Photo by Innerbody Research
About one-third of all adults and one-quarter of all children in the U.S. take multivitamins, making them the most popular supplement by a long shot.1 2 And the reasons people take them are as varied and nuanced as the individuals themselves:39
- To improve or maintain their health
- To boost their energy
- To supplement their diets
Men’s health has specific dietary requirements, whether or not they’re always apparent. These requirements become even more notable as you age — when your body might not work as well as it used to. With such particular health needs and mounting popularity comes a vast field with dozens of multivitamins explicitly formulated for men.
We’ve done the research and picked out six of the best multivitamins for men. In this guide, we’ll take a look at their safety, ingredient profiles, cost, and more.
If you don’t have time to get into the details just yet, check out our top picks below.
Summary of recommendations
- Best for most men: Tropical Oasis Men’s Mega
- Best budget: OLLY Men’s Multi
- Best for testosterone support: Ritual Multivitamin for Men 18+
- Best custom multivitamin: Viome
- Best gummy: OLLY Men’s Multi
- Best vegan option: Ritual Multivitamin for Men 18+
- Best for older men: Garden of Life Vitamin Code 50 and Wiser Men
- Best multi for digestion: Garden of Life Vitamin Code Men’s Multivitamin
Our Top Choice
Tropical Oasis Men’s Mega
Tropical Oasis delivers an impressive combination of a multivitamin complex, minerals from fulvic acid water, and an herbal blend targeting prostate health.
Between its extensive list of ingredients and its liquid format, Tropical Oasis Men’s Mega has the potential to fill several gaps in male nutrition while providing saw palmetto and other herbs to address prostate health. It also offers the deepest subscription discount of any company in our guide, at 25%.
Table of Contents
In this Review
Why you should trust us
At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including multivitamins for men. Our testing team has actually ordered and tried these products for themselves, so we can relay to you aspects of the customer experience, from ordering to potential results.
To augment our hands-on testing experience, we read through more than 75 scholarly articles pertaining to vitamin deficiency and supplementation. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy
Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.
How we evaluated men’s multivitamins
As we set out to evaluate men’s multivitamins, we knew we wanted to keep several crucial criteria in mind. At the front of our consideration was each product’s ingredient profile. Most multis out there contain numerous ingredients, with several mainstays you’ll find from one product to the next, but other ingredients may only appear in a handful of options. We sought out options that were either comprehensive or targeted in their approach.
After ingredients, we considered cost, safety, and convenience, roughly in that order of importance. Let’s take a closer look at each criterion to see how the companies in our guide fared.
Ingredients
Winner: Tropical Oasis
It's hard to know what nutrients may be missing from your diet. There are certain nutrients that most Americans get in sufficient numbers from their food, but what if you're outside the norm? When we look to a multivitamin to address or stave off issues, we want to see something pretty comprehensive. To that end, Tropical Oasis' Men's Mega contains over 100 ingredients in its formula intended to improve your health.
Among those ingredients, you’ll find common players in many multivitamins, including a B vitamin complex, vitamin D, and iron. But this formula has a few additional components that you don’t often see in its competition. Those include a mineral profile delivered from fulvic acid mineral water and a prostate health blend including saw palmetto.3 Considering that the prevalence of prostate issues in the U.S. is significant and that saw palmetto has performed well in studies looking into its potential to mitigate symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, the inclusion of this ingredient in a blend targeting prostate health is more than welcome.4 5
Garden of Life also has long lists of ingredients in its multivitamins, but those are largely lists of the food materials used in the manufacturing of the substances and might not have as direct an impact on your health as the ingredients included in the Tropical Oasis formula.
Cost
Winner: OLLY
The sticker price of a multivitamin can often point us toward the supplement with the lowest cost. However, finding out its true value is another story. When we consider a multivitamin’s cost, we look at things like the number of servings per container, discounts and savings options, subscription programs and bulk deals, and similar parameters.
While OLLY’s gummy delivery system may affect its potency, as we’ll discuss below, there’s no denying that this offering is the least expensive of the products in our guide. There’s no shortage of discount multivitamins out there, but OLLY offers a product with an admirable ingredient profile that’s still gluten-free and comes from a Certified B Corporation.
