Creatine’s benefits are great, but the taste isn’t!
If you’re tired of dealing with creatine powders you’re in luck, in this article we’re covering the most popular and effective creatine pills and capsules on the market.
Stick around for a full review of some of the most well-recognized creatine pills, as well as all the information you need to make an informed own purchase.
Contents
Our 7 Best Creatine Pills and Creatine Capsules
This creatine buyer’s guide and review will equip you with the knowledge you need to make the best choice for your body. Read on to learn more about the best creatine supplement on the market.
1. Best Value: Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Capsules
Optimum Nutrition’s brand carries a lot of weight in the supplement market due to their popular whey protein.
The dose on this product, however, is less effective. We’re under the 3g of creatine we’d like to see from a creatine pill, with only 2.5g. You could double up your pills, but you’d run out fast.
This doesn’t even count the fact that a serving is already two pills. This is a bit excessive, since you’d need 3 pills a day to reach optimal doses. We’re not fans of swallowing pills – especially not when higher purity tablets exist on the market.
The cost is about average, at least, so you’re not going to be put out by exorbitant supplement costs. The overall supply should last around 1-2 months, based on serving recommendations, which is pretty good!
This is micronized creatine, which doesn’t make sense since that’s about how easily it dissolves in water. Pills don’t need to dissolve in water and creatine breaks down in the stomach, so there’s not much benefit.
- Less capsules per serving size than other brands
- Good brand reputation
- Micronized, though not a huge benefit
- Good tablet count, lasting 6-8 weeks.
- Single serving is not a sub-optimal dosage
- Micronized creatine isn’t much use as a pill
2. Best Overall: CrazyMuscle Creatine Monohydrate
The dose per serving of the CrazyMuscle Creatine Monohydrate is much better, with a 5-gram creatine content.
However, the serving size here is a staggering 3 pills per day. This is a lot of effort to get your creatine in and really seems deceptive. The container count is also relatively small compared to the number of pills you’ll need, so you’re going to be ordering again soon.
The pricing might be reasonable for each container, but a 30-day supply is more expensive than Optimum Nutrition’s 2-month supply!
This product has a good mixture of creatine formats and good dosage but combines inconvenience and high prices without much justification.
- Effective dosing – the strongest on this list per serving
- Effective forms of creatine for greatest benefits
- Relatively small supply for the number of pills required
- Requires many pills for a single, effective serving
3. Met-RX Creatine 4200
Six capsules are the recommended serving size for the Met-RX Creatine 4200. These numbers are getting more crazy as we go along!
With 4.2g of creatine (4200mg, hence the name), this product provides a staggeringly low per-pill creatine content. This makes it an absolute pain to deal with – especially if you’re not fond of tablets.
With 240 capsules per container – 40 servings – this is a reasonable sizing. However, the sheer volume of pills you’ll need is reason enough to be unsatisfied with this product. The cost is standard, but the effort is clearly enormous.
- Effective dosing
- Decent price for 40 servings
- A whole six pills per serving is ridiculous and inconvenient
- For all these tablets, still a smaller concentration than the CrazyMuscle supplement
4. Cre HD Creatine HCL Capsules
We can’t figure out why the serving size is one capsule for the CRE HD creatine HCL when each pill contains less than a gram of creatine.
To get the effective dose, you’ll need 4 pills. This is a concern since you only get 60 in a container – meaning each container is 15 days’ worth of product.
The cost for this product – when compared to the number and effectiveness of servings – is very poor. It comes out as the most expensive, ineffective product on the list so far, which is impressive when the last product required 6 pills per day!
- None to speak of
- Very expensive per serving – even more per gram of creatine!
- Not many pills per container for the price
- 4 pills per day – an effective, but inconvenient, setup
5. Six Star Elite Creatine
The Six Star Elite Creatine hits the 3g requirement for an effective dose (just) with 3 caplets. The problem here is that a single container is only 20 servings – nowhere near the equivalent of a powder.
The redeeming quality for Six Star is the combination with L-Carnosine, an important muscle-support nutrient. On the other hand, it contains ALA, which is a “hype” ingredient that contributes to overall inflammatory response as an Omega-6.
The secondary ingredients here are mildly positive (albeit not necessary for better performance/results). The problem of cost and convenience is a real problem, however, since you’re not going to get much product for your cash!
- Carnosine supplementation along with Creatine, improving muscle-support
- Effective dosing, though only just!
- Expensive, with only 20 servings per container. This is also far more expensive than competitors per serving
- ALA is an overrated compound and, in most diets, is pro-inflammatory
6. OwnPWR Creatine Pills
These OwnPWR creatine pills are almost the same as the Optimum Nutrition capsules from the start of this list.
