Cheap vs expensive supplements difference: which is better?

The price taken apart: the cost floor and the four premiums stacked on it, and the two premiums that buy something, form for some nutrients and testing for all of them

Cheap versus expensive supplements, and which is better, is a question that treats price as a single dial, and price is a stack, which is why two tubs of the same nutrient can differ by a factor of five with no difference a laboratory would find, and why two tubs at the same price can differ in everything that matters. At the bottom of the stack is the cost floor, the ingredient, the capsule, the bottle, the label, the freight and the retailer's or marketplace's fee, below which no genuine tub can sell for long, and which for a commodity nutrient is low. Above the floor sit four premiums, each added by the brand for a reason, and the buyer's question is not whether the tub is cheap or expensive but which of the four the price contains, because only some of them buy anything in the tub.

The first premium is form: a different chemical version of the same nutrient, chosen for better absorption, better tolerance or a better fit to a particular person, and costing more to make. It buys a real difference for some nutrients and none for others, and the honest list is short. Magnesium: the bisglycinate is absorbed as well as or better than the oxide and is far less likely to produce loose stools, so a person who takes the dose and keeps it in the gut has paid the premium for something; the oxide is the cheap form and the one with the record. Vitamin B12: the methyl form is sold at a premium that matters to the few people who absorb cyanocobalamin poorly and not to the rest, who convert it. Iron: the bisglycinate is better tolerated than the sulphate at the gut, a real difference for the person who cannot take the cheap form. Folate: the methyl form matters for a specific genetic variant and not otherwise. And against those, creatine: every form sold at a premium over the monohydrate, the hydrochloride, the buffered, the nitrate, has fewer trials than the monohydrate and no demonstrated advantage, so the creatine form premium buys nothing and the cheapest plain monohydrate is the best form. Vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and most of the rest: the form premium is small or nil. A buyer works the form premium nutrient by nutrient and pays it where the list says and not where the label says.

The second premium is testing, and it is the only one of the four that buys a property a laboratory can measure. A brand that releases each batch against a specification, tests it for heavy metals and microbes at an accredited laboratory, sends the certificate by lot number on request and, for a sports product, enrols it in a certification programme, has paid per batch and per product for those things and passes the cost on; the premium is real, it is a few pence a day on a commodity, and what it buys is the difference between a label that is a measurement and a label that is a promise. A buyer who wants to know whether a tub contains the testing premium asks for the certificate, and a brand that sends it has the premium in the tub while a brand that does not has, at best, the word tested on the front.

A floor and four premiums with two that buy something, and the two that buy nothing in the tub, the promotion arithmetic that disguises them, and the worked example priced premium by premium, which is the next section.

The two premiums that buy nothing in the tub, brand and channel; the price-promotion arithmetic that makes expensive look cheap; which is better, answered premium by premium; the worked example priced; and the verdict

The third premium is brand, and it buys nothing in the tub. The name, the packaging, the photography, the influencer, the ambassador, the sponsorship of a team, the story on the website and the advertising that puts the tub in front of a buyer all cost money, all are added to the price, and none of them changes what a laboratory would find; a premium brand's magnesium bisglycinate and a plain brand's magnesium bisglycinate from the same contract manufacturer, which is common, are the same product at two prices, and the difference is the marketing budget. The brand premium is the largest premium on most expensive tubs and the one a buyer is least able to see, because the whole purpose of the spending is to make the premium feel like quality. The fourth premium is channel: the shop the tub was bought in. A high street health shop, a pharmacy, a boutique and a subscription box each take a margin that a marketplace or a brand's own site does not, and the same tub costs more on the shelf than online for no difference in the tub; the channel premium buys convenience and advice, which have a value, and nothing in the capsule.

The price-promotion arithmetic is where the brand premium hides, and it is worth a paragraph because it is how expensive is made to look cheap. A product listed at a high price and sold at a permanent discount, buy one get one half price, three for two, a subscription saving, a code, has a real price that is the discounted one and a list price that exists to make the discount feel like a saving; the rules on price promotions require the higher price to have been genuinely charged, and the enforcement record shows how often it was not. A buyer compares the price actually paid per day at the labelled dose, across tubs, and ignores the list price and the percentage off, which converts an expensive tub on permanent promotion into what it is, a tub at the promoted price with a brand premium in it.

Which is better is answered premium by premium rather than cheap or expensive. A cheap tub that is cheap because it has no form premium where form matters, the oxide sold for a person who needs the dose kept in the gut, and no testing premium, a label that is a promise, is worse than a dearer tub with both. A cheap tub that is cheap because it has no brand premium and no channel premium, plain monohydrate from a plain brand on a marketplace with a certificate by lot, is better than a dearer tub whose premium is a name and a shop. And an expensive tub is better only if its price contains the testing premium and, for the nutrients where it matters, the form premium, which a buyer finds by asking for the certificate and reading the form on the label, and which no amount of packaging reveals. Cheap by design, the value brand's choice of the cheapest form and a filler to match, is a separate case covered on the page on why value brands are so cheap.

