Two apps. Same premise. Both want to help you figure out whether the supplements you're taking are actually worth it. But Suppi and Prove It go about it in pretty different ways, and depending on who you are, one is going to feel a lot more useful than the other.
I've spent a lot of time in both apps. Scanned the same products, poked around the same ingredient pages, tested the limits of each database. This isn't a hit piece. Prove It is a real product built by people who care about research integrity. But if you're trying to decide which one to download, you deserve a straight answer—so here it is.
For most people, Suppi is the better app. It has a bigger database, a friendlier interface, and features like AI coaching and routine building that Prove It doesn't offer. But if you're a researcher, a practitioner, or someone who just wants links to the actual PubMed papers—Prove It does that particular thing really well.
Let's get into the specifics.
| Feature | Suppi | Prove It |
|---|---|---|
| Products in Database | 200,000+ | ~30,000 |
| Barcode Scanning | Fast, reliable | Available, limited coverage |
| Evidence Scoring | Safety + Efficacy + Transparency | Study-level evidence ratings |
| Direct Study Links | Key references cited | Extensive, links to individual trials |
| AI Features | AI coaching, personalized suggestions | None |
| Routine Builder | Yes | No |
| Free Tier | Yes (generous) | Yes (limited) |
| Premium Pricing | Subscription | Subscription |
| Platform | iOS | iOS |
| Best For | Consumers, health-curious users | Researchers, practitioners |
That table tells the broad story. Now let's dig into what actually matters when you're standing in a Whole Foods aisle with two bottles of magnesium, trying to figure out which one isn't garbage.
This is the single biggest practical difference between the two apps, and it's not close.
Suppi indexes over 200,000 supplement products. Prove It covers roughly 30,000. That's a nearly 7x gap. In everyday use, this means Suppi will recognize the product you're scanning far more often. Nothing is more frustrating than opening a scanner app, pointing it at a barcode, and getting a "product not found" screen. It happens a lot less with Suppi.
Prove It's smaller database isn't random—they seem to focus on products where they have strong research mapping. That's a defensible editorial choice. But if you're buying supplements from Amazon, Costco, or any of the hundreds of smaller brands out there, there's a real chance Prove It simply won't have it.
For a tool you're supposed to use at the point of purchase, database coverage is table stakes. Suppi wins this one clearly.
Both apps offer barcode scanning. Suppi's scanner is noticeably faster and more consistent in my experience. It grabs UPC codes quickly, handles glare and weird angles reasonably well, and maps the barcode to a product almost instantly when the product is in the database.
Prove It's scanner works, but the smaller database means more misses. And when a scan does fail, the fallback search experience matters—Suppi's text search is more forgiving with typos and partial product names.
This sounds like a small thing. It isn't. If you're the kind of person who scans things in stores (which is the whole point of a supplement scanner app), scan speed and hit rate are the experience. Everything else is secondary to "I pointed my phone at a thing and got useful information back."
Here's where Prove It has a legitimate edge, and I want to be fair about it.
Prove It was built with a research-first philosophy. When you look up an ingredient, you get links to specific clinical trials, often with effect sizes and study quality indicators. If you know how to read a study abstract—or if you actually want to click through and read the full paper—Prove It gives you that path. It's designed for people who think in terms of RCTs, meta-analyses, and p-values.
Suppi takes a different approach. Instead of dumping you into a list of studies, it synthesizes the research into actionable scores: safety, efficacy, and transparency. These scores are backed by the same underlying evidence, but the presentation is designed for people who want an answer, not a reading list. Suppi does cite key references, but the goal is to make the science accessible rather than exhaustive.
Neither approach is wrong. But they serve different audiences. If you're a naturopath who wants to verify a dosing protocol against primary literature, Prove It is fantastic. If you're a regular person who wants to know "is this fish oil worth $40," Suppi gives you a faster, more usable answer.
