Earth Balance is still worth buying in 2026 if you want a cheap, widely available vegan butter that behaves predictably on toast, in a pan and in the oven. It is no longer the best tasting vegan butter, and the palm oil base bothers some shoppers, but as an everyday workhorse it holds up. Here is our full take after years of using it in our kitchen and putting it through our vegan butter baking test.
What Earth Balance is
Earth Balance launched in the US in the late 1990s and for a long time it was the only vegan butter most American supermarkets carried. Today it is owned by Flora Food Group, the company formerly known as Upfield, which also owns Violife and Flora.
Technically it is a margarine: a blend of plant oils, water, salt and emulsifiers. Earth Balance calls it a "buttery spread" because that phrase sells better, but there is no dairy anywhere in it. We unpack the naming game in our post on vegan butter vs margarine.
The Earth Balance lineup
The brand has grown into a small family of products. They share the same basic formula but differ in oil blend and format.
Tubs
- Original Buttery Spread: the classic. Palm fruit, canola, soybean, flax and olive oil blend. Softest texture, best for toast.
- Soy-Free Buttery Spread: the same idea without soybean oil. Tastes nearly identical to the Original.
- Olive Oil Buttery Spread: more olive oil in the blend and a slightly fruitier, greener note.
- Organic Whipped Buttery Spread: lighter and airier, made with organic oils. Spreads straight from the fridge but is too aerated for baking.
Sticks
The Vegan Buttery Sticks come in a four-pack, wrapped like dairy butter. They are firmer and carry less water than the tubs, which is why they are the version we reach for in baking. If you only buy one Earth Balance product for cooking, buy the sticks.
Ingredients and the palm oil question
The Original spread lists palm fruit oil, canola oil, soybean oil, flax oil, olive oil, water, salt, natural flavor, pea protein, sunflower lecithin, lactic acid and annatto. Nothing exotic, nothing from an animal. The pea protein and lactic acid give it a hint of dairy-like body and tang, and annatto is what makes it yellow.
Palm oil is the first ingredient, and that is the most common complaint we hear from readers. Palm oil is solid at room temperature, which lets the spread hold its shape without hydrogenation. Earth Balance states that it sources RSPO certified palm oil, which addresses some, but not all, of the environmental concerns.
If you want to avoid palm oil entirely, the coconut oil based options in our vegan butter roundup are the way to go. Miyoko's, Violife Vioblock, Melt Organic and Forager Project all skip palm.
How it performs in the kitchen
Spreading
This is where the tubs shine. Earth Balance Original spreads on cold toast straight out of the fridge without tearing the bread. The flavor is salty and mildly buttery, closer to a good margarine than to real butter, and it does not leave the waxy film some cheaper spreads do.
Sauteing and frying
Earth Balance melts fast and foams a little, much like dairy butter. It softens onions and garlic fine and works for scrambled tofu, pancakes and a grilled cheese made with a good vegan cheese. It starts to smoke at a slightly lower temperature than butter, so keep the pan at medium rather than high.
What it will not do is turn into brown butter. There are no milk solids to caramelize, so if a recipe leans on that nutty flavor, Earth Balance cannot deliver it.
Baking
In our vegan butter baking test, the Earth Balance sticks were the reliable budget pick, finishing behind Miyoko's on flavor but ahead of most of the field on consistency. Cookies spread a touch more than with dairy butter, and pie crust was workable as long as the dough stayed cold. The sticks cream with sugar properly, which the tubs do not.
Use the sticks, not the tubs, for anything that needs structure. The tubs hold more water and will give you flat cookies and greasy cake layers. For laminated dough, chill everything an extra 15 minutes, because plant oil blends soften faster than butter.
