Best Cheap Dog Food Brands for 2024: High-Quality & Budget-Friendly

We, paw-rents, are always on the look out for the best cheap dog food brands, right?

The quality of your dog’s diet will have a direct influence on his long-term health and wellness. Unfortunately, some of the best dog foods on the market are also the most expensive.

For some of the top brands, you might find yourself paying over $100 for a 25-pound bag. This might not be such a big deal if you have a small dog, but the larger your dog the more food he will eat and the costs are going to add up quickly.

If you’re familiar with this conundrum, you may be glad to know that there are actually some decent quality brands out there that are still fairly affordable. Keep reading to learn more.

5 Best Cheap Dog Foods

When you are looking for a new dog food, it is important not to shop by price alone. Though this is not always the case, the lower quality pet foods tend to be the least expensive. On the other hand, a high price tag is not always correlated with higher quality.

If you want to feed your dog well but you have a limited budget, you may need to work a little harder in finding a brand that suits both needs.

Fortunately for you, we’ve already done some of that work. Here are the top five affordable dog food brands that offer decent quality and an average price per pound of no more than $2:

1. Diamond Naturals

The Diamond Pet Food Company often gets a bad rap for having multiple dog food recalls. If you are shopping based on quality alone, however, the Diamond Naturals brand offers a decent blend of affordability and quality.

Diamond Naturals is one of three Diamond Pet Foods brands and it is sold as a holistic brand of pet food made with high-quality proteins and fresh fruits and vegetables. This brand offers dry foods and wet foods as well as dog treats, all made with natural ingredients and formulated in keeping with a holistic approach to pet nutrition.

Furthermore, this brand supplements their recipes with probiotics for healthy digestion, superfoods for nutrition, and antioxidants for immune support. They offer recipes for dogs in all life stages as well as dogs of different breed sizes.

2. Purina Beyond

Though several of the Purina brands aren’t worth buying, the Purina Beyond brand is worth considering if you are looking for an affordable pet food brand. Purina Beyond is made with real meat, poultry, or fish as the first ingredient and all recipes are free from corn, wheat, and soy ingredients.

This brand doesn’t use any poultry by-product meals or artificial additives either. Purina Beyond offers nine different dry dog food recipes including several grain-free formulas. This brand uses a variety of proteins including chicken, beef, lamb, tuna, and salmon as well as digestible carbohydrates like whole barley and pumpkin.

Purina Beyond offers three grain-free recipes, one small dog formula, two small batch recipes, two limited ingredient diets, and one superfood formula.

3. Fromm Family Classics

The Fromm brand of pet food is family-owned and -operated as an artisanal pet food company. Fromm offers three different product lines for dogs, some of which can get pretty pricey. They do, however, offer the Classics line of products which offers quality and affordability.

Fromm Family Classics dog food comes in two formulas, one for adult dogs and one for mature adults. Both recipes are prepared in small batches and made with fresh ingredients that are delivered to Fromm Family kitchens daily.

These two recipes feature fresh chicken and whole eggs as well as brown rice and real Wisconsin cheese. The Classic Adult recipe is designed for normally active adult dogs and it offers 23% crude protein and 15% crude fat.

The Classic Mature Adult recipes is designed for less active adult dogs and senior dogs, made with 21% protein and 11% fat. Either would be a good choice for your dog.

4. Nature’s Recipe

The Nature’s Recipe brand has been producing and manufacturing pet foods for more than 30 years and they design their products with inspiration from nature’s inherent goodness – hence the name, Nature’s Recipe.

This brand is dedicated to creating nutritionally vibrant recipes to give pets the long, healthy lives they deserve. Their products can be divided into four different product lines, one of which is a dedicated line of wholesome dog treats.

The Life Stages line of products features formulas specially targeted to the nutritional needs of dogs in different life stages from puppy to adult. The Special Needs product line features recipes designed to support the unique nutritional requirements of different breeds and sizes of dog, as well as dogs with specific dietary needs.

The Premium line of products features dog foods made with high-quality proteins and supplemented with fresh produce.

5. IAMS Naturals

The Iams pet food company is similar to Purina in that they offer multiple brands and they have a history of product recalls. If you’re only concerned about finding an affordable pet food that offers decent quality, however, the Iams Naturals brand is one to consider.

Iams Naturals pet foods cost up to 25% less than the leading pet food brand but they are still made with decent quality ingredients. This brand can actually be divided into three product lines – Healthy Naturals, Grain-Free Naturals, and Sensitive Naturals.

There are four Healthy Naturals recipes made with quality proteins like chicken, salmon, and lamb with digestible carbohydrates like rice, barley, and red lentils. One of these is a healthy weight formula.

There is only one Grain-Free Naturals recipe made with chicken and garden peas, and one Sensitive Naturals recipe made with ocean fish and rice.

If you want to give your dog the best diet you can afford, the top five brands reviewed above would all be a good choice. These brands may not be the highest quality pet foods money can buy, but they offer decent quality and they are affordable for the pet owner on a budget.