Comparison hub · 5 chains
Burger King vs Competitors 2026
Prices checked 8 August 2026 430 rival items tracked
This hub compares Burger King with 5 rival chains — McDonald's, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, Sonic Drive-In, Five Guys — across 20 matched items drawn from 430 tracked rival products. Comparisons cover the signature burger, a basic cheeseburger, the largest fries, a crispy chicken sandwich and a shake.
The important methodological point: competitor figures come from exactly the same sources and pass exactly the same checks as our Burger King data, including the roundness test that verifies calorie values are published label figures rather than computed estimates. Using careful data for ourselves and loose data for rivals would tilt every table on this site.
Prices are ranges because every chain here is heavily franchised. Rows our sources do not cover are marked not tracked rather than estimated.
Which chains does Burger King compete with?
5 comparisons| Chain | What they compete on | Items tracked | Matched rows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burger King vs McDonald's | The scale rival — cheaper basics, smaller signature burger | 103 | 4 |
| Burger King vs Wendy's | Fresh-never-frozen beef, square patties, the Frosty | 85 | 4 |
| Burger King vs Jack in the Box | Late-night hours and the widest menu breadth of any rival | 92 | 5 |
| Burger King vs Sonic Drive-In | Drive-in format, tots instead of fries, an enormous drinks menu | 135 | 4 |
| Burger King vs Five Guys | Fast-casual pricing and by far the largest portions | 15 | 3 |
Signature burgers ranked by calories
Whopper = 710 calEach chain's flagship burger, heaviest first. These are the sandwiches the chains build their marketing around, so they are the fairest single comparison available — each is the item its chain would want judged.
| Chain | Signature burger | Calories | Price | vs Whopper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burger King | Whopper | 710 cal | $6.19–$8.04 | — |
| Five Guys | Cheeseburger | 980 cal | $9.20 | +270 |
| Sonic Drive-In | Sonic Cheeseburger With Ketchup & Mayo | 700 cal | not tracked | -10 |
| McDonald's | Big Mac | 580 cal | $5.99–$7.19 | -130 |
| Wendy's | Dave's Single | 570 cal | $7.19 | -140 |
| Jack in the Box | Jumbo Jack | 520 cal | $5.29 | -190 |
Read the full comparison for each chain
How these comparisons are built
Every rival chain's calorie data comes from the same nutrition database we use for Burger King, and every rival price comes from the same price trackers. Each chain's data then passes the same roundness check: US nutrition labels are legally rounded, so genuine published calorie figures are almost always multiples of ten. A source whose values are not round is computing figures from recipes rather than reporting what the chain publishes.
That check is not decorative. It is the test that caused us to reject a widely-cited nutrition source for our own menu data, and it is applied to competitors for the same reason. It also flagged a genuine quirk: Five Guys publishes unrounded figures because its portions vary, which is a real characteristic of that chain rather than a data fault.
Items are matched by role on the menu, not by name. A signature burger is compared with a signature burger. Loose name matching was rejected during development because it paired a basic cheeseburger with a SuperSONIC Bacon Double Cheeseburger — a wrong pairing on a comparison table is the same class of error as a wrong price. Where no honest match exists, the row says not tracked. Full methodology is on our sourcing and editorial policy page.
Burger King vs competitors FAQs
Which fast food chain has the biggest signature burger?
Of the 5 chains we compare, Five Guys's Cheeseburger carries the most calories at 980, against 710 for the Burger King Whopper. Calories are a proxy for size rather than a measure of it, but across signature burgers built to the same purpose the ranking holds up well.
Is Burger King cheaper than its competitors?
It depends entirely on the item. Across the rows where both chains have a tracked price, Burger King is cheaper on some and more expensive on others — the per-chain pages show the split. The pattern that holds is that Burger King sits mid-market: cheaper than fast-casual chains like Five Guys by a wide margin, and closer to level with McDonald's and Wendy's.
How do you compare prices when every restaurant charges differently?
We do not publish single national prices, because none exist — the chains compared here are all heavily franchised and franchisees set their own menu prices. Every figure is a range drawn from named price trackers, and comparisons use the midpoint of that range. Where a chain's price is not in our sources, the row says so rather than showing an estimate.
Are these comparisons fair to the other chains?
They are built to be. Competitor calories and prices come from exactly the same sources and pass exactly the same quality checks as our Burger King data, including the label-value roundness test. Using carefully verified figures for Burger King and looser ones for rivals would bias every table on this site in our own favour.
Why are some rows marked "not tracked"?
Because our sources do not carry that item for that chain. McDonald's French fries, for instance, are absent from our calorie source's listing entirely. Publishing an estimate to fill the gap would be inventing data, so the row states the gap instead.
Sources
- McDonald's — calories , prices 1, prices 2 (100% label-value roundness)
- Wendy's — calories , prices 1, prices 2 (100% label-value roundness)
- Jack in the Box — calories , prices 1 (100% label-value roundness)
- Sonic Drive-In — calories , prices 1 (100% label-value roundness)
- Five Guys — calories , prices 1, prices 2 (60% label-value roundness)