Cleonse vs Ultima Replenisher: Sugar-Free Stevia vs Real Cane Sugar

By Sebastian Madlangbayan, founder of Cleonse: the world's cleanest 3-ingredient organic electrolyte.

Cleonse and Ultima Replenisher solve hydration differently. Cleonse gives you 500mg of sodium from French grey sea salt with real organic cane sugar and just three ingredients. Ultima is zero-sugar, stevia-sweetened, and packs more potassium and magnesium. Choose Cleonse for sweat-driven sodium and clean fuel; Ultima for a sugar-free daily sipper.

I make one of these products, so read this with that in mind. But my whole brand is built on being honest about labels, including where a competitor beats me. Ultima Replenisher is a genuinely clean product by the standards of the category, and if you compare it to something like Gatorade or Prime, it looks great. So this isn't a hit piece. It's an honest side-by-side so you can pick the one that actually fits how you train and live.

What's actually in each one

Let's start with the labels, because that's where every comparison should start. Here's a stick of Cleonse next to a serving of Ultima Replenisher.

Cleonse is three ingredients: organic lemon or strawberry powder, organic cane sugar, and French grey sea salt. That's the whole list. The 85+ trace minerals people mention come from the unrefined sea salt, and they're present in trace amounts — I'm never going to tell you a stick delivers a meaningful dose of magnesium, because it doesn't.

Ultima's list is longer but still clean by category standards: citric acid, magnesium citrate, potassium phosphate and aspartate, salt, several calcium salts, stevia extract, zinc citrate, manganese citrate, plus natural flavors and, in some flavors, real fruit and vegetable concentrates for color. No artificial dyes, no sucralose. That matters, and I'll give them credit for it.

The sodium difference, and why it's the whole ballgame

Here's the number that separates these two products more than any other: sodium. Cleonse has 500mg per stick. Ultima has 55mg per serving. That's roughly nine times more sodium in Cleonse.

Sodium is the electrolyte you lose the most of when you sweat, by a wide margin. Most people lose somewhere around 800 to 1,000mg of sodium per liter of sweat, and salty sweaters lose far more. When you're training hard, playing a long tennis match in the heat, or working outside all day, sodium is what you actually need to replace to support hydration. Potassium and magnesium losses in sweat are real but much smaller.

So if your reason for reaching for an electrolyte is sweat — real, dripping sweat — 55mg of sodium is not going to move the needle much. That's not an Ultima flaw so much as a design choice: Ultima is built as a low-sodium, mineral-balanced daily drink, not a heavy sweat-replacement product. Cleonse is built for the opposite job. To learn more about how I think about clean formulation, I wrote a full breakdown of what actually makes an electrolyte "clean".

Where Ultima genuinely wins

I promised honesty, so here it is. Ultima beats Cleonse in a few real ways, and if these are your priorities, Ultima may be the better pick.

First, potassium and magnesium. Ultima delivers 250mg of potassium and 100mg of magnesium per serving. Cleonse doesn't add either — what's in a stick comes only from the trace minerals in the sea salt. If you specifically want a drink that contributes meaningful potassium and magnesium, Ultima does that and Cleonse doesn't. That's a straightforward, honest concession.

Second, zero sugar and zero calories. If you're someone who wants electrolytes with no carbohydrates at all — say you're managing blood sugar, eating keto, or just don't want the calories — Ultima fits and Cleonse doesn't. Cleonse has 24g of cane sugar and 100 calories per stick on purpose, but "on purpose" doesn't help you if you can't have the sugar.

Third, the added micronutrients. Ultima includes vitamin C, zinc, and a few other minerals. Cleonse is deliberately minimal and adds none of that.

Sugar: stevia vs real cane sugar

This is the philosophical fork in the road. Ultima uses organic stevia leaf extract to stay sweet at zero calories. Cleonse uses organic cane sugar and nothing else.

I went with cane sugar for two reasons. One, a lot of people (me included) don't love the aftertaste of stevia, and it's the single most common complaint I hear about "clean" electrolytes. If you've ever tried a stevia drink and found it slightly bitter or lingering, that's why. Cleonse tastes like actual lemonade or strawberry because it's sweetened like actual lemonade.

