How we check prices

What we compare

Not the price per tub or per serving, but the cost of the same amount of the ingredient you’re paying for – for example 30 g of protein, 5 g of creatine or 1,000 mg of EPA + DHA.

Cost per dose = price ÷ (servings × amount per serving) × comparison amountExample: $119.99 for 74 servings with 24 g of protein each is 1,776 g of protein. $119.99 ÷ 1,776 g × 30 g = $2.03 per 30 g of protein.

The comparison amounts are round numbers, usually what labels show. They make products comparable – they are not dosage recommendations.

Where the prices come from

• The regular one-time price in the brand’s own US online store or at Vitacost – last checked October 8 – November 1, 2026.
• In US dollars, before sales tax and shipping. No subscription discounts, no coupon codes.
• Every regular size of a product, each on its own line – no bundles of several tubs, no single servings or samples. Big packs usually cost less per dose, so you can filter the list by pack size.
• Every price shows the date we checked it. Prices change often, so check the store before you buy.

Where the label data comes from

• From the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database, the maker’s website or the facts panel shown in the store.
• Copied from the label, never estimated. Every product links to its source.
• “NSF Certified for Sport” only if the product is listed in NSF’s own database. NSF checks that the label matches what’s inside and tests for contaminants and 290 substances banned in sport.

How the quality score works

The cheapest product isn’t always a good one. So every product gets a score from 0 to 100, built only from things you can check: the label, the lists of independent testing programs and published studies. We don’t test products ourselves, and we don’t score taste or what a product does for you.

• Testing · up to 30

  30 points for a seal from an independent testing program – NSF, USP, Informed Sport or Choice, IFOS for fish oil and others – on the label or in the program’s own list. 15 if the label only says an independent lab tests it. Otherwise 10: every supplement sold in the US must be made under the FDA’s good manufacturing practice (GMP) rules, so the maker has to check its own products.

• Form · up to 30

  30 for a form that does better in studies (for example magnesium citrate or glycinate instead of oxide, vitamin D3 instead of D2, triglyceride fish oil, standardized herbal extracts, mushroom fruiting bodies). A common form also gets 30 when there’s no better one – melatonin is just melatonin – and 25 when a better one exists. 6 for a weaker form or when the label doesn’t say which form it is. Plus 5 for a named ingredient with a fixed specification, like KSM-66® or Creapure® (up to 30).

• Transparency · up to 20

  20 if every amount is on the label, 5 if amounts are hidden in a “proprietary blend”.

• Additives · up to 20

  20 if the label has no additive that food authorities restrict or question. 2 less for each allowed but debated one (artificial sweeteners, other artificial colors, carrageenan, talc). If a product contains something a food authority has banned or flagged as a possible health risk – titanium dioxide (banned in EU food), Red No. 3 (banned in US food from 2027), Red 40, Yellow 5 or 6 (EU warning label), BHA (listed as a likely carcinogen in the US) or partially hydrogenated oil – it gets 0 here and its whole score is cut in half, so it’s always in the red range. The product says so in red. These products are still sold because they’re allowed in the US, where we check prices. Common fillers like magnesium stearate, silica or cellulose, and sweeteners like stevia or sugar alcohols, don’t change the score.

Very good is 90 or more, good 75 or more, fair 60 or more, below that low. If we couldn’t read a product’s full label, it gets no scorerather than a low one – we don’t know, so we don’t guess. The product shows what we could check and asks you to read the label yourself. Every product shows how its score adds up under “Why …?”, with the source for each point. The score never changes the default order – that stays the cost per dose. You can sort or filter by quality yourself.

Where it’s made

• Only what the label says – “Made in USA”, “Product of Canada” – or a label that names the maker with its address (“Manufactured by …”). “Manufactured for” and “Distributed by” don’t count: then someone else made it.
• For products in NSF’s list, the factory NSF names.
• “Packed in USA” means the label only says where it was bottled. Where the main ingredient comes from (“Fish oil processed in Norway”) is shown separately.
• Many labels don’t say. Brands often use several factories – even big ones only say “most” of their products are made in their own plant – so we don’t guess. The country doesn’t change the score.

Typical amounts and types

• “What amount is typical?” only reports what official bodies and expert groups say – the NIH, the National Academies, the FDA, the EU food safety authority (EFSA) and the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN). Every number links to its source.
• We show how much is in one serving of each product, so you can see when a tablet has very little – or more than an official upper limit.
• Where products aren’t the same, we split them into types – for example whey isolate and plant protein, fish oil and krill oil, or magnesium glycinate and oxide.

Independent

• Products are sorted by the numbers only. No brand can pay for a better spot.
• We don’t earn money from the links at the moment. If that changes, every paid link will be marked “Affiliate link”. Affiliate disclosure
• We don’t make health claims. The quality score only counts facts from the label, testing programs and studies – brands can’t buy points.