They are. A created diamond is the same crystallized carbon as one pulled from the ground, produced by CVD or HPHT instead of by geology. Like every diamond, it scores 10 on the Mohs scale, and it is every bit as brilliant. Put a lab created band next to a mined one and your eye cannot tell them apart; only lab equipment can.
That matters for a ring you wear every day. A wedding band takes knocks against doors, desks and steering wheels, and a grown diamond copes with them exactly as a mined one would.
The savings open options a natural band at the same spend may not. Some brides put the difference into coverage, picking diamonds all the way round instead of across the top. Others choose a whiter color grade so the band looks icy beside a platinum or white gold ring, or move to a wider band with bigger stones.
Coverage has a catch. A full eternity band is hard or impossible to resize, so confirm your size first with the free ring sizer Rare Carat sends, and if it could change, a half eternity style keeps that door open. Read up on lab grown diamonds to see how color and clarity grades compare before deciding where the savings go.
Such a band sits happily beside either. Because the material is identical, small grown stones will not look out of place next to a natural center diamond; what counts is that their color and brightness look consistent with the main stone.
Planning both rings at once? Compare lab grown diamond rings with round natural diamond rings, settle the center stone first, then choose the band to suit its metal and width.
Created diamonds have low resale value, while natural diamonds hold their value much better. For a wedding band that is rarely the deciding factor, since few people plan to sell one, but it is worth knowing before you buy. If the idea of a stone formed underground matters to you for its own sake, that is a perfectly good reason to choose natural.
Still unsure which way to go? Rare Carat gemologists will talk through both options with you, and because they earn no commission, their advice is not tied to the bigger sale.