Sea to Table vs Vital Choice: High Standards vs Variety?

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The USDA recommends that Americans eat at least two servings of fish per week, and since wild-caught fish tends to be lower in saturated fat and toxins than farmed fish, it’s a healthy choice for your weekly fix. Unfortunately, more than half of the states in the U.S. are landlocked, which can make access to fresh, wild-caught seafood a challenge.

On top of that, the seafood industry is fraught with fraud, misrepresentation, and environmentally destructive practices, making it tough to find a reputable source for wild-caught seafood.

Enter Sea to Table and Vital Choice. Both companies promise to deliver flash-frozen wild-caught seafood directly to you, even if you’re landlocked, and both offer seafood subscription services. As a former hospitality professional and self-styled seafood connoisseur, I wanted to put these two companies head-to-head to see how they stack up against one another.

I’m always looking for convenient ways to fill my fridge (and freezer) with healthy, minimally-processed food. Comparing Sea to Table vs Vital Choice seemed like a good way to determine which company best fits my needs—and which might be the best for you.

Sea to Table vs Vital Choice
Alaska sockeye salmon from sea to table. Image by Lauren Vigdor

Sea to Table vs Vital Choice: Bottom Line Up Front

Both Sea to Table and Vital Choice will deliver wild-caught seafood to your door. If you’re interested in a wild-caught seafood subscription, Sea to Table is the best option. You can completely customize your subscription with any quantity and type of seafood they sell, and they’ll ship it to you every four, six, or eight weeks.

If you’re looking for a more extensive selection of seafood or something that Sea to Table doesn’t carry, it’s worthwhile to check out Vital Choice, but of the two, I prefer Sea to Table.

Better Seafood Selection & Value
I Switched to Sea 2 Table?

For fish exclusively, I've recently switched to Sea to Table for the best selection, quality, value, and shipping timelines. Customize your subscription or order just what you want, when you want.

Find Your Seafood
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Main Differences between Sea to Table and Vital Choice

Both Sea to Table and Vital Choice will deliver wild-caught seafood to your door, either as a one-time purchase or as part of a subscription service. They also both offer similar pricing, but the two companies differ in a few key ways:

  • Sea to Table offers a limited selection of pre-portioned frozen seafood and mixed seafood boxes, whereas Vital Choice sells a much larger selection of frozen seafood, ready-to-eat canned seafood, heat-and-serve soups, supplements, seasonings, other proteins, and more.
  • Sea to Table has half a dozen different mixed boxes to choose from, or you can purchase any combination of their frozen products as a subscription, whereas Vital Choice only offers three assorted subscription boxes which contain seafood selected based on availability.
  • Sea to Table’s website is easy to navigate, and you can add any item to your cart from one page, whereas Vital Choice lists each item on a separate page, meaning you need to click around to add items to your cart.
  • Sea to Table’s subscription boxes can be delivered every four, six, or eight weeks, whereas Vital Choice’s subscription boxes only ship once every four weeks.

About Sea to Table

Sea to Table vs Vital Choice

Sea to Table is a family-run business providing its customers with flash-frozen wild-caught seafood from the coastal United States. They take pride in their commitment to traceability and sustainability and strive for complete transparency regarding their seafood sources.

The Sea to Table Customer Experience

Website: Sea to Table’s website is very easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. It seems like a small thing to worry about, but I think it makes a difference in the online shopping experience. When I shop in person, I prefer stores that are curated and well-organized. It’s nice to be afforded the same luxury in a digital shop.

Return Policy: Sea to Table states that they want their customers to be 100% satisfied with their purchases. They offer 30-day refunds, returns, and exchanges on any items that don’t arrive in perfect condition or otherwise don’t meet the customer’s standards.

Customer Service: Customer service is available via email, webchat, or phone. Sea to Table also answers a ton of common questions in the FAQ on their website, which I found extremely helpful. I ordered a box of seafood from them and was very impressed by how in the loop they kept me regarding my order. I received emails when my order was processed, shipped, out for delivery, and delivered. At no point was I left wondering whether my seafood was slowly thawing in a warehouse somewhere.

Shipping and Packaging: Sea to Table’s seafood is packed in insulated boxes with dry ice. Quite a bit of their packaging is recyclable, though the seafood is individually packaged in portion-sized vacuum-sealed pouches for freshness. Orders ship within one to three days of purchase and deliver within one to three days of shipping.

Sea to Table’s Selection

Sea to Table offers a dozen different types of wild-caught seafood (sold in two-portion packs), including salmon, halibut, scallops, and lobster tails. They also provide a selection of half a dozen boxes of mixed seafood containing 10-16 servings. The mixed boxes are made entirely from seafood that is also offered individually packaged.

Everything that Sea to Table carries can be purchased as a one-time sale or as a subscription recurring every four, six, or eight weeks. I love that this allows you to completely customize your order and still receive the discount added to recurring orders. It also means that all of Sea to Table’s seafood is available to all of their customers, regardless of how much they spend or how frequently they order.

