Pop up tents · Comparison
Pop Up Tents VS. Regular Tents: 8 Measured Differences
Pop up tents set up 2 to 4 times faster. They also pack 1.8 to 3.7 times bigger. I measured everything myself.
- 8 measured differences
- 7 pop up tents tested
- $0 sponsored
- ~7 min read
This page contains affiliate links, and that means that I may earn a commission if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. You can find my full disclosure policy here.
Jump to a section
The short answer
Speed matters most
15 seconds to pop, and 1.5 minutes fully staked. A Sundome 2-Person takes me 5.5 minutes.
The timings ↓You need space or weather
They go up to 16-person, handle 30 to 50 mph, and last 5 to 10 years.
Wind and capacity ↓Packed size
My Fresh & Black 2-Person packs to 4,374 in³. The Sundome equivalent is 1,173 in³.
See the numbers ↓I’ve been camping for over a decade, since I was a teenager, and I’ve set up regular tents hundreds of times. Over the past 4 years I’ve also bought 7 pop up tents. Here’s every difference I’ve actually measured between the two.
| Difference | Pop up tent | Regular tent |
|---|---|---|
| Set up | 15 sec to 2 min | 5.5 to 22 min |
| Pack up | 1.75 to 3.5 min | 5 to 16 min |
| Packed size | 1.8 to 3.7x larger | Baseline |
| Lifespan | 3 to 7 years | 5 to 10 years |
| Wind | 20 to 30 mph | 30 to 50 mph |
| Ventilation | Rainfly often fixed | Rainfly always removable |
| Capacity | Up to 4-person | Up to 16-person |
| Cleaning | Keeps its shape, awkward | Folds flat, easy |
Part 1 of 8
Set up: 15 seconds against 7 minutes
Unzip the bag, pull the strap off, toss the tent away from you, and it’s up in about 5 seconds. Everything that normally takes time is already attached.
Staking down and guying out the whole thing adds only 1 to 2 minutes, depending on how many stake loops and guylines it has.
| Pop up tent | Pop up | Full set up | Pack up | Full pack up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent | 0.25 min | 1.5 min | 1 min | 1.75 min |
| Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent | 0.25 min | 1.5 min | 1.25 min | 2 min |
| Quechua 2 Seconds 2-Person Tent | 0.5 min | 2.5 min | 2 min | 2.5 min |
| Fresh & Black 2-Person Tent | 1 min | 3 min | 2.5 min | 3 min |
| Fresh & Black 3-Person Tent | 1 min | 3.5 min | 3 min | 3.5 min |
| Teton 1-Person Vista Quick Tent | 1.25 min | 2.75 min | 2 min | 2.5 min |
| Teton 2-Person Vista Quick Tent | 2 min | 3.5 min | 2.5 min | 3 min |
A regular tent takes 2 to 4 times longer, and it’s all down to the poles not being attached. You have to work out which pole goes where, thread them through sleeves that are sometimes long and snaggy, prop the whole thing up, and only then deal with a rainfly that isn’t color-coded and goes on backwards half the time.
| Regular tent | Full set up | Full pack up |
|---|---|---|
| Coleman Sundome 2-Person | 5.5 min | 5 min |
| Coleman Sundome 4-Person | 9 min | 8 min |
| Coleman Sundome 6-Person | 11.5 min | 10 min |
| Coleman Montana 8-Person | 22 min | 14.5 min |
| Coleman WeatherMaster 10-Person | 19 min | 16 min |
3.7xlonger is what the Sundome 2-Person takes to set up compared to the Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent: 5.5 minutes against 1.5.
Part 2 of 8
Pack up: nothing to dismantle
Pull the stakes, fold it down, done. No poles to break apart, and usually no rainfly to take off. My 7 take between 1.75 and 3.5 minutes to fully pack away, and skipping the stakes saves another 30 to 45 seconds.
