Hovenia vs Cheers: DHM Supplement Comparison for Canadian Buyers

Cheers (formerly Thrive+) is the dominant US DHM supplement brand. They pioneered the category at scale, have the strongest brand recognition, and their Restore formula is the benchmark most buyers know when they start researching DHM. Hovenia takes a deliberately different shape: one ingredient, full dose, nothing else. This comparison lays out the real differences — formula philosophy, dose, and price per equal dose — so you can decide which approach fits how you actually drink.

Disclosure: Hovenia is the brand behind this site. We’ve tried to keep the numbers factual and the framing honest — a different approach, not a better one.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration or Health Canada. Neither product is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your healthcare provider before use.

Quick Comparison

	Hovenia	Cheers Restore
Headline DHM dose	1,000 mg / serving	1,000 mg / serving
Formula	Single ingredient: DHM only	Multi-ingredient blend (DHM + other actives)
Serving size	2 capsules	Varies by product
Other actives	None	L-Cysteine, vitamins, and more (per Cheers)
Capsule	Vegan, vegetable cellulose	Per Cheers
Price per equal dose	~$1.00/serving (USD)	~$2.92/serving (USD)
Availability	Pre-launch, US-first, waitlist	Established, shipping now

The single most important row is the second one. Cheers builds a blend — DHM plus a stack of supporting ingredients. Hovenia is one studied compound at a full dose, and nothing else. That’s the whole difference in a sentence, and the rest of this page is just unpacking what it means for you.

Single Ingredient vs. a Blend: The Honest Difference

This is a difference in philosophy, not a claim that one works better than the other.

Cheers Restore is a multi-ingredient formula. The pitch is that DHM does the headline work and the supporting ingredients round out the experience. Blends are a legitimate, popular approach — most of the recovery category is built this way. A 2025 analysis published in a Sage Journals title found DHM appears in roughly 47.6% of US alcohol-recovery products, almost always as one component of a larger stack. If you like the idea of a single product that covers several bases, a blend is built for exactly that.

Hovenia does the opposite on purpose. It’s dihydromyricetin (DHM) and a vegan capsule — that’s the entire ingredient list. The reasoning is simple: DHM is the compound with the most research behind it in this category, so we give you a full 1,000 mg dose of it and skip the rest. No proprietary blend, no ingredients you didn’t ask for, no guessing how much of the “active” you’re actually getting. One serving is two capsules.

Neither approach is the “right” one. A blend gives you more inputs in a single product; a single ingredient gives you a known quantity and a simpler label. If you’ve used Cheers and liked it, switching to Hovenia means trading the supporting cast for a full, transparent dose of the one ingredient most people came for in the first place. Some people want the full stack; some want exactly one thing done clearly. Pick the philosophy that matches how you think.

For the dose question specifically — why 1,000 mg rather than the ~300 mg many budget products use — see our breakdown of DHM dosage: 300 mg vs 1,000 mg.

Dose: Same Headline Number

On the single ingredient they share, the headline DHM dose is the same: 1,000 mg per serving for both Hovenia and Cheers Restore.

That matters because DHM is the most-studied compound in this category, and dose is the lever that’s easiest to compare apples-to-apples. Research and clinical DHM doses span roughly 300–1,200 mg; many lower-cost products sit near the bottom of that range at ~300 mg. Both Hovenia and Cheers Restore land at the high end at 1,000 mg. So you’re not giving up DHM dose by choosing either — the gap is in everything around the DHM, and in price.

A note on what the dose does and doesn’t mean: a higher number on the label is a factual comparison, not a promise of a bigger effect. The human research on DHM is still preliminary and mostly small or in animal models. We state the dose because it’s a fact you can check; we don’t extend it into an efficacy claim, and you should be skeptical of any brand that does.

Price: Per Equal Dose

The honest way to compare price is per equal dose of the ingredient you’re actually buying — DHM.

