The 7 Best Organic Dish Soaps in 2024

Even if you’re lucky enough to have a dishwasher, there will always be a time when you need to break out the dish soap and do some dishes by hand. You want to make sure whatever dish soap you’re using isn’t leaving toxic chemical residues on the dishes you eat from every day — so we’ve scrubbed through the ingredients lists to bring you the 7 very best organic dish soaps.

While there aren’t many certified organic dish soaps on the market, you can wash assured that all the soaps on our list are all primarily plant-based and contain no parabens, triclosan, synthetic fragrances or other yucky ingredients you don’t want anywhere near your dishes.

Our Top Picks

Here’s a quick look at our favorite organic dish soaps of the year.

Top of the Bubble Pie: Best Organic Dish Soaps

Here’s a more in-depth breakdown of the best organic dish soaps on the market- including customer feedback!

Certifications & Features: Plant-based, biodegradable, USDA Certified Biobased Product, EPA Design for the Environment Certified, Leaping Bunny Seal (cruelty-free) | Guaranteed No: Phosphates, gluten, animal by-products, ammonia, artificial fragrance, phthalates, dyes, phosphorus, phosphates, animal by-products, bleach, triclosan

We’re not alone in singing the praises of Seventh Generation Natural Dish Liquid. This brand meets all of our criteria for an effective and gentle dish soap:

• Plant-based and gentle
• Dermatologist tested, hypoallergenic formula
• Free of the harsh chemicals found in traditional dish soaps
• Formula approved by multiple environmental agencies, including USDA and EPA
• Widely available
• Affordable
• Effectively cleans dirty dishes!

These reasons and more are why Seventh Generation comes out ahead as our very best natural liquid dish soap. At the end of the day, it simply does the job — using natural ingredients, and skipping the harsh chemicals.

Certifications & Features: Biodegradable, hypoallergenic, vegan, Leaping Bunny–certified (cruelty-free) | Guaranteed No: Triclosan, parabens

This serious grease-fighter is a good choice if you like your dish soap foamy and lightly scented. Made in the U.S.A., using renewable energy, Method also offers handy refill pouches for when you’re ready for a new batch.

The Method brand tends to have more preservatives and dyes than some of the other soaps on our list, but it offers a good option if you’re weaning yourself off of traditional chemical-laden dish soaps. It’s also easy to find, and very affordable!

Certifications & Features: Plant-based, biodegradable, cruelty-free | Guaranteed No: Parabens, phthalates, animal derived ingredients, glycol solvents, chlorine, formaldehyde, artificial colors

There’s a reason Meyer’s dish soaps are so popular: they’re pretty, they smell good, and you can find them nearly everywhere. People love the different scents, and seek out seasonal varieties as they roll out every year. Just as importantly, Meyer’s Liquid Dish Soap cuts through grease without drying hands, and gives dishes that ultra clean “squeak”. 

A couple minor downsides: if you’re sensitive to fragrance (even natural ones) this dish soap may be too much for you. Meyer’s also contains a couple of preservatives that can irritate those with sensitivities, and some varieties have Polysorbate 20, which is a slightly more controversial ingredient.

Certifications & Features: Vegan, biodegradable, septic-safe, zero-waste | Guaranteed No: Dyes, preservatives, brighteners, or synthetic fragrances

Sometimes it seems like no matter how clean and “green” your dish soap is, you’re still stuck using a plastic bottle. Luckily, there are more and more options for those looking to go entirely plastic-free.

The Meliora dish soap bar is pure simplicity — just a small puck at the ready for dish-washing. It’s also biodegradable, vegan, free of artificial fragrances, and comes inside a simple recyclable paper box.

Certifications & Features: Certified organic, vegan, plant-based surfactants | Guaranteed No: Parabens, dyes, preservatives, phthalates, animal by-products, synthetic fragrance

Dr. Bronner’s is best known for their castile soap, which you can also use as a dish soap — though it tends to leave a slight film behind. Their Sal Suds is specially formulated for multipurpose cleaning around the house, including dishes. It’s also ultra-concentrated, so a little goes a very long way.

