Nichiha makes a composite (fiber-cement) panel system that simulates stone. Such panels are also made of plastic (polyurethane).

Stone veneer (more accurately called "thin stone veneer" to distinguish it from the older stone veneer cavity wall system) is made of real stone or manufactured (cast) stone in a thickness of 1 inch or less so it can be supported by an exterior wall instead of the foundation.

However, manufacturers will call their product whatever they think makes consumers think it will look like real stone on their house so it is necessary to read the specifications very carefully.

In other words, do you want real stone, manufactured stone or a petrochemical product that mimicks stone?

Whatever looks like real or manufactured stone and doesn't look like vinyl. :)

Where we are, regionally native Thin Stone was our most economical choice. While we liked the look of "stacked stone", all of it was artificial. I'd much rather have natural stone, and as many natural products as possible! But that's me. And I LOVE the look of real stone. We chose our palletts at the stone yard, which were marked, then held for our Builder.
I can tell you two things which made a huge difference besides the natural stone:
- the mortar color
- the way that the stone masons "sculpted" the mortar.

Stone yard told us that nowadays, grout makers burn rubber tires to heat the sand, which is turning modern grouts & mortars a (to me, icky) cool, almost blue-grey color, like the sheen on pencil lead. We wanted a warmer look with our Weatherface TS (Thin Stone).

The stonemasons offered to "do" the grout to make the stone installation either look very smooth, very rough, very old, etc. We chose a look where at the top of each stone, the mortar is closer to the depth of the stone - more smooth. But on the bottom of the stones, they would carve out some relief from the mortar, giving the installation some depth, which looks GREAT in long, low raking sunlight of early morning, and late evening.

Very nice, and didn't cost extra!

Good luck!