The best cutting boards in 2024, tried and tested | CNN Underscored

Best wood cutting board: Sonder LA Laurel Cutting Board

Best plastic cutting board: Our Place Daily Board

You and your kitchen arsenal deserve the best cutting board, especially if you spend a lot of time whipping stuff up in the kitchen. You could have the best kitchen knife set in the world, but that’s just one part of the equation. Whether cooking is a meditative and leisurely pursuit for you or a necessity, a high-quality cutting board that won’t slip, get stained or breed bacteria is essential.

If you’re new to the world of cutting boards and have always settled for the cheapest you could find, welcome. We’re not exaggerating when we say that having the best cutting board to meet your chopping, slicing, dicing and filleting needs will change your life — not to mention potentially save your fingers in the process. We stained, washed and abused (like any good chef would) 17 wooden, plastic and composite cutting boards to determine which ones are worth your money. These three made the cut.

Beautiful and well-made, this teak option from Sonder LA is a versatile wood cutting board perfect for your everyday cutting needs and gentle on your knives. The grooved edges on one side will help keep your prep area clean.

Stylish and thoughtfully designed, this affordable plastic cutting board from Our Place is made of 100% recycled plastic, is spacious and stays in place thanks to its non-slip edges. It also comes in five different colors.

Teak is more resistant to moisture and shrinkage than other hardwoods (like maple), and it’s also more gentle on knives. That’s because it’s highly durable, able to withstand repeated wetting and drying cycles better than other hardwoods. That makes a teak cutting board easier to care for while preserving its other benefits.

It’s that resilience that makes Sonder LA’s Laurel Cutting Board a great value investment. This large 18 by 14 by 1.25-inch teak cutting board, named after the legendary Laurel Canyon neighborhood in Los Angeles, is thoughtfully designed. It boasts grooved edges that can hold up to 3.5 ounces of juice, handles on both ends for easy carrying, a side that’s completely flat for serving charcuterie and rolling out puff pastry sheets and pizza doughs, and a beautifully sanded finish that got smoother and glossier after oiling.

What’s more, this wood cutting board is made from sustainably sourced teak and free of chemicals like BPA that have long-term harmful effects on humans.

Cutting up chicken and dicing herbs and vegetables on the Sonder LA Laurel Cutting Board for our weekly meal prep was a revelation. Free of warping out of the box and because it has enough heft to it, it stayed put even during our most rigorous fast chopping sessions. That helped us be more efficient, saving us time and drastically minimizing the likelihood of our fingers getting sliced.

That it has a big surface area without taking up too much space on our counter is a big plus as well. Same with its completely flat side that made it easy to cut and prep the hand pies we regularly make.

We used a brand new six-inch Petty knife from New West Knifeworks on the cutting board to see if it would dull it quickly, and we didn’t notice a difference in the knife blade’s sharpness, attesting to one of the many advantages of a teak board. We did notice a lot of cuts on the board post-prep work; however, they weren’t glaringly obvious and only added to the board’s character. More importantly, they were shallow, surface-level striations rather than deep damages.

The cutting board passed our beet stain as well. Although a few burgundy stains in the superficial marks were made during the beet-chopping process, the stains quickly and easily washed off the actual surface.

One thing that sets Sonder LA’s products apart from others, however, is the customer service that comes with them. This LA-based small business takes pride in ensuring its customers are satisfied with fast responses and quick product replacements if, for some reason, you’re unhappy with your unit. That’s not the kind of customer-first service you’d typically get from bigger companies.

The Sonder LA Laurel Cutting Board is slightly pricier than our previous top pick, the Teakhaus Professional Cutting Board. The onion smell also seems to have lingered even after a couple of washes. However, it still has higher customer satisfaction on Amazon and other retailers than the Teakhaus. That combined with our positive testing experience makes Laurel the superior choice.

While it’s hard to argue with our previous plastic cutting board pick’s cheap, under-$25 price tag, there’s more to choosing a cutting board than an inexpensive price. Amazon reviews of the OXO Good Grips Cutting Board mention slipping and dulling of knives, among other things, making it an inadequate choice even if you are saving money.

