The Best Vegan Protein Powder in The UK: I Tested 15

Last Updated: Aug 20, 2021

At this point, I’ve tried over 30 vegan protein powders.

My original goal was to find the best vegan protein powder, but I got quite a few emails from my friends across the pond in the UK.

Many North American protein powders that I tested are either not easily available in the UK, or much more expensive.

So, with a bit of difficulty (and some rough shipping fees), I tested additional vegan protein powders to create this page dedicated to the best vegan protein powders in the UK.

Hope it helps!

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 30 Second Summary

Since this guide is quite long, here’s a snapshot of the best vegan protein powders in the UK for different situations (or see my comparison table with all the test scores):

• The best overall (and also cheapest) in the UK: The Protein Work’s Vegan Protein. It’s the cheapest per 100 grams (and you can buy in bulk to save more), has a solid protein blend (soy, hemp, pea, sunflower, brown rice), and tastes amazing too. This is my favorite of any vegan powder I’ve tried; If the shipping fees weren’t so high, I would buy this on a regular basis.
• The best tasting protein powder for vegans in the UK: The Protein Work’s Vegan Protein, or Vivo Life Perform. Both are very enjoyable to drink, however, Vivo Life is quite expensive.
• The best organic vegan protein powder in the UK: Orgain Organic Powder. It’s not amazing, but it’s the best organic powder mainly because most of the other organic options were terrible. It’s relatively affordable, and tastes pretty good, but it’s nothing amazing. Note: Vivo Life Perform also has many organic ingredients, it’s just not clearly stated anywhere if it’s all organic.

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How I Tested Each Protein Powder

In order to be as objective as possible, I came up with a simple scoring procedure for the most important elements of a protein powder:

• Price – A score based on how cheap it is (per 100 grams).
• Protein – A score based on what percentage of calories come from protein.
• Taste – How good it tastes (subjective), which factors in both flavor and how well it mixes.

Each category is out of 10 points (so out of 30 total).

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The 5 Best Vegan Protein Powders in the UK

I’m not going to go over all 15 products, because you probably just care about the best ones that you might actually want to buy.

I’ll break down each product in a decent amount of detail so you can see why each powder scored how they did.

At the very end there’s a table the scores of all the protein powders I tested.

The Protein Works Vegan Protein

Total Score: 30/30 (Price: 10/10, Protein Content: 10/10, Taste: 10/10)

I’m super jealous that The Protein Works isn’t easily available in Canada, because it’s the single best vegan protein powder of the 30+ I’ve tried so far.

How It Tastes

This protein powder is on par (or better) than any protein powder I’ve tried (and that includes whey protein from back in the day).

There are several flavors, but unfortunately I couldn’t afford to try them all. I ended up ordering 3 (in order of favorite to least): Cookies ‘n’ Cream, Choc Mint Brownie, and Birthday Cake.

While you may not love a particular flavor, they all mix well and have a great flavor to them (no weird chalkiness or aftertaste).

Note that I test all vegan protein powders in unsweetened almond milk for consistency. However, after the testing I finished most of this powder by mixing it in water, and it was just as good as the almond milk.

Nutrition and Ingredients

The only other protein powder that I tested here that had as high of a percentage of calories coming from protein was Nutri-Plus Vegan (the #2 overall option), by a very small amount.

There is 24.1 grams of protein and 111 calories per serving of this protein.

And unless you have a soy allergy, the ingredients list looks pretty good to me too:

• Complete Protein Blend (Soya Protein Isolate, Pea Protein Isolate, Hemp Protein, Sunflower Protein, Brown Rice Protein), Flavouring, Sweetener (Sucralose), DigeZyme (Amylase, Protease, Cellulase, Beta-D-Galactosidase, Lipase)

Note that it uses sucralose as a sweetener instead of stevia like almost all other vegan powders, and that’s probably why it tastes better (at least to me). It’s also gluten free (most protein powders are, but not many are certified gluten free).

