I’ve had three types so far.
The first on the house was the metal screen with the hinged clips. The screen was too course, let too much little **** through, but the hinges were nice to allow them to be opened for cleaning. I’d have to clean the gutters ant least once an year. Also, these were galvanized steel, so rust kicks in after a few years.
The second on the house are the plastic ones with the screen. These work better for keeping out a lot of the small stuff. Also, they’re flat, so less stuff piles up on them. The plastic screen isn’t very well attached, though. They’re kinda cheaply made. The plastic is starting to break down from UV, so I’m thinking about replacing them. Gutter cleaning now is once every couple of years.
On the garage, I went with the foam inserts. Weirdly, this has been the lowest maintenance. I’ve never had to go back and clean the gutters on the garage.
Complicating details:
The house has a hip roof, extended to an L shape, forming two valleys. The valleys funnel airborn **** in to the gutter corners, and those spots require more maintenance and cleaning.
Whoever hung the gutters was an idiot. Not enough slope.
I used to have two ash trees overhanging the front of the house. Ash trees drop tons of seeds that are perfectly shaped to go through the first design gutter screens I had. The ash trees are gone.
My neighbor has a maple that drops spinners. The screens I have now deal with those pretty well.
I have an overhanging locust. It’s seed pods will pile up on anything, gutters screened or not.
Nothing overhangs the garage. It gets seed pods from the locust, but those mostly just blow off.