Best Creatine NZ: Every Tub Compared on Price Per Serve

Every creatine we stock in New Zealand lands on the same 5g of monohydrate per serve. What changes is the price: $0.50 a serve on the 500g Nexus tub, $0.72 for the batch-tested Athletech, $1.67 if you want gummies instead of powder. Here is the full range with real per-serve costs.

Creatine is the simplest thing in the shop and the one people overthink the most. Nearly every tub is creatine monohydrate at 5g a scoop, so brands are not competing on the ingredient. They compete on tub size, price, flavour and whether the batch has been independently tested. Below is the creatine range with dose per serve, serve count and price per serve worked out from the live tub price. Figures are as at 28 July 2026, so check the product page before you buy.

Cheapest creatine per serve: Nexus Creatine Monohydrate 500g

Nexus Creatine Monohydrate 500g is $49.90 for 100 serves, or $0.50 a serve. That is the lowest per-serve price in the range. It is pharmaceutical-grade micronised monohydrate, 5g a scoop, unflavoured, nothing else in the tub. One scoop a day makes it last a bit over three months.

Biggest tub, near-identical price: EHPlabs Crea-8

EHPlabs Crea-8 is $53.00 for the same 100 serves, so $0.53 a serve. It is 500g of micronised monohydrate at 5g a scoop, no flavour, dye or filler, and it is gluten free and vegan. Three cents a serve separates it from the Nexus.

Best batch-tested creatine: Athletech Purest Creatine Monohydrate

Athletech Purest Creatine Monohydrate is $36.00 for 50 serves, or $0.72 a serve. It is the creatine in our range with a HASTA listing, meaning an independent lab has screened the batch against a banned-substance list. If you are drug tested, that listing is the difference. The powder is a single-ingredient 200-mesh micronised monohydrate, tested for heavy metals.

Pillar Performance Creatine Monohydrate is the other tested option, 100% Creapure with an Informed Sport listing, at $52.00 for 60 serves ($0.87 a serve). It sells out often, so check the page before you plan around it.

Best creatine gummies: Swoleys Sour Creatine Gummy Bears

Three Swoleys gummies carry the same 5g of monohydrate as a scoop of powder, for 15 calories, 4g of carbs and no sugar. They are plant based and gelatine free. At $49.95 for 30 serves that is $1.67 a serve, roughly three times what a plain tub costs.

The case for paying it is compliance. Creatine does nothing unless you take it daily for weeks, and plenty of people quit because the shaker is in the dishwasher. Watermelon, Green Apple and Peach are the bears, and there are Sour Gummy Bullets as well. All of them sit in creatine gummies.

Best flavoured creatine powder: Cellucor COR-Performance Creatine

Cellucor COR-Performance Creatine in Blue Raspberry is $54.00 for 50 serves, or $1.08 a serve. The scoop is 6.3g and 5g of that is creatine, so the rest is flavouring. It suits people who drink creatine straight in water rather than hiding it in a protein shake. Watermelon and Fruit Punch rotate in and out of stock. The flavoured powders and gummies all sit in flavoured creatine.

Smallest tub to test it: Nexus Creatine Monohydrate 150g

Nexus 150g is $27.00 for 30 serves, or $0.90 a serve, nearly double the 500g tub per serve. That is the usual small-pack tax. It buys a month, and a way to find out whether the powder upsets your stomach before committing to 100 serves.

Creatine with something else in it

Gaspari Creatine HMB is $79.95 for 30 serves, or $2.67 a serve, easily the dearest here. Each serve is 5g of monohydrate plus 2000mg of HMB. You are paying for the HMB, because the creatine half is the same 5g you get for 50 cents elsewhere. Unflavoured in 225g, or Strawberry Lemonade in 300g.

MusclePharm Creatine-Hydrate pairs 5g of creatine with magnesium, potassium and sodium, so one scoop covers creatine and electrolytes. It is $54.95 for 60 serves ($0.92 a serve) and currently out of stock.

The full creatine shortlist

Cheapest per serve first. Creatine per serve is from the label, price per serve is the live price divided by the tub's serve count.

Ronnie Coleman Creatine Adventure is in the range too, unflavoured 300g plus three flavoured 301g tubs, but the whole line is out of stock right now. The creatine powder collection shows live availability.

