Crumbl Vs Insomnia Cookies: Which Is The Best Dessert Spot?

There are seemingly endless places to grab dessert, depending on what you're in the mood for. Looking for a cake or a pastry? Then, a bakery is your best bet. Is ice cream the only thing that will satisfy your sweet tooth? Then, a trip to an ice cream shop or parlor is the only answer. Are cookies more up to your speed? Well, you're especially in luck on that front, as two major cookie chains — Crumbl Cookies and Insomnia Cookies — offer up an abundance of sweet treats to keep even the pickiest of cookie lovers satisfied.

Since both Crumbl and Insomnia are such huge cookie chains, it's only natural to wonder which one is the best of the best. Now, determining the "best" of anything can be a bit tricky because there are many factors at play. Perhaps the most important component of any exceptional cookie chain is how good the cookies taste, but in determining which is the absolute best, I'm considering other factors. These other factors include accessibility (how many locations does each chain have, and how late are they open?), what types of desserts you might find there (cookies are obvious, but each chain offers other treats as well), whether or not delivery is an option, and if either chain has vegan, gluten-free, or other dietary friendly options.

Of course, I couldn't compare Crumbl and Insomnia without taste-testing a few cookies, so I've also selected and sampled a handful of similarly-flavored cookies from each chain. The taste test, along with considering each of the factors listed above, ultimately led me to determine which cookie chain is superior.

It doesn't take a whole lot of critical thought to determine that a store named Crumbl Cookies sells cookies, but it's slightly harder to guess that the chain offers more than just cookies. Along with a lineup of cookies (and one that changes every week, but we'll touch more on that in a bit), Crumbl has slowly introduced new desserts into its lineup. Some of these desserts have included mini cakes like a tres leches cake, pumpkin bars, banana pudding, and even mini loaves of banana bread. So, needless to say, even if cookies aren't necessarily your thing, you might just find something to love at Crumbl Cookies thanks to its expanding menu of dessert options.

Another unique aspect of Crumbl's menu is that it changes weekly. Typically, you'll always find either a milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chunk cookie as a menu staple, but the other flavors vary, and seasonality certainly plays a factor (for example, you're probably going to come across a pumpkin cookie or two during fall). Crumbl's changing menu not only keeps fans on their toes, wondering when their favorite cookies will cycle back into play, but it also means that just because a lineup doesn't appeal to you on one given week, the next week will be the same story. 

Similar to Crumbl's namesake, evidence of what Insomnia Cookies sells is right in the name, but that doesn't necessarily mean that cookies are all you'll find at any given location. In fact, Insomnia Cookies has quite the impressive dessert menu, starting with the chain's sheer availability of cookie flavors and options. Unlike Crumbl, Insomnia has a certain lineup of cookies that are considered classic on its menu, meaning that you'll find these cookies at just about any location and on any given day. Some of these classic flavors include chocolate chunk, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter chip, snickerdoodle, and M&Ms. 

Insomnia also offers seasonal flavors, so limited-edition fall flavors include pumpkin spice latte and apple cider donut. Then there are a handful of deluxe cookies, which are significantly larger cookies and include flavors like confetti, oatmeal chocolate walnut, salted caramel, and s'mores. Finally, Insomnia's dessert menu stretches beyond cookies, including goodies like brownies, ice cream (which you could get on a cookie or brownie), and ice cream cookie sandwiches. The chain even sells cookie cakes, in case you're looking to feed a crowd.

While the prices of both Crumbl's and Insomnia's cookies are ultimately pretty similar, there are certain differences worth noting. If I were to purchase a single, regular-sized cookie from my nearest Crumbl location in Chicago, the cookie would cost $4.99. A classic cookie at Insomnia would cost $2.95, but one of the chain's deluxe cookies (which is much more comparable in size to Crumbl's cookies) is priced at $4.95, and seasonal options like pumpkin spice are priced at $3.20. Crumbl does have mini cookies, but you would have to get at least a three-pack of minis for $9.99, whereas you could get a six-pack of classic Insomnia cookies for $16.50 or a pack of four deluxe cookies for $19.50. 

For this article, I purchased four cookies total from each chain; I bought a four-pack of classic Crumbl cookies for $17.99, whereas I purchased four individual cookies from Insomnia (three classic and one deluxe) for about $14 total. So, in terms of cookies alone, Insomnia has cheaper options, and you can walk into a location and buy a single cookie for less than $3. Crumbl will run you a little bit more if you're only after a single cookie, but the cookies are quite large, so you might be able to stretch a single Crumbl cookie farther than an Insomnia one, should you be looking to get the most bang for your buck. 

