Best vegan protein powder – 2019
Here’s the thing, everybody would like the very best vegan protein powder. At Vegan Protein Guide, we are truly committed to giving you one. However, we are facing a real issue and a dilemma. More specifically, I am facing a dilemma.
Until today! After speaking with several readers and going through a couple brainstorming sessions by myself with the data I’ve collected. I’ve come to a brilliant conclusion. Drum roll, please… Nobody can agree on a “best something”. LOL, aren’t you glad you clicked on this article? But wait, don’t give up on me just yet! I am sure you’ve seen this before. Best smartphone, iPhone or Samsung? How about the best computer: Mac or PC? Ford Mustang or Ford Mustang. 😉
Will this be only about 100% vegan protein powders?
Before we get into this, one important note! There will be no “vegetarian” powders here. Only 100% vegan powders. After I finished writing this post, I scrolled back to the top just to be sure you get this. There are so many articles out there that start with the word vegan in their title or elsewhere and then pretty soon they take a turn and start talking about Whey and Casein. Whey is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. As in milk from a cow. Casein is the name for a family of related phosphoproteins, these proteins are commonly found in mammalian milk. OK? So no casein and no whey! Some proteins may contain soy or gluten, but protein powders on our list WILL BE, 100% VEGAN. No whey? Yes way!
What is the best vegan protein powder?
In order for me to really answer that question to you dear reader, I need to know more about you. Since that’s not really possible, I’ve realized that I need to create a guide! Since you are now on the VeganProteinGuide.com that shouldn’t be too hard to achieve. So what kind of a guide am I talking about? Very simple. I created a set of parameters that will help you decide and reach your own conclusion on what is the best vegan protein powder.
Best vegan protein powder guide
So what are the metrics? We have to stick to the basics and avoid typical mistakes with general terms such as “quality” or extremely subjective “taste”. BUT, we will do our best based on the data in front of us. Also, we will let you know when it is really up to you to make a decision if something tastes “not sweet” or “sweet”. We weren’t in the position to taste all those powders ourselves, and even if we were, my subjective thoughts on how certain powder tastes could be completely different from yours.
Those of you that are not new to the website are probably wondering how is this guide different from the vegan protein powder guide we published back in August 2017 (you can read it here)? Well, we might as well start our new guide with that question. Something that’s best, doesn’t always remain best. Because of that, timing and frequent updates are one of the hallmarks of a good “best product” list. For example world car of the year 2016 was Mazda MX-5, and then in 2017, it was Jaguar F-PACE.
Same works with protein powders and other supplement products. Some of them stop being manufactured, some of them change taste over the years, some rebrand, etc… So let’s list deciding factors on how we picked our best vegan protein powder.
Deciding factors on picking the very best vegan protein powder
Here are the deciding factors we went by:
- Price
- Amazon customer review grades and comments
- Package design
- Healthiness of ingredients
- Amount of protein
- Other (deliverability, taste (our own tasting and according to reviews), manufacturer’s good standing, location production)
We are going to create top 3 vegan protein powders for 2019 for each of these categories. Except for the 6th category which is like a bonus opportunity for a vegan protein powder to score some extra points. In short, this is why we decided to base the best top 3 vegan protein powders on these characteristics.
Price: Price shouldn’t be the determining factor on why you buy any product, but it’s easiest to compare. It is also the most objective. However, it is also the most misleading, so be careful if you are vegan on a budget. If something is cheap or expensive, often times, there’s a good reason for it. There are other ways you can save money (read few of our advice here).
Amazon customer review grades and comments: Or short: vegan protein powder with best reviews. This one is about social proof. If hundreds of people left raving reviews and 5-star ratings, there’s a good chance the product is great. Lately, sellers found ways how they can get those positive reviews in a less natural way, so again we have to be careful.
Package design: This isn’t a strong indicator whether a product is first-class or not, but it is helpful. Besides, if you have to look at the packaging every single day, then it helps if your eyes don’t hurt when you are reaching for your protein powder. Some people want to be able to not just look at the packaging, but also post photos and share it with their friends or clients.
The healthiness of ingredients: Going back to the original question, what is the best vegan protein powder, some take healthiness extremely seriously! They will go so far that if everything else is great but the ingredients are not healthy, they don’t buy that protein powder, period.
Amount of protein: Some would say, that there is a reason they are drinking the protein shake. And it’s not because of the shake. So obviously you want to take into account the amount of protein in ingredients. This may be hard to determine, but we’ll do our best.
Other factors such as deliverability, taste, manufacturer, and location: It doesn’t matter how great the vegan protein powder is if they can’t deliver it to you. Or if the shipping cost is ridiculous for that matter. We will find as much as possible comments about the taste so that at least you get a general feeling. And since some people care if the product is created in USA or some distant location like New Zealand, we will try to include that info as well.
This is what we are going to do. We are going to research as many vegan protein powders as possible, and then create a top 3 list of best vegan protein powders in each of those categories (best price, best reviews, best package design, healthiest, the most amount of protein and other). Then, once we publish all those lists, we will have the nominees for the best protein powder. Now bare in mind, you may not like the winner because it lacks in a certain category. But it will be the overall winner, based on the categories in general. Besides, there is always next year when other protein powders can redeem themselves.
Once again, these are the lists. Before we start publishing them one by one, you may want to look into one of our old guides – here.
Cheapest vegan protein powder: *COMING SOON
Vegan protein powder with best reviews: *COMING SOON
Best vegan protein powder package design: *COMING SOON
Healthiest vegan protein powder: *COMING SOON
Vegan protein guide with most amount of protein: *COMING SOON
Best vegan protein powder – category other: *COMING SOON
ULTIMATE BEST VEGAN PROTEIN POWDER: *COMING SOON