I've had both steel and fiberglass. We've never had wood doors, well we might have long ago in our first house (can't remember) but if so, they were replaced with steel. I like steel doors for the security of them. In our first house we lived on acerage and were a bit isolated. We were broken into once (broke and came in through window), and then a second time (burglar alarm caught them that time!), and a third ATTEMPT was made. A young woman at home alone with a baby, was the only one in sight of our house. She saw someone come to the door with gloves on (it was hot weather) and started watching. Called police and she actually saw them try to kick a door in. A metal door, that didn't budge. You could even seen the footprints on the door. Our second house we moved into had a beautiful fiberglass door that looked like wood. It got very strong, hot sun most of the day. Eventually it got a bit of a warp. Nothing like wood would have done, I am sure. I love the look of wood doors (and fiberglass), but I also really like having a painted door. We built the house we live in now and went with steel doors with leaded glass inserts. tina

The answer to your question depends on your climate and whether the door will have some protection from the elements e.g., a porch or (gasp) a storm door. In our coastal Virginia climate, wood doors don't perform well, but they perform better if protected by a porch. You will need to periodically re-paint or re-stain either a FG or wood door. If you're considering a composite door, I suggest you check out Plastpro doors--In my opinion they are better engineered than Therma Tru doors and in our market they cost a little less, too.

We ordered our fiberglass door through ThermaTru. I can't speak to the quality of it yet as we have about 2 weeks to go before it arrives. I live in Texas and we've had a solid wood door for the past 11 years. It's under a covered porch and it's held up fairly well. It does swell during the summer humid months and it sticks. We opted for a fiberglass door this time around because I wanted a painted door, not stained. I've had stained the past 11 years and wanted something different so I figured why pay an upgrade for beautiful stain grade wood if I was just going to paint it.? Hopefully we like it!

We used Thermatru fiberglass for our two exterior French doors and a rear garage side door; no specific experience with that brand, they had exactly what we wanted however only time will tell if it was a wise decision. We selected fiberglass for durability and less maintenance.