Every estimate we write for a new deck includes both numbers, because the honest answer isn't the same for every house. Treated pine will come in meaningfully cheaper up front. Capped composite will come in cheaper somewhere around year twelve. Which one is right depends on how long you plan to own the house and how you feel about a weekend of sanding every spring.
The Tennessee Valley is a hard climate for wood. We get humidity most of the year, direct sun that bleaches the surface, and a pollen season that embeds itself in anything with open grain. A pressure-treated deck here needs cleaning and resealing roughly every other year to stay looking new, and it will still grey out at the edges. That maintenance isn't optional — skipped long enough, boards cup, split, and start throwing splinters at bare feet.
Capped composite solves the surface problem. A polymer shell over a wood-flour core means no sanding, no staining, no sealing, and no greying. What it does not solve is a bad frame. Composite boards are less forgiving than wood: they telegraph every high joist and every spacing error, and they expand and contract along their length in a way wood doesn't. A composite deck on a frame built to lumber-deck habits will look wrong the week it's finished.
That's the part worth asking any contractor about. Joist spacing for composite is tighter — often 12 inches on center for diagonal patterns and under stair treads rather than the 16 you can get away with in wood. Butt joints need doubled joists or a proper gap. Fastener systems have to match the board profile. All of this is in the manufacturer's installation guide, and all of it is what makes the board warranty enforceable if you ever need it.
Wood still wins in a few situations. If you're selling inside five years, the up-front difference rarely comes back. If the deck is small and low to the ground, the maintenance burden is small too. And if you genuinely like the look and feel of real cedar, nothing synthetic replicates it. Those are legitimate reasons to build wood, and we build plenty of it.
What we'd argue against is choosing wood because composite seemed expensive and nobody broke down why. Get both numbers on one estimate, add fifteen years of stain and labor to the wood column, and then decide.