Here’s how the costs compare among some of our top picks:
Cost per container | Servings | Price per serving | |
---|---|---|---|
Tropical Oasis | $35.00 | 32 | $1.10 |
Ritual | $30 | 30 | $1 |
Garden of Life | $46.00 | 30 | $1.53 |
OLLY | $14.00 | 45 | $0.31 |
Viome | $139 | 30 | $4.63 |
Safety
Winner: Ritual
If you're taking a multivitamin to improve your health or give you the buffer room to feel good on your worst days, ensuring the multivitamin itself is safe is essential. We seek independent third-party testing, certifications like good manufacturing processes (GMP or cGMP) or USP verification, and transparency around ingredients, sourcing, and supply chains. It's also important to ensure that all elements are present at safe levels and that there are no apparent contraindications between ingredients.
Ritual is among the safest picks you can make for several reasons. The company limits its ingredient profile based on research into which nutrients the average American is likely not to get enough of in their diet. And while that might limit its effectiveness for some, it should also reduce the potential for interactions with medical conditions or pharmaceuticals. Ritual also seems committed to transparency in its ingredient sourcing and much of its science.
If you like the sound of a more targeted vitamin supplement, you might prefer to try Viome. There, you can use an at-home test kit to collect stool and blood samples you send off to the company, where it will examine numerous biomarkers and custom tailor a supplement based on your body’s unique needs.
Special Offer from Tropical Oasis: Subscribe and Save 25%
Convenience
Winner: OLLY Men’s Multi
A convenient supplement doesn’t require a lot of extra steps to take. You won’t have to take up to four tablets a day, nor will you have to spread your serving out multiple times a day or take it exclusively with food. A supplement that works quickly and without much extra effort on your end makes it easier to keep up with the regimen, ensuring you’ll stick with it long enough to feel the effects.
OLLY’s gummies fit that bill nicely. Our testers all agreed that they taste good enough to consume daily without issue, and you certainly don’t need any water to take them. It’s also worth noting how easy it is to find OLLY’s gummies at retail locations. Ordering through the website is the only way to ensure access to the company’s money-back guarantee, and its site offers convenient subscriptions, but being able to grab a bottle from a store if you run out and don’t want to wait for a new shipment is an added convenience.
Tropical Oasis also gains some convenience consideration for not requiring you to swallow any big capsules, but the company doesn’t provide you with any way to measure your liquid dose, so you need to employ your own measuring spoons or the cap from some OTC cough syrup to get the proper dose. You also need to keep it refrigerated to maintain its flavor and potency, and you’ll want to shake it before each use, as well.
How our top recommendations compare
To give you a better sense of our top picks, we’ve put together a chart that lays out their costs, values, and customer service bonuses, among other factors.
Tropical Oasis
Ritual
Garden of Life
OLLY
Viome
Cost per container
$35
$30
$46
$14
$139
Servings
32
30
30
45
30
Price per serving
$1.10
$1
$1.53
$0.31
$4.63
Serving size
30mL
2 capsules
4 capsules
2 gummies
8 capsules
Vegan?
Vegetarian?
Subscribe and save?
All products subscription only
Supplement products are subscription only
Return policy
None
30 days
30 days
30 days
None
What are multivitamins, and who should take them?
Multivitamins are a class of supplements loaded with many vitamins and minerals for your general well-being. While other supplements are precise in what they offer, such as one specific nutrient (like fish oil) or a combination of a few ingredients that tackle a particular symptom or system (like nootropics), multivitamins cast a wide net. They’re designed to offset nutrient deficiencies, nutritional damage from restricted diets, or excess unhealthy food.
Some people take multivitamins because they know they don’t eat as well as they could. Others take them because they have vague symptoms related to deficiencies in one or more vitamins and don’t want to spend time and money trying individual supplements that might not work.
Common symptoms of vitamin deficiencies are wide-ranging but include:6
- Fatigue
- Dull hair
- Bad breath
- Pale skin
Others consider multivitamins “nutritional insurance,” working as a backup in case they have any natural deficiencies they aren’t aware of or that they might develop over time. This could be true of someone moving to a locale where food variety is limited or someone with family members who’ve developed deficiencies or problems absorbing certain nutrients.
Essential vitamins and minerals
Your body makes some vitamins naturally, but most aren’t produced internally. These vitamins and minerals are called “essential” because we have to get them through our diet.7 If you don’t eat a healthy, balanced diet, you may become deficient in at least one essential nutrient.
