Choose tile over slate and you face the second question: concrete or clay? They look similar on day one, do the same job, and diverge meaningfully over the decades. Here's the comparison without the brochure gloss.
Lifespan and how they age
Clay is fired ceramic: its colour goes all the way through and is permanent, and good clay tiles routinely pass 60 years — plenty of Edwardian clay roofs are still working. Its weakness is frost on tiles that have begun absorbing water, which spalls faces off. Concrete is cast and surface-pigmented: structurally strong for 40–50 years, but its face weathers — the colour fades, the surface erodes and grows porous, and moss finds it hospitable in later life (see our tiled roofs guide for the ageing pattern in detail).
Weight, and why it matters
Concrete is the heavier material tile-for-tile, and on a roof framed for something lighter that's structural, not cosmetic — the classic sagging roof case is concrete tile hung on slate-era timbers. Any switch of material during re-roofing should come with a weight check; ours always does.
Price
Concrete wins on upfront cost, clearly — it's the value benchmark for pitched roofing, and there's no shame in it. Clay costs more per tile and a little more to lay. Per year of service the gap narrows: clay's extra decades and permanent colour repay some of the premium, especially on a house you'll keep.
Appearance — let the house vote
On a period property, clay is usually the right answer: the colour, texture and ageing match what the house was built to wear, and estate agents notice. On post-war and modern houses, concrete is the native material and looks entirely correct. Mixed streets can go either way — matching your neighbours' better roofs is rarely wrong. See what we install on our new tiled roofs page, and the wider material question in slate versus tile.