The Best Dish Soaps That Will Make You Actually Want to Do Dishes

This story was updated in August 2022 to replace out-of-stock products with newly tested picks from Dawn, Homecourt, Palmolive and 9 Elements and more, based on extensive testing by the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, and expanded information about our testing.

Of all the cleaning products we test in the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, the one we consider to be the most versatile is dish soap. This mild little cleaner can be used for way more than just washing dishes: Yes, cleaning crusty cookware, milk-covered glasses and egg-speckled forks is its main claim to fame, but dish soap can also help out in the laundry for stain removal and jobs outside the kitchen. So with all these household tasks on its to-do list, it's important to choose a dish soap with muscle.

To test liquid dish soaps in the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, we smear stacks of identical dinner plates with our standard "greasy" soil mix and after two hours, start washing with a controlled amount of temperature-regulated water and the same amount of dish soap each time. Each dish soap is evaluated by a minimum of three testers and the number of plates each washes are totaled and averaged. We also consider the viscosity, ingredients, labeling and ease of dispensing and use and more.

Our top picks:

As you scroll down, you'll read more about why we recommend these specific dish soaps, more details about how we test them, other household uses for dish soap you may not have thought of and why you should trust our Good Housekeeping dish soap recommendations. To make your decision a little easier, here are the dish soaps that stand out from the rest in our Good Housekeeping Cleaning Lab's view.