Written By: Lindsay Kuula
Date: August 27th, 2026
Read Time: 7 mins
In partnership with Needed

One of the most popular questions I get asked when I post about my prenatal routine is if there’s a prenatal gummy I recommend. 

I get why people ask this question all the time. If you’ve ever tried to choke down a handful of prenatal capsules at 7 weeks pregnant, in the middle of peak nausea, you already know why gummies are so tempting.

The issue I have with gummy prenatals is that when compared to their pill sibling, they don’t hold up nutritionally, have tons of added sugar, and often use nutrient forms your body can’t actually absorb.

I’ve tried a handful of different brands throughout my two pregnancies, and I ended up landing on Needed for this last pregnancy. I did a LOT of research, and Needed continued beating out everyone else, in the areas that mattered the most to me. 

The one downside to Needed is they’ve never had a gummy. Until now…

So, I put it up against three of the most popular prenatal gummies on shelves (and Amazon) right now. 

Olly, SmartyPants, and Nature Made. 

Here’s what I found

Why most prenatal gummies have always come up short

I’m going to go straight for the juggular here. There’s only so much of a vitamin or mineral you can pack into a gummy base before it stops tasting and feeling like a fresh pack of scandinavian swimmers and transforms into a more grainy, chalky, or unpleasantly metallic texture. 

So most brands quietly dial the dosages down to protect the taste, which means the “prenatal gummy” in your Target drive up order is more than likely delivering a fraction of the nutritional density than the capsule bottle next to it.

Now let’s jump into each of these options.

The comparison, nutrient by nutrient

At a glance, Needed’s Prenatal Gummy delivers more nutrition than all three brands – roughly 8x more nutrition than Olly, 5x more than SmartyPants, and 6x more than Nature Made to be exact†. 

Want proof? See the chart below:

	RDA/AI	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
Serving Size	–	3 gummies	2 gummies	3 gummies	2 gummies
Total Nutrients	–	17	11	16	14
Vitamin A	770 mcg RAE	750 mcg	650 mcg	520 mcg	650 mcg
Vitamin C	85 mg	75 mg	30 mg	48 mg	30 mg
Vitamin D	15 mcg	100 mcg	20 mcg	30 mcg	25 mcg
Vitamin E	15 mg	15 mg	14.3 mg	14.3 mg	15 mg
Vitamin K	90 mcg	45 mcg	–	40 mcg	–
Thiamin (B1)	1.4 mg	1.4 mg	–	0.14 mg	–
Riboflavin (B2)	1.4 mg	1.6 mg	–	0.16 mg	–
Niacin (B3)	18 mg	18 mg	18 mg	18 mg	18 mg
Vitamin B6	1.9 mg	40 mg	2 mg	2 mg	2 mg
Folate	600 mcg DFE	920 mcg DFE (552 mcg folate)	667 mcg DFE (400 mcg folic acid)	667 mcg DFE	600 mcg (360 mcg folic acid)
Vitamin B12	2.6 mcg	75 mcg	3.5 mcg	4.7 mcg	5.2 mcg
Biotin	30 mcg	75 mcg	–	17.5 mcg	35 mcg
Choline	450 mg	55 mg1	10o mg	55 mg	55 mg
Iodine	220 mcg	150 mcg	150 mcg	290 mcg	150 mcg
Magnesium	360 mg	10 mg	–	–	40 mg
Zinc	11 mg	6.5 mg	3 mg	3.9 mg	2.6 mg
Calcium	1000 mg	–	–	–	130 mg
Selenium	60 mcg	70 mcg	–	14 mcg	–

*All amounts are per daily serving. Formulas can change, so always check the current Supplement Facts label as of August 2026.
The number of total nutrients listed does not include omega-3 or inositol.

Winner: Needed

Get an EXTRA 20% off your first Needed purchase, including already discounted subscriptions and plans using code HARDLAUNCHMOM.

Folate vs. folic acid and the importance in the first trimester

You’ve probably seen “folate” and “folic acid” used like they’re interchangeable. They’re not, and the difference is worth understanding. I’m going to do my best to give you the cliff’s notes, but there are hundreds of podcasts, books, etc., on this topic, so if you want to learn more, the information is out there!