Hovenia: $29.99 for 30 servings = ~$1.00 per serving (subscribe-and-save brings it to roughly $0.83). One serving is two capsules at 1,000 mg DHM. A bottle is about 30 nights out.
Cheers Restore: works out to roughly $2.92 per serving at the headline DHM dose, based on listed US pricing.

That’s the same headline DHM dose at roughly a third of the per-serving cost — because you’re paying for one ingredient instead of a blend, with no proprietary stack folded into the price. We’re stating the numbers; we’re not claiming the cheaper one works better. What you trade for the lower price is the supporting ingredients in the blend. If those matter to you, that’s a real reason to choose Cheers; if you mainly wanted the DHM, the math is hard to ignore.

(One caveat: Hovenia is pre-launch and US-first, so the comparison above is at listed pricing, not yet at checkout. More on that below.)

What Cheers Does Better

Being honest about it: Cheers has more of almost everything that comes from being first. More social proof, more reviews, more brand history, and far more content than a pre-launch brand like Hovenia. They built the category’s reputation, and their formula is well-researched — co-founder Shri Kulkarni has a biochemistry background and has publicly engaged with the science. If you want the established name with the deepest review history and a product you can buy today, that’s Cheers.

Hovenia, by contrast, is still pre-launch: US-first, with a waitlist rather than a checkout, and a Canadian NPN application in progress. If you want to buy something this minute, Cheers wins on availability alone. The case for Hovenia is the approach — single ingredient, full dose, lower per-serving cost — not “we’re more established,” because we’re not yet.

Who Should Choose Which

Choose Hovenia if:

You want a single, full-dose ingredient with a transparent label — no proprietary blend
You came to the category mainly for the DHM and don’t need the supporting stack
The lower per-serving cost matters for regular use

Choose Cheers if:

You prefer a multi-ingredient blend that covers several bases in one product
You want the established brand with the deepest review history
You want to buy today (Hovenia is still pre-launch and US-first)

There’s no universally correct pick here — it comes down to whether you want a blend or a single studied compound, and whether availability today outweighs price and simplicity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hovenia just a cheaper version of Cheers? No — it’s a different formula philosophy. Cheers Restore is a multi-ingredient blend; Hovenia is single-ingredient pure DHM at 1,000 mg, with nothing else in the capsule. The DHM dose is the same; what differs is everything around it and the price.

Do Hovenia and Cheers use the same DHM dose? At the headline level, yes — both list 1,000 mg of DHM per serving, which is at the high end of the 300–1,200 mg range seen in research and on the market. Many budget products use closer to 300 mg.

Why is Hovenia cheaper per serving? Because you’re paying for one ingredient instead of a blend. Hovenia runs about $1.00 per serving versus roughly $2.92 for Cheers Restore at the same headline DHM dose. The trade-off is the supporting ingredients a blend includes — that’s a real reason to prefer Cheers if you want them.

Can I switch from Cheers to Hovenia without losing the DHM? On DHM specifically, no — both deliver 1,000 mg per serving. What you’d be giving up is the rest of the Cheers blend, not the DHM dose.

Can I buy Hovenia right now? Not yet. Hovenia is pre-launch and US-first, with a waitlist rather than a checkout, and a Canadian NPN application in progress. Cheers is available to buy today.

What is DHM, and why is it the ingredient both products share? DHM (dihydromyricetin) is a flavonoid from the Hovenia dulcis tree that’s been the most-studied compound in the recovery-supplement category. If you’re new to it, our explainer on what actually causes a hangover gives the background on why the category exists.

→ Best DHM Supplement Canada: Full Comparison → → Hovenia vs No Days Wasted → → Cheers Supplement Review →

Reviewed for accuracy against the cited primary literature. Hovenia is a liver-health supplement company; our product supports healthy liver function and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA or Health Canada.

The brand behind this: Hovenia is single-ingredient pure DHM — 1,000 mg per serving, $1/serving, for the nights you drink. Join the waitlist → · See the product →