Best Creatine for Men (2025): As Approved By a Sports Dietitian

Known for their scientifically formulated dietary supplements and clearly labeled ingredients, Transparent Labs has recently achieved a meteoric rise in the sports nutrition industry. Creatine HMB from Transparent Labs contains 5 grams of creatine, which means it contains the maximum, efficacious amount of creatine that studies have shown is optimal to provide exercise performance benefits, which is between 3-5 grams per day¹.

As a sports dietitian, I love that HMB is included in this supplement. The reason for this is studies have shown that both HMB and creatine have the most significant effects² on supporting increased strength and muscle growth. 

β-Hydroxy β-Methylbutyrate (HMB) is a compound that provides a host of health benefits for fitness buffs³. These include the ability to build lean body mass, boost muscle strength, particularly in the lower body, and even help with weight loss when taken along with resistance training. 

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We had this creatine tested by both Nicole Davis, GGR head of content and a certified personal trainer, and Amanda Capritto, CPT, CES, CNC, CF-L1, CSNC, a former GGR senior staff writer. We rated it 4 out of 5 for taste as both our testers had some meh experiences. 

“I wasn’t a fan of the black cherry,” Nicole reports. “Even with the recommended amount of water it tasted watery.” Amanda, who sampled the Peach Mango, says, “The flavor is strong and isn’t bad, but the bioperine changes the taste and gives it a weird, spicy smell.” 

The pair also agreed on a 3.5 out of 5 rating for solubility. “There were definitely some floaties and, if you don’t chug it all at once, it settles on you,” they report. They did give a 5 out of 5 for side effects, though, as neither experienced anything negative while taking the dietary supplement.

As a final note, Nicole laments, “I was hyped up to try flavored creatine, but it was a bit of a disappointment. I’d rather just use unflavored creatine supplements and mix it with my other drinks.” All in all, though, given the careful, science-backed dosage, the addition of HMB and the lack of artificial junk, we had to crown Transparent Labs as the best overall brand for creatine for people who identify as men. 

Read our full Transparent Labs Creatine Review to learn more. 

For unflavored creatine monohydrate, go with Sports Research Creatine Monohydrate, which is also third-party tested like Transparent Labs.

Considering that Pre-Workout Elite pre-workout costs nearly $2.50 per serving, it is not for the budget-conscious. So, this is a creatine pre-workout that’s best suited for serious athletes and bodybuilders for whom cost is no object.

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Nonetheless, we had this pre-workout tested by Jacob Penner, a USA Weightlifting L-2 coach. He gave it a 4 out of 5 for taste. “It wasn’t overpowering or anything and tasted good, but it was very citrusy,” says Jacob. For solubility, we gave it a 5 out of 5, since Jacob said, “You don’t need a blender here! Dissolves in water completely.”

Jacob also loves the effects, giving it a 5 out of 5 for side effects. “I don’t get the tingles and feel consistently high energy when I take it. Not super hyper and no crashing, either.” Overall, though, Jacob isn’t totally convinced it’s worth the price. “I’m a huge fan of the flavor and the effects, but I wouldn’t use it on the days I need a huge surge of energy. That said, I would use it again on my regular training days.”

Pre-Kaged Elite is available in five flavors: Fruit Punch, Orange Mango, Glacier Grape, Caribbean Sunrise, and Strawberry Lemonade. Regardless of your taste preferences, you’re sure to find a flavor you enjoy.

For more details, you can read our full Kaged Pre-Kaged Elite Review. 

And for a pre-workout with less caffeine, try Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Pre-Workout, which has less than 200 milligrams of caffeine while still having the recommended 3 grams of creatine each serving.

If you have been on the hunt for truly unflavored creatine, your search ends with Swolverine Creatine Monohydrate. According to our tester, Kate Meier, NASM-CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, there’s absolutely no flavor or aftertaste, solidifying its spot as the best unflavored creatine for men. She rates the flavor—or rather, the lack thereof—with 5 out of 5 points, saying, “I don’t notice this at all, even in water, which is exactly what you want out of an unflavored supplement.”

