The 4 Best And 8 Worst Marinara Sauces Under $5 Dollars

Steven Luna/Mashed

Using even the cheapest store-bought marinara sauce is easier than trying to make your own. With so many brands offering savory takes on this Italian classic under the $5-mark, you have shelves of options at your disposal when supper time hits and pasta is the only thing that fits, and homemade pasta sauce is a no-go. Whether you add it to your shopping list for your next grocery go around or you make a special trip specifically to grab a supply of spaghetti syrup, you can do it without wondering if you should look into those reverse mortgages Tom Selleck is always talking about.

Since there are so many possibilities in the inexpensive marinara universe, there's bound to be a spectrum of good and bad options. I couldn't in good conscience let any home cook out there go a day longer without knowing which are the best and worst marinara sauces under $5. So I saddled up and sauntered into a few grocery stores in my area to pick up the most prevalent lower-priced jars to give them a sampling and see which versions are prime and which ones aren't worth your time. 

In my personal store-bought marinara sauce ranking, I looked at consistency, texture, balance of flavors, and overall quality of each sauce on its own and compared to the others. It turns out there are definite winners and losers in the marinara market, providing a right way and a wrong way to use your sauce money.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Target's Good & Gather line is better named Hit & Miss, given the undeniable up-and-down quality of its products. I had high hopes that the label's marinara sauce would be squarely in the "hit" category given that Target is so confident in its sauce game, it offers both regular and organic versions. Ringing up at $1.69 at my location was a step in the right direction, making it one of the lower-priced sauces at a chain that's not exactly known for reducing your grocery bill. This time, though, Target hit the mark dead-center.

The texture is just right for a sturdy sauce that sits on pasta without leaking to the bottom of the bowl. I'm also pleased to report the level of onion and garlic flavor in this jar brought me unexpected joy, the only way I can describe such a surprisingly flavorful sauce. Good & Gather products always have the potential for leaving me feeling like there should be a little more oomph in the recipe, but this one rises to the occasion nicely. Target shoppers should take heed and make this their marinara of choice.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Bertolli is one of those marinara sauces I know exists, and I'm sure someone must use it, but it's a little out of bounds for someone so stodgy in their sauce purchasing habits. It was a refreshing change of pace to put this one to the test and find out what I'd been missing by skipping over it for so long. It turns out I wasn't missing much, if anything at all.

There was a strange aged aspect to this sauce, one that made it feel like it had been doing on the stove top for a little too long. The herbs and garlic were fragrant enough, but they couldn't rise past the heavy tomato musk that just pushed its way through everything. I would most likely use it in conjunction with fresh vegetables rather than just on its own as a pasta topper. But because there are so many superior options that don't need any augmentation to be fully enjoyed, I have to put this one in the "no" column. Your penne pasta dinners are deserving of a marinara that's magnificent straight out of the jar.

Steven Luna/Mashed

It's a bold move to name your marinara sauce Classico, even if the recipe was borrowed from someone's nonna back in the old world. It sets the buyer up for premium expectations that may not be met with a jar that's under $5. And when you're in a sector with a limited range of ingredients (essentially tomatoes, oil, and spices), pretty much every example could be considered "classico" in some way. So if Classico and its Cabernet-infused marinara can come in with a mind-blowing marinara at a first pleasing price, it could be the right sauce for the right moment – that moment being any dinner where pasta is on the menu.

Sadly, Classico is a bit of a mess. The Cabernet was obviously intended to elevate the experience, but it gives the sauce a stale flavor instead. That layer settles down a bit after it sits on your tongue for a second, but then you know you have another bite to take. The anticipation is such a strange sensation, it seems like fancy-schmancy upgrades like this one are better left to a gourmet chef who knows how to cook with wine. Since there was no regular marinara to be found from Classico when I shopped, I used this as a substitute. Now that I've tasted it, I realize I made a huge mistake. Lesson learned.

Steven Luna/Mashed

You can bet your bottom dollar that Walmart sells a boatload of its Great Value marinara sauce. It's standing on the rack next to similar jars at double the price and higher, which makes reaching for it pretty much a no-brainer for the frugal grocery shopper. In fact, the $1.67 or so price point is friendly enough to inspire multiple purchases just to take advantage of the spectacular savings. The hope is that you won't regret your decision when you find out what's under the lid. Recovering from that sort of buyer's remorse is a lot like trying to scrape the sauce off the spaghetti and put it back in the jar.

