I have stained several pads and epoxied far more.
If you use stain, you really need to clear over it.
The stain fades and looks bad where you drive cars and have walking traffic if no clear.
It will also rub off on things like tires.
The epoxy is the way to go.
I have epoxied garage floors with symbols like Pontiac's arrow, mopar insignia's and a chevy bow tie.
Hoping to land a job where the folks want me to epoxy a black and white checker pattern.
It holds up for a very long time, easy to clean. Great for light use garages.
Don't mess around, get the good stuff.