I stole mine from the subway platform in NY....
I am sorry, that was wrong, i could not control myself
I had to say it, I guess its the mood Iam in...

I wouldn't buy tile online without seeing it / touching it first. Have you gone to a tile store to have a look around? There are hundreds of choices. I think my white crackle-glazed tile was about $5/sf, but I only needed 40 sf. I've installed Home Depot ceramic floor tiles in my current and previous homes with no problems. A wall doesn't get any wear and tear so if you find some cheap tile that you like, I don't see why you shouldn't get it.

We installed the home depot white subway tile in our bathroom, and it looks really nice. Here's a pic:

Who did you find online?

(It helps apples/apples.)

I'm throwing what I know out for comparison.

You can definitely get samples sent, though you usually have to pay something.

I have a fetish for really flat tile, so I like the 4x4's from Subway Ceramics, which are about $11 sq ft, I think. Their subways are a little more, but I think they are the most authentic. I think they are around $15.

They quoted me $25 shipping for an order of about 12 ft.

They have some stock items, but otherwise it takes 4-6 weeks to fill an order, their Web site says.

Otherwise, people seem pretty happy with Daltile, I think it's Rittenhouse line? Widely available (HD), durable, lots of colors, inexpensive.

I hope this helps.

I bought my white subway tile at The Tile Shop. They have several retail locations, or you can buy online and their website says they offer free shipping on internet orders over $100.
As far as tile recommendation: I used their Olympic Subway Tile which was about $4/sf and they sold it to me by the piece, I didn't have to buy entire boxes of it. We DIYed it and are very happy with it. If you can, I would get a sample and compare it to a Home Depot tile. You will see the difference and then can decide for yourself if it is worth the higher price. To me, it was. However, much more than $4/sf and it would not have been!

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile Shop website

yes the subway ceramics was the place i was talking about online and i honestly thought that $11 sq/ft plus about $80 shipping was expensive but they look really nice. thank you for the tile shop website and the free shipping thing is great - it comes out to about $.61 each then actually less expensive than HD. though at first I wasn't sure if the HD was good quality but that photo looks really nice but i am suprised to see that HD actually charges more than the tile shop. i guess when you look at the $.80 each you think it's cheap but when you add up the whole equation it's pretty normal priced. thank you for all of your help

I have another vote for the HD cheapies. I am doing a DIY bathroom job with them, and those tiles are going in so beautifully, they make me look like a tiling genius. They have "lugs" or "shoulders" on the sides, so there is no need for spacers to get nice, tight groutlines (like 1/16 inch)which some find so important for an authentic subway tile install (though if you go handmade, you can't get that close a gap because of size and shape variation).

I understand the subway ceramics are beautiful, I considered those for the kitchen backsplash, and liked that they had the true retro look -- fully squared off, no "pillowed" edge. However, that fully squared off face makes it hard to get a flat installation without lippage (that's where you can see/feel the tiles aren't flat on the same plane- you can feel/see a slight lip or step up between tiles.)

The cheapies are pillowed - meaning each tile is slightly rounded on the face at the edges, and the pillowing makes it easier to disguise the miniscule variations in flatness that even the best tile job will have. And the absence of lugs on the subway ceramics just means you have to use spacers, which means you're more likely to have inconsistent seams (wavering up or down)instead of easy-peasy just stacking the tiles on top of each other.

I'll try to post pics of my subway tile in progress. I think it looks amazing, especially with the mitered chair rail trim I got at HD. I found by comparing the subways to a number of samples from other mfrs (daltile, ann sacks, etc) that it's not "true" white -- it has a little greyish or boneish cast, but that's working just fine for me - I have it butting up to a vintage tub, which needed a toned-down white instead of a modern bright white. It meant I had to work a little harder to find floor mosaics that also had the same coloration, but I found some octagon and black dot cheapies that match and I'm going to jazz them up by picking out the black 1" squares and putting in frosted seaglass mosaic pieces.

