Methodology
A cheaper sticker price does not mean cheaper per dose. A 1kg creatine tub and a 300g tub, a 60% concentrate and a 90% isolate, a magnesium oxide and a bisglycinate — each delivers a different amount of the thing you actually pay for. DosePrice reduces every product in a category to one comparable number: the price per effective dose. This page explains how that number is built, and which products are excluded from the ranking and why.
The core idea: price per effective dose
Every category on DosePrice is ranked on a single normalized metric — the cost of one unit of the active ingredient, all-in. The unit differs by category, but the principle is identical: strip away packaging weight, fillers, capsule counts, and marketing claims, and price the product on what your body is actually paying for.
| Category | Effective dose | Ranking metric |
|---|---|---|
| Creatine | 5g creatine monohydrate serving | EUR per 5g serving |
| Magnesium | 100mg elemental magnesium | EUR per 100mg elemental |
| Omega-3 | 1g combined EPA + DHA | EUR per 1g EPA+DHA |
| Whey protein | 1g of protein | EUR per 1g protein |
Total known price
Every normalized figure starts from the total known price — the product price plus the shipping assumption recorded in the import row. Where shipping data is available it is included in the all-in cost, so a product with a low sticker price but expensive delivery can rank behind one with a higher sticker price and free shipping.
DosePrice tracks country availability for every offer, so the ranking can be filtered to products that actually ship to your market rather than showing prices you cannot buy at.
Creatine normalization
DosePrice ranks creatine monohydrate powder by EUR per 5g serving — the standard daily serving used in most research and on most labels. Because monohydrate is a single, unflavoured compound with no meaningful variation in composition, the comparison is direct:
EUR per 5g = total known price / (package grams / 5)
Capsules, blends, pre-workouts, gummies, and alternative forms (HCl, ethyl ester) are excluded from the default ranking because their price cannot be attributed to creatine on a fair gram-for-gram basis. See EUR per 5g serving explained for the full reasoning, or browse the creatine ranking.
Magnesium normalization
Magnesium is never sold as pure metal — it is always a compound, and the fraction of actual (elemental) magnesium inside varies dramatically by form. A label reading “Magnesium Citrate 400mg” describes the compound, not the ~64mg of elemental magnesium it contains. DosePrice normalizes to elemental content:
EUR per 100mg elemental = total known price / (total elemental magnesium in 100mg units)
When a label states elemental content directly (e.g. “providing 100mg elemental magnesium”), that value is used. When it states only compound weight, elemental content is computed from the form-specific fraction (citrate ~16%, bisglycinate ~18%, oxide ~60%, and so on). This lets an oxide product and a bisglycinate product be ranked on the same scale. See why elemental magnesium matters, or browse by form on the magnesium form page.
Omega-3 normalization
The number on the front of an omega-3 bottle — “1000mg fish oil per softgel” — is the total oil weight, not the effective dose. What matters is the combined EPA + DHA inside that oil, which can vary several-fold between products advertising the same oil weight. DosePrice reads EPA and DHA from the supplement facts panel and normalizes to their combined mass:
EUR per 1g EPA+DHA = total known price / (total grams EPA+DHA in the package)
ALA is not counted, because the body converts it to EPA and DHA at a very low rate. Fish oil, krill oil, algal oil, and cod liver oil are all comparable on this metric because it prices the active fatty acids directly. Triglyceride and ethyl ester forms are treated as equivalent. See how to compare omega-3 by EPA+DHA, or browse the omega-3 ranking.
Whey protein normalization
A tub's headline weight (“2kg”, “908g”) is total powder, not protein. Depending on the type, 60–95% of that weight is actual protein; the rest is moisture, lactose, fat, and flavouring. DosePrice reads grams of protein per serving and servings per container and normalizes to protein mass:
EUR per 1g protein = total known price / (total grams of protein in the package)
This puts concentrate, isolate, hydrolysate, and blends on equal footing regardless of tub size or scoop count. See how to compare whey by gram of protein, or browse the whey ranking.
Confidence and exclusions
A product is only ranked if the label gives DosePrice enough to compute its effective dose with confidence. Rows are marked low confidence and hidden from the default ranking when they have any of the following:
- Missing or invalid package weight or price.
- Missing country availability.
- A form or format outside the category's scope (e.g. non-monohydrate creatine, unknown magnesium form).
- Unidentifiable active content — a label that does not state elemental magnesium, EPA/DHA, or protein clearly enough to compute the dose.
Excluding these rows protects the ranking from misleading comparisons and stops you paying a good per-serving price for a product whose real dose is unknown. Low-confidence products can still be viewed — they are simply kept out of the default sort.
Scope of the ranking
DosePrice compares product facts and prices only. The ranking reflects price per effective dose — it does not rank by absorption, solubility, bioavailability, taste, or any health outcome, and it is not a recommendation of which product or form is right for you. That is a question for a healthcare professional. Product facts only, no medical claims (§11).