Vape alternatives, honestly rated by people who make one

There are about 7 real alternatives to vaping in the UK. We make one of them, so read this with the appropriate pinch of salt. We have also put ours in the same table as everyone else's and told you plainly what it cannot do, which is more than the other six will do for you.

If you have been Googling vape alternatives, you will have noticed that every page on the subject is written by someone trying to sell you the thing at the bottom of it. This one included. The difference is that we are going to be honest about the whole field, because the fastest way to lose your trust is to pretend patches and pouches do not exist.

Start with the one fact that makes the rest of this make sense.

Vaping is two habits pretending to be one

When you vape, two things are going on at once. There is the nicotine, which your brain has adapted to and now nags you for. And there is the habit, the hand going to the mouth, the draw, the little ritual your body runs on autopilot after meals, on breaks, at bus stops, mid-argument, whenever. They live in different parts of your brain and they end at different times. The nicotine is mostly done in a couple of months. The habit hangs about for a lot longer, and it is the reason people who quit in January are bumming a vape off someone at a party in March.

So every option below gets judged on both. Does it deal with the nicotine. Does it deal with the habit. Most do one. A couple do neither and get sold anyway. None does both on its own, which is the honest reason a lot of people end up using two things at once.

1. Nicotine replacement (patches, gum, lozenges, spray)

The boring one that actually works. Nicotine in a measured dose with none of the smoke or vapour, tapering down over about ten to twelve weeks. It is the best-studied option on this entire list by a mile, roughly 50 to 60 percent better odds than willpower alone, and your local stop smoking service will hand it to you for free. Gum and lozenges give your mouth a job. Patches give your hands nothing, which is the exact gap the last third of this list keeps trying to fill. If the nicotine is the thing kicking your door in, start here and do not feel clever about skipping it.

2. Nicotine pouches

Little sachets you park under your lip. No smoke, no vapour, and often a genuinely alarming amount of nicotine, 20mg a pouch is not unusual. They will get you off the vape. They will not get you off nicotine, and plenty of people swap one for the other and then just stay there, lip permanently loaded, calling it progress. If your goal is nicotine-free, this is a sideways shuffle, not a step forward.

3. Nicotine-free vapes (0mg)

Same device, same cloud, same everything, minus the nicotine. In theory. In practice, trading standards keeps finding nicotine in things labelled 0mg, so buy from somewhere reputable or not at all. The upside is that it nails the habit perfectly. The downside is that it nails the habit perfectly. You are still holding a vape, still inhaling heated liquid, and a relapse to the nicotine stuff is one refill and one bad day away. A few people use it as a short bridge. Most people use it as a very convincing excuse to keep vaping.

4. Flavoured air devices

The newest corner of the shelf, and the one we live in, so here comes the salt again. These give you the draw, the resistance and a bit of flavour with no nicotine, no vapour and nothing heated. It is literally your own breath passing over a flavoured core. The category includes Ripple, Füm, Capnos and NOQA One, and they are not all the same. Some are throwaway, some are reusable with swappable cores. NOQA One is reusable, has an airflow slider so you can tune the pull, and its cores last three to five days each.

What this category is good at is the one thing nothing else on the list bothers with, the hand-to-mouth habit once the nicotine has gone. What it is not is a nicotine treatment. It does nothing for withdrawal, and any flavoured-air brand telling you otherwise is having you on. The honest use is alongside nicotine replacement in the early weeks, or on its own once the chemical side has calmed down and it is just your hands that have not got the message.

The evidence here is early. The habit science underneath it is solid and it is all laid out on our science page, but no device in this category has a big published trial behind it yet, us included. We would rather tell you that than dress it up.

5. Apps and actual human support

The free NHS Quit Smoking app covers vaping now, and local stop smoking services take vaping referrals, which almost nobody seems to know. Craving timers and streak counters will not put anything in your hand, but behavioural support roughly doubles the effect of nicotine replacement, and it costs nothing. Not an alternative on its own. The thing that makes every other alternative work better.

6. Prescription tablets (varenicline, bupropion)

The heavy artillery, from your GP. They work on the receptors nicotine grabs, turning the reward and the craving right down. Strong evidence for smoking, trials for vaping catching up. No smoke, no vapour, nothing for your hands to do. Worth asking about if you have tried nicotine replacement and it did not hold.

7. Cold turkey

Stopping. No product, no plan, just you and your resolve and the longest Tuesday of your life. It works for a minority and falls over for most on the first go, usually not because of the craving but because of the empty hand at the barbecue. Free, brave, and the method with the highest relapse rate on the list. If you are doing it, at least plan for the reaching.

Every stop vaping aid, side by side

What can I actually replace my vape with?

Depends which half you are replacing. In the first month, when the withdrawal is loud, replace the nicotine, with nicotine replacement and a free NHS service on your side. From about week four, when the chemical is fading but your hand is still doing its little pilgrimage to your face, replace the routine with something that is not a vape. Gum, a lozenge, a flavoured air device, a stress ball if you must. Replacing a vape with a nicotine-free vape replaces nothing. It just keeps the whole ritual loaded and ready to relapse.

What can I inhale instead of a vape?

Air, mostly. If it is the draw you miss, the honest options are the Nicorette inhalator, which gives a small nicotine hit with the pull, and flavoured air devices, which give the pull and the flavour with nothing in them. Both are room temperature. Nothing burns, nothing vapourises. Breathing exercises sound like something a yoga teacher would say and work for more people than will admit it. Anything that heats or burns a substance is a vape wearing a different hat.

Are nicotine-free vapes safe?

Safer than nicotine vapes in the obvious sense, no nicotine. Not safe in the sense that you are still inhaling heated propylene glycol, glycerine and a fruit salad of flavourings, and UK testers keep finding nicotine in products sold as having none. Better than a nicotine vape, not the same as air. We have written the full answer, including why the disposable ones are banned.

The honest bottom line

Nobody sells you the actual answer, because the actual answer is two things and two things are harder to fit on a label. Deal with the nicotine using the stuff that has thirty years of evidence and is free from the NHS. Then deal with the habit using something that keeps your hands busy without keeping your lungs busy. Which brand you use for that second part matters a lot less than doing the second part at all, because it is the half almost everyone skips, and it is the half that ends most quits.

If the habit is your sticking point, that is what we built NOQA One for. If it is the nicotine, go and see your GP, and come back to us later. And if you want to know what you get for all this effort, here is what happens when you stop, hour by hour and week by week.

Common questions

What is the best alternative to vaping? There is not one. Nicotine replacement has the best evidence for the chemical. Flavoured air devices are the only thing built for the habit. Most people do best with one of each, in that order.

Is there a vape alternative with no nicotine? Yes. Nicotine-free vapes keep the vapour and the ritual. Flavoured air devices keep the draw and the flavour with no vapour and nothing heated. Neither has nicotine in it.

Are there devices to help you stop vaping? Two kinds. Nicotine-free vapes keep the vapour and the ritual and are the easiest way to slide back. Flavoured air devices like NOQA One, Ripple and Füm give you the draw and the flavour with no vapour and nothing heated, and do nothing at all for the nicotine.

Can I get help to stop vaping on the NHS? Yes, and it is free. Local stop smoking services take vaping referrals and hand out nicotine replacement, and the NHS Quit Smoking app now covers vaping too.