This may go without saying, but: Do not put your Boos Block in the dishwasher. You should only ever hand-wash the board. Depending on the size of your sink, this shouldn’t prove too difficult. The board didn’t trap scents in our experience and any staining from the steamed beets disappeared after a wash (the darker stained woods also help conceal any potential staining). The price makes it an investment, but no doubt it will last if you care for it well (which involves frequent application of Boos Board Cream) and you’ll feel the pay off with every swipe of your knife blade.
What we didn’t like about the John Boos Maple Wood Edge-Grain Reversible Cutting Board
The board is 2.25 inches thick and will significantly increase the height of your counter and, though it features hand grips built into both sides, it can sometimes prove challenging to hold when sliding onions into a pan or store (especially if you live in a smaller space).
The best budget wooden cutting board: Ziruma Handmade Teak Wood Board
Ziruma Teak Wood Cutting Board
Teak boards like this one are durable and water-resistant; that’s why the wood is frequently used on boats. While cutting boards made of other woods, like maple, walnut, or acacia wood require frequent treatment with oil, teak requires much less maintenance. If you’re looking for the benefits of a wooden board (sturdiness, attractive appearance) without the extra effort, it’s a great alternative to more expensive hardwoods.
The Ziruma teak board is 17”x11", which offers plenty of workspace without taking up the whole counter. It’s tough but quite lightweight, so it’s easy to carry to the stove to transfer ingredients to a skillet. The board held up to all our cutting without showing any signs of wear, and we found that the dark shades in the wood masked moderate stains in ways that lighter-colored boards wouldn’t. It did slide around on a granite countertop, but a damp paper towel placed under it solved that problem. And at around $80 it’s less than half the cost of several similarly-sized wooden board.
Care-wise, Ziruma recommends a yearly rubdown with beeswax. Some woodworking experts point out that because teak contains silica, the same mineral found in glass, its durability might come at the cost of dulling knives. However, others note that the amount of silica it contains is too small to have a negative effect on your knives. If any of that makes you nervous about ruining the sharpness of your knives, you might consider spending more on an end-grain chopping board; these will be the most gentle wooden boards for your blades.
What we didn’t like about the Ziruma Teak Wood Cutting Board
Compared to an end grain board the Ziruma is not going to be as smooth. While a board like the Boos feels like it absorbs knife strokes, the harder teak is more jarring.
Yoshihiro Hi-soft High Performance Professional Grade Cutting Board
The best rubber cutting board: Yoshihiro or Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Boards
Rubber cutting boards are popular among professional chefs for several reasons. Synthetic and natural rubber are great board materials for preserving sharp knives; the surface flexes to the knife edge rather than wearing it down. Rubber is also nonporous and does not encourage the growth of microbes, which is why you often see rubber cutting boards in professional kitchens or behind sushi counters (wooden cutting boards actually violate restaurant health codes in certain jurisdictions). We were happy with the performance of both these boards. If you aren’t a great knife sharpener and rely on outside services, owning a good cutting board made from rubber will pay for itself in the long run.
Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Board
What we didn’t like about the Yoshihiro and Tenryo Hi-Soft Cutting Boards
Unfortunately, they are quite heavy duty, rubber cutting boards and must be washed by hand. Rubber boards also tend to be pretty expensive.
How we tested
There's no better way to test cutting boards than to chop a lot of produce on top of them. On each model, we chopped a pound of carrots, diced a large onion, and minced a knob of ginger to assess durability and stability. We also sliced steamed beets to check for staining. Then we washed each board according to the directions given and did a round of maintenance as described by the brand if applicable.
What we looked for
How big is the cutting board? Is it easy to use and move around?
We looked for cutting boards that were big enough to offer plenty of workspace, but not so big that cleaning, storing, or even moving them across the kitchen would be difficult.
Is the board comfortable to cut on? How does the knife feel on it?
Some boards were very thick, which extended the height of the countertop and made cutting on them feel a little awkward. Others were so thin that they felt flimsy and slid all over the place without a wet paper towel underneath. We also considered how the knife felt on the surface of each board.
Was it easy to move the chopped items into a pan or bowl?
