Best Camping Hammocks of 2025

If the appeal of hanging in the trees is too tempting to ignore, we’ve tested the best camping hammocks to see which ones are worth taking on your next adventure. We researched over 45 different models and narrowed down our testing to nine of the most promising from a variety of feature sets and price points. Then we took each of them into the woods of the midwest to test comfort, features, and ease of use. We spent a night in each of them to see how our opinions evolved over the course of the night and had people from 5’5” to 5’11” give their thoughts. 

Our lead tester has been an avid backpacker for 8 years and hammocks across the country on his adventures. Whether deep in the Boundary Waters in winter or high in the mountains of Colorado, we’ve seen everything from bug net failures in a mosquito apocalypse to suspension failures on a desert mesa.

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Quick Picks for Camping Hammocks

Check out this quick list of our favorite hammocks, or continue scrolling to see our full list with in-depth reviews.

Best Lightweight Hammock: Warbonnet Blackbird ($175)

Best Budget Hammock: Onewind Tempest ($75)

Most Versatile Hammock: Dutchware Chameleon ($220)

Most Comfortable Lightweight Hammock: Dream Hammocks Darien ($137)

Best Winter Hammock: Hammock Gear Circadian Pro ($180)

Good Quality from a Big Brand: ENO Junglenest ($109)

Low Budget Hammock For Casual Use: Covacure Camping Hammock ($34)

Best All-In-One Kit: Kammok Mantis UL ($299)

Best Budget All-In-One Kit: Hennessy Expedition Asym Zip ($169)

Good Lightweight All-In-One Kit: Hennessy Ultralight Asym Zip ($240)

How We Test

Learn more about how we tested Comfort, Features, and Ease of Use for each of the hammocks in our lineup. For this guide, we were specifically looking at gathered end hammocks with integrated bug nets and fixed ridgelines since we believe those offer a great experience for most people. After much debate, we excluded bridge hammocks from this guide to allow us to test more gathered end designs and give more in-depth thoughts on the top contenders in that category.

COMFORT

Comfort is always a subjective measurement, but to help get a broader idea, we had people of three different heights – 5’5”, 5’9”, and 5’11” – test out each hammock. One person had no prior hammock camping experience, the second had done it once or twice, and the third –  our lead tester –  has lost track of how many nights they have spent outdoors wrapped in nylon. Each of them evaluated comfort and took notes on the experience. Our lead tester then spent a night in each of the hammocks to get a better idea of how comfort evolved over a night’s sleep and took notes in the morning.

FEATURES

The most useful features in hammocks include interior storage and a method for managing netting entering the head area during sleep. We looked for exterior hooks for attaching underquilts, rings for adding your own side pulls, and good zipper quality. We specifically selected hammocks that had fixed ridgelines since we believe that’s a crucial feature for getting repeatable comfort. For the all-in-one kits we tested, the feature list was even higher;  we looked for good attachment points on the tarp, as well as a quality suspension system that was easy to use.

WEIGHT

Hammocks can be a shortcut to getting a supremely comfortable night of sleep without carrying a big, heavy sleeping pad. A complete hammock kit with a tarp could even replace a tent. For backpackers, we looked at models that were stripped back to the essential features, but we also made sure to test options with more varied features that appealed to situations where weight wasn’t the top priority. The models we tested ranged from 15.7 ounces on the ultralight end to 43.9 ounces at the heaviest.

EASE OF USE

Fortunately, hammocks all set up pretty similarly. To evaluate ease of use, we looked for design choices that specifically made tasks more straightforward or more adjustable. We tested how easy it was to go from a stuff sack to a comfortable hang and how well it faded into the background of our experiences to allow us to focus on enjoying the outdoors.

Why Trust CleverHiker

The CleverHiker team has spent more than 2,000 nights enjoying the wonders of the outdoors across a variety of landscapes. Lead tester Taylor Passofaro has lost track of how many nights he has spent hammocking in the Boundary Waters deep in winter, on the Superior Hiking Trail of Minnesota, and in hammocks across the country on adventures. With thousands of miles logged on thru-hikes of the Superior Hiking Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Tour du Mont Blanc, and others, he’s obsessed with spotting unique gear on trails and adding to his mental catalog of every piece of backpacking gear under the sun. His background in medical device test method engineering brings a data-driven approach; he combines this with his outdoor experience to give comprehensive gear recommendations for any situation.

Analysis & Results

VALUE

Hammocks can span a wide range of value depending on the quality and features delivered at a certain price point. We tend to think of outdoor gear as investments, and our top picks for hammocks are investments that should last a long time, making their high prices worth it. However, we’re also always on the lookout for gear that punches above its price point. For this guide, we dug deep into the pages of endless Amazon listings for low-cost hammocks to see if we could find a diamond in the rough. We wanted to answer the question, “Why would someone pay a high price when this cheap hammock on Amazon does everything?”

