Formats · How to choose · 6 min read · Updated September 2026
Pick a supplement format by the moment you take it, not by which one is best. We make all four: strips dissolve on your tongue with no water, gummies you chew, capsules and powder you take with a drink. Whatever the format, the dose lives on the supplement facts panel, not the front of the pack. The right format is the one you will actually remember to take.
Four formats, four moments
A format is just delivery. The active is the same; what changes is how it gets from the pack into you, and where that fits your day. Strips go on the tongue. Gummies get chewed. Capsules, tablets and powder go down with a drink. None of that is a ranking. It is a set of trade-offs, and the honest way to choose is to start with when and where you will take the thing, then work back to the format that survives that moment.
One thing only we can show you: our own catalogue runs all four side by side. Energy Plus, Good Sleep, Brain and Apetimax are strips. Brain also comes as a strawberry gummy. 5-HTP and Ashwagandha are vegetarian capsules, Brutus Alpha is a tablet, and Core Whey is a powder. Four formats, one brand, so the comparison below is not hypothetical.
Strips: no water, no swallowing
A strip is a thin film that carries one measured dose and dissolves on your tongue in about thirty seconds. No water. No pill to get down. Our Energy Plus strip holds 50mg of caffeine with 30mg of L-theanine and 1000mcg of B12. Good Sleep is a raspberry strip with 1mg of melatonin. Thirty strips sit in a sleeve the size of a gum pack.
That last part is the whole point of the format. A strip suits the places a bottle is awkward: the walk into the gym, the desk before a call, the nightstand after the light is off. If you have ever skipped a supplement because you did not feel like swallowing anything, this is the format built for that.
Gummies: something to chew, one to a serving
A gummy is the format for people who want a small ritual and do not mind an extra moment. You chew it. That is the entire method. Our Brain Gummies put Cordyceps 200mg with GABA, Ginkgo, L-Glutamine and DMAE into one strawberry gummy, colored with beet powder. The serving is one to two gummies, thirty to a jar.
Read the panel before you assume a gummy is the light option. Gummies are portioned, so the number that matters is the amount per gummy and how many the serving is. Check both on the panel. A format you enjoy taking is a format you keep taking, which is the only version of consistency that counts.
Capsules and tablets: still the standard
Capsules and tablets are the format most supplements still use, and for a plain reason: they hold the most. A full mineral dose, a multi-herb stack, a serving measured in hundreds of milligrams, none of that fits in a film or a gummy. Our 5-HTP capsule carries 200mg from Griffonia simplicifolia seed with 328mg of calcium. Ashwagandha Plus is a KSM-66 stack in sixty vegetarian capsules. Brutus Alpha runs a men's stack across sixty tablets, two to a serving.
The trade is that you take them with water, usually with a meal. That suits a daily foundation you take at the same time every day. Capsules are boring in the way a routine is boring, and a foundation is supposed to be boring.
Powder: when a serving is measured in grams
Some things do not come in milligrams. Protein is the clear one. A whey serving is measured in grams, so a scoop is the only sane format. Our Core Whey is a chocolate whey concentrate, 22g of protein in a two-scoop serving at 120 calories, twenty-four servings to an 839g tub, sweetened with stevia. You mix two scoops with six to eight ounces of water or milk.
No capsule can hold that. Twenty-two grams of protein would be dozens of pills. Powder is the format when the dose is large and you are adding it to a drink you were going to have anyway, like the shake after training.
Compare the panels, not the packaging
The rule that runs through all of this: the format changes how you take a dose, not how you should compare one. When you compare a strip to a gummy to a capsule, compare the supplement facts panels, not the packaging. Where a formula lists a proprietary blend, the panel gives the blend's total weight rather than each ingredient's amount, and that is worth knowing before you compare two products.
This is where most people get misled. A number on the front of a jar is marketing. The number on the supplement facts panel is the dose. Two products can share a name and a headline and still be built differently, so the label is the only honest comparison, whatever shape it comes in.
Travel, routine, and the one you will remember
When you actually have to pick, run three questions. Where will you take it? A strip travels; a tub of powder does not fit a carry-on. What is the dose? Grams means powder, a big herbal stack means capsules, a light single active can be a strip or a gummy. And which one will you remember? That last question decides more than the first two.
Plenty of our customers stack formats on purpose. A strip for the moments that have to be quick. Capsules for the daily base. A powder after training. There is no prize for taking the hard-to-take version. The best format is the one still in your routine in a month.
Common questions
Is one supplement format better than another?
No format is better in general. Strips and gummies suit light single-active servings and quick moments; capsules and tablets hold larger or multi-ingredient stacks; powder suits servings measured in grams, like protein. Pick by where you will take it and which one you will remember.
Can I take more than one format at once?
Yes. Many people use a strip for on-the-go moments, capsules for a daily foundation, and a powder after a workout. Check the label of each product for its own directions and daily amount, and count shared ingredients like caffeine across everything you take that day.
How do I compare the dose between a strip and a capsule?
Read the supplement facts panel on each, not the front of the pack. Compare the amount of each active per serving and how many servings you get. For example, our Energy Plus strip lists 50mg of caffeine per strip; a capsule product lists its actives per capsule or per two-capsule serving. The panel is the only fair comparison.
Try the strip. Thirty strips, dispatched within 24 hours. Free US shipping over $49. Shop the strips
Keep reading
- When Should You Take an Energy Strip?
- How Much Caffeine Is in an Energy Strip?
- How Do Oral Strips Work? What Happens in the 30 Seconds on Your Tongue
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Vantyx products are for adults 19 years of age or older.