Differences in tiles from the hardware store or tile center

...and the structure is either not there at all or very "tile-typical".

You mean the surface, right? I agree with you, that’s an additional factor: especially with wood look... either it’s just striped, with better quality you also have irregular grooves, which can sometimes be deeper or go crosswise. We have wood look in the bathroom and there are real grooves in it.

Hardware store tiles are (from memory) often very smooth. Tiles with sandstone or slate look also have price as the quality feature.

What do you mean by smooth and ribbed? The surface of a wooden floorboard is also smooth; any grooves are just dirt collectors. Now I have looked at the pattern of the tiles for the first time, and the tiler actually placed two identical tiles next to each other once—meaning the tilers also need to think a bit when laying them. Otherwise, there is so much stuff written on the tiles nowadays that the patterns are secondary.

I am now only talking about quality, not appearance. Our first house, a terraced house, was built in the 1990s by a builder from Lübeck and was handed over to us un-tiled and unpainted. That was the rule. We then had our tiles laid by a janitorial service; Geit nich gifft nich. Money was tight, so only goods from Praktiker were used, 20% off everything except pet food. Porcelain stoneware, South Indian spot party, 5,- marks per square meter. Wall tiles at 4.95 DM. We did not have to replace these tiles until the sale in 2016. No chipped spots, no cracks, good slip resistance, everything like new when clean. Sure, the appearance was plain, the format small-scale by today's standards. But quality for a private living area completely sufficient. So, even at Praktiker there was no real crap. Karsten

So I just got an offer from the dealer and have to say: it is a bit more expensive, but not by much. You have to keep in mind, I get advice (2 times 2 hours+, first idea discarded, second one picked up). They are all tiles from major manufacturers: the advantage here is that if you're lucky, you can even get some from the same batch later on.

Previously, we already bought tiles at another specialty store. There were real discounts there. Again, no no-name tiles. For the basement in the format 30x30 for 3.50 to 5 euros per sqm. For the "playroom" in the basement, there was wood look from Flaviker, 11.90 per sqm. Our current tiler was a bit amazed at the price.

So, it's worth looking around a bit and taking advantage of good advice. Often the sellers are former tilers and therefore know what they are talking about.

was meint ihr mit glatt und geriffelt? Die Oberfläche einer Holzdiele ist doch auch glatt

A brushed and oiled plank is not smooth.

what do you mean by smooth and grooved? The surface of a wooden plank is also smooth, any grooves are just dirt collectors.
...

No! DIY store goods and cheap planks maybe. The expensive ones have an imitated texture, like you also find in nature.
If you call something like that a dirt collector, you probably can't do anything with the term haptics?

Here is a tile that is not from the DIY store, but rather in the average price range of wood look:

I can only recommend simply looking at a cheap tile in the hardware store and an expensive one in the specialist shop.

We also wanted tiles in wood look for the living room and initially had a tile from Harrys for €25/sqm in mind. But then we looked at tiles from Marazzi, which were €55/sqm, but also played in a completely different league. As Yvonne already wrote, the different types of grain, the quality of the appearance compared to the original wood, and especially the haptics (felt print vs. replica including "waves") were ultimately so decisive for us that we chose the expensive option and have never regretted it to this day - quite the opposite