Folic acid (which is in many prenatals, especially the less expensive options) is the synthetic form, meaning your body has to convert it before it can use it, and roughly 40% of people carry a gene variant (MTHFR) that makes that conversion less efficient. Methylfolate, on the other hand, is the form your body can use directly, no conversion step required!

So, why does this matter so much?

Folate plays a huge role in your baby’s brain and cognitive development, starting with neural tube formation – the earliest formation of your baby’s brain and spinal cord.* This happens incredibly early, which is exactly why it’s recommended to start taking a prenatal before you even conceive. 

The first trimester also happens to be when morning sickness hits hardest, and taking a pill can feel genuinely impossible. If gummies are the only thing you can stomach (or keep down) during the exact window neural tube development is happening, you need to know the gummy you’re taking actually has real support in it, not just a token amount.

The official ACOG/CDC recommendation is at least 400 mcg of folic acid daily (about 667 mcg DFE), starting a month before conception and continuing through your first trimester.

Worth knowing, though: that guidance is based on decades-old research, from back when folic acid was the form tested for preventing neural tube defects. The science has moved forward since then. Newer research points to methylfolate, the active form, as a strong alternative for many people, since taking it directly skips the enzymatic conversion steps that a meaningful share of the population, including those with common gene variants like MTHFR, handle less efficiently.

There’s also a lesser-known downside to folic acid: in larger amounts, it can mask an underlying B12 deficiency, making it harder to catch.

None of this means the official guidance is wrong, it’s just built on older research, and revising it soon is unlikely given the real ethical limits around running new studies on pregnant women. So the amount still matters, but the newer science is what points to methylfolate as the more efficiently used form for many people.

So where do each of these brands land when it comes to Folic Acid vs Methylfolate?

	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
Folate or folic acid	Methylfolate (Optifolin+®)	Folic acid	Methylfolate	Folic acid
How much	920 mcg DFE	667 mcg DFE (400 mcg folic acid)	667 mcg DFE (methylfolate)	600 mcg DFE (360 mcg folic acid)

Needed wins on both counts here: it has the highest dose of the four at 920 mcg DFE, and it’s already in the bioavailable form, Methylfolate, your body can use directly.

Speaking of first trimester nausea, Needed’s gummy also delivers the highest amount of Vitamin B6 at 40 mg – the same nutrient your OB will tell you to reach for when first-trimester nausea hits. 

	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
Vitamin B6	40mg	2mg	2mg	2mg

From where I’m sitting, that’s intentional because B6 is one of the few nutrients with real evidence behind helping ease pregnancy nausea*. That alone makes me pause and believe that Needed is actually trying to formulate a gummy prenatal to be used for a specific purpose. 

Am I saying you should only take a gummy prenatal during the first trimester… not necessarily. However, you’ll see nutrient density increase if you switch to a pill or powder form, more on that later. 

VITAMIN D: 3x More in Needed†’ (And Why That Matters)

Researchers have studied Vitamin D extensively, and the list of benefits is impressive. I’ve condensed the list quite a bit, so here are some of the key ones I think are important to know:

Vitamin D supports healthy immune function, supports normal inflammatory response, supports healthy bone development, and supports maternal bone health*.

When we compare these four prenatals, we can see that Needed’s Prenatal Gummy includes 3x more Vitamin D than SmartyPants, 4x more than Nature Made and 5x more than Olly. Plus, Needed has 7x more than the RDA^†. 

RDA	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
15mcg	100mcg	20mcg	30mcg	25mcg

Vitamin B12: The Surprising Difference (at least 14x More^†)

One thing that shocked me when diving deep into each of these nutrients and vitamins, is how Needed was the only brand that prioritized a higher dose of Vitamin B12 and there’s good reason for it:

Vitamin B12 supports healthy fetal brain and nervous system development, supports DNA synthesis and healthy cell division, supports healthy red blood cell formation, works with folate to support neural tube health*.