Sea to Table’s Quality

Everything Sea to Table sells is wild caught in the coastal United States. The company is committed to sustainability and traceability, providing information on the catch location, method, and sometimes even fishing vessel on each package of fish.

Several times a year, Sea to Table sends samples of their fish to have their DNA sequenced in a lab. This ensures that none of the fish is being misrepresented—essentially if it’s labeled halibut, you can feel confident that it really is halibut and not some less expensive substitute.

I had the opportunity to try some of Sea to Table’s seafood, and it was all fantastic. Everything arrived well packaged, completely frozen, and tasted incredibly fresh.

I tried the Northwest Pacific Halibut, the Alaska Sockeye Salmon, the Wild Gulf Shrimp, and the Large Atlantic Sea Scallops. I would order every single item again—even the scallops, and I live on an island where scallops are readily available!

Sea to Table’s Prices

I compared Sea to Table’s prices to those at a few of my local grocery chains and small specialty seafood shops. Sea to Table’s seafood was considerably more expensive than the stuff offered at my local Costco or Shoprite (sometimes by as much as $10 to $20 per pound), but that wasn’t unexpected. The wild-caught seafood at these big box stores offers little to no information regarding its sources or quality standards.

Sea to Table’s prices were comparable to my local fish market, though the local shop was still slightly less expensive than Sea to Table. However, prices in my local shop vary daily, and some seafood is considerably more expensive in certain seasons.

Shipping is free on all orders $99+ and costs a flat rate of either $45 or $30 for smaller orders. In my opinion, it’s not worth spending the money on shipping costs from this company—I’d just order some extra seafood to make up the difference and stock my freezer!

Better Seafood Selection & Value
I Switched to Sea 2 Table?

For fish exclusively, I've recently switched to Sea to Table for the best selection, quality, value, and shipping timelines. Customize your subscription or order just what you want, when you want.

Find Your Seafood
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

Sea to Table Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Sea to Table’s website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.
  • I love that you can fully customize your order, either for a one-time purchase or a subscription.
  • I love their commitment to sustainability and how transparent they are about their sources.
  • They offer free shipping on orders $99+.
  • Everything I tried tasted very fresh and delicious.

Cons

  • I think that everything Sea to Table offers looks great, but I wish they had more of a selection. I’d love to see sea bass, a whole fish, or salmon burgers offered.
  • Sea to Table only ships to the continental U.S.

About Vital Choice

Sea to Table vs Vital Choice

Vital Choice sells a wide selection of primarily (but not exclusively) wild-caught seafood, marine supplements, organic foods and seasonings, subscription boxes, and pasture-raised protein. They’re a subsidiary of 1-800 Flowers and part of a large group of gourmet food and gift delivery services that includes Harry & David, Wolferman’s Bakery, and Stock Yards.

The Vital Choice Customer Experience

Website: I found Vital Choice’s website a little confusing and cluttered. I understand that this is definitely due in part to the volume of products they carry, but it took me a minute to locate the Vital Box subscriptions on the site—they almost felt like an afterthought, along with things like the pasture-raised pork and salmon roe.

Each item is listed under its own page, which means you need to do some clicking around if you want to compare items—even different species of salmon. It also means you’ll have to click around a lot more to add items to your cart than you do with Sea to Table.

Return Policy: Vital Choice’s guarantee states that “you and those who receive our products must be delighted, or we’ll make it right with either an appropriate replacement or refund. Always.” Beyond that, they don’t offer any information other than a customer service number that you can call. I appreciate the sentiment behind their statement, but since they are a business, I would prefer some more explicitly-stated guarantees from them.

Customer Service: Customer service is available via phone or live chat. They also have FAQs listed on their site, but like the rest of the Vital Choice website, they can be tricky to navigate. Rather than have all of their FAQs in one place, Vital Choice splits them up into different categories on various different pages.

Shipping and Packaging: Vital Choice ships everything standard by default, with shipping and processing windows between four to seven business days. Expedited shipping is available for an extra cost. Orders are shipped in cardboard boxes that are insulated with recycled denim made in the United States from post-consumer blue jeans, which I thought was pretty cool. The insulation can actually be reused, repurposed, or recycled.

Vital Choice’s Selection

vital choice seafood

Vital Choice offers a much wider selection than Sea to Table. They sell dozens of types and preparations of seafood, including frozen, wild-caught filets, canned seafood, heat-and-serve soups, and marine supplements like fish oil and omega-3 capsules.

However, Vital Choice has a significantly more limited selection of subscription options. 

Vital Choice offers three different subscription boxes: the Wild Salmon Monthly Subscription, which contains 10-14 servings of salmon filets, salmon burgers, lox, and salmon sausage; the Wild Fish Monthly Subscription, which includes 14-16 servings of salmon, whitefish, and tuna; and the Wild Seafood Monthly Subscription, which contains 16-24 servings of different fish, scallops, prawns, and shrimp.