Taste compared with the competition
Taste is where Earth Balance shows its age. Newer vegan butters have passed it on flavor, and the gap is obvious in a side by side tasting on plain sourdough.
| Product | Base | Flavor | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earth Balance Original | Palm, canola, soy, flax, olive | Salty, mild, margarine-like | Toast, everyday cooking, budget baking (sticks) | Low |
| Miyoko's Cultured Vegan Butter | Cashew and coconut oil, cultured | Tangy, rich, closest to European butter | Baking, finishing, eating on bread | High |
| Country Crock Plant Butter | Plant oil blend with olive, avocado or almond oil | Clean, neutral, slightly sweet | Baking sticks, cheapest option | Low |
| Violife Vioblock | Coconut oil | Mild, creamy, faint coconut | Slicing, spreading, European style block | Medium |
Miyoko's is the flavor benchmark. It is cultured, so it has the lactic tang of real butter, and it costs roughly double what Earth Balance does.
Country Crock Plant Butter tastes cleaner and a bit more neutral than Earth Balance and its sticks are usually the cheapest on the shelf, which makes it the closest direct competitor. Violife Vioblock is creamier and firmer, better for slicing onto bread, with a faint coconut note that Earth Balance does not have.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Sold almost everywhere in the US, including most standard grocery chains.
- Among the cheapest vegan butters, especially the sticks.
- Predictable in baking, sauteing and spreading. No surprises.
- Soy-free version for people with soy allergies.
Cons
- Palm oil is the first ingredient, even if it is RSPO certified.
- Tastes more like margarine than butter. No cultured tang.
- Tubs are too soft and watery for baking; you need the sticks.
- Long ingredient list compared with Forager Project or Miyoko's.
Who should buy Earth Balance
Buy it if you need a dependable, affordable vegan butter for everyday use and you do not mind palm oil. It is the right choice for families who go through a lot of spread, for anyone cooking for a vegan or dairy-free guest without wanting to hunt down specialty brands, and for budget baking where the sticks do a solid job.
Who should pick something else
Skip it if flavor is the priority. Miyoko's or Kite Hill European Style will make a noticeably better croissant, shortbread or slice of buttered bread.
Skip it if you avoid palm oil, in which case Violife Vioblock, Melt Organic or Forager Project are the better fit. And if you want the shortest ingredient list possible, Forager Project's coconut oil and cashew milk spread is hard to beat.
All of these are covered in our vegan butter alternatives guide, and if you are replacing butter in a specific recipe rather than buying a product, our vegan butter substitutes post walks through the swaps.
Frequently asked questions
Is Earth Balance vegan?
Yes. Every Earth Balance buttery spread and the Vegan Buttery Sticks are certified vegan and contain no dairy, eggs or other animal ingredients.
Does Earth Balance contain palm oil?
Yes, palm fruit oil is the first ingredient in the Original, Soy-Free and Olive Oil spreads and in the sticks. Earth Balance says it uses RSPO certified sustainable palm oil. If you want a palm-free vegan butter, look at coconut oil based options such as Miyoko's, Violife Vioblock or Melt Organic.
Can you bake with Earth Balance?
Yes, but use the Vegan Buttery Sticks rather than the tubs. The sticks have a fat content close to dairy butter and cream with sugar properly, while the tubs contain more water and produce flat cookies. In our baking test the sticks were the reliable budget pick behind Miyoko's.
Is Earth Balance the same as margarine?
In practice, yes. It is a blend of plant oils, water, salt and emulsifiers, which is the definition of margarine. The difference from a typical supermarket margarine is that Earth Balance is guaranteed free of whey, casein, lactose and animal derived vitamin D3, so it is safe for vegans and people avoiding dairy.
Which Earth Balance is best?
For spreading, the Original or Soy-Free tub. For baking and cooking, the Vegan Buttery Sticks. Keep the Organic Whipped spread for toast, because its airy texture does not hold up to heat.
Bottom line
Earth Balance is not the most exciting vegan butter on the shelf in 2026, but it is one of the most useful. It is cheap, it is everywhere, and the sticks bake reliably. If you want better flavor or a palm-free formula, Miyoko's and Violife Vioblock are worth the extra money. For everything else, it remains a solid default, and you can see how it stacks up against the whole field in our vegan butter guide.
