Do Pip lancets really mean less pain? We asked 308 customers.
Short answer: in our December 2024 survey, 271 of 308 Pip customers (88%) said Pip lancets caused less pain than lancets they had used before. 265 (86%) said they felt less needle fear. Only 1 person said Pip caused more pain. Below are every question, every answer and how we ran it, so you can judge the numbers yourself.
Why we ran this survey
From Josh Pittman, founder of Pip:
For years I told people our lancets caused no pain at all, because that is what customers kept telling me. Then that claim was challenged, and I had to admit something: I believed it, but I could not prove it. Pain is personal, and "no pain at all" is a promise nobody can keep for every person.
So I stopped guessing and asked. In December 2024 we emailed everyone who had bought from us in the past two years and asked them to compare Pip with the lancets they used before. 308 people answered. These are the results I got, with nothing left out.
The results
| Question | Answer | Customers | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compared with other lancets, how was the pain? | Less pain with Pip | 271 of 308 | 88% |
| Same pain | 36 | ||
| More pain | 1 | ||
| Compared with other lancets, how was your needle fear? | Less needle fear with Pip | 265 of 308 | 86% |
| Same needle fear | 43 | ||
| Compared with other products, how easy is Pip to use? | Easier | 266 of 308 | 86% |
| About the same | 39 | ||
| Harder | 3 | ||
| Is Pip easy to use? | Yes | 294 of 298 who answered | 98% |
| No | 4 |
Pain on a 0 to 10 scale. We also asked people to rate the pain of a Pip lancet from 0 (none) to 10 (worst). Of 306 who answered, 232 picked 0, 1 or 2, and the most common answer was 1. A small group (10 people) picked 10, which we report as it came in.
Which size people use. Of 284 who told us their size, 218 use Mighty Fine (blue, 30G x 1.0mm), 46 use So Fine (purple, 30G x 1.6mm) and 20 use Fine (orange, 28G x 1.8mm).
How we ran it
- Who: Pip customers who had bought from hellopip.com in the past two years. We emailed the survey on December 26, 2024. 305 of the 308 answers came from that email.
- When: answers came in from December 27, 2024 to January 31, 2025.
- How many: 308 people answered. 292 of them had used other lancets before Pip; 16 had not.
- Who wrote it: Josh Pittman, Pip's founder, wrote the questions. Nobody got a discount code, gift card or anything else for answering.
- What it is not: this is a customer survey, not a clinical study. People who buy Pip and open our emails may like Pip more than the average person does. We share it because it is the most honest measure we have of what our customers feel.
What this means for you
If finger pricks are painful or make you nervous, most of the people who switched to Pip say it got easier. Each Pip lancet has a hidden needle that pulls back after use, comes in 3 sizes, and needs no lancing device. Most people start with Mighty Fine, the smallest size.
Shop Pip All-In-One Lancets, or get them with a meter in the Pip Diabetes Starter Kit.
FAQ
Will a Pip lancet cause no pain at all? We do not promise that, because pain is different for everyone. In our survey, 88% of customers said Pip caused less pain than lancets they had used before, and many call it virtually painless.
Which Pip lancet is the gentlest? Smaller and thinner usually feels gentler. Mighty Fine (30G x 1.0mm) is the smallest Pip size and the one most of our customers use. If it does not draw enough blood for you, step up to So Fine.
Will you run the survey again? Yes. We plan to repeat it so these numbers stay current, and we will publish the new results here.
