Concrete
Pros
Few kitchen countertop materials are more misunderstood than high-end concrete. Rock-solid and hard as granite or slate, concrete can be a better fit in contemporary kitchen designs than engineered or natural stones since it exudes a modern industrial aesthetic.
Concrete can be etched, acid-stained, stamped, and sealed to create a countertop surface that is unlike almost any other available material. Modern concrete kitchen countertops are no longer cold impersonal slabs of gray concrete. It can be customized by the addition of small items pressed into the top surface. Glass fragments, stones, shells, and even fiber-optic lights can be embedded.
Concrete countertops have many virtues, especially its ability to be shaped and formed to exactly match your kitchen dimensions and finished precisely to your liking. With other countertop materials, you are often limited to whatever colors and styles are available, but concrete offers you a wider range of options.
While concrete is not scratch-proof, it does resist scratches remarkably well, especially when compared to softer counter materials such as solid surface or laminate.
In the right house, concrete countertops can improve the house's resale value since it is considered to be a premium material, on par with quartz or natural stone counters.
Cons
If you are conditioned to think of concrete as a utilitarian building material used for slabs and foundations, you might imagine that concrete countertops are cheap and easy to install. Nothing could be further from the truth. Concrete is a high-end material when used in kitchen countertops, and fabricating them requires the skill and experience of trained technicians. Expect to pay $150/sq ft or more for full-service concrete countertop fabrication and installation.
If you are averse to regular maintenance, then concrete may not be for you. Concrete does require annual resealing, at a minimum.
Because concrete is so heavy, cabinets and often flooring often need to be strengthened to bear the increased weight.