Best Casein Protein Powders In 2023 – Great For Muscle Building

Best casein protein is the one that will have the highest amount of protein per gram of powder. It will also have the least carbs and fat.

Getting enough protein in a day may be a problem for you. This is where protein powders come in handy.

When you can’t eat enough protein, you can drink what is missing in your diet.

Of course, the best solution will be eating protein from natural sources. But when you find yourself struggling and without any other idea, you can turn to protein powders.

Best casein protein shortlist

BodyTech Micellar Casein

Best kcal/g

This product is not third party tested and not tested for banned substances. It comes with a higher price than best buy product. It comes with the highest amount of protein you get in one serving for a mid range price.

NOW Sports Micellar Casein

For Performing Athletes

It contains only two ingredients. If you are looking for pure casein without anything else added, this is a great choice for you. If you are a performing athlete, with this casein protein, you can be sure you are not getting any sports banned substances. It’s on the list on the informed choice site both for this product and for test for banned substances.

Muscle Feast Micellar Casein

Best Overall

When compared to Now Sports Micellar Casein it has the least amount of added stuff. Those ingredients are there for natural coloring and taste. The only two things added are Cocoa and Stevia for a chocolaty sweet taste. It has almost no cons. Sadly, it’s not tested for banned substances. If you are looking for a pure and tasty version this might be the best casein protein for you. This is why it was picked as the best overall product.

BulkSupplements.com Casein Protein

Purest Choice

This is the purest choice of all, at least from what you can read on the label. The only ingredient is casein protein. However, it’s not third party tested and not tested for banned substances. If they decide to invest in tests and certification, they might prove the purity of the product.

Legion Casein+

Healthy Cows

Their milk comes from grass fed cows. Those cows spend 95% of their time outside. It is stated on the label it’s Labdoor certified. Legion brand is certified, but this product is not on the list on the Labdoor site.

This casein protein comes with money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied for any reason, you can ask for your money back. You don’t even have to send them the product back.

NutraBio Micellar Casein

Kosher Certified

It’s a high priced micellar casein protein. They have a kosher certificate but have not been tested for banned substances.

Nutricost Casein Protein

Good Bang For Buck

It’s a low priced casein protein. This protein comes in 2 sizes and with two flavors. The label says it’s non GMO and gluten free. It’s third party tested, but not tested for banned substances.

XPI Myotein Casein

Best Buy Runner Up

This casein protein powder has almost the same contents as Nutricost Casein Protein. It has a little lower price. It’s actually the second lowest priced product on the list.

Kaged Muscle Kasein

Great For Sports

If you are looking for a product that is good for sports and tested for banned substances this might be the best casein protein for you. It’s tested by informed choice. You can find it on the informed choice site. A product is listed there. You can also find it on the list of products tested for banned substances.

Scitec Nutrition 100% Casein Complex

Highest Dose Of Salt

This casein protein is produced in the EU. It has the highest amount of salt and a pretty high amount of sugar.

Rule One R1 Casein

Best Buy

This is the lowest priced product. It falls right in the middle for how much protein you get in one serving.

Amazing Muscle Casein Protein

Average Casein

This casein protein is mid priced. It has an average amount of protein per serving. It’s not third party or banned substances tested.

Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein

Well Known Brand

This is a well known brand with a high price. They are upfront about the contents. It’s all industrial and artificial, but at least you know exactly what you are getting. They were informed choice tested until 2021. They removed the informed choice badge from their products since they are no longer tested. This is a sign of good business practice.

Promix Micellar Casein

Highest Dose Of Sugar

This is a high priced product that is not third party tested. It’s not tested for banned substances. Sadly, it has the highest quantity of sugar of all casein proteins included in this research. 6 g of carbs is all sugar. This also makes it a product with one of the lowest amounts of protein in a calorie consumed.

Naked Casein

High Sugar

This casein protein has a high amount of sugar. It’s a highly priced product that is not third party tested and not tested for banned substances. Only one product has the worse kcal/g of protein.

Protein powder sources

When you struggle to eat enough protein in a day, the simple solution may be taking a protein supplement. There are a few different options you can choose from.

Milk proteins

There are two choices of proteins made from milk:

• Casein protein
• Whey protein

Casein protein makes up 80% of the protein found in milk. If you are looking for the most natural source of protein, casein protein will come out as the first choice.

Whey will be in the other 20% of all other proteins found in milk.

Casein protein takes a longer time to digest. It will take more time for your body to get protein from casein than from whey. If you have problems like bloating and gas from casein, you may want to take protein from other sources.

Because it takes more time to digest casein protein, it makes it a great choice for consuming right before you go to sleep.

Animal proteins

As time goes by, more and more protein powders hit the market. Of course, milk is one of the animal protein sources mentioned above. There are two other animal sources of protein you can find on the market:

• Animal meat protein
• Egg protein

There is nothing bad about those two options. But, they may be more expensive than milk proteins.

Plant proteins

More and more people are turning away from animal protein sources nowadays. Supplement manufacturers noticed a change in consumer needs and behaviors. This resulted in more and more plant protein powders hitting the market.

