So someone has probably introduced Juice Plus to you as a great way to lose weight, be healthier and "be your own boss". But you're probably wondering... is Juice Plus a pyramid scheme or a scam?
First of all, I want to congratulate you in taking the time to research more about the company.
Up to 99% of MLM members lose money because most people jump into them blindly.
This honest Juice Plus MLM review, with videos, will explain the true pros and cons of joining the company. That way you can make an informed decision if it is for you or not...
Juice Plus Review
The overview and rankings
Name: Juice Plus+
Founder: Jay Martin in 1993
Type: Health and wellness MLM
Products (Including Pricing): 30 out of 100
Success Stories: 1 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: $50 to join + $35 annual membership
$75 monthly autoship (30 out of 100)
What to look for in a MLM:
Summary: Juice Plus is a health and wellness MLM company.
Distributors can make money by selling the products and recruiting people.
However, the only way to make good money is by building a big "downline" and training them to sell the products. This makes Juice Plus very similar to a pyramid scheme in disguise.
Juice Plus+ products are also very expensive compared to similar multivitamins. There's no research suggesting that their products are better than standard multivitamins either.
Make Time Online Rating: 20 out of 100
Recommended: No
What is Juice Plus?
Juice Plus is a health and wellness Multi-Level-Marketing company that sells a range of vitamins to help everyday people get the nutrition they need.
Juice Plus is a dietary supplement made from juice and vegetables.This supplement is available in powdered capsules or gummy chewable.
This supplement claims to satisfy dietary gaps if you aren’t getting sufficient fruits and vegetables in your diet.
Fruits and vegetables contain essential nutrients that aid in maintaining good health. This food group provides your body with critical components such as antioxidants, fiber, and rice protein.
Just use the calorie deficit calculator by calculator-online.net to find the number of calories in the diet and your specific personal requirement.
Over 30 different fruits and vegetables are included in the fruit and vegetable capsules. Moreover, there are three blends: fruit, vegetable, and berry. According to the company, the products are intended to help fill nutritional gaps.
The brand makes health claims consistent with the FDA’s definition of dietary supplements but does not abide by labeling requirements for supplements.
In addition, the brand uses a multi-level marketing scheme. While legal, they’re often predatory and exaggerate claims about participants’ ability to make a profit.
Juice Plus also sells Tower Garden, a “vertical, aeroponic growing system” that allows you to grow fresh fruits and vegetables easily. This can help you have easier access to healthier foods.
The company states that these products can be combined and taken together to add complete nutrition to your diet.
The company was founded in 1970 by Jay Martin and was originally called the National Safety Associates (NSA) due to selling fire detectors and water purifiers. In 1993, Juice Plus+ was formed to "continue their commitment to health and wellness".
It's also possible for everyday people to sell these products and recruit people into the MLM business to work from home and "be their own boss".
The 5 minute video below explains more about the Juice Plus mission...
So it seems like a pretty decent business, right?
However, you're smart enough to realise this is just a fancy sales video. So you're probably still wondering...
Is Juice Plus a pyramid scheme?
Juice Plus is not a pyramid scheme. It is possible for distributors to make money by selling the products.
However, Juice Plus is similar to a "pyramid scheme in disguise" because it's only really possible to make good money by recruiting people.
Here's what I mean by this...
What is a pyramid scheme?
A company that promises payment to members for recruiting more people into the company rather than selling a service or product.
These are illegal in most countries because it is impossible for everyone to make money inside a pyramid scheme, as you can see in the Wikipedia diagram below...
Most MLMs, like Juice Plus+, do offer legit products.
However, Juice Plus makes it very hard for distributors to earn good money without recruiting more people into the MLM company. This means that Juice Plus acts like a pyramid scheme in disguise.
It is possible to earn money in the company, but realistically you would need to recruit other people who would lose money.
Just see the 5 minute video below to understand this a bit more...
Success is rare with Juice Plus
In truth, success is hard to find inside any MLM company.
Did you know that between 73% and 99% of all MLM representatives lose money?
The 2018 Juice Plus+ income disclosure proves that 93% of distributors earn less than $2,100 a year.
When you take into account how much it costs to use the expensive products and the costs for additional training and marketing it's safe to say that at least 93% of Juice Plus members lost money in 2018.
We'll dig into this in more detail later in the review, but for now let's understand...
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Hey, I'm Mike.