2.5g per 2 capsules and a count of 50 servings per container. This means you’re going to experience the same results but with a fraction of the price (roughly 70%).
The suggested intake – 2 capsules 3 times a day – is ridiculous. This would be far above an effective dose but would mean running out of product within a simple 16-17-day period.
Again, the inefficiency of these pills just makes for a difficult valuation. They’re cheap, but you’ll need to order in bulk, or you’ll be empty within a few weeks!
- Cheaper than Optimum Nutrition
- Expensive and inconvenient, with as few as 16-17 days per container
- Relatively inefficient, suggesting a 6-capsule-per-day schedule
7. Kaged Muscle C-HCL Capsules
The Kaged Muscle C-HCL capsules are like the Six Star creatine pills. They provide 0.75 g of creatine per pill, so you’ll need 4 or more to reach an effective dose.
On top of this, the price is almost double what we see with alternatives on this list, and the containers are scant at around 75 capsules. You’ll be out of creatine on day 18 using this product.
Kaged Muscle says, “not all creatine HCL is created equal” and yet their product seems to be struggling to be equal to others on the market. The value and convenience just don’t seem to stack up.
- None to speak of – it works, it’s just not very good compared to others
- Expensive per pill
- Not distinctive – a very generic product
- 18 days’ supply compared to others in the 30-60-day range.
Buyers Guide: What Makes a Good Creatine Pill?
There are only a few things you need to consider when you’re looking at creatine pills.
Fortunately, there aren’t many things to get wrong, but there are still some factors to look out for. The best and worst products on the market are set apart based on a few simple criteria:
- Purity
- Value
- Secondary ingredients
Purity
This is a simple measure of how much of each pill is effective Creatine. You want to get the most creatine for your buck, so it’s an essential factor to consider.
We’ve already discussed different formats – such as Creatine HCL and Monohydrate – but the basic idea is that they share benefits. This means that you can compare doses 1-1, so that’s not a huge concern.
We’re looking for high purity, and a serving that provides 3+ grams of creatine. This is the amount considered effective in most studies and will provide positive effects in the long-term.
Value
If you’re getting supplements that you’ll need to replace, you need good value for money. This is always a trade-off, but you need to weigh the cost and benefits.
The supplement market is unregulated and the amount of hype around certain products means you see huge price differences.
Creatine is inexpensive and very simple. Brands that try and get away with over-charging you for a simple product get marked down for being shady and unscrupulous.
This is a Creatine buyers’ guide – you don’t want to be sold on expensive nonsense! We prioritize the best products at the best prices.
Secondary ingredients
The Creatine pill and capsule supplements tend to be very simple. Some of the best products just hit the fundamentals at a good price.
However, it’s possible to improve this kind of product with secondary ingredients if you know what to use.
Synergistic compounds like beta-alanine or caffeine would be considered, as well as anything else that comes up. We’re not expecting anything dramatic, but if you can get extra benefits without extra costs, that’ll be a plus.
Creatine Pills vs Creatine Powder
The difference here usually comes down to one question: would you rather have more convenience or control?
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Creatine Pills for Convenience and Easy Use
Creatine pills offer much better convenience – you can take them with you on the go, they’re easy to use, and you don’t have to deal with the taste. This adds up to being very useful for the general fitness and strength enthusiast.
Maybe you’re in a rush in the mornings, you don’t want to play around with teaspoons, or you just dislike the taste. If any of those are you, then you probably want to lean towards Creatine pills or capsules.
All the hard work is done for you – pop one in, wash it down, and you’re good to go.
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Creatine Powder for Control and Frontloading
The main benefit to using a Creatine powder is controlling how much you take.
This doesn’t provide a huge advantage, but it is great for anyone who has a very specific amount to take.
You’ll usually be able to frontload better with powder, too. This is when you take a large amount of creatine for a few days at the start of use to kickstart the results.
Frontloading requires around 3-10 the regular daily dose, so you might want to avoid pills (for price and convenience reasons). Otherwise, creatine powder is cheap and widely available.
Best Creatine Supplement: Debunking the Pill Market
The hard part with these products is that they’re relatively weak on the fundamentals. These caplets contain things that they don’t need, while providing less than their equivalent weight in creatine powder.
Servings are numerous when all you need is 3g of creatine powder – which is roughly one teaspoon of creatine. This should be easily achieved with 1-2 capsules, but supplement companies seem to benefit from scrimping on the effective stuff.
Our favorite product from today’s list is CrazyMuscle’s Creatine Capsules. They provide an effective dose of 4.8 grams with a relatively good value. The beauty is that you can cut down from 4 to 3 capsules and still get more than any other product on this list, relatively.
This is a good way to save your money, get the gains, and avoid burning through countless tubs of creatine pills!
