zlacker

>>jnord+(OP)
Isn't H2 better because better lift and being a molecule of two hydrogen atoms it is not quite as slippery as helium and quite easy to make?

From wikipedia "lifting gas"

"Helium is the second lightest gas (0.1786 g/L, 14% the density of air, at STP). For that reason, it is an attractive gas for lifting as well.

A major advantage is that this gas is noncombustible. But the use of helium has some disadvantages, too:

    The diffusion issue shared with hydrogen (though, as helium's molecular radius, 138 pm, is smaller, it diffuses through more materials than hydrogen[4])."

>>airbre+m9c
The diffusion is the main advantage of using helium, it takes ~3x longer to leak out, which directly affects flight time.

Hydrogen is actually harder to buy in my experience, helium is sold everywhere for cheap in small canisters for parties, whereas the second requires like, industrial welding suppliers that will want to sell you a large tank for a few thousand or making your own electrolyser and compressor. There's no common use case for it you could piggyback on.