Is Protein Works Expensive? What Its Range Actually Costs Per 25g of Protein

Is Protein Works expensive?

Protein Works is not one price, it is a near seven-fold range. Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein BLACK works out at about 36p per 25g of protein bought one-off, while Protein Works Clear Vegan Protein GOLD works out at £2.35 for the same 25g. That is the same brand, the same website, and about six and a half times the cost per gram of protein.

So the honest answer to whether Protein Works is expensive is: no on plant protein, middling on whey, and yes on anything sold as clear. Most people asking the question are looking at the whey, which sits at 65p per 25g of protein for Whey Protein 360 BLACK bought one-off in the 4.8kg bag, and 59p to 60p for GOLD on the OnTap subscription. The useful comparison there is that Bulk Basic Whey costs 59p, though with less protein per 100g, while Myprotein Impact Whey costs 96p and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard £1.23.

What Protein Works costs per 25g of protein

Vegan Soy Protein BLACK is the cheapest Protein Works product per gram of protein at about 36p, and Clear Vegan Protein GOLD the dearest at £2.35. Every figure below is a price we recorded for the cheapest pack we hold: the one-off price wherever we have it, and the OnTap subscription price, labelled, for the two GOLD products whose one-off price we have not been able to recheck since it moved. Each is converted to cost per 25g of protein so the pack sizes and protein percentages are comparable. WheyWise ranks protein this way because sticker price tells you nothing when one bag is 4.8kg at 68% protein and another is 540g at 67%.

Rows marked OnTap are Protein Works' subscription price from its feed, which needs a repeat-delivery sign-up; a single one-off order costs more. Other prices are Protein Works' one-off prices unless marked as Amazon UK. Protein per 100g is from Protein Works' labels, Chocolate Silk where flavours differ, except Vegan Pea Protein BLACK, which is the figure we hold for it rather than one we have rechecked on the label.

The pattern is clear once it is laid out. The four cheapest rows are all 4kg plant protein. The three dearest are all 1kg or smaller, and two of them are clear formats. Protein Works is cheap when you buy it in bulk and plant-based, and expensive when you buy it in a small tub with a flavour system attached.

Cheapest per gram we track

Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein Black

1kg bag

The single strongest value case in the Protein Works range, and the reason a blanket 'Protein Works is expensive' answer is wrong. At about 36p per 25g of protein it is a little over half the cost per gram of the brand's cheapest whey, Whey Protein 360 BLACK, bought one-off.

Buy Vegan Soy Protein Black →Price at Protein Works

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Cheapest per gram we track

Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein Black

1kg bag

Pros

• + About 36p per 25g of protein in the 4kg bag at £47.99, undercutting every mainstream UK whey including Bulk Basic Whey at 59p
• + 84g of protein per 100g on the Chocolate Silk label, higher than any whey in the Protein Works range
• + No OnTap option, so the price on the card is the one-off price

Cons

• – Single-source soy, so the taste and texture differ from a whey shake
• – The low price is in the 4kg bag: the 2kg works out at about 39p and smaller bags cost more per gram

Pros

• About 36p per 25g of protein in the 4kg bag at £47.99, undercutting every mainstream UK whey including Bulk Basic Whey at 59p
• 84g of protein per 100g on the Chocolate Silk label, higher than any whey in the Protein Works range
• No OnTap option, so the price on the card is the one-off price

Cons

• Single-source soy, so the taste and texture differ from a whey shake
• The low price is in the 4kg bag: the 2kg works out at about 39p and smaller bags cost more per gram

Buy Vegan Soy Protein Black →Price at Protein Works

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WW12

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●Nutrition per scoop · 25.2g protein in 30g▼

Protein makes up 84%

of this 30g scoop · 110 kcal total

25.2g

Protein25.2g

Carbs1.5g

Fat0.4g

Other2.9g

The whey most people actually buy

Protein Works Whey Protein 360 Gold

1.2kg bag

Fairly priced rather than cheap. On the OnTap subscription it works out at 59p to 60p per 25g of protein, level with Bulk Basic Whey and well under Myprotein Impact Whey, and a single one-off order costs more. The card shows the OnTap price from Protein Works' feed.

