The Best Shower Caddy

Prior to testing for this guide, I did not have a shower caddy in my bathroom. This is solely because If I am spending money, I usually spend it on things I love or find essential. A shower caddy did not fall into this category because I use a vast amount of products so they always tend to fall out or the caddy becomes ridiculously crammed. The shower caddy also rusts and has soap scum buildup and causes me to buy another one. I began to find it more convenient to keep my essential products on the bathtub ledge for easy access and keep my more specialty items within my bathroom cabinet and grab them when needed.

Going into this research, I was skeptical that shower caddies will truly make a positive difference in my shower experience and I also was questioning if caddies at a higher price are worth it. After pushing over 20 shower caddies to their limits, seeing the best alongside the cheap and complicated ones, I was converted. Spending a bit more money really makes a difference and now I consider a shower caddy an essential (it just has to be the right one). I wouldn’t go as far as saying I love shower caddies now, but I’d rather spend more on a nice one that does the job well and will last a long time than a cheap one that I have to constantly replace over the years.

I spent 35 hours researching 50 models, including previous picks, and tested 25. All together, myself and four writers who worked on prior versions of this guide have spent more than 70 hours researching more than 100 shower caddies.

Every shower needs a caddy—especially when multiple people share the bathroom. I didn’t think I needed a caddy, because my bathtub’s walls have built-in shelves to hold products. But a good caddy lets you stay more organized, and it’s easier to take down and clean a caddy than scrub soap scum off the shelf and wall. A good one can also overcome the problem of rust, which plagues cheaper caddies. We tested these in a few showers and in the process convinced other skeptics—for example, my parents had never even considered a shower caddy and said they will absolutely be buying one now.

We scoured Amazon, Google, and even TikTok looking for every shower caddy we could find. Our initial list included contenders from well-known, reputable brands and manufacturers we’d never heard of. We mainly focused on the classic over-the-showerhead design, because it’s the most popular and easiest to install. We also looked at non-traditional caddies such as shower shelves, free standing, over-door and pole-style versions. We read lots of reviews, interviewed a few manufacturers, and narrowed down our list with the following criteria:

• Design: Is it easy to set up? Is it stable? Does it look okay? Do the points of contact—with the shower arm, wall, or tub ledge—make a secure connection?
• Capacity: Does it hold enough bottles? Is there space for soap? Razors? Hooks?
• Quality: Do the materials seem made to last? Will it rust? For a pole style, is the spring tense enough?
• Reputation: How are the reviews? Is there a warranty?
• Price: How do cheaper and pricier caddies compare? What’s a good value?

We eventually pared our list down to 15 finalists, including picks from earlier iterations of this guide. In 2022, with a new writer overseeing the topic, we started from scratch in a new test venue, beginning an evaluation that paired our former picks against the best competitors we could find.

Once the test models arrived, we pushed the shower caddies to their limits. I’m a product hoarder and enjoy having value-size products. I also have curly hair with a mind of its own, which means I have different types of shampoos and conditioners for different days: One (okay, two) for when I feel like I have a lot of product buildup, one for if my scalp is feeling particularly itchy, a cheap conditioner. a conditioner for color-treated hair, a tea-tree oil shampoo-conditioner pair for the ultimate salonlike experience, and two conditioning masks. I also have multiple face washes and scrubs. All together, I loaded the shower caddies with up to 150 ounces of showering products in different-size bottles—plus a bar of soap, a facial cleansing brush, a hair brush, a razor, and a loofah.

Of the 20 shower caddies we tested, the OXO Aluminum 3-Tier Shower Caddy is the one we’d recommend if you're tired of replacing a rusted-out wire rack every 18 months. It’s easier than others to install, and it’s more stable thanks to its grippy hook and suction cups and has ample capacity for two people’s toiletries.

It has quality materials and ease of cleaning surpass cheaper models, while being more affordable than some other excellent shower caddies we saw. OXO’s reputation and guarantee provide some long-term assurance, a detail that stands out among the hordes of mystery companies on Amazon.

The OXO is the easiest of our picks to install. It has with a simple hook at the top and a rotating bar with two suction cups at the bottom to stick it to your shower wall. Its rubberized hook requires little effort to attach and detach—I did both while it was fully stocked with products—but it’s sturdy and won't slip down the showerhead arm, unlike others we tested.

Suction cups at the bottom stabilize the entire unit, and the short bar they’re connected to can rotate to get the best grip on a shower wall or tile. It's secure: Even loaded with products, it didn't budge after repeated smacks to its side. The only other caddies this sturdy were by Simplehuman—but you must screw-tighten their hooks onto the shower arm, a slightly annoying step that the OXO conveniently skips.

