The 6 Best Tents Under $100 (Bought & Tested!)

Ease of Use

For ease of use, I looked at how quickly I could set up, as well as pack away, each of these tents. My highest rated first:

Timings include staking and guying out the tents.

• The 2 pop up tents were the quickest: The Coleman Pop Up and the Teton Vista, thanks to their pre-attached poles
• The rest of the non-pop-up tents took slightly longer: I had to sleeve all their poles through their pole sleeves
• The Zion’s tie-downs are why it’s last: Underneath the rainfly, its 4 tie-downs had to be manually tied to the poles. Every other tent here uses quicker, more user-friendly Velcro instead

Spaciousness

For spaciousness, I looked at the peak height, how vertical the side walls are, the base area inside the tent, and the vestibule area outside the tent. My highest rated first:

Floor lengths, widths and base areas are my own measurements; Total Area adds the vestibule back in. The Pop Up’s base is circular. Its length and width are the longest points.

• Only 2 tents have vertical walls: The Mountain Ultra and the Zion, with 2 each. An extra pole at the top holds the tent body up, so you keep the peak height across the whole width instead of losing it to sloping dome walls
• Go for a mattress of no more than about 6 inches for most of these tents. The Pop Up’s peak height is so low I’d recommend a pad of maybe 3 inches and below

• Every 2-person model comfortably fits 2 single sleeping pads, with ample space for 2 people

• The vestibules all fit wet gear: Enough room in each one; only the 2 Colemans go without a vestibule

Features

For features, I looked at the door quality and the storage options of each tent. My highest rated first:

• What I look for in doors: The more doors and the bigger, the better; no snags beats snaggy zipping; and pockets are more user-friendly than toggles for stowing the door fabric away
• Only the Mountain Ultra has door pockets: When the door is open, you stuff the fabric into its own door pocket, much quicker than tying up toggles
• The only tent that didn’t make the cut for storage is the Pop Up: Just 1 pocket in the entire tent, split into 2, and it isn’t even very big, no lantern loops, no gear lofts, and no e-port

Ventilation

For ventilation, I looked at the amount of mesh each tent has, the number of vents, the rainfly, and whether there was any condensation. My highest rated first:

• The 2 most ventilated tents are easily the Mountain Ultra and the Zion: About 80% of each tent is covered in mesh, with 360 unblocked views all around

• The Mountain Ultra’s vestibule vents are the best of the lot: The only vents in this review that can be opened and shut from the inside of the tent
• A partial rainfly means more rainy day airflow: The Sundome’s rainfly protects its 2 mesh walls and still ventilates through them at the same time
• Zero condensation, in every tent: I slept in all of these tents overnight, and not a single one had condensation forming on the inner body the next morning

Waterproofing

For rain protection, I put each of these tents through a 1-hour heavy rain test, without adding any waterproofing of my own. My highest rated first:

• The Mountain Ultra was the only tent to survive the elements: Completely dry inside after 13 hours of rain (1 hour of heavy rain, then another 12 hours of moderate to light rain)

• Tub floor height decides a lot: The Mountain Ultra’s is about 10 inches high; the Lynx’s 7-inch tub let water seep into an untaped seam, and the Zion’s 5-6 inches back-splashed water and dirt straight into the tent
• A little sealant fixes the Vista and the Lynx: Both failed only at the seam between the bathtub flooring and the tent body. Seal it, and they’ll take heavy rain as well
• The rest are fair-weather tents: The Sundome started leaking after just 30 minutes (inverted seams instead of taping), and the Pop Up was pretty much soaked after 15 minutes

Quality

For quality, I looked at the flooring, the tent body, the rainfly, the poles, zippers, mesh, stitching, seam taping, and the warranty provided. My highest rated first:

• The Mountain Ultra is the stand-out on materials: Its 150D flooring and tent body are at least double the thickness of any other tent here, its rainfly is tear-resistant ripstop, and the aluminum poles are 7000 series
• All 6 tents have no-brand zippers: I didn’t see a big difference between any of them
• Micro mesh vs regular mesh: The Teton, Alps Mountaineering and Hyke & Byke tents have micro mesh that keeps out even the smallest bugs; both Colemans have regular mesh that stops mosquitoes but not no-see-ums
• Coleman stitching is the weak point: More loose threads, less consistent stitching, and even some patchwork seams. The other tents stitch consistently all around

Portability

For portability, I looked at the weight as well as the packed size of each tent. My highest rated first:

• They’re basically all about the same weight: From the lightest at 6 lbs to the heaviest at 7 lbs; these are all car camping tents, not true backpacking tents
• The 2 pop up tents pack quite a bit bigger: The Vista is ~30% longer than a regular dome tent, and the Pop Up packs into a huge 29-inch circle that can be inconvenient to store away