Sherwin-Williams vs Benjamin Moore: which is better for your home?

The honest answer to “Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore?” is: both are excellent, neither is right for every project, and the brand matters less than the line and the product within that brand.

But that’s not what people want to hear. They want a winner. So here’s how we actually choose between the two on a daily basis, after running about 60% Sherwin-Williams and 40% Benjamin Moore across roughly a thousand projects.

What they’re actually competing on

Both companies make paint at every price point, from $25/gal contractor-grade to $90/gal premium. The competition isn’t “who makes good paint” — both do. The competition is across five axes:

• Film durability — how long does it last under real-world use?
• Application feel — how does it brush, roll, spray on the wall?
• Color depth and accuracy — how rich are the colors, and do they match across batches?
• One-coat coverage — can the premium tier actually deliver on the promise?
• Service and access — store hours, color-matching, contractor support

Both win on different axes. Knowing which axis matters for your project is the actual decision.

Where Sherwin-Williams wins

Exterior durability, especially on imperfect prep

Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior is, in our experience, the most forgiving premium exterior paint on the market. It self-levels well, chalk-resists for a long time, and tolerates prep that’s good-but-not-perfect better than the equivalent Benjamin Moore product.

For Pacific Northwest exteriors specifically — cedar siding, T1-11, north-facing walls that grow mildew, three-story Craftsmans with dormers — Emerald is our first call.

Consistency across stores

Sherwin-Williams operates more company-owned stores. Benjamin Moore is sold mostly through independent retailers. Both have their advantages, but if you need a tinted gallon to match a sample you bought 14 months ago in Bellevue and you’re now in Spokane, the SW store-to-store consistency tends to be tighter.

Contractor program and account support

For contractors, the Sherwin-Williams account program is hard to beat. Volume discounts, reliable color-matching, store reps who actually know products. If your painter primarily works in Sherwin-Williams, you’ll benefit indirectly through their efficient supply chain.

Bathroom and kitchen paints

Emerald in semi-gloss for bathroom trim, doors, and high-moisture rooms is exceptional. The film resists mildew and water spotting better than just about any competitor.

When SW falls short

• Deep accent colors in the mid-tier — SuperPaint and Cashmere in deep blues, deep greens, and saturated reds can be thin and require three coats. The premium upgrade to Emerald or a tinted primer solves it.
• Off-white walls in low light — some of the SW off-whites can read slightly flat compared to the BM equivalents. Not a defect, just a different aesthetic.

Where Benjamin Moore wins

Color depth in interior premium lines

Benjamin Moore Aura is the most colorimetrically beautiful interior paint we use. The pigment loading is generous, the colors stay true through low and high light, and the off-whites have a depth that’s hard to match.

If you’ve ever stood in a room painted in Aura White Dove and a room painted in roughly the same SW off-white, you know what we mean. The Aura room reads warmer and more dimensional.

One-coat coverage in dark colors

For deep colors — dark navies, charcoals, forest greens, oxblood — Aura genuinely delivers one-coat coverage from a clean white base, with a tinted primer. Cashmere will get there in two coats and look great. Aura saves you a coat.

For accent walls, dining rooms, libraries, or any room where the design language is built around a dark color, Benjamin Moore has the edge.

Application feel

Aura and Regal Select have a slightly silkier feel under the roller and a longer open time than the equivalent SW products. This matters most on long cut-in stretches, big walls without breaks, and in detailed trim work where lap marks are unforgiving.

Some of our painters strongly prefer BM for cabinet repaints because of the leveling characteristics. Advance, BM’s waterborne alkyd, is one of the best cabinet paints made — see our cabinet painting guide for more on this.

Independent retailers know their products

Because BM is mostly sold through independent dealers, you tend to get more knowledgeable advice at the counter. The clerks have been there 8 years and have seen the failures. The product training is consistent. It’s a different shopping experience and a better one if you have questions.

Where BM falls short

• Higher retail price. Aura is one of the more expensive paints on the market. The premium is real, but for a single-coat refresh of an existing color, you may not need it.
• Less common in contractor inventory. A SW contractor will switch to BM for a specific project but their default supply chain isn’t built around it. This sometimes shows up as a slightly higher quote.
• Aura exterior — outstanding, but slightly less forgiving of imperfect prep than Emerald in our experience.

How we actually pick

Here’s the working rubric:

Situation	Default brand	Product
Exterior, PNW climate, premium tier	Sherwin-Williams	Emerald Exterior
Exterior, mid-tier budget	Sherwin-Williams	SuperPaint Exterior
Exterior, cedar siding, premium	Benjamin Moore	Aura Exterior or Regal Select Exterior
Interior walls, premium	Benjamin Moore	Aura
Interior walls, mid-tier sweet spot	Either	Cashmere (SW) / Regal Select (BM)
Interior trim and doors	Benjamin Moore	Advance (waterborne alkyd)
Bathroom walls and ceilings	Sherwin-Williams	Emerald in matte (walls), semi-gloss (trim)
Cabinet repaint	Benjamin Moore	Advance
Deep accent color, one-coat goal	Benjamin Moore	Aura
Whole-house exterior, imperfect prep	Sherwin-Williams	Emerald or Duration

There’s no situation where one is wrong and the other is right. There are plenty of situations where one is clearly better.

A note on color matching

Both companies will match the other’s colors. The match is usually excellent, occasionally imperfect. For a critical color (the wall behind a fireplace, the front door, the kitchen island), buy the actual brand of the color. For a back closet, a color match is fine.

A small but real wrinkle: SW often tints with a different base for very deep colors than BM, which can produce slightly different coverage and undertones. Worth a sample patch if the color matters.

What this means for your project

If you’re hiring a painter, here’s the question to ask:

“What product line and brand are you planning to use, and why?”

The answer should be specific (a product name, not a brand) and reasoned (durability for your environment, application properties for your surfaces, budget tier for your scope). A painter who answers “we use whatever’s on sale” or “Sherwin-Williams Pro-something” is telling you they don’t think hard about paint. A painter who answers with a product, a sheen, and a reason is telling you they do.

For most NorthLine projects, we lead with Sherwin-Williams for exteriors and Benjamin Moore for premium interiors. We’ll cross over for the right reasons. And we’ll tell you why we picked what we picked, on every quote.

If you want our paint recommendation for your specific project, send us a quick photo set and we’ll write back with a product spec — no obligation, no upsell.