Best Weight Plates for 2024: Top Picks for Rubber, Iron, and Steel Weight Plates

REP Fitness Old School Iron Plates are similar to the Rogue Deep Dish Plates. Like the Deep Dish Plates, the REP Old School Iron Plates are single-sided with one deep lip. They’re solid cast iron coated with a matte finish and raised silver lettering to complete the classic vintage look.

Since they’re bare metal plates, they also cost less than the urethane-coated REP Equalizer Plates we love. All in all, they’re a solid choice that comes at a great price point. There’s nothing inherently special about these weight plates in terms of construction or function, but if you’re looking for value, you’ve found it.

While the REP Old School Iron Plates may not seem like a budget item on the surface, once you factor in shipping costs, these come out less expensive than the Deep Dish Plates and a lot of other iron plates. REP’s free shipping really comes in clutch here.

Just like REP’s standard iron plates, the Old School Iron Plates feature a complete cast construction. There are no machined or precision-drilled parts, so expect some minor discrepancies between plates you receive. I don’t think small imperfections are anything to worry about, but it’s worth noting.

Unfortunately, REP Fitness only warranties these iron plates for one year. This doesn’t make me feel super confident in the product, but then again, most bare metal plates don’t have a fantastic warranty.

RELATED: Best Budget Home Gym Equipment

I love a good urethane weight plate. Urethane is an ultra-durable type of rubber that makes for solid, dense weight plates that resist bouncing and skipping.

Titan Fitness lists the weight tolerance as plus/minus 1%, which I have found to be accurate in my usage of these plates. Constructed of virgin urethane rubber, a solid cast iron core, and a hard chrome center hub with a chamfer, the Titan Fitness Urethane Bumper Plates are sure to bless your garage gym for many years.

My main complaint: Because of the lipped, squared-off design, these weight plates are very hard to pick up from the ground if they’re lying flat. It’s just tough to get a finger under the plate to lift it up.

You should also know that urethane is universally slippery, so expect these weight plates to be more grip-averse than most rubber weight plates.

One of my favorite things about these weight plates is their vibrant color. Pictures don’t do them justice and I have a hard time explaining just how shockingly bright these plates are. I might’ve enjoyed unboxing these plates as much as I enjoy using them to this day: They are a standout addition to any home gym.

If you’re looking for a durable, classic set of black bumper plates, look no further than the Rogue Echo Bumper Plates. These sturdy bumpers are constructed of virgin rubber with a stainless steel center ring—two factors that automatically boosted these weight plates to the top of our list.

Although the Echo bumpers are imported and we’d prefer to see them made in the U.S., we know that would jack up the price. We also don’t think the quality is subpar at all despite being imported.

With a Shore A Durometer rating of 88, you can rest assured that the Echo Bumper Plates will withstand drops from the overhead position as well as ego bar slams after hitting a personal record. The 450-millimeter diameter and 50.6-millimeter collar opening meet the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) specs and Rogue’s promise of a +/- 1% weight tolerance means you can confidently train with these bumper plates and hit the same numbers in competitions.

I love the dead bounce on these plates, and it’s something you won’t often see in an economy-priced weight plate. I also think these are some of the cleanest-looking bumper plates out there with a smooth matte black finish and stark contrast with the raised white lettering.

Based on the number of reviews on the Rogue website, the Echo Bumper Plates are Rogue’s best-selling bumpers. These also happen to be Rogue’s least expensive bumper plates. When you factor in Rogue’s exceptional shipping prices and the three-year warranty on the 25-, 35-, and 45-pound plates, you have the best bumper plates for the best price right here. I will say I’m not a fan of the measly 90-day warranty on 10- and 15-pound Echo bumpers, but other than that, these are a win-win in my book.

You can read more in our Rogue Echo Bumper Plates review.

You might think that the most durable bumper plates should be our top pick for the best overall weight plates. But that’s simply not the case: Durability is just one factor you should consider when looking for weight plates, albeit an important one. There are many other things you should consider, of course, such as price, warranty, shipping, diameter, width, and more.

If durability is the primary driver for your bumper plate purchase, the BP Plates from Iron Bull Strength are a fantastic option. These dense bumper plates feel great during use, too, with a low, dead bounce from as high as overhead. The BP Plates have all been tested to withstand more than 10,000 drops from 8 feet high—including their extra-thick 10-pound plates—ensuring durability in a home gym environment.

The bumper plates are constructed of virgin rubber: a solid, dense rubber that allows for a low, dead bounce when dropped. A low bounce protects your weights, barbell, and home gym flooring as well; plus, it helps reduce noise during workouts. 

Although Iron Bull Strength doesn’t give a specific Durometer rating, GGR Everything lead reviewer Lindsay Scheele thought they were solid, in her workout of hang cleans, deadlifts, and front squats. “They had a small bounce when they were dropped, which I prefer, and at no point did they seem to have weak spots when dropped from overhead,” Lindsay adds. “Overall, these are solid.”