Buy Whey Protein 360 Gold →Price at Protein Works

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or compare all UK prices →

The whey most people actually buy

Protein Works Whey Protein 360 Gold

1.2kg bag

Pros

• + 59p to 60p per 25g of protein at £77.49 for 4.8kg on the OnTap subscription, against 96p for Myprotein Impact Whey
• + 67g to 68g of protein per 100g, against 59g for the cheaper Whey Protein 360 BLACK
• + The 4.8kg size is one of the largest bags any UK brand sells

Cons

• – On OnTap it only matches Bulk Basic Whey at 59p per 25g of protein, and a one-off order costs more, though Bulk Basic carries 56g of protein per 100g from a whey and soy blend
• – Buying anything smaller than the 4.8kg bag costs more per gram

Pros

• 59p to 60p per 25g of protein at £77.49 for 4.8kg on the OnTap subscription, against 96p for Myprotein Impact Whey
• 67g to 68g of protein per 100g, against 59g for the cheaper Whey Protein 360 BLACK
• The 4.8kg size is one of the largest bags any UK brand sells

Cons

• On OnTap it only matches Bulk Basic Whey at 59p per 25g of protein, and a one-off order costs more, though Bulk Basic carries 56g of protein per 100g from a whey and soy blend
• Buying anything smaller than the 4.8kg bag costs more per gram

Buy Whey Protein 360 Gold →Price at Protein Works

Exclusive WheyWise Code

WW12

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View on Amazon ↗

or compare all UK prices →

●Nutrition per scoop · 20.4g protein in 30g▼

Protein makes up 68%

of this 30g scoop · 113 kcal total

20.4g

5.7g

Protein20.4g

Carbs5.7g

Fat0.9g

Other3g

Is Protein Works dearer than Bulk and MyProtein?

On whey, Protein Works sits between Bulk and Myprotein. Bought one-off, Protein Works Whey Protein 360 BLACK costs 65p per 25g of protein in the 4.8kg bag, against 59p for Bulk Basic Whey in the 2.5kg bag and 96p for Myprotein Impact Whey in the 2.5kg bag on Amazon. Whey Protein 360 GOLD is 59p to 60p on the OnTap subscription at £77.49 for 4.8kg, and more bought one-off. Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey sits furthest out at £1.23 in the 4.5kg tub.

The Bulk comparison needs a footnote. Bulk Basic Whey carries 56g of protein per 100g and is a whey and soy blend, so the cheaper number buys you a bigger scoop of a different product. Protein Works' own Whey Protein 360 BLACK, at 59g of protein per 100g and 65p per 25g of protein, is the closer like-for-like.

That ordering flips completely on plant protein. Protein Works Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 36p per 25g of protein is cheaper than every one of those wheys, including the Bulk entry-level bag. If you are open to plant protein, Protein Works is the cheapest of the four brands, not the second most expensive.

For context on the wider market, the cheapest whey we can verify is NutriSport Whey Protein Isolate at about 46p per 25g of protein, from a brand few people would recognise. Cheaper listings than that exist, but several of the very lowest are blends of whey with soy or wheat protein, which is its own reason to read the ingredients rather than the price. You can see the full ranking on the cheapest protein powder comparison, or put two products side by side with the protein comparison tool.

Why Protein Works costs what it does

Three things set the price, and only one of them is the protein.

Protein density. Whey Protein 360 GOLD is 67g to 68g of protein per 100g. Myprotein Impact Whey is about 72g and Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 76g. That gap sounds small and is not: at 68g you are buying more non-protein powder in every bag, and that flows straight into the cost per gram of protein. At 76g, the same GOLD bag at its OnTap price would work out at about 53p rather than 59p to 60p.

