Which Fast-Food Burger and Fries Are the Best Value for Your Money? The Answer May Surprise You
As many people remain deeply concerned about affordability, food prices have been hitting wallets hard. That is why finding the best value for your fast food budget matters more than ever. A new nationwide study compared fast food burgers and fries by cost per ounce, and the winners might surprise you.
Which Fast Food Cheeseburger Gives You the Most for Your Money
Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
NetCredit set out to figure out the best value fast food cheeseburger in America. To do so, they focused on single-patty cheeseburgers from the following 14 chains:
- A&W
- Burger King
- Carl’s Jr.
- Culver’s
- Dairy Queen
- Five Guys
- In-N-Out
- Jack in the Box
- McDonald’s
- Shake Shack
- Smashburger
- Sonic
- Wendy’s
- Whataburger
After the team that conducted the study weighed burger patties and normalized prices across regions of the U.S., they calculated how much each chain charges per ounce of beef. The results, which they shared with Men's Journal, found that Whataburger's classic Whataburger, delivers the best beef value, despite it having a higher price than many other options.
Chain: | Menu Name: | Burger Price ($USD): | Price Per Patty Oz: | Rank: |
Whataburger | Whataburger | $5.92 | $1.66 | #1 |
McDonald's | Cheeseburger | $2.02 | $1.91 | #2 |
Smashburger | All-American Smash | $5.06 | $1.96 | #3 |
Burger King | Cheeseburger | $2.52 | $1.99 | #4 |
Wendy's | Dave's Single Cheeseburger | $6.07 | $2.21 | #5 |
Culver's | Deluxe Single | $4.55 | $2.22 | #6 |
Shake Shack | Cheeseburger | $6.88 | $2.27 | #7 |
Dairy Queen | Original Cheeseburger | $3.94 | $2.38 | #8 |
Carls Jr. | Big Cheeseburger | $5.06 | $2.39 | #9 |
Jack in the Box | Jr. Jack Cheeseburger | $3.03 | $2.45 | #10 |
Sonic | Sonic Cheeseburger | $6.07 | $2.46 | #11 |
In and Out | Cheeseburger | $3.90 | $2.91 | #12 |
A&W | Cheeseburger | $4.85 | $3.13 | #13 |
Five Guys | Little Cheeseburger | $8.60 | $3.59 | #14 |
Which Fast Food French Fries Give You the Most for Your Money
NetCredit applied the same approach to the medium/regular French fries sold by the same chains, normalizing regional pricing and ranking by cost per ounce. Those results, which were also shared with Men's Journal, surprisingly didn't name any of the most famous chains in the top five.
Chain: | Menu Name: | Fries Price: | Price Per Oz of Fries: | Rank: |
Shake Shack | Regular Fries | $2.49 | $0.40 | #1 |
Culver's | Medium Fries | $2.62 | $0.50 | #2 |
Five Guys | Regular Fries | $6.07 | $0.54 | #3 |
In and Out | Regular Fry | $2.18 | $0.64 | #4 |
Smashburger | French Fries | $3.33 | $0.66 | #5 |
Wendy's | Medium Fries | $3.33 | $0.69 | #6 |
Burger King | Medium Fry | $3.44 | $0.77 | #7 |
Jack in the Box | Medium Fries | $3.03 | $0.81 | #8 |
McDonald's | Medium Fry | $3.54 | $0.89 | #9 |
A&W | Medium Fries | $3.74 | $0.89 | #10 |
Carls Jr. | Medium Fry | $3.54 | $0.92 | #11 |
Whataburger | Medium French Fries | $2.95 | $0.99 | #12 |
Dairy Queen | Regular Fry | $4.04 | $0.99 | #13 |
Sonic | Medium Groovy Fries | $3.23 | $1.27 | #14 |