The 7 Best Cutting Boards of 2024, Tested & Reviewed

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We sliced, diced, chopped, and carved on 70 cutting boards to find our favorite picks.

In This Article

Food & Wine / Joy Kim

There’s a piece of kitchen equipment that’s as ubiquitous and as important as your chef’s knife or go-to cookware set, but you probably don't think much about it: the cutting board. The humble cutting board plays a critical role in nearly every meal, but it doesn't always get the attention it deserves.

We're here to change that. To help narrow down the endless options on the market, we tested 70 models to determine the best cutting boards for cooks of all skill levels. From fine maple to affordable plastic and rubber, we chopped, sliced, and diced for weeks to make our picks. A must-have item for every home cook, here are the best cutting boards based on our tests.

This large, durable, attractive board is gentle on knives but built to last.

It's not dishwasher-safe and requires careful maintenance to keep in top condition.

The iconic wooden cutting boards from John Boos are beloved by working restaurant pros along with celebrity chefs including Ina Garten and Giada De Laurentiis. Made from maple, a soft wood that won't dull your blades, they're well-constructed and heavy enough to stay in place as you chop. Plus, the wood is gorgeous. It can be a beautiful permanent addition to your countertop or a lovely choice for serving a charcuterie board.

As with any wooden cutting board, however, the Boos Chop-N-Slice needs proper care. It absolutely cannot go in the dishwasher — ever. It must be oiled about once a month to protect the wood from drying out and cracking. We found that oiling the new board before beginning our tests made a big difference in how soft and smooth the surface felt. If you stick to the proper maintenance schedule, the board can last for years. In terms of price, the Chop-N-Slice is almost exactly average among the wooden cutting boards in our tests, which makes it a great deal for a Boos board.

Material: Maple | Dimensions: 20 x 15 x 1.25 inches | Weight: 10 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: No

Nonstick silicone edges and strong, lightweight material make this value-priced board a great all-purpose choice.

The soft material picked up scratches and gouges fairly easily.

KitchenAid's plastic cutting board has everything you need and nothing you don't. It's lightweight, with silicone caps on both ends that provide a secure nonslip grip. There's a juice-catching gutter around one side, ideal for carving a rib roast or Thanksgiving turkey without making a mess, or you can flip the board over for a flat slicing surface with a little more area. When you're done, it goes right in the dishwasher. Plus, the price is great — not too far off from the cheapest model we tested, and well below average.

We put this board through the wringer in testing, using it for heavy test kitchen ingredient prep for several days. It held up nicely and didn't damage our kitchen knives, which can sometimes be problematic with hard plastic cutting boards. The downside of that is that sharp knives left cuts and scratches in the material, sometimes deep enough to hold onto bits of herbs or other foods, A trip through the dishwasher was sufficient to get it fully clean, though hand-washing was less effective at getting rid of odors.

Material: Plastic | Dimensions: 14 x 11 x 0.6 inches | Weight: 1.9 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

This heavy-duty maple board is beautiful, with a juice gutter and carrying handles to make carving even easier.

The wood dried out quickly and needed frequent oiling and care.

If you're taking on a dinner-party cooking challenge like beef tenderloin or a whole fish, you need an appropriately grand carving board to present it tableside. Made In's Butcher Block is the best cutting board for meat we tested, thanks to its impressive look and generous juice-collecting gutter that keeps the tabletop dry. It's built in a very similar way to the John Boos model above but with the additional benefits of the gutter and carrying handles on the sides of the board.

We were quite happy with how the Made In board performed, but we did note that it seemed to dry out faster than other wooden models. You'll want to be especially sure to apply oil, as often as every week or two. (For a few extra bucks, you can order a package of this board with Made In's conditioning cream, but any food-safe wood maintenance product should work.)

Material: Maple | Dimensions: 17.75 x 11.75 x 1.6 inches | Weight: 8 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: No

This set's three nonslip, dishwasher-safe cutting boards cost less than most individual models.