RDA	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
2.6mcg	75mcg	3.5mcg	4.7mcg	5.2mcg

If you’re looking for the most nutrient dense gummy, Needed is going to be your best bet. You can get an EXTRA 20% off your first Needed purchase, including already discounted subscriptions and plans using code HARDLAUNCHMOM.

A note on Choline

Three of the four brands: Needed, SmartyPants, and Nature Made, deliver 55mg of choline per serving. Olly comes in lowest at 10mg.

Choline plays a key role in your baby’s brain and neural tube development, plus your own metabolism and mood, so it’s a nutrient worth paying attention to regardless of which gummy you land on.*

But 55mg is still a fraction of what you actually need. The Adequate intake (AI) while pregnant is 450mg, and some newer research points to benefits as high as 900mg. One of those studies was published by the NIH, stating that supplementation [of Choline] during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed.

Choline is a bulky nutrient – there’s no version of a multivitamin gummy that fits a full dose in without taking up too much space for the other nutrients to be included at their recommended dose.

Needed sells a Choline+ add-on with 500mg of liquid choline per capsule, which is more than double what most standalone choline products offer.

I have good news for you, the choline add on pill (which I’ve been taking for 3 years now), tastes like absolutely nothing, and it’s one of the pills that’s easy to tolerate taking in your first trimester.

So, if you’re already sold on the gummy for the reasons above, this is the one upgrade I’d add to your cart alongside it. It’s a small add, but choline has so many benefits for you and your baby, so to me it’s worth helping to close that gap rather than settling for 55mg when so many new studies are pointing to that 900mg number.

Winner: Tie

A note on Omega-3/DHA

You’ll notice Needed’s gummy doesn’t include omega-3/DHA, so let’s talk about why a brand would choose to exclude this, especially since the other three include it: Olly and Nature Made both include 70mg, and SmartyPants comes in highest at 113mg. So why doesn’t Needed?

Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
0	70mg	113mg	70mg

Needed’s stance, which I personally  agree with after digging into it is that: an effective, meaningful dose of DHA doesn’t really fit inside a multivitamin gummy without either inflating the serving size (i.e., you’ll need to take 5 gummies vs. 3) or watering the dosage down to something more symbolic than impactful. 

So instead of bundling in a low dose just to check the box, Needed also sells Omega-3 as a separate add-on delivering up to 1,000mg of DHA+EPA per serving, roughly 2x more than most prenatal omega-3s, dosed at a level actually meant to support fertility, brain health, heart health, and hormone balance.* You take it alongside a meal with healthy fat, which helps your body absorb it better.

Here’s why I care enough to make this its own section instead of a footnote:

DHA is one of the only nutrients in my whole routine where I can actually feel a difference from taking it.

Most of what a prenatal is doing is quiet, invisible work that compounds over months. But DHA is different. When I’m consistent with it, I feel like I have access to my whole brain. Skip it for a few days, and it’s like watching a loading icon get stuck at 53%.

So if you’re choosing Needed’s gummy specifically, know that DHA isn’t part of the formula, and if it’s a nutrient you want covered, plan to add their Omega-3 to your cart as well. 

If you’re worried about the smell or taste, fear not! It doesn’t smell like anything, and there are 0 fish burps. I’ve taken way too many different brands that I get fish burps from and there’s absolutely no way in hell I’m doing that to myself during pregnancy. 

Winner: Needed

[Shop Needed’s New Gummy Prenatal — use code HARDLAUNCHMOM for the best price →]

Let’s talk about the sugar in Prenatal Gummies

This is the elephant in the room, because it’s one of the first things I look at, and if you’re reading this, I assume you do too. So, “shouldn’t a “clean” prenatal be sugar-free?”

Here’s the answer (and I feel like I should now have a certification in gummy manufacturing with the amount of research I’ve done here). 

First, more nutrients require more gummy, and more gummy means a bit more sugar. This is smart people, chemistry stuff. Do I love that prenatal gummies have sugar in them? No. But would I trade off higher nutritional density to support my growing baby for a little extra sugar? That’s an emphatic yes from me. A little more sugar. A lot more nutrition. I can live with that trade.

