Creatine HMB

A double-certified creatine stack with 5 g creatine plus 1.5 g HMB. The quality is excellent, but at about $1.67 a serving you pay a lot for add-ons with modest evidence.

7.8

Good

Nutrition Reviews score

Weighted across efficacy, quality, value, experience & transparency. See breakdown

Form: Powder
Serving: 1 scoop (7 g, unflavored)
Servings: 30
Per serving: $1.67

NSF Certified for SportInformed Choice

Vegan

Check price on Amazon Buy from the brand$49.99

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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by the Nutrition Reviews Editorial Team · How we review

Our verdict

This is a carefully made, double-certified product with an honest label, and the 5 g of creatine alone guarantees it works. The HMB is dosed at about half of what research typically uses and adds modest benefit at best, which makes the roughly $1.67-per-serving price hard to justify. Tested athletes who want flavored, certified creatine may still find it worthwhile; everyone else can save money with plain monohydrate.

Best for

Drug-tested athletes who want a flavored, NSF-certified creatine
Lifters curious about HMB who want it in one scoop
Buyers who prioritize label transparency

Skip it if

Anyone on a budget
People sensitive to stevia-sweetened flavors

How it scored

Our five-factor score out of 10. Factors are weighted by how much they matter to the outcome you’re paying for. Methodology

7.8

Good

out of 10

Efficacy30%8.8
Key ingredients at clinically studied doses, and how strong the evidence is.
Quality & Purity25%9.2
Third-party testing and certifications, manufacturing standards, contaminant testing, recall history.
Value20%5.0
Cost per effective serving compared with category peers.
Experience15%7.2
Taste, mixability, texture and tolerability from aggregated buyer and creator feedback.
Transparency10%8.0
Full label disclosure (no proprietary blends), available COAs, honest marketing.

Our review

Transparent Labs Creatine HMB pairs a full 5 g dose of creatine monohydrate with 1.5 g of HMB (as myHMB), 5 mg of BioPerine black pepper extract and 12.5 mcg (500 IU) of vitamin D3, sweetened with stevia and natural flavors in 12 flavors plus unflavored. The label is fully disclosed, with no proprietary blend.

The creatine is the part with overwhelming evidence behind it. HMB, a leucine metabolite, is the selling point, and here the case is weaker. The International Society of Sports Nutrition's 2013 position stand credits HMB with helping recovery from muscle damage and with modest strength gains, but it cites about 38 mg per kg of body weight a day, roughly 3 g for an 80 kg adult, so 1.5 g is on the low side. BioPerine is marketed as an absorption booster, yet creatine monohydrate is already well absorbed on its own.

Quality is the product's strongest suit. Every flavor we checked appears in NSF's Certified for Sport database, and Transparent Labs says the product is also Informed Choice certified and that it posts batch test results on its site.

The drawbacks are price and taste. At $49.99 for 30 servings, it costs about $1.67 per serving, several times the price of plain monohydrate. buyers who mention value are mostly negative, taste feedback skews negative, and several reviewers note the unflavored version has a strong odor from the HMB. Creator reviews generally praise the transparency and certification while questioning whether the HMB justifies the cost.

What’s inside

Key ingredient	Per serving	Why it matters
Creatine monohydrate The standard research dose and the part of the formula with the strongest evidence.	5,000 mg	The standard research dose and the part of the formula with the strongest evidence.
HMB (as myHMB) Leucine metabolite; the ISSN cites about 38 mg/kg a day (roughly 3 g at 80 kg) for modest effects.	1,500 mg	Leucine metabolite; the ISSN cites about 38 mg/kg a day (roughly 3 g at 80 kg) for modest effects.
BioPerine (black pepper extract) Marketed to aid absorption, though creatine monohydrate is already well absorbed.	5 mg	Marketed to aid absorption, though creatine monohydrate is already well absorbed.
Vitamin D3 A modest dose; worthwhile mainly if your diet or sun exposure is low.	12.5 mcg (500 IU)	A modest dose; worthwhile mainly if your diet or sun exposure is low.

Flavors & variants

UnflavoredBlue RaspberryStrawberry LemonadePeach MangoWatermelonBlack CherryFruit PunchSour Grape

Testing & quality

Publishes third-party batch test results; its grass-fed whey isolate is listed as NSF Certified for Sport, and the brand states Informed Choice and Informed Protein certification.

Goals it supports

Muscle Building Strength & Performance Recovery

Creator video reviews

Independent creators reviewing Creatine HMB on TikTok and YouTube.

1 positive3 mixed0 critical

Pros & cons

What we like

Full 5 g of creatine monohydrate per serving
Listed as NSF Certified for Sport in every flavor we checked
Fully disclosed label with no proprietary blend or artificial sweeteners
12 flavors plus unflavored, and a scoop is included

Watch-outs

About $1.67 per serving, several times the cost of plain creatine
1.5 g HMB is about half the dose commonly studied, with modest benefits
Taste and value feedback on Amazon skews negative
Unflavored version has a noticeable HMB odor, per reviewers

Questions buyers ask

Does the HMB make this better than plain creatine?

Probably not by much. HMB has some evidence for reducing exercise-induced muscle damage and for modest strength gains, but the ISSN's position stand cites roughly 38 mg per kg of body weight daily, about twice the 1.5 g in a serving for an average adult. The creatine does the heavy lifting here.

Is Transparent Labs Creatine HMB safe for drug-tested athletes?

It is one of the better options. Every flavor we checked is listed in NSF's Certified for Sport database, which screens for banned substances and verifies label claims, and Transparent Labs says the product is also Informed Choice certified. Athletes should still confirm the lot number on their tub against the NSF listing.

Which flavor should I choose?

Reviewers generally steer buyers toward a flavored version because HMB gives the unflavored powder a noticeable odor. Blue Raspberry gets frequent praise from creators, but taste feedback overall is mixed because the flavors are sweetened with stevia, which some people find bitter.

Sources we checked (8)

Alternatives worth a look

Creatine

8.9Excellent

NSF Certified for Sport creatine monohydrate: one ingredient, 5 g per scoop, tested for label accuracy and banned substances, at about $0.49 a serving.

NSF Sport

4 videos Shop$0.49/serving

Optimum Nutrition

Micronized Creatine Powder

8.8Excellent

One of America's best-selling creatine tubs: 5 g of micronized monohydrate per scoop, Informed Choice certified, about $0.20–$0.30 a serving.

Informed Choice

4 videos ShopCreatine

Momentous

Creatine (Signature Spec)

8.7Excellent

NSF Certified for Sport creatine with batch COAs; Momentous has swapped Creapure for its own 'Signature Spec' monohydrate made in a pharmaceutical facility.

NSF Sport

3 videos$0.48/serving

Best Value

Nutricost

Creatine Monohydrate Powder

8.6Excellent

The budget benchmark: 5 g of micronized creatine monohydrate for about $0.22 a serving, scoop included, and one of TikTok Shop's top-selling creatine tubs.

3rd-party testedcGMP

4 videos ShopCreatine

Head-to-head comparisons

Creatine HMB vs Creatine Creatine HMB vs Micronized Creatine Powder Creatine HMB vs Creatine (Signature Spec)Creatine HMB vs Creatine Monohydrate Powder Creatine HMB vs Creatine Monohydrate

Read the research

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