How Much are Moissanite Rings? | Finding Inexpensive Options

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Moissanite is now a popular alternative to traditional diamonds. It’s one of the hardest stones on the market, it looks very similar to diamond, and it’s far more budget-friendly for those that need, or want, to keep their costs down.

How Much are Moissanite Rings? Moissanite is often about 90% less than earth-mined diamonds. The savings on some very large, or fancy colored, diamonds can be even higher. Top-quality Moissanite mounted to a gold ring often starts at less than $750. Stone size, ring design, and metal choice can drive the cost higher or lower.

If you’re seriously considering a Moissanite engagement ring or wedding ring, you may be wondering how you can locate the right one and get your very best value. In the paragraphs that follow, I’ll give you advice and information to help shortcut the process for you.

The Main Influencers of Ring Cost

There are a few main components of your ring that influence its cost. One of the most significant is the type, size, and quality of the stone that you choose. If you choose Moissanite as your stone type, you’ll still need to decide between a variety of different colors and other qualities. Completely colorless stones will be more expensive than stones that have a slightly yellow hue, for example.

I’ve priced out loose moissanite stones of various sizes with a reputable manufacturer that’s known for quality. The chart that follows is intended to give you a general idea of cost, each retailer will have pricing that’s a little higher or lower.

Size in Carats	Colorless (DEF)	Near Colorless (GHI)
.23	$129	$99
.33	$169	$129
0.5	$269	$179
0.6	$349	$249
0.8	$459	$319
1.0	$599	$419
1.2	$789	$549
1.5	$1,049	$699
1.9	$1,349	$899
2.2	$1,609	$1,099
2.7	$1,909	$1,299
3.1	$2,319	$1,599

I used this manufacturer for the prices outlined above. Feel free to visit their site if you’d like to take a closer look at their selection of loose Moissanite. Lower-quality stones from some other manufacturers may not look the same or last as long.

The stone isn’t the ONLY consideration for the total price of a Moissanite ring though. Another major component of total cost, is the metal that you choose for your ring. I’ll quickly run through the common options and considerations for some frequently used metals. I’ll also outline the general price difference that you can expect to see when you choose one metal over another.

Silver:

Sterling Silver is a semi-precious metal that’s used in many very inexpensive promise rings, engagement rings, and wedding rings. As I’m writing this, the cost of precious metals are trading at the following price per ounce:

There’s a HUMONGOUS difference in the cost of ‘precious’ metals like Gold and Platinum and the cost of Silver! In fact, at these rates, Silver is nearly 99% less expensive than gold! There is a downside to silver though, it’s harder to maintain in a continually beautiful state, because silver tarnishes as it’s exposed to moisture in the air. That means that you need to polish your Sterling Silver ring regularly to keep tarnish away.

Silver is also a fairly soft metal, like gold, which makes them both much more susceptible to scratching than a harder metal, like Platinum, would be. You’ve probably heard of Mohs Scale of Hardness. It’s a 10 point scale that ranks various materials based on their hardness, so it’s easy to compare their relative hardness. The scale arranges materials in order of hardness, assigning it’s lowest number (1) to it’s softest material, and it’s highest number (10) to it’s hardest material. All other materials fall somewhere in-between and are assigned a number that reflects their relative hardness. Here’s how the metals that we’ve been discussing compare.

Relative hardness is an important consideration because it means scratch resistance, however, hardness obviously has to be a consideration that’s balanced with style preferences, cost, and other factors to find your ideal metal option.

Gold:

Gold comes in several varieties. There’s traditional yellow gold, white gold, and rose gold. It’s common for pricing to be the same (or close to the same) for these color options. There are also different quality levels based on the purity of the gold (the percentage of the metal that is made up of gold versus other metal additives). The common options are 10k (karat), 14k, and 18k, for rings. The higher the number, the higher the quality—and the higher the price!

Jumping from 14k to 18k, for example, will likely cost 20% to 30% more.

Platinum:

Platinum has a beautiful light look and is very hard and scratch-resistant. It’s interesting that gold is more expensive than Platinum when you buy it by the ounce, but Platinum is more expensive than gold when you purchase it as a ring.  There are two potential reasons for the strange price discrepancy. First of all, pure gold is very soft. Gold has to be mixed with other metals to make it harder for jewelry applications. By essentially diluting the gold with harder, and less expensive, metals, it brings down the amount of actual gold that goes into each gold ring—and therefore the cost of each one.

Second, it’s very difficult to work with Platinum versus a much softer metal like gold. Platinum typically costs 30% to 60% more than 14k gold, depending on the design of the ring and where you buy it.

If you’d like to explore the best selection of gold and Platinum Moissanite rings that I’ve found, click HERE. They have a really beautiful collection of rings and great prices. After finding a ring that you like on the site, you can click the “See this style in other options” link beneath the ring to view the same ring design with other Moissanite and metal options! Looks like for a limited time, they’re also offering a $75 discount on $500+ purchase, when you use the coupon code DAZZLE at checkout.

Plated rings:

Plated rings have a coating of one metal that’s covering a base (or core) that’s composed of some other (typically less expensive) type of metal. Plated rings can have the appearance of being far more expensive than they actually are—because the plating gives the impression that the entire ring is made of the same material as the topcoat.

Plating can help you to ‘have your cake … and eat it too’!