It turns out Great Value marinara offers just what its name says: marinara that's actually great value, meaning it's a good sauce for a good price. It's convincingly robust, nice chunky body with visible vegetable elements, including tomato seeds left intact to make it feel like a homemade batch of sauce. I would happily serve this to my family and let them believe that I made it myself, though they'd probably see the jar on the counter and figure it out pretty quickly. But we'd all be happy with our pasta supper, and that's what counts here.

Steven Luna/Mashed

I depend on Kroger marinara sauce as a standby table-topper, and I always have at least a jar or two in the pantry in case the urge for old world flavor hits unexpectedly. It's a workhorse of a sauce that has all the right parts in all the right places and it only sets me back about two bucks. It's only $1.99 regularly, and it's also frequently on sale for about $1.50, which is when I grab a couple extra to keep on hand for future use. It's always been a welcome guest on pasta night, though I may have been a bit shortsighted with my sauce picks.

Tasting it among the slew of other sauces is likely to reveal its shortcomings while highlighting its strong points. It's thick and flavorful, but surprisingly, it's also a little on the sweet side for my taste, something I've never realized before. The inclusion of sugar is a decision not made by many of the other sauces on the list, and it's used to poor effect here. The sauce is also more acidic than I've noticed in the past, causing a bit of an unpleasant twitch in the back of my throat. While my tongue has gotten used to this as a pasta sauce option, experiencing it side-by-side with others makes me realize that it's not my best choice, which means it's probably not your best choice either.

Steven Luna/Mashed

The feel-good friendliness of the whole Newman's Own enterprise capitalizes on its founder's goodwill and long-standing commitment to high-quality food products. The catalog includes pasta sauce that can be had for a cool $2.50 or so if you know where to shop. I found this preferred price at Walmart, though a little comparative shopping revealed that not every outlet is as generous with its pricing structure. So while it qualifies as an under-$5 marinara sauce, your place of purchase is top consideration for keeping it in that category.

That is, if you choose to buy it after I tell you how it tastes. This jar had the most openly tomato flavored essence of all, which almost made it feel like it hadn't been cooked enough. I was hoping for more roasted richness, but it came closer to mashed tomatoes than ones that had stewed and brewed until perfect. The recipe also includes carrot purée, which helps thicken the situation but seems to lend a woody essence no marinara sauce should ever be subjected to. Though the presence of oregano and basil is nice, seasonings alone can't salvage the rawness that this sauce will present over your properly cooked pasta.

Steven Luna/Mashed

Albertsons tosses an organic jar into the mix with its O Organic marinara sauce, a wholesome attempt to clean up the recipe with what should be refreshing results. Running through the ingredients list reveals that, indeed, every element of the recipe is organic, which is sure to set the hearts and minds of cautious consumers at ease. Making it available at just below the $5 mark helps the chain tilt the scales in its own favor. But what kind of difference can organic ingredients make to the taste and texture of such a simple and easily executed sauce, one you should be able to trust to top your tastiest homemade pasta recipes?

As it turns out, the difference isn't a good one. All the ingredients on the list may be organic, but the flavor feels somehow artificial. Maybe I'm so used to eating non-organic products that the realness of this one flips the marinara moment on its ear. Still, there's a nice fleshy texture that says the tomatoes haven't been ground down to the soup stage, and the garlic and onions are on bold display. But somehow, I was expecting it to taste like it was made in Italy instead of on an assembly line. 

Steven Luna/Mashed

Kroger's upmarket label, Private Selection, does fancier things with its fundamental marinara recipe than any of the company's house brand sauces. The big challenge here is determining whether a higher-end store brand rises high enough above the others to justify its bougie presentation and premium price. When I realized what was beneath the lid for only $3.99, it was clear that Kroger has come up with a top-level marinara sauce for just about half the price of the premium brands.

The jar comes with a banner that states it's a product of Italy; all it takes is a taste to understand the difference between old world and New World marinara. Rich boldness that tastes smoky and well-considered, the extra thick body that clings to your pasta, and the perfectly harmonious flavors that don't compete on your taste buds provides an exceptional marinara sauce that won't set you back more than a five spot. It's not just a great sauce for a store brand; it's a great sauce period, and my new preferred marinara sauce overall. I won't even wait for this one to go on sale before buying it a second time.

Steven Luna/Mashed

I remember Prego marinara sauce being presented as a challenger to the Ragu kingdom, boasting a more homemade quality than the reigning champ of the pasta sauce aisle. Prego versus Ragu pasta sauce was an advertising set-up that naïve spaghetti-eating kids had no choice but to believe it. Having been raised in a Ragu household, I always held out hope that Prego would somehow open a portal to Italy, or at least an Italian restaurant, once I was finally able to give it a try. After all these years, I can safely say it ... doesn't do anything like that.