Spend a little more, however, and you just might get your money’s worth. We’ve long been fans of some of Our Place’s products so it’s not a surprise the brand’s Daily Board also meets our expectations. This versatile plastic cutting board, designed specifically for any daily chopping and dicing needs, boasts a few features that set it apart from other plastic boards.

It’s made of 100% recycled plastic and is completely BPA-free, making it a slightly safer choice for food prep compared to much cheaper plastic cutting boards. And not only is it aesthetically pleasing, coming in five different colors, but you can also tell that it’s durable and well-made.

One of the biggest issues with plastic cutting boards is that because they’re lighter, they tend to move around a lot, which can be frustrating, time-consuming and dangerous. That isn’t the case here. Though many of its rivals claim stability due to non-slip feet, the Our Place Daily Board delivers, thanks to its non-slip edges that moonlight as handles. This thing stayed put during our tests, whether we were dicing onions or vigorously chopping cilantro.

Thanks to its finely textured finish, the only time you could see the superficial knife marks was if you tilted your head and looked at it from a low angle. And yes, we do mean superficial. Of course, knife marks were left, but they were even shallower than the ones we left on the Sonder LA Laurel Cutting Board.

Another testament to this plastic cutting board’s quality is its ability to keep offending odors off its surface. We let diced onion sit on it for about an hour to see if the smell would linger, and the board came out smelling fresh after some light handwashing. That’s impressive. Because this board is also two-sided, you shouldn’t have any issues separating your meats from your veggies. That should save you some time if you’re cooking for both meat eaters and vegetarians.

The only thing that holds the Our Place Daily Board back is its size. Don’t get us wrong; at 15.5 by 10.5 by 0.38 inches, we wouldn’t call it a small board. However, if you’re doing a lot of prep work for a big batch of food, your hands might start to feel claustrophobic. In addition, there are no juice canals present, which isn’t surprising considering its price. Still, at only $40, this is a wonderful board to see you through your daily cooking needs.

To help find the best cutting boards for you, we picked 17 of the most popular and well-reviewed options, ranging in price — from an incredibly low $3 to $200. We then put them through the paces of everyday cooking. This means we did a lot of chopping and slicing of different types of fruit, vegetables, meats, bread and cheese.

We spent a few weeks testing the boards, rotating them in and out of our kitchen meal prep, and furiously slicing and dicing, to compare everything from overall performance to usability, aesthetics and maintenance. We also cut beets on every board to see which boards could handle this rich-colored vegetable without staining.

While doing our prepping and chopping, we used the following criteria when testing each model to find the winners:

Performance

Usability

Design

Maintenance

Price

Different types of cutting boards have their strengths and quirks. Some boards are kinder on your knives, which matters a lot if you have invested in expensive knives, while others may take a bit more work to maintain but are better at minimizing the growth of bacteria.

So when choosing the best board for you, it’s not just a matter of finding the highest-rated one. Here are some things to keep in mind when purchasing a cutting board.

Pick the right material

Cutting boards are available in various materials — bamboo, composite, glass, plastic, stone and wood. And each of them has its advantages and disadvantages.

Wooden and bamboo cutting boards look great, can be thick and heavy (making them stable and secure), and are versatile, making them useful for anything from chopping vegetables to serving a roast. However, they require regular maintenance. Plastic and composite cutting boards are easy to clean and care for but can be harder on knives and don’t last near as long.

Here are the most common types of cutting boards to choose from:

Find one that doesn’t slip

You’ll want to ensure your cutting board doesn’t slide around too much on your counter. After all, a board that constantly slides or spins around makes your prep job harder. It can also be unsafe — you might end up slicing a finger if your board spins without a warning while you’re fast-chopping vegetables.

Choose one that’s easiest for you to maintain

When choosing the right cutting board for you, make sure you’re also considering cleaning and maintenance. Remember that some types of boards require more maintenance than others. After all, if you pick an expensive one that’s high maintenance but you don’t have much time to dedicate to its upkeep, you’ll likely need to replace it sooner than anticipated.

