9 Popular Keto Bread Brands Ranked From Worst To Best

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Just like anyone, folks following the keto diet want their bread as tasty and texturally pleasant as possible (i.e., as much like standard bread as they can get, minus the high net carb count). Unfortunately, there are a few issues that low-carb consumers report with certain keto breads — an eggy flavor, spongy texture, and digestive discomfort are the most common. After all, these breads are made with different ingredients from conventional bread. Instead of wheat flour, you might find almond flour, for instance. Keto breads also tend to be very high in protein and fat, and you’ll often find wildly high fiber content in one slice, which equals a lower net carb count — and a tummy ache if you aren’t used to consuming that much fiber in one fell swoop.

But for the keto crowd, these trade-offs in flavor and texture are part of the game. A strictly keto lifestyle involves limiting one’s total carb intake to under 50 grams a day. Part of that means avoiding conventional breads and snacks like chips, and replacing them with healthier options like crunchy cottage cheese chips, or MacGyvering together a keto-friendly fast food meal. I don’t follow the keto diet, but I watch my total carb intake and have used keto or low-carb breads in the past to do that. For this ranking of popular keto breads, I assessed each product on its flavor and texture. I’m not going to sugar-coat my findings: Some of these breads were a penance to consume. Others were fine, and a couple were actually pretty good.

Read more: 16 Store-Bought Frozen Pizzas, Ranked Worst To Best

9. Keto Culture

If this had been the first keto bread I ever tried in my life, I might have avoided doing this ranking altogether. Everything about it was a nope — even its appearance. My loaf had a big air pocket through it, hence the twin holes in both slices in the photo. That’s not a keto-specific complaint, but the flavor and texture issues certainly were. It was dense like keto bread, and the toasted slice tore a bit when I spread the butter. It also didn’t brown much in the toaster, which was intriguing in an unappetizing way.

And oh, dear reader, the awful taste. It was powdery, chalky, and strong. Some of the other keto breads didn’t taste great, but at least their flavor didn’t shout its shame from the rooftops as this one did. The texture was terrible as well; it literally disintegrated in my mouth as I chewed. A couple of other contenders did that, too, but this one did so with shocking speed, like it wanted no part of this whole “being a piece of bread” thing. And if you thought that perhaps the butter saved the toasted slice, alas, that rough flavor came through even with the butter melted on it.

8. Nature’s Own Life Keto Soft White Bread

There’s a sizable gap in quality between the ninth-place contender and this one — let’s get that clear straightaway. Still, this one had some issues I couldn’t ignore. The thickness, however, was not one of them. As we discovered when ranking grocery store wheat breads, Nature’s Own bread slices are pretty thick, and the same goes for its keto bread. That was appealing to me; it conjured images of Texas toast smothered in butter and garlic.

To my hands, the texture was very soft and not unlike that of Wonder Bread. However, I wasn’t a fan of the flavor of this one, untoasted. Like Keto Culture, it was quite strong. Unlike Keto Culture, it wasn’t so strong that butter couldn’t tone down those powdery notes. The mouthfeel was also dense and tough, not so easily dissolved; I bit a piece of the crust and actually had to pull to get it to break. That firmness boded well for the spreading of butter — the surface of this bread made it out alive from under that butter knife, unlike some of the other contenders. Ultimately, this pick is salvageable if you eat it with something else that overwhelms its flavor, and it’s not a bad option if you need a keto bread that won’t fall apart when spreading condiments or fats on it (at least when toasted).

7. Arnold Superior Keto Bread

Arnold makes some of my all-time favorite breads, so I was excited to try its “superior” keto bread. Regularly priced at $7.49 per loaf in my local Harris Teeter, this option is more expensive than its peers. I admit that this fact, coupled with its Arnold name, made me expect great things from this bread. But unfortunately, it did not deliver on those expectations. It wasn’t awful, but it certainly doesn’t deserve its “superior” moniker — more like “Arnold’s Meh Keto Bread.”

