Cheap Tents VS. Expensive Tents: $100 vs $500 (REAL Pictures!)

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I bought the Coleman Sundome 6 for ~$100, and this has become one of my favorite budget-friendly camping tents. On the other hand, I paid close to $500 for The North Face Wawona 6, and this is one of my favorite higher-end, more expensive tents.

This article goes through 13 key differences I noticed after weeks of using both these tents. First, a quick summary:

Expensive tents tend to have more features, more livable space, more storage, better rain protection, and much higher quality materials. On the other hand, budget tents have less features, less space, much less storage, lower quality materials, and they tend to leak in the rain much more easily.

*This is a picture of both a $100 tent (left, Coleman Sundome 6) and a $500 tent (right, The North Face Wawona 6) in my yard.*

RELATED: (1) Best 6-Person Tents, (2) Best Coleman Tents, (3) Best Tents Under $100

Characteristics	$500 Tent	$100 Tent
No. of Vestibules	1	0
Vestibule Area	51.0 square feet	0
No. of Poles	4	3
Set Up Timing	20 minutes	11.5 minutes
No. of Doors	2	1
No. of Pockets	9	2
No. of Loops	8	1
1-Hour Rain Test	Passed	Failed
Waterproof Rating	1,200mm	None
Seam Taping	Yes	No
Zipper Quality	SBS	No brand
Mesh Quality	Micro mesh	Regular mesh
Flooring Material	150D polyester	Polyethylene
Tent Body Material	75D polyester	68D polyester
Pole Material	DAC MX	Fiberglass
Warranty	Lifetime	1 year

All the differences between a $500 tent (The North Face Wawona 6) and a $100 tent (Coleman Sundome 6).

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Check out the $500 tent (Wawona 6):

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Check price on REI Co-op

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Read my full review

Or, check out the $100 tent (Sundome 6):

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Read my full review

Table Of Contents

1. Vestibule
2. Livable Space
3. Set Up
4. Door Quality
5. Mesh Quality
6. Amount of Mesh
7. Storage Options
8. Storage Placement
9. Rain Protection
10. Waterproof Rating
11. Seam Taping
12. Materials Used
13. Warranty Length
Conclusion
Bonus: Must Read!

1. Vestibule

I think the biggest difference you might have noticed between these 2 tents is the vestibule.

$100 Tent

For the $100 tent, the Sundome 6, there’s no vestibule at all. It’s just a very simple dome tent.

There is a slightly overhanging rainfly pole (pictured below), but it protects only the door of the Sundome, and nothing else outside the tent.

*Me touching the rainfly pole of the Coleman Sundome 6.*

So, even your footwear outside the tent will get wet in the light rain.

$500 Tent

On the other hand, for a much more expensive $500 tent like the Wawona 6, you’ll get a super huge vestibule, and it’s so big, that I could fit not just 2 chairs, but I even have a ton of leftover space for even a camping table.

*What 2 camping chairs look like in the vestibule of The North Face Wawona 6.*

In fact, the base area of the Wawona’s vestibule came in at a whopping 51.0 square feet, which is huge.

2. Livable Space

On top of the vestibule, I also got a lot more livable space in the inner tent of the Wawona than the Sundome.

$100 Tent

For the Sundome, it’s a very simple 2-pole set-up, with just 2 poles crisscrossing each other to give you this simple dome shape.

*The Coleman Sundome 6 has a very simple 2-pole dome set up.*

There’s not a lot of livable space in this set-up, because the walls slope inwards the most. So, when I take just 2 steps away from the peak height, my head would touch the top of the tent, right here.

*This is a picture of me standing in the corner of the Coleman Sundome 6. Notice I can’t stand upright anymore.*

$500 Tent

On the other hand, the Wawona’s inner tent has a slightly more complex 3-pole set up.

You have the same 2 poles crisscrossing each other to give you that dome shape, so basically the same as the Sundome.

*Me setting up the first 2 poles of The North Face Wawona 6.*

But the Wawona has an additional third pole for the inner tent, which extends the tent fabric upwards, and outwards. In fact, it gave me a completely vertical front wall.

*A bottom-up look at the front wall of The North Face Wawona 6.*

I think you can see it better without the rainfly. Okay, so this is me standing in front of the wall, and notice how I’m able to stand completely upright? That’s how vertical it is.

*Me standing with my back pressed against the front wall of The North Face Wawona 6.*

And this is the part in front of the wall that gives you a little bit more livable space than any other regular dome tent.

