Best Laundry Detergents (2026): What the Testers Agree On

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On the evidence of five independent testers, the best laundry detergent is a Tide formulation in the format you prefer: Hygienic Clean pods, Original liquid, Ultra Oxi powder, or Free & Gentle if you need fragrance-free. Skip detergent sheets, and skip Molly’s Suds powder: Consumer Reports ranks it its worst powder and Wirecutter its worst detergent of any type.

Launderwise does not run a detergent lab. The verdicts below are compiled from the labs of Consumer Reports, Wirecutter, the Good Housekeeping Institute and Reviewed, plus Jeeves NY, a dry cleaner who publishes his own spectrometer method. Each washed stained swatches and measured what was left. Where they disagree, the table says so.

What each tester found

Each cell is the tester’s own verdict, dated by the tester’s last update. A dash means we found no verdict from that tester on that product.

Jeeves NY scores on a 1–100 scale where plain water is 1. Its highest score overall (102.4) went to a heavily perfumed Ariel powder that is not in the table because no second tester backs it.

The loser: Molly’s Suds Original Unscented powder

Two labs, testing separately, put the same detergent last: Consumer Reports among powders, Wirecutter across every type. Consumer Reports calls it “by far the worst powder detergent in our ratings”. Wirecutter calls it “by far the worst detergent of all types that we tested, barely eliminating any stains, even with pretreating”.

It matters for this page’s readers because Consumer Reports notes it is “claimed to be formulated for sensitive skin”. The fair counterpoint, also from Consumer Reports: even the worst powders in its ratings “removed blood stains better than most liquids and pods we tested”. If you need a fragrance-free detergent, the Free & Gentle pick below meets the dermatologists’ criteria and won a lab test.

The format that loses: detergent sheets

Consumer Reports: “Sheets test so poorly in our labs that we don’t recommend them.” In its 2024 sheet review, Consumer Reports found the sheets “had lower performance as a group than our lowest-performing liquid or pod/packs detergents”. Wirecutter found the sheets it tested “were all terrible cleaners”, and Good Housekeeping that most “did not come close to the performance of liquid, pack, and powder detergents”.

Jeeves NY gives the mechanism: “a sheet is about 4 grams of detergent, while a proper dose is about 24 grams, roughly one-sixth of what’s needed”. The exception the four testers that rated it agree on is the Tide evo tile, which carries a real dose — and even it, per Consumer Reports, “cleans more like an adequate powder than a higher-performing liquid or pod”.

Where the testers disagree

• Dirty Labs Bio Free & Clear. Consumer Reports: “the least effective liquid detergent we tested, by far”. Wirecutter made it its pick for the sustainability-minded after it “removed stains and odors the best” of 17 sustainable-claim detergents. Jeeves NY rates it highly without a score. Not a safe default.
• Persil. Reviewed found Persil ProClean removed “an average of 2% more stains than Tide detergents” (warm water, top-loader). Jeeves NY scores Persil Original 62.6 against 92.7 for Tide Original.
• Powder versus liquid and pods. Jeeves NY measured pods slightly ahead of liquid and powder on stains (84%, 82%, 74%). Consumer Reports found powders “didn’t perform as well overall as the top-rated liquids and pods, but they were excellent at removing blood stains”.

Best pods: Tide Hygienic Clean Power Pods

Why it’s the pod pick

Consumer Reports calls the Heavy Duty 10X version — the formulation the linked listing describes — “the top-rated pod/pack we’ve tested”; Good Housekeeping names it best overall, noting each jumbo pod “contains as much cleaning ingredients as two regular Pods”; Jeeves NY scores it 100. Disclosure worth knowing: Good Housekeeping says it met with the manufacturer about this product.

The trade-off: Consumer Reports “doesn’t recommend pods in general and advises avoiding them in households with children under 6 years old or cognitively impaired adults”.

Best liquid: Tide Original

Why it’s the liquid pick

Good Housekeeping calls it “the top overall performer in our Lab tests” and adds, on cold water: “We were particularly impressed by how well it performed in cold water, where it continued to tackle grease and protein-based stains.” Reviewed named it best value; Jeeves NY scores it 92.7.

The trade-off: it is the Original Scent version, so it fails the dermatologists’ fragrance-free test below. The detergent dose lookup gives the manufacturer’s published dose for your load.

Best fragrance-free: Tide Free & Gentle

Why it’s the fragrance-free pick

Wirecutter: “the most well-rounded liquid detergent we tested, tackling a variety of stains and odors well”. The American Academy of Dermatology’s rule for eczema-prone households: “Use only detergent that is fragrance-free and dye-free.” It also says to choose fragrance-free over “unscented”, which only masks a fragrance. Free & Gentle’s listing states it is free of dyes and perfumes.

The trade-off: no added fragrance, and a lab winner is not an allergy test — the full evidence, including what patch tests show about detergent allergy, is in the sensitive-skin guide.

Best powder: Tide Ultra Oxi

Why it’s the powder pick

Wirecutter: it “outperformed all the other powder detergents we tested, removing some of the toughest stains and odors with ease”. Consumer Reports ranks it among its two highest-rated powders: it “rated excellent for cleaning body oils”. Jeeves NY picks it for whitening, because the oxygen bleach works on coloured stains such as coffee and wine.

The trade-off: it “fell slightly short when tackling greasy stains” (Wirecutter), contains “fragrance, dye, and brighteners” (Consumer Reports), and Good Housekeeping warns that some powders “may not dissolve completely in cold water washes”.

If you want a sheet: Tide evo tiles

Why it’s the only sheet-style pick

It is the dissolving format the testers single out. Consumer Reports rated the Free & Gentle tiles linked here top of its sheet category “by a wide margin”; Good Housekeeping and Jeeves NY name Tide evo without specifying the variant — “comparably to our best overall liquid” and 84.5 respectively.

The trade-off: Consumer Reports still ranks it below a good liquid or pod. Choose it for travel, storage or a no-jug goal — not for cleaning power.

How this guide was compiled

We read each tester’s published method and took only what they state:

• Consumer Reports washes stained swatches in two identical machines, in cool water, and measures what is left with a colorimeter. Its 2026 numeric scores are paywalled; the public article names winners and losers.
• Wirecutter washes stain strips and stained T-shirts in a cold-water full load. Its live 2026 guide could not be read; every Wirecutter verdict here is from the guide updated August 18, 2025, via the archived copy in the sources.
• Good Housekeeping stains cotton, polyester and blends with 20 stains and washes them in warm and cold water. It also runs a Seal program for products.
• Reviewed washes an 8 lb standardized load in a top-loader, in warm water; its data is from 2025 or earlier.
• Jeeves NY measures 18 stains with a spectrometer, in cold, warm and hot water, and scores products on a 1–100 scale.

A product appears as a pick only when at least one lab names it a winner and no lab ranks it among the worst. Commercial links never decide a pick: the named loser is in our product catalog and carries no buy button here.

Additional reading

• Liquid vs powder vs pods — the format decision in detail.
• How much laundry detergent to use — dose by load, soil and water hardness.
• OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover review — the add-in for stains a detergent leaves behind.