The Best Cutting Boards (2025) for Slicing, Dicing, Chopping, and Charcuterie

A good cutting board is an essential kitchen tool that provides a layer of protection between your knife and your countertop. But the best cutting boards do more than just protect your counters during food prep—they provide a stable surface when you’re vigorously chopping, and a relatively soft surface with enough give not to dull the blades on your kitchen knives. These are attributes you can get to different degrees with plastic, wood, and rubber boards, and after testing more than 20, these are the four we recommend:

New in this update: In April 2025, we tested three new cutting boards: A flexible silicone cutting board set, a new birch cutting board from DTC cookware company Caraway, and an affordable maple Boos Board.

Best plastic cutting board: Material (grippy) reBoard

I’ve long been a fan of Material’s popular reBoard—a modern, recycled-plastic cutting board that comes in a handful of fun colors. It’s nice to cut on, stylish enough to serve on, and since I started using it, my wooden boards only come out for extravagant displays of charcuterie. But I no longer recommend the original reBoard, because for just $5 more, you can get the newer Grippy reBoard.

Best wooden cutting board: John Boos & Co Maple Wood Edge-Grain Reversible Cutting Board

“Boos boards,” as they’re commonly called, are pretty much the gold standard for wooden cutting boards and this relatively affordable maple board is a dream to cut on.

An example of the kind of staining you can expect with a wood cutting board. A good scrub with some coarse salt and lemon juice should help take care of this.

Megan Wahn

Another great wooden cutting board: Ziruma Handmade Teak Wood Board

This sturdy end-grain cutting board is arguably more durable than the Boos Board since it’s made of teak, a water-resistant hard wood.

If you want a rubber cutting board: Yoshihiro Hi-Soft Cutting Board

Rubber cutting boards are more often seen in professional kitchens than home kitchens, but if you’re looking for something large and durable, and you don’t want to have to bust out your knife sharpener regularly, we recommend this Hi-Soft rubber board by Yoshihiro.

How we tested cutting boards

Before we got our knives out, we researched chopping boards and narrowed down a selection that included a wide range of plastic, rubber, and various types of wood boards that ranged from about $10 to almost $200. To assess the boards’ durability and stability, we used each one for veggies. We chopped a pound of carrots, diced a large onion, and minced fresh ginger. We also cut steamed beets on each board so we could see how much (or how little) each board held onto stains. Finally, we washed each board according to the directions and oiled the wood boards that called for it.

What we looked for when testing cutting boards

Other cutting boards we tested

This plastic cutting board from Oxo is a budget-friendly alternative to our top pick, the Material Grippy reBoard, but has a couple of drawbacks. At 14.5” x 10.5″ it's a good size for meal prep, the plastic cutting surface is nonporous, and silicone strips run the length of both short sides to help keep it in place on the counter when cutting. It’s also reversible, with one side offering a channel to catch meat juices (something the reBoard doesn’t offer). But two things keep it from being a top pick: It's not very attractive so you wouldn't want to use it as a serving board and it's not supposed to go in the dishwasher. Part of the appeal of a plastic board is that you can toss it in the dishwasher, versus having to hand wash it like a wooden or rubber board.

If you’re looking for a nonporous alternative to plastic, we recommend rubber. But both natural and synthetic cutting boards are pricey, so you might want to consider a silicone cutting board. It’s important to note that these are mats, not actual boards. But even at 1/8″ thick, the material provided a reasonable barrier between the knife and counter. Silicone is flexible so it’s easy to fold into a U-shape to transfer ingredients to a pot or scraps to the trash. They’re also dishwasher safe even though they’re very easy to hand wash. And since the entire mat is silicone, it’s very nonslip. These also have a built-in grooves around the entire perimeter and a hole in the corner for hanging and so far, they haven’t held onto any stains (even from steamed beets) or shown any knife marks (even when we tried to make some). That said, some users on Amazon have reported knife damage to their mats, which could be a result of the silicone degrading. Though silicone is durable and heat tolerant, repeated exposure to high heat or sudden temperature changes can weaken its structural integrity.

John Boos Chop-N-Slice Reversible Block Cutting Board

If you have your heart set on a Boos Board but don’t have a lot of space or money, this reversible board from the Chop-N-Slice series is a high-quality board with a pretty low price tag. It’s made of durable maple wood, arrives oiled (it only barely held onto stains from steamed beets), and the footprint is only 18” by 12” but it’s still thick (1.25”). Though it’s not too big or heavy it has handle grooves on both ends, which can be helpful if you’re carrying a loaded board.