Wooden cutting boards are not dishwasher-safe, and running them through one can cause splits, ultimately ruining the board. Proper care requires oiling (or applying a mixture of oil and wax) your board on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on how often you use your board. However, learning how to clean a wooden cutting board isn’t hard. And if you use a thick butcher block board, should it get stained or damaged, you can easily sand it flat, reapply the oil (or the oil and wax finish) and get many more years of use out of it.

Like wood, you shouldn’t put bamboo in the dishwasher either. Long-term care of these boards requires a bit of oiling to keep the surface free from warping.

On the other hand, plastic cutting boards are dishwasher-safe, making cleanup a breeze. However, make sure to check with the manufacturer before just tossing it into that magical machine, as high heat might not be good for all brands.

Finally, composite cutting boards are often dishwasher-safe and can withstand high temperatures, making them a solid easy-care option.

For a splurge, the New West Knifeworks Workhorse is a fantastic wood cutting board that’s worth the investment, offering a massive surface area, juice canals and lots of stability, making your chopping efforts a breeze.

You don’t have to be a trained chef to use professional tools, even when it comes to wood cutting boards. There may be a lot of great affordable options around, but if you can afford to splurge, this aptly named board from New West Knifeworks is a fantastic choice that gives you your money’s worth.

There’s a good reason why this wooden cutting board is pricey. Every single piece is handcrafted from sustainably sourced hardwood by master woodworkers at Badboyboards in Colorado, which means that it’s built with care and painstaking detail. That level of craftsmanship shows on our test board. The Workhorse is a stunner of a stallion built like one as well, with heft to keep it in place and a substantial surface area to give you a lot of space to work in.

While it was kind to our knife blades, it was also impressive how it handled the unavoidable knife marks. They’re barely noticeable on the board. The same can be said about unwanted odors. Even after chopping onions on it and leaving them there to soak, we could not detect even a whiff of any lingering smell.

We loved chopping and dicing on this wooden cutting board more than all the other boards we tested. And to be honest, the only reason this hasn’t made it to the top of the list is its near-$200 price tag.

Made from moisture-resistant teak, the Teakhaus Professional is beautiful, durable and stain-resistant. The fact that it’s made of teak makes it an easy wood cutting board to care for.

The Teakhaus Professional is a cutting board made from teak, a wood that stands up to heavy use, is resistant to stains and knife cuts, cleans up easily and is heavy enough to stay in place while you work. It’s also reasonably priced compared to other wooden cutting boards of similar quality and beautiful enough to earn a permanent spot on your kitchen countertop.

The Teakhaus Professional we tested is made with edge grain construction (boards glued together lengthwise), which is a more moisture-resistant method than end grain construction (board segments set on their ends, as seen in butcher blocks).

In our testing, after chopping up many fruits, vegetables and meat, we found few noticeable marks. When we ran our hand over the wood, we felt a few but none deep or noticeable to the naked eye. That’s thanks to the combination of the hard material and the dark finish, which is not only lovely but should hide everyday stains over time.

The Teakhaus Professional arrives pretreated with mineral oil and beeswax for extra moisture resistance, and we found that it did not stain easily. After cutting beets and leaving beet juice on the board, all coloring washed away easily, and we found no residue or stains. The board is heavy enough that it stayed put through all of our chopping and slicing. And since it’s reversible, the board lets you chop on both sides during a single prepping session to avoid cross-contamination between raw meats and vegetables.

The Teakhaus Professional is also an excellent price compared to many other high-end cutting boards.

This gorgeous black walnut cutting board from Sonder LA makes a fantastic statement piece at your next party. It comes with a more polished look, making it perfect for hosting.

The Sonder LA Motley Cutting Board might be too pretty for rigorous chopping. That isn’t to say that this black walnut, maple and cherry wood cutting board isn’t good for prep work.

