Finding a cruelty-free dishwashing detergent isn’t as hard as it was a couple of years ago since most companies realize there’s an increasing demand for vegan products.
However, being vegan isn’t the only quality a dishwashing detergent should have (albeit it’s the most important one) to provide satisfying results.
That’s why we put together this list of 10 completely vegan and cruelty-free dishwashing detergents, to help you make a better choice in finding a trusted detergent that’s not only kind to our planet but will also make your dishes spotless and shiny!
OUR TOP CHOICES
Here is a quick summary of our the top choices for each particular category. You can always find out more information about the products by scrolling down the page.
For Hand Washing:
For Dishwasher Use:
Liquid Dishwashing Soap
Planet Ultra Dishwashing Liquid
Best All- Around Vegan Dishwashing Liquid
Our choice for best all-around vegan dishwashing liquid is Planet Ultra Dishwashing Liquid, for its affordable price and remarkable performance.
Free of fragrance and harsh chemicals it’s suitable to use if you’re sensitive to most liquid detergents, but its gentle formula has little affect on its heavy-duty cleaning power.
This liquid detergent quickly cleans greasy dishes without damage to your skin or any negative impacts to the environment, and if you want a reliable, efficient, scent-free soap, it will do the trick.
For most people, its simplicity and effectiveness are a winning combination, so depending on your preferences, this product could be a great pick for your everyday needs.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified Canadian cruelty-free company by Leaping Bunny
- Certified 100% biodegradable by SCS Global Services
- Certified with a Gold Seal of Approval for social and environmental responsibility by Green America
- Certified Green by Whole Foods Market Eco-Scale
What We Like
- Effective at Cleaning
- Fragrance-Free
What We Didn’t Like
- Lack of options
- Outdated design
Puracy 100% Natural Liquid Dish Soap
Best for Sensitive Skin
Puracy 100% Natural Liquid Dish Soap is made from only plants, minerals and water, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that it’s also our top pick for sensitive skin.
Not only are there no chemicals, which are usually responsible for dry skin, rashes, and allergic reactions, Puracy contains vegetable glycerin and Aloe Vera, which help to often your skin.
Don’t be fooled by the all-natural ingredients, this detergent is supper efficient due to the ultra-concentrated formula which cleans even the greasiest, hard to clean, dishes.
But, keep in mind, for heavy-duty dishwashing (e.g. old grease-coated pans), you should mix Puracy with water and let the dishes soak to soften any hard food particles.
In addition to being completely vegan, hypoallergenic and non-toxic, this dish soap brand is biodegradable, which means it’s leaves a small environmental footprint.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny
- Rated A by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- Cleans great
- Gentle on the skin
- Completely natural
- Beautifully designed bottle
What We Didn’t Like
- Strong scent
- Need to soak dishes that have caked on food particles
Attitude Baby Bottle and Dishwashing Liquid
Best for Use on Baby Bottles
Attitude Baby Bottle and Dishwashing Liquid is a vegan liquid dish soap created with baby utensils in mind. It’s specially customized formula is what makes it our top pick for washing baby bottles.
It’s natural, hypoallergenic and fragrance-free, which makes it perfect for washing baby bottles, pacifiers or breast pumps since it doesn’t expose your baby to harmful substances and won’t leave any residues or scents.
Even though this liquid detergent is very mild and gentle, it has potent cleaning ingredients that thoroughly clean baby bottles from fatty formulas and breast milk. But this detergent isn’t just made for babies, it’s also great for doing your regular dishwashing needs as well as being safe for pets and their products.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA; features PETA logo
- Certified for reduced environmental impact by EcoLogo
- Rated A by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- It’s scent-free
- Does a great job cleaning greasy dishes
- It’s mild and doesn’t dry out hands
What We Didn’t Like
- Some Users noticed that the bottle leaked from transport
Mrs. Meyer's - Clean Day Liquid Dish Soap
Best for Heavy-duty Dishwashing
When it comes to some heavy-duty dishwashing, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Dish Soap has an outstanding performance, so it’s our choice for tackling stubborn grease buildup or gunky dishes.
The secret of this dish detergent is soap bark extract, an extremely effective natural degreaser, which easily tackles anything, from dried oatmeal to last night’s vegan chilly bowls.
This natural, cruelty-free dishwasher detergent offers ten different fragrances to choose from, so lack of variety won’t be an issue. It’s super concentrated too, so you won’t have to use a lot of it to wash dishes efficiently.
