The best BBQ sauce is flavorful. That we know for sure. But what flavor should it be full of? That’s where things get complicated. BBQ sauce can mean so many things to so many different people and cultures. It can be sticky-sweet and thick. It can be thin and mustardy. It can be spicy. It can be fruity. The best barbecue sauce can be a dipping sauce, marinade, or sauce for braising. People drizzle it on artisanal pizzas and chopped salads. Want to get wild? Mix it with mayo for a sandwich spread. When it comes to the best BBQ sauce, there are basically limitless possibilities.
Over the course of multiple taste tests, we tried a wide variety of BBQ sauces to find the best BBQ sauces you can buy at the grocery store. So many of the sauces we tried were delicious, but these are the best barbecue sauces that you should run out and buy immediately. Whether you’re looking for the best BBQ sauce for ribs, the best BBQ sauce for pulled pork, the best spicy BBQ sauce, or even the best sugar free BBQ sauce , we have the best store bought BBQ sauce for you!
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- G Hughes Sugar Free BBQ Sauce Hickory Flavored
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I searched and searched for a really good sugar free BBQ sauce to include in this best BBQ sauce ranking update. I tasted a lot of them. And they all tasted like artificial sweeteners. This pick from G Hughes (maker of many, many sugar free BBQ sauces) is no exception. It also tastes like artificial sweeteners—but not nearly as much as the others. It’s smoky. It has a little of that cola flavor you get from some classic BBQ sauces. It’s pretty darn sweet because of the artificial sweetener, but paired with some salty meats or fries, it’ll balance out. It’s not the best store bought BBQ sauce, but it is the best sugar free BBQ sauce we tried. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Primal Kitchen Unsweetened Golden BBQ Sauce
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Made with just one gram of sugar and no artificial sweeteners, this BBQ sauce from keto- and Whole30-friendly brand Primal Kitchen is, understandably, extremely savory. This is not a traditional sweet BBQ sauce. This is a tangy, mustardy, vinegary BBQ sauce with a touch of heat and smoke. If that’s your style, then this is the best (almost) sugar free BBQ sauce around. It’s also some of the best BBQ sauce for pulled pork if you like that peppery, tart, Carolina-style barbecue. I’m not always the biggest fan of Primal Kitchen’s products, but this one was a standout. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Primal Kitchen
- Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce
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Not everyone was into Trader Joe’s Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce, but I loved it. Yes, it may not be BBQ-y enough by some people’s standards because it isn’t a reddish-brown color or made with tomato. I, on the other hand, love a mustard-based BBQ sauce. If you haven’t had it, think peppery honey mustard. It’s so tangy and not too sweet. The flavor perfectly contrasts fatty meat, creamy slaw, and soft bread, making it the best barbecue sauce for a BBQ meat sandwich. It’s definitely the best store bought barbecue sauce if you regularly shop at Trader Joe’s. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
- KC Masterpiece Original BBQ Sauce
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I had literally no expectations for KC Masterpiece’s Original BBQ Sauce. I assumed it would taste kind of bland and generic. I owe KC Masterpiece an apology. They make some of the best barbecue sauce we tried. It is super sweet and has a nice, thick texture that makes it perfect for dipping. I’m tossing some chicken nuggets in the air fryer and enjoying them with this BBQ sauce as an afternoon snack when I don’t have the energy to head to the drive-thru. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- 365 Original BBQ Sauce
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Whole Foods’ 365 Original BBQ Sauce reminds me of fast food BBQ sauce in the best way possible. It’s mostly sweet but also quite salty and a little smoky. It’s not as complex as some of the other sauces on our list of the best BBQ sauces, but I like its simplicity. The texture is gelatinous, which makes it the best store bought BBQ sauce for dipping or coating anything. And, just like a fast food BBQ sauce, it’s cheap! Never pay McDonald’s 25 cents per sauce ever again. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Original BBQ Sauce
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I was shocked by Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Original BBQ Sauce. I don’t love alcohol in food because I typically find that booze completely overwhelms every other flavor. But Jack Daniel’s proves that alcohol in food can actually be great. This sauce is thick and sweet, with smoke and undertones of tang from the whiskey. Because there is already alcohol involved, this sticky, sweet, tangy sauce is the best store bought BBQ sauce to use on party wings. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Lillie’s Q Carolina Barbecue Sauce
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There isn’t just one kind of Carolina BBQ sauce. There’s the tangy, vinegary, Eastern North Carolina BBQ sauce. And there’s the sweet, tomatoey Western North Carolina BBQ sauce. This Carolina BBQ sauce from Lillie’s Q is the latter. It’s very, very tomatoey, with lots of black pepper flavor. It almost tastes like a Bloody Mary that decided on a career change. It’s totally different from any other store bought BBQ sauce on this list. If you’re missing that tomato-based sauce from back in sweet home North Cackalacky, this is the best Carolina BBQ sauce for you. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Lillie’s Q
- Buffalo Wild Wings Honey BBQ