Most people are in that second camp. And honestly, even a lot of practitioners will appreciate Suppi's synthesis when they're pressed for time and just need a quick quality check.
Suppi feels like a consumer app. It's polished, the onboarding makes sense, and navigating between scanning, searching, and your personal supplement stack is intuitive. You don't need a tutorial.
Prove It feels more like a research tool that happens to have a mobile interface. That's not an insult—plenty of excellent tools look like that. But there's a learning curve, and casual users are going to bounce. The information density is high, which is great if you know what you're looking for, but overwhelming if you just want a thumbs up or thumbs down on your multivitamin.
The safety and transparency scores in Suppi are genuinely useful because they distill complexity into something you can act on in 10 seconds. "This product has a high safety score but low transparency" tells you something immediately—the ingredients are probably fine, but the brand isn't being forthcoming about sourcing or third-party testing. That's actionable without a PhD.
This category is straightforward: Suppi has them, Prove It doesn't.
Suppi's AI coaching lets you ask questions about your supplements, get personalized suggestions based on your health goals, and identify potential interactions in your stack. It's not replacing your doctor. But it's a lot better than Googling "can I take magnesium and zinc together" and wading through SEO-optimized garbage to find an answer.
The routine builder is another Suppi-only feature. You can log what you take, when you take it, and get reminders. It sounds simple, but consistency is the thing most people struggle with when it comes to supplements. A $60 bottle of ashwagandha does nothing if it sits in your cabinet because you forgot about it after the first week.
Prove It doesn't offer anything comparable. Their focus is on the research layer, and they do that well, but the absence of any AI or personalization features means the app is purely a reference tool. You go in, look something up, and leave. There's no ongoing relationship with the product.
Both apps use a freemium model. Free tier to get you in the door, paid subscription for full access.
Suppi's free tier is fairly generous—you can scan and search a meaningful number of products before hitting any wall. The premium subscription unlocks unlimited scans, full AI coaching, and the complete feature set.
Prove It's free tier is more limited in the number of lookups you get. Once you subscribe, you get full access to their research database.
Pricing for both apps is in the typical range for health and wellness subscriptions. Neither is going to break the bank. But given that Suppi offers more features at a comparable price point—AI coaching, routine builder, a 7x larger database—the value proposition tilts in Suppi's favor for most users.
Both Suppi and Prove It are available on iOS. If you're an iPhone user, you're covered either way.
Suppi is actively expanding its platform presence, and given the pace of development—the database growth alone is impressive—wider availability seems likely. Prove It has a solid mobile experience within their niche.
For the majority of the supplement-curious public who are on iPhones, both apps are accessible. The differentiator isn't platform—it's everything else discussed above.
I don't want to leave the impression that Prove It is a bad app. It isn't. There's a specific type of user who will genuinely prefer it:
If that's you, Prove It is worth checking out. It does its thing with integrity, and the direct study links are genuinely valuable for that audience.
Pretty much everyone else. Specifically:
Suppi's 200,000+ product database means you're almost always going to find what you're looking for. The scoring system gives you a fast, useful answer. And the AI features add a layer of personalization that no other supplement app currently matches.
This is one of those comparisons where the answer genuinely depends on who you are. But the population of "people who want to make better supplement decisions" is overwhelmingly tilted toward consumers, not researchers. And for consumers, Suppi is the better tool.
Bigger database. Better scanning. Scoring that makes sense without a background in clinical research. AI coaching. Routine building. It's the more complete product for the more common use case.
Prove It earns its keep as a research reference app. If you want to go deep on the evidence for a specific ingredient, it's excellent. But most people don't need that depth on a Tuesday afternoon at CVS. They need to know if the vitamin D on the shelf is legit. That's what Suppi does best.
Try them both if you want. But if you're only downloading one, start with Suppi.
200,000+ products. Safety, efficacy, and transparency scores. AI coaching. Free to start.
Download Suppi Free