If you have been or are currently looking for a super greens powder, you will have likely come across Beyond Greens and Athletic Greens AG1 whilst on your search.
Whilst Athletic Greens is definitely the more popular super greens powder out of the two, they both have similarities whilst also containing different ingredients, having different price points, different tastes, and, obviously, different brands behind them!
If you’re stuck trying to choose between the two, you might be unsure about which one to go for, or you might just be keen to take a closer look at both of these supplements alongside each other to see which one is better!
Well, you have come to the right place.
In this review, I’m going to be taking a look at Beyond Greens and Athletic Greens AG1, comparing them closely in several important areas to see how they perform and come to a conclusion as to which one is best.
What Is Beyond Greens?
Beyond Greens is a super greens powder produced by Live Conscious, a brand that was previously known as LiveWell.
The greens formula contains many ingredients, including mushrooms, herbal ingredients, and adaptogens.
However, the formula hasn’t a wide range of traditional greens ingredients.
Live Conscious claims that Beyond Greens boosts the immune system, improves the functioning of the gut, increases energy levels, and more.
The formula is made in the USA and is vegan, soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, keto-friendly, paleo-friendly, and non-GMO.
Although there may not be a wide range of super greens ingredients within the formula, it’s good to see that the formula does have a fully disclosed ingredients label and doesn’t contain any proprietary blends.
Before we take a deeper dive into the Beyond Greens formula, let’s first take a look at the overall pros and cons.
Pros
- Has a fully disclosed ingredients label.
- Suitable for a wide range of people since it’s vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, etc.
- Contains a range of herbal ingredients and mushrooms.
Cons
- Doesn't contain many super green ingredients.
- Not all of the ingredients are sufficiently dosed.
What Is Athletic Greens AG1?
Athletic Greens is one of the most popular super greens formulas on the market and it only seems to be getting more popular.
The Atheltic Greens formula, now known as AG1, was first released by the brand in 2008 and had since then produced an estimated revenue of between $20-$50 million.
AG1 was the official super greens formula the USA cycling team used in 2019.
AG1 contains 70 impressive all-natural ingredients, including a wide range of whole super greens, probiotics, prebiotics, adaptogens, and enzymes.
However, unfortunately, all of these ingredients exist within proprietary blends, therefore meaning it’s unclear how much of each ingredient exists within the formula and whether they will be sufficiently dosed.
Before we take a closer look at the formula though, let’s look at its overall pros and cons.
Pros
- Contains 75 ingredients.
- Suitable for many since it’s vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, etc.
- Tastes good.
- Incredibly popular.
Cons
- Expensive
- Made using proprietary blends (no fully disclosed list of ingredients).
- More expensive than other formulas on the market.
Comparisons: How does Athletic Greens compare to other powdered greens?
Beyond Greens Vs Athletic Greens Benefits
Beyond Greens
Beyond Greens doesn’t have a huge list of benefits associated with it as a formula. However, the brand does provide both a list of the overall benefits of the formula and a list of the benefits of each individual ingredient.
Overall, the formula is supposed to promote a healthy immune system, support and improve gut health, push toxins from the body, and increase energy levels.
More specifically, the brand claims that each ingredient provides its own benefit(s). For example, the brand claims that Rhodiola Rosea can help you relax, improve mood, reduce fatigue, and improve exercise performance.
Athletic Greens
Much like the Beyond Greens formula, Athletic Greens provides information about both the overall benefits of the formula and the benefits of each ingredient in the formula.
Overall, Athletic Greens claims that the formula will help to boost the immune system, push toxins from the body and protect cells from radical damage, improve the digestive system, reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve physical performance, and enhance nutrient absorption.
More specifically, the brand claims that each ingredient provides its own benefits.
For example, “Alfalfa is a nutritional powerhouse – it represents a rich source of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A as beta-carotene (plant form), vitamin E, and vitamin K2, plus B-vitamins”.
Beyond Greens Vs Athletic Greens Ingredients
Beyond Greens
Beyond Greens contains 14 main ingredients, the amounts of which are all fully disclosed on the supplement’s ingredients label.
Unfortunately, apart from a low dose of chlorella (it’s 500mg below the standard recommended dose – check here for the best optimally dosed chlorella supplements), the formula doesn’t contain any standard super green ingredients – this is a real shame since it’s marketed as a greens powder!
Nonetheless, let’s take a look at the other ingredients in the formula!
The Beyond Greens serving size is a very small 3.8g and unfortunately, this doesn’t seem like a substantial serving size to hold a sufficiently dosed amount of each ingredient within the formula.
Moreover, certain ingredients within the formula do have standard recommended doses, and the amount within the formula does not match up to the standard recommended doses.
Therefore, they may not provide the benefits the brand claims they will, since they’re not sufficiently dosed.
For example, the standard recommended dose of reishi mushroom is 1,000mg – 1,500mg and there’s only 25mg of reishi mushroom in the formula.
Similarly, there’s only 50mg of Rhodiola Rosea in the formula but the standard recommended dose is between 100mg – 600mg. And so, it is very unlikely you will get enough of this adaptogenic herb in the this formula.