On the contrary, this board was incredibly stable during our tests, staying still even when we were putting a lot of force into our slicing and dicing. Walnut is also very gentle on knives — not to mention touting antimicrobial properties — so you don’t have to worry about dulling here. After plenty of chopping, we can honestly say that our brand-new New West Knifeworks knife came out as sharp as ever.

While there isn’t a juice groove or canal for keeping your work area clean, it does come with what Sonder LA calls a “Cracker Well,” perfectly shaped for keeping those crackers in place when used as a charcuterie board. This well also comes in handy for putting aside those already-chopped ingredients, taking them out of the chopping zone to give you space while ensuring they don’t fall off the board. We loved using this handy and unique feature.

It did a great job of keeping odors at bay as well. While there was still a little oniony smell left over post-first wash, most of it was gone by the second wash.

However, as we mentioned, the Sonder LA Motley Cutting Board is tough to use as a cutting board because it’s just too pretty. It comes out of the box beautifully smooth and polished, thanks to the “multiple coats of a proprietary blend of food-grade mineral oil and flaxseed oil (from the flax plant) … with a final coat of beeswax” that according to Tiffany Yu, Co-Founder of Sonder LA, “leaves the board with a smooth, shiny finish.”

As a result, every knife slice or chop leaves a noticeable mark on the cutting board’s surface area. Admittedly, that adds character to the board, but if you want to preserve its beautiful aesthetic, you might want to save that side for your serving needs. The other side is completely flat and great for your prep work as well.

One of the sturdiest, most stable plastic cutting boards we tested, the OXO Good Grips boards are well-designed, easy to take care of and resistant to knife marks.

The Oxo Good Grips is an economical plastic cutting board option, especially at just under $25 for a pack of two. These sturdy, well-designed cutting boards are available in many sizes and combinations, letting you pick the perfect board for your needs.

The dual-sided board offers a juice canal on one side and a completely flat surface on the other. There’s no hand grip, but the contoured edges let you easily lift one side of the board to sweep waste into a sink or trash bin. Rubber edges and feet kept the extremely lightweight board securely in place as we chopped and sliced.

Another good plastic cutting board, the (grippy) reBoard from Material boasts silicone corners that help keep it stable. It comes in four fun colors and is made of recycled material and renewable sugarcane.

We had high hopes for the Material (grippy) reBoard. After all, it’s a grippier version of the popular reBoard, lauded for its look and functionality. The reBoard had one failing when we tested it — it would simply not stay still — so we were happy to hear that Material Kitchen created a footed version for that extra counter hold.

Sadly, those silicone feet are also this plastic cutting board’s failing. Although they have increased the board’s stability, they’ve also raised the board so that it’s no longer touching the counter surface, which means that whenever you’re chopping (or putting any amount of pressure) the middle sinks then pops back up. It’s not noticeable enough to drastically affect your chopping productivity, but the fact that the board still slides a little does defeat the purpose of the feet.

The plastic cutting board itself is fantastic as a chopping surface. It’s not that big, which means it’s better for daily prep work than for cooking for large parties, but that’s exactly what it’s designed for.

Thanks to its finely textured surface, the admittedly noticeable knife striations we made during testing were surface-level. And we noticed no dulling on our brand-new knife blade. It didn’t seem to retain any of the food odors either. Finally, it’s made of 75% recycled plastic and 25% renewable sugarcane, making it a great option if you’re looking to lower your carbon footprint.

At $40 a piece, it’s not a shabby plastic cutting board option.

The Epicurean Gourmet Series looks like wood, but it cleans up like a plastic board, offering a compromise that’s good for daily use when preparing any kind of food.

Made of Richlite, a composite material made from recycled paper in a matrix of resin, this cutting board is a single piece, like a plastic board, so it won’t split over time. It also doesn’t require oiling or waxing like a wooden board, so it requires no maintenance. Plus, the material can withstand temperatures of up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so not only is this cutting board dishwasher-safe, but it can be used as a trivet as well. It dried quickly after hand-washing during testing, so it’s great for constant use in a busy kitchen.

