A metal set earns its keep by being the one piece of furniture you stop worrying about, and that's rare enough that I'd pick one over wood or wicker most days of the year.
These sets make the most sense in rooms that get used hard and weather that doesn't cooperate: a balcony that bakes in July and freezes in January, a sunroom with a leaky old window, a kitchen nook where coffee gets spilled every single morning before anyone's awake enough to catch it. I had a wrought iron bistro set on a covered porch for six years and it went through two hailstorms, a dropped cast iron skillet and one toddler who thought the chairs were for climbing. Not a wobble. That's the whole case for metal right there. If you've never owned one and you're starting from nothing, go small, a two seat table with matching chairs for a porch or a narrow kitchen corner, rather than trying to find a six person set on your first try. You'll learn what you actually want from the thing once you've lived with a small version of it.
What separates a set that lasts from one that rusts through in a season comes down to the welds and the coating, not the shape. Run your hand along the underside before you buy anything, if you can. A cheap set has visible seams, sharp edges where the metal was cut, and a powder coat that chips if you look at it wrong. A good one has smooth, rounded joints, a finish that's been baked on rather than sprayed, and legs that don't flex when you lean on the table with both hands, which I always do in a showroom and which has saved me from two bad purchases. Aluminum is lighter and better outdoors since it won't rust, but it dents. Wrought iron is heavier and tougher but needs a coat of wax once a year if it lives outside, which nobody tells you until you've got orange spots on a chair leg by spring.
For finishes, matte black and a soft bronze are the easiest to live with, they hide scuffs and water spots and don't show every fingerprint the way a bright white or gloss finish does by midafternoon sun.
Buy the heavier one every time, the light ones never feel like they're staying put.
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