Imagine crafting a ring with Sterling Silver at $18/ounce and then just plating it with whatever precious metal you find most attractive (Rose Gold, Yellow Gold, Rhodium, or Platinum). Or taking an inexpensive, but soft, metal (like silver) and plating it with a MUCH harder metal, like Platinum or Palladium—you end up with an inexpensive ring that’s as scratch resistant as a solid Platinum ring.

Because plating doesn’t use a lot of material, you can have the look of a solid gold or platinum ring without the cost. If the plating is done well, the ring should last you for several years before you’ll have to worry about replating. It’s sometimes the ideal solution for couples on a tight budget.

Here’s a great example, I found this 1-carat (6.5 mm) Moissanite ring that’s mounted on a Platinum plated silver ring (meaning that the Sterling Silver base metal is coated in Platinum). The ring is an incredible value at just $199! When you’re saving so much, a quality plated ring, with great reviews from past buyers, could make a lot of sense.

Some couples also stick with unplated Sterling Silver. That’s a viable option, especially if you’re willing to clean the ring regularly, and you plan to upgrade the ring within the next few years.

Here are a few potential challenges with plated rings:

• Thin plating won’t last very long
• Cheap and sometimes dangerous metals can be underneath the plating
• Plating has to be periodically reapplied

Buy from reputable retailers and manufacturers that have a solid history of happy customers, and reputation to protect. If possible, read product reviews related to the specific ring that you’re thinking of purchasing. Buy from a company with a return policy or a solid warranty if possible. Avoid plated mystery metal at all costs, meaning that you simply shouldn’t buy a ring if you don’t know, or aren’t comfortable, with the base metal that it’s made out of.

I purchased an inexpensive ring last year and gave it to my wife to wear daily. I wanted to see how it would hold up to everyday use. It had a CZ stone that was set on a copper ring with Rhodium plating. I thought the solitaire was really pretty when it arrived. I thought it looked like a much more expensive ring when it initially arrived.

As requested, my wife wore the new ring every day—the same way that she would normally wear her diamond or Moissanite rings. By the time she reached the end of the first month, the Rhodium plating had already worn off the ring, exposing the copper base metal. Not only did it look TERRIBLE, but it also started to turn her finger green!

I don’t mean to say that you should NEVER get a plated ring, there’s definitely a time and place for plating, but you have to be aware of the risks going in.

If you’re on a REALLY tight budget and NEED to save as much money as possible on your ring, a plated ring might make sense, but please follow these guidelines as you shop for the right ring.

• Buy from a retailer/brand you trust. This is my favorite source for silver rings that are sold as-is or plated.
• Read buyer reviews (especially updated reviews from past buyers that are updating their experience several months or years down the line). If their ring fell apart a few months after buying it, they may come back to warn others.
• Make sure that Sterling Silver is the base metal for your ring.
• Look for information on how thickly the plating was applied (ie: triple coat).
• The plating should typically use a metal like Rhodium or Gold.

Again, just be mentally prepared for the fact that you’ll likely need to replate the ring again in 3 to 10 years (give or take). The cost of replating will depend on the style of your ring, how manual the application will need to be, the material used for plating, and how thickly it needs to be applied. In general, replating will generally run anywhere from $40 to $200.

Strategies For Keeping Costs Down

We’ve discussed some of the components of Moissanite ring cost, so you can better understand the areas where you can save money on your ring if you need to. Here’s a summary of those options (as well as a few additional items that haven’t been mentioned so far).

• Choose a thinner band. Less metal means a lower overall cost.
• Go with a plated ring. Sterling Silver plated with either gold or Platinum is best.
• Use a very small Moissanite center stone to keep things simple and save costs.
• Get a smaller center stone, and then add a halo of tiny stones as well if needed.
• Buy a used Moissanite Ring (but BE CAREFUL).
• Buy your Moissanite stone and your ring separately, then have a jeweler assemble the ring for you. Sometimes you can buy the components cheaper than the finished ring.

Sometimes there important factors unrelated to the physical characteristics of the ring that also influence the ultimate price of your Moissanite ring in a significant way. For example, where you buy your ring. There are some brands that have a lot of public awareness and brand recognition because of effective marketing efforts. Buyers are sometimes willing to pay a premium for products from known (recognized) suppliers because they have familiarity and assume higher quality.

You can sometimes come out ahead when you purchase from a lesser-known brand, if you end up saving money and getting a high-quality piece of jewelry. Reading buyer reviews will help you gauge the quality of the product and the satisfaction level of past buyers.

Part of the premium that you pay with certain retailers covers benefits like generous return policies, warranties, and other perks (like resizing or engraving) that might come with your ring. To view the price objectively, you should determine how important each of those inclusions is to you, and what it might cost you to purchase them separately (if they’re even available elsewhere). In other words, there’s a real value with some of the benefits that some sellers offer, that should be considered.

Of course, these are just ideas. You can pick and choose the suggestions that seem to fit best and get you to your target price range. Some of these strategies can be utilized with the list of Moissanite rings outlined below.

Here are some examples of Moissanite rings that fall in a very frugal price range of $100 to $800:

In Summary

A 6.5 mm (1-carat) loose Moissanite stone will typically cost between $400 and $600 depending on the characteristics of the stone you select, and where you make the purchase. The cost of a fully finished Moissanite ring of the same size will vary based primarily on the type and amount of metal used, but as seen above, you’ll see rings ranging from under $100 up to several thousand and beyond.. By looking for slightly smaller stones or following the other options mentioned above for decreasing the cost of your Moissanite ring, you can bring your total costs down even further if needed.

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