Artificial grass vs real grass: an honest comparison for UK gardens

We sell artificial grass, so you would expect this guide to tell you it wins. It does not always. There are gardens where a real lawn is the right answer and we will say so. What follows is a straight comparison of cost, upkeep, looks, feel, wildlife, heat, drainage and lifespan for a UK garden, then a plain list of who should choose which.

The short answer

Choose artificial grass if your lawn is small, shaded, heavily used by children or dogs, turns to mud in winter, or you simply do not want to spend weekends on it. Choose real grass if you have a large open lawn that grows well, you enjoy looking after it, wildlife matters to you, or your budget is tight and your time is not. Many gardens do best with both: a real lawn in the sun and artificial grass in the shaded, trampled corner by the back door.

Cost

	Real turf	Artificial grass
Materials, laid onto a prepared base, per m²	£3 to £6 for turf	£7.49 to £19 for grass
Base preparation, per m²	£5 to £10 (topsoil, levelling)	£11 to £20 (MOT, sand, membrane, edging)
Typical 30m² lawn, DIY, day one	£250 to £500	£700 to £1,100
Yearly upkeep, products and equipment	£80 to £200 (mower, feed, seed, weedkiller, water)	£0 to £20 (a brush, occasional cleaner)
Yearly upkeep, your time	30 to 50 hours	2 to 4 hours
Ten-year cost, materials only	£1,050 to £2,500	£700 to £1,300

Real turf is much cheaper to lay and dearer to own. The lines cross somewhere between year four and year seven depending on how seriously you look after a real lawn. If you would pay someone to mow it, artificial grass is cheaper by year two. Our cost guide has the full breakdown for artificial.

Upkeep

A real lawn needs mowing every week or two from March to October, feeding two or three times a year, watering in dry spells, and scarifying, aerating and reseeding to stay dense. Skip it for a season and it thins, moss moves in, and the bare patches turn to mud in November.

Artificial grass needs brushing every few weeks to keep the pile up, leaves cleared in autumn, and a rinse where a dog uses it. That is the whole list. Our cleaning guide covers it in detail; the summary is that it takes less time per year than a real lawn takes per month.

Looks

A well-kept real lawn in June is the best-looking surface there is, and nothing artificial matches it. The same lawn in February, or after a summer party, or under a trampoline, is a different story. Real grass is at its best perhaps four months of the year and at its worst for three.

Good artificial grass looks the same in February as in June. Multi-tone fibres with a brown thatch read as a real lawn from a few metres away; up close and underfoot you know. Cheap flat-green grass looks artificial from anywhere, which is why we recommend samples before buying. The honest position: a real lawn wins on its best day, artificial grass wins on the average day.

Feel

Real grass is cool, soft and slightly damp underfoot. Artificial grass is drier and, in direct summer sun, noticeably warmer. A 40mm artificial pile with sand infill feels close to a real lawn; an 18mm pile feels like a firm mat. Bare feet prefer real grass in summer and artificial in winter, when the real thing is cold mud.

Heat

This is the fair criticism of artificial grass. In direct sun on a hot day, the surface gets hotter than real grass, sometimes uncomfortably so. A quick hose cools it in seconds, lighter multi-tone colours run cooler than dark ones, and a shaded corner matters for a dog that lies out. In a typical British summer it is a handful of days a year; in a south-facing courtyard with no shade it is worth weighing.

Drainage and mud

Here artificial grass wins outright. A real lawn on clay in a wet winter is mud, and a lawn that children and dogs cross twenty times a day is mud from October to March. Artificial grass over a proper free-draining sub-base drains through the backing and stays usable in any weather. If the words "the dog brings mud in" are why you are reading this, that is your answer.

Shade

Real grass needs at least four hours of direct sun a day to stay dense. Under trees, beside a north-facing wall, or in a narrow terraced garden, it thins and mosses no matter what you do. Artificial grass does not care. Shaded gardens are the clearest case for it.

Children and dogs

For children: artificial grass gives a clean, dry, cushioned surface all year, with no mud, no grass stains, and a shockpad option under play equipment. For dogs: it drains, it cleans, it does not turn to mud, and there is nothing to dig up and eat. The one caution is heat in summer. The dogs guide covers the details.

Wildlife and the environment

This is where real grass wins, and we will not pretend otherwise. A real lawn feeds worms, insects and the birds that eat them, absorbs rain, and takes in carbon. Artificial grass is plastic; it supports nothing living on its surface, and although ours drains freely, it does not feed the soil beneath. Manufacturing it has a carbon cost, and at the end of its life it needs disposing of.

Against that: a real lawn that gets mown with a petrol mower, fed with fertiliser, treated with weedkiller and watered with a hose has a footprint of its own, and a lawn that has been reduced to mud and moss supports little either. If wildlife is a priority, the best answer is usually a smaller real lawn managed less intensively, plus wildflower and border planting, with artificial grass only where real grass has failed.

Lifespan

A real lawn lasts as long as it is looked after. Artificial grass carries a 10 year warranty against UV fade and typically lasts 15 to 20 years before the pile is visibly worn. Neither is permanent.

Who should choose what

Your situation	Better choice
Small or medium garden, children or dogs, mud in winter	Artificial
Shaded, north-facing, or under trees	Artificial
Balcony, roof terrace, courtyard, side return	Artificial
Rental or second home, nobody to mow	Artificial
You want the lowest possible upfront cost	Real
Large open sunny lawn that grows well	Real
You enjoy gardening and lawn care	Real
Wildlife and biodiversity are the priority	Real, managed lightly
Hot south-facing courtyard with no shade, no dog	Either; consider paving and planting
Big garden with a mud problem in one corner	Both: real lawn, artificial where it fails

If you go artificial

Choose a pile height for how the lawn is used, not how it feels in the shop; the pile height guide explains. Build the base properly so it drains; the installation guide has the depths. And order free samples and look at them outdoors, because the difference between artificial grass that convinces and artificial grass that does not is mostly the colour blend, and screens cannot show it.