There’s a smaller advantage that I appreciate more than I expected: a folded pop up tent always fits back in its bag. No wrestling a mountain of fabric into something slightly too small.
A regular tent is the opposite. Rainfly off, poles out of the pin-and-ring system, broken down into a separate pole case, then everything squeezed back into a bag that never feels big enough.
Part 3 of 8
Packed size: where pop up tents lose badly
The poles can’t come out, so there’s a hard limit on how far the tent will fold. Of my 7, five pack circular and two pack rectangular, and the rectangular ones are much less awkward to carry and to store.
| Pop up tent | Packed size |
|---|---|
| Teton 1-Person Quick Tent | 28 x 9 x 5 in |
| Teton 2-Person Quick Tent | 33 x 8 x 8 in |
| Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent | 29 x 29 x 3 in |
| Quechua 2 Seconds 2-Person Tent | 26 x 26 x 6 in |
| Fresh & Black 2-Person Tent | 27 x 27 x 6 in |
| Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent | 36 x 36 x 5 in |
| Fresh & Black 3-Person Tent | 31 x 31 x 8 in |
Put against one of the most popular 2-person regular tents on the market, the gap is stark.
| Tent | Packed size | Packed volume | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coleman 2-Person Sundome (regular) | 23 x 8.5 x 6 in | 1,173 in³ | 0% |
| Teton 2-Person Quick Tent | 33 x 8 x 8 in | 2,112 in³ | 80% |
| Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent | 29 x 29 x 3 in | 2,523 in³ | 115% |
| Quechua 2-Person Pop Up Tent | 26 x 26 x 6 in | 4,056 in³ | 246% |
| Fresh & Black 2-Person Pop Up Tent | 27 x 27 x 6 in | 4,374 in³ | 273% |
Part 4 of 8
Durability: thin poles under permanent tension
Regular tents use fiberglass, aluminum or steel, and the thicker the pole the longer it lasts. My most durable tents all have thick steel poles.
Pop up tents are always fiberglass, never metal, and always thin, because the pole has to bend right round to fold. Thin fiberglass is usually the first thing to break.
There’s a second problem that’s easy to miss: the tension never goes away. Folded up, those poles are under load the whole time they sit in storage, and then they take the full release every time you open the tent.
- Pop up tent lifespan3 to 7 years.
- Regular tent lifespan5 to 10 years. A couple of mine are past 5 years and still going strong.
- My oldest pop upThe Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh & Black, about 4 years old. On its last use a pole popped out of its joint. I got it back in, but I don’t think it has long left.
And when a pop up pole does go, you’re mostly stuck. On a regular tent the poles are separate and a replacement drops straight in. On a pop up they’re buried inside very long sleeves, which makes swapping one out ridiculously awkward.
Part 5 of 8
Wind: 20 to 30 mph against 30 to 50
Regular tents handle wind blowing at 30 to 50 mph. Pop up tents take a lot less, more like 20 to 30 mph.
Three things drive wind resistance, and pop up tents lose on all three:
- Pole thicknessThicker is sturdier, and pop up poles are thin by necessity.
- Pole materialAluminum and steel beat fiberglass. Pop ups are always fiberglass.
- Pole structureCriss-cross frames are more stable than simple ones.
The genuinely wind-resistant regular tents stack all of it: aluminum, thick, multiple crossing poles, dome shape, plenty of guylines and heavy duty stakes. The REI Co-Op Base Camp Tent is a good example of what that looks like.
Part 6 of 8
Ventilation: a fixed rainfly is the problem
A pop up tent’s rainfly is almost always pre-attached, and on some it’s full-coverage and doesn’t come off at all. Add few vents and you have a ventilation problem you can’t solve.
My Quechua 2 Seconds is the clearest case. It has exactly 1 rear vent, it has to be guyed out to work, and it’s tiny.
Sleeping in it with the door and window shut, the inside was stuffier than the outside. The walls were dry in the morning but there were a few drops of condensation on the roof.
