We have a deck and a stamped concrete patio.  Just redid my 20 year old deck boards last year, and it should have been done sooner.  We had placed 2 x 10 joists on 12 " centers when we built it, and that made it stay sturdy for a long time.  We just did our concrete patio last year also, and had bids of around $8 - $12/sq ft.  We did most of the prep work ourselves, like adding fill sand, compacting it, etc.  Then we hired a weekend warrior to head up the stamping.  We picked up the colorant that we added into the ready mix truck, and we picked up the rented stamps themselves, as well as the release agent.  On a 20 x 20 with a 5 x 13 foot sidewalk, we spent right around $2500.  We have a friend with a bar nearby that combined the two concepts and he put approx. 2.5 inches of stamped concrete patio on top of a wood framed deck.  His looks great still and it was several years ago.  

This is the patio at our house, and people still ask us if it is wood or concrete 

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