15 Popular Pasta Sauce Brands Ranked

If you're making a quick, painless, and delicious pasta dish at home, your first step is to pick the type of pasta you're going to eat. The second step, though, is the most important one. That's when you either pick the brand of pasta sauce to use or make your own from scratch. If you pick the proper brand, you're destined for a scrumptious meal that doesn't necessitate a lot of effort to make.

While Italians are known for their mastery of pasta, it can be argued that Americans adore it just as much. Share the Pasta has worked out that each year in the United States, nearly 6 billion pounds of pasta is gobbled up. Covering a lot of that pasta is store-bought pasta sauce.

Although there are a lot of tasty pasta sauce brands, there are also a few duds. To help you separate the yummy brands from the brands that should be skipped, we've listed pasta sauce brands in order from worst to best, judging by flavor and aroma, consistency (thickness), variety, and price point. While not every possible option available in America is in this ranking, we've made sure to include some of the most popular pasta sauce brands.

The Ragu brand has a long and storied history that can be traced back to a pair of married Italian immigrants who came to the United States in 1914 with a family recipe for pasta sauce. In 1937, Assunta and Giovanni started selling their beloved pasta sauce from their home. By the 1950s, sales flourished and Ragu upgraded its packaging, adding the now iconic Venice-inspired gondola to the jars.

At one point in time, there's a good chance that you really liked Ragu pasta sauce. Tragically, the quality has gone downhill over the years. Originally, Ragu pasta sauces had authentic Italian flavoring. But these days, it tastes over-processed and has lost most of its former magic. If Ragu is the only brand you buy because that's what you've always done, spread your wings and try other brands. You're bound to find another brand of pasta sauce you like better.

Prego is another big name in the universe of commercial pasta sauces that doesn't deserve a spot at the top of this ranking. According to Insider Monkey, Prego is the fourth-largest seller of tomato sauces in the entire world. But we advise you not to purchase anything this brand offers, even if it's the only jar on the shelf. The good news is that its sauces don't taste processed, which is often a problem for the worse brands. The bad news, though, is that buying these pasta sauces is a waste of money.

Instead of tasting authentically Italian, Prego's pasta sauces taste Americanized and lack character. The tomato flavor is muted and Prego has a bad habit of including way too much garlic in its sauces. It's almost as if there's hope that the garlic will camouflage all the shortcomings. Picking this brand when better brands are available would be like going to Italy and ignoring the country's legendary pizza and instead opting for a Big Mac from McDonald's.

The first pasta sauce brand on this list that can be classified as average is Cucina Antica. If you use this brand, you'll be pleased with your meal. Cucina Antica uses imported tomatoes from Southern Italy, which is a difference your taste buds will surely notice. That fact alone gives these sauces an authentic Italian flavor. The brand also uses no added sugar and artificial ingredients in the recipes.

When we reviewed this sauce before, Cucina Antica was much more expensive (about $25 per jar). At the time of publication, it can be found at a third of the price, clocking in at $25.38 for pack of three 25-ounce jars on Cucina Antica's Amazon store. This pasta sauce isn't bad, and now that it's cheaper, it deserves a bump up in line from where it used to be. All that said, Cucina Antica pasta sauce has a rather limited flavor profile compared to the competition. You'll love the tomato flavor — but that's about it.

Want a super simple solution to all your pasta sauce needs? Classico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce is a selection you practically can't go wrong with. First of all, it's widely available, appearing at major retailers like Target and Kroger. Secondly, its price tag is usually one of the lowest you'll see on the shelf (at the time of publication, Target featured it at $2.99 for a 24-ounce jar). Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, it tastes delicious. This sauce has the optimal balance between the tomato and basil flavors. Specifically, the tomato has a satisfying tanginess, while the basil has an unmistakable kick.

As a brand, Classico doesn't have an exciting origin story and there's nothing particularly eye-catching about its jars. However, if you want really good pasta sauce at a really good price, they can deliver exactly what you want again and again. This brand also has a lot of other pasta sauce flavors but just know that none of them hold a candle to its marvelous tomato and basil version.

Whole Foods is a place you can go to for incredible store brand pasta sauce. This grocery chain specializes in organic food and boasts of having more than 20,000 organic products, so its best pasta sauce shouldn't surprise you. Whole Foods 365 Organic Pasta Sauce is healthier for you, yet somehow no flavor was sacrificed. Not only is it completely organic, the sauce is vegetarian-friendly, vegan-friendly, paleo-friendly, dairy-free, and low-fat. It also has no added sugar, making this pasta sauce a good choice if you're following a keto diet. Whole Foods' organic sauce line also features a variety of flavors from classic marinara, to plant-based Bolognese.

Whole Foods also sells a store brand of pasta sauce that isn't organic. While you can save a few pennies going with this other version, stick with the organic pasta sauce. It tastes better and eating organic has real, tangible health benefits. In fact, if eating healthy is your No. 1 concern when picking a pasta sauce, this is the brand you should stick with.

Seggiano Foods has been around since the mid-1990s and prides itself on its dedication to collaborating with specialty, artisanal Italian producers. The brand's commitment to using natural, premium ingredients from Italy sets it apart from a number of competitors. The absence of artificial preservatives and additives in its pasta sauces not only contributes to the sauce's authentic taste, but also positions it as a healthier option for those conscious of their food choices.

If you're looking for a solid sauce that you won't have to doctor up too much, look to Seggiano. The flavors in the marinara are subtle and delicate, but bursting with aromas of fresh tomatoes, herbs and just enough garlic. Seggiano's thick but velvety consistency ensures a seamless coating on the pasta for even distribution and body. You also have a number of varieties to choose from, from basil to puttanesca and melanzane. Plus, it's a thrifty staple at Whole Foods; at the time of publication, a 24-ounce jar of Seggiano marinara was $9.29.

From the moment you lay eyes on pasta sauces made by Rao's Homemade, you can tell something is different. As its brand name suggests, these sauces look homemade. Most pasta sauces are uniform in color and consistency. Conversely, Rao's Homemade pasta sauces are thick, chunky, and colorful. When you open a jar, the aroma is otherworldly. Once you dip your finger to give it a taste, you'll be 100% convinced that this is the best pasta sauce on the market.

Like Victoria, Rao's Homemade uses imported tomatoes and olive oil from Italy. Its sauces are also simmered in small batches over a long period of time. By the time it reaches your kitchen, it's unquestionably the best of the best. Rao's Homemade is slightly more expensive than most brands in this list ($9.99 at the time of publication), but not prohibitively so, and not without reason. Buy it once and you'll be thoroughly convinced that it was money well spent. At the end of the day, you can't put a value on heavenly pasta sauce.

We selected some of the most popular and widely available contemporary pasta sauces on the United States market. Drawing from our collective experience, research, and review of each pasta sauce, we used the following criteria to judge each brand on the list: The flavor and aroma, consistency (thickness), variety, and a rough price point. A successful sauce was one that wowed our mouths and noses and stuck to our pasta without needing much out-of-jar doctoring or breaking the bank.

We've updated the previous version of this list, and you'll notice we added a few new brands: Cento, Seggiano, and Carbone. We also moved a few brands from the original list up and down a few notches, as well as updated price listings.

The sauces we enjoyed the most were the ones that had the fewest ingredients on the backside of the label, tasted as close to homemade as possible, and felt worth their price. Generally speaking, most of those sauces were the pricier ones on the list, but that's not to say there weren't some decently average sauces for a budget cost. This is all to say: If you're looking for quality, it's worth spending a few bucks extra to get yourself a pasta sauce you won't regret smothering tonight's dinner in.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Mashed.