On a regular tent the rainfly always comes off, and there’s usually ceiling mesh underneath it, so you get airflow and a view whenever you want them.
Part 7 of 8
Capacity: pop up tents stop at 4-person
Bigger pop up tents would be brutal to fold, because you’re fighting more pole tension across a bigger frame. My largest is the Coleman 4-Person, and honestly it’s more of a 3-plus person tent. I could fit 3 sleeping pads in it, not 4.
Even at that size, standing it on one end to fold it down puts it well over my head. I can’t imagine doing this with a 10-person tent.
Regular tents go up to 16-person, the largest I’ve seen. Mine tops out at a 10-person, which already feels enormous and is more than enough for my family.
Part 8 of 8
Cleaning: the one nobody thinks about
Everyone weighs set up and pack up. Almost nobody weighs cleaning, and it matters more than you’d expect.
Because a pop up tent’s poles can never come out, it holds its dome shape permanently. You can’t fold it over to get at the base.
With a regular tent I pull the poles, fold the body over and hose the base down flat.
Side by side
The verdict
Pop up tent
- + Sets up and packs away 2 to 4 times faster.
- + Always fits back in its own bag.
- − Packs 1.8 to 3.7 times larger.
- − Thin fiberglass poles, 3 to 7 year lifespan, hard to replace.
- − Handles 20 to 30 mph.
- − Rainfly often fixed, so ventilation can suffer.
- − Nothing above 4-person.
- − Can’t be folded flat to clean.
Regular tent
- + Packs to roughly a third of the size.
- + Thicker poles, 5 to 10 year lifespan, replacements available.
- + Handles 30 to 50 mph.
- + Rainfly always removable.
- + Available up to 16-person.
- + Folds flat, so cleaning is easy.
- − Takes 2 to 4 times longer to set up and pack away.
And here are the two tents I own that make the fairest head-to-head, same brand, same capacity, both measured by me:
| Feature | Coleman 2-Person Pop Up | Coleman 2-Person Sundome |
|---|---|---|
| Set up | 1.5 min | 5.5 min |
| Pack up | 1.75 min | 5 min |
| Peak height | 32.5 in | 48.5 in |
| Base dimensions | 91 x 54 in | 81 x 57 in |
| Rain test | Minimal waterproofing | Moderate waterproofing |
| Wind protection | Minimal | Moderate |
| Tent material | 185T 68D polyester | Polyester body and rainfly |
| Pole material | Fiberglass | Fiberglass |
| Pole thickness | Not measured | Not measured |
| Weight | 6.6 lbs | 6.4 lbs |
| Packed size | 29 x 29 x 3 in | 23 x 8.5 x 6 in |
| Price I paid | $55 | $50 |
My adviceWhether a pop up tent beats a regular one comes down to what you’re optimizing for. If you want speed and user-friendliness, and you aren’t planning to camp in bad weather, a pop up tent will suit you perfectly. Still on the fence? My full list of the pros and cons of pop up tents should settle it.
The bottom line
Pop up tents win on speed and lose on almost everything else. One is worth it if set up time is the thing putting you off camping. A regular tent makes more sense if you need the space, the weather resistance, or something that lasts a decade.
Common questions
Pop up vs regular FAQs
Are pop up tents worse than regular tents?
Not worse, different. They set up 2 to 4 times faster and pack 1.8 to 3.7 times bigger. Everything else follows from those two facts.
How long do pop up tents last compared to regular tents?
3 to 7 years against 5 to 10. My oldest pop up is about 4 years old and has already had a pole come out of its joint.
Can pop up tents handle wind?
Up to about 20 to 30 mph fully staked and guyed. Regular tents manage 30 to 50 mph, because their poles are thicker and often metal.
Keep reading
Related guides
Every timing, measurement and price on this page is from my own tents, bought with my own money. Nothing here is sponsored.