Able to be bought in pairs or bundles, the BP Plates are a bit pricier than other bumpers, and free shipping is only for orders above $150; so if you’re looking to buy just a pair of plates, you might have to add shipping costs. Plus, with a limited lifetime warranty (so long as you don’t use these plates negligently), these bumper plates are sure to last.

Crumb rubber plates are made from recycled rubber and creates a more durable plate than those made with virgin rubber (brand-new rubber) and provides a high bounce for CrossFitters or Olympic lifters who are looking for that type of thing (sorry powerlifters, you’re going to have to look at our other options). We’ve tried more than 10 crumb rubber plates and the PRx ones are our favorite to date.

Lindsay Scheele, home gym equipment and Garage Gym Reviews Everything host, uses these for her CrossFit-style workouts and is “obsessed” with them, saying it makes her workouts much more fun.

“I’m a big fan of the flaky look on the plates,” she adds.

While these are indeed durable the 10- or 15-pound plates are so thin and flexible that dropping them may cause the steel insert to pop out and cause damage to the plates and your barbell. Good thing these are sold individually so you can skip those two weights if you want.

Not all 10-pound bumper plates are created equal. If you’re going to pay extra attention to any of your weight plates, make it the 10-pounders. These are the most vulnerable weight plates in your collection of bumpers, so make it a point to get good ones and take good care of them.

As all bumper plate enthusiasts know, 10-pound bumper plates are prone to bending, flexing, cracking, and deforming. Making 10 pounds of rubber fit a 450-millimeter diameter is no simple task. But Fringe Sport has done a pretty darn good job.

Fringe Sport’s 10-pound bumpers are the best we’ve tested. The Shore A Durometer rating of 90 is higher than that of Rogue’s Echo 10-pound bumpers, so naturally, the Fringe Sport ones don’t bend or flex as easily. The hooked stainless steel center hub adds to the durability.

Plus, Fringe Sport offers a one-year warranty on their 10-pound black bumper plates, which is almost unheard of. For comparison, the warranty on the Rogue Echo 10-pound bumper plates is just 90 days. We have no problem recommending a full set of Echos—minus the 10s—and heading over to Fringe Sport for your 10-pounders. This might irk some home gym owners who get nit-picky about having cohesive sets of equipment, but I truly think it’s the right choice.

Or, if you’re just looking to add a set of 10s to your existing collection, we urge you to try these out. Our biggest complaint with the Fringe Sport 10-pound bumper plates is that the diameter is ever so slightly smaller than the diameter of the rest of the plates in this collection: The 10-pound plates are 17.5 inches in diameter while the rest of the collection meets the IWF standard of 17.7 inches. It’s a small difference and probably unnoticeable for most people, but we think it’s worth calling out.

RELATED: Best CrossFit Equipment

Many think competition Olympic bumper plates are the same as regular training bumper plates. This is not so. Competition bumper plates utilize a steel center plate instead of just a center ring; are thinner so you can fit more weight on the bar; are made to IWF specs (including color), and have tighter weight tolerances than standard bumpers.

The Rogue Competition Bumper Plates in particular feature a chrome-plated steel center plate, a gloss-matte-gloss finish in IWF colors, raised white lettering, and official IWF branding. The 450-millimeter diameter meets IWF specs. With a 50.4-millimeter collar opening, these competition bumpers fit an Olympic barbell very snugly and may not fit cheaper barbells that aren’t made to spec.

Tight weight tolerance of just +/- 15 grams of the stated weight means competitors can confidently train with these Olympic weight plates and match their lifts in competitions. Rogue Competition Bumper Plates have an insanely high Shore A Durometer rating of 94, making these some of the densest bumper plates available. No matter how much or how little weight you have on the bar, you will receive a dead bounce when you drop these weight plates.

I love that Rogue added a raised flange around the metal disc to prevent direct metal-to-metal contact when loading multiple plates on your barbell. This prevents premature scuffing and rusting of the steel beneath the chrome coating; however, scuffing and rusting is still always a possibility, especially if you don’t take proper care of these weight plates.

The saying “you get what you pay for” rings true with these plates. Rogue Competition Bumper Plates are not a budget product—I’d go as far as to say they’re a luxury. They’re simply too expensive for most people, and I honestly wouldn’t recommend them for people who have no plans to compete. If you do compete in weightlifting, however, this is the best plate set option for you.

You can read more in our Rogue Competition Bumpers review.

We love a plate that looks sleek, yet solid, and these plates hit the mark on that. These look great and are super functional too. With these plates you won’t have to worry about them slipping from your tired grip thanks to the deep lip on the edge of the plates. Whether you want to load up your barbell for some heavy squats or work on your grip with minimal equipment, these have you covered. 

With a smaller inner diameter of 1.99”, you won’t have to worry about these weights wiggling around on the barbell. At the time of release, these were the tightest fitting plates on the market! The largest plate in the set is also only 1.25” so you will have plenty of room on your bar to keep stacking them up. 

While these iron weight plates may not be the best option for Olympic lifts with so many great bumper plates out there, they are perfect for powerlifting or bodybuilding-style workouts. 