I created a passive income online within a year. I had no marketing skills or online experience when I started.
How does Juice Plus Work?
Juice Plus+ farms fruit and vegetables and puts these into a simple to take supplement.
Juice Plus works like any other MLM business in this world, and it offers people like us a chance to make money from it by marketing its items to others.
By doing this, they conserve millions in advertising their items with paid advertisements. And you can earn a steady income by doing this instead of them. It’s a win, win for both parties.
But the funny thing is that 99.99% of affiliates don’t do this, and they focus on direct marketing and building a downline.
People are decisive in building a downline and letting others sell products for them because this is a more lucrative way to make money.
They manage to save a lot of monthly expenses on marketing or advertising by getting everyday people to help sell the products. In return, these distributors can earn a commission for anything they sell.
So let's look into the...
Juice Plus products
There are a range of products on offer at Juice Plus+. They typically fall under one of the following categories:
- Nutrition bars ($35 a month)
- Drink mix ($35 a month)
- Chewables ($12.75- $76.50 a month)
- Capsules ($25-$75 a month)
So what makes Juice Plus stand out?
They claim it's their "flagship" capsules and you can see how they are made in the 2 minute video below...
Juice Plus Capsules- flagship product
There are 3 different capsules offered at Juice Plus:
- Fruit blend
- Vegetable blend
- Berry blend
They claim that taking these 3 capsules complement each other perfectly for a balanced diet. Here are some of the potential benefits of taking these capsules:
- Increased nutritional intake
- Better heart health
- Reduced stress
- Improved immune system
- Better skin care and dental health
However, it's important to be aware that this is NOT better than actually eating real fruits and vegetables. And there are plenty of other multivitamins that have the same benefits.
Healthline summarises Juice Plus+ perfectly...
But note that there are many other similar MLMs that offer the same supplements. Here are some of the most renowned MLMs:
Can you make money with Juice Plus?
It's very hard to make good money from Juice Plus.
Yes it's possible to cover the cost of your own Juice Plus purchases by selling the products to other people.
However, the few people that do make more than $12k a year focus heavily on recruiting people act more like a "sales manager" encouraging their downline to make more sales.
How to make money with Juice Plus
Like most MLMs, there are 2 ways you can make money from Juice Plus+:
- Sell the products for a commission
- Recruit people and earn bonuses from anything they buy or sell on
It's important to note that you would not get paid directly for recruiting people. This is how Juice Plus and other similar MLMs avoid being shut down for being a pyramid scheme by the FTC.
But having a "sales team" below you can mean that you can make money from their efforts and it becomes more like residual income. This is why the most successful people inside Juice Plus recruit a lot of people.
How much does it cost to join Juice Plus?
It costs $50 to join and a $35 annual renewal fee.
However the costs do not stop there...
Juice Plus monthly cost
There is no "sales quota" to hit each month to "remain active" as a distributor, which is a good sign that Juice Plus is not a scam.
However, you will be encouraged to actually use the products yourself. After all, how can you realistically expect people to buy from you if you don't even know what the products are like?
And there is a monthly cost for all of the products...
The lowest you could spend is $17.50 a month for the chewables (unless you go for the kids ones!)
But realistically if you want to actually get the benefits available from the vitamins you would need to spend $75 a month on the capsules.
That means your costs for year 1 would be:
- $35
- $50
- $75 x 12
Total expenses for 1 year = $985
And this is before you account for any marketing expenses such as a your own website, packaging or additional training.
Juice Plus compensation plan
Most MLMs like to make their compensation plan harder to understand than a drunk Irishman on St. Paddy's day!
Juice Plus is no different, so I will keep this simple.
There are 3 ways you can get paid:
- Retail sales profit (around 14% commission)
- Commission (6-22% of your teams "PVC")
- Bonuses (team building bonuses for recruiting others, see table below)
Now, if you're looking at that diagram and wondering what it all means, do not worry!
There are often weird acronyms and crazy tables like the one above in MLMs. The reason is because they want to keep you a bit confused and make it seem like there are multiple ways to earn money.
In reality there are only 2 things you actually need to do:
- Sell Juice Plus+ products
- Recruit people into the MLM
If you want to get your head around it a bit more then watch the 9 minute compensation plan video below...
Is Juice Plus a scam?
Technically, Juice Plus+ is not a scam.
They offer legit products and will pay distributors exactly like they claim they will.
