Hardwood is most expensive and most complex to put down, although still not that difficult. Looks best.
Laminate is least expensive and often looks it, but there are decent ones. Very easy to lay.
LVP is popular with contractors because it's easy to lay and can look good.
I have laminate in my basement and hardwood everywhere else. No horror stories. Consider engineered hardwood, which is basically fiberboard with a top layer of hardwood. All the visual and endurance benefits or hardwood, lower cost.
I mirror what he said. In my previous house, I put down some decent laminate myself in a room upstairs. Fairly easy, was a little tough for me because I had zero experience with that type of stuff. Looked pretty good. Depends on what level you buy. There was low grade Home Depot excrement in there when we moved in. Looked like someone photocopied a generic picture of wood and pasted it to fiberboard. So fake looking. The stuff I installed was mid-grade. Looked good.
Had someone else put in LVP throughout the rest of the house a few years later because I didn't want to do it myself. Looked very nice, not as cheap as laminate but is waterproof. Vinyl planks aren't anywhere near the shitty roll out vinyl from the 90's. So much better.
Moved to our current house that has real wood throughout. Nothing beats the appearance of real wood, but it doesn't hold up well to abuse. But it can be refinished, so there's that.
I'd go with LVP or some laminate that looks good. If the stuff you can afford looks shitty, wait until you have some money saved up for some decent stuff. Don't need to get the most expensive stuff.
