A good lather is alpha and omega when it comes to a really enjoyable shave. My first recommendation would be to throw out the cans of pressurised foam… go ahead, the rest of this post will wait for you.

Done? Good.

When it comes to lathering, some people prefer hard soaps, some prefer soft creams or and some like plain sticks. In all cases the goal is to turn in into lather, and in my experience all three does that just as well once you know how. Soaps and creams can be built into lather in a scuttle, a bowl or directly on the face, while sticks should be used to build lather on the face only, even if there is nothing stopping you from building lather from a stick in a bowl. Some people even will grate or squeeze a stick into a container to use as a regular soap, something which should tell you there really is no big difference between the two.
The difference between the three isn’t all that great. Shaving soap is usually hard, like a bar soap, and often comes (or is placed) in a bowl or tub. Shaving cream at its most basic is just a shaving soap that is soft, and will usually come in a tub or tube. And a shaving stick is simply a piece of shaving soap that is shaped so you can rub it directly onto your stubbles. A stick can be packaged in a hard plastic tube or simply wrapped in foil paper.
In the end it comes down to personal preferences; I started out with shaving cream in a tube, but now uses all three kinds with more or less equal frequency.