If you've only ever bought Haribo, Vidal will look like a substitute. It isn't. The Spanish manufacturer has spent decades going after the parts of the market Haribo largely leaves alone, and the differences are worth understanding before you fill a pick 'n' mix.
Haribo's strength: the classics, done definitively
Gold Bears, Starmix, Tangfastics, cola bottles, jelly babies, fried eggs. These are category-defining products and there's no real argument — if you want the standard version of a standard sweet, Haribo is the answer. A century of production has removed all the guesswork.
What Haribo generally doesn't do is take risks with format. A gummy bear is a gummy bear.
Vidal's strength: filled centres
This is the clearest difference. A large part of Vidal's range is built around putting one texture inside another — jelly filled cola bottles, filled cola bricks, filled strawberry bricks, jelly filled bananas, jelly filled seashells, jelly filled boiled eggs.
The effect is a sweet with two stages: a firmer outer bite, then something softer. It's a meaningfully different eating experience, and it's why Vidal lines often stand out on a mixed counter.
Vidal's second strength: novelty
Vidal is far more willing to be silly. A metre-long jelly snake that comes with a reusable mould. Alien eggs with a liquid centre. Tongue-painting fried eggs in colours no egg has ever been. Unrollable cola ribbons.
For a children's party or a pocket-money range, this matters more than flavour nuance.
Where Vidal is genuinely ahead: vegan
Haribo's vegan options exist but are limited — mostly starch-based jelly beans. Vidal has built an entire line around it. The Naturall range is vegan by design, made with a higher fruit juice content than standard confectionery, and comes in resealable pouches rather than bulk bags.
Vidal also makes one of the few genuinely vegan marshmallows on the market, using carrageenan and rice protein instead of gelatine. If you're catering for vegan guests, this is the practical difference between the two brands.
Which should you buy?
Both, honestly. A pick 'n' mix built entirely from one manufacturer looks flat. Use Haribo for the volume lines people expect, and Vidal for the two or three slots where you want something people haven't had before.