Food & Drink
Chips Tier List Maker
Rank potato chips and crunchy snacks, from Lay's and Pringles to Doritos, Takis and Cheetos.
Last reviewed
Unranked items
Drag items into a tier — or tap an item, then tap a tier.
Your list saves automatically in this browser. You can also drop or paste images onto the board. With a keyboard, focus an item and use the arrow keys to move it, or Delete to remove it.
Meet every chip (20)
These 20 chips load into the maker above. Each write-up covers what the chip is and what to weigh when you rank it. Facts were last checked on .
-
Lay's Classic
The plain flagship of a brand named after its founder's surname, formed in 1938 to produce potato chips. Lay's has been part of PepsiCo since the company merged with Pepsi in 1965.
-
Lay's Sour Cream & Onion
A flavored variety in a range that spans many flavors across North America. Outside North America the same snacks are sold under other names, such as Walkers in the UK and Ireland.
-
Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream
A crinkle-cut potato chip. Frito acquired the Ruffles rights in 1958 from Bernhardt Stahmer, who had adopted the trademark in 1948, and merged with H.W. Lay in 1961.
-
Pringles Original
Procter & Gamble invented Pringles in 1968 as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips." The saddle-shaped chips are made from a dough of dried potatoes and starches, and come stacked in a cylindrical can.
-
Pringles Sour Cream & Onion
A seasoned version of the stackable chip. Pringles are technically an extruded snack, and as of 2011 they were sold in more than 140 countries, with Mars Inc. now owning the brand through Kellanova.
-
Doritos Nacho Cheese
The nacho cheese flavor arrived in 1972, after toasted corn in 1966 and taco in 1967. It is now the best-known flavor of a tortilla chip brand that Frito-Lay sells worldwide.
-
Doritos Cool Ranch
A seasoned flavor in a line that began at a Disneyland restaurant managed by Frito-Lay. In 1966 Doritos became the first tortilla chip available nationally in the United States.
-
Cheetos Crunchy
The original crunchy corn-cheese snack, invented in 1948 by Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin. The line has expanded to include 21 different types of Cheetos in North America alone.
-
Cheetos Puffs
The softer, puffed counterpart to Crunchy Cheetos. The brand's early success helped lead to the 1961 merger of the Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company, which formed Frito-Lay.
-
Flamin' Hot Cheetos
A spicy variety in the Cheetos family. Cheetos was ranked in 2010 as the top-selling cheese puff brand in its main market of the United States, with worldwide retail sales around $4 billion.
-
Tostitos Scoops
The bowl-shaped tortilla chip, launched in June 2001 for dipping salsa and queso. The Tostitos brand itself was introduced in some markets in 1977, and rolled out nationwide in 1981.
-
Fritos
Corn chips from the Frito Corporation, founded in 1932 by Charles Elmer Doolin. They are made by deep-frying extruded whole cornmeal, unlike tortilla chips, which use the nixtamalization process.
-
Takis Fuego
A chili-lime rolled tortilla chip from Barcel, introduced in 2006 and sold in distinctive purple bags. It is the best-selling Takis flavor, and the shape is modeled on the taquito.
-
Sun Chips
A fried, rippled, multigrain chip produced by Frito-Lay. The brand stands out in this list because multigrain is its basis, rather than potatoes or plain corn.
-
Kettle Brand Sea Salt
Kettle Foods was founded in 1977 by Cameron Healy as the N. S. Khalsa Company and is based in Salem, Oregon. As of 2006, it was the largest natural potato chip brand in the United States.
-
Cheez-It
A cheese cracker made by Kellanova through its Sunshine Biscuits division. The small square crackers measure about 26 by 24 millimeters, and are made with wheat flour, vegetable oil, cheese and skim milk.
-
Funyuns
An onion-flavored corn snack introduced in 1969 and invented by Frito-Lay employee George Wade Bigner. The ring shape imitates fried onion rings, and in Brazil the snack is called Cebolitos.
-
Bugles
A corn snack produced by General Mills, with Tom's Snacks making it under license. It is the cone-shaped snack in this list, which sets it apart from the ridged and stacked chips.
-
Pirate's Booty
A puffed corn and rice snack developed in 1987 by Robert Ehrlich, who noticed that cheese puffs in a supermarket lacked real cheese. The Hershey Company acquired the brand in 2018.
-
Wavy Lay's
A ridged cut within the Lay's lineup, a brand that also includes the stackable sub-brand Lay's Stax. Frito-Lay uses the Lay's name in the United States and Canada.
About Chips
Chips and savory snacks come in thin potato chips, ridged chips, corn chips, puffs and stacked crisps. Each style has a different crunch, and flavors range from plain salt to cheese, spice and sour cream.
A good chips tier list picks a lens: the best plain chip, the best flavor, or the best chip for dipping. Otherwise a corn chip and a potato chip are hard to compare.
What to consider when you rank chips
- Flavor
- Crunch
- Saltiness and seasoning
- Good with dip
- Aftertaste and "one more handful" factor
Chips tier list questions
Which chips on this list are made by Frito-Lay?
Lay's, Ruffles, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Fritos, Sun Chips and Funyuns all come from Frito-Lay, which is a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Pringles, Takis, Kettle Brand and Cheez-It come from other companies.
Are Pringles really potato chips?
Pringles are made from a mixture of dried potatoes, starches, flours and seasonings, shaped into a saddle and fried, which makes them technically an extruded snack, not a traditional sliced potato chip.
How should I rank snacks and chips?
Flavor, crunch, how well a chip works with dip, and how long you can keep eating it are common criteria. Decide which one matters most, because a great dipping chip may not be the best snack straight from the bag.
Sources
Facts on this page were checked against these references on .