The Store-Brand Pasta Sauces Shoppers Say Are Cheaper Alternatives To Rao's

While some cooks are always willing to shell out cash for premium ingredients, others want to create delicious dishes while saving every penny they can. If you fall into the latter camp and think that Rao's products are too expensive — even if they are the best pasta sauces you can buy – consider heading to Aldi for thrifty yet tasty alternatives. Shoppers say that two of Aldi's store brand pasta sauces are dead ringers for Rao's classic marinara sauce.

Customers name the Specially Selected Marinara Pasta Sauce and Simply Nature Organic Marinara Pasta Sauce as Rao's dupes. A 24-ounce jar of Specially Selected marinara costs around $4.39, while Simply Nature is even cheaper at just $2.45 for a 25-ounce jar. Meanwhile, a 24-ounce jar of Rao's marinara generally costs around $6.99. Despite these differences, taste testers claim that the two Aldi sauces are incredibly similar to Rao's in terms of quality. "[Specially Selected] is very good and comparable to Rao's for a fraction of the price," one Redditor said. "I don't find that I need to doctor it up at all." As for the Simply Nature sauce, a shopper on Facebook wrote, "I personally love the Aldi's Organic Marinara, it's just as good as Rao's to me!"

These three marinara sauces are so similar, some customers believe that both Aldi sauces are made by Rao's and rebranded under the chain's private labels. While we can't confirm this, looking at the products' ingredients reveals some interesting similarities and differences, which may influence your purchasing decision.

Aldi's Specially Selected and Simply Nature marinara sauces both have many positive comments and reviews to their names, but the Specially Selected may be a better Rao's copycat, as the two sauces' ingredients are identical. Both contain Italian tomatoes, olive oil, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, basil, and oregano, and the labels even list these ingredients in the same order. 

In contrast, the first two ingredients in Simply Nature marinara are tomato puree and diced tomatoes in tomato juice, and it contains no olive oil. These discrepancies may seem minor, but they could make a difference. Reviewers say the Specially Selected marinara's slightly chunky consistency and tomato-forward flavor are a match for Rao's, yet Simply Nature is the obvious pick if you prefer organic foods and want to save more money.

Prefer Rao's vodka sauce over its marinara? Aldi has another dupe up its sleeve: Specially Selected Vodka Pasta Sauce. "Their vodka sauce is really good and comes closest to Rao's IMO," said one Redditor on the r/Aldi subreddit, while a Facebook user wrote, "I'm convinced this Aldi vodka sauce is better than Rao's." While neither Aldi nor Rao's won Tasting Table's ranking of vodka sauces, we did place them right next to each other, so they may indeed be very similar in quality. Of course, some cooks remain Rao's loyalists and aren't convinced that any of Aldi's sauces match up. However, it's clear that the store's sauces are affordable and delicious either way, and absolutely worth trying as Rao's substitutes.