Richlite does have a couple of downsides. Extremely hard, it dulled knives more quickly than solid wood or plastic cutting boards during testing. It might not be the best option for your finest cutlery unless you’re willing to sharpen often. And because Richlite is so lightweight, the Epicurean Gourmet Series moved and spun easily, although it stayed in place with a towel underneath.

This Dexas Mini Grippmat pack of four flexible color-coded cutting mats helps you separate your chopping to stay organized — and prevents cross-contamination.

These flexible mats are extremely thin and lightweight, although not flimsy. The backside has a textured surface to keep the mat from slipping, and after a day of chopping, we saw no cut marks on the work surface. Once you’re done chopping your vegetables, the mat easily lets you funnel the food into a bowl or container, reducing your overall mess, by rolling up its two sides.

These are the best cutting mats to keep in the cupboard and bring out if you need to quickly chop some vegetables. Since they’re only 8 inches by 11 inches, they’re not suitable for big dinner prep or even meats and cheese, but they are perfect for a small chopping need or even on the go. However, you can also purchase them in a few different sizes, such as a slightly larger 11.5 inches by 14 inches or 14-inch square version, increasing your chopping surface.

The only downside we found is that, unlike similar products, there are no symbols on the different mats to help you remember which mat to use for each type of food category.

Even though these are great cutting mats for the kitchen, we’ll bring these on our next camping trip as well. The mats are extremely durable and flexible and will stand up to any cooking situation.

The solid acacia IKEA Skogsta gives you premium looks and smoothly finished, stain-resistant waxed work surfaces for an affordable price.

If you’re on a tight budget and want a high-quality cutting board, then we strongly recommend the Ikea Skogsta. Made of acacia, a moisture-resistant hardwood, the Skogsta is easy to care for, is pleasant to work on and looks good enough to keep out on your counter.

Both surfaces of this reversible board are incredibly smooth (and you can cut on either side), although the edges aren’t sanded or contoured as carefully as some of the high-end cutting boards we tested.

The Skogsta is pretreated with a wax finish (which can be reapplied periodically, as with any wooden cutting board), and it washed up easily for a wooden board. Excess juices sat right on top and then beaded off, and the board dried almost immediately after washing.

Cutting left minimal knife marks. The finish, a mix of contrasting dark and light boards, also helps hide any marks or blemishes that the board might pick up over time.

This Gorilla Grip set offers three different sized cutting boards, all with the same extremely sturdy but lightweight construction, including rubber edging that keeps slippage to a minimum while chopping

These Gorilla Grip cutting boards come in a set of three, each one being a slightly different size. All boards feature one side with a juice groove while the other is plain, as well as a large hand grip makes it easy to hold on to while moving from counter to table or washing in the sink.

The downside of this cutting board was that, after testing, we found noticeable knife marks — more than on any other plastic cutting board we tested. The Gorilla Grip boards do, however, carry a 10-year warranty, so, if you ultimately don’t like how the board holds up, the company will replace or refund your board for you for any reason.

The Williams-Sonoma Antibacterial is an all-purpose, synthetic cutting board, which is infused with an agent that inhibits bacterial growth. We found this to be a perfect size — not too big — letting us chop all testing items with no issue at all.

This cutting board from Williams Sonoma was the largest plastic cutting board we tested, measuring 16 inches by 12 inches by .625 inches. We didn’t like how slippery the polypropylene surface was, however, and we had to place a towel beneath it when working to keep it stable. The material also picked up visible knife marks during our testing, though not deep or wide grooves. And the indented handles aren’t deep enough to use confidently.

The John Boos Blocks are cutting boards that come in a variety of sizes, stains and features, but for the testing process, we tried out the extra-large 24-inch-by-18-inch-by-1.5-inch size of the Maple Wood Edge Grain Reversible Cutting Board With Juice Groove. It’s big for general use but a perfect size for serving.

While these boards are quite heavy, the side handles make them easier to carry. And since it’s dual-sided, you can select from using the juice grooves or not, depending on what you’re chopping and serving. While the light-colored maple is eventually going to pick up stains and coloration as you use it, out of the box it was very resistant to moisture and staining in our tests; we left strawberries sitting on it for several days and the residue washed away easily, leaving no staining.