Finally, the digestive enzymes should reduce or eliminate any bloating or gas you get from a protein shake. I personally haven’t had issues with any vegan protein shakes that I’ve tried, but I know that some people do get gas from vegan protein powders (still less than whey protein).

Overall, I think that this is the best vegan protein powder for most people in the UK (and possibly outside the UK as well). Unless you have a specific reason not to get it, it’s a great option.

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Nutri-Plus Vegan Protein Powder

Total Score: 27.2/30 (Price: 8.2/10, Protein Content: 10/10, Taste: 9/10)

Nutri-Plus is made by a German company, but it’s easily available in the UK (had a hard time getting my hands on it in Canada though!). It’s relatively affordable, tastes good, and has a high protein content.

It’s not the best vegan protein powder, but it’s close.

How It Tastes

The flavor of this protein shake itself is excellent, however there was some minor clumping.

It’s still enjoyable to drink, but I couldn’t quite give it a perfect score.

Keep in mind that I only tried chocolate (typically my favorite), but there is vanilla and several other flavors as well.

Nutrition and Ingredients

The nutrition facts are in German on the packaging, so I just wrote out a table for us instead:

As you can see, this is pretty close to pure protein (at least as close as you can get without making it taste terrible).

The ingredient list is very short:

• Soy protein isolate, wheat protein, natural flavor, pea protein isolate, sweetener (sucralose)

I’m generally in favor of keeping processing as minimal as possible, so this is a plus to me.

Overall, Nutri-Plus scores well in all categories (cost, taste, and protein content). It’s just an all around great protein powder, and one of the best vegan protein powders I’ve tried.

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Vivo Life Perform

Total Score: 23.5/30 (Price: 6.3/10, Protein Content: 8.7/10, Taste: 8.5/10)

This is one of the few raw protein powders (protein sources are fermented), and is pretty high quality overall. But, it’s also relatively expensive.

How It Tastes

Most vegan protein shakes that focus on “natural” ingredients taste terrible, but I was pleasantly surprised by Vivo Life Perform.

I only tested the “raw cacao” (chocolate) flavor, but it was quite good. The flavor is a bit off, and it didn’t mix quite perfectly, but overall it’s excellent. 

Nutrition and Ingredients

I’m not sure about the specifics, but I’d assume it’s much harder to extract a high percentage of protein when using a raw/natural method.

Not surprisingly, the amount of protein is a bit lower here than in other powders (77% of calories, which is still quite good).

While the amount of carbohydrates are relatively high, a lot of that is fibre, and very little is sugar in any form.

Let’s take a look at the ingredients for the vanilla flavor:

• Bio-fermented Yellow Pea Protein, Cold Pressed Hemp Protein, Reishi Mushroom Fruiting Body Powder, Plant Based BCAA (Leucine, Isoleucine, Valine), Turmeric Extract (95% curcuminoids), Black Pepper Powder, Digestive Enzymes (Ginger Extract, Papain, Peppermint Leaf), Pink Himalayan Salt, Madagascan Vanilla Bean Powder, Konjac Fibre, Natural Vanilla Flavour, Stevia Extract

It’s quite a long list, but all of those ingredients seem pretty harmless to me. Nothing really stands out, but note that it is sweetened with stevia, which I know some people don’t like.

Even though it’s mainly pea protein, the added BCAAs will round out the essential amino acids if that’s a concern for you.

Overall, Vivo Life Perform is a great protein powder, especially for those who prefer less processed products. Additionally, if you’re concerned about heavy metals in vegan protein powder at all, this is the only powder I’ve come across that explicitly makes it clear that they test for heavy metal levels.

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PlantFusion Complete Protein

Total Score: 22.2/30 (Price: 4.6/10, Protein Content: 9.6/10, Taste: 8/10)

For Americans, PlantFusion is arguably the overall best vegan protein powder. However, it’s much more expensive in the UK, which is why it still ranks well here, but not quite at the top.

How It Tastes

The flavor of PlantFusion is very good, but it actually used to be better (their old version was amazing).