Once you’ve sliced and diced, you have to get the pieces into a skillet, bowl, or somewhere else—anywhere off the board. We took into account how easy the cutting board was to lift and noted if there were any attributes that helped with pouring and catching drips.
Was the board easy to clean? Did it stain and/or retain odors?
We paid close attention to how easy it was to wipe stains and odors off the cutting boards as well as the ongoing maintenance required for each.
Other cutting boards we tested
We tested a wide variety of chopping boards—in an array of materials and featuring a number of added selling points—to get a feel for the market as a whole. Since prices vary significantly, we considered boards across the spectrum, from a $6 set of plastic cutting mats to a $200+ butcher block you’d likely end up passing on to your grandchildren. High ratings, expert recommendations, and good reviews played a role in how we landed on this list.
Architec Gripper Board
Architec Gripper Polypropylene BPA Free Cutting Board
This board comes in a bunch of poppy colors, and at 14”x11", it is a good size for vegetable prep but not something bigger like carving a chicken. The plastic is a good thickness, and this cutting board is also dishwasher-safe. But the major selling point for this model is also a slight downside: The “nonslip gripper” base, which involves rows of small rubber feet on the underside that keep your board from moving around your countertop, means you can only use the one side for chopping.
Nicole Home Flexible Plastic Cutting Board Mats
These mats could be useful to keep around, though we wouldn’t use them frequently since they didn’t protect our knives well. They’re flimsy and slid around a lot during testing, even with a damp paper towel underneath. We could see using them for small tasks like cutting lemons or limes, or putting them over a wooden cutting board when working with raw meat.
Nicole Home Flexible 3 Colored Cutting Board Mats Set
Farberware Nonslip Plastic Cutting Board
This Farberware Nonslip board did not live up to its name: It slipped around a bunch, likely due to the fact that only the corners are covered in silicone. However, it’s a good size (14”x10"), dishwasher-safe, and easy to clean—overall, it's a straightforward, inexpensive plastic cutting board that can take a beating.
Farberware Nonslip Plastic Cutting Board
Epicurean Kitchen Series Cutting Board
We give the Epicurean Kitchen Series Cutting Board a hard pass. It’s made from nonporous composite wood fibers, so looks nicer than some plastic boards, it’s dishwasher-safe and it doesn’t warp or splinter over time. But it was very unpleasant to cut on: noisy and way too hard. The slightly more expensive nonslip version fared better, but we still couldn’t get past the drawbacks.
Epicurean Kitchen Series Cutting Board
Totally Bamboo Cutting Board
The Totally Bamboo board looks attractive, feels light, and doesn’t stain much, making it easy to clean (the beets left a very slight discoloration since the material is so light-colored), but the surface felt harder and had less give than other boards. It also slid around quite a bit. Though the product information says it will last an average of 10 years, it requires significant, delicate care; the company sells a special mineral oil to treat the board with every few days during the first month of use and then “as needed.”
Totally Bamboo Kauai Bamboo Serving & Cutting Board
Schoolhouse Five Two Bamboo Double Sided Cutting Board
Another bamboo option, you may recognize the Schoolhouse Five Two double sided board for its nifty crevice designed to fit your phone. The board comes in three different sizes—9”x11”, 11.24”x14.5”, and 18”x13”—that convert to small, medium, and large. We tested the medium and, while it felt noticeably more cramped than some other options we tested, we didn’t find the board too small (though you might consider sizing up). At one-inch high, the board also the board could maneuver more like an easy-to-move plastic cutting board. The biggest caveat came when slicing beets. We’d noticed the lighter color of the board made it more prone to staining, which showed most apparently when we washed the board post beets. We found ourselves needing to scrub the surface a lot harder than with other boards, and still some red stains remained.
Five Two Bamboo Double Sided Cutting Board, Medium
TeakHaus Edge-Grain Traditional Board
This teak board would make a great addition to your kitchen if you’re interested in a large teak board. At 20”x15" it takes up significant space, but it’s beautiful and you’d be proud to have it out as a showpiece. It has a convenient drip tray, felt great to cut on, and was very easy to clean, though the ginger smell lingered a bit. Its 1.5" height felt a little awkward, so if you’re on the shorter side and have a standard countertop, that’s something to consider.
