Best CoQ10 Supplement

Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10, is one of the most popular supplements for heart health and general wellness. In addition to cardiovascular support, studies link it to blood sugar regulation, cancer prevention, skin rejuvenation, and even migraine control.1

Some of these claims are more thoroughly substantiated than others, but there are undeniable benefits to supplementing with CoQ10. And there are plenty of options for your CoQ10 intake — so many that it’s a challenge figuring out which ones will be safest and most effective.

This guide will break down what CoQ10 is, how it can help you, and which companies make the best supplements.

If you’re pressed for time, take a quick look at our summary of recommendations:

Our recommendations are grounded in a few critical facts that are unique to CoQ10’s potential to work for you.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including CoQ10 supplements. We’ve ordered and tried these products for ourselves, so we can speak to things like taste, pill size, shipping times, and customer service. Our team also spent more than 1,800 hours studying clinical research into how CoQ10 can affect various systems in the body, including heart health, cognition, and fertility.

Making further use of our earned expertise in CoQ10 and mitochondrial health, our product development team at Innerbody Labs created its own CoQ10 supplement. That process took our understanding of the space to still greater depths, allowing us to develop the most potentially useful product and incorporate our company’s knowledge base into this guide. We apply the same evaluation criteria in our assessment of all products in this guide, and by those measures, we think Innerbody Labs has created the option that would be the most beneficial for most people seeking CoQ10, but it’s certainly not the best choice for everyone; read on for all of the pros, cons, and comparative details for all of the best CoQ10 options right now to figure out what’s best for you.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue monitoring the CoQ10 landscape for developments to keep this content current.

When we set out to evaluate CoQ10 supplements, we found a few set criteria to be the most useful in comparing one to another. We focused much of our attention on efficacy and safety, looking at doses and ingredients to see which CoQ10 supplement might have the best chance of working for you. Cost, too, was an ever-present concern, as the prices of these supplements can range dramatically; CoQ10 is a foundational health supplement, and we aim to help you find the greatest value toward that end. Our last consideration was customer service and convenience, much of which we gathered from our experiences ordering and trying these products for ourselves.

Safety

Advantage: Momentous Ubiquinol

CoQ10 is mostly safe for healthy individuals, with only mild side effects (e.g., digestive issues, insomnia) occasionally reported, even at doses as high as 720mg/day.3 To identify products that rise above others in terms of safety, we looked beyond the CoQ10 itself to compare manufacturing methods, testing procedures, and other ingredients. Momentous pulls ahead of most of the competition for a few reasons. For starters, its 100mg softgels align well with a good quantity for easy titration. It’s also non-GMO and gluten-free, and it uses extra virgin olive oil as a carrier — a healthier choice than most others, save perhaps MCT oil.

Momentous Ubiquinol is also NSF Certified for Sport, a certification that requires regular manufacturing inspections and third-party testing to ensure the product is safe and free of any substances banned by international sporting organizations.

Despite its not having the NSF certification, we consider Innerbody Labs CoQ10 Advanced a runner-up when it comes to safety. It is tested for purity and potency and also allows for easy titration with 100mg softgels. Its inclusion of an additional active ingredient — urolithin A — technically, albeit marginally, increases the risk of potential adverse effects.67 However, those are mostly acute risks; if you find that you tolerate urolithin A well, then it should be safe for you and theoretically safer than CoQ10 alone. Urolithin A can help ensure that the CoQ10 isn't fueling mitochondria that are senescent and dysfunctional.

Effectiveness

Advantage: CoQ10 Advanced by Innerbody Labs

For effectiveness, we chose a CoQ10 supplement that delivers its critical coenzyme alongside two other ingredients that research shows could significantly help CoQ10 improve people’s health starting at the mitochondrial level. Specifically, it comes paired with urolithin A and selenium.

