At some point around 2020, a specific type of cookware started appearing everywhere on social media. Soft colors. Clean lines. Pans that looked genuinely beautiful sitting on a stove rather than just functional objects you hid in a cabinet. Two brands were driving most of this — Caraway and Our Place — and they were both doing it well enough that people started asking the obvious question.
Which one is actually worth buying?
It’s a fair question and the answer is more nuanced than most comparison articles make it out to be. These brands share an aesthetic sensibility but they’re doing quite different things underneath it.
What each brand is actually selling
Caraway launched in 2019 with a four-piece cookware set and a specific message: ceramic nonstick, no PTFE, no PFAS, made to look as good as it cooks. The product was focused. Four pieces, multiple colors, storage accessories included. The whole thing felt considered in a way that most cookware launches don’t.
Our Place came at it differently. The brand’s flagship product — the Always Pan — was a single pan designed to replace eight pieces of cookware. Sauté, steam, strain, braise, sear, fry, serve, store. The idea was kitchen minimalism taken seriously. One good pan instead of a cabinet full of mediocre ones. Our Place also uses ceramic nonstick coating and shares Caraway’s commitment to PFAS-free cooking surfaces.
Both brands understood something the traditional cookware industry was missing — that a generation of home cooks cared about what their kitchen looked like and what their cookware was made of, and nobody was serving them well on either front. That shared insight is why they get compared so often. But the products themselves are answering different questions.
The cookware itself
Caraway’s construction is aluminum core with ceramic coating. Four pieces that each do one job very well — the fry pan fries, the sauté pan sautés, the sauce pan makes sauces, the Dutch oven braises. Nothing revolutionary about the approach. What’s good is that each piece is properly sized and shaped for its purpose, and the ceramic coating performs consistently across all four.
The Always Pan is a more unusual object. It’s wider and shallower than a typical sauté pan, with a lid that doubles as a strainer. There’s a wooden spatula that tucks into the handle. A steamer basket stores inside when not in use. The whole thing is engineered to be genuinely multifunctional rather than just claiming to be.
How well does the Always Pan actually replace eight pieces of cookware? Partially. It handles a wide range of tasks competently. But it’s not going to replace a proper Dutch oven for a long braise, and it’s shallower than you’d want for a big batch of pasta sauce. Our Place knows this — they’ve since launched the Perfect Pot, which handles the deeper cooking tasks the Always Pan wasn’t designed for.
Nonstick performance compared
Fresh out of the box, both are excellent. Food releases cleanly, cleanup is quick, the surfaces feel smooth and well-finished. This isn’t where they separate.
They separate over time.
Caraway’s coating holds up reasonably well with proper care — low to medium heat, silicone utensils, handwashing. Most users report solid performance for two to three years before any noticeable degradation. Some longer. The care requirements are real but not unreasonable.
Our Place has had more mixed feedback on coating longevity. The Always Pan in particular attracted enough reviews mentioning coating wear earlier than expected that it’s become a common data point in discussions about the brand. Our Place has updated their coating formulation since the original launch and the newer versions perform better. If you’re buying now rather than two years ago, this is less of a concern — but it’s worth being aware of the brand’s history on this point.
The storage and organization piece
Caraway includes a canvas lid holder and a magnetic pan rack with their cookware set. You mount the rack inside a cabinet and the pans hang on it, separated from each other, not scratching each other’s surfaces. It’s thoughtful in a practical way. Anyone who has ever had a stack of pans scratching against each other in a cabinet understands immediately why this matters.
Our Place’s storage accessories are more limited. The Always Pan is designed partly around the idea that you have fewer pieces to store — one pan rather than four. Which is a valid answer to the storage problem but a different one.
Price comparison
Caraway’s four-piece set typically runs around $395. Individual pieces range from roughly $95 to $145.
Our Place’s Always Pan is around $150 on its own. The Perfect Pot adds another $165 or so. If you’re buying both to cover what Caraway’s set covers, you’re at roughly similar total spend.
The comparison shifts depending on what you actually cook. If you cook a wide range of things and want a full set, Caraway’s four pieces cover more ground. If you live alone or cook simply and genuinely could get by with one or two pieces, Our Place’s approach is more economical.
Design and color
Both brands take color seriously. Caraway’s palette leans slightly more muted and sophisticated — sage, cream, periwinkle, navy. Our Place goes a bit bolder in places — steam, char, blue salt. Both release seasonal and limited colors that sell out quickly.
Neither brand’s color range is obviously better. This comes down to personal preference and what works in your kitchen. Worth looking at both palettes before deciding, because this is clearly a consideration for anyone buying from either brand.
Which one to actually buy
For most home cooks who want a complete set of ceramic nonstick that looks great, performs well, and comes from a brand that has thought carefully about the ownership experience — Caraway is the cleaner choice. The four pieces cover the cooking bases, the storage solution is genuinely useful, and the coating track record is solid.
Our Place makes more sense if the minimalist appeal is real for you — if you genuinely want fewer pieces in your kitchen and the Always Pan’s versatility fits how you cook. The Perfect Pot addition makes the lineup more complete. Just go in understanding that you may end up wanting both pieces anyway.
The one thing to avoid: buying from either brand without understanding that ceramic nonstick has a lifespan. These are not forever pans. With good care they perform beautifully for years. Without it, they fade faster than they should. That’s true of both brands equally.