On a similar note, Kate also rates the solubility with a perfect 5-out-of-5 rating. “It dissolves so easily that it becomes undetectable in water, let alone juice or a sports drink,” she adds.

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We attribute its excellent solubility and lack of taste to its simplified formulation. This creatine supplement contains micronized creatine monohydrate and nothing else: just 5 grams of the good stuff. Yep, each serving size contains the high end of the clinically validated¹ daily dose of creatine for enhanced athletic performance. As such, it earns another 5-point score for formulation.

One criterion where Swolverine could improve is the pricing. At roughly $0.67 per serving, it’s not the most expensive creatine powder out there, but it’s not the cheapest, either. That said, it still meets our benchmark and earns 3 out of 5 points in the category. You can also lower the cost by signing up for Swolverine’s subscribe-and-save program, which can drop the price tag from $39.99 to $33.99 for the 60-serving tub. 

We also wish this product had a third-party certification to confirm its contents. Because Swolvering is historically a transparent brand, though, and does certify some of its offered products, it still earns 3 out of 5 points for third-party testing.

For an unflavored creatine that’s third-party tested, try Sports Research Creatine Monohydrate, which also delivers 5 grams per serving and is NSF Informed Sport Certified.

Supplement gummies are great for anyone who doesn’t enjoy choking down powder or capsules to get their creatine fix. Outside of taste, creatine gummies are also more convenient in terms of portability and lack of mixing needed. Swoly is also free of gluten and gelatin, so it’s safe for vegans. 

Kate Meier, GGR senior director of content, certified personal trainer, and Olympic weightlifting coach, agrees with this sentiment after we asked her to try Swoly gummies. “I’d much rather take a gummy over pills and powders,” she says. “It is meh you have to take 5 gummies to get 4 grams of creatine, but I wouldn’t have an issue eating 50 of these guys.” 

Kate did rate Swoly gummies a 4 out of 5 for formulation. “There are only 4 grams of creatine and it contains an uncomfy amount of unhealthy ingredients, including artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, and added sugar.”

“They are delicious, though,” Kate adds, justifying our rating of 5 out of 5 for taste. “They’re so much like Annie’s Homegrown Organic fruit snacks I have to hide them to make sure my daughter doesn’t eat the jar.” We also gave a score 5 out of 5 for solubility/chewability. “They are definitely gummy, but chewing and swallowing them is easy,” Kate says. 

Finally, she rated them 5 out of 5 for side effects as she didn’t notice anything negative, but “maybe I’m just addicted to the taste,” Kate mentions. All in all, if you don’t mind the formulation not being the cleanest and a bigger-than-average serving size, Swoly gummies are a great, alternate way to take your creatine. 

For more details, see our full Swoly Creatine Gummies Review. 

If you’d like to make sure your creatine gummies are tested for purity and quality, we recommend Legion Athletics Creatine Gummies, which are third-party tested by Labdoor.

At the time of writing, Sports Research creatine monohydrate is the #4 most popular creatine on Amazon, if that gives any indication of how popular it is. This is why we crowned it the best creatine monohydrate on this list, along with the feedback we got from GGR Performance Editor Anthony O’Reilly, CPT, CNC.

After trying the creatine monohydrate powder, Anthony rated it a 5 out of 5 for taste. “All I tasted was water when I mixed it with water,” Anthony says. “Totally tasteless.” He also gave it a 5 out of 5 for solubility. “If I didn’t mix the creatine in the water myself, I wouldn’t have known it was there; that’s how easily it mixes,” Anthony reports. 

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Anthony also had nothing negative to report after using it, so we gave it 5 out of 5 for side effects.

Matt Dustin, CSCS, PN1-NC, has also been using this creatine for about two years now. He likes the consistency once it’s dissolved but has one minor callout.

“This creatine has a really light texture, almost like flour,” Matt explains. “It doesn’t have the typical gritty texture I often see with creatine, but it’s messy. Every time I open the tub, a cloud of powder goes everywhere, so it’s a little messy compared to other creatine monohydrate supplements I’ve used.”