Format. Clear whey and diet formulations carry flavour systems, acidity regulators and often added ingredients that a plain concentrate does not. Clear Diet Whey GOLD is 82g of protein per 100g, which is genuinely high, and still costs £1.24 per 25g because it is sold in 1kg rather than 4.8kg. Format and pack size, not protein quality, are doing the work.

Pack size. Protein Works prices its big bags aggressively and its small bags normally. Every cheap row in the table above is a 4kg or 4.8kg bag. Every expensive row is 1kg or smaller. The brand is cheap if you buy the way it wants you to buy.

Where Protein Works is genuinely good value

The plant range, in the 4kg size, is where this brand beats the market rather than matching it. Vegan Soy Protein BLACK at about 36p and Vegan Pea Protein BLACK at about 39p per 25g of protein are cheaper than the cheapest mainstream whey, which is unusual: plant protein normally costs more per gram, not less, because you need more of it to hit the same leucine content.

The second place it wins is the very large whey bag. The 4.8kg Whey Protein 360 bags are one of the few ways to get a whey at 65p or less per 25g of protein from a brand with a real flavour range: BLACK is 65p bought one-off, and GOLD 59p to 60p on the OnTap subscription. If you have already tried a flavour and know you like it, that bag is the sensible purchase.

Where it loses is anywhere small. A 540g tub of Clear Vegan Protein at £2.35 per 25g of protein is roughly six and a half times the cost per gram of the same brand's soy protein. That is a format decision, not a nutrition one. If you want the full range side by side, the Protein Works brand page lists current prices, our Protein Works range guide explains what BLACK, GOLD and PLATINUM change, and the vegan protein comparison shows where its plant range sits against everyone else's.

Do the discount codes make it cheap?

They take 12% to 15% off, which helps without changing which shelf is cheap. Protein Works has two ways to pay less, and they work differently. OnTap is the brand's own subscription: it takes 15% off products that offer it, including Whey Protein 360, if you sign up for repeat deliveries. For a single order, WheyWise carries the code WW12, which takes 12% off most one-off orders with no minimum spend.

The code works for every customer, new or returning. It cannot be combined with other codes, and its terms exclude bundles, gift vouchers and a few named products, so check the basket before you pay. That is the usual pattern: a code covers the range the brand wants to move.

Because the code is open to everyone, our comparison cards apply it: a covered Protein Works product shows the retailer's price struck through beside the price with the code, and ranks on the lower number. On OnTap products the struck-through figure is the subscription price from the feed. Excluded products keep the plain retailer price. Codes from every other retailer stay informational, and they sit on the UK protein deals page.

Is Protein Works worth the money?

Buy the 4kg plant protein and Protein Works is one of the best-value protein brands in the UK, full stop. At about 36p to 39p per 25g of protein for the BLACK soy and pea, you are paying less per gram than you would for budget whey, from a brand with a proper flavour range.

Buy the 4.8kg whey and it is fair, not cheap. Bought one-off, Whey Protein 360 BLACK costs about 6p a serving more than Bulk Basic Whey, at 65p against 59p. GOLD on the OnTap subscription is level with Bulk Basic at 59p to 60p, with more protein per 100g and a broader flavour range. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you care about drinking the same thing every day for four months, which is what a 4.8kg bag actually means.

Buy anything clear or under 1kg and you are paying a format premium of roughly double to more than three times Whey Protein 360 BLACK bought one-off. That is a legitimate choice if you genuinely prefer a clear, juice-style drink to a milkshake, but it should be a deliberate one rather than something you discover afterwards.

If you are not sure which type suits you before you start comparing prices, the protein finder narrows it to three picks in about a minute. For a closer look at the two whey tiers, we have a full Whey Protein 360 GOLD vs PLATINUM comparison, and for the brand-against-brand question there is MyProtein vs Protein Works on price. If price is the only thing that matters to you, start with the cheapest protein powder in the UK right now.

Frequently asked questions