Best Probiotic Brands Shopping Guide

This report aims to help you select the best probiotic brands if you are looking for oral supplementation. The research here was provided by Michael Hopkins, PhD.

As is the case with most supplements, it’s hard to discern which probiotic brand claims are backed by true scientific evidence and which are just marketing hype. Dr. Hopkins and I looked dozens of options–both popular and lesser known–to find the best probiotic brands. Let’s get to it!

Bottom Line: 8 of the Best Probiotic Brands

You’ll learn about many companies making great probiotics–and even more making not so great ones–throughout this report. If you want to jump straight to shopping, here are eight solid choices, representing some of the best probiotic brands on the market. (If you want a chewable probiotic, you might like this one, which I take daily because it tastes like candy but contains no sugar.)

What Are Probiotics?

Every human contains trillions of microbial organisms that compete with one another to maintain a balanced, healthy ecosystem in and on our bodies. This is known as our microbiome.

Probiotics are live microorganisms (typically bacteria), which are thought to confer health benefits to the human body when consumed in sufficient amounts. Probiotics work in a variety of ways, including:

• breaking down materials we are unable to digest;
• producing the essential vitamins we need;
• fighting off pathogens like bad bacteria and fungi.

These microorganisms are naturally found in fermented foods and drinks, such as yogurt, kefir, kombucha, sourkraut, kimchi, miso, pickles, and sourdough bread. They are also available as dietary supplements, which is the focus of this report.

What Can Probiotics Treat?

In recent years, research into probiotic supplements has grown significantly, demonstrating their potential to treat a wide range of conditions, from general immune function to other disorders, including:

• gastrointestinal disease
• skin disorders
• colic in infants
• respiratory conditions
• allergies
• depression

The bottom line is that there is solid science showing the effectiveness of probiotics. As a result, there’s been an explosion of new products on the market touting their capacity to improve digestive health and overall well-being. This guide aims to help sort through the hype from the facts about probiotics, and help you choose the best probiotic brands if you decide to supplement.

Key Takeaways from Our Investigation on the Best Probiotic Brands

If you’re pressed for time, here are the highlights of Dr. Hopkins’ very thorough research:

1. The science overwhelmingly supports the benefits of probiotic treatments for a variety of health disorders ranging from infections to chronic diseases, and especially conditions pertaining to gut health. The benefits to respiratory and behavioral/mental health conditions are less conclusive, as is the evidence supporting the capacity of probiotic treatment to confer benefits on already healthy individuals. Still, there is enough evidence to support taking a probiotic supplement.
2. Probiotic supplements do not appear to present any significant health risk to healthy individuals. People with severe illnesses should ask their doctors before starting a probiotic regimen.
3. There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” probiotic blend because our microbiome’s are as unique as our fingerprints. If you’re looking for an everyday supplement, we recommend trying one for a month and seeing how you feel. We’ve identified some of the best probiotic brands on the market, but what’s best for you may take some trial and error.
4. The probiotics we consume do not need to colonize in our gut for us to derive a benefit. This was perhaps the most surprising revelation from Dr. Hopkins’ reading of the studies. Most of the probiotic strains commonly found in both food and supplements will not ever take up residence in our bodies, and that‘s fine because they exert their positive effects transiently as they pass through our bodies.
5. We suggest finding a probiotic supplement with at least 20 billion CFUs, which is much higher than the general recommendation. This is especially true if you’re trying to correct an existing imbalance such as antibiotic-associated diarrhea, IBS/IBD, bloating, gastroenteritis, etc. We will explain our reasoning on this below.
6. You do not need to find a probiotic that requires refrigeration for it to be viable. There are now many formulas that incorporate a variety of different strains that are shelf-stable at room temperature. 

Probiotics in Food Vs. Probiotic Supplements

The first question I asked Dr. Hopkins when he embarked on this project was: Is there is a clear advantage to taking probiotic supplements rather than just eating fermented food and drinks?

His answer is, yes, supplementation can be better for two reasons: numbers and control. Let’s explore both of these.

