Alternatives to Benjamin Moore: Paints That Match the Quality (2026)

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The short version

Benjamin Moore is good paint. I’ve sprayed Aura on more trim packages than I can count and I’d put it on my own house. The problem isn’t quality. The problem is the dealer network: no Amazon, no Home Depot, no Lowe’s, and a price floor BM enforces with both hands. If your nearest dealer is 30 miles out and they’re closed Sunday, you need a Plan B.

Plan B is what this page is. Four BM products homeowners search for the most, and what to buy when BM doesn’t make sense. None of these alternatives are sold as “as good as BM” because that’s marketing talk. They’re sold here as what an experienced painter actually reaches for when BM isn’t on the shelf.

Where Benjamin Moore is still worth the drive

Before the alternatives, the honest part. BM still wins on three things.

Color matching. The Color Lab tint base produces deeper, cleaner reds and blacks than anything at the big-box store. If you’ve picked an HC- color from a designer, get it in BM. A Behr or SW match-to is close, never identical.

Dealer service. A real BM store will mix a custom color in 20 minutes, troubleshoot a peeling job, and remember your name on the second visit. Home Depot will not.

Aura on exterior trim in zones 5 and 6. I’ve watched it hold gloss and color through five winters where every other premium acrylic chalked. That one’s not marketing.

Everything else has a working alternative. Here they are.

BM Aura Interior → SW Emerald or Behr Marquee

Aura is BM’s flagship wall paint. Self-priming on most surfaces, washable, low-VOC, $85–95/gal at the dealer. The two products that match it on a wall are Sherwin-Williams Emerald Interior and Behr Marquee.

Sherwin-Williams Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex is the closest match. Same low-VOC formula, same washability rating, same color-matching ceiling. MSRP runs $80–95/gal, which sounds like no savings until you remember SW runs 30%-off store sales four or five times a year. Time your job to a sale and Emerald lands at $55–65/gal, well under Aura’s price floor. Two coats. Always two coats — that “one-coat” claim on the can means controlled lighting and a perfect substrate, not your living room.

Behr Marquee Interior is the budget play. $50–55/gal at every Home Depot in the country, open until 10pm, and they’ll tint a quart at the desk while you wait. The hide is genuinely good, the wash test is genuinely good, and the color deck is wide enough for most jobs. Where Marquee gives ground: deep tones (deep navy, charcoal, true red) need three coats where Aura needs two, and the resin burnishes a touch faster on doorframes that get a lot of hand contact. The other thing nobody mentions is that Behr’s tint is a hair more plastic-looking than BM’s under raking afternoon light. Most homeowners never notice. Designers do.

For a kid’s bedroom, hallway, or rental flip, Marquee is the right call and Aura is overkill. For a formal dining room with picture lighting, splurge on the Aura.

BM Regal Select → Behr Premium Plus or Valspar Signature

Regal Select is BM’s mid-tier wall paint. Lower price than Aura, similar wash rating, smaller color range in the can but the same tint base. Roughly $60–70/gal at the dealer.

Behr Premium Plus Interior is the head-to-head competitor at $30–35/gal. Lower wash rating than Regal Select, slightly more roller texture if you’re not careful with your nap. But for new construction, bedroom walls, or a quick repaint where the homeowner cares about square footage covered per dollar, Premium Plus is the answer. I’ve put it on hundreds of walls. It holds up.

Valspar Signature is the Lowe’s equivalent at $40–45/gal. Slightly better hide than Premium Plus, slightly better leveling, available in a wide enough color deck that most homeowners won’t notice a missing shade. If you’re in a Lowe’s town and you don’t need Aura-level wash resistance, this is the easy pick.

What you’re giving up versus Regal Select: about a half-grade of scrub resistance and the BM tint base’s depth on saturated colors. For a guest bedroom, you won’t see the difference. For a hallway with three kids and a dog, the Regal Select still wins on year-three burnish, but only barely.

One trick on the Behr side. If a homeowner brings me a Regal Select color match, I tell Home Depot to tint it in Marquee instead of Premium Plus. The Marquee resin holds the depth of a Regal Select-tier color better than Premium Plus does. Costs the homeowner an extra $20 a gallon and saves the call-back two years later.

BM Advance (cabinets and trim) → SW Emerald Urethane or Insl-X Cabinet Coat

Advance is the one BM product I think is genuinely best-in-category. Waterborne alkyd, levels like oil, cures hard. If your dealer is close, just buy it. If your dealer is far, here’s what works.

Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel is the upgrade pick. Harder cured film than Advance at year one, recoats in four hours instead of sixteen, which means you can shoot a kitchen in a weekend instead of three. Costs more ($95–110/gal) and the color deck is Emerald-line only (no full BM crossover). Slight ammonia smell, ventilation matters. For a high-traffic family kitchen where you want the project done and the cabinets back in service, this is the call.

Insl-X Cabinet Coat is the funny one. Insl-X is owned by Benjamin Moore. Cabinet Coat is a stripped-down Advance for half the price ($50–55/gal), available on Amazon and at most BM dealers. About 80% of the finish. You can see slight texture under raking light where Advance is glass, and the cure takes the same 30 days. For a budget kitchen flip, this is the pick. Every contractor I know keeps a couple of gallons in the truck.

What I won’t tell you to do: skip the bonding primer. Stix or BIN under any of these, on any factory-finished cabinet, every time. The paint is only as good as what it sticks to.

BM Aura Bath & Spa → Zinsser Perma-White or SW Duration Home

This is the category where Aura’s price gap is hardest to justify. Bath & Spa runs $90/gal. The two alternatives both work, both cost less, and one of them is actually better at the specific job.

Zinsser Perma-White Mold & Mildew-Proof Interior Paint is the right answer for a real moisture problem. EPA-registered as mildew-resistant for five years, available on Amazon for $35–45/gal, and in my experience the only ceiling paint that doesn’t bloom black spots above a shower in zones 5 and 6. I see this every spring on north-facing bathrooms where the homeowner used “moisture-resistant” wall paint and skipped a real biocide. Perma-White ends that cycle. Color range is limited (whites and a handful of pales) but for a bathroom that’s usually fine.

SW Duration Home Interior Acrylic Latex is the broader-color play. Solid moisture resistance, full SW color deck, $65–75/gal at MSRP and lower on sale. Use this when the bathroom is a guest bath that gets occasional use, not a daily shower stall. For the daily shower wall and ceiling, go Perma-White.

What’ll bite you in two years if you skip the right product here: a black mildew ring above the shower curtain rod that no amount of bleach will permanently kill. Then you’re stripping back to drywall and starting over. Spend the $40 on Perma-White the first time.

Quick decision table

What this article won’t tell you

It won’t tell you to buy the cheapest can on the shelf. Glidden Premium and the bottom-tier Valspar lines exist for a reason — landlord repaints — but they’re not in this conversation. We’re talking about paints that actually compete with Benjamin Moore’s mid-and-top tier. Below that there’s a step-down in resin quality you can see at year two.

It also won’t tell you the alternatives are “just as good” universally. They’re as good as Aura on the surfaces and use cases listed above. On a deep-saturated red in a south-facing dining room, BM still wins. On a hand-rubbed mahogany match for a custom door, BM still wins. Pick the right tool for the job and don’t pretend the cheap one is the same paint.

If your nearest BM dealer is across the street and you have time on a Tuesday, just go to BM. Everyone else, the four picks above will get the job done. Two coats. Always two coats.