Therefore, although the formula has a fully disclosed ingredients label, it’s not clear whether the formula will provide benefits since it doesn’t contain sufficiently dosed ingredients.
Athletic Greens
Athletic Greens contains a much higher number of ingredients than the Beyond Greens formula, with AG1 containing 75 ingredients in total.
Athletic Greens recommended serving size is 12g, which again, is a much higher serving size than Beyond Greens! However, this is expected since the formula contains many more ingredients.
Although the formula does have a long list of impressive ingredients, all of these ingredients exist within proprietary blends and therefore, since we can’t see the amount of each ingredient in the formula, it’s unclear if the ingredients within the formula will actually be sufficiently dosed or not.
If the ingredients within the formula are not sufficiently dosed, they may not provide the benefits that the brand claims they will, and therefore it may be a waste of time.
However, there is hope that the AG1 formula does contain sufficiently dosed ingredients both because the serving size is heavily weighted and because there have been so many positive reviews from people experiencing the benefits associated with the formula.
Beyond Greens Vs Athletic Greens Taste
Beyond Greens
The Beyond Greens formula contains natural flavorings, stevia, and salt. However, the main taste of the formula comes directly from the Matcha powder, which is one of the formula’s main ingredients.
Therefore, overall, the formula tastes like a sweetened version of Matcha powder.
If you like Matcha powder, then you’ll enjoy the taste. However, obviously, if you don’t, you won’t enjoy the taste of this formula.
Athletic Greens
The Athletic Greens formula is actually one of my favorite tasting super greens formulas out there! In fact, I actually have it at the top of my ‘best tasting super greens’ list.
The formula is sweetened using stevia and flavored with papaya, broccoli powder, cherry powder, carrot, natural pineapple flavor, and natural vanilla flavor.
Personally, I think the Athletic Greens formula tastes great, and lots of others seem to agree!
It’s definitely a popular supplement both for its contents and its taste.
Beyond Greens Vs Athletic Greens Cost
Beyond Greens
Beyond Greens is available to purchase at an array of different price points – options for the more tubs you buy, or if you subscribe, the more you save.
On a one-time purchase, one tub of Beyond Greens costs $39.99. This works out at a cost per serving of $1.33.
If you order two tubs on a one-time purchase, this costs $36.99 per tub, working out at a cost per serving of $1.23.
On a subscription, two tubs has a cost per serving of $0.96.
If you order four tubs on a one-time purchase it costs $31.99 per tub, working out at a cost per serving of $1.06.
On a subscription, four tubs have a cost per serving of $0.83.
You can save up to 38% by choosing to subscribe to Beyond Greens, which is clearly a substantial amount!
Athletic Greens
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of Athletic Greens is that it is one of the more expensive super greens formulas on the market.
A 30-day servings pouch of Athletic Greens costs $99, which works out at a cost per serving of $3.30.
However, you can subscribe to the formula and save money! The subscription options also come with a shaker and jar.
On a subscription, a 30-day servings pouch of Athletic Greens costs $79, which works out at a cost per serving of $2.63.
On a subscription, a 60-day servings pouch of Athletic Greens costs $149, which works out at a cost per serving of $2.48.
Obviously, if you know that you want the AG1 formula, it’s much more cost-effective to buy it on a subscription option!
However, even at its cheapest, it’s still an expensive formula, and so you may wish to find a better alternative to AG1.
Beyond Greens Vs Athletic Greens: Which is Better?
Although the Beyond Greens formula does have a fully disclosed ingredients label, since it has such a small serving size, only one green ingredient, and a lot of the ingredients within the formula are not fully disclosed, I have to say that I think Athletic Greens is the stronger super greens formula out of the two.
Although the Athletic Greens formula doesn’t have a fully disclosed ingredients label, it’s a trusted and highly regarded product.
It also has a substantial serving size and an array of both greens and herbal/probiotic/enzyme ingredients, and therefore, if you can afford the Athletic Greens formula, I think it’s worth purchasing it.
However, obviously, as always, I recommend that you choose a super greens powder that contains potent ingredients, has a fully disclosed ingredients label, and is suitable for your budget.
Overall though, the winner of the comparison has to be Athletic Greens in my opinion.
LifeHacker Guy Greens Recommendation
Some Call This An "Extreme" Step...
Most super greens supplements are disappointing.
I learned this the hard way. After creating this blog in 2018, I spent months buying and testing all the most popular brands.
I wasn’t happy with the results so I did something you might call "extreme"....
In 2019 I created my own brand that ticks every single box of what I look for in a super greens product:
- No hidden ingredient amounts - we have full disclosure labelling, so you know EXACTLY whats inside
- Ingredient amounts that make a difference - we include the minimum effective amounts supported by research, and most of the time, MORE
- Ingredients that help immunity, boost mental clarity and shake off brain fog - making for a much more productive and happy lifestyle
No more worrying about ineffective ingredients or too low dosages. I finally have a product I KNOW does the job it’s made to do.
I use it every day and, after years of battling Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), I now have my energy (and my life!) back.
The good news? I made my brand available to the public so you can see and feel the difference for yourself.