However, out of the box, the board was dry and needed oiling right away. This was not necessary with the other high-end cutting boards we tested and not necessarily something the average cook knows to do, even though directions are included in the purchasing description. Even after oiling, we also felt that the surface was rough and needed some sanding.

The J.K Adams Co. Takes Two is a reversible cutting board ideal for those looking to dedicate one side for meats and another side for vegetables; it comes with clearly printed symbols on either side so you won’t mix them up.

The Takes Two cutting boards ship with a mineral oil finish applied and of all the wooden cutting boards we tested, this was the only one that came with two small samples of mineral oil and wax. Because of this, you can immediately treat the board right out of the box if it does feel dry, or retreat after the first few weeks of use, without having to go out to pick up more.

The Take Two’s wood grain hid all knife marks. Unfortunately, though, the factory finish wasn’t enough to resist picking up a stain in our beet-chopping test. The board stained slightly — visible, though not nearly as much as the Brooklyn Butcher Block — and the stains remained after we washed the board several times. We also found the board moved around a lot on the counter while we worked.

While the Ikea Aptitlig bamboo cutting board might sound appealing given its low price, this is one of those boards where you get what you pay for.

This Ikea cutting board is aesthetically pleasing with its slanted sides and can serve as a nice serving platter for veggies or cheese, but it took the worst cut marks of all of the wooden boards we tested.

The rough construction is apparent straight out of the box; we could feel splinters on the edges of the board. While we didn’t notice stains on the board itself, after the wet Aptitlig sat on our countertop, we noticed that it left brownish marks on our counters.

This inexpensive solid beechwood Ikea Proppmätt cutting board also looked its price. The board was poorly sanded out of the box (making for a rough surface), and it was built cheaply enough that we could feel the seams between the joined wooden boards. Our test model also had a large imperfection in the wood.

This cutting board from Ikea is inexpensive but it missed the mark in several tests (which helped us understand why it’s so cheaply priced). The rough surface isn’t treated thoroughly enough from the factory either. After leaving cut beets on the board for five minutes, we found several stains we couldn’t remove. With so many other inexpensive, high-quality boards, including Ikea’s own Skogsta, the Proppmätt is one we’d pass on.

The Royal Bamboo cutting board comes in a three-pack with three different sizes, although there are options to purchase a four- or five-pack if you want to increase your cutting board count. And it has juice grooves and side handles, which are useful features.

This is a great option for anyone who has zero cutting boards as you get three different-sized bamboo boards for a modest price. But as we found with the inexpensive Ikea bamboo board, the surface of the Royal Bamboo is rough and we worry about it splinting over time if not properly maintained.

This cutting board also stayed wet the longest after we washed it — something to keep in mind if you’re hoping to store the board away soon after use. We also noticed that the board left a brown residue on our countertop after it was washed.

Both our writers may not be professional chefs but they’re highly experienced in the kitchen. Freelance writer Jen Yellin has been contributing to several well-known publications, focusing on family-related stories and home products.

Meanwhile, CNN Underscored testing writer Michelle Rae Uy has extensive experience testing and reviewing kitchen appliances and home products. She is also an avid cook who loves hosting for friends and experimenting with new recipes she scours on Instagram. She loves cooking Asian dishes but her current obsession is hand pies. While testing cutting boards, she drew from her experience and used her weekly meal prep as an opportunity to put the boards through their paces.

Absolutely! Oiling a wood or bamboo cutting board prevents it from splitting, cracking or warping and absorbing moisture, thereby keeping it in good condition and extending its life.

Before using your newly acquired cutting board, wash it with soap, wipe it dry and let it air dry completely. Then generously season it with cutting board oil and allow the oil to sit there for a few hours or overnight.

To prevent moisture from pooling and seeping into your cutting boards, it’s best to store them vertically.

Wood cutting boards are the best as they’re more resistant to bacterial growth than plastic, have self-healing properties and won’t damage or dull your knives as much as glass, stone or bamboo boards.