# Joints & Bones

The British answer to "joint supplements" is a box with six or seven ingredients printed on it: glucosamine and chondroitin, an omega-3 capsule, vitamins C and D, manganese and zinc, priced as a single pack. Around it sit the neighbouring searches, for knees, for women, for men, for runners, for Boots, and a much larger animal market for dogs and horses that we leave alone.

Best and median price per ingredient, updated 18 October 2026

| Ingredient | Best price | Product | Median price | Shops | Products |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Glucosamine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/glucosamine) | – | – | – | 0 | 0 |
| [Joint support](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/joint-support) | £0.05 /capsule | [Quick Release Glucosamine 65 Plus](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-quick-release-glucosamine-65-plus-132677) (Simply Supplements) | – | 9 | 92 |
| [Collagen](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/collagen) | £18.46 /kg | [Collagen Powder](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/myprotein-collagen-powder-125836) (Myvitamins) | – | 11 | 62 |
| [Omega-3 / Fish oil](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/omega-3) | £0.03 /capsule | [Omega 3 Capsules 500mg](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-omega-3-capsules-500mg-132093) (Simply Supplements) | – | 10 | 106 |
| [Turmeric / Curcumin](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/turmeric) | £0.07 /capsule | [Turmeric & Bioperine® Capsules](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/myvitamins-turmeric-bioperine-capsules-125644) (Myvitamins) | – | 10 | 63 |
| [Calcium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/calcium) | £0.04 /capsule | [New Era No.2 Calc Phos - 240 Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/new-era-new-era-no2-calc-phos-240-tablets-144755) (Vitamin Planet) | – | 10 | 36 |
| [Vitamin D3](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-d3) | £0.02 /capsule | [Vegan Vitamin D3 400iu Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-vegan-vitamin-d3-400iu-tablets-133415) (Simply Supplements) | – | 9 | 93 |
| [Vitamin K2](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-k2) | £0.04 /capsule | [Vitamin D3 4000iu & Vitamin K2 100mcg](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/simply-supplements-vitamin-d3-4000iu-vitamin-k2-100mcg-132177) (Simply Supplements) | – | 8 | 38 |
| [Magnesium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/magnesium) | £0.04 /capsule | [New Era No.8 Mag Phos - 240 Tablets](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/new-era-new-era-no8-mag-phos-240-tablets-144775) (Vitamin Planet) | – | 12 | 92 |
| [MSM](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/search?q=msm) | £8.99 total price | [Mega MSM 100 Capsules](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/scitec-nutrition-mega-msm-100-capsules-131447) (Predator Nutrition) | – | 4 | 12 |
| [Boswellia](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/search?q=boswellia) | £16.39 total price | [Ayurvediq Wellness Boswellia Serrata with Turmeric & Black Pepper Extract - 60 Capsules](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/p/ayurvediq-wellness-ayurvediq-wellness-boswellia-serrata-with-turmeric-black-pepper-extract-60-ca-143954) (Vitamin Planet) | – | 2 | 4 |

## What a combination pack puts in one price

A pack like that is easy to buy and awkward to price against its parts. Of the names on the box, omega-3, vitamin D and glucosamine each have a ranking of their own; chondroitin is counted inside the joint support category rather than separately; vitamin C, manganese and zinc sit outside this set of ingredients altogether. So the arithmetic will never be exact. [Omega-3](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/omega-3) at least carries its own second line, the EPA and DHA per capsule rather than the fish oil milligrams on the front, worked through in buying cheap fish oil.