We’ve spoken about not relying on bioavailability enhancers that could obscure dosing efficacy, but these two ingredients aren’t going to confer better bioavailability. Instead, they serve as complementary ingredients that can help your body get the most out of the CoQ10 it does absorb.

In a nutshell, urolithin A drives mitophagy, the process of clearing the dead and dysfunctional mitochondria from cells, allowing only the healthiest mitochondria to thrive.57 58 In that environment, CoQ10 can perform at its best, as many of its downstream effects start working at the cellular level within the mitochondrial respiration chain.45

For its CoQ10 dose, Innerbody Labs provides 200mg per serving. Research we’ve reviewed indicates that doses between 100mg and 200mg will cover the majority of potential CoQ10 benefits, with smaller doses running the risk of being too weak and larger doses running up against the U-shaped curve we described earlier — essentially that higher doses begin to perform worse than lower ones.24

A similar phenomenon has been observed in some of urolithin A’s effects, with a 500mg dose outperforming a 1,000mg dose for markers of mitochondrial health in a foundational clinical trial.59 This is why we prefer Innerbody Labs’ 500mg urolithin A dose.

The inclusion of selenium is based on strong evidence that it can work together with CoQ10 to reduce mortality after a major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE).60 Studies typically employ 100mcg or 200mcg of selenium compared to Innerbody Labs’ 25mcg. That might seem like a big drop in the dose, but unlike CoQ10 or urolithin A, selenium is found in the ordinary American diet; if you’re taking this supplement preventively, it’s better to avoid potential complications of over-supplementing.61 The selenium in this supplement sensibly augments the average American diet.

Innerbody Labs also uses MCT oil, which gives it an additional edge over products from Puritan’s Pride and Nature’s Bounty. We prefer to see either MCT oil or soy oil in CoQ10 products, as these have shown the most promise in research on bioavailability and shelf stability.52 53 Puritan’s Pride and Nature’s Bounty use rice bran oil.

Taken together, these features allow CoQ10 Advanced to provide more of the exact benefits you want from CoQ10 on its own, as it optimizes your cells to create a better outcome.

Cost

Advantage: Momentous CoQ10

Cheap CoQ10 is abundant, but that doesn’t mean it’s any good. When evaluating cost, we went far beyond considering just dosage and the question of ubiquinol versus ubiquinone. To choose what became our best budget pick, we realized we needed to raise the bar for what constituted a viable pick in the first place.

You might have noticed that CoQ10 Advanced, the most effective CoQ10 on the market and that earned top marks in this guide, checks a few critical boxes. Specifically, it:

• Comes in a softgel (not a capsule, powder, liquid, or gummy)
• Uses MCT oil as a carrier oil in the softgel (not rice bran oil or a similarly cheap substitute)
• Subjects its products to independent third-party lab testing
• Publishes those third-party results right on the product page

There are plenty of cheap CoQ10 options on the market if all you care about is cost, but barely any of them take all of these parameters into account. Some well-priced brands come close, like Micro Ingredients and Sports Research, but there always seem to be shortfalls. Take a look at this breakdown:

As you can see, Momentous is the only company other than Innerbody Labs that checked all of the boxes. Sports Research used to have a third-party results lookup feature on its website, but it has since removed it, with no explanation, while still claiming testing on all products.

When you compare the best possible costs per bottle and per dose, you can see that costs come down the more you’re willing to give up in quality and safety:

Momentous Ubiquinol is less expensive than Innerbody Labs mainly because it’s a lower dose per serving, and it doesn’t include urolithin A. This means, unless you supplement with urolithin A separately, there’s a greater risk your body will be expending valuable CoQ10 on senescent and dysfunctional mitochondria (a risk that becomes greater as you age).68 Momentous also offers 25% off for first-time subscribers, which falls back to 10% off on future orders but remains a great way to save some money up front, thanks to a commitment to transparency and high-quality formulation only shared by Innerbody Labs.