1. You can get a much larger dose–as much as 50 times bigger–of probiotics from a supplement than you’d get from a serving of a probiotic-rich food. This makes a real difference when the goal is treatment or intervention (versus simply maintaining a healthy diet). The clinical studies demonstrating positive outcomes often administer much larger doses than what you’d reasonably be able to get from your diet.
2. Taking a probiotic supplement allows you to select a particular strain or blend at a known quantity, In fact, in order to meet the criteria as defined by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), the specific strain(s) and quantities must be defined. This means that technically speaking, when you eat fermented foods you’re not consuming “probiotics,” per se. This really is a technicality and doesn’t discount the fact that fermented foods typically contain an excellent variety of the same probiotic microorganisms you’d get from supplements. But this technical distinction does have meaningful implications when it comes to making sense of clinical recommendations, since the scientific method requires that we control for the precise strain(s) and quantity of probiotics being administered. 

The bottom line here is that everyone should include a variety of fermented foods as part of an overall healthy diet and consider probiotic supplements for treating an imbalance or disregulation on an as-needed basis. 

What to Consider When Looking for the Best Probiotic Brands

Dr. Hopkins created a database with information about more than 50 probiotic companies. He considered the following factors in his comparison.

Classes of Probiotics

Probiotic species can be divided into three broad classes. Most people will experience a greater benefit from probiotic supplementation if they choose a blend with a greater variety of strains. Therefore, any probiotic brands that make it into our Best Stuff category contain at least two of the three major classes of probiotics, which are as follows:

1. The type of probiotics you’ll most likely find on a supplement label are two genera of “cultured” lactic acid bacteria: Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. (These are also the bacteria found most often in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi.) There are hundreds of species within these genera, and different strains within species. When you see streptococcus and enterococcus on supplement labels, they’re also part of this first class of lactic acid bacteria. Lactic acid strains are the most commonly studied probiotics, and have been shown to treat a wide range of health conditions. 
2. The second class of probiotics are members of a species of yeast–most often Saccharomyces boulardii. This strain has been shown in several well-controlled studies to improve digestion, boost immunity, protect against harmful bacteria in the gut, and reduce symptoms of IBS. It is commonly associated with preventing antiobiotic-associated diarrhea. 
3. The final category of probiotics are soil-based or spore-forming bacteria, with the majority of strains coming from the genus Bacillus. These are distinct from the first class of cultured probiotics in that they’re typically found in soil rather than food, they are more expensive to manufacture, and they form hardy spores that do not easily degrade.

CFUs in Probiotics

The number of probiotic microorganisms in each serving of a supplements is typically measured in Colony Forming Units, or CFUs. Each CFU is a single live organism. The general guidelines from ISAPP (International Scientific Association for Probiotics & Prebiotics) suggest that there should be at least one billion CFUs in a serving of probiotics. After Dr. Hopkins’ deep dive into the science behind probiotics, we feel the evidence is strongly in favor of a much higher number, ideally around 40 billion CFUs. If you tend to be very sensitive and are worried about side effects, you could start with a 1-5 billion CFU formula and work your way up.

In order to make it into our Best Stuff category, a probiotic supplement needs to have at least 20 billion CFUs per serving. In addition, the brand must name the precise species and strains used as well as the number of CFUs at the time of manufacturing, or at the time of expiration. All of the best probiotic brands we’ve identified below have this level of transparency.

Prebiotics, Postbiotics, & Synbiotics

Probiotics are not the only functional ingredient you’ll find in many brands of probiotics. Let’s break down some of the other “biotics” you might see on a label.

• Prebiotics are nondigestible carbohydrates that act as a food source for beneficial bacteria in the gut, helping to maintain the balance of microbiota. Prebiotics are typically found in high-fiber foods such as whole grains, chicory root, bananas, dandelion greens, onions, garlic, soybeans, and artichokes. Even taken alone, prebiotics appear to have beneficial effects on the immune system, digestive health, and metabolism. Look for inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) on supplement labels.
• Synbiotics are supplement blends that include both pre- and probiotics in their formula.
• Postbiotics comprise all the by-products and compounds produced during probiotic metabolism. And it turns out that these too are able to confer health benefits when administered on their own. The best probiotic brands with the highest CFU counts flood your system not only with live probiotic microbes, but also with all of the associated byproducts produced and released by these microbes. The most effective postbiotic compounds for these appear to be acetate, propionate, and butyrate.

We are in favor of supplement blends that include prebiotics in their formula. We gave bonus points to brands that include other digestive enzymes and/or postbiotics as well.

