Grüns vs Create: Subscription Programs Scored Side by Side

Grüns scored 85.5 and Create 67.5 on the same 48 subscription checkpoints. Where each wins, where each loses, and what to copy.

Rahi Jain, Subscription LTV Specialist
Oct 24, 2026 · 7 min read

Key takeaways

Grüns scored 85.5 and Create 67.5 out of 100 on the same 48 subscription checkpoints, scored from public data only.
Grüns won 82% of the retention points against 58% for Create, with the biggest gap in cancellation: 13.5 against 8.5 out of 15.
Create beats Grüns on frequency choice, with 1, 2 and 3-month tiers priced from $1.93 down to $1.79 a day.

Two gummy brands. Both sell a daily habit on subscription. Grüns sold to Unilever for a reported $1.2B. Create says it runs at $150M a year with more than 100,000 active subscribers.

We scored both on the Subscription LTV Scorecard™, 8 dimensions and 48 checkpoints, from public data only. Grüns got 85.5, the highest score we have given. Create got 67.5. The gap is almost all in what happens after the first order.

Grüns vs Create: the short answer

Grüns runs the stronger subscription program, 85.5 against 67.5 out of 100. The two brands are close at getting people to subscribe, 44.5 against 38.5 out of 50. They are far apart at keeping them, 41 against 29.

Grüns scored 85.5 out of 100 and Create 67.5 on the Subscription LTV Scorecard, with growth and retention subtotals

Create still does plenty well. Its frequency setup is as good as Grüns’, and its cancel screen is one of the best we have seen. It just stops building after the welcome email.

The scores, dimension by dimension

Grüns wins six of the eight dimensions. They tie on structure and frequency, and Create edges ahead on loyalty by half a point.

Dimension	Out of	Grüns	Create	Better
Structure & Frequency	15	13.5	13.5	Tie
Offer Engineering	15	12	9	Grüns
Subscription Promotion	10	9.5	9	Grüns
Subscription Messaging	10	9.5	7	Grüns
Subscriber Onboarding	15	13	9	Grüns
Cancellation & Dunning	15	13.5	8.5	Grüns
Flexibility	10	9.5	6	Grüns
Loyalty & Surprise/Delight	10	5	5.5	Create
Total	100	85.5	67.5	Grüns

Grüns was scored in August 2026 and Create in October 2026, on rubric versions 1.1 and 1.2. Two checkpoints were reworded between them. Neither change moves the ranking.

Getting people to subscribe

Both brands make subscribing the obvious choice. The difference is in how clean the offer is.

Table comparing the Grüns and Create subscription offers: price, one-time price, cost per day, frequencies, longer plan, discount and platform

Structure and frequency: a tie at 13.5

Grüns sells one cadence. 28 packs, one a day, every 4 weeks. The maths is right, but there is no choice on the widget. The quarterly plan exists, at $1.67 a day against $1.79, and you only see it after checkout.

Create gives three tiers, 1, 2 or 3 months, with 3 months pre-selected. 90 gummies at 3 a day is 30 days, so the default matches use. Where Create slips is the cart. Upgrade a 3-month one-time order to subscription and you end up with 3 packs every month: $161 today, then $174 every month.

Create checkout showing a total of $161.16 today and a recurring subtotal of $174.00 every month

Offer engineering: Grüns 12, Create 9

Both price per day, which I like. Grüns: $1.07 a day on subscription against $2.38 one-time. Create: $1.93, $1.85 and $1.79 a day across the three tiers.

Both lose points on consistency. Grüns shows 52% off on site and 5 to 10% on Amazon. Create’s badge says 25%, the real gap on the 1-month tier is about 13%, and landing pages run anything from 25% to 47%.

Create loses more on bundles. Eleven options, duos, trios, juice bundles, some running to 5 and 6 months, and no way to pick your own flavours.

Create creatine gummy variety bundles page showing 11 bundle options to choose from

Promotion and messaging: Grüns 19, Create 16

Grüns puts a 30, 60 and 90 day results timeline on the checkout page, next to the card form. Most brands keep that on the product page. Create has a Week 1 to Week 4 timeline, then says nothing about month 2 or month 6.

Grüns checkout page showing day 30, day 60 and day 90 results beside the payment form

Create also never answers the obvious question: why a gummy costs about twice its own powder.

Keeping them after the first order

This is where the 12 points go. Grüns scores 41 out of 50 on retention. Create scores 29.

Onboarding: Grüns 13, Create 9

Grüns sends an email every day for the first seven days. Rip, tap, enjoy. Then a review ask on day five, and a heads-up before the card is charged on day six.