Convenience and customer service

Advantage: Nature’s Bounty CoQ10 Gummies

Most CoQ10 supplements boast the same relative degree of convenience. They almost all require you to take a single pill once per day. But some of the pills are rather large, making them inconvenient for anyone who has a tough time swallowing medicine. And because the softgels are necessary to prevent the medicine from degrading in oxygen, you can’t snap them in half or break them down to make them easier to take.

Qunol’s Liquid CoQ10 solves this problem by delivering doses in liquid form, but you still need something to pour it into. Even if you use the cap as your serving vessel, you still need to rinse it afterward. And liquids certainly don’t travel as well as softgels do.

Even more convenient than a liquid CoQ10 is a CoQ10 gummy. Qunol has one of these in its lineup, but it’s more expensive and contains more sugar than our winner for convenience from Nature’s Bounty. Nature’s Bounty has one less gram of sugar per serving compared to Qunol, and each gummy contains twice as much CoQ10, delivering 100mg in each rather than just 50mg. In testing, our team universally enjoyed the peach mango flavor, as well.

However, we should point out that there haven’t been any significant studies using CoQ10 in gummy form, so efficacy may vary compared to more reliable forms such as softgels.

Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an antioxidant naturally produced inside the body. It’s a key component of the electron transport chain, which is essential to creating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) — fuel for your cells. CoQ10 is abundant in the body and can be found in about 95% of our cells.

Large amounts of CoQ10 reside in the brain, liver, heart, and kidneys. But your body doesn’t produce as much CoQ10 as you age,4 which is why supplementation can be important whether or not you suffer from a clinical deficiency.5

Ubiquinol vs. ubiquinone

CoQ10 is available in two forms for supplementation — ubiquinol and ubiquinone. There’s a complicated web of contradictory science and marketing hype touting one form’s potential over the other, but CoQ10 molecules convert back and forth between these states naturally. In fact, this redox reaction occurs in a single CoQ10 molecule around 5,000 times every hour.39 So, ultimately, it shouldn’t matter which one you take; either form at a supportable dose should yield benefits.

That said, there’s the question of the abundance of available evidence for a given CoQ10 form and whether the existing science should point you in one direction or another. And head-to-head studies haven’t been conducted comparing the two forms for anything other than bioavailability, making scrutiny of research into other effects more pertinent.

Let’s quickly break down the case for each, then examine a few studies in greater detail to see if one form truly has the edge over the other.

On the bioavailability side, ubiquinol gets a lot of praise. This largely comes from bioavailability studies such as a randomized, controlled trial from 2018, which showed identical doses of ubiquinone and ubiquinol resulting in greater serum CoQ10 concentrations among the ubiquinol group.34 That’s certainly interesting, but it was a very small study (only ten participants), and it doesn’t give us a sense of actual efficacy for any use case.

We’ve also seen a certain form of ubiquinone outperform ubiquinol in one bioavailability study, though there were also important differences among the compared samples there, as well.52 Moreover, there aren’t yet any head-to-head studies looking at more than just bioavailability, and both forms appear effective at similar doses in individual studies.

Ultimately, the case for ubiquinone over ubiquinol in most instances relies on the following facts:

• Researchers have yet to show that ubiquinol’s superior bioavailability translates to greater beneficial effects.
• Ubiquinone and ubiquinol undergo a rapid and incessant redox cycle that turns one into the other and back again; which one you take might not bear significance.
• Ubiquinone still boasts a larger body of evidence overall and a lower price in almost every case, making it the logical starting point for the vast majority of people interested in CoQ10.

All that said, our conclusions from the body of research are that dosage, carrier oil, and complementary ingredients matter far more than the question of ubiquinone versus ubiquinol. We’ve provided a high-quality ubiquinol option for you in this guide, in case you remain convinced that it’s superior.

CoQ10’s positive effects have been well-documented in hundreds of clinical studies, but exactly how it provides these benefits hasn’t always been as clear. In many cases, beneficial effects can be chalked up to antioxidant activity, while the coenzyme’s role in the electron transport chain can account for some others.

