The Honest Company is a solid choice for babies, particularly if you prioritize plant-based ingredients and fewer synthetic chemicals. Its diapers, wipes, and skincare products consistently score well in independent safety databases and avoid many of the additives that concern parents. But “good” depends on what matters most to you, because Honest sits in the premium price tier and has had a few stumbles worth knowing about.
What Honest Gets Right on Ingredients
Honest’s baby skincare line leans heavily on plant-derived and naturally sourced ingredients. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, which rates products on a hazard scale, lists Honest’s fragrance-free 2-in-1 shampoo and body wash as “low hazard.” That’s the best category a product can land in. Across the line, Honest formulates without parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and several other chemicals that parents commonly try to avoid.
Their wipes are one of the brand’s standout products. The cloth is made from plant-based viscose rather than plastic fibers, and they’re manufactured without fragrances, parabens, or chlorine processing. Honest also claims the wipes are compostable, disintegrating in about eight weeks under home composting conditions. That’s roughly the same timeline as a grapefruit peel. For parents trying to reduce waste, this is a meaningful differentiator from conventional wipes.
How Honest Diapers Compare on Price
Honest diapers cost more than mainstream brands but fall in the middle of the “clean diaper” market. In size 3, you’ll pay roughly $0.41 to $0.44 per diaper depending on whether you buy individual boxes or subscribe to their bundled box. For context, here’s how that stacks up against comparable options:
- Huggies Special Delivery: ~$0.37 per diaper
- Pampers Pure Protection: ~$0.37 per diaper
- Hello Bello: ~$0.36 to $0.38 per diaper
- Millie Moon: ~$0.28 per diaper
- Dyper: ~$0.52 to $0.56 per diaper
- Coterie: ~$0.57 to $0.63 per diaper
So Honest runs about 10 to 20 percent more than Huggies Special Delivery or Pampers Pure, which are the “clean” lines from the big conventional brands. It’s noticeably cheaper than ultra-premium options like Coterie or Dyper. Hello Bello comes in slightly lower and targets a similar audience, making it the most direct budget competitor.
Over a year, that price difference adds up. If your baby uses seven diapers a day, the gap between Honest at $0.42 and Huggies Special Delivery at $0.37 works out to roughly $130 annually. Whether that’s worth it depends on how much you value Honest’s specific ingredient standards and the cute prints they’re known for.
Past Safety Issues to Know About
Honest has had a few product recalls that are worth mentioning. The company voluntarily recalled certain baby wipes and baby powder products in 2017, and pulled a bubble bath product in January 2021. Both recalls were due to concerns about potential contamination. According to the company’s own SEC filings, the incidents “negatively affected our brand image and required significant time and resources to address.”
Voluntary recalls are actually more common in the baby product industry than most parents realize, and the fact that Honest initiated them (rather than being forced by regulators) suggests the company takes contamination risks seriously. Still, two separate recall events in a few years is something to weigh. There haven’t been any additional recalls reported through 2024.
Performance in Practice
Clean ingredients don’t matter much if the diapers leak. Honest diapers have a reputation for running slightly smaller than mainstream brands, so many parents find they need to size up earlier than expected. Absorbency is generally comparable to other premium diapers for daytime use, though some parents report that overnight performance doesn’t match brands like Huggies or Pampers, which have had decades to refine their absorbent core technology.
The wipes tend to get more universally positive feedback. They’re thick, don’t tear easily, and the lack of fragrance makes them gentle on sensitive skin. If you’re only going to try one Honest product, the wipes are the safest bet in terms of quality matching the price.
Who Honest Works Best For
Honest is a good fit if you want baby products with cleaner ingredient lists than conventional brands but don’t want to pay ultra-premium prices. It’s particularly strong for families dealing with sensitive skin or eczema, where fragrance-free, low-chemical formulations can make a real difference in reducing flare-ups.
If your main concern is absorbency and leak protection on a budget, mainstream brands like Huggies or Pampers will give you better performance per dollar. And if you want the absolute cleanest ingredients regardless of cost, brands like Coterie or Dyper push the standards further, though at a steep price increase. Honest occupies a practical middle ground: meaningfully cleaner than conventional, meaningfully cheaper than ultra-premium, and widely available at most major retailers.