Popular Grocery Store Tortilla Chip Brands Ranked Worst To Best

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

When you stand before a mind-boggling array of chips at the grocery store, it can be difficult to know which tortilla chips are best and which are worst. Or is there any difference at all? We've found that there are certainly some superior chips out there. To determine which popular grocery store tortilla chips are the best, and worst, we looked at various styles for each brand. We analyzed the brand's average star rating and how many of its reviews are four or five stars out of five. After turning both these statistics into percentages, we came up with a composite percentage that serves as an overall score.

We will also tell you what you can expect to pay for each chip brand. The cheapest chip isn't necessarily the worst, and the most expensive chip isn't necessarily the best. So, you can often grab inexpensive chips without feeling like you're going to be too disappointed. However, some of the more expensive chips have qualities like unique flavors and textures that make them worth trying even if you usually look for cheaper chips. 

Three of our top-five brands are store brands, which may be surprising for those who stick to name-brand products. You may need to try a few brands to find your personal favorite, but this list will give you a good idea of what consumers think about various grocery store tortilla chip brands.

Gruma makes Mission tortilla chips, as well as another better-ranking chip brand on our list — Calidad. The Mission brand has been around since 1997 and also includes other products like tortillas and flatbreads. Customers seem to like Mission tortilla strips better than Mission tortilla rounds. Because this brand is thick and gets crispy in the oven, it can handle weighty nacho toppings. One nice thing about Mission is it isn't as salty as some brands. So, that's another positive when it comes to using Mission brand tortilla chips for making multi-ingredient nachos.

Mission is another chip brand that tastes okay but doesn't have a big wow factor. We usually wish we'd bought something better when we end up with Mission. They're on the thicker side of the tortilla chip spectrum. Grocery store customers tend to give Mission chips an average rating of 3.45 stars, with about 63% of the ratings being four- or five-star ratings. Our local Walmart carries these for $2.84 per 11-ounce bag, so they fall close to the mid-range for cost per ounce.

On the Border tortilla chips grew out of the popularity of the chips and salsa at the On the Border restaurant chain. You can buy both On the Border salsa and queso to complete the experience. So, that's often a selling point as long as you like cumin-heavy salsa. Some varieties you can find include On the Border Cantina Thins, Fiesta Dippin' Chips, homestyle thick and crispy chips, and Café Style chips. The Café Style chips have the highest reviews, but we like the texture of the Cantina Thins better even though they're not as sturdy for power dipping.

On the Border used to be our go-to chips, but they seem to be saltier and have a less-enticing texture than they once did. Consumers tend to rate On the Border tortilla chips around 3.9 stars, with about 74% of people giving them 4-star or 5-star reviews. All the varieties at our local Walmart are $3.78 per bag, and they range from 12 to 16.5 ounces, placing them in the mid-range for tortilla chips per ounce.

If you have a Sam's Club membership and have been getting On the Border or some other brand, it's worthwhile to look for a box of Shearer's tortilla chips. It's easy to overlook them because they don't have a brand name on the front. Instead, they're in a large red box simply labeled "tortilla chips traditional rounds." Inside the box, you will find two clear bags of chips. Shearer's produces a variety of chips and salty snacks, including Walmart's Great Value brand. So, if you like Great Value brand tortilla chips, you're likely to like these.

We found these at our local Sam's Club for $12.56, which sounds expensive until you realize they come in a 6-pound box and are actually the best deal on our list per ounce. They have much better ratings than you'd expect for a cheap tortilla chip. The average buyer gives them 4.1 stars, and over 75% of the ratings are either four or five stars. Fans of these chips like their flavor, size, freshness, and dipability. However, they're best to buy in the store rather than shipped because they often arrive broken. These are one of Sam's Club's best-kept secrets since they're an excellent chip for such a low price.

When Julio Garcia kept getting calls to his catering business for extra chips and salsa several days after a catering job, he knew he was onto something. The chips eventually made their way to his burrito restaurants in Texas and later to grocery store shelves like Walmart and H-E-B. You may even be able to find Julio's salsa and queso if you're lucky. Along with salt and pepper, Julio's tortilla chips come with a slight seasoning of paprika and cumin. The unique flavor makes them something different without moving over into the Doritos spectrum of chips.

The average rating for Julio's is 4.4 stars, with about 82% of buyers giving them four or five stars. We found Julio's chips available at our neighborhood Walmart for $3.98, which is a mid-range price considering it comes in a 14-ounce package. They're definitely something slightly different than your run-of-the-mill tortilla chip and have a price and satisfaction rating that make them worth a try. However, you may have difficulty finding them on the shelves because fans like to snatch them when they see them.

A few years back, we only saw Late July's healthy chip brand in specialty grocery stores like Sprouts and Wholefoods because its products are organic and don't contain GMO ingredients. However, you're likely to find them at your local grocery store these days. Customers seem to like the blue corn variety slightly more than the thin and crispy ones with sea salt. If you prefer lightly-salted, medium-weight chips like you'd find in a Mexican restaurant, you'll appreciate them. Even though they're not super-thick, they're not too thin to hold up well to dipping.

When people give Late July tortilla chips a try, they rate them around 4.5 stars, with around 87% liking them enough to rate them four or five stars. Being organic and non-GMO, you can expect to pay more for this brand than most others. Late July chips only weigh in at 10.1 ounces and cost $4.58 at our local Walmart, making them one of the pricier grocery store tortilla chip brands on our list. 

Signature Select is another store brand that has surprisingly made its way to the top of our list. As such, you'll only find Signature Select tortilla chips at Albertsons grocery stores. Varieties you'll encounter may include restaurant style, white corn, and yellow corn (the store favorite). Customers find these to taste just as good and maybe even better than name-brand chips but at a lower price point. They're not overly salty, have a great flavor, and are the right texture for dipping. Customers also like that the chips have only four ingredients: corn, water, vegetable oil, and salt.

Albertsons shoppers rate the store's tortilla chip brand an average of 4.6 stars, with 91% of those ratings ranging between four and five stars. You'll find all three varieties for just $2.49 per package. Even though the restaurant-style ones come in a 9.5-ounce bag rather than an 11-ounce bag like the others, the average cost is still fairly low per ounce. So, if you have an Albertson's in your city, don't sleep on trying the store-brand tortilla chips.

Good & Gather is one of Target's newest store brands, first appearing in 2019 with more natural and healthier ingredients. All Good & Gather's tortilla chips are organic, gluten-free, and contain no preservatives except salt. They come in blue, white, and yellow corn varieties. We find them to have a stronger and more distinctive corn flavor than any other brands we've tried. While the strong corn flavor isn't our favorite, some customers went as far as to call the white ones "addictive." In fact, we've often found the white-corn ones completely plundered at Target. They're also strong enough to stand up to thick dips and salsas without breaking.

Good and Gather tortilla chips are popular enough that their average star rating is an impressive 4.7 stars. A full 91% of people who have rated these chips end up giving them a four- or five-star review.  All of these chips are on the expensive side per ounce. Locally, we found 12-ounce bags of both the white and yellow ones for $3.99. The blue ones cost a whopping $5.39, but they come in an 18-ounce bag. However, they're worth the extra cost if you're looking for an organic, full-flavor corn tortilla chip.