The best pizza sauce for homemade pizza depends on you, the pizza poet. It’s all about your preferences. Do you prefer sweet or unsweet? Herbs or no herbs? Basil or oregano (or both)? Some pizza sauces are made by emulsifying olive oil directly into the sauce, while others feature no oil whatsoever. And the tomatoes? Aside from the many different types and their unique flavors, you can decide to cook your pizza sauce or not. Cooking sauce unlocks some of the tomato’s deeply savory, smoky flavors, while using raw, canned tomatoes produces a fresh, acidic flavor. There is no right or wrong way to prepare the best store bought pizza sauce, but when it comes to taste? That, friends, we can judge.
For this taste test, we tasted pizza sauce right from the jar, heated it up on the stove to try it warm, and even dunked some Aldi bread we had lying around in it. We judged it based on its flavor, viscosity, ingredients, and style. The sacred saucesayers have spoken: This is the best pizza sauce to buy at the grocery store, including the best pizza sauce in a jar and the best canned pizza sauce, too.
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- Great Value Pizza Sauce
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Can I say that Great Value makes the best pizza sauce for aspiring pizzaiolos? No, but it definitely has its own charm. With a smooth, pureed consistency, very light herb blend, and bright, acidic sweetness, it tastes exactly like an elevated version of Lunchables pizza sauce. If that sounds intriguing to you, well, you really can’t go wrong. Out of all the pizza sauces I tried, the value here was unmatched—it comes in the largest jar for the cheapest price (under $2 at Walmart). It’s the best pizza sauce in a jar if you’re making pies on a dime. —Ariana Losch
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Don Pepino Pizza Sauce
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Don Pepino pizza sauce made a bunch of lists on other sites, so I felt compelled to see how it measured up to other brands vying to be the best canned pizza sauce. I love the ribbed can and the cartoon chef holding a can of sauce with his own likeness on it (a true Russian doll scenario). Otherwise it’s solid if a bit unremarkable. It contains “Jersey fresh” tomatoes and, honestly, the price is hard to beat. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Good & Gather Traditional Pizza Sauce With Basil, Oregano & Parsley
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Target’s house brand Good & Gather can really be hit or miss in our rankings, but I was pleasantly surprised by this salty pizza sauce infused with Italian spices. If you want to throw together your own homemade flatbread but don’t consider yourself a spice specialist, this is one of the best pizza sauce brands to experiment with. It’s going to do most of the legwork for you. (But if you want a pizza sauce you can doctor yourself, you can skip it.) —Ariana Losch
Credit: Merc / Target
- Prego Pizzeria Style Pizza Sauce
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“This isn’t the worst thing in the world,” was the note I made during this tasting. There is something comforting about this pizza sauce—it’s herby, acidic, and has a pronounced sweetness that some people prefer. When it comes to pizza, I’m not a snob about low-brow stuff. I dip my pizza crust in ranch. And one of my favorite pizzas back home is a vegetable pizza that’s a doughy crust with diced broccoli, ranch, and a cheddar/mozzarella cheese blend. Prego is mild and definitely Midwestern, but I think it deserves some love. Pile it sky high with meat and cheese, and you won’t notice much difference. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Walmart
- Ragu Homemade Style Pizza Sauce
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As a child, I used to eat plain spaghetti noodles with Ragu marinara sauce on a weekly basis, so I’m trying really hard not to let nostalgia play a huge factor here. But with that signature sweet, tangy flavor and thick, bumpy-but-soft consistency of Ragu’s other tomato-based pasta sauces, this stuff is undeniably yummy—and it comes at a very decent price point for jarred pizza sauce (if you’re looking for the best jarred pizza sauce, see #2). The kids will go nuts for it. It’s not trying to be fancy or authentic; it’s trying to be Ragu, and I think that’s beautiful. —Ariana Losch
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Mezzetta Italian Plum Tomatoes Pizza Sauce
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This pizza sauce is herby and tart rather than sweet. It’s also quite salty, and there’s a nice layer of oil on top as well. I love seeing olive oil blended into any type of sauce. It adds an extra layer of richness to the tomatoes that feels straight-up opulent. That said, I actually think it could use a bit of sugar or tomato paste to balance out its bitter qualities. This would go great with some pineapple. Mezzetta’s pizza sauce does a lot right, but it doesn’t do everything right. You need to work with it. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Cento Fully Prepared Pizza Sauce
