SerpApi.Org
When a home project is on the horizon, the first question is often where to buy your supplies. To settle the debate, I carried the same shopping list into both Home Depot and Lowe's and compared prices across 12 common categories, from cleaning supplies to kitchen faucets. Some matchups pitted identical products against each other, while others compared the closest available equivalents.
A quick reminder before we start: prices and availability are subject to change and may vary by location. Both retailers also offer price match guarantees on eligible items, so it pays to check the fine print. Here is how each category broke down.
Where Lowe's came out ahead
Lowe's did not win the overall comparison, but it took a couple of categories. On cleaning supplies, a 121-ounce jug of bleach was $6.48 for the Home Depot HDX generic versus $5.98 for the Lowe's Moxie brand. Showerheads also went to Lowe's, where a Delta six-spray fixed showerhead in chrome was $19.98 compared with $21.98 for the same item at Home Depot. Both were small margins, but they landed in Lowe's column.
Where Home Depot dominated
Home Depot won the majority of categories, often by a wide margin. On power drills, a Ryobi 18-volt brushless cordless compact drill and driver with battery and charger was $99 at Home Depot, while a similar Bosch model was $119 at Lowe's. Interior paint was an even bigger gap: a gallon of Glidden Premium Interior Paint and Primer in eggshell was $30.98 at Home Depot versus $44.98 for Valspar at Lowe's.
Soil followed the same pattern, with a 32-quart bag of Vigoro All-Purpose Potting Soil Mix at $7.97 at Home Depot against a comparable Sta-Green bag at $8.98 at Lowe's. The biggest dollar gap came in kitchen appliances, where a Frigidaire 36-inch, 26-cubic-foot stainless side-by-side refrigerator was $1,259 at Home Depot versus an almost identical Frigidaire model at $1,599 at Lowe's.
The wins kept coming. Tile favored Home Depot, with a TrafficMaster beige 12-by-24-inch matte ceramic stone tile at 97 cents per square foot versus a similar StainMaster option at $1.89 at Lowe's. Carpeting went the same way, as a TrafficMaster Hartsfield Skypoint beige polyester-textured carpet was $1.14 per square foot at Home Depot against a similar Style Selections product at $1.38 at Lowe's.
Tools, safety, and fixtures
Safety equipment was a decisive Home Depot win. A Kidde four-inch compact battery-powered smoke detector was $18.97 at Home Depot, while a First Alert battery model was $32.98 at Lowe's. Hand tools followed suit, with a Stanley six-inch wrench at $5.97 at Home Depot versus a Craftsman adjustable wrench at $16.98 at Lowe's.
Toilets were the one true tie of the comparison, with a Glacier Bay one-piece elongated model and a Laporte model both priced at $179. Kitchen sink faucets, though, swung back to Home Depot, where a Glacier Bay Sadira single-handle pull-down sprayer faucet in stainless was $59 versus a comparable Source brand option priced at more than $89 at Lowe's.
What the matchups tell us
Stepping back from the individual items, the trend is hard to miss. Home Depot won the clear majority of categories, and in several cases the gap was substantial rather than symbolic. The interior paint, kitchen appliances, smoke detectors, and hand tools all showed double-digit dollar differences, which matters most on the big-ticket purchases that anchor a renovation budget.
Lowe's still earned its place on the list, taking cleaning supplies and showerheads outright. The takeaway is not that one store is always cheaper on everything, but that the heaviest savings clustered at Home Depot. For a large project with appliances and finish materials, starting there appears to give shoppers the better baseline, while a quick price check can catch the handful of items where Lowe's wins.
Bottom line
After comparing all 12 categories, Home Depot came out on top as the less expensive home improvement retailer, winning the clear majority of matchups and tying on the rest. Lowe's still offered better deals on a few specific items, so a smart shopper might split a list between the two. Because both stores honor price match guarantees on eligible items, it is always worth checking your local store or the retailers' websites for the fine print before you buy. A few minutes of price comparison can help you keep more cash in your wallet and shave real money off the cost of your next home project.
Editor's Note: Portions of this story were drafted with assistance from generative AI tools. All final creative decisions, edits, and fact checking were done by human writers and editors.
