I had this dilemma over 3 years ago when I built my 600SQFT deck. I took many things into consideration and tried to figure out what was most important to me. I wanted something that was low maintenance, Very sturdy, and durable.
Hardwoods are beautiful but are super high maintenance. Look at beth oiling it every year. Screw that. Pass.
Composite is virtually no maintenance but it feels cheap cause its basically plastic with a treated MDF center. If your composite deck is getting battered by the sun all day, you can actually feel the heat it produces radiating into the house. Good luck walking on it bare feet. Its also very very flimsy. I pulled out a 16 foot piece holding it 5 feet from the ground and the middle sagged so far it touched the ground. Pass
Ceder was a very very close contender. A huge plus about ceder is that it acts as a natural repellent against bugs. Its also lasts the longest out of all of the other materials. The deck I was rebuilding was ceder and it was 40 years old and still could have been repaired but I wanted to change it. One big downfall about cedar for me is that its soft. I have a lot of furniture on my deck now and if it was cedar it would have beat to hell by now with dents and splinters. So pass
I ended up using treated pine. But not the cheap "deck" boards they sell. I went with full blown 2x6's. I could park a truck on my deck. lol I stained it with a semi-transparent "cedar" color by sherwin williams about 3 years ago and its still going strong. I used all stainless steel screws and hardware. I also put joist tar tape stuff on the joists. (forgot what it was called). So the joists are protected and no squeaking of the boards.Second pic was right before last fall. I built the deck and shed 3 years ago. I built the deck, then built the shed, then stained the deck. I haven't touched it since then. Just put away tiki torches, furniture, ect. before winter. I think using a good stain is key. I'm in west Chicago suburbs so we have pretty harsh winters and pretty hot and humid summers.
Q