Two, the sugar isn't just for flavor — it's fuel. When you're training, a modest amount of real carbohydrate helps your body absorb fluid and gives working muscles something to burn. The 24g in a stick of the Organic Lemonade is intentional: it's there to support a workout, not to spike a resting afternoon.

Ultima's stevia approach is the right call for someone who wants zero sugar. Cleonse's cane-sugar approach is the right call for someone who's using the drink around exercise and wants real ingredients with no sweetener aftertaste. Neither is wrong. They're built for different moments. You can see the full Cleonse breakdown on our facts page.

How the two fit into a real week

Labels only tell you so much. Here's how these two products actually slot into a normal week of training and life, which is where the difference really shows up.

Say you're doing three or four hard sessions a week plus some easy days. On the hard days — the long run, the two-hour tennis session, the outdoor lift in July — you're sweating buckets and burning through sodium. That's a Cleonse day. The 500mg of sodium and the real cane sugar are doing exactly what they're designed to do: replacing what you sweat out and giving your muscles a little fuel. On an easy recovery day or a desk day when you just want something clean to sip that isn't plain water, a low-sodium, zero-sugar option like Ultima makes more sense. There's no rule that says you have to pick one product forever.

A lot of my own customers actually keep both around for exactly this reason, and I think that's completely reasonable. If I were being maximally honest with a friend, I'd say: use the heavy-sodium drink when you sweat hard, and use whatever low-cal daily drink you like on the days you don't. For me that heavy-sodium drink is Cleonse, because I can't stand stevia and I want real ingredients — but I'm not going to pretend a zero-sugar daily sipper is a bad idea.

A quick word on value

Both products are reasonably priced for what they are. Ultima is sold in packets and large canisters and works out to a low per-serving cost, which is part of its appeal as an everyday drink. Cleonse runs $33 for a 10-pack, $66 for a 30-pack, and $110 for a 60-pack as one-time purchases, and subscription pricing brings the 60-pack down to about $1.65 a stick. You're paying a bit more per serving for Cleonse, and that's the honest tradeoff for triple the organic ingredients doing a heavier sodium job. Whether that's worth it depends entirely on what you're using it for.

Who should pick which

Pick Ultima Replenisher if you want a zero-sugar, zero-calorie daily electrolyte with added potassium, magnesium, and vitamin C, you don't mind stevia, and you're not trying to replace heavy sweat losses. It's a clean, sensible daily sipper.

Pick Cleonse if your main need is sodium for real sweat, you want the shortest possible ingredient list, you don't want any stevia or artificial sweetener, and you like the idea of real cane sugar as training fuel. It's built for athletes and anyone who sweats for a living.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cleonse have potassium and magnesium like Ultima?
Not in meaningful added amounts. Cleonse's minerals come from French grey sea salt, so potassium and magnesium are present only in trace amounts. If added potassium and magnesium are your priority, Ultima delivers more of both.

Why does Cleonse have so much more sodium?
Because sodium is the electrolyte you lose most in sweat. Cleonse is designed as a sweat-replacement drink at 500mg per stick, while Ultima is designed as a low-sodium daily mineral drink at 55mg.

Is stevia bad for you?
No, stevia is generally recognized as safe and Ultima uses a clean organic version. The reason Cleonse skips it is taste and philosophy, not safety — some people dislike the aftertaste and prefer real cane sugar.

Can I use Cleonse every day like Ultima?
You can, but they're built for different jobs. Cleonse shines around exercise, heat, and heavy sweat. If you want a very low-calorie all-day sipper, Ultima's format suits that better.

Which one tastes better?
That's personal, but the most common reason people switch to Cleonse is that they don't like stevia aftertaste. Cleonse is sweetened with real cane sugar, so it tastes like lemonade or strawberry rather than a diet drink.

Keep reading

• Electrolytes Without Stevia: Why They're So Hard to Find
• Do Electrolytes Need Sugar?
• How to Read an Electrolyte Label

Editor's note: Ultima Replenisher label figures (55mg sodium, 250mg potassium, 100mg magnesium, 47mg calcium, 1mg zinc, 100mg vitamin C, 0g sugar, 0 calories, organic stevia leaf extract) verified September 2026 via the official Ultima Replenisher product page (ultimareplenisher.com) and cross-checked against retail listings. Cleonse figures reflect the current product label. This article is for general information and is not medical advice.