The worked example is priced premium by premium in the open: {FL} carries a form premium, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV rather than the oxide, for tolerance; a testing premium, each batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium at an accredited laboratory with the certificate by lot on request and a UK fill under GMP and BRC; no brand premium beyond a UK address and a plain label, with no ambassador, no sponsorship and no story; and a marketplace channel with no shop margin; two capsules with the evening meal, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, which is the floor plus the two premiums that buy something and neither of the two that do not. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: neither cheap nor expensive is better, because the price is a stack of four premiums over a floor and only two of them buy anything in the tub. Pay the testing premium always, since it is the only one a laboratory can verify and it costs pence; pay the form premium where the nutrient's list says it matters, magnesium, B12 for the few, iron and folate for the specific, and never for creatine; and refuse the brand and channel premiums, which are the whole difference between most cheap and expensive tubs and buy nothing in the capsule, however the list price and the discount are arranged.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Are expensive supplements better quality than cheap ones?

Only if the price contains the two premiums that buy something: the testing premium, batch certificates by lot from an accredited laboratory, release to a specification and certification programmes, which is the only premium a laboratory can verify and which costs pence on a commodity, and the form premium where the nutrient's list says it matters, magnesium bisglycinate over the oxide for tolerance, iron bisglycinate over the sulphate, and the methyl forms of B12 and folate for specific people; an expensive tub whose price is brand and channel premium, the name, the packaging, the ambassador and the shop, is the same product as a cheap one with a marketing budget.

What is the difference between cheap and expensive magnesium?

Usually the form and sometimes the testing: cheap magnesium is typically the oxide, which is poorly tolerated and often produces loose stools at a useful dose, while the dearer bisglycinate is absorbed as well or better and kept in the gut, which is a form premium worth paying for a person who needs the dose; beyond the form, the difference is whether the brand tests each batch for metals and sends the certificate by lot, a testing premium of pence, and whether the rest of the price is a brand and channel premium that buys nothing in the capsule.

Is expensive creatine better than cheap creatine?

No; every form sold at a premium over plain monohydrate, the hydrochloride, the buffered form, the nitrate and the blends, has fewer trials than the monohydrate and no demonstrated advantage, so the creatine form premium buys nothing and the cheapest plain monohydrate powder with a certificate by lot is the best creatine on any shelf; the premium a buyer should pay on creatine is the testing premium, and for a drug-tested athlete the certification premium, never the form or the brand.

How do supplement brands make expensive look cheap?

With the list price: a product listed high and sold on a permanent promotion, three for two, buy one get one half price, a subscription saving or a code, has a real price that is the promoted one and a list price that exists to make the discount feel like a saving, which the rules on price promotions require to have been genuinely charged and which the enforcement record shows often was not; a buyer compares the price actually paid per day at the labelled dose across tubs and ignores the percentage off, which turns an expensive tub on permanent promotion back into a tub with a brand premium in it.

What premiums are in the price of this site's magnesium?

Two of the four, priced in the open: a form premium, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV rather than the oxide, for tolerance, and a testing premium, each batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium at an accredited laboratory with the certificate by lot on request and a UK fill under GMP and BRC; no brand premium beyond a UK address and a plain label, and a marketplace channel with no shop margin; 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, which is the floor plus the two premiums that buy something.

Sources

1. The vitamin and mineral form literature: magnesium oxide has lower fractional absorption than citrate or glycinate; synthetic DL-alpha-tocopherol has about half the biological activity of the natural RRR form per milligram; cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin both correct B12 deficiency; form changes absorption or activity per milligram rather than whether a nutrient works. PubMed record
2. The batch release and certificate of analysis framework: a product has a written specification for identity, assay, contaminants and physical properties, each batch is tested against it before release, and the certificate of analysis for a batch reports the results against the specification, so that batch-to-batch consistency is read by comparing certificates across lot numbers. PubMed record
3. The consumer protection and advertising guidance on pricing practices: reference prices, multi-buy and was-now offers must reflect genuine prior pricing, and a promotion's value is tested by the unit price, the price per gram or per dose, rather than by the headline saving. https://www.asa.org.uk/advice-online/prices-promotions.html
4. The pharmaceutical excipient literature: capsule shells, bulking agents, glidants and anti-caking agents, binders, disintegrants and coatings are functional non-active ingredients whose purpose is manufacturability, stability and dosing accuracy rather than effect. PubMed record

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