The best detergent other than Tide is Persil and Gain laundry detergent.
Gain laundry detergent smells better than Tide laundry detergent although I find that Tide laundry detergent gets my clothes and laundry cleaner than Gain.
Powdered Tide is better than liquid Tide and cleans better in my opinion.
Tide Powder does work better than liquid and cleans much better because of the enzymes the Tide powder contains.
I prefer using Tide Powder detergent when I can but will use liquid detergent if it's all I can get.
I find my clothes come out cleaner with Tide Powder detergent than it does with Liquid detergent.
Although when using cold water the liquid detergents dissolve better when compared with liquid detergents but overall I prefer the powder detergent.
Tide powder laundry detergent in the Free & Gentle version and scented powder laundry detergent has been discontinued.
However Tide Original powder has not been discontinued and can still be found in most stores and even through Amazon.com
Tide Free & Gentle Laundry detergent powder has been discontinued due to not enough demand for it.
However there still is enough demand for the Tide Original powder laundry detergent and so they still continue to make and sell it.
My Walmart store here has Tide Original Powder laundry detergent but not the Free & Gentle.
You might still find some Tide Free & Gentle Powder detergent in some stores that still have stocks of it.
However if not and you want the Free and Gentle Tide you can get it in liquid detergent form instead.