The Best Cat Litter of 2026

This Scoop Away cat litter will put you back only a few bucks compared to some premium offerings, but it really does perform as well as some of those pricier products.

This 25-pound box is pretty easy to lift and move around thanks to its sturdy plastic handle. The punch tab for removing the cat litter from the box is also a breeze to open. Probably the best thing about the product is its faint, pleasant smell. It isn’t overwhelming, especially when liquid is added to it.

There are odor-neutralizing crystals in the clay shards, which the brand says control the growth of bacterial odors in a cat’s ammonia-rich urine. Interestingly enough, this product actually finished at the bottom of our odor tests, so perhaps it got overwhelmed with scent masking upfront, as Scoop Away guarantees seven days of “odor protection” on the box.

It performed exceptionally well in our absorption test, narrowly missing the top spot by just a half-gram. In the remaining tests, it performed slightly above average. But when you consider its relatively lower price point, some of Scoop Away’s misgivings can easily be looked over.

The name of this product is a bit deceiving. It says it’s unscented, but we found it had a fairly strong, overly clean smell. That wasn’t a bad thing, especially at masking odors, but it became grating over time, especially compared to some truly unscented cat litter.

That being said, the cat litter was easy to handle and use. The box felt sturdy and not that heavy, and it wasn’t that difficult to open and pour. The cat litter did an admirable job of soaking up liquid in a solid clump, and it didn’t lose much cat litter after scooping.

Clumps did well at staying solid after several days of use, and the cats didn’t track much cat litter out of the box. One downside was that it did get a bit dusty after a few days.

In the end, this cat litter is a solid, mid-tier product. It actually reminded me exactly of the Scoop Away cat litter, but the price per pound we calculated was much higher.

This cat litter has two big things going for it. It comes in a solid plastic bucket with a resealable lid and a metal handle. That’s the kind of stout construction that screams for reuse. Secondly, So Phresh exceeded its claim of advanced odor control, outperforming all other products when we tested it with fox urine, indicating it can effectively block the scent of any cat waste.

On the other end of the spectrum, we found that it was extremely dusty. While other cat litters had little or no dust, a large cloud of dust emanated from the pile right from the start. And speaking of pouring, it was surprisingly difficult to empty the product with any semblance of control as the handle pivots at the top of the bin. As you empty the cat litter, it becomes easier, but lengthening and centering that handle could do wonders.

There wasn’t much of a smell to this Dr. Elsey's cat litter fresh out of the bag. When we added water to it, it created an inoffensive, neutral smell. Looking at the composition of the cat litter, there’s an even mix of clay shards and rounded clay pellets. The larger bits helped form robust clumps that penetrated deep into the pile, while the shards should help prevent tracking out of the box. Finally, there wasn’t much dust when we used the product.

So how come it finished where it did? It was the smallest bag we found, coming in at only 20 pounds, so cat owners will likely go through a few bags quicker than they anticipate (if you can handle a larger size, it is available in 40 pounds, too). It also didn’t do so well at absorbing liquids, finishing just below the average.

Dr. Elsey’s leaves us most intrigued. It excelled in some areas, but could benefit from improvement in others. But it was also firmly in the middle of the pack.

There’s a faint, pleasant smell to this Fresh Step cat litter. It’s accentuated when liquid is added to it, but it isn’t overwhelming. Better yet, the cat litter clumps nicely, though those clumps were in relatively flat layers.

Fresh Step claims that the product is 99.9% dust-free, and that rang true. We didn’t experience any dust when pouring the cat litter, which was pretty easy with the thick strap on top of the box. Even though it’s made of plastic, the wide handle won’t cut into your hands.

Beyond that, there’s not much to say. This product fared poorly in our saturation, absorption, and odor tests. In our opinion, there are many better cat litters out there.

Of all the cat litter we chose, this was the only one we had some serious difficulty opening. It almost required a knife to puncture the thick cardboard spout.

Once we broke inside, the results weren’t much more promising. The clean smell immediately hits you. It’s overpowering, to the point of lingering in the air and nostrils. Unscented, this product is not.

As for performance, this cat litter routinely finished last across the board. On the plus side, it did a decent job masking odors, and we found there wasn’t much dust.

When not testing several cat litters, my cats actually use a different Arm & Hammer one, so it was surprising to see how poorly this performed. When it comes to the difficulty of unboxing, however, that seems to be a universal trait amongst Arm & Hammer cat litter.