Specialty highly digestible protein feedstuffs (SPF) and antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) are often added to partially replace regular soybean meal (SBM) in starter phase. However, there is limited comparative data on the effectiveness of these approaches on lifetime growth performance (GP). We conducted two experiments (Exp.) to assess the impact of inclusion of SPF or AGP in the starter on GP through to 49 d of age. Six iso-caloric and -nitrogenous starter (d 0-10) diets were formulated to meet or exceed specifications. Diets were: 1) NC, corn and SBM, 2) PC, NC+ AGP (Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate and Narasin), 3) FSBM, NC+ further processed SBM, 4) SPC, NC+ soy protein concentrate, 5) PM, NC+ pork meal and 6) BSFLM, NC+ black soldier fly larvae meal. Day old Ross x Ross 708 males were placed in 48 cages (6 birds/cage) for Exp. 1 and 48 floor pens (35 birds/pen) in four rooms (block) for Exp. 2. Test diets were fed for 10 days and birds in Exp. 2 transitioned to a common diet. The BW, feed intake (FI) and mortality were monitored for calculation of BWG and FCR. A sample of birds were necropsied on d 10, 28 and 49 in Exp. 2 for visceral organs and breast weight. For statistical analyses, diet was the fixed effect in Exp. 1 whereas diet and block were fixed effects in Exp. 2 and LSmeans were separated using Tukey method. Crude protein in SBM, FSBM, SPC, PM and BSFLM was 48.4, 52.6, 71.6, 57.2 and 54.5% as fed, respectively. Birds fed PC, SPC and BSFLM tended (P= 0.09) to be heavier than NC birds at the end of Exp. 1 (d 10). In Exp. 2, birds fed PC and SPF had higher (P<0.001) starter BWG relative to NC birds. In the overall (d 0-49), birds fed PC had similar (P>0.05) d 49 BW and FI to birds fed SPF but higher (P≤0.02) than for birds fed NC diets. Day 49 BW was 3,759, 3,479, 3,664, 3,649, 3,739, and 3,735 for PC, NC, FSBM, SPC, PM and BSFLM, respectively (P=0.003). The FCR and breast yield was not affected by the diet. On d 10, birds fed SPC and PM had heavier d 10 liver than NC birds whereas birds fed FSBM had heavier proventriculus than PC, SPC, and BSFLM birds (P=0.01).