The second option is to go sugar-free, but this doesn’t automatically mean healthier. It usually means the sugar may get swapped for a sugar alcohol (erythritol, maltitol, sorbitol) or an artificial sweetener. Both come with their own tradeoffs, and I’m not going to get into the details here on that one, just know that some sugar-free options can wreak havoc on your gut, and when you’re stomach is already pissed off at everything (except for maybe cereal), the fake sugar might aggravate it more.

	Needed	Olly	SmartyPants	Nature Made
Total Sugar	7g	4g	4g	5g
Sugar Source	Organic cane sugar	Glucose syrup	Organic cane sugar	Glucose Syrup
Artificial Sweeteners	None	None	None	None
Sugar Alcohols	None	None	None	None
Natural Flavors Explained on Label	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Winner: Needed

Needed’s gummy has 7 grams of sugar, all from organic cane sugar, no sugar alcohols, and no artificial sweeteners. It’s higher in sugar than the rest, and I’m not going to pretend that’s nothing, but nutrient density is the whole reason I keep coming back to this brand, so let’s zoom out for a second.

Here’s what’s actually in the ingredient list: organic sugar, organic tapioca syrup, water, pectin, citric acid, natural flavors, sodium citrate, and colors from organic annatto extract and organic black carrot juice concentrate. That’s it. No synthetic dyes, no synthetic food coloring, no high fructose corn syrup, no gelatin, no seed oils.

I’ll admit, I went into this assuming ‘natural flavors’ would be another vague catch-all, the way it often is on other supplement labels. But digging into all four bottles, that’s not actually the case here: each brand spells out its flavor blend right on the label, Needed’s Orange Pineapple Passionfruit and Strawberry Banana, Olly’s raspberry and sweet citrus, SmartyPants’ orange lemon, Nature Made’s mixed berry. So this one’s a wash. Everyone’s being straight with you here.

So, is more sugar automatically fine just because it’s “natural”? No. Moderation still matters, and if you’re watching total sugar intake for a medical reason, that’s a conversation to have with your provider, not something to decide off a blog post (even this one). But between clean ingredients I can actually read and understand, and a gummy that’s vague about what’s really inside its flavoring, I know which one I’d rather be (and have been) putting in my body during pregnancy.

What do these prenatal gummies taste like?

Liking a specific taste can be tricky and subjective, especially when you’re pregnant and aversions to smells/tastes can be extreme and unpredictable.

I tested all 4 of these back to back (while pregnant, to ensure I was giving all of us pregnant women a fair opinion), and here’s how I can best describe each one::

Needed: Really easy to bite through and chew with a little bit of sourness and tartness to it. They did a genuinely good job balancing the flavors; it tastes more like a sour candy treat, think sour patch kids or a sour gummy worm, without the sourness being over the top. The Strawberry-Banana and Orange-Passionfruit-Pineapple lean more “real fruit” than “candy aisle,” which tracks with the less-sweet profile. What stood out most: no chemically or vitamin-y taste at all, something I can’t say about the other three. This one, without question, is my favorite of the four.

Olly: The texture is super dense and hard to chew. You need to chew this gummy a LOT, so if you’re trying to take your prenatal quickly, this probably isn’t it. The taste itself is fine. It does a pretty good job of masking any vitamin flavors. Like some of the others, there’s no sourness to it, it’s just sweet. I like the citrus flavor the best out of the options, but the chewing is a hard pass for me. This is my second favorite tasting one. 

Nature’s Made: This one is also dense and hard to chew. It tastes a little chalky to me, which tends to happen when a brand tries to cram a lot of nutrients into one gummy, and there’s a faint chemical-like taste too. The sweetness is fairly mild, maybe the least sweet of the four, but there’s no sourness to balance it out. Third favorite for me.

Smarty Pants: The only one of the four without a sugar coating. No sour notes here either, and oddly, it tasted a little fishy to me. The flavors don’t feel especially well blended, there’s a lot going on, but not much of it working together, and it doesn’t mask the vitamin taste the way the others do. Not overly sweet, but out of all four, this was my least favorite.

