallencom-0011-22011065/complaints

Even with a change, customer service was able to help this customer out. 

Warranty

Jewelry warranties are a must-have. You need a warranty with a diamond ring, at the very least. Over time, your diamond jewelry will start to wear down and need routine maintenance to keep in good shape. As a customer, I need to compare warranties to ensure I get the best coverage. A warranty helps cover the cost of that maintenance.

Blue Nile

Blue Nile offers a manufacturer's lifetime warranty, which covers if your ring has a manufacturer's defect. A manufacturer's defect is usually categorized as something bad that repeatedly happens to the ring, such as the same diamond becoming loose.

But for the routine maintenance, like prong tightening, rhodium plating white gold rings, and re-polishing are done at a cost. They don't tell you the cost of each repair until after they receive it.

You also have to pay return shipping, and they do not state the price, so it may be up to the customer. As a customer, I wish to save on these costs whenever possible so this part is a bummer.

You do get free complimentary cleaning and inspection with the company. They'll check all your prongs and look for any loose stones through a jeweler's loupe.

If they assess any other issues, they'll contact you. But, you still have to pay return shipping. Blue Nile does give free resizing throughout the first year, just in case you order a size that doesn't quite fit.

James Allen

James Allen gives all customers a lifetime warranty with all their jewelry, and it transcends beyond Blue Nile's manufacturer's warranty. I appreciate how they not only cover any manufacturer's defects, but they also cover all your routine maintenance for life.

All you have to do is pay the shipping fee for $35, if you're in the US or Canada. For other countries, it is $50. As a shopper, I appreciate the straightforward pricing.

If the repair needed is something other than tightening of stones, rhodium, polish, or prong retipping, they will assess a price and will let you know before work is done.

While you should really only need to resize once in the first year, James Allen resizing policy only covers one resizing for the first year. It's free, but you are obligated to pay that shipping fee.

Blue Nile doesn't specify how many times you can size their rings within the first year, but the first year is also free.

I uncovered one cool thing: you don't have to ship your jewelry to James Allen if you don't want to. You can actually bring it to an approved Jared location and have their shops work on it. This collaboration offers customers more options.

You can also get free cleaning and inspection done through James Allen, or Jared can do that as well. As a customer, I trust the quality of the service they provide and like to have multiple options available to me.

Price vs Value

To compare the best of the best between Blue Nile vs James Allen, I've chosen to use each of their specialized branded diamonds. 

Blue Nile

Blue Nile has their own collection of diamonds called Astor Diamonds. The Astor collection is picked by two diamond experts and only the best is cut into an Astor diamond.

James Allen vs Blue Nile review

Not only do they come with a GIA grading report, but they also come with a GemEx report, which shows superiority in light performance. You can actually review both reports online and they have a great comparison tool that you can use to find the perfect Astor diamond for your own ring.

Here we have an Astor ideal cut diamonds with a clarity of VS2 and a color grade of H. The carat weight is 1.02 cts.

Blue Nile diamond

James Allen

James Allen also has their own branded diamonds, under the name True Hearts. These are a collection of ideal cut diamonds and some of them display a pattern of hearts and arrows when looked through a loupe or gemscope.

You can view these patterns on the round cut diamonds via the idealscope images.

James Allen diamond

True Hearts diamonds are available in round, princess, or cushion cut. The princess and cushion shapes are certified for light performance by the AGS, which is the second most trusted company in diamond reports, right after the GIA. 

This princess cut True Hearts diamond has the same diamond grades as Blue Nile's Astor diamond.

The price for James Allen True Hearts diamond is $3580, and the price for Blue Nile's Astor diamond is $4934. That's a $1,354 difference in price.

But is it truly better just because James Allen has the lower prices on their collection? Most people think that diamond prices are equated to their quality in the diamond industry, but this is untrue. 

Both of these collections from these diamond retailers have GIA reports, but only True Hearts by James Allen carries a light performance grading report from the American Gem Society.

GemEx does not have the reputation for grading as they grade most commercial corporate jewelry brands like Tolkowsky. Just the grading reports and which labs are used can tell you where the better value is whether it's for resale or insurance purposes. 

With that being said, it is clear that James Allen diamonds will give you more bang for your buck, without compromising quality. 

James Allen vs Blue Nile On Reddit 

When Redditors discuss the best place to buy diamonds, it's usually a tug-of-war between the two online diamond industry giants, Blue Nile and James Allen. So what does the website have to say about these companies? Let's check it out. 

James Allen has some pretty solid reviews. They are definitely more positives than complaints. Not only that, but the actual company is a Redditor themselves.

They can be found commenting on various posts throughout the forums whether it's thanking someone for purchase, or offering diamond advice. 

Most Redditors recommend that you should purchase a loose diamond from an online dealer like James Allen or Blue Nile. Many of them have purchased from both, but it seems like James Allen has more of a presence on Reddit.

On this post asking about online diamonds, here are some of the responses:

Blue Nile and James Allen on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/EngagementRings/comments/ck94ci/blue_nile_and_online_ring_shopping/

It is clear that majority of Redditors have purchased from James Allen over Blue Nile more often. 

Our Verdict: You Should Shop At...

When comparing James Allen vs Blue Nile, it is clear to me that James Allen emerges as the better choice for buying diamonds online.

With a more extensive selection of loose diamonds, better customer service, 360° views on all diamonds, and a comprehensive lifetime warranty that covers routine maintenance, James Allen simply offers a superior shopping experience.

Although Blue Nile has its merits, the advantages provided by James Allen make it the more appealing option for customers seeking high-quality diamond jewelry at a great value.

Meet Your Jewelry Expert

Learn More About Jewelry

Want to learn more about jewelry? Check out these other helpful resources written by our jewelry experts!