Benjamin Moore vs. Sherwin-Williams: A Data-Driven Comparison
The two biggest names in American interior paint. Here's how Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams actually compare — on color count, price, LRV data coverage, product lines, and which brand is right for your project.
By PaintDB Editorial — color data verified against manufacturer specifications.
Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams are the two most speculated-about paint brands in the American residential market. Interior designers and painting contractors tend to have strong loyalties, homeowners tend to choose by store proximity, and online forums generate thousands of heated posts per month on which brand is 'better.' PaintDB covers both brands in full — 4,068 Benjamin Moore colors and 1,728 Sherwin-Williams colors — which gives us a data-backed position from which to make an honest comparison. The answer, as with most things in design, is that both are excellent professional-grade products, the differences are real but narrower than the brand mythologies suggest, and the right choice depends on your specific use case. Here is what the data actually shows.
Brand Overview: Two Very Different Market Positions
Sherwin-Williams was founded in 1866 and operates over 4,900 retail stores across the US — it is the largest American paint company by revenue and has the highest market share among professional painting contractors. Its Lowe's availability (through the Valspar acquisition) extended its consumer reach significantly. Benjamin Moore was founded in 1883 and is now owned by Berkshire Hathaway. It operates through a dealer network rather than a company-owned store network — Benjamin Moore paint is sold through approximately 5,000 independent paint dealers and hardware stores, not directly through home improvement chains. This distribution difference has practical consequences: Sherwin-Williams stores are more consistently staffed by people with professional paint expertise, while Benjamin Moore's dealer network has more variability in staff knowledge and inventory depth.
Design Tip
Distribution matters. If the nearest Benjamin Moore dealer is 30 minutes away and the nearest Sherwin-Williams is three blocks from your job site, that logistics gap compounds over a multi-gallon project. Match your brand choice to your realistic access to the store.
Color Count: Benjamin Moore Has More Than Twice as Many Colors
PaintDB's database covers 4,068 Benjamin Moore colors versus 1,728 Sherwin-Williams colors. That is a more than 2:1 ratio in favor of Benjamin Moore. In practice, this means Benjamin Moore's catalog spans significantly more nuanced variations within each color family — particularly in the neutral and off-white ranges where the most meaningful buying decisions are made. Sherwin-Williams' smaller catalog is a deliberate choice: the brand curates more aggressively, removing colors that don't sustain demand. This makes the SW catalog easier to navigate for a generalist homeowner but potentially more limiting for a designer seeking a very specific tone. In the gray family, for example, Benjamin Moore carries 402 grays in PaintDB's database versus 268 for Sherwin-Williams. In blue, Benjamin Moore has 606 blues vs. 253 for Sherwin-Williams. For any color category where nuanced options matter, Benjamin Moore's depth is a genuine advantage.
Price: Sherwin-Williams Is Mid-Tier, Benjamin Moore Is Premium
PaintDB classifies Sherwin-Williams at mid-tier pricing and Benjamin Moore at premium. In practical terms, a gallon of Benjamin Moore Aura (the premium interior line) runs $15-$25 more per gallon than a gallon of Sherwin-Williams Emerald (the SW premium interior line) at current retail pricing. Per-project cost difference on a full room (3-4 gallons) is typically $50-$100. This gap is real but not decisive for most projects. More significant is the product-line structure: both brands have multiple tiers, and comparing the entry-level of one brand to the flagship of another produces misleading quality comparisons. The correct comparison is Sherwin-Williams Emerald vs. Benjamin Moore Aura (premium tier), or Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint vs. Benjamin Moore Regal Select (mid-tier).
Product Lines: How the Tiers Compare
Sherwin-Williams has four main interior paint tiers: Duration Home (premium), Emerald (premium, most popular among professionals), SuperPaint (mid-tier, best value-to-coverage balance), and Classic 99 (entry). The Emerald line — particularly Emerald with Designer Edition — is the product that draws the most professional loyalty: it has exceptional hide, excellent scrubbability, and comes in the HGSW (Historic SW) version for historic color matching. Benjamin Moore's interior tiers are: Aura (premium, two-coat guarantee), Regal Select (mid-tier, the core professional-grade product), ben (entry, water-based), and Advance (premium waterborne alkyd, specifically for trim and cabinets). Benjamin Moore Advance is widely considered the best waterborne cabinet and trim paint available from either brand — it self-levels, dries to a near-enamel surface, and resists yellowing over time. For cabinet repaints, this is a real Benjamin Moore advantage.
LRV Coverage: Both Brands Are Fully Covered
LRV (Light Reflectance Value) is the single most important technical metric for choosing interior paint colors — it predicts how bright or dark a color will feel in a room regardless of its hue. Both Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore have complete LRV data in PaintDB's database. Sherwin-Williams colors have LRVs ranging from 3 (very dark, like Naval) to 94 (very bright, approaching Ultra Pure White territory). Benjamin Moore colors range from 2.72 to 90.04. Both brands cover the full practical brightness range. The advantage for paint color research: you can compare any SW color against any BM color on exactly the same numerical scale — a 10-point LRV gap is a 10-point LRV gap regardless of brand. PaintDB's comparison tool (paintdb.com/compare) makes this cross-brand comparison immediate.
