12 Bone Broth Brands, Ranked

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Our Stone Age ancestors may have consumed broths made with boiled animal bones over 25,000 years ago. Many cultures have some variation of a bone broth, soup, or stew. But bone broth as we know it today gained popularity with the Paleo diet, taking inspiration from the traditional diets of our ancient ancestors.

While early humans may have eaten bone broth out of necessity, the current trend seems largely based on its collagen content — and the interesting health claims. Alleged health benefits of bone broth range from hair, nail, and skin health to weight loss to immune-boosting superpowers. While The New York Times reports there are "few reliable studies on the medicinal effects of broth," that hasn't stopped the popularity of bone broth from growing exponentially. Broths made from chicken, beef, turkey, pork, or fish bones may reach over $6.3 billion in sales by 2028, per The Insight Partners.

But as interest in carnivore diets like Paleo and Keto remain popular, and demand for packaged bone broths continues to grow, how do you decide which bone broth brands are worthwhile? Many brands are high in sodium or may use additives. Taste, nutrition, ingredient quality, and price are also top considerations. While you could take a gamble and try them all out yourself, why not take a gander at the research we've done to find the top 12 bone broth brands ranked from worst to best?

A clever play on collagen (get it?), College Inn is one of the cheapest bone broth brands on the market. The broth is seen more often in grocery stores in the Eastern U.S., however, you can also purchase it online. 

Because this is such a low-cost brand, you do get what you pay for in terms of ingredient quality. The brand's beef broths contain sunflower oil, which, according to registered dieticians (via Insider), can "boost their caloric value without boosting nutritional value." 

Unlike other brands that just list the vegetables used to create the broths, College Inn lists concentrates and powders in the ingredient lists. College Inn is also the only bone broth we looked at that uses sugar, as well as a number of natural flavors and additives. If you have high blood pressure, you may want to steer clear of this brand. The academic journal Nutrients recommends that foods should have a sodium-to-potassium ratio under 2.0 to lower blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk. College Inn's bone broth has a sodium-to-potassium ratio of 10.0 — five times the recommended amount.

Swanson is one of the cheapest bone broth options available in a carton at less than $1 per serving. It's also made with chicken stock, which isn't simmered as long as traditional bone broths. As a result, even though it has eight grams of protein per serving, a disclaimer on the same product page states, "Not a good source of protein." Single collagen is a naturally occurring protein (via the book Biochemistry, Collagen Synthesis) that doesn't seem promising in delivering one of the alleged benefits of bone broth.

Swanson also has four flavors of sipping broths that come in 10.75-ounce microwaveable cups. Sip on plain beef or chicken bone broth, or try something a little different with lemon and rosemary or ginger and turmeric. 

If you have a soy or gluten allergy, steer clear. The sipping broths may contain traces of wheat, and the beef broth contains soy lecithin. If allergies are not a worry, you can get the plain chicken bone broth cups on Amazon, which have 70 percent five-star reviews. For a grocery brand owned by Campbell's, that's not too shabby.

Bare Bones is one of the few bone broth brands that actually gels, which signals a good amount of collagen content. However, this brand adds gelatin to the liquid broths and collagen powder to the instant broths, which feels a bit like cheating. Shouldn't simmering the bones for 18+ hours be enough to create a bone broth that gels? Maybe not when your first ingredient is plain water since "the ingredient that weighs the most is [listed] first," according to the FDA.

Even still, the brand's instant broths have over 6,000 reviews on Amazon, but the liquid broths are rated higher, with an average rating of 4.6 stars. However, some reviewers don't care for the taste of the beef bone broth. "It tastes like the water you washed a cow with and then added black pepper," according to one reviewer. That may be because Bare Bones sources grass-fed beef, which may actually have a grass flavor (via Nutrition Journal) that gives off those barnyard vibes. At least Bare Bones uses all organic ingredients in its liquid broths and offers a low-sodium version.

You can find this cheap bone broth brand in most grocery stores, which makes it a convenient and accessible choice. The broths are available in 32-ounce and single-serving containers. Surprisingly, Kitchen Basics has fewer additives and more actual whole foods than other low-cost brands on this list. The mirepoix it uses is even marked as organic on the ingredient list for its chicken bone broth.

Although there are only three types of Kitchen Basics bone broths, including chicken, beef, and turmeric and ginger chicken, that seems to be all that's needed. It has devoted fans on Amazon who rave, "I've purchased this bone broth, more than 25 times!!" Amazon review photos even show the chicken bone broth gels, which is promising but surprising for a cheap grocery brand. And it excels nutritionally, too, with a good sodium-to-potassium ratio (1.0), 10 grams of protein, and even half a milligram of iron.

Marco Canora, a James Beard award-winning chef, started Brodo after he began selling his bone broth at a takeout window. Currently, the broth is available directly from the Brodo website with a subscription, online via food delivery services, or from one of the NYC Brodo restaurants. According to one Yelp reviewer regarding the broth available at the East Village location, "I can say with confidence that Brodo is the most flavorful." Maybe that's because Chef Canora uses an Italian method to make the broth, including bones that still have some meat on them.

Brodo uses very basic ingredients in its packaged bone broths and it contains no concentrates or preservatives. The animals used in the broths are also either raised organically (chicken and turkey) or grass-fed (beef), and are free of antibiotics, hormones, and pesticides. And since Brodo ships its bone broth direct to consumers, it places sustainability as a top concern, ensuring the cardboard boxes and broth containers are fully recyclable and the packaging insulation is made from non-GMO corn, which is compostable and biodegradable.

Bonafide is our top bone broth brand for its high proportion of 5-star reviews on Amazon, with a high percentage of reviewers giving it top marks. The brand was created by a husband and wife team — a chef and nutritionist, respectively — which tells you they know a little something about good, healthy food. The brand's broths are fully USDA organic, and it's committed to clean ingredients, publishing a "Never Ever" list of additives and flavorings you won't find in its products.

Aside from traditional chicken or beef bone broths, it also has more exotic offerings like turkey bone broth and a frontier blend, which is a mix of beef, lamb, bison, and turkey bone broths. Bonafide offers 24-ounce packages in BPA-free bags as well as flavored bone broths in 8-ounce cups. The latter also includes ingredients like MCT oil in its Keto bone broths or lion's mane mushrooms in its Be Well bone broths.

Bonafide is another fine brand that actually gels when chilled, according to a reviewer on Amazon, and it "does not taste watered down." You can find these bone broths at Walmart, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and a variety of other grocery stores across the U.S., making this a convenient choice for an everyday grocery run.