TeakHaus Edge-Grain Traditional Board
Material Angled Board
Unfortunately the wooden Material Angled Board didn’t meet the standard set by its plastic sister, the grippy reBoard. The board is made of FSC-certified walnut, but seems coated in some sort of smooth laminate that shows knife marks easily. On top of that, the smoothness of that coating meant steamed beets would slip around on the surface—posing a potential threat of entirely missing the beet and slicing off your fingers.
The Angled Board
Made In Butcher Block
Size-wise, the Made In chopping block measured about the same as the Material Angled board at 17.75x11.75” but thicker. Sadly it also had the same issues as the Material Angled board and showed a lot of knife scratches—and with the light color, you could see every single imperfection. While Made In doesn’t seal their boards with any laminate and rubs them with oil prior to sending them out, the surface feels coated in some sort of smoothing agent similar to the Material Angled board had. And, while you could mostly hand wash the board off, we found the juice from the steamed beets would seep into the scratches on the board, making them even more apparent.
The Butcher Block
MEATER Cutting Board
If you need a cutting board to carve into your turkey, then the MEATER’s probably the product for you. At 14.9x19.6”, the MEATER isn’t the largest board we’ve ever tested but it’s certainly a big one and seems best suited for large meats as opposed to quick and small dicing jobs. With a groove surrounding the board that ends in a pouring spout, the MEATER feels especially well-equipped to catch and dispose of any stray meat juices. However, the light color left it especially susceptible to staining from steamed beets, even after intense scrubbing.
MEATER Cutting Board
JK Adams Pour Spout Cutting Board
We tested a few styles of board from JK Adams, and this carving board was nice because it came with a pouring spout. Both sides of this 20x14" board have a pouring well and spout, so you’ll never have to worry about chicken juices running all over your counter. We did find that the juice grooves significantly cut down on the surface area available for cutting, so it comes down to whether you would use the pour spout often enough to make it a worthwhile trade-off. As with other maple cutting boards, it cleaned easily, though the beets stained the light-colored wood slightly. The manufacturer recommends treating the board regularly with beeswax and mineral oil.
J.K. Adams 20-Inch-by-14-Inch Maple Wood Double-Sided Pour Spout Carving Board
JK Adams Kitchen Collection board
The Collection board offers a great option for people who want the benefits of a solid wood board without the downside of adding a ton of height to their work surface. At 17x14", it’s a great size for the average home cook, and it clocks in at just ¾"—the shortest of any wood board we tested.
J.K. Adams 17-Inch-by-14-Inch Maple Wood Kitchen Basic Cutting Board
JK Adams Pro Classic Board
The last JK Adams board we tested, the Pro Classic, which measures 16x12", comes with a “tech slot”—a notch for your cellphone to reference as you cook. It’s a nice addition to a totally workable midsize board.
J.K. Adams 20-Inch-by-14-Inch Maple Wood Pro-Classic Cutting Board
Notrax
The one natural rubber board we tested was a high-density one from Notrax. It performed as well with cutting tasks as the synthetic boards, but we ended up preferring the Hi-Soft boards since they resisted stains more effectively and didn’t have any noticeable rubber odor. The Notrax had a faint “tire” smell, which didn’t transfer to foods, but was somewhat unpleasant to work around.
NoTrax Sani-Tuff T45 Natural Rubber Cutting Board
The takeaway
If you want a plastic cutting board that feels like a dream, is easy to clean, and will hold up for a while, get the Material grippy reBoard. If that feels a bit too expensive though, opt for the Oxo Good Grips Utility Cutting Board. For those loyal to wooden boards and willing to put in regular maintenance, you can’t beat the John Boos Maple Wood Edge-Grain Reversible Cutting Board for function, style, and longevity—though you should probably opt for the smaller 18x12” size. The Ziruma Handmade Teak Board makes a good wood alternative if you want the look with a bit less effort and cost. Finally, if you care a lot about keeping your knives sharp, be like the pros and get a Hi-Soft cutting board.