Short answer: Tablets are made by compressing powder under force in a die; capsules are made by filling a pre-formed shell with powder, with no compression involved. Tablets cost less to produce at volume, support custom shapes and engraved branding, and hold up better to shipping — but require a tablet press and a formulation that compresses well. Capsules need no compression-capable formulation, mask bad-tasting actives more easily, and need only a filling machine — but cost more per unit at scale and offer far less branding flexibility. Choose tablets if cost-per-unit and branding matter; choose capsules if your active tastes bad or doesn't compress well.
Neither format is universally better — the right choice depends on your ingredient, your budget, and how much you care about branding. This breaks down the actual differences rather than treating one as the default.
How Tablets Are Made
A tablet press compresses a measured amount of powder between two punches inside a die, fusing it into a solid shape under force — see what is a tablet press for the full mechanical breakdown. The result is a dense, solid tablet whose shape, face detail, and size are all determined by the die and punch set used.
How Capsules Are Made
A capsule is a two-piece shell — typically gelatin or a vegetarian alternative — that gets filled with loose powder (or a densified plug of it) using a capsule-filling machine, then closed. No compression happens; the shell itself is what holds the contents together and controls how it breaks down after swallowing.
Cost Comparison
Entry-level tablet presses and capsule fillers occupy a similar low starting price range, so equipment cost alone rarely decides this — see the tablet press cost guide for current pricing by press type. The bigger cost difference shows up per unit: capsule shells are a purchased consumable added to every single unit, while a tablet's "shell" is just more of the same excipient powder already in the formula — which is usually cheaper at volume once you're producing more than a small batch.
Production Speed Comparison
A single-punch tablet press produces one tablet per cycle, and even an entry motorized unit comfortably outpaces manual capsule filling by hand. Capsule filling machines exist at every automation level too, but manually-filled capsules are typically the slower starting point for a new small producer compared to a manual tablet press — both scale similarly well once you move to motorized or automated equipment on either side.
Taste, Swallowability, and Dose Flexibility
Capsules have a real edge here: the shell fully masks taste and odor, which matters for actives that are bitter or unpleasant when compressed into an exposed tablet surface. Capsules are also more forgiving of powders that don't compress well, since nothing needs to hold together under force — a poorly-compressible active can still go straight into a shell. Tablets, in exchange, are usually easier to split or score for partial doses, and generally swallow smaller than a capsule holding the same fill weight.
Branding and Customization
This is where tablets clearly win: a die and punch set can imprint a logo, score line, or custom shape directly onto every tablet — see choosing punch and die shapes and sizes for what's possible. Capsules are limited to shell color and size, since there's no equivalent to engraving a shell's surface with a brand mark.