Essential vitamins include:7
A
B1 (thiamin)
B2 (riboflavin)
B3 (niacin)
B5 (pantothenic acid)
B6 (pyridoxine)
B7 (biotin)
B9 (folate or folic acid)
B12 (cobalamin)
C
D
E
K
Likewise, there are several minerals that you have to get through your diet: 8
Calcium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Sodium
Chloride
Magnesium
Iron
Zinc
Iodine
Sulfur
Cobalt
Copper
Manganese
Selenium
A good multivitamin provides the daily recommended dose of most (if not all) essential nutrients. This ensures that no matter how many nutritionally poor foods you eat, you’ll still be working with all the building blocks you need to function.
Do multivitamins actually work?
Whether multivitamins work is the subject of ongoing scientific debate. And since multivitamins are so popular, it’s good business for an institution seeking publication to fund research that aims to exalt or debunk multivitamin use once and for all. That’s why you see seemingly contradictory headlines like “Multivitamin Use Linked to Lower Cancer Risk,” or “Your Multivitamin Won’t Save You” from respectable publications like the New York Times and NPR, respectively.
The truth is that multivitamins might work. If you’re deficient in a certain nutrient, they might fill that gap.7 If you aren’t, you might not notice any benefit. But because multivitamins can contain targeted ingredients that go beyond nutritional deficiencies and address specific concerns — like those related to men’s health, in particular — there are products in this supplement class that might be more worth it than not.
Why men need their own multivitamins
General or unisex multivitamins provide ample benefits for your health, so men can still take them and get a well-rounded boost of essential vitamins and minerals. However, a few sex-specific perks to men’s multivitamins are hard to pass up.
Men’s formulas side-step situations where women or children need more of certain vitamins and minerals. Most pre-menopausal women, for example, need more iron than men, so men’s multivitamins may have less iron than women’s.9 This ensures that you get the right amount of nutrients for your body.
Some ingredients are found in larger doses or are unique to men’s multivitamins.
Zinc
Several studies have shown that zinc positively benefits testosterone levels. It’s so well-studied and well-regarded that it’s regularly prescribed as a short-term treatment for hypogonadism.10 Multivitamins have only trace levels of zinc compared to these treatments, but men’s multivitamins often contain more zinc than women’s or unisex formulas.
Magnesium
Not only may magnesium help support our daily energy levels, boost exercise performance, and decrease inflammation, but it can also help men’s bodies produce testosterone. Studies have found that increasing your exercise habits and magnesium intake can also increase your overall testosterone levels.11
Vitamin D
Many Americans are vitamin D deficient, and the problem is more likely to affect older and sedentary men.12 13 Long-term vitamin D deficiency can cause fatigue and bone problems, with conditions like depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and cancer more likely in those who are severely deficient.14 15 Plus, vitamin D helps to support muscle regeneration, which is especially important for men.16
Boron
Boron might initially seem like a strange inclusion in a multivitamin, but boron — or, more specifically, its bioavailable form of boric acid — helps the body metabolize all of the multivitamin’s vitamins and minerals.17 It also helps to boost testosterone while reducing excess estrogen and inflammation; studies have found that boron can increase low testosterone levels by as much as 25%.
Saw palmetto extract
As the only herbal ingredient on this list, saw palmetto might come as a bit of a surprise. However, saw palmetto has been widely studied and is well-regarded as a dietary supplement that can help support urinary and prostate health in men.5
B vitamins
Everyone needs B vitamins to be healthy. However, some studies have found that B vitamins are more likely to improve men’s mental health and also may increase testosterone levels and keep them stable over time. B vitamins are also some of the most critical nutrients for energy, muscle growth, and recovery, and keeping fatigue on the back burner.18
Selenium
Some studies suggest that adding selenium — a trace mineral found in soil — to your diet can improve fertility and sperm motility.19 Others say that, combined with excess vitamin E, it can increase your risk of prostate cancer.20
Of course, these aren’t the only ingredients you’ll find in a multivitamin for men, but they often have a prominent place on ingredient lists.
Who shouldn’t take men’s multivitamins?
If you are in good health and eat a well-rounded diet, there's little-to-no evidence that taking a multivitamin will further improve your health. Though you should watch out for signs of vitamin overdose, taking more vitamins than you need won't necessarily be bad for your body, but there aren't many benefits. A 2018 meta-analysis of almost 20 substantial studies showed no link between multivitamins and a decreased risk of stroke, heart attack, or heart disease.21 They also won't reduce your risk of cancer, but a study presented at a conference in late 2021 showed that multivitamins might help slow the rate of cognitive decline.22 23
Women, teenagers, and children should avoid multivitamins made for adult men. There are dozens of other great multivitamin options for these demographics that are more attuned to their body's needs. Pregnant and lactating people should also avoid men's multivitamins, as they may contain additional ingredients that could harm the fetus or baby.
