In woodland the choice is not about comfort but about what each shelter needs from the site: a hammock needs two spaced anchor points and no flat ground at all, a tent needs flat ground and no roots. Both are usually available under trees, which is why this is the one setting where the question is genuinely open.
What a hammock needs from the wood
The figure that decides whether a hammock is comfortable is length, and it is the one most listings bury. A gathered-end hammock is slept in diagonally, not along its axis, so a body needs roughly two feet of fabric beyond its own height before that flat diagonal lie is available at all. Width then decides how far across the diagonal you can move.
Read the suspension separately, because it is frequently sold apart from the hammock and carries its own stated figure: tree straps with a stated width, whether carabiners are included, and what the whole assembly weighs once you add them. The maker publishes a stated load figure for the hammock and the maker’s instructions govern how it is hung.
Then the fittings that turn a garden seat into a shelter: a structural ridgeline, which fixes the sag at a repeatable angle instead of leaving it to guesswork, an integrated or zip-on bug net, and a tarp overhead, since a hammock has no roof of its own.
What a tent needs from the wood
A tent needs a flat patch long enough for its floor dimensions, and woodland floors are full of roots and dips that a photograph does not show. It also needs ground that takes a peg, and a compacted, root-bound forest floor sometimes does not.
Against that, a tent gives you a groundsheet with a stated hydrostatic head, a vestibule for boots and kit, and a shape that does not depend on tree spacing at all. If the wood turns out to be young plantation with trunks too thin, or an area where hanging anything from trees is not permitted, the tent still works.
The weight comparison people get wrong
A hammock body on its own looks extremely light. The honest total is hammock, suspension, carabiners, bug net if it is not integrated, tarp, guylines and pegs — and once that is added up it lands close to a solo tent rather than well under one.
Compare it against the tent’s packed weight, the figure that counts everything in the bag, rather than the trail weight, which counts only what stands the tent up. Makers publish one or the other and the gap runs to several hundred grams. Where only one unlabelled figure is given, treat it as the trail weight.
Fabrics and the small print
Hammock fabric is quoted in denier — 70D nylon ripstop is the common camping weight, 40D and below is the ultralight end. Tarp fabric is quoted in denier too, with a hydrostatic head in millimetres for coated fabrics. Neither number tells you much on its own, but they are comparable between products in the same family, which is more than can be said for most of the marketing.
Check local rules before you plan on hanging anything. Whether hammocks are permitted, and what may be attached to a tree, is set by the landowner and by local regulations rather than by the equipment.
What people ask before buying
Do I still need a mat in a hammock?
Warmth from underneath is the thing a hammock changes most, because your insulation is compressed against the fabric. People address it either with a mat inside the hammock or with an underquilt hung beneath it. Compare the stated R-value of the mat you own before assuming it carries over.
Is the suspension included with a camping hammock?
Often not. Hammocks are usually listed bare, and straps and carabiners are frequently the heavier half of the kit. Compare the packed weight of the complete assembly rather than the hammock body alone.
Last reviewed 6 September 2026