The first thing I noticed was that the bread didn’t brown much in the toaster. That worried me a little, as Keto Culture stayed pasty like that, too. To my hands, the untoasted slice of Arnold’s keto bread was pleasantly soft and springy, with lots of little holes — fairly “real bread”-like. The immediate flavor was good, but the aftertaste was off-putting and synthetic. It also had an odd mouthfeel, never really disintegrating as I chewed. I’m not backtracking on my textural preferences here; I mean that, for a significant amount of time, it literally did not behave like food that has made contact with one’s salivary enzymes. It got there in the end, though, and toasted with butter, the synthetic aftertaste was adequately camouflaged. This is one you would want to use with a lot of other tasty ingredients, though you could get better keto breads for less money.

6. L’Oven Keto Friendly White Bread

On its website, Aldi describes its L’Oven Keto Friendly White Bread as “the famous ‘Aldi keto bread.'” This naturally piqued my interest, so I did a little digging. Generally, people do seem to like it, though it does have its detractors, as any product does. The numerous accolades may just stem from its pre-existing popularity, though, as I found the bread to be as “meh” as the Arnold bread, but with a better texture.

The bread and the package itself gave off a “keto-bready,” chalky smell. The taste matched it, though it wasn’t overwhelming like Keto Culture’s flavor. The texture was soft and pleasant; it was more dense than conventional bread, but that was no surprise. Toasted is where L’Oven shined. The chalky flavor faded, and the bread soaked up the butter very well, though it did tear easily under the butter knife.

In all, it’s worth a try if you’re doing the keto lifestyle: It has 0 net carbs. To achieve that, however, there are 10 grams of fiber per slice — that’s a lot, and not everyone’s digestive system can manage that much fiber at once, so proceed with caution.

5. Carbonaut Gluten-Free Keto Frozen White Bread

Carbonaut’s gluten-free keto white bread was located in the frozen bread aisle of my local grocery store; it was the only product I reviewed that was sold this way, and I wondered why. According to Carbonaut’s FAQ page, some retailers freeze the brand’s breads, while others don’t. I didn’t realize that it was an as-you-wish kind of thing until after my taste test, so this is the only bread I didn’t try untoasted. When I spread the butter on one slice, the surface crumbled a little bit before caving in (see the depression in the above photo). Whether that would happen if I’d allowed the loaf to thaw first, I don’t know.

Overall, there was more to say about the texture of this one than the flavor. Sans butter, it tasted like nothing at all. With butter, it tasted like butter — no harm, no foul. However, the bread was the opposite of the rubbery, tough contenders: It fell apart very easily and wasn’t all that bread-like; it got a little crispy, but it was also too easy to chew. Still, this wasn’t bad. If you need both gluten-free and keto-friendly bread, this could do it for you.

4. Lewis Bake Shop Better Way Hawaiian Keto Bread

Lewis Bake Shop does a smart thing in offering keto Hawaiian bread. Hawaiian rolls are a fairly common type of bread among the carb-inclined crowd. Originating in Hilo, Hawaii, in the late ’50s, they are famous for their soft, brioche-like texture and almost dessert-like sweetness from sugar and (often) pineapple juice. They’re one of the perfect ways to upgrade French toast, too, so for the keto crowd, having a Hawaiian bread option enables a little fun in the kitchen with something sweeter than your average low-net-carb bread.

Lewis’ version had a sweet, slightly chalky smell in the package. The texture of a fresh slice was soft and dense, with a few tough lumps in some spots. They weren’t off-putting enough to be a huge issue for me, but if you’re sensitive to textures and plan to eat the bread untoasted, it might bother you. The untoasted slice was quite rubbery when I tried to pull it apart, and the mouthfeel had a bit of a chew to it. The flavor was slightly sweet, and what I would expect from a keto Hawaiian choice. If you’re used to the real deal, though, it would take some getting used to (though what keto bread doesn’t require acclimation?).

On a toasted slice, the fat in the butter was a great complement to the bread’s sweetness. However, the toasted bread dissolved a bit too easily when chewed; it didn’t do that when untoasted, in which case it behaved more like bread. Still, these are minor complaints for a Hawaiian bread with 0 grams of net carbs.