Notice the black pole pulls the fabric outwards at the front of The North Face Wawona 6. — *Notice the additional third pole pulls the fabric outwards at the front of the Wawona 6.*

3. Set Up

$500 Tent

But because I got not just the extra vestibule, but also an extra pole to set up for the inner tent, the Wawona 6 took me longer to set up, coming in at about 20 minutes.

*This is a picture of me securing the rainfly onto the tent body of The North Face Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, the Sundome 6, without any vestibule, and with just a very simple dome set up, took me only 11.5 minutes, which is about half the time of the Wawona.

*This is a picture of me guying out the Coleman Sundome 6.*

Pro Tip: Basically, the more features, like vestibules and extra poles, which you’ve got to set up, the longer it’ll take you.

4. Door Quality

I also found that the door quality in more expensive tents is much better than in budget-friendly tents.

$500 Tent

For example, in my $500 Wawona 6, I had not just this front door, but also a smaller back door at the other end of the tent, so a total of 2 doors (not including the other 2 doors of the vestibule). You can see both doors in the picture below:

*Me tying up the front door fabric of The North Face Wawona 6.*

I found that my doors are completely snag-free, I needed to use only 1 hand to unzip the entire door, and unzipping it takes just 3 seconds.

*Me unzipping the front door of The North Face Wawona 6.*

On top of that, the doors on expensive tents are usually super huge, taking up almost the entire wall of the tent, and I can easily take entire double pads in and out of the tent.

*Me taking my Exped MegaMat Duo 10 out the front door of the Wawona 6.*

They’re also usually super tall, this door measures 70 inches from the ground to the top of the door, so when walking in and out of the Wawona 6 through this front door, I never had to duck at all, which is super nice.

*How tall the front door of The North Face Wawona 6 is, compared to my height (5’3).*

The zippers are made of SBS, so a grade lower than YKK, but at least it’s still branded.

*A close-up shot of the SBS zippers of the front door of The North Face Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, for my $100 tent, the Sundome 6, there’s just 1 door.

The door is much smaller, it clearly doesn’t take up the entire wall of the tent, it measures just 56 inches from the ground to the top of the door, so a whopping 14 inches lower than the Wawona, and I had to duck when getting in and out of the tent through this door.

*This is a picture of me ducking to get through the door of the Coleman Sundome 6.*

The zippers are non-branded, which is usually what I find in budget-friendly tents, and the zipping experience is usually not as good.

*This is what the door zippers in the Coleman Sundome 6 look like.*

For the Sundome, there’s this rain flap that keeps getting in the way of the zipper track, so it makes the zipper come off as snaggy, and it’s definitely not as user-friendly.

*The rain flap of the Coleman Sundome 6 blocking the zipper path.*

So, I usually use one hand to hold the rain flap away when zipping the door up, and I use my other hand to zip up the door. Also, not one-handed like the Wawona.

5. Mesh Quality

The quality of the mesh is also very different in expensive tents and budget tents.

$500 Tent

For my Wawona 6, notice that the holes of the mesh are very fine, so it keeps out even the smaller bugs. Whenever it rains, I would find a lot of bugs hiding under my Wawona’s vestibule, but none of them were able to get into the inner tent, which is really nice.

*A close-up shot of the micro mesh in the Wawona 6, with a spider crawling on it for a size comparison.*

Also, when I run my hand over the mesh, it feels really soft, very silky, and definitely feels higher quality.

*A close-up shot of the micro mesh on the front door of the Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, for my Sundome 6, notice that the holes of the mesh are much bigger, so it definitely doesn’t keep out smaller bugs like no-see-ums, if you have that where you’re camping.

*This is a close-up shot of the mesh in the Coleman Sundome 6.*

And also, when I run my hand over the Sundome’s mesh, it doesn’t feel as smooth, it feels rougher, and less expensive, for sure.

Pro Tip: It’s definitely more expensive to manufacture no-see-um mesh rather than just regular mosquito netting, that’s why only the more expensive tents tend to have no-see-um mesh.

6. Amount of Mesh

On top of the quality of the mesh, I also like to look at the amount of mesh there is on a tent. Here, I’m comparing 3-season summer tents, so for me, the more mesh there is for ventilation, the better.

Pro Tip: And mesh is typically more expensive to manufacture than just regular fabric, so less expensive budget tents tend to have way more fabric than mesh.

$500 Tent

On the other hand, more expensive 3-season tents tend to have more mesh than fabric. For example, my Wawona 6 has a ton of mesh.

For the front vertical wall, a good three-quarters of this wall is made of mesh for tons of ventilation.

*The North Face Wawona 6 without the rainfly.*

And on top of that, the 4 walls of the tent all have mesh panels that join together at the top, giving you a mesh ceiling, which is really nice.

