What is the best form of creatine?

This is one of the least controversial questions in supplements: the best form of creatine is monohydrate, and the fancier forms are a waste of money.

Attia is the most direct. He calls creatine monohydrate "the gold standard" for strength, hypertrophy, and potential cognitive benefits, and states that the more expensive alternative forms offer no additional efficacy. He repeats the point with Layne Norton — 5g is enough to saturate muscle without resorting to pricier, unnecessary forms. The other experts independently reach for the same word: Huberman specifies creatine monohydrate at 5g/day (and discusses higher-dose monohydrate in brain and TBI contexts), Patrick endorses monohydrate and its safety profile, and Hyman recommends monohydrate especially for women, who produce less creatine endogenously.

Where the real decision lies is quality, not chemistry. Attia's practical advice is to prioritize a third-party-tested, NSF-certified creatine monohydrate powder to ensure purity, and to avoid creatine gummies, which suffer from manufacturing challenges and degradation that leave them underdosed. That's the same theme that runs through the whole "is this supplement any good" question — with a commodity ingredient like monohydrate, you're really buying verified purity.

One clarification on "Creapure." Creapure is a branded, German-made, NSF-certified grade of creatine monohydrate — a purity spec, not a different or better molecule. It comes up in reference material (the Diary of a CEO channel recommends it for perimenopausal women), but none of the five consensus experts single it out by name. And a note on the "alternative forms" — the experts say expensive alternatives add nothing, but they don't individually name-check HCl, ethyl ester, or buffered creatine in the material we analyzed, so treat those as illustrative examples of the pricier forms to skip.