In this article
View 4 More +Both the Feliway and Comfort Zone pheromone diffusers are designed to make your cat feel calmer and less anxious and generally be a pleasure to be around. Whether your cat is having issues like feline aggression or urine spraying or has been hiding excessively, using a pheromone diffuser can help.
If you’re looking for the most effective pheromone diffuser on the market, the Feliway diffuser is the one to choose. It has thousands of positive reviews and has been clinically proven to work in scientific trials.
The Comfort Zone diffuser is a good choice if you’re looking for a cheaper model that lasts a while before the diffuser needs to be replaced. However, although it uses the same active ingredient as Feliway and at a higher concentration, users note that it doesn’t seem to be as effective for some reason.
While the Feliway diffuser is the most popular option on the market today, you might find that the Comfort Zone diffuser appeals to you more. Let’s look at both in more detail.
Feliway vs Comfort Zone: Quick Comparison
Let’s look at the key points of each product.
- Area covered: 700 square feet
- Refill needs replacing: every 30 days
- Diffuser needs replacing: every 6 months
- Active ingredient: 2% analog of feline facial pheromone
- Cost: $$$$
- Area covered: 400 square feet
- Refill needs replacing: every 30 days
- Diffuser needs replacing: every 12 months
- Active ingredient: 5% analog of feline pheromone
- Cost: $$
Overview of Feliway 30 Day Starter Kit Plug-In Diffuser
Feliway is probably the best-known name when it comes to pheromone diffusers that help keep your cat calm and comfortable at home. This brand has the highest number of reviews across all the sites that it’s sold through, so you can take that as a sign that it’s popular and seems to work for most cats!
Feliway diffusers release an artificial form of the facial pheromone that cats use to mark their territory and to feel safe in their “zone.” If your cat seems to be displaying behaviors linked to stress, like aggression, hiding, urinating outside of their box, or over-grooming, then using a Feliway diffuser can help increase their feelings of calm by increasing the level of pheromones in the air.
This diffuser is easy to use. All you need to do is plug it into your electrical outlet and let it work its magic! The refill needs replacing every 30 days.
- Covers 700 square feet
- Scentless for humans
- Clinically proven
- Number-one veterinary-recommended brand
- Works for nine out of 10 cats
- Easy to use
- Expensive
- Not safe for use around pet birds
- Diffuser needs to be replaced frequently
- Not recommended for multi-cat households (Feliway has a MultiCat diffuser for this purpose)
Overview of Comfort Zone 2X Pheromone Formula Calming Diffuser
Comfort Zone uses the same facial pheromone as Feliway in its diffusers but at a concentration of 5% rather than 2%.
The theory behind this diffuser is exactly the same in that it releases calming pheromones into your cat’s immediate surroundings. This helps reduce feelings of stress and anxiety, reducing potential problem behaviors.
- Higher concentration of synthetic pheromones
- Better value for money
- Diffuser only needs replacing once a year
- Easy to use
- Each diffuser only covers 400 square meters
- Doesn’t work for all cats
- Need multiple diffusers for large homes
- Not recommended for multi-cat households
Feliway vs Comfort Zone: The Main Differences
Cat Diffuser Area Covered
- Edge: Feliway
The Feliway diffuser covers 700 square meters, and the Comfort Zone only extends to 400 square meters.
Cat Diffuser Refill Replacement
- Edge: Both
Each diffuser needs replacing every 30 days, so in this respect, there’s no difference between them. With that being said, according to manufacturers, the refill replacements are not interchangeable, which means you can’t use Feliway refills with Comfort Zone diffuser and vice versa.
Cat Diffuser Price
- Edge: Comfort Zone
The Comfort Zone diffuser pack is significantly cheaper than the equivalent Feliway product.
Cat Diffuser Durability
- Edge: Comfort Zone
Comfort Zone recommends replacing the diffuser unit once a year for maximum effectiveness. Feliway suggests replacing the diffuser every 6 months.
Cat Diffuser Active Ingredient
- Edge: Both
Both diffusers use synthetic feline facial pheromones. Feliway uses a concentration of 2% and Comfort Zone 5%, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that a higher concentration provides more effective results, so we’d say in this case, the results are even.
Cat Diffuser Efficacy
- Edge: Feliway
Both Feliway and Comfort Zone state that clinical trials have proven the effectiveness of their respective products. Neither the Feliway nor the Comfort Zone websites seem to provide links to these studies, which is odd if they’re as effective as they claim to be. We would expect the scientific research to be displayed.
Doing our research, we found clinical trials showing the effectiveness of Feliway, but we can’t find an equivalent for Comfort Zone. If you know of one, let us know!
Bear in mind that pheromone diffusers might not work in all cases or with all cats.
If you’re unsure of which diffuser to use, contact a vet for a recommendation.
If you have a question about your cat's health or behavior, why not Ask a Vet for Free with Catster. Our veterinary team answers reader questions and provides trusted advice to help you better understand your cat.
What the Users Say
We spent a fair amount of time examining what users have to say about both the Feliway and the Comfort Zone diffusers. Both products get good reviews, with the overwhelming majority of users recommending both. As they’re incredibly similar products that use the same active ingredient, many of the reviews are similar for both products.
Some users of Feliway suggest that within hours, their aggressive cat had become calm and easy to handle. Others say that it took up to a week for the effects to become apparent, but after that, it was a great success at helping their cat feel calmer and less anxious.
Some users found that the diffuser does heat up considerably, and as it’s meant to be plugged in continuously, they were worried that this might cause the diffuser to overheat. Feliway recommends only plugging the diffuser into grounded outlets and replacing the unit once every 6 months.
Comfort Zone also has many happy customers, though more users mention that the effectiveness can be hit and miss. Some users noticed a difference in their cat’s behavior in a short space of time, while others didn’t notice any positive effects at all.
The same comments were made about the diffuser getting hot. Some users found that if the diffuser was plugged into an outlet high up on the wall, oily residues were left on the ceiling. Other users commented that they can detect a faint oily smell from the Comfort Zone diffuser.
The general pattern seems to be that Feliway is more effective than the Comfort Zone. When it comes to decreasing your cat’s anxiety and hopefully improving their behavior, that’s what counts.
Conclusion
So when it comes to the Feliway vs Comfort Zone, the Feliway is the better option out of these two diffusers, mainly because it’s clinically proven to work in nine out of 10 cats and it gets more positive reviews than the Comfort Zone. It also covers a larger area of your home.
The Comfort Zone diffuser does offer better value for the money for the initial diffuser and refill pack. Also, as you only have to replace the diffuser itself once a year, it works out cheaper in the long run. But as it doesn’t seem to be quite as effective as the Feliway for cats, you might find that it doesn’t affect your kitty. It also covers a smaller area.
See also:
2 Responses
This article was soo close to being what i have been searching for – a lot of verifiable information about each product. But then.. I reached the part about multi-cat households. I can not verify the part about them not being recommended for multi-cat households. Was that statement from both companies for every version except the one by Feliway marked specifically for multi-cat? Is it because it different ingredients? pheromones? percentage or concentration?
Any additional info you have would be greatly appreciated!!
Hi Bridget, thanks for reading us. These are products based on different synthetic pheromones of cats. The classic mimics the face feromones of one cat as it reinforces a sense of “familiarity and security.”The Multicat version mimics the nursing queen’s (mother cat) pheromones that send calming messages to multiple kittens. We hope this helps!