*The ceiling and front door mesh of The North Face Wawona 6.*

And I could even open the back window for more ventilation as well.

$100 Tent

For more budget-friendly tents, like the Sundome 6, notice that there’s a little less mesh than the Wawona. But honestly, I think this isn’t too bad for a budget-friendly tent.

*This is what the Coleman Sundome 6 looks like with the rainfly off.*

I’ve seen much worse no-brand tents, which have way more fabric and too little mesh, because it’s cheaper to make tents that way.

7. Storage Options

$500 Tent

For storage, my more expensive Wawona 6 comes with a total of 9 pockets. There are 4 pockets over the small back door, and 3 pockets on the window fabric of the back door, and you can see all 7 pockets in this picture below:

*This is a picture of 7 pockets in Wawona 6.*

To make up the 9 pockets, there are another 2 more pockets at the sides nearer the front of the tent, 1 at each side, and you can see both of them here:

*This is a picture of the front of Wawona 6, which has 2 pockets.*

The Wawona 6 also comes with 8 loops to hang stuff from, 1 loop right at the very top of the tent, at the center, plus 4 more loops around it (so that’s 5 loops here):

*My lantern hanging on one of the top loops of the inner tent of the Wawona 6.*

There are another 3 loops in the vestibule, making up the total of 8 loops.

*My lantern hanging on one of the vestibule loops of the Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, my Sundome 6 comes with just 2 pockets inside the tent, and just 1 lantern loop at the very top of the tent. This is way too little storage for a 6-person tent.

*This is a picture of me measuring the dimensions of each pocket inside the Coleman Sundome 6.*

8. Storage Placement

On top of just the number of storage options, also take note of the positioning of the pockets.

$100 Tent

For more budget-friendly tents, I find that the brand sometimes just places pockets wherever they want to.

*The red arrow is pointing to where the pockets are sewn to the Coleman Instant 4.*

For example, not my Sundome 6 but my Instant 4, Coleman just put the pockets at the 2 sides of the tent, and when I rain tested my Instant 4, the pockets leaked water into the tent, which is definitely not good.

*The pocket of my Coleman Instant 4 leaking water into the tent.*

$500 Tent

On the other hand, expensive brands tend to put the pockets in more thoughtful places.

For example, in the Wawona 6, I love that all these pockets are protected by either the back door fabric, or the rainfly fabric, so that there won’t be any leaking into the tent through the pocket seams.

For the 2 pockets at the front of the Wawona 6, notice the outline of the rainfly, and how the rainfly completely protects the entire pocket from any leaking:

*Me reaching into one of the side pockets in the Wawona 6.*

9. Rain Protection

Speaking of the rain test, this is one of the bigger differences.

$100 Tent

For my $100 tent, the Sundome 6, when I rain tested this tent, I found the first drop of water got into the tent after just 35 minutes of heavy rain.

*The corner of the Sundome 6 was not taped and let in a little tiny puddle of water.*

And you might find this surprising, but the Sundome is already one of my better Coleman tents. I’m not even kidding.

I also rain tested my Coleman Instant Tents, and they leaked within 15 minutes, because the rainfly is a lot smaller.

*This is a picture of me using a water hose to hose down the Coleman Instant Tent 4.*

*This bathtub flooring seam is the most vulnerable seam in the Coleman Instant Tent 4.*

The exact same thing happened when I rain tested my Coleman Pop Up Tents as well.

*This is a picture of me using a water hose to spray water on my Coleman Pop Up 2.*

*This is a picture of water dripping from the door of my Coleman Pop Up 2. Notice the puddles of water on the floor as well.*

$500 Tent

As for my Wawona 6, well, I put this tent through 3 whole hours of heavy pouring rain, even heavier than the Sundome, and it stayed completely dry.

*The North Face Wawona 6 in the heavy rain in my yard.*

That’s the difference between expensive tents and budget tents. Why exactly do expensive tents stay dry for much longer? Well, I think there are 2 reasons.

10. Waterproof Rating

First, the waterproof rating.

$500 Tent

For the Wawona 6, every single part of the tent has been treated with a 1,200 millimeter polyurethane coating. This includes not just the rainfly, the flooring, but also the tent body.

The North Face logo in heavy rain.

In fact, I rain tested my Wawona 6 through not just 3 hours of heavy afternoon pouring rain, but 3 days of this kind of rain, at least over 3 hours every single day.

*A bottom-up view of the back wall of the Wawona 6.*

And it was only after the third day that I found that the back wall was a little bit damp. It didn’t leak into the tent or anything, but it was slightly damp when I touched the wall.