It mixes really well and gives you a smooth, frothy protein shake. There’s no aftertaste either.

Nutrition and Ingredients

A very solid 83% of calories in PlantFusion come from protein. While not quite as good as the top ones, it’s not far behind:

The biggest selling point of PlantFusion nutritionally speaking is that it has a really nice blend of plant protein sources to make it a complete protein. Here’s the ingredient list:

• Protein Blend: (Pea Protein Isolate, Artichoke Protein, Organic Sprouted Amaranth Powder, Organic Sprouted Quinoa Powder, Whole Algae Protein). Natural Flavor, Stevia Extract Powder, Silica, Guar gum, Lucum powder, Luo Han Guo extract, Yacon powder.

It seems like a good list to me, there aren’t any sketchy ingredients in it. Also note that like most, it’s sweetened with stevia. 

Overall, PlantFusion is a great vegan protein powder, just a little expensive in the UK. If you can get it on sale, I’d still highly recommend it.

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Orgain Organic Plant Based Protein Powder

Total Score: 21.3/30 (Price: 7.9/10, Protein Content: 6.4/10, Taste: 7/10)

Orgain Organic plant based protein powder is the best organic vegan protein powder in the UK in my opinion.

How It Tastes

You probably won’t enjoy the taste of this protein powder, but it’s also not terrible.

However, it is a drinkable protein shake, and if taste isn’t crucial for you (perhaps budget is more important), it’s a good option.

Nutrition and Ingredients

There are more fat and carbohydrates in Orgain than in most other vegan protein powders:

However, a lot of that is fibre, and erythritol is a sugar alcohol with 0 calories, so it’s not as bad as the label first appears.

Let’s take a look at the ingredient list:

• Organic Pea Protein, Organic Brown Rice Protein, Organic Chia Seed, Organic Hemp Protein, Organic Acacia Gum, Organic High Oleic Sunflower Oil, Organic Inulin, Organic Rice Dextrins, Organic Rice Bran Extract, Organic Erythritol, Organic Natural Flavors, Organic Alkalized Cocoa, Sea Salt, Natural Flavor, Organic Acacia Gum, Organic Stevia, Organic Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum

As expected, everything is organic. It has a nice mixture of different plant protein sources (pea, brown rice, and hemp).

It’s quite a long list with a lot of gums (used as stabilizers), but nothing out of the ordinary that I’d be worried about.

Overall, if you’re dead set on an organic vegan protein powder, Orgain is your best option. I’d expect better ones to come out in the future as the vegan protein market continues to grow (so keep your eyes out).

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UK Vegan Protein Powder Comparison Table

As I said initially, I didn’t just arbitrarily rank the protein powders I tried, but instead I scored them in 3 categories out of 10.

Here is a table of the results, with links to detailed reviews of the powders that scored poorly and we didn’t go over here.

Name	Price (/10)	Protein (/10)	Taste (/10)	Overall (/30)
The Protein Works Vegan Protein	10.0	10.0	10	30.0
Nutri-Plus Vegan Protein Powder	8.2	10.0	9	27.2
Vivo Life Perform	6.3	8.7	8.5	23.5
PlantFusion	4.6	9.6	8	22.2
Orgain Organic Plant Based Powder	7.9	6.4	7	21.3
Optimum Nutrition Plant	8.5	7.7	5	21.2
Vega Sport	5.0	8.6	7.5	21.2
Naked Pea Protein	9.8	8.2	3	21.0
Now Sports Pea Protein	7.1	6.9	6	20.0
Purely Inspired Organic Protein	7.8	7.1	5	19.9
MRM Veggie Elite	8.8	7.9	3	19.7
Sunwarrior Warrior Blend	5.4	8.3	6	19.7
Naturade VeganSmart	7.7	6.6	5	19.2
Vega Protein & Greens	1.0	7.7	7.5	16.2
Garden of Life Raw Fit	0.0	7.8	5	12.8

And that about wraps up this guide to UK vegan protein powder, I hope it helps you find the best one for your plant based diet.