I’d recommend watching the Fate anime series in is this order:

1. Fate/Zero

2. Fate/The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II

3. Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

4. Fate/Stay Night

5. Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel (movie trilogy)

6. Fate/Apocrypha

7. Fate/Extra Last Encore

8. Fate/Grand Order: First Order

9. Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front – Babylonia

I haven’t ever watched these three Fate anime:

10. Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya

11. Carnival Phantasm

12. Today's Menu for the Emiya Family

…so I’m couldn’t give a very educated guess of where to place them. They are alternate
universes and don’t have anything to do with the main storyline, so where they are watched
is fairly flexible. But they should be watched after the Fate/Stay Night anime, not before.

Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night seem to be the main body of the story, and everything else
seems to be kind of extra, so I’d at least watch those two series and everything else is
optional, depending on how much you like the Fate series and how much of it you want to
watch.

Also, the story for Stay Night is split into three different versions/retellings of what is more
or less the same plot:

1. Fate/Stay Night

2. Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works

3. Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel

Personally, I think Fate/Unlimited Blade Works is the best, so if you only chose to watch one
of the three versions, I’d go with that one. Fate/Stay Night is pretty boring and doesn’t fit in
as well with the story so I’d actually recommend skipping it unless you are a completionist.
And Fate/Heaven’s Feel is the most different of the versions.
The long answer? Strap in, cuz this one is LONG AF

A little insight into the nature of Fate/Stay night: It started off as a Visual Novel, created by
the developer Type-Moon. As with most visual novels, It has three main routes and several
endings, both good and bad. The main routes are:

a. Fate

b. Unlimited Blade Works

c. Heavens Feel

The anime adapts from each of these routes. It’s a little confusing, so bear with me while I
try to untangle this mess for you.

i. The first adaptation of FSN came by Studio Deen back in 2006. It adapted the Fate route
but included some scenes from other routes as well. This route follows the path of Emiya
Shiro, the protagonist, along with the character Saber as the main romantic interest. It is
deemed the least pleasing in terms of visuals, but it is a good entry into the series
nonetheless. Studio Deen also adapted the second route UBW as a movie, which is much
better in terms of animation quality than the series was. You could watch this one, but the
next adaptation is way better.

ii. The Second adaptation came from the legendary animation studio called UFOTABLE in
2014. It adapted from the Unlimited Blade Works route, and has Tohsaka Rin as the main
romantic interest.

iii. The Third route a.k.a. Heaven’s Feel was adapted again by UFOTABLE as a three part
movie series. The first two movies are out, and the third one will soon be released. This
route has the third main girl, Matou Sakura as the romantic interest.

The story of FSN was given a prequel in the form of light novel Fate/Zero. As light novels
are fairly linear, there are no multiple routes. This was also adapted by UFOTABLE in 2011,
and is by far the most interesting story in the series, in my opinion at least. No romance
plot, just pure epicness.

There are quite a few viewing orders for the series, and each have their merits and demerits.
You could classify them into three categories
1. The Release order: This is, as implied, the order in which the fate series
was released. It starts with Fate/Stay night, then proceeds to Fate/Zero,
which is a prequel. You should probably go with this one as it is the most
common means of following the story.
2. The chronological order: If you want to follow the story from the
beginning, you should watch Fate/Zero first, then Fate/Stay night. The
problem with this order is that certain items of FSN are spoiled by FZ (think
back to the star wars original trilogy and the star wars prequel trilogy which
kind of spoil the whole “I am your father, Luke” part.
3. The spin-offs: These are independent stories set in the Fate universe, or
parallel universes as you may also call it. The premise of these are the same,
however the characters are different. These include Fate/Apocryoha,
Fate/Extra Last Encore, and the upcoming Fate/Grand Order. You could
watch these in any order you like, as they share no connection with the
story of Fate/Stay night that I know of.