Even the largest board isn't big enough for carving.

If you're looking for a bargain, the price is right on Gorilla Grip's set. It gives you three cutting boards of three different sizes, for less money than most of the individual boards we tested. They're well-constructed, too, with rubber sides that provide grip against the counter, juice grooves on all three sizes, and large handles on one side that let you bring the board to the stove and slide ingredients directly into a pot or pan. Nearly two dozen colorways are available, so if you want a grey board with mint-green handles or a brightly colored assortment, either one can be yours.

However, even the largest of Gorilla Grip's three boards isn't all that huge, at 16 by 11.2 inches. That probably won't be able to fit a whole turkey or whole smoked brisket without making a big mess.

Material: Plastic | Dimensions: 16 x 11.2 x 0.37 inches; 13.8 x 9.6 x 0.37 inches; 11.8 x 8 x 0.37 inches | Total Weight: 4.25 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

This trio of double-sided cutting boards is ready to handle every task.

Knives, especially serrated ones, left nicks in the wood, which also picked up stains easily.

You probably want to have more than one size of cutting board. A little one is quick to clean and perfect for slicing a sandwich or single piece of fruit, while a larger board is needed for large meal prep or meat carving. And, of course, it's a good idea from a food-safety perspective to use separate tools for veggies and raw meat.

Caraway's matching set gives you everything you need for every cutting job, plus lots of serving uses. The largest board has carrying handles on one side and a serving divot on the other that can hold crackers for a cheese or charcuterie platter; seasonings to sprinkle on slices of prime rib; or condiments to spoon out onto appetizer plates. The all-purpose medium board has a cracker well on one side, with a juice gutter on the other. Even the smallest size has a small divot for serving (and a plain flat cutting surface on the other side). The trio comes with a convenient holder for storage or to be used as a dish-drying rack.

Our major complaint with the Caraway boards is that their birch wood is fairly easy to scratch. They got some nicks and dings in testing, especially when we used serrated bread knives. Like most light-colored woods, birch is also prone to picking up stains from beets and similar dark-colored items; nothing stained permanently in testing, but we needed lemon juice to help scrub a few times. And even considering that it includes three separate cutting boards and a rack, this set is still fairly pricy.

Material: Birch | Dimensions: 17.17 x 12.2 inches; 13.82 x 10.43 inches; 10.43 x 7.4 inches | Weight: 3.55 pounds; 2.67 pounds; 0.85 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: No

This inexpensive board is huge, easy to clean, and very durable.

The nonstick feet aren't very effective, and it's too big to fit in the dishwasher.

OXO's Good Grips line is full of plastic tools durable enough to hold up over the long term, and its enormous cutting board is no exception. This accessory can handle anything from a leg of lamb to a whole ham. The plastic is thin and lightweight, but it's strong enough that the board will barely flex. It's an ideal material, not so hard that it'll dull knives but still able to hold up to serious slicing with minimal damage. (A serrated bread knife left some scratches in testing, but it did better than many other plastic options.) There's also a juice groove on one side and a completely flat surface on the other for multifunctionality.

This board has rubberized ends, with tiny "feet" at each corner to help hold the board in place on the counter, but we found them too small to be super-effective. We had to press down while cutting to keep the surface from moving around. The huge size was also somewhat impractical: This cutting board is dishwasher-safe, but it was too wide and tall for a standard dishwasher. We would have had to lay the board sideways atop the rack to get it to fit, so we hand-washed instead. Thankfully, that was quite effective. A single scrub removed any stains and odors.

Material: Plastic | Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 inches | Weight: 3.42 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: Yes

This durable cutting board is enormous, with a deep juice groove.

It's very heavy, and impractically large.