Here’s what the research has to say about CoQ10’s most well-known mechanisms of action:

CoQ10’s ability to mitigate inflammation and oxidative stress while maximizing the health and efficiency of mitochondria has multiple downstream effects influencing everything from cardiovascular health to fertility.​

Because CoQ10 production declines with age, supplementation simply replaces the CoQ10 that would otherwise be there. That allows the cells in just about every organ of the body to perform more efficiently.

As described in the previous section, CoQ10 has plenty of benefits to offer, with a relatively low cost and a minimal side effect profile. Because we all encounter things that exacerbate oxidative stress in our daily lives, and because CoQ10 evidently supports cellular health as we age through adulthood, supplementing may be useful for a lot of people.48 And what’s more, with cardiovascular disease remaining the number one cause of death in the U.S., clinical research shows that CoQ10 can benefit heart health.27 46

But there may be other things to consider here, as well. For example, cofactors in heart disease include stress and poverty, and adding another monthly expense to your regimen — even a fairly inexpensive one for the supplement market — might not be the best move for everyone.47 If you’re just abstractly worried about heart disease and are otherwise healthy but have a very tight budget, it might not be the best investment, at least not for that specific reason (either way, it’s something to discuss with your doctor).

Ultimately, if you’re interested in any of the potential benefits we’ve discussed — perhaps you have high blood pressure, glucose issues, fertility concerns, etc. — you should bring it up with your doctor and ask about CoQ10 specifically.

Who might want to look elsewhere?

There are some benefits being touted online that simply don’t have the same level of scientific support when it comes to CoQ10. Here are a few areas where support for CoQ10 is lacking:

Many drugs and supplements have dose-dependent relationships — the more you take, the better it works. The only limiting factors are typically adverse effects that increase with higher doses or the impracticality (physically or financially) of taking excessive amounts.

But after hundreds of research papers looking at CoQ10’s potential in dozens of health issues, numerous researchers have discussed an apparent U-shaped curve in much of the data. A U-shaped curve occurs when increasing a dose starts providing more benefit, but only to a point. Increase the dose beyond that point, and efficacy not only wanes, but it reverses.

Here’s what a U-shaped curve looks like (data points are invented for illustration purposes):

In this invented example, the intervention in question does its best job at reducing a negative biomarker at around 200mg, after which the effect tapers off and soon becomes almost nonexistent. Similar U-shaped curves have emerged in CoQ10 research for blood pressure, glycemic control, and even some cancers.35 12 36

In most cases, the greatest efficacy in these U shapes occurs at or around 200mg, with a slight bias toward doses slightly below 200mg, depending on body weight and metabolism. So, for most people, we advise taking no more than 200mg of CoQ10 unless expressly advised to do so by a doctor.

This research also reveals certain minimums for efficacy, as does the broader range of individual studies into CoQ10 for various ailments. In most, daily doses just below 100mg are where significant effects begin.

Softgels are the most widely used delivery mechanism for CoQ10 in the scientific literature. They contain CoQ10 crystals that have been solubilized (made more soluble, in this case, by suspension in a fat), and they’re more predictably bioavailable than taking a powdered CoQ10 alongside a fatty meal.52 There are successful clinical trials using powders, capsules, and tablets, but these are rarer. And softgel encapsulation — especially in opaque softgels — appears to offer some shelf stability benefit, as well.53

In softgels, CoQ10 is paired with one or more carrier oils in which the substance is suspended. These oils themselves may have some influence on CoQ10’s bioavailability and shelf stability, leading brands to tout one or another as the best. But what does the science say?