In addition to traditional barbell exercises, deep-dish plates like these have other applications thanks to the extra room for grip. You can use these for farmer’s walks, halos, or even reverse curls with the right grip.

CAP Barbell is known for its budget-friendly pricing and availability at big box stores like Academy Sports & Outdoors and Dick’s Sporting Goods. However, you can also get a lot of different CAP products on Amazon. I’ll be the first to say I wouldn’t normally recommend CAP Barbell weight plates over other brands, but if you’re set on ordering gym equipment from Amazon, these are your best bet.

RELATED: Best Budget Home Gym Equipment on Amazon

CAP has been around for a long time and makes decent, but not great, fitness equipment. These plates are solid cast iron with a semi-gloss enamel painted finish. They feature oversized grips for easy loading onto the bar and clearly marked weight indications in silver.

I agree with the primary sentiment on Amazon: These plates are what they are. They’re run-of-the-mill iron weight plates you can use for general strength training. There’s nothing extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad about them.

There are, however, some minor imperfections you should know about these plates. First of all, they aren’t made to IPF specs, so skip them if you care about that. (We aren’t worried about IWF specs, since we hope you aren’t planning to snatch or jerk with these.) The diameter of the 45-pound CAP plates falls short of the IPF specification of 17.7 inches. These measures about 16.75 inches, which only really matters when you’re deadlifting—just something to keep in mind.

If you search these online, you’ll see a lot of good reviews and a lot of bad ones. It seems to me that all of the people who left good reviews had the right expectations and understood what they would get out of a budget weight plate they ordered on Amazon. People who left bad reviews seemed to think they were ordering from Rogue Fitness or Eleiko. Set your expectations correctly and you’ll enjoy these weight plates just fine.

As one reviewer said on Amazon: “This is a 45-lbs weight with a 2-inch hole in it. Not much to go wrong. It’s heavy and I can pick [it] up and put it back down again to get stronger.”

Well, there you have it.

If you see “calibrated” in the name, expect a high-quality product. If you see Rogue in the name, double your expectations. These are by far the best steel weight plates I’ve ever had the pleasure of using.

When a plate is calibrated, it means the actual weight is less likely to deviate from the stated weight. Some weight plates, for example, might state 45 pounds. But if you weigh it, you could get an actual weight of anywhere from 40 to 50 pounds (typically, inaccurate plates are lighter, not heavier). Calibrated weight plates are machined to precision.

Available in both kilos and pounds and made to IPF specs, these Rogue Calibrated Steel Weight Plates have a tight weight tolerance of just 15 grams more or less than the stated weight. The 50.4-millimeter center opening fits Olympic barbells snugly and, like others with a tight center hub, may be a struggle to fit on cheaper bars that don’t fully conform to IPF specifications.

These plates are extremely thin and probably the absolute best weight plate option for powerlifters on this list. The 55-pound plates are barely over an inch in diameter, so on a standard Olympic barbell, you can load more than 1,000 pounds on the bar.

I will note that the coating on these plates isn’t the best. The paint chips easily and although we haven’t used these plates as much as we’ve used some others, they look more worn than they should. They do look smooth when the paint is new, though.

This type of weight plate is most often found at big-box commercial gyms. This is for good reason: Cast iron weight plates are an economical choice, yet they’ll last for ages. The six-hole design in these REP Fitness Equalizer Plates also makes them much easier to grip and move around than other types of plates, which means members are theoretically—emphasis on theoretically—less likely to drop weights on their toes.

Anyway, REP’s Equalizer Urethane-Coated Iron Olympic Plates are a great pick for anyone who hates bothering with bumpers or metal plates that feel nearly impossible to pick up from the ground. We’ve all been there: Trying for five minutes to finagle a finger underneath a plate lying flat on the ground or stacked on one of those mobile plate poles; eventually asking for a buddy to help or accepting the pain that is smashing your fingernail between two 45s. But I digress.

They’re super easy to load onto bars, and thanks to the thin width (45s clock in at just 1.8 inches), you can load up to eight 45-pound plates on each barbell sleeve and still have room for collars. We’re looking at 720 pounds on the bar, making these a solid choice for a powerlifting bar. If you’re using a 15-kilogram bar like the Bella Bar, note that the barbell sleeves are shorter, so you won’t be able to fit as many plates.

Compared to bare steel or iron weight plates, rubber-coated ones like these have increased durability, so they should resist damage longer. Over time, the thin rubber coating may start to peel, but by that point, you’ve had many years of use without even touching the metal underneath.

Just remember: These are not bumper plates. Despite the rubber coating, you can’t drop these from overhead, from the front rack, or from anywhere. While REP does offer a lifetime warranty on these plates, they aren’t warrantied for dropping. So don’t drop ‘em.

In addition to a weight tolerance no greater than +/- 2% of the stated weight, these plates feature a machine-drilled center hole—not cast—for a super tight fit on the barbell sleeve.

For a closer look at these, check out my REP Equalizer Iron Olympic Plates review.