11 Store-Bought Burger Sauces Ranked, Worst To Best

Making your homemade burgers match your favorite restaurant-style burger can be as simple as finding the right sauce to add between the patty and the bun of your perfect handcrafted burger. Some restaurants hold on tightly to the recipe and claim some sort of secrecy regarding what goes into the mixing bowl, though many an astute home chef can use their talented taste buds to decrypt the arcane formula. If you don't happen to be one of these skilled culinarians, you can shop for a selection of bottled sauces that get the job done in fast fashion. Even if you make rookie mistakes at the grill, the sauce you apply a direct route to dressing up the burger of your choice in restaurant-level finery no matter what protein form you prefer.

Rather than letting you sift through the various possibilities for building a better burger by adding a store-bought sauce, I collected up an array of brand names and store labels bottles and gave them a taste myself. Despite my preconceived notion that burger sauce is a one-squeeze-fits-all situation, it turns out there are notable differences that make some of these bottles a worthwhile slather on your patty stack, while others fail to pass muster with no hopes of a catch-up. Come for the burger sauce ranking; stay for the groan-worthy burger-related wordplay.

Anyone watching their sugar can dip into G. Hughes Sugar-Free Secret Burger Sauce for a treat that doesn't compromise their well-being. The award-winning BBQ maestro introduced his line of sugar-free sauces to offer tasty options to fans of fire-cooked goodness on restrictive diets, addressing the tastes of burger lovers with a bottle that veers away from the smoked side of the grill to take the traditional burger topping lane. It sounds like a fantastic attempt for inclusive add-ons that keep the flavor intact while making the experience more healthful.

Unfortunately for the no-sugar crowd, G. Hughes comes up with an unappealing twist that takes burger sauce entirely out of its element. This bottle is the worst of the bunch due entirely to the presence of sucralose as the artificial sweetener of choice. It easily overwhelms the other flavors; seasonings like garlic powder, onion powder, and mustard flour listed on the label go entirely undetected. I was looking forward to tasting a burger sauce that leaned into the spicy or umami wedges on the flavor wheel, but despite being sugar-free, G. Hughes is far too sweet to enjoy.

The cure for vulgar street-level burger sauce could come in the form of Chosen Foods, an artisan-level company that presents bottles of more upscale spreads to slather on a slab. The difference in this groovy gravy is avocado oil, the company's hallmark ingredient for its line of dressings and toppings, and its burger sauce tries to be a more mindful choice for discerning shoppers to toss in their carts. Having an alternative oil lets thoughtful gourmets keep holistic eating on the menu while dressing up a black bean patty or Impossible Burger, as well as traditional meat-based patties.

But can the upscale ingredients justify the $6 price point? In my opinion, it cannot. Compared to the others on the list — and to burger sauce in general — it's a very thin consistency, a dressing with a strangely nutty flavor that's just not very enticing. It's a shame, since the basic elements seem to be present on the label, with a burst of herbal originality thanks to dill, celery seed, and rosemary. None of it can save what amounts to an unusually disappointing burger topper.

Blame Top Secret Recipes for giving away all the best-guarded creations of fast food restaurants with its too-close-for-comfort copycats. Not content to stay in the recipe book and website sector, the company shelves a ready-to-squeeze bottle of burger topping that aims to replicate McDonald's special sauce. There's even a line on the label telling shoppers if they love McD's sauce, they'll love Top Secret Burger Sauce, too — a bold move for a company riding the coattails of the world's best-known fast food chain.

Whatever the Top Secret Recipes team was aiming for with this savory squeezy gets lost in the overly oily essence. It would have been a prime candidate as a Juicy Lucy augmentation or a smash burger step-up, but instead it falls flat. It's strangely unexpected, considering that any fast food fan trying to capture burger magnificence at home will know at a taste that this sauce won't provide it. I'd recommend going with a bottle of Thousand Island salad dressing rather than ponying up almost $5 for this high-priced disappointment. At least with that burger dressing, you'll know exactly what you're getting.

