When designing soft hand exoskeletons, a variety of materials can be used, though silicone remains the preferred option among roboticists. Employing fabrics and other non-stretchable sheets in this context has generally been neglected. We hypothesize that there are many advantages to constructing soft exoskeletons from fabric sheets - one of them being that fabric-based structures are more flexible when evaluated against their silicone counterparts and, thus, are capable of conducting input pressure as higher forces onto the environment. To compare the performance of different materials used in hand exoskeletons, we created four soft, inflatable actuators made from silicone and fabric, and assessed the different designs in regard to their weight, force capability, grip strength and flexion angle. Results show that using 1-way stretch woven structures along with elastic bands are most promising for the construction of soft exoskeletons for applications in rehabilitation and haptic feedback. Pleated fabrics are also favorable for gripper applications thanks to their high grip strength.