The OXO held more products in varying sizes and shapes than most caddies we tested. With two full size shelves and a large soap dish, it holds four bottles of shampoos and conditioners ranging from 8 ounces to 16 ounces, a 7-ounce tube of shaving cream, one 16-ounce face wash, an 34-ounce bottle of body wash, a 5.5 ounce of body wash, a bar of soap, one standard razor, and a shower puff. Its soap dish, which includes a couple of handy hooks for a razor and loofah, is removable for cleaning.

OXO prominently claims that the caddy, with its anodized aluminum finish, will never rust—a problem with other caddies, like for this Amazon reviewer, who bought the OXO to replace a rusted rack. We couldn’t test all the caddies long enough to check for rust, but we will look for it in long-term testing. One reason we recommend this product, though, is that OXO’s guarantee means even something like rust is not a huge concern, as the company has proven on many occasions that it's willing to honor the guarantee for any products that don’t live up to its claims.

The OXO shower caddy does not adjust up and down, unlike similar models from Simplehuman, which let you raise and lower the shelves and the central beam. A few reviewers on Amazon complained that the top shelf was too high to reach. This was a bit of a problem for me. For context, my showerhead is attached to the wall at about 85 inches from the tub floor, putting the caddy’s top shelf at just at 7 feet. I’m 5-foot-3, and I could easily reach it with a bit of stretching, however I do have long limbs.

A review also complained that the suction cups didn’t work well on tile. We haven’t seen this issue in testing on smooth tile, and we can confirm the suction cups don’t budge at all on an acrylic shower enclosure. But uneven or porous tile surfaces would likely present a problem for this or any other suction cup.

The absolute best behind-the-showerhead caddies we tried were the Simplehuman Adjustable Shower Caddy Plus and (if you need to accommodate a handheld showerhead’s dangling hose) the Adjustable Shower Caddy XL.

Their quality and stability are comparable to the OXO’s, and their adjustable height and shelves add more configuration options. The extra features and adjustability add to the cost, however, and installing either Simplehuman caddy isn’t as easy as getting the OXO in place.

The Simplehuman models add a slightly annoying step to the installation. Once you loop the caddy’s hook over the shower arm, you have to use a screwdriver to tighten an integrated screw to cinch down the hook’s eyelet. Two suction cups at the bottom of the caddy secure it to the shower wall. Once you do that, this caddy doesn’t budge. A slight drawback relative to the OXO: The suction cup bar doesn’t rotate to allow for exact positioning on the shower walls (which is a problem if it falls directly over a grout line). The Simplehuman caddies include adhesive stickers to use if the suction cups don’t work in your shower, though we didn’t need them in testing.

Both Simplehuman models have more versatile configuration options than the OXO. The overall height of the caddies can adjust by nearly a foot, so you can make their placement fit best with your own height and the height of the shower arm. The Simplehuman shelves, with the help of a knob on the back, can also be adjusted up or down (and the Plus can move side to side) and to configure the caddy for your particular bottles. The OXO doesn’t do either.

The Simplehuman XL’s standout advantage over the OXO and the Simplehuman Plus is that it has space in the middle to make room for a handheld showerhead’s hose (which would interfere with basically any other caddy mounted to the shower arm).

The Simplehuman caddies held everything the OXO held, with additional room. It was able to fit a second razor, a hair mask, and a brush. The Simplehuman caddies also have holes in the shelves so you can store bottles upside down, helping you eke out the last drops of shampoos and conditioners. The bottom hook on the Simplehuman caddies is shallow compared with OXO’s design, so our shower puff fell off a few times in testing. But it has a bar along the soap dish that the OXO lacks, giving you a better place to hang a washcloth to dry.

Both caddies are made of stainless steel and anodized aluminum, so Simplehuman, like OXO, claims they won’t rust. Simplehuman has a limited warranty on its products, but it’s not as comprehensive and open-ended as OXO’s lifetime guarantee.

A pole-style caddy in a far corner of the shower can hold more than an over-the-arm rack, and it can declutter the showerhead area, making your shower feel roomier and more pleasant. But a good model, like the OXO Good Grips Quick-Extend Aluminum Pole Caddy, is far more expensive than a hanging caddy.

Compared with cheaper pole caddies, the OXO is easier to install, much sturdier, more versatile, and more attractive. It seems made to last years, but even if it doesn’t, it’s backed by OXO’s guarantee—a huge reassurance for something this expensive.

The OXO, which wedges between the floor (or bathtub ledge) and ceiling, was the best of the three pole caddies we tried because of its incredibly simple assembly and installation process. The other two models we tested came with multiple pieces and required measuring to see how many extension poles you’d need to fit in your shower. The multiple-pole design led to problems with some competitors we considered—including collapsing due to too-loose tension springs that never held the pole in place, and for some ceiling heights, creating a need to cut the extension pieces to length with a hacksaw.

The OXO handles all this with a single telescoping pole that you extend to the right height and and lock into place. A powerful internal compression spring keeps the pole wedged firmly between the ceiling and the floor or tub ledge. We installed it on a tub ledge and found it quite sturdy, even loaded with enough bottles, soap, and accessories for a family of five. In a taller ceiling height location, installed freestanding—not braced in a corner, as intended—it still didn’t shake or shimmy.

