HN Explorer

Show HN: A website for comparing protein powder prices (nutritionprices.com)

122 points by parmigiano ↗ HN
diskprices.com, but for Protein Powder!

Buying protein powder is a mess, and comparing different products is frustrating, since all brands choose their own serving sizes. By collecting nutrition facts, and normalizing the serving to contain 25 grams of protein, we can properly compare price/nutrients per serving.

Inspired by diskprices.com, the idea is to provide an equally functional interface to compare products. The prices are collected once a day, currently from iHerb US. Aiming to improve the coverage soon.

Any tips / suggestions / other feedback more than welcome :)

...and if you rather want to contact me directly, feel free to reach me at elina@nutritionprices.com

74 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 174 ms ] thread
voisin
I think pricing differs by retailer too. Could you do the same thing for different countries (Canada, UK, etc)?
parmigiano
Yes, on the roadmap to add more countries and retailers e.g. Amazon, and other large protein retailers. Any particular countries/retailers you'd like to see first?
cgh
Canada: supplementsource.ca
voisin
It would be great if standard form for sites like this would be for people to give their email address in order to be updated as new features are added. I would love to know when Canada is added but am afraid that without signing up for updates, this will slip from my memory before the day is done. I shudder to think how many sites this has happened to me already - where features have since been added that would make the site applicable to me but I’ll never know because I couldn’t sign up for updates!
computerphage
A less efficient way to implement this under your own power would be to set a reminder to check it again in, say, a year. I use Google keep for such things all the time
parmigiano
Yes, that would be nice to add. Meanwhile, if you want, feel free to shoot me an email at elina@nutritionprices.com and I'll send you an update once we add Canada support
xnx
I'm surprised to see some difference in the result for "Plant based" and "vegan"
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
parmigiano
I guess there could be cases where a product is plant based, but still contains some animal products. But I'll double check the matching to see if anything looks weird. Also, feel free to provide an example here or to elina@nutritionprices.com of a badly categorised product and I'll investigate
spondylosaurus
That's probably why. I like plant-based proteins because whey makes me feel gross, but the ones that aren't explicitly vegan might still have trace amounts of casein or gelatin or whatnot.
xnx
Nice. I hadn't heard of iHerb before. Would be great to include myprotein (tricky with "discount" codes) or one of the expired protein powder sources (e.g. supplementhunt).
Flick5007
When choosing a product, are there other parameters to consider than protein per dollar? Are there any interesting metrics for "quality"? I'd assume it's not just "protein is protein". Would be interesting to see other metrics deployed, and the ability to find my own "sweet spot".
parmigiano
100%, we have collect some nutrition data that we don't expose yet e.g. cholesterol, added sugar, trans fat etc. Sort of optimised for not having the table _extremely_ wide. But might be an option adding in some extra, as well as adding filter options for that to allow you to tweak it and find your sweet spot.

Optimally we'd have even more information re: amino acids etc, but that information is _hard_ to parse out

inerte
A feature request: Protein per calorie? I try to balance cost with calories, some food have 30g of protein but in 200 calories, and others in 500 calories (because of extra fat/carbs). Would be nice to have this as a filter too!
nvahalik
Looking over this list it seems like this is mainly for bulking protein (sold in larger volumes).

Taste is a big factor, as well as how it makes you feel. Some brands "go down" better than others. How the protein is made/filtered/etc can also have an impact on the quality of what you get.

Then of course there is flavorings etc.

In general, I've heard it said that if "lifestyle" protein is what you are looking for, you're gonna shop for quality not for quantity.

If you are bulking and you need 250g+ protein per day... then you buy what fits your budget and you can hold down. ;)

clumsysmurf
Purity, obviously. Proteins can be contaminated with heavy metals, plastics, etc. Other things to avoid would be artificial sweeteners.

I would not start my search this way. Instead I would find a list of lab-tested products that meet purity and potency.

flotzam
Or skip the middlemen and buy whey protein isolate directly from a dairy/creamery, in bulk: https://old.reddit.com/r/Supplements/comments/16r3xjt/psa_i_...

I wonder if there are similar upstream sources for soy, pea, or rice protein isolate?

xnx
Some good deals here if you can make use of 1000 kg: https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/price-soy-protein-isolates....
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
flotzam
That seems like the right direction, but even for 20 kg bags I don't know how to evaluate Chinese suppliers of bulk foodstuffs

Are there companies who take care of the sourcing + importing + QA for retail veggie protein brands? Some actor in the supply chain just before flavoring is mixed in

BadHumans
Do any of these brands submit to third party testing?
brlcad
Now this is awesome. Hope iHerb appreciates this as it should will lead to more sales through them. Scraping is always tricky.

Love that you’ve included other nutritional facts. Would be cool to also incorporate review scores and/or taste somehow, however subjective.

Really nice work.

moduspol
I've read that some forms of protein (such as from animal sources) are more "bio available" than others, and thus result in a higher net result of protein absorbed.

I see I can filter out specific sources, but it'd be cool if as part of the normalization, that it took this into account in some way.

inerte
I've read that too, but you can counter that by having a more diverse plant based protein sources.
hyperG
Protein powder is 90% marketing that is a distortion of reality and research for marketing purposes. None of this matters unless you are only getting your protein from one source.

If you are eating north of .5-7 grams per lb of bodyweight throughout the day you are not going to be short of amino acids when needed even if lifting really hard.

