7 Best Trustworthy Supplement & Vitamin Brands in 2024
Last Updated: January 24, 2024
Being extra cautious and questioning when shopping for dietary supplements is totally understandable, and in fact, advisable. The industry is largely unregulated and pretty much anything goes.
The two major issues you have to figure out are: Which specific ingredients and dosages are right for you, and second, which supplement companies you can trust to provide you with authentic, potent and safe products.
This article aims to help you with the second part by recommending seven of the most reputable supplement brands on the market that uphold high quality standards.
Best Supplement & Vitamin Brands You Can Buy Online
1. Sports Research
Sports Research is mainly focused on nutritional supplements for athletic people, but they have many high-quality products that anyone can take.
Their supplements are made in the USA in GMP compliant facilities and many of their products are third-party tested and certified. You can look up test results (COA certificates) on their website using the lot number printed on the bottle you received.
Some of the best products this company makes are: Triple Strength Omega-3 fish oil (certified by IFOS for label accuracy, oxidation and heavy metals), plant-based vitamin D3 with K2 (certified vegan), and whey protein isolate (certified by Informed Sport).
2. NOW Foods
Not many supplement companies manage to combine high quality with low cost, but NOW Foods is very well known for that. This family-owned brand offers a massive selection of herbal supplements, vitamins, nutritional formulas, essential oils, organic foods, and other health products.
NOW operates their own in-house labs where they perform different analytical tests on raw ingredients and finished products; including gas chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). They test each compound for identity, potency and purity, and also to detect the presence of any contaminants or adulterants.
They are committed to environmentally friendly sourcing and manufacturing practices. Most of their products come in recyclable packaging materials, such as recyclable plastic bottles (HDPE, LDPE and PET), recyclable paperboard (cellulose and solid bleached sulfate), and glass bottles.
NOW’s manufacturing facility is third-party certified by the National Products Association (NPA) with an “A” rating for compliance with GMP standards.
3. Thorne
Thorne is primarily a professional practitioner brand that is distributed through local health care professionals, but their products are also offered for sale at numerous online wellness stores.
This company is one of the finest supplement manufacturers in the U.S. known for having high quality standards for sourcing and testing of their products.
They source raw ingredients from trusted suppliers in different countries and they test each ingredient for a long list of contaminants and harmful chemicals to make sure only authentic and safe ingredients are used in their finished products.
In terms of price, Thorne ranks on the higher end of the scale as you’d expect from one of the top-grade premium brands on the market. You’re not just paying for the ingredients, you’re paying for the brand name and everything it stands for.
You sure can find plenty of cheaper alternatives that offer comparable quality (we have a few other options on this list), but if you can afford this one, you won’t have much to complain about besides the possible dent in your wallet!
4. Natural Factors
Natural Factors is one of the most respected manufacturers of dietary supplements in Canada. Their products are widely sold at local stores across Canada, and they’re also available for sale on the internet at many Canadian and U.S. online shops.
This brand is held to high quality standards given the stricter regulations that Canadian manufacturers are required to comply with. Their products are comprehensively tested for heavy metals, GMOs, solvents, pesticides and other harmful contaminants.
In addition to in-house lab tests, they also verify the purity and authenticity of the products in a third-party Canadian lab called ISURA. If you see the ISURA seal on the bottle, it’s an extra assurance of the product’s safety and label accuracy.
5. Jarrow Formulas
Jarrow Formulas has been on the market since 1977 with plenty of outstanding supplement formulations among their selection.
The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and their manufacturing facility is located in Santa Fe Springs, also in The Golden State.
They make numerous generic supplements (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbals, etc.), and they also make special branded formulas for specific health uses.
Many of their products are made using highly bioavailable, biologically active forms of certain ingredients — such as ubiquinol (active CoQ10), L-methylfolate/5-MTHF (active folate), and methylcobalamin (active vitamin B12).
6. Nature’s Way
Nature’s Way is another prominent brand in the supplement industry that you can’t overlook. It is sold at almost every major retail store that carries nutritional supplements, and their products are usually among the top rated and recommended by consumers.