Are multivitamins safe?
Multivitamins are well-tolerated by most people and have very few side effects.7 However, this doesn’t mean that everyone will have a flawless experience with multivitamins.
Many multivitamins currently on the shelves contain more than the recommended daily dose of at least one vitamin or mineral. This is typically fine for your health, but there are some exceptions. If you’re already taking a specialized vitamin (such as a B-complex) or eat a substantial amount of food rich in nutrients like calcium, doubling up with a multivitamin can have less-than-pleasant or even dangerous effects.
Vitamins are soluble either in water or fat. Water-soluble vitamins are flushed out with excess water in your system when they build up above necessary levels, which can sometimes turn your urine funky colors.24 This also means it’s almost impossible to build up in your system and cause harm.
Fat-soluble vitamins, however, are not flushed out in the same way that water-soluble vitamins are. Because they bind to fat, these vitamins can build up in your system over time when taken in excess, eventually leading to a vitamin overdose.25 This is a relatively rare experience but is most likely to happen when taking a multivitamin with high fat-soluble vitamin doses alone or if you take a multivitamin and specialized supplement together.
There are four fat-soluble vitamins:25
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
Folic acid (B9) isn’t fat-soluble but is easy to take too much of over time. If you notice gastrointestinal problems that linger beyond the first few weeks of a new multivitamin or find yourself cramping and irritable, stop taking the supplement and contact your doctor. Unfortunately, symptoms of not having enough folate and having too much folate are nearly identical, so reach out to a medical professional for advice.
You should also know the precise upper limits for three other essential nutrients:
- Don’t take more than 4,000IU (1,000mg) of Vitamin D per day, unless instructed otherwise by your doctor.26
- Don’t take more than 2,500mg of calcium daily.27
- Do your best to stay under 2,300mg of sodium daily, including salt in processed and prepared food. That’s the equivalent of about one teaspoon of salt a day.28
Gummy multivitamins
Swallowing a capsule isn’t always an option. Gummy multivitamins provide the opportunity to avoid the difficulty of swallowing several large pills while also giving yourself a little treat. Their candy-like nature can entice even the most stubborn into taking a multivitamin. However, there is one major drawback.
Gummies can’t maintain their ingredients’ potency as long as tablets or capsules can.29 Because of this, they often leave their factories with much more of a given ingredient than what's on the bottle, with a complex supply chain calculation determining what a consumer can expect to take when the product finally reaches them. Of course, many variables can impact these shipment times, ranging from inclement weather affecting shipping to uninspired teenage stock clerks not properly cycling products on the shelves.
In the end, you may end up with a gummy that’s more or less potent than what it claims, making it hard to dose accurately. If you live in densely populated urban or suburban areas with busy pharmacies and grocery stores, you might encounter a more recently produced supply of a given gummy. Ordering directly from a company also helps ensure your gummies aren’t too old. But those in slower, more rural areas and those ordering from places like Amazon — where third-party sellers can sit on products or store them improperly before shipment — are at a higher risk of paying for something that’s ineffective.
Tropical Oasis Men’s Mega
Best for most men
Photo by Innerbody Research
Pros
- Ingredient list contains over 100 components
- Liquid format should offer better absorption and bioavailability
- Strange but pleasant taste
- Mineral content comes from fulvic acid mineral water
- Contains amino acids for improved efficacy
- Prostate health blend includes saw palmetto extract
- 25% discounts with subscriptions
Cons
- Some components are part of proprietary blends
- Has to be kept refrigerated once opened
- Cap doesn't have markings to measure doses
- Should be shaken before each use to ensure ingredient distribution.
- No money-back guarantee
Tropical Oasis offers a curated selection of multivitamins and other supplements, all delivered in liquid form. Some research makes the case that liquids will offer better absorption and bioavailability than capsules or pills, and that they can do so with less potential for stomach discomfort.40 That’s why some of the doses you’ll see in Men’s Mega might be lower than doses that appear in competing products.