If you've picked up a monster turkey for your extended family's Thanksgiving feast, a standard cutting board might not work. But at 18 by 24 inches, the TeakHaus board should be able to handle the biggest birds and most colossal cuts of beef. Its teak wood is especially resistant to water damage, and its juice groove is deep enough to catch lots of spills — a rogue blueberry rolled in and got stuck there during testing.

The downside of such a large cutting board is that it's not practical for everyday use. The TeakHaus weighs 15 pounds and couldn't fit inside our sink to wash. We had to scrub, rinse, rotate, and repeat. It's likely wider than your kitchen drawers, and you'll probably have to find a special cabinet corner to accommodate it. However, it's pretty reasonably priced for a huge, high-quality wooden cutting board.

Material: Teak | Dimensions: 24 x 18 x 1.5 inches | Weight: 15 pounds | Dishwasher-Safe: No

After extensive testing, we chose the John Boos Block Chop-N-Slice Maple Wood Cutting Board as our favorite wooden model for its balance of quality and cost. Versatile and durable, it’s a great board for daily use but also visually appealing to present a cheese and charcuterie spread. Our top-rated plastic cutting board, the KitchenAid Classic Plastic Cutting Board, has nice features at a low price.

We pitted a long list head-to-head for this story, including 11 individual plastic cutting boards, 11 plastic sets, 19 wooden individuals, and two wooden sets. Altogether, our tests included 70 different cutting boards of varying sizes, shapes, and materials.

Food & Wine / Taysha Murtaugh

Food & Wine / Riddley Schirm

After all the usage tests were completed, we revealed the retail prices of the cutting boards to compare and consider value. At the time of testing, the plastic boards and sets ranged in price from $6 to $151, with an average of $49. The wooden items ranged from $18 to $255, averaging $87.

Cutting boards are very commonly made from wood or plastic. Plastic is generally cheaper than wood, lighter, and easier to clean. However, the smooth surface makes plastic liable to slide around on countertops, and hard plastic materials can chip or dull knife blades. Wood is softer and thus easier on knives, and its color and grain can be made into a much nicer-looking tool than plastic. A nice wood cutting board can last longer than a plastic one. To keep it in good condition, we recommend hand-washing and periodic oiling.

Food & Wine / Danielle St. Pierre

Cutting boards come in a wide range of sizes, from just barely big enough to cut an apple with a paring knife, to a massive carving board that can accommodate a 25-pound turkey with room to spare. A bigger board gives you more space for prep, but the largest ones are impractical for everyday use; they're heavy and might not even fit in your sink, let alone your dishwasher. There's no standard size, but a "medium" cutting board will measure between 12 and 18 inches on its longest side. Anything longer than that veers into oversized territory.

Food & Wine / Arnesia Young

Cutting board design doesn't get super-complicated, but there are some helpful features to look out for. Plastic models might have a cutout handle for easy transportation and hanging storage, while heavier wooden ones can have a hollow in the side of the board to help you get a good grip.

A juice groove can also be useful when carving a whole bird or other large cut of meat; it'll keep your counters mess-free and allow you to collect the flavorful liquid for gravy. Lightweight plastic boards can slide around on the countertop, and another feature you might find for these is a nonslip base or "feet" made of silicone or rubber.

Food & Wine / Will Dickey

You should never put a wooden cutting board in the dishwasher! Your best bet for stuck-on bits is to use a sponge or gentle bristled brush with hot, soapy water. Once it’s clean, rinse it thoroughly in hot water on both sides and dry it completely with a towel. (To avoid warping, it's important to wet both sides of a wooden cutting board when you wash it.)

For best results and longest life, yes. Oil absorbs into the wood fibers, keeping them pliable and ensuring the board doesn't crack or separate. You should oil a wooden cutting board about once a month, or more often if the surface starts to feel rough.

