Same active ingredient. Very different experience. Here's the honest comparison.
The styptic pencil has been the go-to for shaving nicks for over a century. It's cheap, it works, and your dad probably had one in the medicine cabinet. So why bother switching to powder?
Short answer: powder is the same active ingredient (potassium alum) in a faster, cleaner, longer-lasting format. Long answer below.
A styptic pencil needs to be moistened, then pressed against the cut, then held while the active ingredient dissolves from the stick into the wound. That's 20–60 seconds. Powder is already in soluble form — press it in and it works immediately. 5–10 seconds.
A pencil tip is wider than most shaving nicks. You can't get the active ingredient into a deep or small cut as thoroughly as you can with powder, which conforms to whatever shape the cut is.
Pencils dry out and crack over months. Powder doesn't change.
A pencil runs about $5 and you'll burn through one in a few months of regular use. A 2 oz tin of StyptiQ is $14.99 and lasts 12+ months for a home shaver. Math favors powder by a wide margin.