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Both beta-glucan and hyaluronic acid are humectants: ingredients that attract and hold water. They get compared constantly, usually with one framed as the upgrade. It is more useful to understand what each one is and where the trade-offs sit.
Hyaluronic acid is a polysaccharide that occurs naturally in skin. In cosmetics it appears as sodium hyaluronate and related salts, usually across a range of molecular weights. It is inexpensive, well studied, and appears in an enormous number of products, which is part of why it became the default.
Its strength is water-binding capacity. Its known quirk is that in very dry air a strong humectant layer can end up pulling moisture from wherever it can, including deeper in your own skin, if nothing is sealing it in. This is why a hyaluronic serum on bare skin in a heated flat in January can leave skin feeling tighter than before. Applied to damp skin and sealed with a moisturiser, the problem largely disappears.
Beta-glucan is also a polysaccharide, typically derived from oats, yeast or mushrooms. In skincare it is used as a humectant and is often included in formulas aimed at soothing and comfort. It is heavier and more film-forming than hyaluronic acid at comparable use levels, which some people experience as a slightly cushioned finish and others find too much under makeup.
It is a newer entrant to mainstream ranges than hyaluronic acid, so the marketing enthusiasm currently runs ahead of what most buyers have actually tried. Take confident claims about it outperforming everything else with the same scepticism you would apply to any ingredient having a moment.
There is no universal winner. Some rules of thumb that many people find hold up:
You can use both. They are not antagonists and there is no chemistry reason to keep them apart. Whether it is worth two products is a different question, and for most people the honest answer is no. One humectant serum plus a good moisturiser does the same job as two serums plus the same moisturiser, at lower cost and with fewer variables to untangle if something goes wrong.
A plain guide to what the skin barrier is, what damages it, and how a short, single-ingredient serum routine can support it without a twelve-step shelf.
Why serum-strength actives are moving from face to body, what a body serum can reasonably do, and when a good body lotion is the better buy.
The difference between fragrance-free and unscented, what vegan and clean do and do not guarantee, and how to read an INCI list without a chemistry degree.
Buy one. Apply it to damp skin, twice a day, for three to four weeks, with no other changes to your routine. Note how skin feels four hours later, not four minutes later. Then decide.
That is slower than reading a comparison table, and it is the only method that answers the question for your skin rather than for skin in general. Products behave differently on different people, which is precisely why the confident verdicts you see in thirty-second videos should be treated as one person's result and not a finding.