Dateland vs Desert Sun Dates: An Honest Comparison (2026)

I own Desert Sun Dates, so read this knowing I sell one of the two things being compared. Every Dateland figure below was read from dateland.com on 27 August 2026. Prices change. Check theirs before you decide anything.

Short version: Dateland Date Gardens is a real grower with a longer history and a wider range than mine. If you want three grades to choose from, or stuffed and chocolate-covered dates, they have them and I do not. What we do better is the delivered price on comparable fruit, and I will show the arithmetic.

We grow these. Zahidi Dates | California-Grown & Farm-Direct | Desert Sun Dates from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →

The comparison, checked 27 August 2026

	Dateland Date Gardens	Desert Sun Dates
Grower or reseller	Grower	Grower
Where	Dateland, Arizona	Sky Valley, California
Grades offered	Choice, Traditional, Jumbo	Jumbo only
Jumbo, 2 lb	$36.00 + shipping	$29.00 delivered
Jumbo, 5 lb	$76.00 + shipping — $15.20/lb before freight	4 lb — $49.00 ($12.25/lb) · 6 lb — $67.00 ($11.17/lb), both delivered
Traditional grade	1 lb $15.50 · 2 lb $30.00 · 5 lb $72.00 · 9 lb $108.00, + shipping	Not offered
Largest box	9 lb — $108.00 + shipping	12 lb — $118.00 delivered ($9.83/lb)
Shipping	Not stated on the product pages; added at checkout	Included, lower 48 — nothing added
Other date products	Stuffed with pecans or walnuts, chocolate-covered, sampler box	None — whole fruit only
Other varieties	Medjool	Medjool, Zahidi, Barhi

One caveat before the price talk

“Jumbo” is not a regulated grade. There is no federal standard that says a Jumbo Medjool must weigh a certain amount, so my Jumbo and their Jumbo are two farms’ own descriptions of their own fruit, not a like-for-like legal category. I am comparing the closest equivalents each of us sells, which is the fairest thing available, but it is not laboratory-precise and I would rather say so than pretend.

Where they are genuinely better

They give you a choice of grade, and that is real value. Their Choice and Traditional lines are cheaper than their Jumbo, which means if you are chopping dates into a tagine or a batch of energy balls you can buy the cooking-grade fruit and not pay for size you are about to destroy. We only sell one grade. If you bake at volume, their range serves you better than ours does.

They make things we do not. Dates stuffed with pecans or walnuts, chocolate-covered dates, a sampler box. Those are proper products and we do not make any of them.

They have been at it longer and you can visit them too. Dateland Date Gardens sits at 1737 S Avenue 64 E in Dateland, Arizona, on the road between Yuma and Phoenix, and they have been a fixture there for generations. That counts for something and I am not going to talk around it.

Where we are better

Delivered price on comparable fruit. This is the clear one. Their Jumbo Medjool is $36.00 for 2 lb, plus shipping that their product page does not state. Ours is $29.00 for 2 lb with shipping inside the price. That is at least seven dollars before their freight is added, and the gap only widens once it is.

At larger sizes it holds. Their 5 lb Jumbo is $76.00 — $15.20 a pound before shipping. Our 6 lb is $67.00, which is $11.17 a pound with shipping included. Our 12 lb works out at $9.83 a pound delivered, and their largest box is 9 lb at $108.00 plus freight.

You know the number before checkout. Their shipping is calculated at the end. Ours is not calculated at all, because it is already in the price for the lower 48. Alaska and Hawaii are rated at checkout, because those genuinely cost more and I would rather quote it honestly than bury it.

Three varieties, not one. We grow Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi. Zahidi is a completely different fruit — golden, firm, nutty, and much better for baking and savoury cooking, which we get into in our Zahidi vs Medjool comparison. Very few farms sell it as whole fruit at retail.

Different desert, different fruit. Dateland is in the Arizona low desert; we are in the Coachella Valley in California. Both grow excellent Medjools and I would not claim ours are better because of the postcode. What I will say is that if you specifically want Coachella Valley fruit — and a lot of people do, because it is where the American Medjool industry started — that is what we grow.

Which should you buy?

Buy from Dateland if you want a cheaper cooking grade, you want stuffed or chocolate-covered dates, you want a sampler, or you are driving I-8 and would rather stop in person.

Buy from us if you want the lowest delivered price on premium whole Medjools, you want one number with nothing added at checkout, you want Zahidi or Barhi as well as Medjool, or you want Coachella Valley fruit from the person who picked it.

Both of us are farms that grow what we sell. That already puts either choice ahead of a good deal of what is sold online, much of which is bought in bulk and repacked by companies that have never been near a palm.

Our Medjool dates →  ·  What is in stock today →

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Written by Jason Shopshear, who grows Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi dates at Desert Sun Dates in Sky Valley, California. All Dateland Date Gardens prices were read from their public product pages on 27 August 2026 and are quoted as published; their shipping cost is not stated on those pages, so no figure for it is claimed here. Prices and terms change — please check before buying. If anything here is inaccurate, email me and I will correct it.