In April 2025, we also tested a new cutting board from DTC cookware brand Caraway. These double-sided boards come in three sizes; one side has a juice groove and the other has an indentation along the top intended to hold Caraway's tiny Dot & Dash containers. They're made from eco-friendly birch, which is lightweight compared to other woods and feels a lot like maple when cutting. These boards are also pretty thin, so we have concerns about warping, though limiting exposure to moisture can help with that. The board also comes oiled, though it did hold onto some strawberry and beet stains—as we’d expect any wood board to do.

This 11” x 14” polypropylene (plastic) cutting board is fine but nothing special. It comes in a variety of fun colors, it has a handle hole you can use to hang it, and it’s dishwasher-safe. One side has small rubber feet (a.k.a. The “nonslip gripper” base) which does keep the board stationary, but also makes it so you can only use one side for chopping.

Cutting boards (especially plastic ones) have one job, and that is to provide a protective layer between your knife and your counter. These flimsy “cutting board mats” didn’t, well, cut it in that department. They also slid around a lot when we were testing. If pressed, we’d say this type of cutting board (er, mat) could be handy to have around to put on top of a wood cutting board or butcher block countertop to help keep the wood clean and avoid cross contamination when handling raw meat but we wouldn’t use this for chopping, slicing, or dicing directly on a stone countertop.

Despite its name, the Farberware Nonslip Cutting Board didn’t stay put on the countertop during testing—even though the silicone corners are much bigger than the small silicone grips on our top pick. Though it’s not entirely stable, it is a nice size (14” x 10”) and the plastic construction makes it dishwasher safe.

As much as we love Epicurean’s multi-purpose cooking utensil, the brand’s cutting board is a no-go for us. We wanted to like this one; the nonporous wood composite is dishwasher safe and won’t warp or splinter like wood. Plus it looks so much nicer than plastic. But one reason it’s so durable is because it’s so hard, which made us worry about our knife blades. It was also very loud to use. The pricier nonslip version (which also has a juice groove) was slightly more pleasant to use but we still wouldn’t recommend it.

The Totally Bamboo Kauai bamboo board was totally fine. It looks nice enough, it’s lightweight, and it doesn’t stain as easily as other wooden cutting boards. But the surface was harder than comparable boards and it slid around quite a bit on the counter. It’s also a little high maintenance for bamboo; you’re supposed to treat it with a food-grade mineral oil every few days for a month then re-oil “as needed.”

This bamboo cutting board from Food52’s house brand is solid on one side and has a juice groove and a clever crevice meant to hold your phone so you can look at your recipe while you cut and chop. Because it’s only an inch tall, it’s fairly lightweight and easy to move and flip as needed. However, it held onto beet stains more than we expected for bamboo, with some stubborn stains remaining even after scrubbing. Though it's generally available in three different sizes, at the time of publishing, only the “Happy Medium” (11.25″ x 14.5″) is in stock

If you’re looking for a large teak board, this 15” x 20” option from TeakHaus is a good choice. The high-quality edge-grain teak looks great and the darker wood won’t show stains like lighter-colored wood boards do. Cutting felt comfortable and one side of this reversible board features a juice groove. It’s an inch-and-a-half tall, and that combined with the size makes it pretty bulky. Also, the smell of ginger lingered on this one a bit after we hand washed it.

The Angled Board from Material, which is generally available in FSC-certified walnut or carbon wood (the latter is actually stained white oak), would certainly make an attractive addition to a modern kitchen. But in testing we found that the smooth laminate coating shows knife marks quite easily. It was also surprisingly slippery when we were cutting vegetables. If you’re just going for looks, this would make a dramatic base for a charcuterie or cheese board, but the brand’s Grippy reBoard is a much more functional (and affordable) option for a home cook’s everyday use.

We’re big fans of Made In’s tableware, cookware, and kitchen tools, and we wanted to love Made In's edge-grain Butcher Block. One side is a solid butcher block surface without any grooves or embellishments while the other features a juice groove. At 17.75″x11.75″, it’s also a nice size for big cuts of meat or to use as a charcuterie board. Unfortunately, even though it’s “steamed for durability” and appeared to come oiled out of the box, the surface really showed marks from the chef’s knife we used in testing and beet juice seeped into and stained the knife marks.