Agreeable Gray (SW 7029, LRV 60) vs. Revere Pewter (HC-172, LRV 55). Both are the most iconic greige neutrals from their respective brands. The 5-point LRV gap — Agreeable Gray reflects more light — is the primary reason Agreeable Gray reads lighter and airier in most rooms. Both have warm undertones, but Agreeable Gray pulls more beige-violet and Revere Pewter pulls more warm brown-gray.
Popular Colors Head-to-Head: SW vs. BM Equivalents
The most searched design question between these two brands is usually which popular BM color is closest to a given SW color. PaintDB's CIEDE2000 cross-brand matching answers this with Delta E scores. A Delta E under 2.0 is perceptually near-identical; under 5.0 is very close; above 10 is a meaningful difference. Some key equivalencies: Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray (SW 7029, LRV 60) is most often compared to Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter (HC-172, LRV 55) — they're in the same greige family but at different LRV values and with slightly different undertone directions. SW Alabaster (SW 6119, LRV 82) is closest to BM White Dove (OC-17, LRV 83) — both are warm off-whites at similar LRVs, though White Dove is slightly cooler. SW Repose Gray (SW 7015, LRV 60) is closest to BM Pale Oak (OC-20, LRV 68) in terms of neutral-cool undertone, though the LRV values differ significantly.
Repose Gray (SW 7015, LRV 60) — Sherwin-Williams' most popular gray — alongside Chantilly Lace (OC-65, LRV 90) from Benjamin Moore's white lineup. Not direct equivalents, but illustrative of how both brands anchor their respective catalogs: SW with a reliable mid-tone cool-neutral gray, BM with the crispest pure white in the lineup.
Iconic Colors: What Each Brand Does Best
Every paint brand has a category where it is the default choice among design professionals — colors so well-established that specifying them requires no justification. For Sherwin-Williams, those categories are: greige neutrals (Agreeable Gray SW 7029, Accessible Beige SW 7036, Repose Gray SW 7015), deep navy (Naval SW 6244), and the warm-to-neutral white range (Alabaster SW 6119, Pure White SW 7005, Eider White SW 7014). SW dominates the greige conversation to a degree that no other brand matches. For Benjamin Moore, the defining categories are: crisp whites (Chantilly Lace OC-65, Cloud White 967), warm whites (White Dove OC-17, Simply White OC-52), deep navy and dark colors (Hale Navy HC-154, Black Bean 2130-10), and Historical Colors (the HC series). Benjamin Moore's Historical Collection — 191 colors derived from historic American color traditions — has no Sherwin-Williams equivalent in depth or curation.
Sherwin-Williams Alabaster (SW 6119, LRV 82) vs. Benjamin Moore White Dove (OC-17, LRV 83). Both are warm off-whites from their brands' most popular product lines. LRVs are nearly identical. Alabaster has a slightly warmer, more distinctly cream undertone; White Dove is softer and slightly cooler. Both are perennial top sellers because they deliver warmth without visible yellow cast.
Coverage and Hide: The Practical Quality Question
Independent laboratory and consumer testing (Consumer Reports, Lowe's HGTV, and professional painting contractors' forums) consistently places both brands' premium tiers — Sherwin-Williams Emerald and Benjamin Moore Aura — in the top tier for hide, durability, and washability. The differences between them at the premium level are marginal and often depend on application: Aura performs slightly better on dark-to-light color changes where one-coat coverage matters; Emerald is preferred by many contractors for its application properties (leveling behavior, lap time). Below the premium tier, the comparison shifts: Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint (mid-tier) consistently outperforms Benjamin Moore Regal Select for value-per-gallon coverage in independent testing, while Benjamin Moore's mid-tier performs better on self-leveling for finish quality.
Colorant System: Why This Matters for Matching
Benjamin Moore uses its proprietary Gennex colorant system, which differs chemically from standard tint-base formulas used by most competing brands. This is relevant for two practical reasons. First, Benjamin Moore colors cannot be accurately reproduced at other paint stores using standard colorants — the Gennex formula is not available outside BM dealers, and 'color matching' a BM color at a Sherwin-Williams or Home Depot store will produce a Delta E difference. Second, the Gennex system is one reason BM colors are prized for depth and richness: high-load pigment concentration in a proprietary carrier delivers colors that look more saturated and stable across varying light conditions. Sherwin-Williams uses a standard tint-base system that is widely compatible with other brands' formulas — this makes color matching easier and cross-brand replication more accurate, at the cost of some of the depth that characterizes BM colors.
Which Brand Is Right for Your Project?
