Side by side

Same category. Same units.

Two products are only comparable once the servings, strengths and forms line up. These guides do that arithmetic before drawing any conclusion.

Editorial guide

How to compare supplements: doses, labels and the real cost per serving

The price on the tub is the least useful number on it. Two products can hold the same ingredient at the same dose and differ threefold in what you actually pay for it — or look cheaper only because the serving is bigger, the powder is weaker or the pack is smaller. Here is how to read the four numbers that matter, pick the right unit for each kind of supplement, and compare two listings in a minute.

Editorial guide

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey vs Myprotein Impact Whey Protein

Two 900 g tubs, thirty servings each, sold in the same country on the same day — and one costs at least £7 more. This is about as clean as a supplement comparison gets, so the only question left is what the extra money is actually buying.

Build your own comparison

Add two or three products from the same category to the tray, then open the comparison. Each one lines up the published scores, the dose against the studied amount, the cost per serving and what each label leaves out.

Every head-to-head (388)

What has to match before a comparison means anything

Two products are comparable when four things line up: the active ingredient and its form, the amount per labelled serving, the number of servings in the container, and the total cost of getting through it. Change any one and the comparison stops being like for like, however similar the packaging looks.

This is where most supplement shopping goes wrong, and it rarely involves anyone lying. A bottle that says 575 mg on the front can have a 1,725 mg serving. A fish oil labelled 1,000 mg can contain 300 mg of the omega-3 you are buying it for. Both numbers are true. Only one answers the question.

How to run the arithmetic

Divide the price by servings per container, not by capsule count, to get a cost per serving.
Convert to the same unit before comparing strengths — mcg and IU describe the same vitamin D, and elemental weight is not compound weight.
Read the full panel rather than the product name. Two strengths of the same brand can contain different secondary ingredients.
Compare the evidence separately from the price. A cheaper serving is not a better one.

Start from a category

Every label overview sits in one of three categories, each with a guide covering the ingredients that come up most often and the questions worth asking about them.

Fat Burners Nootropics Wellness