- Certified cruelty-free by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny
- Certified Champions by EPA Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative
- Certified for renewability by EPA Green Power
- Certified member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
- Rated C by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- Remarkable cleaning strength
- A variety of fragrances to choose from
What We Didn’t Like
- Contains benzisothiazolinone, which is a common allergen
- Some of the scents can linger on dishes
Biokleen Natural Dish Liquid
Biokleen Natural Dish Liquid relies on citrus extracts to maximize its cleaning force and Aloe Vera to make sure your hands won’t be dried out while you’re washing the dishes.
Although it does fight greasiness and buildup quite well, it does so when you submerse dishes in a mixture of detergent and warm water and let them soak. For dishes that are not covered with dried-out food remnants or aren’t that greasy, you can skip the soaking part.
The liquid itself feels thinner than with other detergents, so it’s not as cost-effective since you need to use more of it to ensure your dishes are spotless.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny
- Certified with a Gold Seal of Approval for social and environmental responsibility by Green America
- Rated A by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- Refreshing scent
- Gentle formula
What We Didn’t Like
- Liquid feels like it’s diluted
- Requires soaking for dirtier dishes
Dishwasher Detergent
Method Smarty Dish Dishwasher Tablets
Best for Heavy-Duty Dishwashing
When it comes to washing off stubborn stains and grime in the dishwasher, our top pick is Method Smarty Dish Dishwasher Plus Tablets. This naturally derived dishwasher detergent utilizes triple-action cleaning power to effectively get the job done, even with hard water.
With Method Smarty Dish tablets, you don’t have to manually pre-wash your dishes, since this heavy-duty detergent easily tackles food-coated dishes.
However, his dishwasher tends to perform poorly when used with older dishwashing machines- tablets can’t quite dissolve, which sometimes results in a white film left on the dishes. This might be avoided if you use high-temperature setting, but it’s still a lot of trouble to go through for some people.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny; features the Leaping Bunny logo
- Certified champions by EPA Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative
- Certified Gold by Cradle to Cradle for environmental impact and innovation
What We Like
- Refreshing lemon-mint scent
- Cleans efficiently despite hard water
- Easily removes food residue and buildup
What We Didn’t Like
- Poor dissolving in older dishwashing machines
- Some users reported finding open tablets in the package making them unusable
Biokleen Auto Dish Powder
Best for Use on Baby Bottles
Biokleen Auto Dish Powder is our top pick for the best vegan dishwasher detergent that’s safe to use for baby bottles and nursing accessories.
The main reasons why this detergent is so safe – and got our top pick – is because it contains no harmful substances, artificial fragrances or colors.
It has a strong, concentrated formula, so it’s efficient when it comes to greasy dishes, but won’t leave any residue or spots.
The only thing that this dishwashing detergent lacks is more practicality – the fact this detergent is in powder form makes for unnecessary measuring and potential spilling before it reaches its destination.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny
- Certified with a Gold Seal of Approval for social and environmental responsibility by Green America
- Rated A by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- In range with non-vegan heavy-duty detergents
- No harmful substances, artificial fragrances, and colors
- Affordable and economical
What We Didn’t Like
- It’s a powder, so it’s more complicated than dishwasher detergent tablets
- It didn’t perform as well with harder water
Seventh Generation Auto Dish Pacs
Best All-Around Vegan Dishwashing Tablets
If you’re looking for best all-around vegan dishwasher tablets, Seventh Generation Auto Dish Packs are a great choice. These tablets will leave your dishes spotless and scent-free, and safe ingredients make it a reliable choice if you’re sensitive to most of detergents.
Single-pack dosing makes it so easy to use them, without the need to measure doses or fear that the tabs will be too clunky and big for your dishwasher. Even though this dishwasher detergent might not have remarkable results with dishes that need heavy-duty cleaning, it’s a great choice for standard dishwashing.
A big plus for Seventh Generation Auto Dish Packs is that they are fragrance-free, so you don’t have to worry about scent residue on your silicone or plastic dishes
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny; features the Leaping Bunny logo
- Certified Member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
- Certified with a Gold Seal of Approval for social and environmental responsibility by Green America
- Certified champions by EPA Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative
- Certified for Safer Product Standard by EPA Safer Choice
- Certified Biobased Product by USDA Biopreferred
- Certified B Corp for social and environmental responsibility by B Corporation
- Certified sustainable by GRI
What We Like
- Good performance
- No scent
- Practical packaging
What We Didn’t Like
- Not for heavy-duty dishwashing unless the dishes are manually pre-washed
Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Automatic Dish Packs
When you’re on the lookout for dishwasher detergent that will make your glasses shiny and spotless and easily clean your dishes, Mrs. Meyers Clean Day Automatic Dishwashing Soap Packs are a proven good choice.
