Washable rugs are starting to rise in popularity, and honestly, that makes a lot of sense. Who among us hasn’t struggled to keep their nice carpet mess-free and alive for longer than a year or two?

When Ruggable stepped onto the scene in 2010, the brand changed the game with its rugs that you could easily throw into the wash if they ever got soiled, looking as good as new without requiring any heavy-duty carpet cleaning equipment. Now, Tumble has joined the competition, offering a similarly streamlined experience to Ruggable, but with a few tweaks that help it stand on its own. Which one should you buy, though? Well, let’s put them head-to-head to find out.

Tumble vs. Ruggable: Aesthetic and choice

The whole point of getting an area rug in the first place is to make a room look more pleasing to the eye, so when choosing between Ruggable and Tumble, it’s important to consider just how many options each brand has. When it comes to aesthetics, beauty is in the eye of the beholder — we can’t really tell you which rug designs look better, because everyone’s interior design taste varies greatly. But what we can say is that, in general, Ruggable has way more options on its website than Tumble does, including larger sizes and options made specifically for outdoor spaces. So, when it comes to this category, we’d say Ruggable is a pretty clear winner.

Winner: Ruggable

Tumble vs. Ruggable: Durability

How good can a rug be if it can’t stand the test of time? Both Tumble and Ruggable aim to extend the life of your rug by making it easy to keep clean and free of the damage that normal rugs would experience over a long period of time. Both brands claim to be spill-resistant, pet-friendly, and machine washable, which is about all you can ask for in a rug, especially if you’ve placed it in a high-traffic area. Luckily, both are equally as good at staving off stains, rips, and fraying. Other than some very minor wear and tear, both of the rugs we tested out looked about as good as they did the day we got them at the end of our testing period. We consider this category to be dead even.

Winner: Tie

Tumble vs. Ruggable: Comfort

You’re going to be walking on your new rug pretty often, so you’ll want it to feel plush and comfortable. Unless you want to feel the hardwood underneath it. To each their own!

Both Tumble and Ruggable charge separately for the rug pad when you order one of their rugs. If you already have a pad, you can order the rug cover on its own to save some cash. Both brands’ rug pads feel great to walk on, and they have a nice bounce to them that feels supportive and takes a lot of pressure off your joints. Ruggable offers a standard pad and a cushioned pad, while Tumble has just one 1/4-inch thick rug pad.

The rug covers themselves also feel really nice. The Ruggable rug we tested out was a medium-pile design that felt soft and plush, and the Tumble option was a flat-woven style rug that was super smooth to the touch. We loved them both equally, but Ruggable has more rug pad and rug pile options, so it wins this round.

Winner: Ruggable

Tumble vs. Ruggable: User-friendliness

The setup process for both Tumble and Ruggable is probably a bit different from what you’re used to. It’s more involved than simply laying the rug cover on top of the pad, and you’ll want to put yours in a place that’s easy to access, because in theory, you’ll be picking up and putting down the rug occasionally to chuck it into the washing machine. Thankfully, it’s still a pretty easy process in both cases, but one is superior in our opinion — it’s Tumble.

Setting up a Tumble rug is an absolute breeze. All that’s required is laying down the rug pad in your chosen spot, putting the rug cover over the top of it, and then securing it with the included adhesive pads on each corner. The cover itself has corner pockets that allow you to slip the pad into them, which keeps the two from separating — a simple, yet amazing design choice. To this day, the Tumble rug we tested hasn’t budged an inch.

In Ruggable’s case, though, the setup is a little more laborious. First, you’ll need to lay out and fold up the rug cover in a particular way so that it sits on the rug pad correctly. Then, you need to lay the rug pad down and unfold the cover on top of it, being careful to keep everything aligned. The cover is supposed to cling to the pad underneath it, but due to the lack of corner pockets and adhesive strips, the rug has more potential to move around during use, and it’s really tough to get everything lined up just right. In our experience, the Ruggable rug hung over the rug pad by a few inches on one end and at least an inch on all other sides. Because of this, both the initial setup and the eventual post-wash resets are just a tad more difficult.

In terms of keeping the rugs looking clean, they’re equally easy to spot clean or throw into your washer. Still, Tumble edges this category out.

Winner: Tumble

Tumble vs. Ruggable: Overall value

Rugs are going to be expensive no matter what you do, so you shouldn’t make a knee-jerk decision when you see both Tumble’s and Ruggable’s prices. It all depends on the size you want. Tumble’s rugs start at around $119 and reach above the $400 mark on the high end. Ruggable’s rugs start at about $129, and the largest sizes (which are way bigger than Tumble’s largest sizes) can reach over $1,000. That’s pricey anyway you slice it, but is it worth the money? We think so. The amount of time you’ll save cleaning either one of these rugs, paired with their longer lifetimes, makes them both an incredible value over time. If you’re going to drop some serious dough on a rug, you might as well buy one that’ll last. And that goes especially for households with children, pets, or spill-prone adults. Again, Tumble and Ruggable tie in this regard.

Winner: Tie

Tumble vs. Ruggable: The verdict

So, we’ve reached a tricky situation here. There’s no clear winner of this battle. However, if we had to pick, Ruggable ekes out the win. But it really comes down to your priorities: If you want more design choices, larger sizes, and options for outdoor areas, go with Ruggable. If you want to go straight for ease of use, though, Tumble is your perfect match.

All in all, both Tumble and Ruggable make some amazing rugs, so you can’t really go wrong with either one.