Winner: In my subjective opinion, Needed wins, but everyone is going to have a different palate. 

Price Point:

At a glance: nutrients, daily cost, serving size

	Needed	Olly	Smarty Pants	Nature Made
Total Nutrients	17 nutrients	11 nutrients	16 nutrients	14 nutrients
Total Gummies	3	2	3	2
Cost	$1.33-1.50/day	$0.47/day	$1.17/day	$0.69/day

Cost breakdown: one-time vs. subscription vs. subscription + code

Needed: $42.99 for a one-time purchase, or $38.69/mo if you subscribe to a 30-day supply (10% off). And true to “buy more, save more,” the discount increases the further out you subscribe: a 90-day supply drops the price to about $36.54/mo (15% off), and a 180-day supply gets you to roughly $34.39/mo, the biggest built-in discount they offer at 20% off.
Stack my code, HARDLAUNCHMOM, on top of that, and your first order could be as low as $27.51/mo.
Olly: $13.99 one-time, or $11.89/mo if you subscribe (15% off).
SmartyPants: $34.99 one-time, plus $6.99 shipping unless you subscribe, or $31.50/mo when you subscribe (10% off, with free shipping).
Nature Made: $20.59 one-time, or $18.53/mo when you subscribe (10% off, with free shipping).

Needed isn’t the “most affordable” gummy here, Olly and Nature Made both undercut it on raw price. But cost per serving only tells half the story. If a $0.47/day gummy is giving you 11 nutrients, several under the RDA, and a $1.33/day gummy is giving you 17 nutrients dosed at levels meant to actually make a difference, you’re not comparing the same purchase. You’re comparing two different categories of product that happen to share a shelf.

Is Needed worth the higher price?

Needed’s Prenatal Gummy delivers roughly 8x more nutrition than Olly, 5x more than SmartyPants, and 6x more than Nature Made†.

So, is it worth paying more? Honestly, yes. Needed isn’t the cheapest gummy here, and it’s clearly not trying to be. It’s the only one of the four that’s actually nutritionally dense, rather than just checking the box that says “has vitamins in it”, so you’re paying for meaningfully more nutrition per serving.

Winner: If looking for the cheapest option, Olly. But, if you want the most comprehensive and nutrient dense gummy, Needed wins

My personal verdict – And what I’d recommend to you if you were my bestie

If nutrient density is your priority and you can tolerate the higher price point, Needed’s Prenatal Multi Gummy is the best prenatal gummy on the market, full stop. It delivers the most nutrients in forms your body can best absorb, like methylfolate instead of folic acid, and in higher doses. It’s simply doing more than the other three. 

And if you’re capsule-averse specifically because of first-trimester nausea, the case gets even stronger. The lower sweetness plus the higher dose of Vitamin B6 makes this the gummy I’d reach for during exactly the weeks you need real support most, not just something easy to swallow.

This isn’t the first time I’ve landed on Needed after putting them up against the competition. I’ve done the same deep dive comparing their capsule prenatal against Ritual and Perelel and Needed keeps coming out ahead for the same reason every time: they formulate to clinically studied doses instead of the bare minimum, across every format they make.

It’s also not just me saying so. Needed is recommended by over 20,000 women’s health practitioners, runs 2,000+ quality checks per every product batch, and conducted their own IRB-approved clinical study of 235 pregnant women, showing women taking Needed’s prenatal had higher blood nutrient levels than women taking standard prenatals. That’s the kind of receipts I want behind a supplement I’m taking for my baby.

[Shop The New Gummy Prenatal — use code HARDLAUNCHMOM for the best price →]

Disclosure: This is a review blog which may get compensated for the products reviewed by the companies who produce them. Some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I may receive a commission if you make a purchase through them, at no extra cost to you. All of the products are tested thoroughly and I only endorse products I believe in. Your support through these links helps me continue creating content for Hard Launch Mom.

Disclaimers
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

†Based on a comparison of each brand’s labeled daily serving amounts of vitamins and minerals relative to the pregnancy Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs), calculated as an average across those nutrients. As of May 2026.