The seven day Grüns welcome sequence, day one through day seven

Create sends one very good welcome from the founder, Dan. “Give it about three weeks.” It asks you to take a quiz for $5, so they know your taste before you think about leaving. Then the next thing you get is the billing reminder. We cover why those first weeks decide everything in engineering a habit.

One thing Create does well here. Per a Zaymo case study, it put skip, delay and swap inside the billing reminder itself, and subscriber churn fell 19%.

Cancellation: Grüns 13.5, Create 8.5

The biggest gap in the comparison. Search “how to cancel Grüns” and you land on Grüns’ own help page, with click-by-click steps. Search the same for Create and no Create page comes up. Their help article on editing a subscription has 13 comments, nearly all from people trying to cancel.

Grüns subscription management help index, each question its own page

And yet Create has the better cancel screen. A note from the founder: “You’re three weeks into something that takes four.” A flavour swap one click away. It knows where you are in the journey. The trouble is getting there.

Create cancel screen with a note from founder Dan McCormick asking for 30 seconds and saying the subscriber is three weeks into something that takes four

Flexibility: Grüns 9.5, Create 6

Grüns names skip, pause, reschedule, change frequency and swap in the help centre and on the product page. Create names pause, edit and cancel. Swap shows up on one landing page. For a brand with eight flavours, swap should be the headline. Our flexibility ladder puts it before pause for this reason.

Loyalty: Create 5.5, Grüns 5

The one place Create wins, by half a point, and neither brand does it well. Grüns has the best reason to want the next box we have scored: a limited flavour roughly every six weeks, swapped into your next order by replying to a text. But no milestones, and nothing rewards tenure.

Create has a proper rewards program. 3 points per $1 for subscribers, a bonus at the 3rd renewal and every 6th order, a free ClassPass month in the portal. It lives on a page that is not in the menu.

Front half vs back half

Grüns won 89% of the growth points and 82% of the retention points. Create won 77% and 58%.

Share of scorecard points won: Grüns 89% on growth and 82% on retention, Create 77% and 58%

That shape is common. We see it in most programs built by a strong acquisition team. Mars Men is the extreme case at 83% against 41%. Create sits in between. Grüns is the closest to balanced of any brand we have scored.

Where each one loses points

The three dimensions where Grüns and Create lose the most scorecard points, with the reason for each

Grüns’ gaps are the kind of problem you want. The habit and the acquisition are solved. The 12-month journey is missing. Create’s gaps sit earlier, in the first 90 days, which is where most of the money is.

What to copy from each

From Grüns

Email every day for the first week. Silence in week one is when people decide it is not working.
Put the results timeline where the wallet is.
Write a help centre that answers “how do I cancel” before Reddit does.
Give people a reason to want the next box. Grüns uses flavour drops. You can use a gift at order 3.

From Create

Ask about preferences in the welcome email. You will need the answers in the cancel flow.
Make the cancel screen know how far in they are.
Offer two or three frequencies, each priced per day.
Win people back with stories from subscribers who left and returned.

Full breakdowns: the Grüns teardown and the Create breakdown. If you want your own program scored on the same 48 checkpoints, the free subscription audit runs the same scorecard.

Which one should a smaller brand study?

Study Create first if you are under $10M. Its problems are the ones we see on most audits: a strong welcome, then silence until the card is charged, a cancel path people have to hunt for, and a discount that says one number on the badge and another in the cart. Each one is cheap to fix.

Study Grüns once those are fixed. Seven welcome emails, a help centre written for search, and a flavour calendar take a team and a year of testing. Their first 90 days score close to full marks. Rewards are still the gap, so start where they are strong.

FAQ

Is Grüns or Create better for subscribers?

On the subscription program, Grüns. It scored 85.5 against 67.5, with clearer cancel steps, more flexibility and a full first-week email sequence. We did not score taste or ingredients.

How do the Grüns and Create subscription prices compare?

When we scored them, Grüns was $29.99 for 28 packs against $66.65 one-time. Create was $58 for a 1-month supply against $67 one-time, falling to $1.79 a day on the 3-month tier.

How easy is it to cancel each one?

Grüns publishes click-by-click cancel steps that rank first in search. Create’s cancel help is thin, though its cancel screen itself is well built, with a founder note and a flavour swap.

Can you change frequency or swap flavours?

Grüns names skip, pause, reschedule, frequency change and swap. Create offers 1, 2 or 3-month plans and a flavour swap, but mostly does not say so on the site.

What is the Subscription LTV Scorecard?

RetainUP’s audit of a subscription program across 8 dimensions and 48 checkpoints, scored out of 100 from public data only: product pages, emails, help centres and reviews.

About the author

Rahi Jain

Rahi Jain is a subscription LTV specialist who helps DTC brands maximize their LTV from subscriptions.