Buy the GreenPan Frost Classic if you want two quarts of soft serve or slush with no planning at all, and the Ninja Swirl by CREAMi if you want one pint of almost anything — soft serve, gelato, sorbet, high-protein ice cream — from a base you froze the night before. The two machines look alike because both dispense through a spout, but one refrigerates on demand and the other shaves something already frozen, and that single difference decides everything.
Neither has been rated by a testing lab we can read, so this comparison is built from the two manufacturers' published specifications and nothing else. Where a figure is not published, this page says so. Our standard for that is on the methodology page.
Side by side
| Spec |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanism | Compressor, chills on demand | Spin / blade, shaves a frozen pint |
| Capacity | 64 oz / 2 qt (manufacturer) | Two 16 oz 2-in-1 pints |
| Pre-freeze | None | Freeze the pint overnight |
| Time to dessert | As little as 15 minutes (manufacturer) | Minutes, after an overnight freeze |
| Programs | 6 modes: slushie, soft ice cream, spiked slushie, sorbet, milkshake, extrude/clean | 13 one-touch, including 6 soft-serve |
| Texture settings | 7 (manufacturer) | Program-driven, plus re-spin |
| Dispensing | Push-to-close spout | Soft-serve lever |
| Power | Not published by GreenPan | 800 W |
| Dimensions | Not published by GreenPan | 12.99" L x 9.45" W x 17.44" H |
| Weight | Not published by GreenPan | 22.2 lb |
| Independent lab verdict | None we can read | None we can read |
| Cleaning | Simple Clean cycle, dishwasher-safe parts | Dispensing assembly plus pint and blade |
| Price |
The mechanism decides the planning
The Frost contains a working chiller. You pour a liquid base in, it pulls the heat out, and in as little as 15 minutes per GreenPan you have two quarts of soft serve or slush to dispense. Nothing goes in the freezer first, and nothing has to be timed the day before.
The Swirl has no refrigeration at all. It drives a blade down through a pint that is already frozen solid and shaves it into something smooth, which is why Ninja calls the result CREAMi rather than churned ice cream. That means an overnight freeze every time, but it also means the machine can handle bases a churning machine chokes on — high-protein, low-sugar, heavily fruited. How that works is explained in how the Ninja CREAMi actually works.
Read the capacity figures honestly
64 ounces of dispensed soft serve and 16 ounces of spun pint are not comparable servings. Soft serve leaves the spout at serving temperature and is eaten immediately; a CREAMi pint can be re-sealed and put back. If you are feeding six people at once the Frost wins outright. If you are feeding one or two people on four separate evenings, four frozen pints beat one large batch you have to finish.
Where the Swirl pulls ahead
Thirteen one-touch programs against six modes, and the extra seven are not padding. Six of the Swirl's programs are soft-serve specific and the rest cover everything the standard CREAMi does: ice cream, lite ice cream, sorbet, gelato, milkshake, smoothie bowl and the CreamiFit settings aimed at high-protein and lower-calorie bases. It publishes a real 800-watt motor figure, which GreenPan does not for the Frost.
It also tells you how big it is: 12.99 inches long, 9.45 wide, 17.44 tall, 22.2 pounds. GreenPan publishes no dimensions, weight or wattage for the Frost at all, which for a machine you are meant to leave on a counter is a real gap. If the Swirl is the one you are leaning toward, read the Swirl review and CREAMi versus Swirl, because the soft-serve mechanism is a genuine extra cost over the plain NC301.
Where the Frost pulls ahead
Slushie and spiked-slushie modes make the Frost a drinks machine as well as a dessert machine, which nothing in the CREAMi range is. Seven texture settings, a Simple Clean cycle, and dishwasher-safe removable parts; GreenPan also publishes a Frost Classic against Frost Pro comparison, so the range is documented even where the specifications are thin.
Two quarts with no pre-freeze is more than any compressor machine America's Test Kitchen rated, which is a genuinely strong claim for a party. The caution is availability and evidence: GreenPan's own store listed the Frost temporarily out of stock on October 12, 2026, and no lab we can read has rated its output. See the Frost review. If slushies are the actual goal, can you make slushies in an ice cream maker is more honest about what other machines manage.
When neither is the right machine
Both of these make soft, dispensed desserts. If what you actually want is a tub of firm, scoopable ice cream in the freezer, neither is built for it: soft serve dispensed at serving temperature is not hard-scoop ice cream and will not become it, and a CREAMi pint is 16 ounces rather than a family tub.
For scoopable ice cream with no pre-freeze, the Cuisinart ICE-100 is the cheapest compressor worth owning — 1.5 quarts, two paddles, a 3-year US warranty, recommended by ATK at $343 in June 2026 — or the Whynter ICM-201SB for 2.1 quarts at $310. Both are ranked in best compressor ice cream makers, and the soft-serve field as a whole is in best soft serve machines for home. If the Swirl is the machine you started from, Ninja Swirl alternatives lines up every rival at once, including the two here.
The verdict
- Feeding a crowd, deciding on the day: GreenPan Frost Classic.
- Frozen drinks as well as dessert: GreenPan Frost Classic. Nothing in the CREAMi range does spiked slush.
- One or two people, several flavors, protein bases: Ninja Swirl by CREAMi.
- You want published dimensions and a known motor: Ninja Swirl. GreenPan publishes neither.
- You want a scoopable tub: neither. Buy a compressor machine.
