Solid oxide fuel cell is a promising technology to convert renewable energy sources to electricity electrochemically at high efficiencies, thus an important applied research topic worldwide. The in-house developed so-called F-stack-design aims at stationary applications and can achieve a very long lifetime. However, since production costs should be reduced, one research focus lies on finding suitable less expensive materials. Therefore, alternatives for the benchmark Ni-mesh as anode contacting element in the stack were studied. Several types of Ni-coated-steels were tested in a stack. After 3000 h of operation the different anode contact materials are compared with the Ni-mesh in terms of microstructure as well as chemical composition. A discussion of the results is given. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.