There are two problems with plants being the main source of protein:

1. Most plants don’t contain all 9 essential amino acids
2. Plant protein powders tend to be more expensive than milk based proteins

If you choose a plant based protein powder, check that it has all 9 essential amino acids.

Best casein protein selection criteria

For the selection of the best casein protein, there are two main factors considered:

1. Calories per gram of protein (the lower the better)
2. Price

But, to give you the best possible options that are also safe to consume, two more criteria were considered:

1. Medical safety
2. Certification

All findings are noted with each casein protein researched.

Calories per gram of protein

How much protein you get in a calorie of protein powder you consume is one of the most important factors when deciding which is the best casein protein. Since you are buying a protein supplement, you would want to get as much energy from protein per serving as possible.

Here’s how to get an idea of how many calories you get per gram of protein. Divide the total number of calories you are getting from one serving of protein powder by the number of grams of protein in one serving.

You are getting 4 kcal for each gram of protein and 4 kcal for each gram of carbohydrate. You are getting 9 kcal per gram of fat you eat.

Let’s say the best casein protein has the ingredients as follows:

• Protein: 25g (100 kcal)
• Carbs: 3g (12 kcal)
• Fat: 2g (18 kcal)
• Total: 30g (130 kcal)

When you divide the total number of calories per serving (130 kcal) by how many grams of protein there is in a serving (25 g) you get 130 kcal / 25 g = 5.2 kcal/g.

The lower this number is, the more energy you get from protein. This is what you would want from any protein powder.

Price

Most prices of casein proteins are close to the median value. Prices are ranging from 0.55 to 1.66 USD/ounce. So there are a few low priced and high priced products available.

Price up to 0.85 USD/ounce is low. The price from 0.85 to 1.2 USD/ounce is medium and from 1.2 USD/ounce up is high.

Here is a list of price ranges:

• Low = < 0.5 USD/ounce
• Mid = 0.85 – 1.2 USD/ounce
• High = >1.2 USD/ounce

Best casein protein: Research findings

The research was done on 21 casein proteins available on the market. After careful research of all details of those products, a few casein proteins must have been excluded from the list.

Two of the analyzed products contain lead. This makes them potentially dangerous. Here is what is stated on the label: “WARNING: Consuming this product can expose you to chemicals including lead, which is known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/food.” That was the reason for not including those products in the list of best casein proteins.

One product was removed because the label was contradicting itself. In two places on the label, it says: “No hormones”. There is a disclaimer on one spot of the label: “No significant difference has been shown between dairy derived from RBST treated and Non-RBST treated cows.” So, they are lying on the label.

One casein protein was removed because they stated on the label this product is Informed Choice certified. The truth is, their other product is really listed on an informed choice site. Not their casein protein.

Yet another product was removed from the list because its casein protein was not on the informed choice tested for banned substances list. Their label said it was.

The last product was removed simply because it was the worst. I just couldn’t find any pros for this product. So, because this is the best casein protein research, you would certainly not want the worse one on it.

This left us with the 15 best casein protein powders presented here.

Best casein protein comparison

A detailed comparison of casein proteins is shown in the table below. Results are sorted by calories per gram of protein. The sort is from better to worse.

Best Casein Protein	Calories per gram of protein (lower is better)	Price	Flavors	Third party tested	Tested for banned substances	Main characteristic
BodyTech Micellar Casein	4.35	Mid	– Chocolate – Vanilla	No	No	Best kcal/g
NOW Sports Micellar Casein	4.45	Mid	– Unflavored	Yes	Yes	For Performing Athletes
Muscle Feast Micellar Casein	4.49	Mid	– Chocolate – Vanilla	Yes	No	Best Overall
BulkSupplements.com Casein Protein	4.52	Mid	– Unflavored	No	No	Purest Choice
Legion Casein+	4.63	High	– Dutch Chocolate – Vanilla – Banana Cream Pie – Strawberry	Yes	No	Healthy Cows
NutraBio Micellar Casein	4.68	High	– Dutch Chocolate – Alpine Vanilla – Strawberry Ice Cream	Yes	No	Kosher Certified
Nutricost Casein Protein	4.69	Low	– Chocolate – Vanilla	Yes	No	Good Bang For Buck
XPI Myotein Casein	4.69	Low	– Chocolate – Vanilla	No	No	Best Buy Runner Up
Kaged Muscle Kasein	4.79	Mid	– Chocolate Shake – Chocolate Peanut Butter – Vanilla	Yes	Yes	Great For Sports
Scitec Nutrition 100% Casein Complex	4.80	High	– Belgium Chocolate – Maracuja White Chocolate – Watermelon White Chocolate	No	No	Highest Dose Of Salt
Rule One R1 Casein	4.84	Low	– Chocolate Fudge – Vanilla	No	No	Best Buy
Amazing Muscle Casein Protein	4.88	Mid	– Chocolate – Strawberry	No	No	Average Casein
Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Casein	5.04	High	– Chocolate Supreme – Chocolate Peanut Butter – Cookies & Cream – Creamy Vanilla	No	No	Well Known Brand
Promix Micellar Casein	5.27	High	– Chocolate – Unflavored – Vanilla	No	No	Highest Dose Of Sugar
Naked Casein	5.56	High	– Chocolate – Unflavored – Vanilla	No	No	High Sugar