Gainful sells and delivers personalized protein powder catered to people's goals and mindsets.

Gainful is personal performance nutrition that supports your goals and fuels long-term personal gains. We provide personalized performance products including Protein, Hydration, and Pre-Workout as well as 1:1 Registered Dietitian support to empower active people to reach their unique goals by transforming their health.


Supplements

Gainful

Tropical Mango Hydration Drink Mix 

Recovery

Health & Wellness

As far as protein powders go, this is probably my favorite. I like that it's customizable and that it doesn't make me feel bloated afterward. The subscription model is great, but I generally don't need another pack of it every month, so I can skip a month. 

This protein powder is fine. I don't have any serious complaints, nor do I find it to be noticeably preferable to any other protein powders I have tried. The flavor is fine, and I do appreciate having the individual flavor packs rather than committing to a full bag of a single flavor. But I do think the price is high, and I also don't like that there is no notification that the subscription is renewing before it sends. My other subscriptions send an update prior to the order processing so I can skip, but Gainful only sends a confirmation once the order has already processed and so I am locked in for the month even if I have product leftover.

**editing to note that Gainful has followed up with me to note that I should have been receiving updates about my order before processing. this hasn't yet been resolved for my account, but others shouldn't have the same experience with the emails. (I reached out on their site as well about the subscription update emails.) 

I really love the brand's hydration mix because it has only good ingredients in it, has low sugar, and tastes good. I really like this Tropical Mango flavor, but I would love to try something else. The price is a little steep, but it's better than some other hydration options. I also appreciate that this comes in paperboard as a container as opposed to plastic.

I loved the flavor packets. Got me through my workout and is also great for hydration after. Tastes great and dissolves easily 

My fav protein! The flavor boosts actually taste really good (shoutout to the chocolate flavor specifically) and this protein doesn't make my stomach hurt like most do. I've tried a lot of different protein powders and this is the only one I'll drink now 

it'd be nice to have a community aspect to this brand to interact with other people that use gainful!

was on gainful for a while - big fan of this brand, they do everything right. customer service is fantastic, the idea is great (recurring subscription just comes right on time and it's nice to be able to swap out the flavors each month), the unboxing feels really nice and i love the packaging and branding as well, they have both dairy-based and non-dairy-based and i switched to the latter as my stomach handles that better, the quiz at the beginning is probably somewhat useful but mainly marketing but in general loved this product

Make all-in-one vs separate flavor packets.

Simple easy protein that's made for my needs. I was looking for the right DTC protein to add to my DTC collection and this did the job just right. I didn't care for the flavor packets, I wish it was just blended into the overall mix since it was a bit inconvenient.

Just to note, I switched to Ritual's Protein and have cancelled my subscription to Gainful since. I think it's better quality, more convent, and just looks pretty next to my Ritual Vitamins.

Great brand and product. Love their new hydration line, especially the berry flavor.

I liked the personalized experience of it, and I appreciate that they offered both a caffeinated and caffeine-free version of their pre-workout.

Try all the different flavors to find your favorite!

The customization here is incredible! I hate that when I go to the store I can never really tell what is in my protein powder and the only specification is on gender. Gainful is the best.

I really, really like the customization aspect of the protein! I wish there were more brands that did this. The ingredients are simple too, which is a plus. However, as someone who likes to use protein powder in many things, I need the taste to be good and I didn't love this one. It was a bit chalky for me personally. That being said, I only tried the plain plant protein & the chocolate flavor so maybe other flavors are better. 

I love the Mix-In Flavor Boost idea because if I mix with fruit, I can use the Unflavored Protein and if I just want to use milk or water, I add vanilla!

I just purchased the Unflavored Plant Based Vegan Protein Powder and Protein Mix-In Flavor Boost  Supplement in Madagascar Vanilla just the other day. I mix it with Malk’s Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and so far it’s really great! It’s not chalky, mixes really well and 21 grams of protein. I’m excited to try in a smoothie next! It’s a great price point as well and available at Target.


As a vegetarian, I often look for protein powder options. My friend suggested I try Gainful and I really like it. The powders are customizable and they have vegan options. The protein powder itself has no flavor so it can be added to into anything you want to eat or drink. However, if you want a (sugarless) but sweet protein shake, you can add one of Gainful's flavor packs. My favorites are the cookies and cream, strawberry, cinnamon, and chocolate peanut butter options. The online subscription management is also easy to use. 

The personalized experience the brand creates is an amazing way for customers to buy in. Their formulas are effective and being able to order a bunch of different flavors for free is amazing. I wish they had a lower calorie option for people cutting weight since having to mix with milk (for a decent texture) is not calculated into nutrition facts, and these cals can add up. Packaging is amazing and the dietician access is a great touch. The website can be a bit clunky and I am not the biggest fan of the name, unfortunately. Everything else is very well executed. Could also drop the price a bit since LTV of customers is much higher through subscription model, but consistent offers and ways to earn credits combats this a lot.

I love that the protein is personalized, everybody is different. I love that this company acknowledges that and uses it to its strengths.

Really solid brand, though it feels like it started changing recently. I used to be all in on the seemingly customized blends but the protein mixes stared to seem a bit more generic (since multiple friends ended up with the exact same “blend” while having very different goals). The protein tastes great and I love the idea of the flavor boosts to change up the taste from day to day. Moved on to a new powder for different macros but this is still a solid choice.

I love the concept of personalizing protein powder, and the flavor packets were all fantastic. However, when I tried gainful it was when I was a D1 athlete, and I noticed no difference in any of the goals I was aiming for. I guess if you like protein powder, the flavors are great, if you really want to meet goals, I am not sure this does anything different from any protein powder on the market. 

I subscribed to this a couple years ago, and enjoyed the experience overall, had to stop because I had so much and couldn't get through it all. Part of me seems like the personalized part is more of a gimmick than anything, what I got seems like pretty standard protein powder, with my name printed on a label to make it seem personalized. Though, I'm no protein expert. Tasted good, useful, would probably not buy again because it was expensive. 

I like how its custom, but… The protein itself smells and tastes horrible, the flavor packets dont even do anything to it

Gainful alternatives and similar brands

Best of

Other category brands