Simply Protein Bar Review: Arguably the Best Vegan Bar

Where to buy: Amazon, Costco

To find the best vegan protein bar, I bought and tested as many as I could find (20 so far), including the Simply Bar.

The Simply Bar is easy to find. You can get a really good deal on them at Costco (although limited flavors), and it’s reasonably priced at grocery stores and drug stores.

Based on my results, the Simply Bar is one of, if not the, best vegan protein bar. You can see my full results of the best vegan protein bars here.

This review will break down the reasons why.

About Simply Protein

Simply Protein sells a few different types of snack bars, with a focus on creating high protein snacks that are free of artificial sweeteners and flavors.

As far as I’ve seen, all their products are vegan-friendly and gluten-free.

The Simply Bar Has A High Protein Content

The first main area that I judged all bars was in protein content. In other words, what percentage of the calories come from protein.

That’s the most important aspect of a bar to me personally.

This is easy to find online for all the bars. Let’s take a quick look at the nutritional label for simply bars:

With 15 grams of protein (60 calories), and 150 overall calories, that means that protein makes up 40% of the bar’s calories.

When you look at all the rest of the bars, 40% is right near the top.

The absolute highest protein content of all the bars I’ve looked at is 42.1%. It’s a very small difference.

Ingredients

Also note how simple the ingredients list, and they all appear to be pretty reasonable and healthy ingredients. Many other bars are loaded with sugar and have 20+ ingredients.

Here’s the full list in case you can’t quite make it out from the picture above:

Peanuts, Tapioca fiber, Soy protein isolate, Vegetable glycerin, Oats, Peanut oil, Coconut oil, Rice flour, Natural flavors, Salt, Stevia leaf extract

The protein comes mainly from the peanuts and soy protein isolate.

Taste Testing the Simply Bar

Next up was to open it up and actually try the bar.

Unlike most vegan protein bars, these aren’t just blobs of dough.

The Simply Bar is composed of small little crisps that I assume are made from tapioca starch. They look and have the same sort of crispy texture as rice crisps.

Aside from the texture, there’s no aftertaste, and minimal (if any) chalkiness (certainly far less than many other bars I’ve tried).

The only weaknesses were that it’s a bit dry, and the flavor is on the weak side. The flavor itself is good, just not strong enough.

Full Flavor List

I’ve tried the peanut butter chocolate and cinnamon pecan simply bars, but there are many other flavors to choose from:

• Chocolate Caramel
• Peanut Butter Chocolate
• Chocolate Coconut
• Double Chocolate
• Lemon Coconut
• Cinnamon Pecan
• Maple Pecan
• Cocoa Raspberry
• Cocoa Coffee

The Simply Bar is Cheaper Than Average

Great protein content, and a solid overall taste. The last major thing to look at is cost.

Vegan protein bars in general are expensive, there’s no way of getting around that.

However, there are only 3 bars (out of 20) that cost less per bar than Simply Bars. If you buy a box, it should work out to just over $2 per bar.

To calculate a fair score that considers how much protein you’re getting, I calculate a score out of 10 based on the price per gram of protein (where higher is better).

Simply Bars get an 8/10 for price based on my formula.

Is The Simply Bar the Best Vegan Protein Bar?

To compare all the bars against each other, I’ve calculated (for cost and nutrition) or graded (for taste) a score out of 10 for each individual category.

Adding them up gives me an overall score out of 30 for each protein bar that I review to compare against each other.

The Simply Bar scored 27/30, which no other bar has beaten so far (it’s tied for first). So overall, I would say it’s one of the best vegan protein bars.

It may not be the best for you (maybe you don’t like crispy things), but I think most people would be very happy with it.

Alternatives to Simply Bars

Obviously I fully recommend trying the Simply Bar, but if you find that it’s not for you, there are a few others that I also ranked highly:

• No Cow Bars – These have the same level of protein as the Simply Bar, and are even a tiny bit cheaper. However, I don’t think they taste quite as good, and they also contain palm oil. If you’d like to see my full thoughts, check out my No Cow vegan protein bar review.
• Clif Builder’s Protein Bars – These are as cheap as vegan protein bars get and taste amazing (like candy really). However, they also have a lower protein content, mainly because they have quite a bit of sugar and are far less healthy than the Simply Bar (they also have palm oil). If that’s a trade-off you’re okay with, see my full Clif Builder’s protein bar review for more details.