That’s not very surprising since they combine the two most important criteria supplement buyers look for: high quality and reasonable prices.
Nature’s Way has a few flagship sub-brands that feature specialized formulations. The most notable of these is the Alive line of multivitamin gummies, tablets and capsules.
I must warn you about the gummies though; these taste more like medicine and less like sweet candy gummies (the reviews can be a little misleading). I personally prefer to stick with tablets and/or capsules; not only to avoid any unpleasant flavor surprises, but also because they don’t contain the added sugar and other ingredients used to make gummies.
7. Life Extension
Life Extension has been around for more than 40 years, and as the name suggests, the main focus of the brand is anti-aging nutritional products. The company expanded their product catalog over the years to include a diverse selection of dietary supplements for different purposes.
They often boast about their science and research based formulations, but it’s important to note that most of that science is limited positive preclinical studies. Most of the listed health claims aren’t proven by large-scale human trials, and this goes for pretty much all supplements out there.
So, for example, if the label says “energy booster”, it doesn’t mean the product WILL (certainly) boost your energy levels, but rather, it MAY (in some cases) help improve your energy.
As far as quality is concerned, NSF-certified Life Extension products score high based on third-party tests and consumer feedback.
Don’t Buy Supplements You Don’t Really Need
Dietary supplements aren’t useful for everyone and may end up causing more harm than good if used when not necessary.
It’s better to get a professional medical advice from your doctor instead of relying on random articles, reviews and/or misrepresented and inconclusive studies you’ve read online.
Very few of the countless supplements out there are worth taking, and even those may not be beneficial for everyone.
The Best Supplement Brands: Selection Methodology
The following are the main criteria that were taken into account when selecting the top supplement brands featured on this list:
Manufacturing Facility
All of the companies mentioned above have their manufacturing facilities located in the USA. Furthermore, they are all registered and inspected facilities that comply with the FDA’s current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) for dietary supplement manufacturers.
Lab Testing
A trustworthy supplement company must always test all of the raw ingredients used in their products to verify the identity of each compound, its potency, and its safety. Regarding the latter, several lab tests should be conducted to ensure that the materials are free from harmful chemicals, dangerous heavy metals, microbial contaminants, and other problematic compounds.
Some manufacturers are also certified by third-party labs and relevant organizations for extra assurance of quality.
Transparency
How many times have you heard about a “breakthrough” supplement that has supposedly done wonders for others, but when you get to the “official” website that sells it, you will find absolutely no information about the company or the people behind it?!
Do they have a “real” physical address? Do they have a functional phone number? Do they provide any names of the people running the business? If you are going to trust a company with your health and money, you should at least know who you’re dealing with and what they stand for.
Claims
Overblown, unproven, deceptive and false claims are quite the norm in the supplement industry. The truth is, most of the health claims and benefits of any supplement you’ll hear or read about fall into one of these categories.
Some companies won’t hesitate to make outright false claims about their products as long as it keeps the cash flowing into their pockets. One needs to use their common sense and do their own research on the ingredients rather than believe what the seller promises or what various unverifiable reviews assert.
I hope you’re not looking for any miracle formulas here, because that’s not what the brands we’ve just looked at offer. You will mostly find reasonable claims with fair scientific backing, but still there is no guarantee that you’ll gain any benefit if you don’t know what’s right for you.
Customer Feedback
This one is a little tricky because you can’t firmly judge the efficacy of any nutritional supplement based on what other users have experienced with it. Subjective individual results, placebo effect, and fake reviews are the main reasons why you shouldn’t rely on what others say when purchasing supplements.
But while customer reviews can’t tell you which product will work for you, they can be helpful in assessing the quality of a certain company’s products. Any issues with packaging, labeling, and quality control are often pointed out by other customers, so it might be worthwhile to spend some time going through those reviews.
Steps For Buying Supplements Online Safely
The following are five key steps you should follow whenever you feel like going on a supplement shopping spree. Regardless of what type of supplement you are looking to buy, these are some general guidelines that can help you make educated and safe decisions.
