I'm planning to have a Kentucky 3 board fence installed around the perimeter of my backyard. I had bids from 3 companies, two of which were comparable and one of which was about $300 cheaper. The cheaper company uses pine boards and posts, and claims that pine is less prone to splitting and warping than poplar. The other companies that use poplar boards claim that it's actually *poplar* that warps less than pine (one of these companies uses pine posts with poplar boards, saying that pine does better in contact with the ground as it absorbs the pretreatment better than poplar).

I'm obviously quite confused as to what to actually believe. Can anyone give me some advice? I think the poplar looks a little nicer in the example photos on the company websites, but my husband doesn't see a difference. We are planning to stain the fence after installation. Thank you!