In this paper, we study the competition between the iodine oxyacids and iodine oxides pathways for iodine-driven nucleation using quantum chemical methods. We study the cluster formation potential by simulating the cluster dynamics of cluster formation up to tetramers. This was done with the aim of shedding light on the compounds that are important for the initial steps of iodine-driven nucleation. Furthermore, we also study the strength of iodine-driven nucleation in relation to the already extensively studied sulfuric acid-driven nucleation.