Some people report less GI distress with creatine HCL but it’s much more expensive.

The GI issues are caused by the creatine absorbing water. This causes your gut to have more water than usual as it follows the creatine through the works… which causes… urgency.

The effect diminishes after you’ve been taking a regular dose for a while, even with just monogydrate (not HCL).

Some people say HCL causes less distress because it doesn’t draw water as much. Others argue that defeats the purpose of taking it.

Monohydrate is studied to death and proven effective, HCL not so much.

The studies I've seen from HCl claim it's more bioavailable too, so you only need 1/3 the dosage compared to honohydrate. That makes the cost pretty comparable.

But otherwise, I'd agree that monohydrate has significantly more research behind it and I'd default to that if it's tolerable.