Same as their liquid dish detergent, Mrs. Meyers’ dishwasher detergent is great for stubborn stains or food-buildup. Natural oxygen bleach formula practically polishes your dishes during washing, but hard water might present as a challenge.
List of components in this product doesn’t contain any animal-derived ingredients, so it’s vegan-friendly in addition to being cruelty-free. This Mrs. Meyer’s product doesn’t contain benzisothiazolinone, but ingredients used for fragrance might cause allergic reactions in some people although the risk is very low.
- Certified cruelty-free by PETA
- Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny
- Certified Champions by EPA Safer Detergents Stewardship Initiative
- Certified for renewability by EPA Green Power
- Certified member of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
- Rated B by Environmental Working Group’s Guide to Healthy Cleaning
What We Like
- Easily removes buildup and stubborn stains
- Does wonders for glassware
What We Didn’t Like
- Doesn’t perform as well in hard water
- Potential allergens in ingredients
Sun & Earth Natural Automatic Dishwasher Detergent Packs
If you’re looking for a dishwasher detergent that is, in addition to being vegan and cruelty-free, kosher, try out Sun & Earth Natural Automatic Dishwasher Detergent Packs.
It’s also hypoallergenic, non-toxic and biodegradable, so don’t hesitate to use it if you have a sensitivity to chemicals. The thing to have in mind is that this dishwasher detergent doesn’t pack a powerful punch against gritty residue, so you might need to do some manual pre-washing to make sure your dishes will be squeaky clean after you pull them out of the dishwasher.
- Certified cruelty-free and vegan by PETA; features PETA logo
- Certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union
What We Like
- It has a safe, gentle formula
- No overbearing fragrance
What We Didn’t Like
- Best for average dish loads
- Not so great with older dishwasher
Benefits of Using Natural Dishwashing Detergents
The fact that they’re vegan isn’t the only advantage when it comes to plant-powered detergents.
They are more suitable to use if you have kids or pets, since they don’t contain harmful ingredients, and most of them are biodegradable due to their natural components, which means you’ll be helping the planet, too.
Dishwashing detergent is among many pollutants which endanger the aquatic eco-system, and when you choose a natural, vegan dishwashing detergent, you ensure you aren’t jeopardizing any water creatures or harming the environment just because you want your dishes to sparkle.
If you have sensitive skin, you’ll want to steer clear from dishwashing detergents full of chemicals, since they can only dry out your skin or cause allergic reactions. Going natural ensures your hands will stay silky soft and eliminate the possibility of nasty rashes.
Sneaky Non-Vegan Ingredients to Look For
If you already have your mind set on a specific detergent, we haven’t mentioned here, but you’re not sure if it’s vegan, make sure that it doesn’t have any of the following ingredients listed:
- Oleyl Alcohol or Ocenol (derivatives Oleths, Oleyl Arachidate, Oleyl Imidazoline) (fish oils)
- Fatty acids- Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Myristic Acid, Oleic Acid and Palmitic Acid (animal fat)
When it comes to non-vegan ingredients in dishwashing detergents, the list isn’t that long, but, to ensure a product is vegan, it has to mean that it isn’t tested on animals.
The safest way to check if a dishwashing detergent is truly cruelty-free is to find out if it has certificates from PETA or Leaping Bunny, either by looking for a logo on the product or searching databases of these organizations for info.
How to Ensure You’re Buying the Right Vegan Dishwashing Detergent
In theory, picking a dishwashing detergent should be a no-brainer. In reality, not all detergents are created equal- thus, what works for me, might not work for you.
Try to analyze what you need.
- Are you a raw vegan? Chances are, you’ll be good to go with a mild, natural dishwashing detergent.
- Do you tend to pile up dishes before washing them, which makes for more stubborn stains and residue? Then you’ll need a more potent detergent to get rid of the buildup.
- Are you worried that unwanted chemicals will end up in your baby’s bottle or your pet’s water bowl? Go for a completely natural vegan dish soap.
Whichever vegan dishwashing detergent you choose, you can be rest assured that you’re not harming anyone with your choice, and that is the most important thing. You just have to figure out which one will fit your needs, and you’re all set.
Wrapping it up
Being vegan doesn’t mean you’ll have to make your detergent or eat out of paper plates for the rest of your life.
There are a lot of vegan-friendly detergents on the market, and you can choose from a variety of different brands or specific qualities you need.
Dishwashing detergent we reviewed in this article are all cruelty-free and made with vegan ingredients, with reputable organizations backing them up.
We chose the best one for sensitive skin, baby bottles and heavy-duty cleaning, and presented some more equally good vegan dishwashing detergents to choose from. Depending on your needs, you’ll be able to find a vegan-friendly, efficient detergent easily and in no time.