At this point in the research, there’s no clear winner among carrier oils for bioavailability. One prominent study showed that soy oil and MCT oil are among the best options for bioavailability, with MCT oil being among the healthier options out there.37 Still, other factors, including the surface-to-volume ratio of individual CoQ10 crystals in different solubilized formulations, may have played a role in those bioavailability results.52

On the stability side, a study pitting 11 CoQ10 products against one another showed that MCT oil slightly outperformed soy oil in keeping a constant CoQ10 concentration over several months.53 However, these were disparate commercial formulations with numerous other variables that could potentially affect stability.

At this point, the choice for the best carrier oil likely comes down to either MCT or soy oil, and if you’re allergic to one but not the other, then the choice is made for you. A little under 0.4% of the population in the U.S. reports an allergic reaction to coconut, whereas about 0.5% is allergic to soy.54 40

Ultimately, this paints a picture where you could consider things like cost or capsule count above efficacy or stability, so long as you have either soy oil or MCT oil in your softgels.

Most studies involving CoQ10 report few to no adverse effects in study populations.3 When side effects did occur, they were generally mild and included:

CoQ10 appears to be safe at doses as high as 720mg/day.3

According to the NIH, CoQ10 should be avoided if you’re taking chemotherapy drugs, as the data for potential contraindications is too limited. It’s also not advisable to take CoQ10 if you’re prone to episodes of hypoglycemia, whether from a medication or a condition.56

No studies have established whether CoQ10 supplements are safe during pregnancy or nursing periods. Those who are pregnant or nursing or who hope to become pregnant should avoid CoQ10 supplements. And, as always, speak to your doctor before introducing any new supplement into your daily regimen.

Most effective

While some companies include CoQ10 alongside a host of other ingredients targeting a slew of different potential problems — and often underdose in the process — others might pair it with ingredients that pigeonhole its potential efficacy to its cardiovascular or metabolic potential. Innerbody Labs takes a different tack, identifying the foundational aspect of cellular health that serves as the source of CoQ10’s downstream benefits, then pairing CoQ10 with two complementary ingredients to improve that potential.

That foundation is mitochondrial health. CoQ10 is not only integral to your mitochondria’s well-being thanks to its antioxidant capacity, but it’s also a key component in mitochondrial respiration, by which mitochondria manufacture the energy your body runs on.

So, it’s critical that the mitochondria receiving this influx of CoQ10 are healthy to begin with, and not dying or dysfunctional. Mitochondrial health declines with age, as does the body’s ability to manage those moribund mitochondria.62 CoQ10 itself is not discerning when it comes to the baseline health of your mitochondria. Urolithin A is one of the few ingredients out there that can make a difference in that regard.

Urolithin A — a metabolite that results when your microbiome breaks down ellagic acid from things like pomegranate, raspberries, and walnuts — can improve mitophagy, the process of clearing out dead and dysfunctional mitochondria from your cells.57 58

Here’s the rub: only a small percentage of people have microbiomes that can break down ellagic acid to form urolithin A.63 For the rest of us, supplementation is the only way to get it.64 For those who can produce it, supplementation makes sure you get enough.

Looking at doses, you could make the argument that CoQ10 Advanced is equal parts a urolithin A supplement and a CoQ10 supplement, as it contains both in dosages shown in clinical studies to be most effective — for urolithin A to optimize mitophagy and for CoQ10 to provide its litany of potential benefits.

Here’s the formula delivered in each softgel:

• Urolithin A: 500mg
• CoQ10 (as ubiquinone): 200mg
• Selenium: 25mcg

The guiding principle behind the formula is that adding CoQ10 to your system without also optimizing mitophagy is like adding premium gasoline to an old clunker from the ’70s. It’s going to backfire or, at the least, underperform, and it’ll kick off a lot of harmful exhaust. Put that same gasoline in a newer, more fuel-efficient car, and the car performs much better and with fewer toxic emissions. By optimizing mitophagy with urolithin A, you stand to see even more pronounced benefits from CoQ10 while reaping the ancillary benefits urolithin A has to offer.