The phrase "special sauce" is all it takes to conjure up visions of a McDonald's Big Mac, complete with its earworm two-all-beef-patties jingle from the '70s. Clever customers long ago deciphered the formula into its Thousand Island dressing-adjacent components, freeing up other food producers to come up with a sneaky substitute for this savory schmear. Sometimes, a store label actually comes through with a surprisingly passable analog for a far better price than the bigger names. Kroger Burger Special Sauce is one of those possibilities, offering the promise of a price friendly knock-off of the McD's original with a pedigree that's up to the challenge. 

I was so hopeful that this more affordable sauce would work well enough to fool the ol' taste buds into thinking they were enjoying something top-shelf. Sadly, Kroger tosses together the basics in a sauce that cloys more than it satisfies. It's very vinegary and cheap tasting, like a failed attempt at something you could make better version at home. If you're in a rush and don't have time to do price comparisons, you might be pleased to have this cheaper bottle to top your picnic table. But you might be better off sticking with ketchup and mustard.

Sure, you can use Kraft Chipotle Aioli on basic sandwiches and as a dip for fries and onion rings. But where this spicy sauce should kick into high gear is on a patty, regardless of whether its grilled or pan-fried, or beef, poultry, or an alternative protein. When it comes right down to it, aioli is just fancy mayonnaise jacked to the hilt with garlic, and this chipotle aioli tosses in smoky pepper essence in an attempt to make matters more delicious. The fact that Kraft is the only producer providing such an enticing mix gives the company an edge in the market and helps them stand out from the standard sauce. Kudos to the big K for taking risks.

So, how does it shake out? Well ... it could be better. What you get in this bottle is large mayonnaise flavor with a little bit of bite that hits you at the base of your tongue, which is nice and all. If pepper is the goal, it feels like Kraft could branch out even further with something more in the Cajun or Thai spice spectrum to offer a truly different burger sauce that still gets your flame-grilled patty all fired up. But it's hard to justify spending the $5 shelf price when sprinkling a little pepper powder in your mayo would achieve the same effect at a fraction of the cost.

No matter what section of a Walmart grocery section you frequent, rest assured that you'll find a Great Value analog of some better-known product lurking among the labels. A trip to the condiment collection reveals a Great Value version of secret sauce that lets you top and dip your burgers without having to mix up a recipe of your own. Sometimes, a Great Value purchase ends up being money poorly spent. Can Walmart keep up with the big kids in the burger sauce world, especially with so many options on the market?

There's no question that this house brand is a winning formula, bringing a budget-friendly blend of souped-up mayonnaise flavored with enough relish to make an impact and a touch of sweetness that provides a sensible balance. It's a thoroughly pleasant sauce that I wouldn't mind keeping on hand for moments when the burgers need a little razzmatazz. If it had something a little more distinctive to offer, it could have broken the top five. As it stands, it's not a bad bottle to buy.

Kinder's is a meat sauce powerhouse, pumping out bottles of tasty drizzle for burgers as well as chicken and ribs in an array of mouthwatering flavor combos. The company confidently calls its squeezable bottle The Burger Sauce as if there's none other to be considered. The tall bottle with the red squeeze top even mimics classic condiment bottles to give a home table the feel of a BBQ pit with burgers smoking away on the grill. The Kinder company's fondness for dressing up meats gives the impression that this burger sauce is bound to be a winner.

Fortunately, the flavor in the bottle lives up to the perceived potential. Rather than going for the Big Mac-style flavor profile, The Burger Sauce takes a more tomato-forward route to arrive at a tangy sauce with a ton of spice. In fact, there's enough pepper popping here to overwhelm your throat, which is fun on the first bite but may require some toning down by being spread thin over an entire burger. I prefer a bit more subtlety, but anyone with a passion for heat when saucing hamburgers will have a blast with this bottle.

Bonus points for anyone who can point out the difference between Kraft Burger Aioli and aioli intended for other uses. There probably aren't any, which makes this spread a versatile purchase that can serve any kitchen purpose you choose — bonus! Its best use, though, is to give whatever burger you're catching between halves of your brioche roll a generous garlicky kick. And with Kraft rolling out a specialty version made just for burgers, there has to be something in particular the company is trying to achieve.

