I recently installed a tile look a like system from HD called “Bootz Industry Nextile” and its all acrylic but has a niche you can add an accent tile if you’d like. It’s one of the nicer ones I’ve installed, if I were to do a surround in my own home that wasn’t tile I’d look for something similar. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bootz-Industries-Nextile-30-in-x-60-in-x-60-in-4-Piece-Direct-to-Stud-Alcove-Tub-Surround-in-White-Z041-5000/308105327 More on reddit.com

I would suggest going to a big box store and looking at the kits sold there. If you’re in the Midwest menards has a lot on display. In my opinion some of the most expensive kits look OK. Nicer than a white acrylics insert but not as nice as tile. More on reddit.com

I own a Dreamline. I installed it during a major renovation in 2014-2015. It has been used every single day, and has had no problems at all. The Pros: It is stupid easy to keep clean. No grout lines to harbor mold or mildew. The walls wipe down with nothing more than a damp sponge. If you apply a hydrophobic coating to the glass, the water just beads and runs off. I use a squee-gee before stepping out, but that is just a personal preference. The floor is just as easy. A little bleach water and it stays brilliant white. The Cons: You must have a square and true enclosure to set it into. Easy with metal studs; less easy with wood. You only have 1/16ths forgiveness to align the three panels properly. Take your time, and use your six foot level often. It is designed as a direct-to-studs installation. Up to you if you want to do that. Too risky for me, though. I created a water-tight box with cement board and RedGard. Added a bit of time and expense, but now I have a layered defense against water leaks. The pan instructions say that setting it into a mortar bed is optional. I recommend it. You want a rock solid floor. Without mortar you can feel the pan flexing as you walk on it. And flexing can lead to cracks down the road. LPT: Cracks are very bad ju-ju. Use quality shower fixtures and hardware. Not included in the kit. You have to provide it. So get stainless steel or brass. You don’t want to have to pull this apart for stupid reasons. More on reddit.com

My choice would be a properly built tile shower.

There’s a lot more that goes into a tile shower in order to make it waterproof. They cost quite a bit more to build, but they can be way nicer IMO. Not many DIY’ers know how to build them right though (not all the pros do either for that matter) and if I had even the slightest suspicion that it wasn’t properly waterproofed, I’d take a prefab shower any day.

Also, there is such a huge variety of tile out there and a lot of it is butt ass ugly. This is absolutely subjective, but I’ve seen some that look so bad that I’d rather have a prefab, not because of the workmanship but purely due to the tile choice.

TLDR: Don’t cut corners building a tile shower and don’t use cheap/ugly tile. If you can’t do that, then just go with a prefab.

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