Many consumers consider BulkSupplements.com to be the go-to brand for cheap supplements. BulkSupplements offers products in enormous quantities (do people really buy turmeric extract 11 pounds at a time?), and often at industry-leading prices.

But are BulkSupplements' products well-formulated? Why was the company sued in 2024? What was our Product Tester's experience trying a popular BulkSupplements product for a month? And why do we take issue with the brand's transparency claims?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we share our concerns with the brand's transparency claims, and document a lawsuit currently faced by BulkSupplements.

We'll also share our Product Tester's honest experience trying a popular BulkSupplements product for a month, and highlight some of the brand's recently-improved formulations.

Key takeaways:

• Claims transparency but fails to publish test results
• Company sued over allegations of mislabeling
• We do not currently recommend BulkSupplements

Questionable Transparency Claims

On the homepage of the BulkSupplements website, at the time of updating this article, this notice exists:

image source: bulksupplements.com

This seems like an oxymoron and definitionally non-transparent.

If the company has testing data for all products, why not just publish it transparently on the product pages? Why make consumers ask for it, when likely fewer than 1% of users will?

It's also worth noting that a Certificate of Assurance (CoA) is typically a supplier document, and not a third-party test result of the finished product.

This is worthless to potential consumers in our opinion, because unless you're seeing an independent test result of the finished product, you don't really know what you're consuming (and any potential health risks associated).

We Tested BulkSupplements

One of our product testers named Joshua Martinez tried BulkSupplements Creatine for a month. Here's his experience:

BulkSupplements Creatine Powder came in a resealable bag.

The serving size is five grams and does not come with a small scoop to use. So, if you don’t have a food scale you’ll just have to estimate.

This creatine product, like many others I've tried, is tasteless. This makes it great to mix into pretty much any drink. I take mine with my pre-workout and it doesn’t change the taste at all.

I took this product for two weeks and noticed a decent increase in strength, but not much size. 

Since it is recommended to drink a lot of water while taking creatine, I had to use the restroom way more often than usual. It’s not a bad side effect, but just something that should be noted.

I have tried many different brands of creatine in the past, and it’s hard to go wrong with any brand. Given the low cost, I'm likely to purchase this product from BulkSupplements.

Overall, I'd rate this product 10/10.

Why Was BulkSupplements Sued?

In 2024, BulkSupplements was sued over allegations of underdosed and mislabeled magnesium powder, according to Bloomberg Law.

The plaintiff alleges that the company's magnesium powder products contain lower magnesium doses than the label claim.

At the time of updating this article, the suit appears to be ongoing.

In isolation, we're relatively unconcerned with allegations of label inaccuracies until those are proven true in court.

However, in the case of BulkSupplements, we're a bit more concerned than usual given some historical label inaccuracies the brand has faced according to independent testing that we highlighted in previous versions of this article, and given the questionable transparency claims documented above.

Improved Formulations

To the credit of BulkSupplements, the brand seems to be improving their formulations (perhaps due to the popularity of this article).

When we initially published this article, we highlighted two formulations that concerned us.

One was a product with a title of Ginkgo Biloba Extract, but we documented that the Supplement Facts label at the time showed ginkgo biloba powder, which is much less potent.

This ingredient discrepancy no longer exists on BulkSupplements.com. The Supplement Facts label for their Ginkgo Biloba Extract product now shows ginkgo biloba extract.

The second was a Cassia cinnamon extract, which is the type of cinnamon which is the highest in a toxin called coumarin, as we documented in our ceylon vs saigon cinnamon comparison article.

We mentioned at the time that switching this for Ceylon cinnamon would be an improvement from a health perspective, because Ceylon is much lower in coumarin, and the brand has since made that change.

We commend BulkSupplements.com for making these improvements to their formulations.

BulkSupplements Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Affordable
• Our Product Tester loved the brand's creatine powder
• Recently improved formulations
  

Cons:

• Questionable Transparency claim on website homepage
• Supplements don't appear to be clinically tested
• Third-party testing isn't transparently published
• Brand sued over allegations of mislabeled supplements

Conclusion

Overall, we consider BulkSupplements to be a below-average supplement brand. 

Their products are highly affordable, but the company has been sued over allegations of mislabeled supplements, and other independent research labs have reported some discrepancies as well.

To the credit of BulkSupplements, the brand seems to be improving both their formulations since we initially published this article, because the company has alleviated both of the formulation issues that we noted in our initial review.

Our Product Tester tried BulkSupplements Creatine for a month and favored it to other creatine supplements he had previously tried.

At the time of updating this article, there is a "Transparency" marketing claim we take issue with, because the brand fails to transparently publish the testing data referred to.