I've always been curious about the different house systems. I kind of think about astrology as a divinatory kind if thing. Because of that, it seems weird to actually choose a house system based on criteria, since the whole idea of choosing seems weird in astrology.

I've always kind of taken an I Ching approach, where the first system I came upon is the one I stay with, giving it up to "chance" as it were.

But I'm not a pro, so I'd be interested to hear what the pros think about the different house systems, and why one over the other...

EDIT: I see there are some other similar posts, so I'll read those. If you feel you'd just be repeating yourself here, feel free to ignore...

Not a pro, but studying off and on for a bit. I notice that several planets change houses with Placidus and Koch. So, I looked to see was I more like this planet in one house vs the other..ie Venus in 5th or 6th or Saturn in 10th or 11th. I feel I identified more with Placidus House System with Saturn in 11th. The reason i stick with Placidus.

 With Whole House, I don't identify with as my Pluto , Mars and Jupiter are in 3rd house and that's just not me. With Placidus I have them in 4th and that's me.

So, I would say look at the diff house systems with your birth time and see what you may feel fits you best.

While studying Astrology in college, my teacher always used Placidus.  That's how I erected my first natal chart and so I've been comfortable using Placidus ever since.  Plus, this house system seems to ring true for me compared to equal house.

Placidus all the way ! When I first started studying astrology, I read that it would  be better to use equal houses for the Northern latitudes, because otherwise the houses may become distrorted around the axises. I myself was born near the 66th parallel, and have 1st and 7th houses spanning only 15 degrees and confined in one sign, 4th and 10th taking nearly 50 degrees each. I've seen far more unbalanced charts too. However, I just think distorted houses are just telling of the life people lead in the North: It has been very harsh (just think about having 30 days of constant daylight, and another 30 of darkness), and produce quite extreme characters.

I started reading my chart with placidus , and looked breefly at equal, just to check it out , but prefered the placidus chart , because it was a nice chart..hahah. Now the last 2 months I have been using equal because it feels more true, allthough I still miss my 5th house leo moon...just have to face the fact that that is not me..hahah.

I live in Norway and my 12th house is gigantic if I  use placisus, with a huge stellium of planets, and how ever much I want to be this hidden , mysterius person, I am so not

I chose equal houses because I was born at a Northern Latitude. 

With Placidus, my 1,2,7, and 8 houses are all ginormous; everything else is teeny tiny: Houses 4-6 and 10-12 are about 10 degrees each; Houses 3 and 9 about 15 degrees each.

With Placidus  of my house/planet placements didn't resonate for me. I think I studied for about 3 years before I made the switch to equal houses and everything makes more sense. 

Lastly I figure if Equal Houses were good enough for the ancients, they're good enough for me.

Oh, and I'm not as high up as Candela:)

Interesting to hear other opinions too ! Equal houses would actually work in an interesting way for me, since it would give me a packed 2nd house. My Mercury would move from the  2nd to  the1st house, and Mars, North Node, Uranus and Venus from the 3rd to the 2nd, where I already have Sun and Pluto (and asteroid Juno).  And there are just too many things in my life that are related to that 3rd house rather than the 2nd house.

One thing I'd like to have from the Equal house chart would be the 9th house Jupiter. It does, in a way, make more sense than the 10th house Jupiter Placidus gives. But then again, many of the 9th house things can be explained by the 3rd house too.

I choose EQUAL houses, and I consider the "MC" as the tenth house cusp (square to ASC).

After 7 years of search, this is the system that works best for me.