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Want to bring that classic BW3 experience into the comfort of your own home? This is the best BBQ sauce the brand makes. It tastes like really good fast food BBQ sauce—sweet and thick, with noticeable honey flavor. And it even has a hit of heat. How much heat? Well, if you regularly douse your food in hot sauce, then this is a mild BBQ sauce. But if you use spice sparingly, then this will taste pretty hot. Of course, it’d be good on wings, but I’m dipping fries in this sauce as well. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Bachan’s Yuzu Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce
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Be prepared to have your mind blown by the wonder of this Japanese BBQ sauce. Its soy sauce base makes it stand out from every other sauce on our list. The thin consistency makes it perfect for marinating meats and vegetables, or using in a stir-fry, or just mixing with rice. Justine Sterling, Sporked editor-in-chief, says her family always keeps this sauce on hand and places it on the table with every meal because it is so flavorful and versatile. We liked all of the flavors we tried from Banchan, but Yuzu was our favorite because the hint of citrus really takes this to another level. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Baby Ray’s Hickory and Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce
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You can’t talk about BBQ sauce without mentioning the man, the myth, the legend: Sweet Baby Ray. This hickory and brown sugar flavor is our favorite flavor out of the entire line of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauces. The super sweet and thick BBQ sauce was perfected in 1985 in Chicago. It was entered in a rib competition and the rest is history! To honor its history, I’m calling Sweet Baby Ray’s the best BBQ sauce for ribs. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Stubb’s Original BBQ Sauce
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Stubb’s is an iconic BBQ restaurant and music venue in the heart of Austin, Texas, with sauce so good it earned it its own line of bottled products. Black pepper and vinegar are the most noticeable ingredients in this sauce’s flavor profile, which makes it ideal for mopping all over some Texas-style fatty brisket. However, if you don’t have an industrial-sized smoker and a whole side of beef at home, it’s still some of the best BBQ sauce for a crockpot brisket or even to use on a burger.— Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Kinder’s Mild BBQ Sauce
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This is the best BBQ sauce in the mild department. It has that classic flavor you imagine when you think of BBQ sauce. It’s perfectly balanced with notes of pepper, sugar, vinegar, and tomato. It’s flavorful but subtle, so I think it would be perfect with a milder meat like chicken. A BBQ chicken chopped salad, grilled chicken breast, or pulled chicken sandwich would all benefit from being doused in Kinder’s. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Blues Hog Original Barbecue Sauce
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Someone yelled at me in the comments of the original version of this article because I didn’t try Blue’s Hog BBQ Sauce. After a quick Google search, I found a large, plastic bottle with saxophone-playing pigs on the label that I could only get at Ace Hardware. Needless to say, I was intrigued. I ordered a bottle and was instantly wowed. It’s some of the best barbecue sauce I’ve ever had in my life. This is not the kind of BBQ sauce you’d use for dipping nuggets or pouring over a Western bacon cheeseburger. This is the type of BBQ sauce you actually put on meat that you intend to cook over an open flame or in a smoker. It’s slightly sweet, super peppery, and a little tangy. It is so good that I now buy it on a regular basis. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Famous Dave’s Sweet & Zesty BBQ Sauce
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I must admit that I came in a little biased. I love Famous Dave’s products. Their cornbread and pickles are perfection, so I assumed I would like their BBQ sauce too. I was not wrong. It continues to be one of the best BBQ sauces we tried after multiple BBQ sauce taste tests. Famous Dave’s Sweet & Zesty BBQ Sauce is exactly as advertised: It’s sweet and zesty! It has a rich thickness that would cling perfectly to ribs or chicken or a big, juicy portobello mushroom. This is the gold standard of BBQ sauce and the best store bought BBQ sauce around. — Jordan Myrick
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
Best Sugar Free
Best Low Sugar Carolina
Best from Trader Joe’s
Best for Nuggets
Best Budget
Best for Chicken Wings
Best Carolina Style
Best Buffalo Wild Wings
Best Multipurpose
Best Sweet
Best for Pork
Best Mild
Best for Basting
Best of the Best
Every Style of BBQ Sauce, Explained
What makes Carolina BBQ sauce different from Texas BBQ sauce different from Memphis style BBQ sauce, different from Kansas city BBQ sauce, different from St. Louis style BBQ sauce, different from white BBQ sauce?
Other BBQ sauces we tried: True Made Foods Carolina Gold BBQ Sauce No Sugar Added, G Hughes Sugar Free BBQ Sauce Sweet & Spicy, Rib Rack Sugar Free BBQ Sauce Sweet & Spicy, True Made Foods Carolina Red BBQ Sauce No Sugar Added, Kinder’s Zero Sugar Original BBQ Sauce, G Hughes Sugar Free BBQ Sauce Honey Flavored, Kinder’s Zero Sugar BBQ Sauce Roasted Garlic, Stubb’s Spicy Legendary Bar-B-Q Sauce, Jack Daniel’s Sweet & Spicy BBQ Sauce, Famous Dave’s BBQ Sauce Devil’s Spit Sinfully Spicy, Kinder’s BBQ Sauce Hot, Famous Dave’s Sweet & Zesty BBQ Sauce, Kinder’s BBQ Sauce Gold, Trader Joe’s Sriracha BBQ Sauce, Trader Joe’s Truffle BBQ Sauce, all Sweet Baby Ray’s flavors, all Mambo BBQ sauce flavors, all Bachan BBQ sauce flavors, Primal Kitchen Mango Jalapeno BBQ Sauce, Good & Gather BBQ Sauce, Good & Gather Honey BBQ Sauce, all Happy Belly BBQ sauce flavors, G Hughes Zero Sugar BBQ Sauce, all Great Value BBQ sauce flavors, Burman’s BBQ Sauce, First Street BBQ Sauce, Simple Truth BBQ Sauce, Sprouts BBQ Sauce, Signature Kitchen BBQ Sauce
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