Certifications & Features: Cruelty-Free, plant-based, biodegradable, hypoallergenic | Guaranteed No: Parabens, dyes, sulfates, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, SLS, SLES, 1,4-dioxane

Anyone who’s been elbow-deep in a sink full of dirty baby bottles knows that it’s not just any dish soap that can cut through milk or formula film. Dapple Baby Bottle and Dish Soap not only gets rid of that film, it eliminates odors in breast pump components, pacifiers, sippy cups, and more. 

It’s also free of ingredients you want nowhere near your baby, like synthetic fragrances, parabens or phthalates. And since it’s also pediatrician- and dermatologist-recommended, it’s our clear choice for top organic dish soap for baby’s bottles (and more).

Certifications & Features: 98% plant-based, biodegradable, USDA BioPreferred, and Leaping Bunny certified (cruelty-free) | Guaranteed No: Triclosan, parabens, phthalates, phosphates, or dyes

No matter how eco-friendly your dish soap is, if it comes in a single-use plastic bottle, it’s not very sustainable overall. Many of the best natural dish soaps on our list offer refill pouches for their products. We like this Grove Ultimate Dish Soap Refill even better because it comes in an infinitely recyclable aluminum container. Plus the dish soap that comes inside of it smells great, is free of any concerning ingredients, and well-reviewed.

(If you need a larger size refill, we also recommend the 1 gallon Biokleen Free & Clear Dish Liquid as a runner up.)

What to Look For When Looking For the Best Organic Dish Soap

Packaging 

A single-use plastic bottle full of liquid is still the most common format for dish soap. However, more eco-friendly options are coming on the scene, like glass pump bottles that you can refill endlessly, or even a solid bar of dish soap, like our #5 pick. We love the idea of a bar, as it means no plastic whatsoever, and only requires a little sudsing with a brush or scrubbie.

Coconuts are your friend

If you’re wanting to go non-toxic, look for dish soaps that are primarily plant-based. Many of the liquid dish soaps on our list utilize coconut- and other plant-derived surfactants and cleansers. 

Consider a DIY dish soap

Combining some castile soap, washing soda, glycerin, water and cooking the mixture on the stove will yield your very own organic dish soap. Experiment with different recipes and essential oil mixtures until you find your favorite mix.

What to Avoid When Shopping for the Best Organic Dish Soaps

If you are truly sensitive to preservatives and sulfates, you may need to do a deeper dive on ingredient lists. Even the most “natural” dish soaps are likely to utilize a synthetic preservative or two in order to prevent bacterial growth (which can also be dangerous).

That said, there are some truly yucky ingredients that are easy to avoid. Some of the worst contenders to avoid include the following: 

1. Triclosan. Found in “antibacterial” soaps, triclosan is harmful to human health and to aquatic life. You don’t need any chemical additives or unnecessary antimicrobials for your dish soap to neutralize and wash away bacteria, so skip the triclosan.
2. Parabens. The most common parabens you’ll see in soaps are propylparaben, methylparaben, and butylparaben. These preservatives are hormone disruptors, so you don’t want those anywhere near your skin or your dishes if you can help it. 
3. Fragrances. Sounds innocent enough, right? But it turns out that synthetic “fragrances” can contain a whole lot of unlisted, toxic ingredients. 
4. Methylchloroisothiazolinone. Also keep an eye out for this key ingredient, which is not only a skin irritant and allergen, it’s also listed by the EPA as extremely toxic to aquatic life. 

Once you know what to look for in a natural dish soap (and what to avoid), it’s time to get sudsin’!

Our Process

For this guide on the best organic dish soaps, our team spent 6 hours researching the most popular options from over 30 brands and manufacturers big and small. We then read about 200 user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each organic soap. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 7 organic dish soaps on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.

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