Unlike Sea to Table, there is no option to customize your subscription, and subscriptions are only shipped on set dates on a monthly basis.

Vital Choice’s Quality

Vital Choice offers 30 types of wild-caught seafood, and all but their canned sardines and mackerel meet responsibility and sustainability standards set by independent organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). You can read more about Vital Choice’s seafood quality in our Vital Choice Review.

Vital Choice’s Prices

Vital Choice’s prices are comparable to Sea to Table’s. Some items are a bit pricier, while others are slightly less expensive, but on average, the two charge about the same for similar products.

The place where they differ is their shipping costs. For orders under $99, you’ll pay considerably less in shipping with Vital Choice than you will with Sea to Table. Vital Choice’s shipping for smaller orders ranges from $6.99 to $19.99.

However, Vital Choice doesn’t offer free shipping on larger orders. Orders totaling $100.01 to $200 will be charged a flat-rate fee of $25.99, while orders over $200 will be charged 16% of the order’s subtotal in shipping.

Vital Choice Pros and Cons

vital choice pros cons

Pros

  • They have a vast selection of different types of seafood as well as supplements, pasture-raised meat, and organic foods.
  • I like that in addition to ready-to-cook filets, you can purchase things like salmon burgers, smoked salmon, tinned fish, and chowder.
  • Like Sea to Table, Vital Choice ships to the continental U.S., but they also offer some items that can be shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, and Canada.

Cons

  • Vital Choice’s subscription boxes are not customizable.
  • Their seafood sources and company policies are not as explicitly stated as Sea to Table’s.
  • The fact that Vital Choice is run by a major company like 1-800 Flowers is a con to me, just because I prefer to support smaller businesses whenever possible. It may not be an issue for you.
  • They don’t offer free shipping on large orders. In fact, you’ll actually pay more in shipping for large orders than you will for small orders.

Other Alternatives to Consider

If neither of these companies feel like the right fit for you, you might want to consider one of the following instead.

Sizzlefish

sizzlefish

Sizzlefish is an online market that sells mostly wild-caught as well as some farmed seafood. They offer a wide selection of portioned fish for one-time sale and have three different subscription boxes, two of which allow you to build your own box.

The fact that they offer sustainably farmed fish allows them to sell freshwater fish, such as rainbow trout, in addition to wild-caught ocean fish and shellfish. They have a larger selection of portioned fish than either Sea to Table or Vital Choice, but they don’t offer supplements and tinned fish the way Vital Choice does (they do sell smoked fish). They also don’t state their sources as transparently as Sea to Table.

They offer free shipping on every order and are slightly less expensive than Sea to Table and Vital Choice. You can read more about Sizzlefish in our Sizzlefish review.

Wild Alaskan Company

wild alaskan company

Wild Alaskan Company was founded by a third-generation Alaskan fisherman committed to making sustainably-harvested wild-caught seafood more available in the United States. They offer three different subscription boxes: a Wild Salmon Box containing coho and sockeye salmon, a Wild Whitefish Box that includes an assortment of halibut, cod, rockfish, and pollock, or a Wild Combo box made with a combination of salmon and whitefish.

They also offer monthly add-on specials to subscription members, including snow crab, smoked fish, scallops, and prawns.

Prices are comparable to Vital Choice and Sea to Table. You can choose to have your order delivered every four, six, or eight weeks, and shipping is always free. They have a smaller selection than Sea to Table and Vital Choice, but it’s worth considering them if you prefer the simplicity of their subscription options and commitment to sustainability. You can read more about them in our Wild Alaskan Company review.

FAQs

Question: Is Vital Choice salmon sushi grade?

Answer: The term “sushi grade” is more of a marketing term than an enforced designation, but Vital Choice’s wild-caught flash-frozen salmon is safe to eat raw.

Question: Who owns Vital Choice?

Answer: Vital Choice is a subsidiary of 1-800 Flowers. The floral and gift retailer purchased Vital Choice in October of 2021.

Question: Who owns Sea to Table?

Answer: Sean Dimin is the founder and CEO of Sea to Table. He owns the company along with his father and brothers.

Question: How long can you store frozen fish?

Answer: According to the USDA, fish that has been kept frozen will keep indefinitely without spoiling, though the flavor and texture may decline. Sea to Table recommends consuming their products within one year of delivery.

Final Thoughts

Although Vital Choice has a more extensive selection of seafood, I prefer Sea to Table. I like the company’s transparency, the quality of their fish, and their commitment to sustainability. I also think that Sea to Table offers better subscription options than Vital Choice. If you’re looking for a specific type of seafood that Sea to Table doesn’t carry, check out Vital Choice, but if you’re interested in a wild-caught seafood subscription, I would go with Sea to Table.

Better Seafood Selection & Value
I Switched to Sea 2 Table?

For fish exclusively, I've recently switched to Sea to Table for the best selection, quality, value, and shipping timelines. Customize your subscription or order just what you want, when you want.

Find Your Seafood
We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

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