For the best overall value out there, nothing comes close to the Onewind Tempest; we were wowed by its combination of features, comfort, and quality for the price. It’s still a budget hammock, so certain tradeoffs mean it’s not the one we’d recommend for someone looking to invest long-term, but we can’t think of a better introduction to hammocking. For something a bit more premium, the ENO Junglenest and Dream Hammocks Darien offer great value for the quality offered, with the Darien being a great pick if weight is important.

For an all-in-one kit, nothing beats the Hennessy Expedition Asym Zip. For a price less than the cost of some of our single hammocks, the Expedition delivers a quality product with everything you need to get into nature, minus two tent stakes. It’s not the most comfortable or the lightest, but the value proposition here is excellent for someone starting.

On the high end, a case should be made for the wonderfully modular Dutchware Chameleon. Though it comes with a high price tag, the Chameleon offers a high value with its ability to adapt to a wide variety of hammocking conditions. In the long run, the investment into the Chameleon ecosystem could be lower than the eventual accumulation of many separate, specialized models.

COMFORT

Most people gravitate towards hammocks due to their incredible comfort. You no longer have to worry about flat ground, rocks, mud, or even earth clear of plants. Every night can be as comfortable as the last, which takes a lot of the stress out of campsite selection, provided you’re in a wooded area.

Older people are often the top benefactors of hammocks. With much gentler support compared to inflatable sleeping pads, hammocks allow people with comfort issues to sleep out in nature far past when they might have otherwise thought. The largest factor determining hammock comfort is size. In general, the taller a person is, the longer a hammock they will need. A fixed ridgeline is the second most important factor, ensuring a repeatable curve each time. 

Our most comfortable hammocks are larger 11-foot models like the Dream Hammocks Darien, Dutchware Chameleon, and Onewind Tempest. Each of these offers similar dimensions, and when combined with soft and comfortable nylon we fell asleep practically before we finished zipping up the bug net.

Of those three, the Darien was the winner in this category and really impressed us, especially for how lightweight it is. The Chameleon was so comfortable that one of our testers claimed it was “more comfortable than my new bed” and didn’t want to get out to test the others in our lineup. For the budget end, the Tempest knocked our socks off with the quality of sleep and relaxation we got for the price. If you’re looking for an all-in-one kit, the Kammok Mantis UL was undoubtedly the winner here, with some of the softest fabric we’ve ever felt. 

However, when testing all of our picks, we came to a conclusion that might help potential buyers stop fretting over the details. In general, hammocks are really, really comfortable. There was only a single hammock in our lineup that left us uncomfortable in the morning (more on the Covacure below), and at the end of the day, all of them provided a good night’s sleep.

All of them were fine for lounging and relaxing, and we think that if you’ve slept well in a hammock before, you’ll sleep well in all of our top picks. Manufacturers have really learned how to deliver on comfort, so weight and features become more of a differentiator for what hammock is best for you. We still stand by our picks for which hammocks offer the most comfort, but all but one of them was good enough for a decent night’s sleep.

The notable exception here is the Covacure Camping Hammock. With smaller dimensions than the others, a ridgeline that wasn’t structural at all, and uncomfortable fabric and netting, it was the only hammock we had serious reservations recommending. It could be fine for casual backyard or park use or for much smaller people. As soon as our testers used anything else, however, the answer to the question, “Why would someone pay a higher price when this cheap hammock on Amazon does everything?” became clear. 

We do understand that outdoor gear can get expensive. Our top pick is literally five times the price of the Covacure, which is why we were initially so excited to test something that looked like such a bargain. If the price of the Covacure is the maximum you can pay to spend a night outdoors, we can understand how appealing that would be. We just want to caution that inexpensive gear often gets replaced quickly or fails quickly, leading to longer costs in the long run. A good value is something that provides enduring performance year after year, and with the comfort and quality the Covacure offers, we don’t think it will provide good value long term.

FEATURES

As the category with the most options for differentiation, we saw a variety of clever and useful features. The standout hammock here was the Dutchware Chameleon. It offered a dizzying array of customization options before ordering, allowing you to tailor the features to exactly what you need. Its huge spreader bar provides a huge amount of livability that is unmatched by other models. The Hammock Gear Circadian Pro has the same spirit as the Chameleon, but with fewer options that still leaves it a nicely featured model. 

Sometimes, our favorite outdoor gear isn’t the one with the most features; it’s the one that is selective of what features to include but commits to them really well.

 For the best execution of features, while still being the lightest hammock in our lineup, we have to give praise to the Warbonnet Blackbird. It offers by far our favorite gear storage solution combined with our favorite side pull implementation. On the budget end, the Onewind Tempest continued to impress us with a good array of options at a great price. It also was the only model to offer an adjustable ridgeline, though that is a more advanced feature we don’t think most people will use.

For an all-in-one kit, the Kammok Mantis UL wowed us with features at every turn. It has our favorite tarp design with handy LineLocs on each attachment point, excellent side pull design, and pockets on the interior that were a delight to use.

