James Allen vs. Ritani

In most of our comparisons, James Allen has a much larger collection of natural diamonds than other diamond retailers. However, in this case, Ritani actually has a larger collection of natural diamonds and lab diamonds than James Allen.

At the time of writing, James Allen carries around 166,236 natural diamonds and 61,502 lab grown diamonds.

While this is obviously a large number of diamonds, it’s actually far fewer than it has had in the past when there could be over 500,000 available to choose from at any one time.

Ritani has around 212,361 natural diamonds and 269,091 lab grown diamonds for customers to choose from.

Having a vast selection of loose diamonds to choose from makes it easier to find a great priced diamond and you’re able to do that with both of these retailers.

Keep in mind as you narrow your filters down by diamond shape, carat weight, and other diamond grades, you’ll greatly reduce the offerings given to you by either store, but having such a large number does mean that they are more likely to have available exactly what you are looking for.

Search function

With so many diamonds available from either retailer, being able to quickly narrow your search to find the diamond of the carat weight and quality you are looking for is key, especially because you are usually looking on several sites at the same time over a period of a few weeks when finding a diamond.

James Allen’s search function continues to be the best in the business – while other retailers have split out information across different tabs, James Allen has kept all the most important part of the search on the first screen, with the more advanced search options e.g. table % under an ‘advanced options’ tab.

This makes it super simple to set your search parameters and find the diamond selection that is right for you.

Ritani’s diamond search function used to be similar to James Allen’s, but is now a series of dropdown menus:

This involves far more clicks to get to your desired range of diamonds, which makes it more difficult to zone in on exactly what you’re looking for. Maybe not the biggest deal if you use a website once, but the process of finding a diamond for an engagement ring often takes many visits to a website, which can make this sort of search frustrating.

Image quality

One other big difference between James Allen and Ritani is the consistency and quality of images that they provide.

Every single diamond James Allen sells has a high quality image of the diamond magnified 40x and a 360 degree view that you can drag rotate drag and rotate as you wish.

This makes it really easy to understand exactly what you’re buying and is especially helpful if you are considering a diamond with VS2 clarity or below, where being able to understand the size and location of the inclusions is really important to understand whether the diamond will be ‘eye-clean’ or not.

If you haven’t already checked out James Allen’s ‘super zoom’ feature it’s definitely worth clicking through here and checking them out.

By contrast, Ritani’s imagery is less consistent and less user friendly. It does offer either a zoomed in image or a video of most diamonds, but it seems to be one or the other. And you can’t actually see this unless you roll over the item or click into it.

The standard image results just shows rows and rows of a stock image of a diamond:

This is less helpful for choosing your stone and does make the process more time-consuming.

Lastly, the imagery provided by Ritani can sometimes be lacking e.g. this is the image of a smaller VS2 princess cut diamond:

At this level of zoom, it’s impossible to really examine the diamond which means you can’t see whether inclusions are visible or not.

Despite this, for most larger diamonds, the imagery or video provided by Ritani is sufficient to examine a diamond to the level you need to make a decision, it’s just less consistent and less easy to use than James Allen’s, which continues to be the industry leader in showing the level of detail that is needed to make a clear decision about every diamond they sell.

Certifications and Ethical Sourcing

Diamond certifications provide an unbiased assessment of the diamond’s grades including its cut, clarity, color, and carat weight.

The most recognized certifications in the industry come from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the American Gem Society (AGS). IGI (International Gemological Institute) is also a reputable source, especially for lab-grown diamonds.

Natural vs. Lab-Grown Diamonds

James Allen’s natural diamonds are mainly certified by GIA, with some by IGI, while Ritani’s natural diamonds are certified by AGS and GIA. As of 2023, the AGS has merged with the GIA, but their reports will still present the grading slightly differently using AGS’s numbered scale.

For lab-grown diamonds, James Allen relies on IGI, whereas Ritani offers a broader range, with certifications from GIA, IGI, GCAL, Diamond Foundry, GSI, and HRD.

I recommend sticking with lab grown diamonds that are either certified by the GIA or IGI in most cases. These are some of the top labs in the industry while others are not as comparable to quality.

Both James Allen and Ritani adhere to conflict-free diamond sourcing via the Kimberley Process. All of Ritani’s engagement rings are handcrafted in the United States where labor laws are strictly enforced.

Additionally, Ritani donates to a number of causes and charities. They are most proud to support education in Namibia. Read more about Ritani’s ethical sourcing and charitable contributions here.

Pricing and Value

Both James Allen and Ritani boast competitive prices for their diamonds, but let’s compare them up close. While price is definitely a factor, it’s up to you to determine if certain services or offerings are worth the extra cost.

Ritani does not offer super ideal cuts or hearts and arrows diamonds like James Allen’s branded line of diamonds, the ‘True Hearts’ collection. When viewed through a special tool, these precision-cut diamonds showcase symmetry and polish. Customers are able to see the light performance via special photos included with every True Hearts diamond. However, these diamonds also come with a premium price.

For those more conscious of a budget but still seeking a high quality diamond, you’ll want to compare the standard offerings of both James Allen’s and Ritani’s diamond selection.

There are many factors that go into diamond pricing, but the diamond grades have a large impact on the price. By narrowing the filters provided by each retailer, you’re able to roughly compare similar quality diamonds on each site.

Looking at a 1 carat ideal cut round diamond with G color and VS1, the price at the time of writing is $4,510 on James Allen:

At Rtani, the price for a similarly specced diamond is $4,757:

This is a relatively small difference in price and depending on what you are looking for, either one of these two retailers may offer a lower-priced diamond.

Regardless though, both are good value and offer amongst the fairest prices of any online retailer.

If we look at lab-grown diamonds, Ritani comes in at a lower price. Looking at a 1.01ct lab grown-diamond with the same color and clarity specs as above and an IGI grading report, Ritani’s price is $736, while James Allen’s is around $910.

One thing I really like about Ritani’s website is the breakdown it gives of the cost that goes into each diamond, so you can clearly see the cost to them, what it costs for them to produce and deliver the ring and then also their profit margin:

They also provide an easy-to-understand analysis about each diamond:

While some of this is subjective, it is pretty helpful as an at-a-glance summary of a diamond’s attributes.

To look at the total price of a ring, I added both diamonds to a 2mm 14K white gold knife-edge solitaire engagement ring setting, a popular and classic choice to showcase your center diamond.

Though Ritani’s more decorative settings are priced quite highly to reflect the workmanship involved, their standard settings are priced very competitively and are less expensive than James Allen’s (although James Allen does offer regular sales on their settings, which would bring the price lower than Ritani’s).

In total, the lab grown diamond engagement ring from James Allen would cost around $1570. The lab grown diamond ring from Ritani would cost about $977, so for lab-grown, Ritani is coming in significantly less expensive.