Our Story

Kratom.org is a (free) public resource for all things kratom.

All our articles are based on real-life user experience and backed by scientific evidence.

We’re not here to make kratom seem like something it’s not. We’re dedicated to providing accurate information so you can use kratom safely and get the most out of this useful herb’s numerous health benefits.

Written by Wade Paul
Last Updated 1 year ago

Wade Paul

Founder & Editor-In-Chief

Wade Paul is the founder and editor-in-chief at Kratom.org.

We’ve broken our database into four categories:

1. User-Guides

Our kratom guides are designed to offer topic-specific information on the many facets of the kratom plant. This includes information on the health benefits, modern & traditional uses, safety & side effects, and much more.

2. Strain Reviews

There are many different types of kratom, each one with a different set of effects. Our strain reviews aim to demystify the plant and help you discover the ideal strain to match your unique situation.

3. Local Guides

Kratom can be controversial, meaning that some parts of the world are more receptive to the plant than others. These guides serve as a resource to help you understand the legal status and availability of kratom near you.

4. Vendor Reviews

It matters where you buy your kratom. Not all vendors play by the rules. Our kratom vendor reviews offer an unbiased look at the many different sources of kratom on the internet and break down how they compare with others in the industry.

Learn about our kratom vendor review process.

If this is your first time trying kratom, start here.

Editorial Integrity

Kratom.org is committed to creating informationally-dense user guides exploring the safe and responsible use of the kratom plant.

Our goal is to become the ultimate authority on kratom for health, personal growth, and harm reduction. To this end, we maintain nothing but the highest standards of accuracy, transparency, and authenticity possible.

All our articles are based on real-life experiences and scientific research reviewed by experts in the field.

We remain open to criticism and complaints that warrant correction and would love to hear from our readers regarding suggestions for further clarification on existing topics.

Feel free to reach out with any concerns to feedback@kratom.org.

Meet The Experts

We’re a collective of passionate kratom users from all walks of life. We’re students, teachers, doctors, scientists, explorers, & parents. What we all share in common is our love and respect for this useful plant.

Whether it’s for improving focus and concentration at university, managing chronic pain, curbing anxiety, or simply enjoying the social benefits of kratom — we’ve all found a lot of value in using kratom.

Medical Review Board

Dr. Devin Carlson

(Neurologist & Medical Reviewer)

Dr. Carlson is a retired neurologist and current head of the medical review team at Kratom.org.

Editorial Team

Wade Paul

(Founder & Editor in Chief)

Wade is the visionary behind Kratom.org. He’s dedicated to educating the masses about this incredibly useful herb.

Kratom Vendor Review Board

Kratom.org created a team of kratom reviewers back in 2019 with the goal of providing honest and informative reviews for different kratom products and vendors.

Our review team consists of 3 core members (plus Wade) who were carefully selected to provide as much balance and fairness to the review process as possible. The team meets every 2-weeks to discuss the current products under review to maintain as much integrity and consistency in the review process as possible.

Nigel Everdidge

(Medical Herbalist)

Nigel is a clinical herbalist and avid kratom user.

Marcel Deer

(Natural Health Journalist)

Marcel covers a wide range of topics in the field of natural health for Kratom.org. He joined the vendor review board in 2022.

Elang Manik

(Ex-Kratom Farm-Hand)

Elang spent three yers working on a kratom farm near his hometown of Sibolga. He’s currently living in San Diego, California, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in horticulture.

Other Contributors to Kratom.org

The Kratom.org family continues to grow every year. We aim to provide as much clarity to the world of kratom as possible — featuring voices from all walks of life.

Some of our top contributors include:

Audrey Webber

(Anthropologist)

Audrey is our boots-on-the-ground in Indonesia and cultural anthropology expert.

Johan Hansen

(Natural Health Journalist)

Johan previously owned a small kratom shop in downtown Chicago. He’s currently traveling through Southeast Asia.

Francis Coller

(Natural Health Journalist)

Francis is a blossoming health writer working to dismantle the many myths and misinformation surrounding the kratom plant.

Write For Us!

Email a pitch and information about your background and why you’d like to write for us to hi@kratom.org

(Sponsored Posts Not Accepted)

Kratom Is For The People

Like any medicinal herb, kratom comes with its fair share of cautions.

The powerful opiate-like action of kratom has many people skeptical about using the plant. Some worry the effects of kratom are too similar to prescription pain medications — which we all know by now are highly addictive.

There are two schools of thought when it comes to using kratom for managing chronic pain:

The first camp focuses on the fact that kratom targets opiate receptors. Since we know opiate drugs are addictive, kratom must be super addictive too, right? Yes, but it’s not quite this simple.

