FACETWIREPrice IntelligenceFrank Darling vs With Clarity vs MiaDonna: Who's Cheapest on Identical Specs?
Three of the most-matched retailers in our database, 272 identical-spec pairs between them in tonight's data, and the one question buyers actually ask: given the same stone on paper, where is it cheapest? We matched all 2,149 tracked listings on shape, color, clarity and carat. Here is the scoreboard.
Head to head
| Matchup | Identical-spec pairs | Cheapest more often |
|---|---|---|
| With Clarity vs Frank Darling | 95 | With Clarity 92 · Frank Darling 3 |
| With Clarity vs MiaDonna | 109 | With Clarity 82 · MiaDonna 27 |
| MiaDonna vs Frank Darling | 68 | MiaDonna 50 · Frank Darling 18 |
The With Clarity–Frank Darling line is the most lopsided matchup in our database: across 95 identical-spec pairs, With Clarity is cheaper 92 times — 97%. Price a lab stone at Frank Darling and never check With Clarity, and tonight's data says you overpaid nearly every single time.
The full scoreboard
Head-to-head is only part of the picture. Across all ten retailers we track, here is how often each of the three appears in a matched pair, and how often it posts the lower price:
| Retailer | Matched pairs (all retailers) | Cheapest in | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| With Clarity | 427 | 277 | 65% |
| MiaDonna | 447 | 171 | 38% |
| Frank Darling | 303 | 63 | 21% |
Two different stories hide in that table. MiaDonna is the most-matched retailer in the database — 447 pair appearances from 232 listings, the smallest catalog of the three. Its inventory sits squarely in the spec bands everyone else stocks, which makes it the market's best cross-check: if a spec exists anywhere, it probably exists there too. With Clarity is the price winner — cheapest in 65% of all its pairs, and in 174 of its 204 head-to-head pairs against these two rivals (85%). Frank Darling is the premium option — cheapest in 21% of its pairs overall, and in just 21 of 163 head-to-heads here (13%).
The exception: Frank Darling on naturals
Premium is not the whole Frank Darling story. In tonight's first-ever natural-diamond pairs — all five are broken down in the natural comparison post — Frank Darling is the cheap side twice: a 1.51 ct cushion at $5,137.20 against Blue Nile's $7,326, and a 1.20 ct oval at $3,191.29 against With Clarity's $3,493. On lab-grown identical specs it prices at the top of this trio; on naturals it undercuts. Retailers run different strategies by category, and pair data is the only way to see them — brand impressions will not tell you.
What to do with this
Price-check With Clarity first on lab-grown stones in the mainstream bands; the data says it posts the low price more often than anyone. Use MiaDonna as the cross-check — its overlap is so wide that a spec missing there is a spec worth questioning everywhere. At Frank Darling, separate the stone from the setting: if you want their design work, price the loose stone against the pair data first, so you know exactly what the design premium is before you pay it. Then run your spec through live search regardless — the tables refresh nightly, and tonight's most expensive store is regularly tomorrow's outlier deal on some specific stone. The widest of those right now is a pear, in The $954 Pear.
Method and limits, honestly
Pairs match identical shape, color and clarity, carat within 0.10, same stone type, across two different retailers; 1,010 such pairs exist in tonight's 2,149 listings. These are spec fingerprints, not proof of the same physical stone — certificate-verified same-stone matches stand at zero today, though 636 cert-carrying listings already have an identical-spec twin at another store. Pair counts also reflect which inventory bands we track: a store can only win pairs it shows up to. Prices are listed prices at capture time, refreshed nightly; medians by shape and type live in the Diamond Price Index, and every store's shapes are browsable from Diamonds.
Frequently asked questions
Does "cheapest on identical specs" mean the same diamond?
No. It means two listings describing the same shape, color, clarity and near-identical size. Different physical stones can share a spec sheet. Same-stone proof requires the same certificate number at two retailers — the milestone our tracker is built to catch, and one that has not occurred yet.
Why does Frank Darling lose on price so often?
In the bands we track, its matched lab-grown listings price at a premium to the same specs elsewhere — consistent with a design-led retailer whose stone prices carry brand margin. It competes differently on naturals, where it posted the low price in two of tonight's five pairs.
So which store should I buy from?
The one with the lowest price on your exact spec tonight. That sounds like a dodge until you look at the tables: the answer genuinely changes by stone, by shape and by week, which is the entire reason this comparison exists.
Keep reading: Natural Diamonds, Compared at Last: the $6,259 Radiant · The $954 Pear: Ritani vs Ada · Ritani vs With Clarity, compared
Data: live retailer listings tracked by Facet Wire (2,149 listings across 10 retailers), captured 2026-10-17 and refreshed nightly. Prices are the retailers' listed prices at capture time. Pairs match identical shape, color and clarity with carat within 0.10 — spec matches, not certificate-verified same-stone matches.