Here’s a look at the ingredients in Men’s Mega:
Photo by Innerbody Research
When it comes to liquid supplements, one of the most important questions is how they taste. We’ve tried a few of Tropical Oasis’ products, and this has been our favorite. The company’s base combination of purified water, xylitol, natural flavors, and citric acid provides an experience akin to Sunny Delight or a similar, inexpensive orange juice. In the company’s standard multivitamins, this flavor gives way to some bitterness from the vitamin mixture. In Men’s Mega, the flavor is different. It’s hard to describe, but it has an earthy sweetness and far less bitterness than the other Tropical Oasis supplements we’ve tried. It’s definitely something you can enjoy daily.
Something Men’s Mega offers that you don’t see in any of the other products in our guide is a prostate health blend built around saw palmetto extract. This extract has been shown to reduce the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH, as well as prostate enlargement associated with other conditions.5 An enlarged prostate is incredibly common among men, so this is a welcome addition for those trying to fight symptoms and those hoping to stave them off.
There are a few potentially inconvenient aspects of any liquid vitamin solution that could point you toward a competitor. For example, you’ll want to refrigerate the solution after opening to maintain its flavor. You’ll also want to shake the bottle before each use. Ingredients in any solution—whether medicine, vitamin, or salad dressing—will separate by weight over time as they sit still.41 Shaking up your liquid multivitamin can help ensure a proper dose.
Tropical Oasis Men’s Mega pricing, shipping, and returns
Tropical Oasis isn’t the least expensive option in our guide, certainly not as a one-time purchase. But the company offers the steepest discount for subscribers, and that makes it a much more favorable option. Here’s how its pricing works out:
Price | Price per dose | |
---|---|---|
One-time purchase | $34.95 | $1. 09 |
Subscription | $24.71 | $0.77 |
Shipping from Tropical Oasis is free on orders over $60, which isn’t great considering you’d need to buy at least two products to get there. Orders under $60 incur a $7 shipping charge. Garden of Life offers free shipping on orders over $25, which applies to much of its catalog. And Ritual ships for free with any order.
Where Tropical Oasis really falls short is in its return policy. While Garden of Life offers you 60 days and Ritual offers 30, Tropical Oasis has no return policy to speak of other than to say that all sales are final.
Ritual Essential for Men Multivitamin 18+
Best for testosterone support and best vegan option
Photo by Innerbody Research
Pros
- Clinical study supports claims of efficacy
- Delayed-release capsule is easy on an empty stomach
- Vegan, allergen-free, and non-GMO
- Fully traceable supply chain
- Slight, pleasant minty flavor
- Free shipping on all orders
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- Only available as a subscription
- No subscription-specific savings
- Does not contain vitamin C or calcium
Ritual takes a food-first approach to its supplementation. It doesn't offer anything in its multivitamins that most Americans already get — or should be getting — through their diet. Four common ingredients are missing:
- Vitamin C
- Calcium
- Copper
- Selenium
These ingredients are ones that most Americans should already get enough of in their daily diets. Adding them to a multivitamin may be unnecessary, and when evidence is conflicting on whether or not selenium is good for you, erring on the side of caution is a smart move.20 Despite lacking these four ingredients, Essential for Men Multivitamin 18+ still contains most essential nutrients (and a few non-essential):
- Vitamin A: 180mcg
- Vegan vitamin D3: 50mcg
- Vegan vitamin E: 6.7mg
- Folate: 200mcg
- Vitamin B12: 8mcg
- Magnesium: 30mg
- Zinc: 2.4mg
- Boron: 0.7mg
- Vegan omega-3 DHA: 330mg
- Vitamin K: 90mcg
These doses are relatively low for a mainstream multivitamin (but are still close to recommended daily intakes). However, it does add omega-3 DHA, a fatty acid that’s exceptionally good for your heart and can be challenging to get enough of if you don’t regularly eat fish.30 Ritual also contains a high amount of vitamin D3, about half the daily upper limit for adults.10 17 That, combined with its boron and zinc content, helped earn it our regard as the best option for testosterone support, as vitamin D deficiency is closely linked with low testosterone levels.31
Ritual commissioned a study on its female multivitamin, Essential for Women 18+, published in a prestigious nutrition journal in July 2021. This study found that Essential for Women 18+ raised women’s vitamin D and omega-3 DHA by 43% and 41% in 12 weeks.32
This increase was significantly stronger than the placebo’s performance. While the two formulas are slightly different, since Ritual uses all the same ingredients across formulas, these results likely carry over to Essential for Men 18+. This study is incredibly promising, showing that lower-dose supplements can work just as well as others.