Comparing Some of the Best Probiotic Brands

You’ll see a detailed analysis of several dozen probiotic brands near the end of this report. For a cheat sheet, here is a comparison of some brands you ask about most–Cymbiotika, Needed, Seed, Llama Naturals, and Ritual.

Additional Criteria We Considered in Our Investigation

In addition to the considerations above, we also looked into the following factors in our search for the best probiotic brands.

Quality Assurance Testing

As you know, independent testing is really important to the Gimme team. Like other supplements, one of the biggest quality assurance issues the probiotic industry faces is the lack of FDA regulation. The best probiotic brands conduct testing to ensure the potency and the purity of their product. We gave extra points to those brands that provided us with a Certificate of Analysis (COA) to prove their label’s claims.

No Added Junk

When evaluating probiotics, we screened for all the usual suspects, from “natural flavors” to preservatives. Sometimes titanium dioxide is included in probiotic capsults to ensure a uniform white color. Magnesium stearate is oftens used as an anticaking agent. The best probiotic brands will contain none of these additives.

Several probiotic brands are delivered slow-release capsule (known as an “enteric coating”) in order to allow the probiotics to make it safely through the harsh acidic stomach environment and into the small intestine. Because of the magic of postbiotics (see above), we don’t view this protective layer as necessary. That said, we don’t penalize companies for the minor “extras” that this adds to the ingredient list as long as the enteric coating is derived from plant cellulose, rather than petroleum or some other synthetic. Most commonly this coating will appear on the label as either hydroxypropyl methylcellulose AKA hypromellose AKA HPMC, gelatin/ gellan gum, pectin, and/or silica.  

Ranking Probiotic Brands

So now you know what we factors we considered when evaluating probiotic brands. What follows is our ranking of the probiotic supplements you asked about most.

Best Probiotic Brands for Kids

While children’s probiotics are beyond the scope of this post, we will cover them in a future investigation! Here is what we do know:

1. There is good evidence that probiotic supplementation is an effective treatment for kids with diarrhea (both from infection and related to antibiotics), IBS, and atopic dermatitis.
2. The doses used in clinical studies has been sbetween 5 to 10 billion CFUs. We recommend going to the high end of this range for the reasons we explain elsewhere in this post.
3. There do not appear to be any adverse affects associated with probiotic supplementation in children.

We like two chewable brands of probiotics for kids:

1. My kids take the Llama Naturals pre/probiotic because they prefer the taste of this one. It has only 1 billion CFUs, so I let them take more than two gummies, but you should check with your pediatrician before doing so.
2. Hiya is another brand we like. This one contains 10 billion CFUs made up of three strains, as well as a larch tree fiber prebiotic.

Probiotic Strains for Specific Conditions

What follows is not a comprehensive list, but a good starting point if you’re looking for specific probriotic strains to treat specific health conditions. For more details, this website provides a searchable list of commercial probiotics and links clinical studies on various health conditions.

Dr. Hopkins points out that “even strong scientific evidence does not translate to every person experiencing the same positive outcomes. Each of us has our own unique microbiome and in practice, just like any dietary intervention, different probiotic blends will “work” differently for different people.”

And while there’s no harm in choosing a probiotic with the exact strains that have been shown to produce a good outcome for a particular health metric, we think that many brands tend to overemphasize the importance of this strain specificity. After all, they want to convince you that their formula is the only one that will work!

Lactic Acid Bacterial Strains (Cultured)

Featuring some of the most widely-studied strains, these are the probiotics you commonly get from fermented foods. All of the strains listed below are shown to help with general digestive health, so only specific health conditions beyond “gut health” are noted in the descriptions. 

Lactobacillus acidophilus. One of the most highly researched strains and probably the most commonly found in commercially available supplements. Can help treat diarrhea, vaginal yeast infections, lung infections in children, eczema, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Lactobacillus rhamnosus. Effective in treating diarrhea, particularly in children, as well as reducing the risk of upper respiratory tract infections and preventing allergic symptoms.

Limosilactobacillus reuteri. Can help treat diarrhea, IBD/IBS, and colorectal cancer. Helps boost the immune system.

Lactobacillus plantarum. Can reduce the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and liver disorders. Shown effective as an add-on treatment for Parkinson’s. 