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I cackled at the image on the front of the can, which is a pizza topped with anchovies and black olives. Personally, I would destroy that briny and fishy pizza, but those are some bold toppings. Cento thinks I’m a freak, and you know what? They’re right. This sauce is thick and pureed, almost like a tomato paste but a little thinner. The taste is very condensed and contains a hint of sweetness. It’s basic, but I dig it, and it would go especially well with strong flavors (like anchovies and olives). The price is damn good, too. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Paesana Pizza Sauce
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Paesana Pizza Sauce contains a good amount of olive oil, so you know I love the flavor. The tomatoes are a little chunky, too, so there’s an added bonus of really good texture. It has a rustic, homemade vibe that we all adored. Plus, it’s seasoned really well. I agree that Paesana is definitely a tier below the three best pizza sauces on this list, but it’s at the top of that second tier. Because of the strong olive oil taste, I’d match it with some vegetables or plain cheese. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Rao’s Pizza Sauce
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This is what I’m talking about. Rao’s Pizza Sauce feels has a super meaty quality (it doesn’t contain meat, of course), with a strong umami flavor that you don’t really get from other brands of pizza sauce. Lots of people dislike cooked pizza sauce, but not me. Cooking the tomatoes unlocks a deep savory flavor that I am fond of. Rao’s has olive oil in it, too, so the luxury factor here is turned up even more. Plus, there’s a subtle garlic taste and some nuanced herbaceousness from what tastes like fresh basil and oregano. This is a great product. Rao’s just knows red sauce, dude. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Amazon
- Carbone Pizza Sauce
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You know that trendy local pizza place you keep hearing about? The one that has an intricately decorated chalkboard menu, a ton of exposed brick, and dim lighting? This is the pizza sauce they’re using. Maybe not literally, but in spirit, definitely. This stuff has a bold, pungent tomato flavor (Italian tomatoes may well be the secret ingredient here), bright acidity, hints of garlic and black pepper, and salt—so much yummy, addictive salt, you guys. The texture is a mouthwatering mix of smooth sauce, emulsified oil, and tender bits of tomato. If you, too, want to turn your kitchen into a pizzeria fit for the cover of a foodie mag, this is absolutely the best pizza sauce you can buy. —Ariana Losch
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Pomi Pizza Sauce
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There’s a ton of great flavor in this, the best canned pizza sauce and the best pizza sauce on our list, period. It’s easy to just take some sugar and dried herbs and add them to some tomatoes, but Pomi really went the extra mile. We all appreciated that ambition. There’s a lot of umami in this sauce that the additional olive oil enhances even more. My guess is the sauce was cooked to achieve that lovely savory taste. Also, this is the only product here that also lists laurel (code for bay leaf) in the ingredients. As a result, there is a subtle piney, herby, peppery flavor. Pomi Pizza Sauce tastes like a fresh, homemade marinara sauce made with love and great ingredients. You could even use this on pasta and it would work. Good pizza sauce is multi-purpose, in my opinion. And this is good pizza sauce. —Danny Palumbo
Credit: Merc / Amazon
Best Budget
Best for a Plain Cheese
Best Herb Blend
Best for a Meat Lovers
Best for Kids Pizza
Best with Pineapple
Best with Anchovy
Best Olive Oil Flavor
Best with Pepperoni
Runner Up
Best of the Best
Other Pizza Sauces We Tried: DeLallo Pizza Sauce, Mutti Pizza Sauce, Muir Glen Pizza Sauce, Del Grosso Pizza Sauce, Cucina Antica Pizza Sauce, Whole Foods 365 Pizza Sauce, San Merican Pizza Sauce, Sprouts Organic Pizza Sauce, Yo Mama’s Foods Keto Classic Pizza Sauce, Happy Belly Pizza Sauce
Should give Contadina Pizza Squeeze sauce a try. Mostly for the amazing convenience factor if you are making small pizzas over the course of time.
My absolute favorite pizza sauce is mid’s. I can only ever find it at wegmans but it’s the best when your making pizzas with fresh mozzarella. That and raos margarita pizza sauce but as usual raos is much pricier than I’d prefer
“Don Pepino pizza sauce made a bunch of other lists…” Wat!?! What other lists than pizza sauces?!?
It’s impressive that three of the leaders are from cans. I would have thought the jars would do much better.
Well I accept that everyone has their own “tastes”. But you’re wrong this time. My family made their own pizza sauce for 75 years. When I first opened the Mezetta sauce I said “This smells exactly like pizza sauce, NOT pasta sauce”. It is perfect as it comes out of the jar. By the way Don Pepino is a travesty and would not be worth the purchase at 1 cent a can.
My favorite is DeLallo brand. I will have to look for these other brands to check them out.
Pineapple on pizza for the win!