*Me checking the back wall of the Wawona 6 from the inside of the tent.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, Coleman tents tend to not really advertise their waterproof rating, I don’t usually know what they are, and sometimes after my more thorough rain testing, I would find that the fabric actually absorbs the water instead of wicking it away. Definitely not as good.

*The rainfly of the Coleman Sundome 6 absorbing water.*

11. Seam Taping

The second reason is the seam taping.

$500 Tent

For my Wawona 6, I checked the entire tent, and all the seam taping was perfect.

So basically, all the rainfly seams were taped, and on the inside of the tent, all the seams not covered by the rainfly have been seam taped. Yes, every single one.

*Some of the taped seams in the Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, Coleman likes to use what they call their WeatherTec system, which includes inverted, but un-taped seams. And I find that these generally don’t hold up well to heavy rain.

Here’s what the inverted bathtub flooring to tent body seam in the Sundome 6 looks like:

*This is a picture of me checking the leakage inside the Coleman Sundome 6.*

If you look closely in the picture above, you’ll find a few droplets of water on the floor next to my hand.

Pro Tip: The most leaking from my rain test actually came from these types of seams. So, if you’re expecting heavy rains, you gotta seal these seams yourself.

12. Materials Used

The materials used in expensive tents are definitely better than budget tents.

$500 Tent

For my Wawona 6, the flooring is made of 150-denier polyester, the rest of the tent body and the rainfly is made of 75-denier polyester, and all 5 poles are made of high-quality DAC MX, which is top-of-the-line aluminum.

*What the flooring of the Wawona 6 looks like.*

I found that these DAC poles were very user-friendly, they snapped together easily, and they didn’t even bend at all through my weeks of testing.

*The 4 DAC MX poles of The North Face Wawona 6.*

$100 Tent

On the other hand, for my Sundome 6, you have pretty much all the budget materials, like polyethylene flooring, which is this really inexpensive tarp-like material, it’s not as nice to step on, it’s less smooth and sounds crunchier and louder when you step on it.

*This is the polyethylene flooring of the Coleman Sundome 2.*

You also get slightly less thick rainflies and tent bodies, coming in at 68-denier polyester, and all the poles are usually made of fiberglass, so less sturdy and they break more easily.

*This is a picture of me touching the tent body of the Coleman Sundome 6.*

*Here are all 3 fiberglass poles of the Coleman Sundome 6.*

For example, some of my thinner fiberglass poles from Coleman just snapped out of the box, like this rainfly pole from my Coleman Red Canyon 8:

*This is a picture of me duct taping the rainfly pole of the Coleman Red Canyon 8. It broke on my first use.*

13. Warranty Length

When it comes to the length of the warranty each brand provides, The North Face gives you a limited lifetime warranty, while Coleman gives you just a 1-year warranty. So, this is a pretty good indication of how long the brands are willing to back their product.

The North Face's limited lifetime warranty for its Wawona 6. — *The North Face’s limited lifetime warranty for its Wawona 6.*

This is a picture of Coleman's limited 1-year warranty for all their Coleman tents. — *Coleman’s limited 1-year warranty for all their Coleman tents.*

Conclusion

So, basically, that’s a pretty in-depth look at what budget tents will give you, and also what expensive tents will give you. Now, the question is, is it worth it?

Well, I think it depends on a few things. For example:

Do you have a large budget?
Is it your first-time trying out camping?
Do you plan to camp often?
Do you plan to camp in just fair weather?

When to Buy a Budget Tent

If it’s your first time camping, you don’t know if you’re gonna wanna camp more often, and there’s no need for insane rain protection or anything, you can just get a budget tent, like the Coleman Sundome 6.

*This is what the Coleman Sundome 6 looks like directly out of the cardboard box.*

I think it’s one of the better budget-friendly tents on the market, you get a pretty decent family camping tent for just $100.

When to Buy an Expensive Tent

On the other hand, for me personally, it’s not my first-time camping, I do camp quite often in the summer, sometimes in crazy, unpredictable rains, so I would want to splurge a little bit more on a more expensive, premium tent, like the Wawona.

The North Face Wawona 6 brand new from Amazon.

Ultimately, I know that this tent will last me for years, so, on a per-year basis, I think the Wawona will give me more bang for my buck, rather than just throwing out budget friendly tents year after year.

Bonus: Must Read!

But I know not everyone will be able to afford an expensive camping tent, so if you’re looking for a good quality budget-friendly tent that suits your budget, you can check out this article here (coming soon!): I Bought & Tested the Best Budget Tents Under $100!

For now, you can check out this article, for a way more in-depth comparison of both the Sundome 6 and Wawona 6, pitted against 5 other 6-person tents.