Those urolithin A benefits include improved VO2 max and exercise performance, increased immunity, and decreased inflammation.65 66 If some of those sound related to the effects of CoQ10, it’s possibly due to the beneficial effects both substances have on mitochondrial health in different ways.

This softgel is our editors’ top recommendation at this time, but it’s not an ideal supplement for everyone. The addition of urolithin A makes it more expensive than many standalone CoQ10 supplements. What will make it an even stronger supplement is clinical research on the combined use of CoQ10 and urolithin A. In the meantime, research of each ingredient separately creates solid theoretical rationale, and the research combining CoQ10 with selenium is compelling.

Innerbody Labs pricing

Innerbody Labs employs a simple pricing system that combines bulk and subscription discounts to cut up to 25% from the cost of its CoQ10. Here’s how it works out:

While that one-time purchase cost is higher than the other products in this guide, it’s lower than most standalone urolithin A supplements on the market that don’t include any CoQ10. And when you subscribe to larger shipments, you can get that cost per bottle down pretty significantly.

At any level, a purchase from Innerbody Labs qualifies for free shipping, and the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. That might not be quite long enough for you to experience its benefits, and it’s shorter than several competitors in the CoQ10 space, but it’s longer than some others in this guide offer (e.g., Micro Ingredients and Nootropics Depot with their nonexistent guarantees).

Best budget pick

As we discussed in our “Cost” section toward the top of the page, cut-rate CoQ10 products make up the majority of the market, with inferior carrier oils, powder capsule preparations, and a general lack of transparency around quality. Momentous bucks that trend at every turn, earning our recommendation as the top budget pick thanks to the fact that it keeps to a set of very high standards while still being a more affordable place to start CoQ10 than many others.

To be clear, there are things about it we’d change if we could. The company’s claim of ubiquinol’s superior bioavailability to ubiquinone lacks nuance; confronted with the past 25 years of CoQ10 science, there isn’t sufficient evidence that ubiquinol can provide more benefit than ubiquinone. And ubiquinone has more evidence supporting the most well-researched CoQ10 benefits, while also being the less expensive ingredient to work with.

So, we’d have preferred that Momentous (and other companies) stick to the high standards and reasonable pricing of a ubiquinone supplement, instead. But we scoured the market, and a standalone ubiquinone with standards that high does not exist. You therefore end up spending more on Momentous ubiquinol than you would on an equally well-produced ubiquinone, but it still fits the bill as a budget pick compared to our top pick from Innerbody Labs. That’s mainly because Innerbody Labs chose to include urolithin A to spur mitophagy, allowing its CoQ10 to function in healthy mitochondria, rather than propping up dysfunctional ones.

In the end, Momentous offers a great place to start CoQ10 therapy if you want a genuinely high-quality supplement but want to put up as little money as possible out of the gate.

Momentous pricing

Momentous offers 25% off your first month if you subscribe, which is really where the best part of the company’s value lives. After that, the subscription discount drops to only 10%. Here’s how that works out:

Shipping is free only on orders over $75, which won’t apply to any Ubiquinol purchase unless you get something else from the company. If it helps you reach the free-shipping threshold, it could be worth knowing that Momentous also has products that have placed well in our guides to OTC sleep aids and creatine gummies and chews.

If you’re dissatisfied with your purchase, Momentous unfortunately has the worst return policy in our guide. Not only is there no money-back guarantee like you get from Innerbody Labs and most others, but Momentous won’t even accept returns of unopened products. This is not only one of the strictest policies in this guide, but it’s also one of the strictest of any supplement brand.

Best vegan option

Sports Research makes an outstanding CoQ10 product in many ways, though its use of black pepper extract — while effective for enhancing bioavailability — isn’t supported by any effect-based research beyond just increasing serum CoQ10.19 There also isn’t enough evidence to know for sure how much that bioavailability is being increased.