At 14.9” x19.6”, this versatile bamboo carving board from Meater (the wireless thermometer brand) is a great option if you want a board for big cuts of meat. One side is solid and free from embellishments while the other features a sizable juice grove and pouring spout. But the light-colored wood stained fairly easily in testing, and required intense scrubbing after we cut beets on it. So if you’re worried about staining and plan to cut a lot of highly-saturated foods on it, you might want to stick to a darker wood, like teak.

The J.K. Adams Maple Wood Basic Cutting Board is made of durable maple. It has a minimal design with no embellishments and won’t add too much height to your prep zone. At just ¾” thick, it’s the thinnest wood board we tested. The 17″x14″ footprint also offers a decent amount of space for cutting and chopping but is compact enough to keep in a small kitchen.

The JK Adams Pour Spout Cutting Board stands out because it has a juice groove and a pouring spout on both sides, making it truly reversible for cutting meat. Though this is a sizable board at 20” x 14”, the groove and spout do take up a significant portion of the surface area available for cutting, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for something to use for really large cuts of meat. The wood is light-colored and will show stains from something like beets, but keeping it treated with beeswax and mineral oil will provide some stain resistance

The Notrax Sani-Tuff Professional Grade Non-Skid Rubber Board is stable and durable, but pricey. We also noticed that it held onto stains more than a synthetic alternative like the Hi-Soft cutting boards. Finally, the Notrax had a faint, but noticeable, rubber tire smell. It didn’t transfer to any of the food we cut on it but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either.

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What kind of cutting board is right for you?

The right cutting board for you may be different from the right cutting board for your friend, or your sibling, or the guy who lives two doors over. It all depends on what kind of cook you are and on your priorities: Are you the kind of person who’s down to spend the time and care on maintaining a gorgeous wood board that’s destined to become an heirloom? Or are you more the fast and on-the-go kind of cook who needs something they can throw in the dishwasher at the end of the day? Here’s a breakdown of the differences among cutting board materials and what that means for you as you’re making your choice.

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How to Wash Your Cutting Boards

As mentioned above, plastic cutting boards are the lowest maintenance option as you can simply pop (most of) them in the dishwasher. Though, if you’re cutting meat or fish, you need to scrape off any remnants under cold water before throwing it in. In restaurant kitchens, people often have a metal scraper that looks a bit like a palette knife for this; your pastry scraper can also work. It prevents the proteins from cooking into the board’s nooks and crannies in hot water.

Use that same cold water scraping technique if you have a rubber board, then follow with a hot, sudsy soap up. Both rubber and plastic boards can be left to air-dry because they aren’t prone to warping.

Wood boards are a different story. They're high maintenance–but also beautiful, long-lasting, and soft on your chef’s knife. Since you’re using your plastic or rubber board for raw meat (right?), a scrape down followed by a warm, soapy hand-wash is usually enough for wood boards. Just don’t forget the underside. If you constantly get only one side of the board wet, you are unevenly hydrating the wood. Keep that same idea in mind when cutting: If your board is reversible, try to use both sides of it. If not, chop in different zones of your board to keep the surface evenly worn. That might sound extra, but if you chop in the same 2″ quadrant daily, the angle on your board will quickly change, which can cause slippage and eventually, dull knives. Drying is the last, crucial step. With a clean dish towel, dry your board as thoroughly as possible. Then prop it up on its side until bone-dry to further guard against warping or cracking.

Because wood can harbor bacteria and is prone to staining, an occasional sanitizing session is necessary—and if you are using your wood board for meat, those sessions should be frequent. Sprinkle any stained areas with coarse salt and rub them with the cut side of half a lemon. To disinfect, dilute some white vinegar with water and spray the surface of your board. Let it sit for a couple minutes before washing and drying.

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Cutting board maintenance

Plastic cutting boards, as well as rubber cutting boards, don’t require oiling or any special care. But, beyond washing, wood boards need to be treated with some TLC. Step right this way for an in-depth explainer on how to clean and care for it, but here’s the gist: At least once a month, pull out a clean microfiber cloth, a food-grade mineral oil, and a food-safe board sealant that combines oil with a protective beeswax. This is just as true if you have an inexpensive teak, acacia wood, or bamboo cutting board, as it is if you go with something pricier, like cherry or walnut.

Rub a small bit of the oil onto every surface of your dry, clean board. (You want the board to be really dry before you do this, so as to not seal in moisture.) Follow with the balm, which will buff into a creamy consistency. Don’t wipe that away just yet. Leave your board to deep-condition overnight, and then in the morning, gently wipe away any extra with a cloth or paper towel.

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Additional reporting by Wilder Davies and Megan Wahn.