If you are looking for a coating on your concrete floor that looks great and offers a safe walking surface then a two part epoxy system is going to be your best bet. You can go with a water based one part system but don’t expect it to last nearly as long as a two part product will.
The main difference between the solvent based two part and water based one part epoxy floor coating is the thickness of the resulting covering. With an epoxy that is premixed in a water solution the best you can expect is about a 3 mil coating. This is three thousandths of an inch. With the standard epoxy that has a hardener mixed into the resin you can expect around 10 mils. This is three times as thick which means a lot longer life expectancy. Some epoxy coatings on concrete floors have lasted a few decades in a residential environment or even in a commercial setting that does not see a lot of heavy industrial traffic.
Of course the benefit of using a water based coating is the ease of cleanup. All it takes is some warm water and soap to clean up any overspill and also to get your tools in shape for the next project. The standard epoxy coating product must be cleaned up using acetone or solvent. Most people don’t even bother with their tools and just throw them away after each use.
So the question is, if you are looking for the best garage floor coating are you going to worry about the longevity of the floor protection or is the ease of cleanup going to be your criteria. For my money, I would rather spend a little extra time on clean up and have a floor that may out last the other by three or four times. What do you think?