You'll want to use a board oil, mineral oil, or other explicitly food-safe product — many cutting board brands sell their own. (Do not use olive, vegetable, or other cooking oil, which will create a layer of sticky goop.) Pour some oil onto a clean, dry board and rub it in with a soft cloth, continuing to coat all surfaces of the top. bottom, and sides. There's no need to wash before using, but you should let the board stand for a few hours to let the oil soak in fully.

Contrary to popular belief, it's perfectly fine to cut raw meat on a wooden cutting board. Many cooks worry that porous wood will hold onto harmful bacteria and allow it to spread, but dish soap, hot water, and a thorough scrub are enough to sanitize the material. In fact, some types of wood have natural antibacterial properties that brands brag about.

The most important rule about raw meat — whether you're cutting it on a cutting board, picking it up with tongs, or handling it in any other way — is to wash your dishes. If something has touched raw meat, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned before it can touch anything else.

Yoshihiro Hi-Soft Professional Grade Cutting Board ($125 at Amazon)

Made of special extra-soft plastic, this cutting board is designed to protect ultra-sharp carbon steel knife blades, which are especially vulnerable to chips and dings from hard plastic. But we didn't find blade-dulling to be much of a problem with any of our tested boards, and this one is incredibly expensive.

Wüsthof TPU Medium Cutting Board ($45 at Wüsthof)

This plastic board is big enough for serious meal prep but light enough that you could throw it in your bag to bring to a potluck. The material's rough texture helps hold the board to the counter and hold food to the board, whether you're using the juice-gutter side or the flat side. The only thing that kept it off our list of favorites is the high price for its size.

Food & Wine / Danielle St. Pierre

Material The rePrep Set ($72 at Material)

Material's sustainable reBoards are made from a combination of recycled plastic and sugarcane for a unique texture, with lots of fun colors available, and this set gets you a small, medium, and large one. We love the aesthetic of these boards, and they're great for light chopping tasks. However, they're expensive, and the tiny nonslip feet on the corners are removable and easy to lose.

Henckels 3-Piece Cutting Board Set ($35 at Amazon)

We're big fans of the knives from Henckels; its inexpensive plastic cutting board set...does the job. The nonstick feet on each board are effective, though they make it so you can only cut on one side. Even the largest board is also fairly small.

KitchenAid Classic Rubberwood Cutting Board ($25 at Amazon)

Natural rubber is made from tree sap; this board is made of wood from that same kind of tree, which is durable and sustainable. This board is impressively inexpensive and performed pretty average in our tests. It's a great choice, but for a low-cost wooden cutting board, we give the edge to the Food52 bamboo model instead.

John Boos Maple Wood Cutting Board ($125 at Amazon)

Another great heavy-duty board from John Boos, this model is a quarter-inch thicker than the Chop-N-Slice above, and it has hollows in the sides that act as handles. These are nice upgrades but not worth the massive increase in price over our favorite wooden cutting board.

The Boardsmith Maple End Grain Butcher Cutting Board ($220 at The Boardsmith)

"Luxury cutting board" is not a phrase you see often, but that's exactly what this is. The hand-crafted boards from The Boardsmith are beautiful, built to last, and fully customizable with many sizes, colors, and features. They are also astonishingly expensive.

Totally Bamboo 3-Piece Bamboo Cutting Board Set ($18 at Amazon)

With a trio of wooden boards for well under 10 bucks each, this set is a great value. We love the carry handles on the two larger sizes, but we have some concerns about the build quality. These are thin compared to competitors, and we worry they'd start to deteriorate quickly.

Food & Wine / Amanda McDonald

The lowest-performing cutting boards in our tests all suffered from the problem of low-quality materials or construction. They weren't necessarily the cheapest in price, but they felt the cheapest, picking up deep scratches and starting to deteriorate after only a handful of uses and washes. We found that higher cost can indicate higher quality, but only to a point — we left some of the most expensive models off our list because they didn't perform any better than more moderately priced ones. Notable brands that we tested but didn't feature include Farberware, Our Place, Dexas, Williams Sonoma, and Sur La Table.