Choose Sherwin-Williams if: you need greige neutrals (no brand's greige range matches SW's depth and familiarity), you need reliable store access near job sites (4,900+ locations), you are painting a large project where per-gallon cost savings add up, or you are working with a painting contractor who specifies SW products (high industry prevalence). Choose Benjamin Moore if: you need whites (BM's OC series is the most nuanced white collection available), you need deep darks (Hale Navy HC-154, Black Bean, and BM's Historical Color darks have extraordinary pigment depth via Gennex), you need cabinet and trim paint (Benjamin Moore Advance is category-leading), you are matching existing BM colors already in a home (re-order from the same dealer), or you value catalog depth for finding very specific color nuance.
Design Tip
Many professional designers use both brands in the same project: Benjamin Moore for whites and trim (OC whites + Advance for cabinets), Sherwin-Williams for wall colors (greige and mid-tone neutrals). This is not brand indecision — it is leveraging each brand's genuine category strength.
The Data Summary: SW vs. BM at a Glance
Colors in PaintDB: Benjamin Moore 4,068 / Sherwin-Williams 1,728. Price tier: BM premium / SW mid-tier. Distribution: BM through 5,000 independent dealers / SW through 4,900+ company stores. Premium interior line: BM Aura / SW Emerald. Cabinet/trim line: BM Advance (category-leading) / SW Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel. Colorant system: BM Gennex (proprietary) / SW standard tint base. LRV data: Both fully covered in PaintDB. Best category — neutrals and greiges: Sherwin-Williams. Best category — whites: Benjamin Moore. Best category — deep darks: Benjamin Moore. Cross-brand equivalency: Use PaintDB's compare tool to find Delta E scores between any two colors.
Is Benjamin Moore paint better than Sherwin-Williams?
Neither brand is categorically better — both produce professional-grade paint across their premium lines. The meaningful differences are in color catalog structure (BM has 4,068 colors vs. SW's 1,728), price (BM is premium tier, SW is mid-tier), distribution (BM through independent dealers, SW through company stores), and category strengths (BM leads in whites and the Gennex proprietary color depth; SW leads in greige neutrals and broad store access). Most professional designers use both brands depending on the application.
Why is Benjamin Moore more expensive than Sherwin-Williams?
Benjamin Moore's premium pricing reflects its Gennex proprietary colorant system (higher pigment concentration, not available at competing stores), its premium positioning in the dealer channel (independent dealers carry fewer competing products than SW company stores), and the brand's sustained premium positioning since its Berkshire Hathaway acquisition. Sherwin-Williams' Emerald line is priced at a similar premium to BM's Aura — the price perception gap is more visible at the mid-tier, where Regal Select (BM) typically runs $5-$10/gallon higher than SuperPaint (SW).
What is the Sherwin-Williams equivalent of Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace?
There is no exact Sherwin-Williams equivalent to Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (OC-65, LRV 90). The closest SW equivalents are Extra White (SW 7006, LRV 86) — slightly darker and slightly less crisp — or High Reflective White (SW 7757, LRV 93) for maximum brightness. In PaintDB's CIEDE2000 comparison, the Delta E between Chantilly Lace and Extra White is typically 3-5, meaning they are very close but with a perceptible difference in the sharpness and neutrality of the white. Chantilly Lace's specific quality — extremely high LRV with a near-perfectly neutral undertone — has no exact Sherwin-Williams match.
What is the Benjamin Moore equivalent of Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray?
The most commonly cited Benjamin Moore equivalent for Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray (SW 7029, LRV 60) is Revere Pewter (HC-172, LRV 55). However, these two are not interchangeable: Revere Pewter is 5 LRV points darker and has a warmer brown-gray undertone rather than Agreeable Gray's beige-violet undertone. They will read differently in most rooms. Closer LRV equivalents in BM's catalog include Pale Oak (OC-20, LRV 68) and Edgecomb Gray (HC-173, LRV 63), though both differ in undertone direction. Use PaintDB's compare tool to see Delta E scores for any specific pairing.
Can I mix Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams in the same house?
Yes — and many professional designers do exactly that. Common approaches: BM whites and OC series for trim and doors, SW greiges for wall colors; or BM Advance for all cabinet and trim surfaces, SW Emerald for walls. The products are not physically mixed (different colorant systems mean you should not combine paint from different brands in the same can), but using different brands in different applications is entirely standard practice.
Which paint brand do professional painters prefer?
Survey data from painting contractor associations consistently shows Sherwin-Williams as the most-used brand by professional painting contractors, primarily because of store proximity (4,900+ locations make job-site supply easy), contractor discount programs, and the familiarity of the SW product line across large commercial and residential project teams. Benjamin Moore has strong loyalty among interior designers and bespoke residential painters — particularly for projects where white selection and deep color accuracy are the priority. Both brands have dedicated professional programs; neither has a categorical quality advantage at the premium tier.