However, due to some of the hidden truths that you are about to find out, some distributors get annoyed at the company and often call Juice Plus+ an outright pyramid scheme or a scam.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I am not a distributor myself and I do not endorse Juice Plus+ in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes.
Tired of MLMs? Check out how I make money online here!
What I like about Juice Plus
There are a few things that I do like about Juice Plus and think it makes it stand out compared to some other MLMs out there...
Key Terms:
- Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
- Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
- Red Flag - A warning sign
#1 Proven company
Juice Plus has been around since 1993.
Did you know that only 1 in 3 MLMs survive past 10 years? It shows that Juice Plus is not a scam as it hasn't been shut down by the FTC.
#2 Positive product reviews
You can find reviews about the products all over the internet. One place is TrustPilot which shows what people think about the company and the products...
It's important to be aware that some of the 5 star reviews may be distributors and some of the 1 stars may be ex-distributors who are annoyed about the business rather than the products.
But here are some of the most common positive reviews:
- Good tasting gummies
- Lost weight
- Mental and physical improvements
- Clean products and loads of good vitamins
#3 Proven research... but
So you may have noticed earlier that the sales video mentioned there have been dozens of studies proving the benefits of Juice Plus...
However, other studies have proved that specific MLM companies often fund out their own research projects. So the results should be interpreted with skepticism.
I don't doubt there are some good benefits of the products at Juice Plus, it's just important to be aware that they are not necessarily better than other multivitamins.
This leads nicely onto...
What I don't like about Juice Plus
There are some hidden truths about Juice Plus, which I think are important to be aware of before diving in...
#1 Expensive products & complaints
If a MLM has overpriced products, it's a huge red flag that the company operates as a pyramid scheme in disguise.
Just think about it, why would anyone choose to buy something that is over double the price of an alternative?
- Juice plus multivitamin = $75 a month
- Highly rated Amazon multivitamins = $3.56 a month
Juice Plus is more than 200 times more expensive than other highly rated multivitamins out there!
Now, I can almost hear your mind thinking... well surely Juice Plus has better nutritional value?
That's what I thought, so I checked it out...
You can see that this Amazon Multivitamin actually has more nutritional value that Juice Plus!
It contains every nutrient that Juice Plus does. Plus, there's higher Folate and Vitamin E levels and a wide range of additional nutrients not included in Juice Plus like B12, Vitamin D etc.
If you don't want to take my word for it, then check out what others are saying about it...
Some of the most common complaints online were:
- Overpriced products
- Poor customer support
- Pyramid scheme type structure
- Too pushy from distributors
#2 Hidden monthly expenses
There are also some sneaky hidden monthly expenses, which has causes many complaints online...
Anyone that orders a product automatically joins the monthly "autoship".
So some people think they may be buying supplements for a one off $75, however they are actually signing up to a continuing monthly subscription!
#3 Juice Plus acts like a pyramid scheme in disguise
New distributors are instantly advised to recruit someone else into the company. The advice is that if they do not, then they will have to keep paying for their own products themselves.
When you are required to recruit other people to cover your costs, that is a pyramid scheme in disguise! It will end up looking like this...
The vast majority will lose money inside a company structure like Juice Plus.
Yet, it will be your job to convince others that they could make money. Otherwise you will be the one losing out on money!
If you don't believe me then check out this...
#4 Only 1 in 167 earn over $12k a year
The Australian/ New Zealand 2018 income disclosure shows the truth...
0.6% of all distributors earnt over $11,619 on average for the year.
That is only 1 out of 167 distributors!
Can you and your family really live off $11,619 per year?
It's hardly an exciting "work from home opportunity" is it?
#5 Downward trend
The final nail in the coffin for Juice Plus is found on Google Trends...
Fewer people have been searching for Juice Plus each month since 2018.
It's much easier to sell something that more and more people are looking for. You can see from other MLMs such as Farmasi that Juice Plus is going the wrong way!
Ready to make passive income online?
I've created a growing passive income online with no previous marketing skills or online experience...
I've made a special video for you to explain exactly how I did this.
My opinion - Juice Plus MLM
I do believe that Juice Plus makes some decent products. However, I do also think that you can get the same benefits from a multivitamin that costs 200 times less!
But what do I think are your chances of "being your own boss" from the Juice Plus MLM?...
The only way you can make good money from this company is by recruiting a lot of people into the business. And you need to do that knowing that 93% of them will lose money.