Each capsule is made with a delayed-release design, meaning it won’t dissolve immediately upon hitting your stomach. This is a big benefit — it shouldn’t upset a sensitive stomach, and dissolving later in your intestinal tract helps ensure absorption. Each capsule contains both solid beads and oil, so each vitamin or mineral is available in its easiest-to-digest form. Each bottle contains a small plastic tab coated in mint extract, so you don't have to consume any essential oils or artificial flavorings but still have a pleasant sensory experience. One serving is two capsules.
Every batch of supplements is third-party tested for heavy metals, microbes, allergens, and contaminants. It’s also tested in-house to verify that what’s on the label is exactly what’s in each capsule.
Ritual pricing, shipping, and returns
One bottle of Essential for Men 18+ costs $33. Unlike other subscription programs, Ritual doesn’t offer any savings for said subscription. However, Ritual offers several bundles on its website that can save you money if you’re interested in its other offerings.
Ritual’s products are only available as subscriptions. Once you check out, you’ll be sent a new bottle of Essential for Men 18+ multivitamins every 30 days. However, it’s easy enough to change the timing of a package or cancel your subscription from your account. If you want to try Ritual without committing to a full subscription, you can cancel as soon as your first bottle is shipped.
If you try Ritual’s Essential for Men 18+ and dislike the slight minty flavor, have difficulty swallowing the capsules, or don’t feel like it’s working for you, Ritual offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. As long as you return a new product within 30 days after purchase, you’ll get a full refund (minus shipping costs). This is better than Tropical Oasis’ lack of any guarantee, but it’s not quite as generous as Garden of Life’s 60-day policy.
If you want to learn more about Ritual’s abundant catalog, check out our full review.
Garden of Life
Best for older men and best multi for digestion
Photo by Innerbody Research
Pros
- Available in two sizes
- Includes a significant amount of probiotics
- Contains raw, organic fruits and vegetables
- NSF-certified gluten-free, non-GMO, and kosher
- Certified B-Corp
- 10% off your first order when you join the email list
- Free shipping on orders over $25
Cons
- No subscription program for men’s multis
- Proprietary blends make it difficult to determine ingredient strengths
- Four capsules daily per serving
- Most ingredients derived from brewer’s yeast
Garden of Life provides raw supplements closely aligned to the nutrients fruits and vegetables ideally add to our diets. All of its ingredients are safely within recommended limits, with a few excess water-soluble vitamins and some associated with common deficiencies, such as vitamin B12 and D.
Its Vitamin Code series includes a men’s multi and a multi for men 50 and older. Both have three proprietary blends containing the most interesting ingredients in either supplement:
- Raw Organic Fruit & Vegetable Blend
- Raw Probiotic & Enzyme Blend
- Raw Antioxidant & Immune Support Complex
The Raw Organic Fruit & Vegetable Blend contains 24 raw organic fruit and vegetable parts, from ginger root to asparagus flowers and stems. This allows you to get a few raw nutrients alongside concentrated ones derived from S. cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) cultures.
The Raw Probiotic & Enzyme Blend is unique to Garden of Life’s multivitamins. A healthy digestive system allows us to properly absorb nutrients we ingest through food and supplements, so keeping your gut in top shape is a high priority. Several gut conditions like Crohn’s disease and celiac disease can stop you from absorbing the nutrients you eat. Probiotics and digestive enzymes can help your body break food down and heal things like leaky gut.33 This multivitamin contains 13 digestive enzymes, from protease to bromelain, and 500 million CFU of probiotics from two common Lactobacillus strains.
While Vitamin Code 50 and Wiser Men’s multivitamin is our top pick for the older crowd, there’s almost no difference between this formula and Garden of Life’s typical men’s multivitamin. The only things that set them apart are:
- 30mcg more vitamin D in the 50+ formula
- 14mg less Raw Organic Fruit & Vegetable blend in the 50+ formula
You’ll need to take four capsules daily, which Garden of Life recommends you split into two separate two-capsule servings, but it’s still a considerable amount to take. The company also suggests you can open each capsule and add it to water or juice to make taking them easier (though you should be careful not to spill). A more acidic juice can help temper the taste of the powder, which is a little bitter.
Garden of Life is a certified B-Corp and a certified carbon-neutral organization. Its products are also always tested and certified by a third party, guaranteeing their safety.