The other idea is that since kratom does the same job as prescription pain meds, but in a milder, more natural form — it’s ironically less likely for people using the plant to develop an addiction because they’re able to curb their pain with kratom instead of those nasty pain medications.

The truth is somewhere in the middle.

We recognize the potential for problems with kratom abuse but also recognize the incredible benefits this plant has to offer when used responsibly. By understanding this plant better, we’re able to leverage its benefits while keeping risk to a minimum.

Kratom is a plant for the people. We see it as an antidote for the modern era of drug addiction, depression, and chronic anxiety.

Kratom.Org Review Process

We’ve ordered and tested products from virtually every kratom vendor we can find.

We know what good kratom looks like, and we know what it feels like to get ripped off or scammed.

Our review process is based on a combination of quantifiable metrics (like price, product selection, etc,) and qualitative interpretation (value, customer service responses, etc.).

Our lead reviewer, Wade Paul, and the rest of the review board (Audrey, Nigel, Nicolas, and Marcel) have literally tried hundreds of kratom vendors at this point and continue to order products (at cost) month after month.

All products are tested by our review team individually who then come to a consensus on the final rating for each category.

Our reviews are a work in progress — we reserve the right to make alterations if something changes, for better or worse.

This industry is not static. Just because one experience with a vendor was positive (or negative) doesn’t mean it’s always going to stay this way. We continually test, listen to feedback from our readers, and update the reviews based on the most up-to-date information available.

We grade each vendor on 4 key metrics to determine the final score:

1. Value

First and foremost, we seek to determine value. If we pay a premium for kratom powder we expect it to be very high quality (potent, fresh, aromatic).

We base the value of kratom on the price it’s listed — this means we don’t hold budget kratom to the same standard as premium kratom. We believe you get what you pay for.

Any vendor that offers kratom that matches the price point gets 4 points. Vendors that go beyond this and provide kratom that’s objectively higher quality than the price point suggests gets a 5.

When we feel we’ve been ripped off by overpaying, we’ll give them either a 2 or 3, depending on how bad it is.

We reserve 1 star here for vendors that turned out to be scams.

2. Customer Service

Customer service refers to the overall experience both before and after ordering from them.

We include the following metrics in the customer service analysis:

  • User experience — was the website easy to use, and were the product details offered accurately and in full?
  • Payment gateway — was the checkout process smooth, or was it buggy or broken?
  • Customer service responses — we always send an email to customer service to test their response rate and ability to answer our questions.
  • Return policy — Part of our email includes a request for a return to see how it’s handled.

We combine all of this information to determine an overall score based on our past experience with hundreds of kratom vendors. We know what good customer service and feels like, and what red flags to watch out for.

3. Product Selection

It’s more important to us that the products we’re ordering have good value, but we include a rating for the overall selection too. We find this is one area in particular that really differentiates a good kratom vendor from a great kratom vendor.

The kratom experience is unique in that it can be highly customized depending on which strains you decide to order. We give a boost to companies that offer a wide range of kratom strains, capsules, extracts, and related herbs or products.

We give full points for kratom vendors with more than 20 strains, and at least one green, one red, and one white vein capsule option. The vendor also needs to maintain most strains in stock — we’ve found some companies will list many different strains, but will only have a small handful of them actually in stock.

Any company that covers less than 20 strains, but offers at least one option for green, red, and white vein kratom gets 4 stars.

Companies that only offer one product, or one type of kratom get three stars.

Scams get 1 star.

4. Sustainability

As a plant, kratom can either have a positive impact on the environment (ethical and sustainable growing practices), or cause further damage and destruction (clearcut mono farming).

This metric is very hard to police, but it’s part of our customer service testing email to ask each vendor to verify the source of their kratom. There are markets in Southeast Asia that only service sustainably farmed kratom, and a lot of local farms use traditional (sustainable) farming practices.

If the vendor can offer reasonable proof their kratom comes from farms that use sustainable farming practices, we give them 5 stars here.

If the vendor states that their kratom is ethically sourced but can’t prove it get 3 stars. We reserve the right to reduce this rating if we find out they weren’t truthful with us.

Vendors that don’t respond to this question, or those that we have determined are ordering from unethical or unsustainable markets or sources get 1 star.

Kratom.org Affiliate Disclosure

All reviews on Kratom.org are done independently. We DO NOT recommend any brands we don’t truly stand behind.

We may receive a kickback on products ordered after clicking our links.

This kick-back helps pay for the many hours it takes to create each of our in-depth guides and allows us to continue placing orders from kratom vendors to conduct and update our reviews.