Step 1: Understand the ingredients you need
Many consumers base their buying decisions on sales pitches, celebrity/influencer endorsements, and user reviews on Amazon and other sites. Fact is, none of those are a reliable source of health information and advice.
The first thing you should look at and study is the list of the ingredients that make up the formula. Do your own research on each of the ingredients using reputable, unbiased online sources — such as WebMD, Examine, Verywell Health, and others.
But even if a certain compound or formula has the backing of scientific studies and has helped many other people, it may still do nothing for you simply because your body doesn’t need it.
In order to figure out which ingredients are the ones your body is missing, you can either go the trial-and-error route based on your own independent research, or get a professional advice from a qualified health care practitioner.
Step 2: Know the right dosage for you
Having the right ingredients may not be enough for a certain product to be beneficial for you; it needs to have the right amount (dosage) of each ingredient too.
Most herbal formulas on the market barely contain the minimum effective dosage of some or all of the ingredients, making them practically useless for the majority of users.
On the other hand, many multivitamins contain excessive amounts of certain vitamins and/or minerals, which makes them useless and possibly harmful for users who can’t tolerate those megadoses.
Just like with finding the right ingredients, you can either do your own research-based experimenting, or better, consult a health care professional about the right dosage of any herbal compound, vitamin, mineral or whatever other supplement you intend to take.
Step 3: Carefully examine the label
Not many buyers bother to thoroughly read the label and mainly focus on the list of active ingredients. But if you really care about all the extra fillers and additives you could be putting in your system, you need to be more picky about which supplements to purchase.
Pay close attention to the list of “other ingredients” on the label. These usually consist of artificial additives, binders, fillers, etc.
Additives like sugar, artificial sweeteners, artificial colors and flavors, and other chemical compounds may not only be unnecessary, but may also be harmful to your health.
Look for products that contain as few additional ingredients as possible. Stick with brands that are known for making clean supplements with minimal use of additives. Opt for encapsulated supplements over tablets when possible since the former normally contain less fillers and binders.
Step 4: Choose a trustworthy brand
Finding one or a few brands you can trust may not be a straightforward process with all the misleading information on the web.
A supplement company you can trust is one that is transparent about who they are, what sourcing principles they follow, where they manufacture their products, what kind of lab tests their raw ingredients undergo, and what third-party certifications they have.
You can’t and shouldn’t trust a company that makes tall health claims without a reasonable amount of supporting scientific research.
Step 5: Order from a reliable vendor
Although a lot of manufacturers sell their products directly to consumers through an official online store, you can often find better deals at third-party retailer stores.
I’m certainly not talking about Amazon here! Yes, you can find countless great deals on Amazon, but probably not when it comes to supplements. There are just too many bogus products and misleading reviews on the platform to make it an ideal place to shop for any nutritional products.
When looking for an online vendor to buy your supplements and vitamins from, choose one that directly sources the products from their legitimate manufacturer, has a clear shipping and return policy, provides prompt customer service, and offers some perks for loyal customers.
There are quite a few decent one-stop wellness shops on the internet where you can find a diverse selection of herbal supplements, vitamins, and other health products from different top-notch brands.
For the purpose of this post, I chose the iHerb online store, which you will be redirected to when you click on some of the brand names listed above.
References
- “NPA GMP Certification Program.” Natural Products Association. (https://www.npanational.org/certifications/npa-gmp-certification-program/)
- “Current Good Manufacturing Practices.” Consumer Healthcare Products Association. (https://www.chpa.org/public-policy-regulatory/regulation/current-good-manufacturing-practices)
- “Analysis: Some natural supplements can be dangerously contaminated.” PBS NewsHour. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/analysis-some-natural-supplements-can-be-dangerously-contaminated)
- “False Advertising in Dietary Supplements.” Nutritional Products International. (https://nutricompany.com/news/false-advertising-dietary-supplements/)
- “The Hidden Dangers in Your Dietary Supplements.” American College of Healthcare Sciences. (https://achs.edu/blog/2016/12/02/dangerous-supplement-ingredients/)