Sports Research creatine is also free from GMOs and gluten, along with being third-party tested by Informed Sport, so it’s appropriate to take for most individuals. 

If you want to tried a flavored creatine supplement, check out Legion Recharge Post-Workout with Creatine. This post-workout powder packs 5 grams of creatine per serving, and rated high in our taste tests.

Not too many frills to discuss with this supplement. The unflavored version contains just one ingredient and it’s present in the effective dose of 5 grams. If you’re someone who is just wanting to get started taking creatine, Nutricost is an economical way to do it. 

We had this creatine tested by three of our team members: GGR Editor Frieda Johnson, CNC, SET; GGR Performance Editor Anthony O’Reilly, CPT, CNC; and GGR Senior Editor Amanda Dvorak, CPT.

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For taste, we rated it a 4.5 out of 5 after having our team try the unflavored version. “Even mixed in water, it has no taste whatsoever,” says Frieda. “Doesn’t alter the flavor of any other supplements we mix it with, either,” both Anthony and Amanda report after trying it with their pre-workout and protein powder. 

We rated it 3 out of 5 for solubility. “I never had any grittiness or crazy settling, but to be fair, when I mix it with protein powder it’s difficult to tell which one is settling,” Amanda describes. Frieda, however, had a different experience. “This actually settles a lot,” she says.

We gave it a 5 out of 5 for side effects. “I didn’t notice anything, but I’ve been taking creatine supplements for years, so I can’t speak on how it would affect a beginner,” says Amanda. Anthony, though, has a clearer point of view. “What makes me a fan of this one is I don’t get the bloating I get with other creatine monohydrate powder.”

Frieda sums Nutricost Micronized Creatine Monohydrate up perfectly: “For how effective it is, creatine is among the most cost-effective fitness supplements out there, but Nutricost is remarkably affordable even by market standards.”

If you want to know more, read our full Nutricost Micronized Creatine Monohydrate Review. 

Athletes should consider getting a creatine powder that’s been tested for banned substances, like Jacked Factory Creatine Monohydrate, which is Informed Choice-certified.

Legion Recharge Post-Workout with Creatine is a special supplement as it doesn’t self-identify as a creatine supplement, but as a post-workout supplement due to its inclusion of other recovery ingredients. Recharge contains 5 grams of creatine monohydrate in micronized form. 

A micronized creatine supplement is processed using smaller crystals, allowing mixing to be easier, but this doesn’t necessarily make it a creatine that’s more high-quality or that has better benefits.

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One ingredient that is worth highlighting, though, is the 10 grams of corosolic acid, something that you’ve likely not heard of. It’s still fairly new on the supplement scene so the science is limited, but research done on it has shown that it can help alter insulin levels in a way that boosts the absorption of nutrients like creatine and protein⁴ when taken post workout. 

The reason it’s really on our list, though, is for the taste. We had Recharge tested by GGR Head of Content Nicole Davis and Lindsay Scheele, lead reviewer at GGR Everything and a certified personal trainer, and they gave it a 5-out-of-5 rating in taste.

“The strawberry lemonade had a tart, but sweet flavor that I liked,” Nicole reports. “The sour candy was amazing,” Lindsay gushes. With these endorsements, Recharge’s placement on our list becomes less and less of a surprise.  

We also gave it a 5 out of 5 in solubility. “Took seconds to dissolve with minimal effort,” says Lindsay after just shaking it in a water bottle for a bit. Nicole also had no issues. For side effects, we gave it a 5 out of 5, as well, as nothing negative was reported from either of our team members.

We did have to give it a 1.5 out of 5 for price, however. While the cost isn’t terrible, people just looking for an affordable creatine supplement might bristle. That said, Lindsay had some parting words about the product, “When I tested Recharge, I was in a tough part of my training cycle and noticed an improvement even though I was still sore. Can’t rule out a placebo effect, but either way, I’ll be using this post-workout supplement for a while!”

To learn more, read our full Legion Recharge Post-Workout with Creatine. 