Garden of Life pricing, shipping, and returns
Garden of Life offers its men's multivitamins in two different sizes: 120-count (30 servings) and 240-count (60 servings). Both the standard men’s multi and the 50+ are priced identically:
- 120-count bottle: $39.19
- 240-count bottle: $69.59
While Garden of Life has incorporated more subscription opportunities with its products over the years, that capability has not yet expanded to include men’s multivitamins. It will be up to you to remember to reorder if you start running low.
If you aren’t happy with your multivitamin, you can return it within 60 days for a full refund (minus the shipping cost). Just contact customer service first to get a return merchandise authorization (RMA) number; the company won’t accept a return without one. This is the longest guarantee of the companies in our guide.
OLLY The Perfect Men’s Multi
Best budget pick and best gummy
Photo by Innerbody Research
Pros
- Contains CoQ10 for heart health
- No artificial flavors or colors
- Surprisingly good initial taste
- Company is a Certified B-Corp and NSF-certified
- Available in many major retailers
- 15% off your first order when you sign up for their email newsletter
Cons
- Gummy form isn’t always absorbed well by the body
- Dosing can be inaccurate
- Can leave a slightly bitter aftertaste
OLLY’s multivitamins for men are small gelatin-based gummies with a potent, sweet blackberry flavor and a solid blend of essential vitamins and minerals. Every serving of OLLY’s Perfect Men’s Multi contains:
Vitamin A: 450mcg
Vitamin B1: 0.30mg
Vitamin B2: 0.33mg
Vitamin B3: 8mg
Vitamin B6: 3.4mg
Vitamin B7: 30mcg
Vitamin B9: 180mcg
Vitamin B12: 9mcg
Vitamin C: 75mg
Vitamin D: 20mcg (800IU)
Vitamin E: 15mg
Pantothenic acid: 5mg
Folate: 300mcg
Iodine: 75mcg
Zinc: 5mg
Selenium: 27.5mcg
Chromium: 17.5mcg
Coenzyme Q-10: 5mg
These gummies are blackberry and pomegranate flavored (labeled Blackberry Blitz) with beet sugar, citric and lactic acid, blackberry juice concentrate, and other natural flavors. Our testers found the initial taste to be rather pleasant. It comes across as more of a mixed berry than a blackberry, and the fruitiness eventually gives way to a slightly bitter aftertaste. Between these and Tropical Oasis’ liquid Men’s Mega, our testers preferred the taste of Tropical Oasis.
Dosing with gummies can be tricky. Manufacturer instructions typically advise you to chew them thoroughly because they don’t always break down well enough for the whole of their doses to be absorbed. Some ingredients, like vitamin D, may absorb better in gummy format, but not all.34 And ingredients tend to break down faster in gummy form, so many manufacturers will put higher doses in their gummies than what’s on the label, expecting that they’ll mellow out to around the advertised dose by the time they reach you.29 This isn’t ideal if you’re trying to get a precise amount of one or more nutrients from a supplement.
Still, it’s hard to argue with their convenience. Gummies are relatively tasty, and you don’t need to grab a glass of water or measure anything out in order to take them. If you’re someone who has difficulty maintaining a regimen like taking vitamins, they might be a better choice than other delivery methods.
OLLY pricing, shipping, and returns
One container of OLLY’s multivitamin gummies costs $13.99 and holds 45 servings (90 gummies). You can also purchase a pouch with 60 servings (120 gummies) for $15.99. Additionally, both quantities of these gummies can be part of a subscription program.
30-serving bottle | 60-serving pouch | |
---|---|---|
One-time purchase price | $13.99 | $16.99 |
One-time purchase cost per dose | $0.31 | $0.28 |
Subscription price | $11.89 | $14.44 |
Subscription cost per dose | $0.26 | $0.24 |
Shipping is free through OLLY’s site on orders over $59. Otherwise, shipping costs $6.99 and gets to you in two days. This is roughly in line with Tropical Oasis’ shipping threshold, but with less expensive products, it's even harder to reach that price point.
OLLY is also available in a huge range of brick-and-mortar stores, including:
CVS
Walgreens
Target
Safeway
Save Mart
Albertsons
Harmons
Giant
Stop & Shop
Kroger
HyVee
The Vitamin Shoppe
Wegmans
Meijer
Sam’s Club
Publix
Whole Foods
BJ’s
Vitacost
GNC
You can also buy OLLY online through Amazon, but that isn’t always the best way to get your hands on supplements, as third-party sellers through Amazon can sometimes sit on stock for too long or store it improperly, reducing the products’ efficacy.