The company used to check all the boxes we'd want to see checked to compete for another top spot — best budget pick — but it has recently removed a useful tool from its website. Previously, you could look up third-party test results by the lot number printed on your bottle. Now, no third-party results are made available to the public, even upon request to customer service.

There’s no good explanation for this, and the company didn’t give one, save to say that it still has third-party testing performed for all of the same parameters it always had. If you’re determined to get a vegan CoQ10 for a reasonable price, this is still probably your best bet. But Innerbody Labs COQ10 Advanced is vegetarian-friendly, and third-party results are available for it right on the product page.

Sport Research pricing

A single bottle of Sports Research CoQ10 contains 120 softgels (100mg) and costs $27.95, but you can save 15% by subscribing. That brings your cost down to $23.76/bottle, with flexible shipping options for every two, four, or six months.

Sports Research also has a pretty good money-back guarantee of 90 days. But the clock on that promise starts ticking once you place your order, not once the product is delivered, which is far more common. That means you could end up with an 83-day guarantee if it takes a week to ship to you. Still, 83 days is much more than most of the rest of the field, though it’s a lot shorter than Life Extension’s 365-day policy.

Best powder form

Most of the Micro Ingredients catalog is made up of single-ingredient supplements, with only a rare few offering more than one ingredient as a complex formula. In most cases, the company does a good job of offering titration-friendly doses in each serving of these ingredients, and its CoQ10 powder certainly fits that bill. You can take however much or little as you want. That said, the included scoop (a rare luxury among bagged supplement powders) measures out approximately 200mg per serving.

Micro Ingredients also offers CoQ10 in softgels at various doses and excellent prices. But the company lists “added color” among its ingredients without specifying where it comes from. It could be an artificial source, the negative effects of which would run counter to supplementing for cellular health in the first place. We reached out to Micro Ingredients for more information about the ingredient, but the company did not respond. So, for now, only the powder makes the cut; it contains no ingredients other than CoQ10.

To be clear, the majority of the scientific research into CoQ10’s benefits uses softgels, but if you’re looking for a powder regardless, this is one of the best. It boasts a great per-gram price and a vegan-friendly status that most softgels lack.

Micro Ingredients also touts its third-party testing, which ensures consistent and accurate dosing and shows that each batch is free of contaminants like heavy metals or microorganisms. One caveat here is that Micro Ingredients, like Sports Research and several other makers of well-formulated CoQ10 supplements, don’t share the results of these tests. Only Innerbody Labs and Momentous make their third-party results readily available.

Micro Ingredients pricing

Micro Ingredients doesn’t have any bulk deals on its powder, as each bag already contains 250 servings — enough to last more than eight months. It does offer 10% off to subscribers, though. That’s not as deep a discount for subscribing as some others offer, but it’s a nice addition, nonetheless. Here’s how the pricing works out:

Shipping can tack on an extra $7 if you don’t meet the company’s $59 free-shipping threshold, or you can go through Amazon if you’re a Prime member to save on shipping. That’s not as generous as the free shipping other companies like Qunol and Innerbody Labs offer on all U.S. orders, but it’s still a relatively low charge among companies with shipping fees. Unfortunately, Micro Ingredients doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee, which is at odds with some stellar guarantees in this guide, including a 365-day promise from Life Extension.

Best liquid option

Qunol is one of the most recognizable brands in the CoQ10 space. Its Liquid CoQ10 is ideal for anyone who wants to avoid the hassle of swallowing pills or the added ingredients in softgels. The company also offers CoQ10 gummies, but they pale in comparison to our top gummy pick from Nature’s Bounty.

For the most part, Qunol’s CoQ10 softgels use Kaneka ubiquinol, though some contain ubiquinone. Some of the ubiquinol options come with a 250mg dose of omega-3s, which can aid in absorption while also providing their own health benefits, such as guarding against cardiovascular disease.17 Other Qunol softgels utilize palm oil, which may not be as bad for cardiovascular health as once thought, but does have significant negative effects on the planet and the people who live where it’s cultivated.23

The best product in Qunol’s lineup, from our perspective, is its Liquid CoQ10. It’s a tasty, convenient option that comes with the right dose per serving to align with most of the best CoQ10 research.

