Plant Therapy vs. doTERRA Essential Oils: Ultimate Comparison ?

Last Updated on November 4, 2022 by Brenda

Essential oils are a staple item for all sorts of aromatherapy. Not only are they super relaxing, but they can also provide heaps of health benefits. These health benefits are best felt when the essential oils are 100% pure, made from natural ingredients rather than synthetic fillers.

If you’ve been looking into 100% pure, essential oils, no doubt you’ll have continually found yourself looking at Plant Therapy and doTERRA. But with so much information out there, it can be hard to work out what the real difference is between the two brands, and what they each offer that marks them out as different. That’s where we step in.

Take a look through this article, and we’ll guide you through the different products that the two companies offer, how you can be sure that their oils are top quality, and what information the companies will offer you on their products, as well as whether or not you can trust each company. So settle in and in no time you’ll be ready to purchase the essential oils that will work best for you.

Plant Therapy Essential Oils vs. doTERRA at a Glance

If you don’t have time to read the full article, don’t worry, you can take a look at these quick differences between the two companies. If you really want to work out which company would be a better fit for you, we suggest that you read the rest of the article below.

doTERRA Pros & Cons

Plant Therapy Essential Oils Pros & cons

Winner: Don’t want to read the full article? The editor’s choice is Plant Therapy.

What’s the Difference Between Them?

Now we are going to take a look at the differences between these two companies, so that you can work out which is the better option for you.

What do the companies actually offer?

Okay so before we look at the differences between these two brands and how they compare to one another on various key aspects, we thought that we should take a quick look at what it is that they actually each offer.

Plant Therapy offer oils in four different ranges. They have essential oils, body care oils, household oils and Pup & Pony oils. These Pup & Pony oils are for your pets themselves, to help give them that extra shine, as well as for their enjoyment.

The household oils include cleaners, diffusers and room/linen sprays, so there’s no excuse for your house not smelling wonderfully fragrant and fresh. The body care oils cover a whole range of care and relaxation purposes, from hand and face care, to hydrosols, carrier oils, balms and of course body and bath oils.

The fourth selection is the essential oils, which we will be looking at today. If you are unsure about which scent will work best for you, particularly if you are struggling with all the shopping having to be done online these days, Plant Therapy has an amazing feature on their website to help you pick.

They have a fragrance wheel. This wheel allows you to look at a chart and particular blends, even from other brands like doTERRA and Young Living, so you can see which comparable oils they themselves offer.

The Plant Therapy Essential Oils come as singles, blends, KidSafe, roll-ons, and organic. Then they also offer diffusers, sets, and a special oil of the month. Given that all of Plant Therapy essential oils claim to be 100% pure without additives or fillers, you might be wondering why only some of them are organic.

Well, the organic oils are the ones that have been certified USDA organic, which means that they haven’t used any GMOs (Genetically Modified Organism), the soil has been clean of prohibited substances for at least three years, and they haven’t used any harmful pesticides.

doTERRA also offer a variety of oils. Similarly to Plant Therapy, they offer essential oils and personal care, then they also offer supplements, and additional products such as diffusers, wellness programmes, educational literature, and various kits.

As with Plant Therapy, the body care products include different skin care options, as well as hair care and spa options, such as body scrubs, mud masks, and bath bars. The supplements aim at targeting various problem areas, and they cover weight management, daily vitality, women’s issues, digestive health, children’s health and specialist issues.

Again, it is the essential oils that doTERRA offer that we will be exploring here today.

The doTERRA essential oils come as single oils and proprietary blends, as well as targeting protection (“On Guard”), breathing, digestion, and their “Deep Blue” range. The proprietary blends in particular claim to have amazing health benefits for both the body and the mind.

It is worth noting that the doTERRA essential oils are not organic, nor do they offer an organic range. Plus, they don’t stock as many carrier oils, seemingly only coconut oil, which is poor. They also don’t have a special KidSafe range.

Given that some essential oils can be harmful to young children, this is a real shame for anyone who has small kids in the house.

Verdict:

doTERRA has a super wide selection of essential oils, however, the organic range, kidsafe options, and the online fragrance wheel mean that Plant Therapy is our preferred choice when it comes to product range.

Are the oils pure?

One of the main aspects that you need to look into when it comes to essential oils is quality. There are so many suppliers who create their essential oils by using synthetic fillers. While these can work in a number of ways, to fully reap all the wonderful benefits that essential oils have to offer, it is much better to use pure oils instead.

As we mentioned above, all of Plant Therapy’s oils are 100% natural, without any synthetic fillers or additives. They are a smaller, family-owned company, and this allows them to be more careful about what goes into each and every one of their products.

Their huge variety of single oils and blends, with an awesome array of scents that go with them, make Plant Therapy an essential oil staple in the aromatherapy world.

doTERRA are a bigger brand, and they have achieved their success on the back of providing truly excellent quality when it comes to their essential oils. Again, doTERRA make pure essential oils, which are fully natural, with no synthetic fillers or contaminants either.