Viome
Best custom multivitamin
Photo by Innerbody Research
Pros
- Supplements tailored to your body’s unique needs
- Formulated using a large catalog of well-researched ingredients
- Testing process is thorough and accurate
- Free yearly retesting with subscription
- Available for ages 14+
- Additional 15% off your first 6 months with code INNERBODY15
Cons
- More expensive option
- Process requires stool sample collection
- Longer wait to start supplements than others
- All sales of custom supplements are final
Viome is an interesting contender in this space in that you can’t just go on its website, order supplements, and have them shipped to your door. Because Viome’s supplements are customized to you, you have to undergo some at-home testing so that the company can determine a formulation. Only then can you take advantage of its custom supplements.
The company will send you its Full Body Intelligence test, which requires you to submit stool, blood, and saliva samples. Once those samples are analyzed, you’ll receive a comprehensive report breaking down numerous biomarkers and evaluating the health of your gut microbiome. With those results, the company will formulate daily supplements designed to address any problems or deficiencies it finds, without adding any unnecessary ingredients. You could think of this like a totally customized version of Ritual’s philosophy.
Viome pricing, shipping, and returns
You can sign up for a $139/month subscription service that starts with a test sent to your home and continues with monthly installments of your custom supplements. You can bring the cost of that subscription down to $118.15 for the first six months when you use our coupon code INNERBODY15.
You can also order a standalone test and see what a recommendation for those supplements would look like before deciding on the monthly subscription. But the Full Body Intelligence test on its own costs $295, and that eventual subscription would still be $139/month, so you pay less up-front by subscribing at the outset.
Viome ships its products for free as part of your subscription service, which is one way the company saves you some money compared to others — such as Tropical Oasis — that impose free shipping thresholds above the cost of a single multivitamin. But, like Tropical Oasis, Viome won’t let you return its Precision Supplements.
It’s also important to note that canceling your subscription incurs a cancellation fee equivalent to one month’s subscription cost. So, any time you cancel, you essentially still have to pay for next month’s subscription, even though you won’t get anything from the company. This is a bit frustrating, especially when other subscription services from competitors like Ritual or OLLY allow you to cancel without penalty.
Though you pay significantly higher costs for Viome multivitamin supplementation than with other top picks, Viome truly aims to be the only supplement you need, tailored specifically to you at this moment in your life. They're our top choice in the realm of microbiome testing. Their sophisticated testing leads to a unique opportunity for custom supplementation. If you can afford the investment, Viome is worth it. Its customized multivitamin would be our top recommendation for most men if most men could afford it.
Alternatives to multivitamins
While multivitamins may help you address certain nutritional deficiencies in your diet and even supply you with some supplemental ingredients that offer benefits for things like heart or prostate health, there are other approaches men can take to address their overall wellness. Here’s a quick look at just a few.
Probiotics
Several men’s multivitamins have started to include probiotics in their formulas, but dedicated probiotic supplements typically offer you a higher quantity of probiotics and a more diverse mixture of species. Addressing issues with your microbiome can affect everything from your mental health to your respiratory system and, of course, digestion.35
But which probiotics might you need with so many strains out there? Well, the best way to determine that is to test your microbiome. You can do this at home with test kits that are reasonably priced, some of which even offer custom-tailored probiotic blends based on your results. We have a guide to microbiome testing you can read for more information.36
Testosterone support
For men, testosterone levels can greatly impact well-being. Men produce less and less testosterone as they age, and many could eventually benefit from some form of testosterone support.31 This can come in the form of direct testosterone supplementation via injection, or it can be prescription and/or non-prescription pills that can boost testosterone levels.
As with the microbiome, the best way to know your testosterone situation is to have your levels tested. Multiple low results are typically required for a diagnosis of low testosterone, so it might be smart to start with an at-home testosterone test and follow up with a urologist or endocrinologist if your results are abnormal.
Diet and exercise
No one likes to hear this one, but it’s undeniable that improving your diet and increasing your activity level, if possible, are among the best ways to improve your overall health. Specifically, you’d want to try increasing the consumption of nutrients you’d find in common multivitamins, but get them from fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, instead.
FAQ about men’s multivitamins
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