Qunol pricing

Qunol doesn’t prescribe one dose over another, but it spells out the measurements for a 100mg and 200mg dose on the bottle. That can affect your spending, depending on how you take it.

Here’s how it works out at either dose level:

Qunol offers free shipping on all orders within the U.S., as well as a 30-day money-back guarantee. Both of these approaches are superior to most competitors, who typically have cost thresholds for free shipping and strict return policies.

Best gummy

Among CoQ10 gummies, it can be hard to find the right balance between dose and taste. In our trials, Nature’s Bounty checked both boxes, delivering a very enjoyable peach mango flavor and a solid 100mg of CoQ10 in each gummy. Our testers universally agreed this was their preferred gummy for both flavor and texture, with one claiming it tasted identical to a favorite childhood fruit snack.

The gummy format certainly makes this a convenient option, as well. Popping a flavorful gummy is easier than swallowing pills or mixing a powder into a drink. But there’s a downside to gummies, namely that they tend to contain sugar. To be fair, Nature’s Bounty has about as much or less sugar than some other brands we considered. But it uses corn syrup as its primary sweetener, which may be a turnoff for some consumers.

The gummies are also not vegan-friendly, as they’re made with gelatin, but very few CoQ10 products are vegan-friendly, as they often come in gelatin-based softgels. Only Innerbody Labs and Sports Research use vegetarian-friendly softgels, with Sports Research touting a vegan certification.

Nature’s Bounty pricing

One of the best things about Nature’s Bounty CoQ10 Gummies is that they’re inexpensive to acquire. They don’t have the best value, delivering one of the higher costs per dose in our guide, but at just under $10 for a bottle, it’s easy to try them out to see if you like the flavor.

Shipping and returns for these gummies will depend on where you get them. The company doesn’t sell directly to consumers, so policies from Amazon, iHerb, and others will determine your options. You might also find them at local pharmacies and supermarkets, which would eliminate shipping costs altogether.

Honorable mention

Life Extension offers a wide array of products, from supplements and foods to skin care serums and lab testing. Most of its product line is geared toward extending life and quality of life and achieving a healthier, more youthful appearance.

Life Extension uses Kaneka-branded ubiquinol — the form most often seen in ubiquinol research. You can get it on its own, but the company also makes the only CoQ10 in our guide to include either shilajit or PQQ. Let’s break each of those down so you can understand what makes them beneficial.

Due to the lower-than-ideal dosing of either of these components, it’s likely a better choice to stick with Life Extension’s plain Super Ubiquinol, which contains 100mg of CoQ10 per capsule. That said, we prefer to steer readers interested in ubiquinol to Momentous, as Life Extension doesn’t perform the same third-party tests or release testing results to the public. That said, if Momentous’ horrible return policy gives you pause, Life Extension’s year-long policy could be a nice security blanket.

Life Extension pricing

One bottle of Life Extension Super Ubiquinol costs $37.50. Subscribers can save up to 17% and pay only $31 per bottle. Subscriptions also unlock free shipping.

Life Extension claims to have a generous one-year return policy, though the particulars of this policy are nowhere on the company's website. You could subscribe to its CoQ10 for a year and then find out the return policy can only apply to a single order, returning just $31 of the $372 spent. You might get back the whole $372 in such a case, but the lack of transparency leads us to believe otherwise. Still, this is the longest guarantee we’ve seen in the space.

CoQ10 supplementation appears to have many potential benefits. But if you’re interested in it for a particular reason, you might find superior or complementary options out there that are worth your investigation. Let’s take a look at a few potential goals people commonly look to CoQ10 to address and discuss some alternatives.