Despite both Crumbl Cookies and Insomnia Cookies being wide-spread chains, accessibility to each may differ for each person depending on where you live. As of September 2024, Insomnia officially surpassed 300 locations, all of which are located in either the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Crumbl has over 800 stores currently open worldwide, which means there's a good chance you're closer to a Crumbl location than an Insomnia one.

Another factor that plays into the availability of each cookie chain is whether or not delivery is an option. For Insomnia, delivery is absolutely an option, and is one of the hallmarks that the company operates on. Again, availability will vary depending on where you live and what time it is, but Insomnia is also open every day of the week and typically delivers up until 3 am, so if you do live near a location, the window of accessibility is quite large.

Crumbl also offers delivery, though it's through either DoorDash or UberEats, so whether or not you can get delivery depends on how available those services are in your area. Many Crumbl locations are also closed on Sundays and close at 10 pm (or 12 am for some late night locations) on days that they are open, so there's not quite as much late night accessibility for Crumbl cookies as there is for Insomnia.

Just because you follow a vegan diet or can't have gluten doesn't mean that dessert is a thing of the past; that said, it's not uncommon for those with dietary restrictions to have a hard time finding chains that offer vegan or gluten-free desserts. Fortunately, such cookies can be found at Insomnia cookies with the chain offering both vegan and gluten-free options, including a gluten-free chocolate chunk cookie and vegan birthday cake, chocolate chunk, and double chocolate chunk flavors. The availability of these cookies will vary, however, and Insomnia notes in its FAQ that the vegan, gluten-free cookie is only available at select locations. Despite offering a gluten-free cookie, Insomnia also clarifies in its FAQ that cross-contamination is a possibility, so gluten-free folks should keep this in mind when seeking a gluten-free treat.

Whether or not Crumbl offers vegan or gluten-free cookies, on the other hand, is a question with a cut-and-dry response: no. In a post on X, Crumbl clarified that it doesn't offer dietary friendly cookies "consistently" on its menu, and cross-contamination would be a possibility regardless. So, Insomnia wins in terms of at least offering vegan or gluten-free options, something that Crumbl avoids doing altogether.

Despite Crumbl's semi-sweet chocolate chunk cookie being comically larger than Insomnia's chocolate chunk cookie, the two desserts did ultimately seem quite similar. Something I liked about Crumbl's chocolate chunk cookie right off the bat was the sheer amount of visible chocolate chunks in the cookie, along with a sprinkle of sea salt for a little extra oomph. Insomnia's cookie didn't look nearly as decadent, but I still had an open mind as I sampled each cookie.

Ultimately, these two chocolate chunk cookies were incredibly similar, and if there's any one cookie off each chain's menu that is easiest to compare, it would be the chocolate chunk. I did end up enjoying Crumbl's cookie more for this round because the sheer amount of chocolatey goodness was simply too delicious to overlook. Insomnia's cookie had plenty of chocolate chunks in the mix, but not enough to really stand out as a particularly special cookie. Also, Crumbl's cookie was just baked better overall, having a nice, soft inside and crisp edges. Insomnia's cookie wasn't quite as soft on the inside, and it was perhaps a bit dry for my taste.

Considering that chocolate chunk cookies are a staple on both cookie chains' menus, I would say that Crumbl has mastered a better recipe overall. Plus, that final garnish of flaky sea salt on top of Crumbl's cookie provided just the right amount of flavor contrast to make it stand out.

Since I just so happened to be performing this review in the fall, it only made sense that I'd sample two pumpkin cookies from each cookie chain. Now, it's important to note that these pumpkin cookies are considerably different from one another, with Crumbl's being a cookie cake with cream cheese frosting and Insomnia's being a more run-of-the-mill cookie with a pumpkin spice base and vanilla chips throughout.

Upon tasting each cookie, I ultimately found myself enjoying Insomnia's pumpkin spice latte cookie a bit more, but I can see where Crumbl's pumpkin cake cookie would appeal to the right crowd. This one all comes down to what you look for in a cookie — do you want something that's more of a classic cookie, or do you want an extravagant, frosted treat that Crumbl has become so famous for?

Something I can say both cookies did equally well was incorporating plenty of pumpkin spice flavor into the mix. The frosting on the Crumbl cookie was delicious, albeit a little runny. The cookie was very cakey, so if that's not your thing, then Insomnia is probably where you'd want to go for a seasonal treat. Despite being a pretty standard cookie, I appreciated the softness and chewiness of Insomnia's pumpkin cookie — one that was so soft that it was basically falling apart, in fact.

