The 8 Best Budget Backpacking Tents (Bought & Tested!)

Spaciousness

The first test looks at two things: the total base area of each tent (inner tent plus vestibules), and how livable that space actually feels.

Every tent has 2 vestibules except the Kelty, which has 1. The Kelty’s width tapers, so 3.7 ft is its narrower end.

• Biggest floor: The Lynx has the largest inner tent and the largest total area, at 55.7 sq. ft.

• Biggest vestibules: The Stormbreak’s trapezium vestibules give it 21.1 sq. ft. of covered storage, the most here.

Vertical walls = how many of the four sides hold their height instead of sloping straight down from the peak.

• Tallest isn’t most livable: The Lynx has the highest peak here at 47 in, but every wall slopes down from that one point, so it didn’t feel like the most spacious tent I had.
• The pattern: No vertical walls means a simple 2-pole dome, 2 walls means an extra ridge pole, and walls on all 4 sides means a 4-pole structure like the Stormbreak’s (the Aurora gets there with a hubbed pole instead).

Set Up & Pack Away

I pitched and packed every tent alone, against a stopwatch.

• The trend: The more feature-rich the tent, the longer it takes. The Kelty’s 2 poles and 1 vestibule make it the quickest, while the Stormbreak’s 4 poles and 2 vestibules put it near the bottom.
• Not a dealbreaker: There’s only about a 2-minute spread between the fastest and slowest, so I wouldn’t weigh this test too heavily.

Features

Backpacking tents are meant to be light and functional, so there isn’t a ton to compare, but the doors, windows and storage still separate them.

Ranked from the best doors to the worst.

• Pockets over toggles: Stuffing a door into its pocket takes a second or two; tying it up with toggles takes a good 5 seconds every time.
• One door: For 2 people, I’d avoid 1-door tents like the Kelty, since someone always gets stumbled over at night.

• Star-view window: The Coleman is the only 2-person tent I’ve seen with a window. You can stargaze at night without taking the rainfly off.

• Storage: There isn’t much between them: the average tent here has 2 pockets and around 5 loops, with the Stormbreak’s 4 pockets the standout.

Rain Protection

Every tent took at least 1 hour of super heavy rain, with no extra waterproofing added first.

Extra rain notes = the longest rain I’ve put that tent (or its brand’s rainfly) through beyond the standard 1 hour.

• The 24-hour club: North Face and REI rainflies have survived about 24 hours of continuous heavy rain in my testing, and past that, both start seeping through.
• The Teton: 1 hour of heavy rain plus another 12 of light-to-moderate rain, and not a single drop got inside.
• The Kelty: Its rainfly was damp after 2 hours of heavy rain, but nothing dripped into the tent.
• The failure: The Lynx’s tub floor isn’t high enough, so backsplash soaked the seam above it, right where its pockets attach, and dripped into the tent. It needs thorough seam sealing before wet trips.

Ventilation

Three things here: how much mesh each tent has, how many vents you can actually use, and condensation.

None of these are winter tents.

• 80% mesh: On the Teton and Kelty, everything above the tub floor is mesh, so they’re proper summer tents.

• Less mesh, more warmth: The Lynx and Trail Hut carry the most fabric, which costs ventilation but keeps the heat in during the off-season.

Total = vents that can stay open in the rain, plus 2 when the rainfly can be guyed out at the widths for a bottom vent on each side.

• Not all vents count: Some leak the moment it rains, so the “open in rain” column is the number that matters.
• Guy out the widths: Staking the rainfly away from the tent body at the widths creates a bottom vent on each side, so check for those guy-out points on any 2-person tent.

• Condensation: None, in any of the 8 tents, after sleeping in each of them overnight.
• Full disclaimer: I’m 5’3” and 120 lbs, and it was just me in each 2-person tent, so your results may vary.

Quality

Quality here means the materials: what the floor, body, rainfly, poles, zippers and mesh are made of, plus the warranty behind them.

Ranked from the best materials to the worst. *Based on the latest model of the tent. **My estimate, where the brand didn’t state a denier rating.

• Denier: The higher the D number, the thicker and more durable the fabric. The Teton’s 150D is double everything else here, and its rainfly is tear-resistant ripstop on top of that.
• Taffeta: Polyester taffeta is more tightly woven, and stronger, than plain polyester.
• No nylon: Nylon is lighter but pricier, so none of these budget tents use it.

*Based on the latest model of the tent.

• DAC poles: Only the Stormbreak has these top-of-the-line poles. The rest run regular aluminum, with some brands specifying the 7,000 series.
• Zippers: Only the Stormbreak’s are branded (SBS); no other tent here says whose zippers it uses.

• Warranty: Only REI’s is short at 1 year. The rest run 5 years to lifetime.

Portability

The last test weighs everything: packaged weight, trail weight, and the packed size in the carry bag.

Trail weight = leave the carry bag and stakes behind, which saves 7 to 10 oz.

• 2-3 lbs a person: Not ultralight territory, but not terrible for what these tents cost.
• Free footprints: The Nemo, REI and Coleman include one. The REI’s has no grommets though (it toggles onto the tent body), so it’s the only one of the three without a footprint-only pitch.

Take this one loosely, since packed size depends mostly on how big the carry bag is.

• The rating: I scored portability on weight alone, not packed size.