Verdict:

Both Plant Therapy and doTERRA provide 100% pure essential oils, but given that Plant Therapy also has their organic range, taking their appreciation of the natural world to the next level, we are going to call Plant Therapy the winners when it comes to quality.

How do they test the purity of the oils?

As we mentioned above, both these two companies believe fully in the importance of their essential oils being 100% pure in order to be able to reap the full health benefits. This means that they have to be extra certain that their oils are in no way impure.

So, when it comes to ensuring that the essential oils are both safe to use and made of pure ingredients, Plant Therapy and doTERRA are incredibly rigorous.

Plant Therapy use a testing programme that was developed by renowned aromatherapy expert, Robert Tisserand. The first step is done by their own aromatherapy professionals, who do an organoleptic test (using their senses).

This means that they check the color, consistency and scent of the oils. The oils are then sent to a third-party checker who performs several different tests, including verifying the potency and purity with GC/MS testing (Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry).

Each of these steps is used to guarantee the quality of every single batch. doTERRA also have their own quality control process that is fairly exhaustive, which they call Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG).

This is a pretty similar procedure to the checks at Plant Therapy. They use their own staff to make sure that every batch is 100% pure. Then they send them to a third party to check the potency and purity using GC/MS testing.

Verdict:

The purity of the essential oils is super important to both of these companies, and they both use rigorous testing to be sure, so it’s a draw when it comes to their testing methods.

Do they explain essential oils?

Okay, so this is a pretty big part of essential oils companies. Essential oils are the type of product that you can easily hear mentioned, but you may well have no idea how to use them, or you could easily use them incorrectly.

That’s why it is so important that the companies themselves make sure that their customers are well-informed about how to safely use the essential oils, and how to reap the most benefits.

Plant Therapy has a dedicated “Learn” section (you can find it at the bottom of their website) where they answer loads of important questions, like what essential oils are, how to use them, and how to decipher what the information on their bottles means.

They have ideas on how you can use the essential oils, and they have an accredited blog which is filled with articles that can help you to learn more about essential oils.

But perhaps the best aspect they offer, and which really highlights the transparency of Plant Therapy’s business, is the help regarding the batch code. This section guides you through the process of checking on your batch of essential oils, so that you can find the corresponding test report.

Meanwhile, doTERRA also offers heaps of help when it comes to the safety of their products. They have an “Essential Oil Safety Guide”, as well as loads of information on what to do with sensitive skin or reactions, plus some guidelines on dosage and safe use.

They also have a “Discover” tab, which offers tonnes of information in the way of product education. In this part they talk about the science of essential oils, as well as a free monthly webinar class on the benefits and uses of essential oils.

doTERRA also have a blog that covers both lifestyle and science aspects of essential oils. Plus, they have a literature section in their shop, where you can purchase their Living Magazine that offers further news and advice on essential oils

Verdict:

Both companies are great about educating their customers on essential oils, but the sheer volume of resources that doTERRA make available means that they are the winner for us.

What is the ethos of each company?

These days, it’s not enough for a company to sell a high quality product at a competitive price. What we want to know is, can you trust the company? Where do they source their ingredients from, and what do they invest their money in? Ultimately, we are wondering if this company deserves our custom.

The founding principles of Plant Therapy lie on having a good impact on the community, their employees, and their customers. They provide high quality, pure essential oils at a (relatively) affordable price, while continuing to strive towards more sustainable and ethical practices.

They are really open about where they source their oils from, including through features such as their batch code tackers, which really help with the transparency of the company. doTERRA source the plants for their oils from 40 nations across the world, which means that they are working with local farmers all over the globe.

They really believe in the expert knowledge of these local workers, and they appreciate that many of these farmers come from generations of workers who have nurtured these plants. For doTERRA it is really important that they have a traceable supply chain, so that they can continue to work sustainably, while trying to improve the poverty levels.

They strive towards improving social, economic and environmental wellbeing for their workers, while also producing the best quality possible. However, it is worth remembering that doTERRA is a much bigger company, and they operate as a multi-level marketing company.

This means that they welcome people signing up to be their representative and sell their products to others. While this does help doTERRA to reach more people, it also means that unqualified reps are selling their products.

This opens up the possibility of the reps giving out incorrect or unverified claims. It also pushes up the price of their essential oils, as the reps take a cut of the profits, which helps to explain why doTERRA’s prices are so much higher than so many of their competitors.

Verdict:

Both companies are committed to tracing their supply chains and helping in the communities, but doTERRA has a marketing structure which helps to push up the prices for their consumers, while making it possible for unverified information to be given out.

So for this round Plant Therapy, who have pledged to continually improve their practices, are the winner.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve been through the different aspects of these two companies, hopefully you have a better idea of what you will be purchasing from each. Both companies produce a vast array of pure essential oils, which they test for impurities, and whose supply chains they trace to make sure that they are safe and pure.

Plant Therapy is the cheaper option, and seems to have a broader range, which includes an organic selection, so it is probably our preferred choice. But what we think doesn’t matter. Which brand do you prefer?

Related Articles:

• How To Use Essential Oils Safely?
• Best Smelling Essential Oils for Diffusers: Reviews & Buying Guide