What actually matters when you choose one

The form. Monohydrate is what nearly all of the research has been done on, and it is the cheapest form to make. Hydrochloride, ethyl ester and buffered versions get sold on being easier on the stomach or needing a smaller dose, but they cost more per gram of actual creatine and the evidence that they beat monohydrate is thin. Everything in the table above is monohydrate.

The dose, which is the boring part. Every product here gives you 5g per serve, so dose will not separate them. If a tub advertises 3g or less per scoop, it will run out faster than the serve count suggests.

What else is in the tub. Most of these are single-ingredient. Micronised means the particles are milled finer so less grit settles in your bottle, and it is common enough now that it barely differentiates anything. Look harder at products bundling in extras like HMB or electrolytes, because that extra ingredient is what the premium buys.

Flavoured or unflavoured. Unflavoured is cheaper and disappears into a protein shake or juice. Flavoured costs more per serve because part of the scoop is not creatine, and it earns that only if you drink it straight and would otherwise skip doses.

Powder or gummies. Powder wins on cost by a wide margin. Gummies win on the days you would not have bothered. At $1.67 against $0.50 a serve, gummies are worth it if they are the difference between daily and sometimes, and a waste if you were going to be consistent anyway.

Getting it delivered in New Zealand

Orders of $99 or more ship free nationwide. Under $99, the courier rate is calculated and shown at checkout before you pay. A 100-serve tub at $49.90 will not clear $99 on its own, so most people buy two or pair the creatine with a protein and get the shipping thrown in.

Order before 1pm on a business day and it goes out the same day, tracked. North and South Island are both quoted overnight once dispatched, and rural addresses need another one to two business days. Weekend and public holiday orders go out the next business day.

How much creatine should I take a day?

5g a day is the standard maintenance dose, and it is what every product in our range gives per serve. Bigger people carry more muscle and hold more creatine, so someone at 110kg sits at the top of the usual 3g to 5g range while someone lighter is fine at the lower end. Once your stores are full there is no benefit to taking more, so an extra scoop is just an extra scoop.

Do I need to load creatine?

No. Loading means around 20g a day, split into four doses, for the first five to seven days, and it gets you to the same place a few weeks sooner. Taking 5g a day from the start reaches full saturation in roughly three to four weeks with less chance of stomach discomfort, and costs the same overall. Most people skip the load.

Is creatine monohydrate the best form?

Monohydrate is the form the research base is built on, and it is the only form we stock. Alternatives such as HCl or buffered creatine are marketed on better absorption or smaller doses, but they cost more per gram and have not shown a clear performance advantage over plain monohydrate in published comparisons. If monohydrate genuinely upsets your stomach, a smaller dose taken with food is usually the cheaper fix.

Do creatine gummies actually work?

A three-gummy Swoleys serve contains 5g of creatine monohydrate, the same as a scoop of powder, so the dose is not the question. The trade-off is price: $1.67 a serve against $0.50 for the cheapest tub. Gummies make sense if convenience is what keeps you consistent, since creatine only does anything taken daily over weeks. If you were never going to miss a scoop, powder is the better buy.

When is the best time to take creatine?

Whenever you will remember. Creatine works by keeping your muscle stores topped up rather than acting in the moment, so the daily total matters and the clock does not. Plenty of people attach it to a post-workout protein shake purely as a habit. Rest days count too, because you are maintaining a level rather than fuelling a session.

Is creatine safe to take every day?

Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied supplements in sports nutrition, and daily use in healthy adults has been studied over long periods. Most people take 5g a day without issue, though some report mild stomach discomfort from a large dose or an empty stomach. We sell supplements rather than give medical advice, so if you are pregnant, under 18, on medication or managing a kidney condition, talk to your doctor first.

Where to start

Cheapest workable option is the Nexus 500g at $0.50 a serve. If you are tested, take the Athletech. If you know you will not stick with powder, the gummies cost more and still beat a tub you stop opening.

For what creatine does and does not do, read the real benefits of creatine and how creatine affects your gains. Creatine and protein are the usual first pair, and the best whey protein guide runs the same per-serve numbers across our whey range. Otherwise jump into the creatine collection and filter from there.