I like a protein shake because it taste good and different but there is absolutely nothing special about any of this. Protein powder has the absolute most bullshit around the product of anything I can even think of.

square_usual
Doesn't seem to include Costco Isopure, which is $60 for 3.5lbs, sometimes found on sale for $50. It's my goto because it has nothing except protein.
goostavos
Costco brand is surprisingly good. A bit chalkier than Gold Standard, but hard to beat the price.
thinkling
If you don't need isolate, It's Just Whey Protein is $40 for 3lbs or discounted for subscribe & save on Amazon. Made in the US, 1 other ingredient.
jpmattia
Maybe just me, but I'd like a column (and checkbox on the left) about packaging. I don't know why protein powders require plastic cannisters, and it would seem to me that they are well-suited to something more environmentally friendly, but for some reason so many of them want to use plastic.

Otherwise: A nice website!

thinkling
Seconding this. Variables I care about are packaging, sweetener additives, and country of manufacture/origin.
colordrops
Most important IMO is third-party testing along with published results. Concentrating nutrients also concentrates contaminants like lead and PFAS, and many powders have cocoa, which is also notorious for lead contamination.
doctorhandshake
I second this – it’s a much bigger project but this is the criteria that I care about most.
thinkling
Good point. FWIW, the "It's just" product claims to be tested for heavy metals, microbiotics, and "purity".

(Not associated with the brand or with any vendors, it's just the brand I've been buying.)

adrian_b
Whether contaminants are also concentrated depends on the concentration method that is used.

For example, the protein concentrates from whey or milk are obtained by just two filtrations through filters with different pore sizes, the first coarse filter retains any larger particles, including bacteria, while the second fine filter retains the protein particles and passes the water with lactose and fat and also with any contaminants that are soluble in fat or in water.

Thus the protein concentrates from whey or milk normally have less contaminants than in the whey or milk used for their production.

arrowleaf
Seriously, why is it so hard to find a protein powder that doesn't include Stevia (or its distilled, chemical name). I don't care about my protein powder being sweet, but if it's gonna be sweet, give me some raw sugar. Stevia is bitter and ruins the whole shake.
bobthepanda
Plastic keeps out moisture and is less heavy/thinner than glass.
zdragnar
The only real viable alternative is a metal can with a metal screw on lid and a rubber seal.

Even then, unless it is recycled aluminum, I'm not sure how much you're gaining, environmentally. Heavier to move, harder to form, probably covered in some sort of coating on the inside anyway. Plastic isn't great- pretty much everything except weight, water impermiability and ease of forming are downsides, but metal isn't free either.

adrian_b
Unfortunately, "environmentally friendly" is not compatible with a long storage time.

In a suitable hermetic packaging, e.g. in a metallized plastic bag, protein powders may be stored for years without refrigeration, which I find extremely convenient and I consider as one of their important advantages over other protein sources, such as meat or dairy, together with the advantage that the protein powders require much less storage space and they are much lighter, being composed of almost pure protein.

The latter advantage, in volume and mass, is also an advantage over the vegetable sources of proteins, e.g. dry legumes or wheat flour, which can be stored for a long time, but which contain much more starch than proteins.

adamgordonbell
Include clear whey, ( aka 'protein water'). There seems to only be a couple brands.
YesBox
Very nice! Some suggestions:

- Display and filter by number of ingredients. My trainer said to avoid the powders filled with "crap". The more pure, the better (e.g. he was referring to unnecessary additives, sweeteners, etc.)

- You're using a single source website.. why not show the review star rating?

- Separate brand and product name into two separate fields.

mushufasa
1. this is really cool, i was looking for something like this last fall when i was choosing a recurring subscription for powder

2. I ended up buying a brand that was highly rated and includes some flavoring and vitamins. I love it! It actually tastes great (to me) too!

3. If I were to have found this site back then, I probably would not have chosen (2), because it is not the cheapest per protein molecule. But if I found a poor tasting or lethargy-inducing solution, I may have given up my journey.

So: cool, though caution that price per powder isn't everything!

architango
This is great, thanks for creating this. I hope it brings you success, I certainly plan on using it.

One important aspect of choosing a protein powder is the amino balance - especially for vegan proteins. Unfortunately many brands don’t provide this info, and you have to infer it from the ingredients.

algo_trader
Please add a filter for "established brands" or similar

This after all is food and i dont want to buy some home mixed brew which is 1c/serving cheaper

Jarwain
In this vein, things like - is it third party lab tested? - do they publish lab reports? - vegan/vegetarian/lactose free/gluten free/other dietary concerns
dotBen
Can you add BCAAs or at least make a distinction between sports protein vs other uses (high greens, etc). This is great though, thanks!
2dvisio
Great idea. Whish this was also expanded to the UK, have exactly the same exact problem here. I keep looking at prices on Amazon and have managed to snatch a few great deals in the past, but having something like this would make it an effortless shopping
alphakappa
This is great. You are missing True Nutrition.

Also if you could add a simple way to reset the filters, that would be great.

dr_kiszonka
I would use it regularly if you added an option to filter by the amount of carbs.
arepb
Who doesn't love a table
traeregan
I don't see WithinYou's Steak Shake. It's my goto.

Good idea and nice execution btw. There's a lot of solid feedback in the comments that will make this even better.

ebiester
Whey protein concentrate and isolate need to be separated out. If you don't have digestion problems with milk, whey concentrate is cheaper and tastes better. I need isolate or I fart something silly.
adrian_b
True.

Fortunately, I do not have milk digestion problems, so I can use whey protein concentrate, from which (by mixing with a vegetable oil) I make something that has the aspect and taste of melted cheese, which I use instead of real cheese.

While whey protein concentrate has a little lactose, it has much less lactose than almost all other dairy products.

Where I live, in Europe, whey protein concentrate is $0.575 per 25 g of pure protein, including taxes (i.e. VAT) and shipping, so it is a little cheaper than the cheapest protein source on this list.

While this list includes enough items with a reasonable price, any of those with a price over $1 per 25 g of pure protein is likely to be an attempt to exploit naive buyers of fitness-related products, by including excessive profit margins.