If you are doing the tiling yourself, you just need to remember that any tile can look yucky if you don't take the time to do a proper layout (using a ledger board to get the first row level, centering the layout as not to end up with tiny slivers at the ends, making sure you have the trim pieces you need for the job), if you don't periodically check your rows for level, and if you don't keep your groutlines consistent in width. One great tip from my contractor when I started out was to put two tiles on edge (stand them up) find the centers of the width, and mark the center on the unglazed edge, then line up bunches of unmarked tile between the two marked tiles and use your center marks to strike a line on the unglazed sides of the unmarked tiles. Having each tile's center mark really helps in the installation of subways with a running bond or broken joint pattern, because you're always alternating the joint lines. Using the center marks, you can line a tile edge up with the center mark of the tile below. Easy!

Good luck!

I used American Olean from Lowes (very similar to the DalTile at HD) in my bathroom and was very happy with them, also a first-time DIY:

My DH just installed in our kids bathroom the white 6X6 size tile from Home Depot. He had no issues whatsoever. You really can't beat the price.

And the bonus about the American Olean tiles at Lowes are that they are only $.22 apiece. We have them for our bathroom (not yet installed) and they're just the same as the $6-something a foot Dal-Tile samples I have sitting here.

These are the American Oleans that are going in the bathroom: {{gwi:1507212}}From Last Import

We're going with more expensive ones from Anchor Bay Tile for our kitchen, but that's because they carry a 2x4 tile that we really want, plus lots of great liner/listello colors, cheap shipping, and direct purchasing. They're $13.50 a square foot, I believe. If you're after just a basic white subway, though, I don't think you can beat the price/quality combo of the AO ones.

The basics from HD or Lowes are fine. They will give you crisp lines and a clean finish. If that is what you want, I would not feel a need to look further. If you want a particular color, a crackled finish, the pillowed look or the irregular lines that either are or mimic handmade tiles, then you pay a fair bit more -- but for a splash, the cost of either tile may not be as much as the labor if you hire the job out.

Because I spent too much time here and over-thinking all the details, I would have gotten the HD type adn been done with it. Insteaed, I decided I needed something that wasn't totally flat. Mine are Crossville Savoy (look at crossvilleinc.com), and I do like them and the touch of character they have. Not sure I would have been unhappy with the ones from HD though.

now i'm totally confused on what to do. i am doing white cabinets with beadboard and possibly now doing the new silestone white that looks like marble for the countertop. so I guess i'm going for a somewhat elegant/country style mix. at first i really wanted the beveled subway tiles then decided on the flat tiles but now i'm totally unsure what to do. i have seen white grout and grey grout with the white tiles and again don't know which way to turn.

The subways at our Home Depot are daltile. I found the same tile at a local tile shop and they also had the bullnose (both length and width type) which HD did not. I bought at the local tile shop and the price was almost the same as HD. Be careful tho because Daltile makes a couple of different whites. Make sure you get the white that's right for you.

Misleah -- take a deep breath. Tile stores will let you bring samples home. Do it! There are many different "whites" so you want to look at them in different light, in different areas of the backsplash. I brought home samples that looked great at the store but were too "green" or too "blue" or whatever.

I started out wanting white crackle-glaze subway tile. Then I was wooed by limestone and travertine, by shapes and colors and patterns and borders and liners. After endless weeks of searching I finally bought -- white crackle-glaze subway tile. :)

Missleah, I just went through the same thing. Check the thread titled "for those of you with white cabinets and white subway tiles..." I was in despair because I held up a (very) white subway tile we had used to tile the bathrooms next to our white-until-you-see-it-against-something-really-white cabinet door sample. It looked terrible. Little did I know there were many options out there. Luckily a lot of people on this forum came to the rescue with suggestions of tile companies with different shades of white. So far, I have gotten samples of Anchor Bay and Subway Ceramics; both have off-white tiles that look great with our cabinet. I also discovered that our local tile shop carries Irongate (Meredith) tiles; they have a crackle that goes well with our cabinets and some nice decoratives for a backsplash. Samples are definitely the way to go.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I will just have to listen to all of you and get many samples and go with my gut instinct (even if it's the most expensive sample) :)

Thank you for suggesting to look at older threads since I did not know how to do that.

Horus Art Tiffany White Crackle - you can order them on line - Beautiful and inexpensive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tile