Lactobacillus gasseri. Has been shown to aid in weight loss and improve metabolism, as well as in reducing stress-associated anxiety and sleep disturbance.

Bifidobacterium bifidum. Can help treat diarrhea, IBS, and eczema. Boosts the immune system.

Bifidobacterium lactis. Can reduce the risk of upper respiratory tract infections, depression, anxiety, and Type 2 diabetes. Boosts the immune system.

Bifidobacterium infantis. Can relieve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, reduce inflammatory markers, treat leaky gut, and lower the risk of atopic dermatitis in infants.

Bifidobacterium breve. Can reduce the risk of upper respiratory tract infections, boost the immune system, and reduce insulin resistance and body fat in people with obesity. 

Bifidobacterium longum. Can help reduce colitis and chronic inflammation, lower the risk of upper respiratory tract infections, and boost the immune system. This strain is also able to ferment several carbohydrates including lactose and the sugars found in cruciferous vegetables that humans can’t digest. Notable for its ability to colonize the gut following supplementation. 

Streptococcus thermophilus.  While there is some promising evidence from animal models, we really don’t have solid clinical data yet to support its use as a supplement beyond playing a supporting role in general digestive health.

Enterococcus faecium. May help reduce the risk of upper respiratory tract infections, boost the immune system, and lower cholesterol. Unfortunately, due to the potential for antibiotic resistance, E. faecium is less commonly used as a probiotic supplement and currently has neither Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status by the FDA, nor has it been included in the Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) list in Europe. 

Yeast Strains

There’s really only one probiotic in this category, but it’s a good one! Being a fungus rather than bacteria, this strain has some properties that may be helpful for your particular microbiome.

Saccharomyces-boulardii. Known to be an effective treatment for diarrhea, particularly in people taking antibiotics. Can be used to treat Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and IBS.

Soil-Based or Spore-Forming Bacteria

Like the name suggests, these are typically found in soil rather than food. This type of bacteria forms spores, which tend to be very hardy and resilient.

Bacillus clausii. Can aid in the treatment of diarrhea from various causes, particularly in children. Has been shown effective in treating bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).

Bacillus coagulans. The most studied and well-established spore-forming probiotic. Can help treat abdominal pain, IBS, IBD, diarrhea, as well as pouchitis, gingivitis, Clostrum difficile-induced colitis, and Helicobacter pylori infection.

Bacillus subtilis. Can aid in treating diarrhea and has been shown to have antiviral and antimicrobial properties. Commonly used in livestock feed to promote animal growth and promising studies from animal models suggest that it may treat upper respiratory tract infections, but we did not find human clinical data to support this yet. It is being explored for use as an antibiotic treatment.

Bacillus lichenformis. Appears to help to improve gut health and reduce the risk of certain infections. There are few clinical studies examining its efficacy and up until now these studies have included itin conjunction with other probiotic strains and treatments, so more data is needed.

The Best Probiotic Strains for Specific Conditions

All of the best probiotic brands help with general gut health as well as diarrhea. People looking for relief from the following specific health problems should consider supplements with the strains outlined in this table. (The brands listed in the third column are just a small sampling–the probiotic supplements we have identified above in our Best Stuff and Good Stuff sections will all contain a combination of these well-researched strains.)

If you suffer from…	Look for…	Brands with one or more of these strains… (Not an exhaustive list)
IBS or IBD	Bacillus coagulans, Saccharomyces boulardii, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Limosilactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium bifidum	Needed, Cymbiotika, Llama Naturals, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed
Eczema	Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium bifidum	Needed, Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest
Anxiety or depression	Bifidobacterium lactis	Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed
Obesity	Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus gasseri, Bifidobacterium breve	Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed
Respiratory tract infections	Bacillus lichenformis, Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bacillus subtilis	Needed, Cymbiotika, Llama Naturals, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed, Ritual
Yeast infections	Lactobacillus acidophilus	Needed, Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest
Diabetes	Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium lactis	Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed
If you want general immune support	Limosilactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium bifidum	Needed, Cymbiotika, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed
If you are taking antibiotics	Saccharomyces boulardii	Needed, Cymbiotika, Llama Naturals, Innovix, Best Nest, Seed

I hope you found this investigation helpful in your search for the best probiotic brands. I look forward to your comments (please post below!).

Stay sane,

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