Looking for plain, unflavored creatine? Try out Onnit Creatine, which has 5 grams of pure creatine monohydrate each serving.

Jacked Factory gets our vote as the best creatine monohydrate powder, as the company promotes the supplement as one meant to be stacked or mixed with other post-workout supplements like branched-chain amino acids.

We had Jacked Factory creatine tested by Kate Meier, CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1. “There is nothing complicated about this creatine,” Kate says as her overall sentiment of the product. She gave it a 5 out of 5 for both taste and side effects. “When mixed with water, all I taste is water,” Kate says. “I didn’t experience any side effects either.”

She did give it a 4 out of 5 for solubility, though. “If you don’t drink it right away, there will be some sediment at the bottom,” Kate says. For high-quality creatine, Jacked Factory is also pretty affordable and offers a 100% Hassle-Free Money-Back Guarantee.

To learn more, you can read our full Jacked Factory Creatine Monohydrate Review. 

For a faster way to take creatine, try out Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules; four capsules equal 5 grams of creatine.

With the ubiquity of Optimum Nutrition as a brand in the sports supplement space, it’s no surprise that it has the #1 best-selling creatine capsule on Amazon and our pick for the best creatine pill for people who identify as men. 

Though capsules give the exact same benefits as powder (they are essentially powder wrapped in a tiny package, after all), the one thing we want to warn you about is the dosing. Tester Kate Meier, CPT, USAW-L1, CF-L1, also holds the same sentiment, despite giving the creatine a high rating. “To get the 5 grams of creatine you need, you have to take four pills,” she cautions. 

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“What makes it more confusing is the label that says a serving is 2.5 grams,” Kate continues. “Which means a 5-gram serving makes this creatine substantially more expensive.” That said, though, she did give a 5 out of 5 in taste, swallowability, and side effects. 

“They had no flavor and the pills are easy to get down,” Kate says. “I also didn’t have any negative side effects.”

Our one callout is the serving size, as you’ll need to take four large capsules to get the recommended 5-gram serving of creatine. That’s a hefty serving size and the reason these capsules earn 3 out of 5 stars for swallowability.

If you’re wanting a tastier method for creatine, we suggest SWOLY Creatine Gummies, which scored high in taste from all of our testers.

If you’re an experienced sports nutritionist, you’ve come across Onnit. As part of its Informed Sport certification, Onnit’s products are tested by LGC, a world-class anti-doping laboratory. This means it’s one of the safest supplements you can take as an elite or professional athlete, as this level of testing is regarded as the gold standard in third-party testing. 

We had Onnit creatine tested by Frieda Johnson, CNC, and Nicole Davis, PN1-NC, who rated the creatine 4.75 out of 5 for taste. “Even in plain water I couldn’t taste anything at all,” Nicole says about the unflavored creatine. “I also didn’t have an issue drinking it with water, but I did notice a bit of a bitter aftertaste,” Frieda reported.

Our testers were harsher critics when it came to the solubility, though, which they rated 3 out of 5. “You do have to stir it repeatedly when taking it because it settles,” Frieda warns. Our testers gave it a 5 out of 5 for side effects. “I haven’t recognized any difference, good or bad, since taking this creatine daily for the past few weeks,” says Frieda.

She also alerts consumers to the serving size: “To get 5 grams, you need 2 scoops, which is OK, but weird. I’ve actually forgotten to take both scoops at times since most creatine I’ve taken only needs one scoop.” This is something to be aware of because, as mentioned earlier, any dose under 3 grams doesn’t carry the same athletic performance benefits and a single scoop only delivers 2.5 grams of creatine. 

That said, the lack of extra ingredients, flavors, or sweeteners, plus third-party testing to provide some assurance there are no invisible additives, is why we crowned Onnit the best creatine for people who identify as men for weight loss. 

For a more comprehensive assessment, read our full Onnit Creatine Review. 

If you’d like to buy more creatine at once, we recommend MRM Nutrition Creatine Monohydrate 500, which, as the name suggests, comes in a 500-gram tub.