## One molecule, two regulatory routes, and a salt in the weight

Every British result for glucosamine is a shop listing or a review. Cross the Channel and the same molecule is filed differently: in Belgium and the Netherlands it is also a licensed medicine, and the Dutch pharmacotherapeutic reference records its delivery status as over the counter. That matters for the label, because a medicine states its strength in milligrams of glucosamine. The Belgian leaflet spells the conversion out: a capsule holding 400 mg of glucosamine is equivalent to 509 mg of glucosamine hemisulfate and to 676 mg of the hemisulfate potassium chloride complex. A supplement tub usually prints the far end of that sentence, the largest number, because the potassium chloride is in the weight. A tub that carries the molecule on its own is ranked in [glucosamine](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/glucosamine), per capsule. Add chondroitin or MSM to that tub and it moves to the [joint support](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/joint-support) category instead, where the chondroitin keeps its own milligrams, the ranking is per capsule as well, and the dose per day is left to the directions.

## MSM and boswellia have nothing in common to be weighed by

Search either name on its own and the results mix things that are not measured alike: a tub of MSM powder sold by weight beside MSM capsules dosed in milligrams, dried boswellia resin beside an extract standardised to a percentage of boswellic acids, sometimes with a separate AKBA percentage printed next to it. The price of the box is the only figure those share, and it is the one they are compared on.

## Turmeric 500 mg and curcumin 500 mg are not the same capsule

[Turmeric](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/turmeric) ranks per capsule, and the front of the box is where the confusion starts, because both an extract and a ground root can print a round 500 mg. The ingredients list is where it resolves: an extract standardised to 95 per cent curcuminoids says so, ground root usually states no percentage at all, and piperine or black pepper extract appearing beside either one marks a third kind of product. [Collagen](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/collagen) has the same trap in weight rather than percentage: an undenatured type II capsule from chicken is dosed in milligrams, while a scoop of hydrolysed type I and III peptides from bovine hide or fish skin is weighed in grams. A price per kilo puts both in one column, so the scoop size settles it.

## Three figures for one mineral, and only one of them is ranked

A British mineral label prints the milligrams per capsule, the percentage of the nutrient reference value beside it, and the capsules per day in the directions. Only the first of those three is what a per-capsule ranking sorts on, and none of them is a daily total: on calcium the NHS states that adults aged 19 to 64 and over need 700mg of calcium a day. [Calcium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/calcium), [vitamin D3](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-d3), [vitamin K2](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/vitamin-k2) and [magnesium](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/category/magnesium) each hold their own column, so a bone tablet carrying all four appears in whichever one its record placed it in. Those four come round again on [menopause](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/menopause) and [immunity](https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/immunity).

## Sources

- [AFMPS: patient leaflet, Glucosamine Pharma Nord 400 mg capsules](https://app.fagg-afmps.be/pharma-status/api/files/62bc70a21e5c015ab3f0e960)
- [Farmacotherapeutisch Kompas: glucosamine](https://www.farmacotherapeutischkompas.nl/bladeren/preparaatteksten/g/glucosamine)
- [NHS: Calcium](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/calcium/)

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the best supplement for joints?

A price comparison does not pick one, and it says nothing about effects. What it does show is which figure makes two boxes comparable: the milligrams of glucosamine rather than of its salt, the curcuminoid percentage rather than the word turmeric, and the scoop size on the back of a collagen tub.

### Do any joint supplements really work?

That is a question for your GP or pharmacist, and the British result page argues about it at length. A checkable fact instead: in Belgium and the Netherlands glucosamine is also sold as a licensed medicine, with a patient leaflet published by the national agency stating the dose in milligrams of glucosamine rather than of its salt.

### What is the best joint supplement on the market?

Nothing on a box settles that, but two things on it can be checked before you pay: how many capsules count as one daily dose, and how much of each named ingredient that dose actually holds. A pack with seven names on the front can still be thinner per ingredient than a single-ingredient tub.

### What vitamin am I lacking if my joints hurt?

Nobody can read a blood level off a box, and we do not try. The vitamins most often searched for around joints and bones are D3 and K2, usually alongside calcium, sold both as one bone tablet and as three separate rankings.

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Source: Supplementscanner, https://supplementscanner.co.uk/goal/joints-bones (live prices per product)

Information for comparison, not medical advice. Ingredients are chosen based on what people often search for, not as a treatment.