Which creatine brands are third-party tested?
29 of the 61 creatine products we track appear in the public database of an independent testing or certification program. Another 29 do not, in the databases we searched. A listing may cover 3 more, and whether it does is not settled either way.
That second number is not a verdict. Most supplements sold have never been independently tested, and a brand's absence from these lists usually means nobody has tested it rather than that it failed anything. We report what we searched and what we found.
NSF Certified for Sport
Confirms the label's dose: Yes · Heavy metals: Yes · Banned substances: Yes
Informed Sport
Confirms the label's dose: Not stated · Heavy metals: Not stated · Banned substances: Yes
Informed Choice
Confirms the label's dose: Not stated · Heavy metals: Not stated · Banned substances: Yes
Searched, and not found
These 29 products are not listed by any of the programs above, in the databases we checked on the dates shown on each product page.
California Gold Nutrition Sport Pure Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (454 g) · California Gold Nutrition Sport Pure Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (1000 g) · Micro Ingredients Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (1000 g) · Micro Ingredients Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (500 g) · MuscleTech Platinum 100% Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (400 g) · EVLution Nutrition Creatine5000, Unflavored (300 g) · Force Factor Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (300 g) · Force Factor Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (500 g) · Nutricost Performance Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (1000 g) · ABE Creatine Monohydrate, Pure Micronized Powder, Unflavored (300 g) · Animal 100% Pure Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (300 g) · Doctor's Best Creatine Powder, Unflavored (500 g) · Havasu Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (300 g) · Double Wood Supplements Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (500 g) · BulkSupplements.com Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (210 count) · BulkSupplements.com Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (420 count) · Micro Ingredients Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (500 count) · Nutricost Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (180 count) · Nutricost Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (500 count) · Nutricost Performance Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (300 g) · Nutricost Performance Creatine Monohydrate, Unflavored (500 g) · Animal 100% Pure Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (500 g) · Animal 100% Pure Creatine Monohydrate Powder, Unflavored (1000 g) · EVLution Nutrition Creatine5000, Unflavored (100 servings) · Double Wood Supplements Creatine Monohydrate Capsules (120 capsules) · EVLution Nutrition Creatine1000 Capsules (120 capsules) · MuscleTech Platinum 100% Creatine Capsules (100 capsules) · Animal Micronized Creatine Capsules (300 capsules) · Havasu Nutrition Creatine + AstraGin Capsules (120 capsules)
Not settled either way
A program's list holds an entry that may cover these 3 products, and the entry does not say whether it does. Neither listed nor absent; each product page has the detail.
Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules, Unflavored (100 capsules) · Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules, Unflavored (200 capsules) · Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules, Unflavored (300 capsules)
Where to buy: the creatine monohydrate shortlist
The pick is the cheapest certified product, at the exact package sold where the certifier names packages, with no adverse finding on record, a price its retailer let us read recently, and no more than a year’s supply at the label’s serving; per delivered dose where the retailer publishes a delivery rate. Where none does, it is the cheapest such product before delivery, and it says how far the order is from free delivery. It is the same pick the category page shows. Any answer shown beside it is the cheapest under a different rule and says so on its own line; answers that cost more than the pick fold under one line until you ask for them.
How these lines are chosen
Among 61 products and 74 retailer listings we track; Amazon and Walmart are not included. A month is thirty doses of the size in the heading, priced the same way as the per-dose figure beside it. “Delivery known” ranks only products whose retailer publishes a delivery rate; a cheaper product with an unpublished rate is on its own line, or in the full list below.
Full comparison of every product in this category: Creatine Monohydrate. Every question we answer: the question index.
What this rests on: prices we last recorded at the retailer named on each product page, which go stale, and each page says when it was checked; the products we track, not every product sold, and Amazon and Walmart are not among the stores; listings and labels read at the source, each linked from the page. Found an error? Tell us. The full method: How we compare.