My little guy turns 3 this summer, and I'm looking to save for college.  Do you all recommend a 529 or Coverdell for this purpose?

Google says coverdell has $2k contribution limit per person and 529 has none.  

We did a 529 soon after our first kid was born.  The only funding was relatives who made 1-time contributions when we opened it and it has been accumulating interest for about 13 years now.  The balance has barely doubled in that time.  The investment choices were very limited (very safe managed but low return funds) so I never added money to it which has proven to be a good decision.

I would start a utma account and fund it.  Your kid will pay taxes on the money but assuming they don't make tons of money working in college and the utma withdrawals are under the standard deduction they won't pay any taxes on it.  So it can still be tax-free, more flexible for withdrawals, and vastly more investment options that you can manage if you want to.

ETA: I logged in to check since I don't monitor it, the 529 balance is up 103% since 2007.  Hardly an impressive return.

I opened a Coverdell for my first kid in 2018.  According to E*TRADE, the account currently has an 83.90% Unrealized Gain.  I've put a total of $6k in it, and it's worth more than $11k.

Thats a good idea.  Ill look into the UTMA.

I do both. Max out the cover dell and then do a 529 beyond that. Cover dell works just like a regular brokerage account or Ira in that you can just invest in anything. 529s have more limited choices.

Utma is ok but depending on how much you put in I wouldn’t count on your child being under the standard deduction at college time 15 years from now. At current inflation rates for college it could well cost over 200k. 50k withdrawn a year over four years most likely won’t be tax free.

Now if you are not going to fund it to anywhere near those levels maybe you don’t have to worry but if you are I wouldn’t put it all in an utma.

Utah’s 529.  Excellent options with low expense ratios.

1st step is to check if your state offers any incentives for 529s. Mine does, just like an employer match on a 401k, I max that incentive every year. After that there is no benefit to college savings.

This is absolutely step one.

And then look at investment choices.  A few posters above were commenting like the choice of Coverdell ESA or a 529 determined their investment performance over time.  Ignore those posts.

https://www.physicianonfire.com/tax-break-wealthy-529-account/