Come one, come all! Let the partisans prepare the battlefield!
I generally prefer Little Debbie, but that’s mainly because most of their products are cheaper than Hostess. However, there are two Hostess products that I swoon over: the coffee cakes, and the vanilla zingers.
For those who may not be familiar with the product, here’s a picture of the coffee cake box.
For everything else, I go with Little Debbie.
Hostess! Not that Little Debbie is terrible, but if I have the choice and the spare change, it’s Hostess. Zingers (chocolate and raspberry), Ding Dongs, Suzy Q’s and Twinkies. The Hostess cupcakes are certainly better than Little Debbie’s.
Hostess. The quality has deteriorated over the years but the cupcakes are still better than Little Debbie’s.
Little Debbie’s “Cosmic” brownies are completely nasty. There are cakey brownies and there are fudgy brownies, but Little Debbie’s are simply gummy. 
I’m usually a chocolate guy straight down the line, but I regularly buy Hostess coffee cakes. I can easily get high-end chocolate desserts in small bite sizes but never coffee cakes. Why is that?
Little Debbie Fancy Cakes ftw.
Little Debbie is kosher (with the exception of the things with marshmallows), and not only is Hostess not kosher, it specifically says on the label it may contain animal fat-- on each and every product. So not for vegetarians.
I grew up with Little Debbie, mostly because we couldn’t afford Hostess, so that’s no doubt coloring my perceptions. But I’ll still say that Hostess doesn’t have anything that compares to Little Debbie Swiss Cake Rolls.
I have not had much in the way of Hostess since they imploded and then got re-born, so I’m not certain how good their stuff is any more. Little Debbie is predictably acceptable, though rarely more than that. I do think that, in the main, the Little Debbie products tend to taste less sugary than what Hostess used to produce.
Frankly, if it’s mass-produced boxed donuts you want, I’d prefer Entemann’s. And I have no doubt someone will shortly chime in with a plug for TastyKakes. 
It depends on whether you’re talking about the way things were when I was a kid (up through sometime in the early 90s, maybe) or the way things are now.
The way things were when I was a kid:
Little Debbies are cheap, and that’s why we often have some around, but they taste like they’re made out of sugary wax. Hostess cakes are a special treat, and they taste awesome.
And, surely you made a mistake when you mentioned vanilla zingers. Zingers are made by Dolley Madison, not Hostess! Saying you got a zinger from Hostess would be like saying you got a Whopper from McDonald’s.
The way things are now:
Hostess has gotten significantly worse (and/or my tastes have changed), Little Debbie has gotten significantly more expensive (what good is cheap crap that doesn’t taste very good if it isn’t even all that cheap?). So nowadays I’ve pretty much given up on both of them. If I’m going to consume empty calories, I at least want to enjoy it.
Hostess. Even though it would seem impossible, Little Debbies has found a way to make snack cakes too sweet. How can a honey bun bee too sweet? Why, put a thick layer of sugar encrusted pvc glue over the top of it. All in all, I’d rather have a Drake’s Cakes Sunny Doodle.
Entenmann’s are two whole steps above these single serve snack cakes. I’m not super into chocolate but, damn, their chocolate covered donuts are too dangerous to buy!
Little Debbie is absolutely awful across the board – far too sweet and lacking any other flavor.
Hostess (at least, before the reboot) chocolate cupcakes were the ultimate expression of snack cake, Suzy-Qs were underrated but nearly as good, and Hostess cherry fruit pie is the best of that item I’ve ever seen in stores. Twinkies were a bit overrated, but still extremely good.
During the great Hostess Cupcake Famine, our local Safeway put Mrs. Freshley brand in their place. I’m never going back to Hostess.
Little Debbie Oatmeal Cremes are my favorite snack cake of all time. I also loved their Cosmic Brownies as a kid. #TeamLittleDebbie.
Both are sometimes hard to find here. Only the Little Debbie humongo-sized Oatmeal Creme Pie can be reliably found in the supermarket. Others are hit or miss.
So whenever I visit the States some of these snack cakes end up on the list. I’ll but a whole box only to have one or two and then give the rest to the nieces and nephew. That’s what growing teens are for, right? Sucking down mass quantities of food?
I’ve got the regular size of Little Debbie oatmeal creme pie and Swiss Cake roll on my list for next month. Hostess chocolate Cup Cakes and Ding Dongs are there too.
So many snacks and fast food cravings to satisfy. So little time.
Both.
Can’t we all just get along?
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Was it Hostess who made those “Apple Pies” wrapped the crinkly wax paper? I liked those. Everything else was pretty bad.
Little Debbie Nutty Bars - those were pretty good for the price, as a frugal price conscious 6 year old, they offered good value. They don’t really taste very good anymore.
**bolding **mine
Damn. Add that to my list. Chocolate peanut buttery goodness over a crisp wafer cookie.
If I forget about it then I don’t crave it. But once I start craving some random food item I can’t get locally then the craving gnaws on me until my next trip when I can fulfill the craving.
Is Little Debbie regional? I live in southern California, and I’ve never seen any L.D. products.
Hostess, just for the Twinkies. Right now I have a box of cotton candy flavored Twinkies.