That's not my idea of an ethical business model!...
How I make passive income online
MLMs are not all scams or illegal. However, I'm not a fan of them because of the restrictions to the expensive products you have to promote.
Once I learnt about affiliate marketing, I realised it's a far superior business model because:
- You can promote anything you want and truly own the business
- You never need to sell to friends and family
- It's completely free to start
In 2018 I had no idea what affiliate marketing was.
But I went from a full time PE teacher to making a passive income online within one year...
If you want to discover how I did it then check out this special video I created which explains exactly how. You can also get your free 7-day bootcamp to get started.
First of all thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful article with us. Your article is really informative and I gained a lot of knowledge by reading your article which is very helpful to me .I’ve been working in the online world for a long time, and I’ve done a lot of research on the Juice Plus Health and Wellness MLM company, and it doesn’t feel right to me. Although this is not a scam, I personally am affiliate marketing through the Wealthy Affiliate website and I am a successful affiliate marketer. It provided me with an advanced business model .The Wealthy Affiliate website has provided me with a lot of tutorial videos for learning affiliate marketing. As well as providing many tools to take my website to a good level and I have succeeded in my business .Thank you for your wonderful advice .
I will definitely pass your article on to my friends and they will certainly share their new experiences with you. Can I share your article on my social media?
No problem Shanta, yes feel free to share this with anyone that you think it may help.
No surprises that the products are expensive, as they are with all these network marketing companies, as they have a lot of people in the funnel to pay. This fact unfortunately makes it more difficult to sell them, not to mention that the product is also a really competitive one.
I prefer the idea of being able to sell whatever I like with no fees attached and no downline to worry about. That is why long term I think affiliate marketing is the way to go. What are your thoughts on this method?
Hey Michel, yes there are many MLM companies with overpriced products. It’s one of the signs that often shows the company is more focused on recruiting rather than selling!
Many thanks to you for sharing such a wonderful and truthful article with us. The main content of this article is whether the juice plus pyramid scheme is. No, Juice Plus is NOT a scam, nor is it a pyramid scheme. Product-wise, taking Juice Plus supplements which contain fruits & vegetable extracts will definitely increase your vitamin and mineral intake. The detailed discussion you have discussed Juice Plus in your article is truly remarkable.
I’ve been adopting juice plus products for years. I’ve been using the Nutrition Bar product for two years. I’ve been feeling pretty good since using this product.People who suffer from nutritional problems can use this product.
Finally, I will say that you have gained a lot of knowledge through the detailed discussion about juice Plus and I would like to share it in my Facebook group so that everyone can know about this product or company.
I’m glad it could help Ashraful. Whilst it is not a pyramid scheme or scam it’s certainly not the best opportunity for most people. There are signs that Juice Plus is more like a pyramid scheme in disguise too due to the pressure to recruit people to actually make decent money from the opportunity. It’s just important to be aware if you are considering joining.
Dear Mike,
As you know very well the health and wellness market is crowded and there are many companies that under-delivers with low-quality. So it’s always advisable to do our research before making our purchase decision and your review is saving us time and trouble.
It’s great to know that Juice Plus is in the market for a while but the cons outweigh the pros. I see several red flags and I always notice most of the MLM products are quite expensive.
Yes, I do agree with you success is very rare with the MLM business model and only a few succeed. Juice Plus is not on my list.
I totally agree Paul, thanks for adding your thoughts
Hi, it is a great and nice feeling to know that someone will create a great website like this and also create a write up on an article like this. It is my first time of hearing about this platform juice plus so I am just learning Bout their process from this review. It also requires work to be done. Thank you for the info
No problem Benny, thanks for stopping by
Hello Mike,
I see a lot of this type of program online. It is very difficult to decipher whether they are legit or just another scam. I have tried a few programs myself. that claim you do not have to invest money to start. Only to find that shortly into the program, they expect you to pay a large fee for the opportunity to make money. What they mean is it is an opportunity for them to make money. Get rich quick schemes are everywhere online and it is refreshing to have articles like this one to point out what is believable or not. Thank you for your information and insight about Juice Plus. This is one program that I will not have to waste my time on.
Cheers,
Wendy
Sorry to hear that Wendy, I hope this can help others be more informed about what they are getting into. Thanks for your kind words
Thanks, Mike, very helpful! 🙂
You’re welcome!