A side-by-side comparison of two unscented pure-castile soaps: what is identical, the one real formulation difference, and where Dr. Bronner's is ahead.
A customer once wrote to us with a question we had no good answer to at the time:
“Could you express why you would say your product is better than Dr. Bronner's? I can't really fathom much distinction except Dr. Bronner's has a longer track record. I was wondering if perhaps you had some kind of comparison.”
That is a fair question and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch. So here is the comparison, written against both labels.
Two things up front. Dr. Bronner's makes a good soap. They have been doing this since 1948, they are unusually transparent about their sourcing, and a lot of what you may have heard about “natural” brands does not apply to them. We are not going to pretend otherwise to sell you something.
And we are not a neutral party. Read what follows knowing who wrote it, and check the labels yourself. Both are printed in full and both companies publish them.
This compares our unscented Pure-Castile Soap with Dr. Bronner's Baby Unscented Pure-Castile Liquid Soap, since that is the closest equivalent product.
People shopping this category often assume the differences are bigger than they are. Both products are:
If your question is “which of these is the honest natural soap,” the answer is that they both are. The differences are narrower and more specific than that.
This is the difference that actually shows up on the ingredient lists.
| Whole Naturals | Dr. Bronner's Baby Unscented |
|---|---|
| Water Organic blend of coconut, olive, castor, argan, jojoba, hemp, sweet almond, apricot kernel and prickly pear oils Potassium hydroxide USP vegetable glycerin |
Water Organic coconut oil Potassium hydroxide Organic palm oil Organic olive oil Organic hemp seed oil Organic jojoba wax Citric acid Tocopherol |
Dr. Bronner's soap contains palm oil. Ours contains none.
Our Nature's Gold Collection is the first castile soap in the USA to carry third-party palm-oil-free certification from POFCAP. That certification exists because palm oil is genuinely hard to avoid. It appears in most liquid soap, frequently under an ingredient name that does not look like palm oil at all. A third-party mark is the only practical way for a shopper to know.
Being fair about their side of it: Dr. Bronner's does not hide the palm oil, and their sourcing is not the thing people picture when they hear the words. Their palm is certified fair trade and Regenerative Organic Certified®, grown by smallholder farmers, and they have written publicly about it for years. If your objection to palm oil is about deforestation and labor, theirs is close to the best-case version of it.
So this is a difference of approach rather than one company being careless. Some people want responsibly sourced palm. Some people want no palm at all. Only one of those is available in a certified form, and that is the choice we made.
Beyond the palm question, our blend is wider. Theirs is built on coconut, palm, olive, hemp and jojoba. Ours adds castor, argan, sweet almond, apricot kernel and prickly pear.
More oils is not automatically better. It is a formulation choice, and it is part of why our soap feels different on skin and why it costs what it costs. Argan, jojoba, sweet almond and prickly pear are there for skin feel. If you have found castile soap drying in the past, that blend is the reason to try ours specifically.
Two smaller items: their formula includes citric acid (pH adjustment) and tocopherol (vitamin E, an antioxidant). Ours includes neither, and adds USP vegetable glycerin.
This section exists because a comparison that only flatters the author is not worth reading.
Track record. They started in 1948. Our family has been making natural skin care since 1978, and this soap itself launched in 2022. So we are not new, but they have thirty years on us in it and a household name we do not have. The customer who asked the question at the top of this page named that himself, and he was right to.
Regenerative Organic Certified®. They carry it. We do not. It is a demanding standard covering soil health, animal welfare and farmworker fairness, and it is a real credential.
Sizes. They sell everything from a 3.4 oz travel bottle up to a gallon. We sell one size: 64 fl oz, half a gallon. If you want to try a small bottle before committing, or you want a purse-sized one for travel, we do not have that and they do.
Scents. They have a whole range: peppermint, lavender, tea tree, citrus and more. We make unscented only. If you want a scented castile soap, buy theirs; adding essential oils to ours yourself is possible but it is not the same product.
This one comes up in our inbox regularly and it is worth knowing before you order rather than after.
Our soap is noticeably thicker and runs 2-3 times more concentrated than ordinary liquid soap. Customers who switch from Dr. Bronner's mention it in both directions: some like it, and some find their foaming pump dispensers clog on a mix that worked fine before.
The fix is dilution, not a different soap. For a standard pump, mix equal parts soap and water. For a foaming dispenser, go much thinner, roughly one part soap to three parts water. Foaming pumps are built to draw a thin liquid and they will jam on anything heavier.
It also means that if you dose ours the way you dosed theirs, you may be using more than you need in some applications and less than you need in others. Give it a week to recalibrate.
Price claims go stale, so here is the method rather than a slogan: divide the price by the number of fluid ounces. Bottle sizes differ between these two brands, and comparing bottle to bottle will mislead you.
At our own prices, as of August 2026:
Dr. Bronner's list prices on their own site on the same date work out to roughly $0.54 per fl oz for the 32 oz bottle and $0.51 per fl oz for the gallon.
So we are somewhat less per ounce, and buying in multiples widens that. But retailers discount both brands independently and these numbers will drift, so do the division yourself on the day you buy. That is the only comparison that stays true.
Choose Dr. Bronner's if you want a scent, you want a small bottle to try or to travel with, Regenerative Organic Certified® is the credential that matters most to you, or you simply trust a brand that has been doing this since 1948. All reasonable.
Choose ours if you want a castile soap with certified no palm oil at all, you want the wider oil blend for skin, half a gallon is a size that suits how you shop, or you have found other castile soaps drying and want to try a different formulation.
And if you are still not sure: both are honest products from companies that publish their full ingredient lists. That is more than most of this category offers. Buy either one over a soap that will not tell you what is in it.
Pure-Castile Soap, 64 fl oz → | What our label actually says → | Full FAQ →
Dr. Bronner's is a trademark of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by them. Ingredient lists and prices above were read from both companies' own labels and websites in August 2026 and are subject to change.
Yohan & Alex
Co-founders, Whole Naturals
For external use only. Keep out of reach of children. Discontinue use if irritation, redness or discomfort occurs.