The freshness in this jar is entirely lacking, even though the ingredients are largely the same as the other marinara sauce on the list. Somehow, the tomatoes taste flat, and there's more liquid in the jar than there should be. Even after shaking it up I realized it was pretty thin and tasted more like basic canned tomato sauce than marinara. Even if you're paying about $2.50 a jar, you should be able to expect something more than what this well-known name is doling out.

Steven Luna/Mashed

The Kroger company keeps an organic marinara sauce under $5 in the form of Simple Truth, part of its more thoughtful line of organic signature-brand offerings. At around $2.99, the price is a little higher than the general Kroger jar, but for fans of cleaner eating, the peace of mind that comes with an all-organic ingredient list is likely to be worth the extra cash. And for people who like good marinara sauce, it's miles beyond the basic stuff.

The simple truth about Simple Truth is that it's just about as perfect a marinara sauce as I could find for this taste test. The tomatoes are sweet yet hearty with a roasted smokiness; the spices are evenly balanced and even give a little kick without being overpowering. And the distribution of sweet and earthy tasting notes is fully on-point, convincing enough to fool you into thinking it's fresh rather than store-bought. It's a perfect choice for flavoring up quick pasta recipes on busy nights without requiring a sauce pot and an heirloom recipe. Though I've never tried Simple Truth before, it easily makes the top of my favorites list. It's also going on my permanent shopping list.

Steven Luna/Mashed

There's no question Ragu is the ancestor of all jar marinara sauce. The name itself is synonymous with robust tomato and spice blends, with a large enough variety of presentations to please everyone's Italian sensibilities. The fact that its marinara is still under $5 is a testament to the company's dedication to providing quality sauce at an affordable price. But in a practical library of marinara sauce shelves filled with jazzier and more attractive possibilities, can an old workhorse like this still pull its weight, even if price and pedigree put it well ahead of the pack?

In a word: Nope. In fact, it's well behind the others at this point. The sauce is so overly sweet, it feels like somehow the recipe is executed incorrectly. The sugar comes pretty far down in the ingredient list, and yet it's the first thing I tasted, and it didn't go away as the flavor matured on my tongue. This is another eye-opening experience, since Ragu is such a standard in the world of pasta sauces. Now that I've put it side-by-side with all the others, I can't understand how it's lasted as long as it has. Maybe if you're accustomed to it, it becomes the benchmark for marinara sauce flavor. But there are better ways to sauce your pasta without paying a ton of dough.

Steven Luna/Mashed

The less-picky shoppers at Albertsons can count on Signature Select to deliver an affordable marinara sauce in a jar designed to keep your budget in check. It's a standard set up that mirrors other entry-level store brand versions, but because it's Albertsons, it's a bit pricier than the rest. It's only about $3 a jar, which gives it the appearance of being a perfect pantry staple that doesn't tax your spending too drastically. The real question is: Does it come through in a pinch when the sauce hits the pasta, or does it present a watered down dining experience that can't be defended by an eye-catching price tag?

The tomatoes in this jar get a solid blitzing, which makes them a bit more pasty and less chunky than the other jars. This isn't necessarily a deficit, but having tasted more natural textured sauces, it's also not my favorite. If anything creeps up to spoil the sauce, the acrid sting of citric acid that lies in wait behind the vegetables, smacking you in the taste buds as an unpleasant final surprise that throws the balance way off.

Steven Luna/Mashed

It was a tasty feat figuring out which of these sauces work and which could use a little reconfiguration. Rather than trying to fit them all onto their own bowl of pasta, I did a simple spoon test, taking a single taste and letting the flavors develop on my tongue for a minute or two. This gave me a better sense of what the unadulterated sauces taste like while keeping me from having to boil an over-sized pot of spaghetti. Not that I wouldn't have enjoyed that, but it would have been a lot of pasta. I was better able to gauge the texture, the body of the sauce, and the balance of flavors this way.

It would be reasonable to think marinara sauce is all the same, or at least similar enough to be indistinguishable from one jar to the next. But the reality is that each company does something slightly different with the same ingredients. Sampling them side by side in this way, it was easy to determine the good, the not-so-good, and the outright bad. It's redefined my sensibilities for pasta sauce in general. Now, instead of just grabbing what's on sale, I have a solid foundation for picking the right under-$5 sauce for the occasion at hand.