Assay Monthly Issue 002 11–12 Oct 2026 Category: creatine, US DTC

Same ingredient, ten times the price.

Twelve creatine products from eleven brands, priced on their own storefronts. Almost all of them sell the same molecule, creatine monohydrate. What a 5g dose costs depends far more on the format and the size of the tub than on the brand.

Priority findings

Structural Whole category

The format is the price.

Per 5g of creatine, the products here run from $0.20 (Micro Ingredients' 1kg bag) to $2.00 (Create's gummies, and Momentous' chews). That is a 10× spread for the same daily dose. Every plain creatine powder in the table costs less than $0.60 a dose. Every gummy and chew costs about $2.00.

The clearest case is inside one brand. Momentous sells its creatine as a powder at $0.48 per 5g (90-serving jar) and as chews at $2.00 per 5g. Same company, same ingredient, about 4× the price for the chewable version. Buying the larger 150-count tub of chews ($49.99) brings it down to $1.67 per 5g, still about 3.5× the powder.

What it means
Gummy and chew buyers are paying for convenience, not creatine, and a price-comparison article will say exactly that. Powder brands are competing on cents, which means the cheapest jar wins any side-by-side table unless you give the shopper another reason.
Do this
If you sell powder, publish your price per 5g dose, because the comparison favours you against every gummy on the market. If you sell gummies or chews, sell the convenience openly, and make the dose impossible to doubt: grams per gummy on the front of the page, and the batch test result one click away.
Fix this month Naked, Momentous, Create

"Per serving" hides the dose, again.

As with electrolytes last month, a serving is not a fixed amount. Naked's capsules are $0.33 a serving, fifth cheapest of twelve, but a serving is 2.5g of creatine, so a full 5g dose costs $0.67 and the product drops to ninth. Momentous' chews are $0.40 a serving, seventh cheapest, because a serving is one 1g chew; a 5g dose is five of them.

One brand's own pages disagree about the dose. Create's main gummy page says a serving is 3 gummies delivering 5g of creatine. Its single-serve sampler page says each sachet of 3 gummies delivers "~4.5g". In a format where buyers already ask whether gummies contain what the label says, two numbers for the same serving is the wrong message.

What it means
Shoppers, retailers and AI shopping answers compare the number printed next to the price. When a serving is half a dose or a fifth of one, that number makes the product look cheaper than it is, and the buyer who works it out feels misled.
Do this
Show grams of creatine per serving next to the price, and keep the dose identical on every page, sampler and listing you run. If a full dose takes more than one serving, say so where the price is.
Decide this quarter Jacked Factory, Promix, Bare Performance

The small size can cost three times as much per dose.

Jacked Factory's 30-serving tub works out at $0.50 a dose; its 200-serving tub is $0.22, about 2.2× cheaper. Promix's 30 single-serve sticks are $1.07 a dose against $0.33 for its 180-serving bag, more than 3×. Bare Performance Nutrition is the gentlest ladder here: $0.67 for 30 servings against $0.58 for 60.

A first-time buyer usually picks the smallest size. So the size most new customers see, and the one comparison sites list first, carries the worst price per dose in the range.

What it means
A steep size ladder rewards loyal customers, but it makes the entry price look expensive against a competitor's single big tub. Creatine is taken every day for months, so most of the value is in the second order, not the first.
Do this
Show the price per dose on the size selector, so the bigger tub sells itself. If the small size exists to get people to try the product, credit part of its price against the first large tub.

Exhibit: the same products, priced two ways

One-time list prices from each brand's own storefront, 11–12 October 2026 · sorted by cost per 5g of creatine
BrandProductFormatPriceServingsDosePer servingPer 5g
Micro IngredientsMicronized, 1kg bagpowder$39.952005g$0.20#1$0.20
Jacked Factory200 servingspowder$44.992005g$0.22#2$0.22
Kaged500g tubpowder$24.991005g$0.25#3$0.25
Promix180 servingspowder$59.001805g$0.33#4$0.33
CellucorFlavored, 50 servingspowder$17.99505g$0.36#6$0.36
Momentous90 servingspowder$42.99905g$0.48#8$0.48
Thorne90 scoopspowder$44.00905g$0.49#9$0.49
Bare Performance Nutrition60 servingspowder$34.99605g$0.58#10$0.58
Naked Nutrition75 servingscapsules$24.99752.5g$0.33#5$0.67
Transparent LabsCreatine HMB, 60 serv.powder (+HMB)$89.99605g$1.50#11$1.50
Momentous50 chewschews$19.99501g$0.40#7$2.00
Create90-count tubgummies$60.00305g$2.00#12$2.00

# = rank by price per serving, cheapest first. Dose = grams of creatine per serving. Servings and creatine per serving are as stated by each brand. Micro Ingredients' servings are worked out from the bag weight (1kg at 5g a scoop). Kaged's are from its supplement facts ("about 100 servings"). Transparent Labs' Creatine HMB also contains 1.5g of HMB per serving, so it is not a like-for-like comparison. Momentous' chews list a serving as one 1g chew; the table uses the 50-count ($19.99), and a 150-count ($49.99, $1.67 per 5g) is also sold.

Coverage and method

What was read, and what was not.

Eleven brands were reviewed: Micro Ingredients, Jacked Factory, Kaged, Promix, Cellucor, Momentous, Thorne, Bare Performance Nutrition, Naked Nutrition, Transparent Labs and Create. Prices, pack sizes and servings were taken from each brand's own storefront on 11 and 12 October 2026. Where a brand sells several sizes, the table shows one main size, and the findings quote the others.

On the 5g lens. 5g of creatine monohydrate a day is the dose most of these brands recommend, which is why it is used here. Price is not the only thing that matters: purity, third-party testing, taste and format all do, and this issue does not test any product. It compares what each brand charges for the dose it says it delivers.

On the prices. Everything is one-time list price on the brand's own site, before subscription discounts and before shipping, not Amazon or retail. Where a number could not be found on the brand's own pages, the product is left out. Nothing here is estimated.

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