If that achievement is supposed to be coming up with a distinctive take on burger sauce that steers clear of the norm, Kraft can consider this a successful mission. This bottle feels very much like an artisan creation, providing a peppery honey mustard mayonnaise that delivers the most heat of any of the sauces on the list. Fortunately, it's a sweet heat that's bound to make a burger taste prime, no matter what degree of doneness you prefer. This is a sauce I'd use in pasta salads and on sandwiches as well as on burgers, an all-around deli delight that, while shying away from the usual burger blend, comes up with something different in the best possible way.

If a fast food outlet like Whataburger is willing to market its own behind-the-counter sauce for fans to get ahold of, it's a sure sign of the company's confidence in what it has to offer. Whataburger Patty Melt Sauce lets fans of the striped orange burger house bring the distinctive flavor from the grill home for supper — or lunch, or breakfast, or whenever people prefer their burger enjoyment. While the name states loudly and proudly that this sauce is used on the chain's patty melts, you're under no obligation to follow suit; you could just as easily top a plain old burger of any sort with it and find the sort of fast food enjoyment that usually comes from a drive-thru window.

And what enjoyment you'll have with this bottle in your fridge! Whataburger ramps up the heat, imbuing its sauce with very fiery kick thanks to the inclusion of chipotle purée. Buttermilk comes to the rescue before things get too hot, lending a buffalo essence I found to be unique in this whole burger sauce brouhaha. It could easily cross over as a fry dip too, doubling up your uses for the generously-sized bottle that comes at a premium price of just under $5. In this case, it's a worthy spend.

Since McDonald's isn't the only outlet slinging burgers with a trademark topper, Top Secret takes a swipe at In-N-Out Burger's distinctive formulation with its Burger Spread. My first thought upon seeing these two bottles sitting side-by-side on the shelf at Walmart was, "There'd better be an excellent reason for creating two burger sauces from essentially the same ingredients!" That's the sort of righteous indignation that accompanies the task of ranking burger sauces; the possibility for overlap really raises the dander of shoppers like me who don't like to be tricked into buying the same product twice in two different packages.

Whatever Top Secret Recipes gets wrong in trying to capture the McDonald's magic, it sure gets things right conjuring the In-N-Out enchantment. I loved the tanginess of the vinegar and the brightness of the pickle bits, all surrounded by a creamy blend that works incredibly well. This comes as a wild surprise, considering the contents of both bottles are nearly identical. The main difference is that Burger Spread also contains tomato paste, which suggests that formulation is key in achieving a successful burger sauce. This one is a contender for any In-N-Out fan seeking a home-based burger experience.

In the event that your burger is missing the sweet hickory kick that adds depth and richness to the most ordinary of patties, Kraft Smoky Hickory Bacon Flavored Aioli sauce is on the scene to solve the problem. Don't mistake this squeeze for a simple mash-up of mayo and barbecue sauce; Kraft takes a more creative approach by infusing an authentic garlic-based dressing infused with just the right amount of hickory and bacon essences to add flavor without going overboard.

How right does the Kraft company get it with this burger sauce? I'd go so far as to call it exceptional, a spread that can make your regular burger taste like a bacon cheeseburger without needing actual bacon thanks to the use of bacon fat and pork stock. A mostly plant-eater like me shouldn't covet a sauce like this, with its animal-heavy ingredients making things all saucy and delicious. But I would be remiss if I didn't call it like I taste it, and this burger sauce is the best around. Save yourself the cost of bacon and grab a bottle of this instead.

Who knew there would be so many different ways to create a sauce to top burgers? I was sure they'd all taste pretty much the same, so it was a delightful surprise to discover every company goes at least a little bit out of its way to make the contents of the bottles distinctive somehow. A simple taste gave me an initial idea of what each sauce was all about: which were similar to salad dressing disguised as burger sauce, which were more uniquely formulated using traditional burger condiments, and which did their own thing entirely.

Rather than letting the burger intrude on the pure flavor of the sauces, I tasted them on their own. This let me assess the combination of elements without mistaking any flavor layer for something contributed by the burger's essence. There were two tastes of each sauce, the first for initial impressions and a follow-up to see if there were any subtleties missed on the first go. If two sauces gave similar reactions, I tested them in a second round to see which was more appealing. I drank water between tastings to clear my palate because that's what dedicated food scientists do. Then, I ranked them based on my judgment for what makes a successful burger sauce. Now I've gone and made myself hungry for burgers.