Though Crumbl's ultimate peanut butter cookie is slightly different than Insomnia's peanut butter chip cookie, they both gave me an opportunity to once again sample very comparable flavors across both menus. Both cookies contain peanuts, of course, but neither of them has straight-up chunks of peanuts. Crumbl's is a peanut butter cookie with no chunks at all, but rather just peanut butter flavor throughout the cookie and a PB drizzle on top. Insomnia's cookie relies on peanut butter chips and a peanut butter-based cookie to convey the flavor, and after tasting both, I'd argue that Insomnia's execution worked much better.

My biggest issue with Crumbl's peanut butter cookie was that it was far too dry and crumbly, and the cookie itself had a strange aftertaste to it. Insomnia's cookie tasted like a classic PB cookie, one that was nice and moist with plenty of extra peanut flavor throughout, thanks to the chips. Though I'm sure there must be some fans of Crumbl's ultimate peanut butter cookie out there somewhere, for me, there was no real competition — Insomnia's peanut butter cookie was much better all-around.

As a huge fan of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (and oatmeal cookies in general), I was pretty stoked to try both Crumbl's oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and Insomnia's oatmeal chocolate walnut cookie. Of all the Insomnia cookies that I sampled, the oatmeal chocolate walnut was the only deluxe one, meaning that it was more expensive than the others and considerably larger — large enough to seem more on par with Crumbl's standard cookie sizes. Of course, the two cookies aren't exactly alike since Insomnia's includes walnuts and Crumbl's doesn't, but overall, they're pretty similar cookies.

Something that disappointed me about both cookies was the fact that neither of them really managed to accomplish that classic chewiness that one might expect from an oatmeal cookie. If one cookie chain did it slightly better, I'd say it was Insomnia, since Crumbl's oatmeal chocolate cookie pretty much lacked chewiness altogether. It wasn't a bad cookie, though it was honestly just a little too similar to the classic chocolate chunk to really strike me as anything special. Insomnia's had a nice textural element thanks to the addition of walnuts, which I appreciated, but the cookie was a bit too similar to a plain chocolate chunk one. Ultimately, Insomnia's oatmeal chocolate cookie was slightly better than Crumbl's, though these were the weakest cookies for both chains out of everything that I sampled.

After sampling similar cookies from both Crumbl Cookies and Insomnia Cookies and considering factors like availability, delivery, dietary options, and price, there's a clear winner in the race for the best dessert spot: Insomnia Cookies.

Overall, I found myself enjoying Insomnia's cookies more so than Crumbl's, and this is coming from someone who is a fan of both chains. I do appreciate that Crumbl keeps things fresh and interesting with its rotating menu and growing selection of desserts, but Insomnia's menu is nothing to gloss over, either. With a consistently broad range of cookie flavors, including seasonal options, there's no denying that Insomnia has a better flavor range than Crumbl. Moreover, despite Crumbl venturing into the world of cakes and puddings, Insomnia has a pretty impressive range of non-cookie desserts, too, including brownies, ice cream, and even ice cream sandwiches.

Another factor that gives Insomnia an edge over Crumbl is the fact that it offers vegan and gluten-free cookies. While there isn't a guarantee that such cookies will be available at every store, it's a step in the right direction and a step that Crumbl has not taken the initiative to make. The only real plus that Crumbl has over Insomnia is that it has more locations, but Insomnia is definitely not a small-time cookie chain, so if you do happen to have a location nearby, it's worth checking out.

Determining which is the better dessert spot — Crumbl Cookies or Insomnia Cookies — came down to a few key factors. Obviously, the biggest deciding factor was the taste factor, which is why I purchased four cookies from each chain. I tried to select cookies that were close in flavor so as to get a fair impression of each one. Though sampling a mere four cookies in no way gives me a complete impression of all each chain has to offer, it did give me an insightful glimpse into what one might expect when seeking out cookies from each one. Also, I only sampled cookies from each chain, so despite noting that both Crumbl and Insomnia have other desserts to offer, I can't speak on how good those desserts taste.

There are also other factors that contribute to being the "best" dessert chain, so in making my final decision, I also considered accessibility, delivery, how late each place is open, and so on. Insomnia didn't necessarily beat out Crumbl in every one of my criteria — for example, I liked Crumbl's chocolate chunk cookie better than Insomnia's — but it definitely checked enough boxes to come out on top. Also, ultimately, Insomnia is less expensive than Crumbl, so for price alone, you can't go wrong with opting for Insomnia Cookies over Crumbl Cookies.