The OXO’s four shelves hold several bottles apiece, making this ideal for bathrooms shared by two or more people. You can remove each shelf for cleaning without having to remove the pole, unlike the other two pole-style caddies we tried, including our previous pick from Simplehuman. The pole extends from 5 to 9 feet, so unless your ceiling is unusually high, this model should work. It’s great for a shower stall, and we’ve also found it can work in a combination tub and shower, as long as the tub ledge has a few inches of flat area for the bottom foot to sit on. This design can be a challenge in some ready-to-assemble tub and shower surrounds, as some designs limit the placement options on the lower foot.

We’re currently testing portable shower caddies to add as a category as in this guide for college students, people who use shared and public showers, and they are also useful for emergency prep.

After another round of research, we’re currently testing the Room Essentials Mesh Shower Caddy, Bukere Portable Shower Caddy, Mainstays Portable Shower Caddy, and the Pottery Barn Recycled Classic Shower Caddy.

The Room Essentials Mesh Shower Caddy has performed well in testing thus far and has caught our interest. It has a great price point of only $8. It is compact and foldable, making it easy to carry. During testing thus far, it has concealed personal items well at gym showers, as it is more like a shoulder bag rather than a traditional caddy. The mesh design has also been quick drying, which helps conveniently store it when not using it.

We’re also testing a newly released shower caddy from Quiet Town, The Spot. This caddy has an interesting design we’ve never seen before and a steep price point of $198. It’s advertised as a completely modular and customizable system to fit your needs. Quiet Town also sells additional add-on modular pieces, like a razor hook or single bottle basket, prices ranging from $5-$25. It also can be used as a mounted catch-all organizer instead of a caddy. We’re interested to see how it holds up against traditional style caddies and if the price point is justifiable.

Once we’re done testing, we’ll update the guide accordingly.

OXO has released the Aluminum Caddy for Shower Doors. This 3-tiered caddy seems to be identical to our pick including the price, yet has a hook system made to accommodate shower doors. If you have a shower door or would prefer an over-the-door caddy, this might be a better choice.

We tried the ShowerGem Shower Caddy, after discovering it from the amount of traction it received from TikTok and it was an As Seen on TV product. Despite its unique design, it requires gluing a bracket to your shower wall and waiting a minimum of 24 hours before you can use the caddy. This is a step we found unusual and unnecessary to ensure the stability of a shower caddy.

The Yamazaki Free Standing Minimal Shower Caddy is another caddy we had high hopes for because it is a free standing shower shelf that is more appealing than a typical shower caddy. This caddy fell short due to the short height which made it hard to reach products while in the shower. It was also fairly flimsy which required heavier products to be on the bottom shelf, making them even harder to reach.

We tried the AquaTeak Patented Moa Teak Shower Organizer because of the high quality teak wood and 5-year warranty and 30 day satisfaction guarantee. However, the design was awkward for detachable showerheads and we found our picks were better quality, more stable, and more personalizable for the price.

We tried the Utopia Alley 2-Teak Shelves Tia Rustproof Over the Shower Caddy but the caddy was not very stable and did not hold a lot of products, it’s probably too small for more than one person.

We tried OXO’s 2-tiered version of our top pick, and it has the same durability and large soap dish that we liked, but we think it’s probably too small for most people.

The OXO Hose Keeper Shower Caddy is designed to accommodate a handheld showerhead’s dangling hose, but its overall height is not adjustable like on the Simplehuman XL. We prefer that adjustability, because with a wide range of combination handheld-and-fixed showerhead designs—many of which crowd the showerhead area—we want to be able to lower and raise shelves to make the setup function well.

Simplehuman’s Standard version has adjustable shelves, but the neck can’t extend and its soap dish is smaller. Simplehuman makes an over-the-door version that we didn’t feel was as versatile as the over-the-shower-arm design. Simplehuman’s corner model was smaller and less sturdy than the OXO Pole Caddy.

InterDesign’s Metalo and Forma over-the-door shower caddies are both fine options if you have a shower with doors, although after testing everything side by side, we’d still go for an over-the-shower-arm caddy to keep the door area visually clear. The Metalo is inexpensive and looks it but has a handy washcloth bar at the bottom. The Forma costs a bit more and looks better than the Metalo, but its razor hooks couldn’t hold our standard-size razor.

Zenna Home’s highly rated Expandable Handheld Shower Head Caddy fell short for us, because its hard plastic hook slid off the shower arm repeatedly—a problem our other picks all avoided.

We had high hopes for Zenna’s Never Rust caddy. But its second shelf is short, and anything taller than the tiniest bottles on the top shelf interfere with the shower’s spray. The Zenna has two hooks, which jut out sharply and give it the appearance of being very cheaply constructed.