Don't buy a set. Buy individual quality pieces to suit your needs. A cast iron pan, enameled Dutch oven, and a couple of brand name stainless pots/sauciers are usually sufficient to run a kitchen. Maybe throw in a cheap stock pot/steamer if you boil pasta. More on reddit.com

Non stick will never be buy it for life. More on reddit.com

Unless you’re just dead set on being matchy matchy with a whole set for aesthetics, I would buy a few different pieces from different companies. Depending on what you’re cooking you may want stainless, cast iron, carbon steel, or non-stick. It’s best to get the right piece of each from the folks who are known for making it imo. As a long time enthusiast these are my recs: Stainless - all clad. 5ply or 3ply straight sided sauté pan and a sauce pan. You’ll want these for acidic foods like tomato sauces or reductions. I use the sauté pan for a lot of Italian cuisine. All clad makes a sauce pan with a porcelain insert double boiler combo. I love mine. Use it for Hollandaise/bearnaise sauce or queso or fondue then use just the stainless bottom part separately for general use. Cast iron skillet - lodge 12 or even better finex 12”. Searing meats mostly and roasting them by moving the entire thing to the oven. I also really like taking my finex out to cook on the grill/fire. Enameled Dutch oven - le creuset or staub. Great for braising or stews or boiling pasta. Carbon steel pan - matfer bourgeat. Searing and stir fry’s. Extremely versatile. The main pan for French cuisine. With proper seasoning it will be non-stick. Crepes. Has the highest specific heat of all pans. Non-stick - Vollrath wear ever. This type of pan isn’t bifl you’ll need a new one ever couple years no matter which brand. Eggs or cheesy sauces makes clean up a breeze. Optional if you make confectionary things like candies you’ll want a piece of copper cookware - mauviel or matfer bourgeat for a copper pan. More on reddit.com

I went down the rabbit hole on cookware a few years back. Here is what I came out with. First there are no magic bullets for pans. It's all about trade offs. Carbon steel, stainless, cast iron, non-stick all have things going for them and against. Each category has different strength, weakness, features and priorities. Honestly a good kitchen will have some of each. I don't always recommend the budget pan, but always remember it's the chef and not the tool. You can cook great food on most any type of pan, it's just how much hassle you're willing to put up with. Spending more on pans is about making your life easier and/or buying something that will last for ever. +++ Stainless Stainless steel is my favorite work horse in the kitchen and makes up most of my pots and pans. Super Budget- Ravere Ware, vintage (pre-'68). Avoid temperature shock and watch out for warped pans. Any brand of Fully Clad pans from Ross. Budget - Cuisinart Pro Triple Ply. (Sweet Spot 1 IMO) Shockingly good for the price. Falls a little short on durability from the mid range. Midrange- Made-in Stainless Clad All Clad D3 if you can find it on sale cheaper than Made-in First real "lifetime" options. High End- (Sweet Spot 2) 1.Demeyere Atlantis or Demeyere Industry 2. Solidteknics Nöni stainless Hard to swallow the Demeyere price but it's really worth it for a lifetime investment if you are serious in the kitchen. Best cladding, best surface treatment, no rivit design. It's the no compromise pan. The price is more, but close enough to the "midrange" option I listed that I would skip over those. IMO get a budget option now and save for the Demeyere later. +++ Carbon Steel This is the most budget friendly type of pan. What you gain in the high end is very minimal IMO. Every serious chef should have 1 good midsize carbon steel skillet. Perfect for jobs where the cast iron is too big or too much of a hassle. Budget- (Sweet Spot IMO) Lodge CRS10 - Carbon Steel Skillet Any number of other thinish carbon steel pans. Thin pans will heat less evenly, thin handles are not as nice to hold. Rivets or welds can be suspect on cheaper pans. Lodge brand/warranty is the reason I put it above other budget options. Midrange- Merten and Storck Much better handle. High End- Solidteknics wrought iron Smithy These pans are AWESOME, but it's not worth the price. +++ Cast Iron Skillets, dutch ovens, bakeware. A good 10" cast iron skillet is awesome. Personally I'm using carbon steel in this roll, but the heat retention of cast iron can't be beat. For some things like dutch ovens nothing else does the job. Budget - (Sweet spot IMO) Lodge Midrange- Vintage Cast Iron It used to be budget but the market is crazy now. Old stuff can have a finer finish and/or be thinner without loosing quality. High End- FINEX Smithy +++ Non Stick Nothing is as slick or easy to clean up as a good non-stick coated pan but... No non stick coating will hold up over time. As a rule of thumb Teflon will last 3-5 years. 4-6 for hex clad. And good ceramic will last 1-3. Also health risks. I work in environmental sciences and regulation. I really can't say enough about staying away from Teflon. PFOS/PFAS/etc. is a thing. It has real negative health effects. You are already being exposed to it in your water, your food, your clothes, your furniture, but the doses you get from cookware can be WAY higher [edit: turns out eating flakes of Teflon doesn't add much to PFOS to your body, still not a fan] . I will never recommend a Teflon pan. Ceramic is unfortunately a really messed up space too. There are really really bad ceramic coatings with heavy metal, PFOS/etc., and worse. There are great ones with none of that and figuring out which is which is not easy. At this time there are only two pans I feel that I have done enough homework on to recommend. Budget Aldi Awesome Pan Midrange The Always Pan The Always Pan is my wife's all time favorite. It's not really a 'Buy it Once' type thing, but it is a great pan. +++ Basic Kit recommendations: Small sauce pan - Stainless Medium/large sauce pan - Stainless Small fry pan - Stainless Medium fry pan - Carbon or Cast Large saute pan - Any material you want Large sauce pot/small pasta pot - Stainless Double boil top that fits large sauce pot - Stainless Optional: Large fry pan - cast iron, Medium saucier - stainless, Dutch oven - Cast Iron or enameled iron, Large Stock pot - stainless, Roasting Pan - Stainless, Wok - Carbon steel More on reddit.com