3. Sara Lee Delightful Keto Whole Grain Italian Bread

Baked goods giant Sara Lee markets its line of Delightful breads as “healthy,” free from high fructose corn syrup and containing fewer calories per slice than its conventional breads. Sara Lee offers two breads marketed as keto-friendly: the Delightful White Whole Grain Bread and the Delightful Keto Friendly Italian Bread. The Italian version was the only one available on my shopping day, but if the white bread is anything like this one, then Sara Lee has two keto winners.

The texture of the Delightful Keto Friendly Italian Bread stood out right away among the other contenders in this ranking. It was almost conventionally bread-like, not too dense. On the toasted slice, the butter spread well without breaking the surface. Both slices acted like conventional sandwich bread when I tore them, too — soft and yielding, not rubbery. The flavor was pleasant, with no chalky notes, and it carried just a hint of sweetness. The mouthfeel was as bread-like as the feel of the slices, both untoasted and toasted. The latter, when spread with butter, was almost truly indistinguishable from traditional bread. As for what makes this “Italian” versus merely “white bread,” I have no idea. White bread is the best bread for a classic grilled cheese, and this Italian version fits right into that category.

2. Sola Sweet & Buttery Sliced Bread

A little behind-the-scenes view of this ranking may help drive home the quality of Sola’s Sweet & Buttery Sliced Bread. It was the first one I tried out of the nine, and my immediate thought was, “Wow! If they’re all this good, keto bread has really come a long way!” Sola set such a high bar for flavor and texture that my expectations required drastic adjustment as I progressed through the breads.

The texture was very soft and airy; if I didn’t know it was keto, I could have been fooled. Per the loaf’s name, there was definitely a sweetness to the bread along with a hint of richness from butter, but it would work just fine with savory ingredients. It toasted very well, though the butter didn’t really soak in — this was okay by me. The bread did not tear when I spread the butter, nor did it taste overly buttery; the condiment merely enhanced the sweetness of the slice. I had this bread noted as “probably number one” for a while until I encountered the true number one.

1. Bettergoods Keto Friendly Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread

Walmart’s private food labels can be hit or miss. When I ranked cottage cheese brands, Great Value was a “nope,” but in a separate review, Chowhound determined that Bettergoods makes the best jarred alfredo sauce. The Bettergoods brand was crafted for more budget-friendly, elevated fare than Great Value, but I still had some doubts as to just how good its Keto Friendly Honey Wheat Sandwich Bread would be.

Take everything good about Sola’s keto bread but pull back on the butteriness and drop the price by 3.7 cents per ounce — and you have the best keto bread in stores. The Bettergoods keto bread is soft and feels like regular bread, except a little more springy, with a bit more of a chew to it than a conventional loaf. Again, there was a slight sweetness to the flavor, especially in the crust. (Notably, I actually liked the Bettergoods keto crust, a part of sandwich bread that I don’t typically enjoy.) The slice toasted up nice and golden brown — a little more so than the others — and the butter complemented the light, sweet flavor beautifully. With this texture and flavor at this price, you can’t go wrong.

Methodology

For this ranking, I chose keto breads that were available in my local grocery stores: Walmart Supercenter, Harris Teeter, and Aldi. Each product was evaluated on taste and texture. A high-ranking keto bread’s taste would not be overly eggy, unpleasant, or otherwise unbalanced; if it tasted like regular bread, all the better. The texture should be soft, and not too dense, rubbery, or spongy. Before taste-testing, I pulled apart each piece of untoasted bread to gauge how it behaved.

Except in the case of Carbonaut’s bread, which came frozen, all the keto breads were tasted in two ways: plain (straight from the bag) and toasted, with a small pat of butter spread across it. All toasted breads were cooked at the same setting on my appliance (“three”), and the butter was allowed to sit on the bread for a few seconds before attempting to spread it. This was to ensure the fat softened before spreading, as I wanted to see how the bread’s consistency held up when the butter was spread. If it crumbled too much, this was a textural issue that could impact its ranking.

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