EASE OF USE

A lot of hammocks are straightforward to set up and use, and thankfully most of our picks are dead simple. Two fixed loops at the end attach to nearly any suspension option, and most of our picks are equipped with just that. So we’re splitting hairs a bit here, but the Dream Hammocks Darien and ENO Junglenest proved to be the most straightforward of the bunch. The Junglenest in particular has a great spreader bar design that makes it very easy to set up and take down (even if we wish it was longer), and the attachments on the end can take any fixed loop style attachment or use ENO’s own whoopie sling suspension that works very well. 

The Kammok Mantis UL impressed us once again here with good design choices at every opportunity that made the entire experience easy. Setting up the entire kit with a tarp is more involved than a single hammock, but with LineLocs on each attachment point and helpful hooks, shock cord, and LineLocs for the side pulls, we were never frustrated.

How to Choose a Camping Hammock

CHOOSING A SIZE

Hammocks come in a variety of lengths, and the minimum size will depend on how tall you are. In general, taller people need a longer hammock; otherwise, their feet and head are at too much of an angle. For the head, that means a feeling like you’re sleeping in a chair, and for the feet, it means sore heels and hyperextended knees. For most people up to 6 feet tall, a 10-foot-long hammock is the minimum comfortable length.

Bumping up to an 11-foot length might be necessary if you’re taller than 6 feet or if you want a little more room to shift around. 12-foot-long hammocks are an extra luxury that we think is overkill for most people. When comparing the 11-foot and 12-foot hammocks in our testing, we weren’t sold on the benefit of the extra length for most people.

SYMMETRICAL OR ASYMMETRICAL

The most comfortable position for most people in a hammock is laying on a diagonal. Instead of forcing your head and feet up the steepest part of the hammock, letting the head shift to one side and the feet to the other allows both of them to lie lower in the hammock, and you get a flatter lying position.

Asymmetrical hammocks are designed for one particular directional lying position by attaching an asymmetrical bug net that forces the hammock to work only in that direction. The upside of this is that the bug net is much lighter, and it stays nicely tensioned and out of your face when sleeping. The downside is that you’re locked into that one direction.

We think for most people, committing to one direction isn’t a big deal, so we have recommended a few asymmetrical designs in our guide. However, some people might appreciate the flexibility of being able to switch side to side. A symmetrical design comes with the tradeoffs of being heavier and also having a bug net that might require side pulls to keep the mesh out of the face area.

WHAT FEATURES MATTER

The most important features are the ones that enable better comfort and usability without sacrificing too much weight.

The most important feature is a ridgeline. It’s nothing more than a length of cord running between the two gathered ends of the hammock body, but it makes a huge difference in comfort. The first thing it does is ensure that the curve of the hammock is consistent on every setup so the comfort is repeatable and reliable. It also takes the tension off of the actual hammock fabric. This isn’t a safety issue because ripstop nylon is incredibly strong, but it is a comfort issue. Instead of having the tension of the hammock straps entirely pulling on the hammock body, some of it gets distributed to the ridgeline, allowing the tension in the hammock body to be mostly from your body weight. 

A ridgeline can be easily added to any hammock, but we recommend buying one from a reputable site since it should be made of quality Uhmwpe and Dyneema fibers. The sweet spot of ridgeline length is about 83% of the length of the hammock body. We measured the lengths of all the ridgelines to see what manufacturers had chosen, and while most of them agreed with 83%, some of them were surprisingly different. 

Internal storage is more important than you might think in a hammock. It’s true you can leave your backpack on the ground under you for access to all your gear, but unzipping and rezipping the bug net gets tedious, and you risk letting bugs in every time you unzip. Hammocks have different types of pockets that attempt to solve this issue. Our favorite is a large gear shelf that slopes down the opposite side of the hammock to provide a large amount of storage space for a puffy jacket, headlamp, phone, or extra sleeping pad in winter if the underquilt isn’t warm enough. 

Our second favorite pocket is a ridgeline organizer, which hangs from the ridgeline and has various pockets for holding items. There are dozens of ridgeline organizer designs, and while few of our picks have them included, any product should work with any ridgeline. There are also side pockets and head and foot pockets. These are typically sewn directly into the hammock body on the sides or hung from the ridgeline at the head and foot area. 

The next features that really matter are side pulls and spreader bars, which both help keep the bug netting away from the face. Between the two, a spreader bar is far more luxurious, but it’s heavier and less packable since you’re now carrying a collapsible pole. Side pulls are a wonderfully lightweight solution that pulls the hammock out at the head region (and sometimes the foot region too), to help keep the mesh out of the way and hold the shape of the hammock.

A fully removable bug net might be appealing if you’re often doing winter trips or if you like the idea of lounging in your hammock during the day without a net getting in the way. The added complexity will add a bit of weight as well, but some manufacturers sell other types of top covers to zip into your hammock body, expanding the versatility.

UNDERQUILT OR PAD

Keeping warm in a hammock is harder than you might think. Many first-time hammockers snuggle into their sleeping bags only to wake up with the fabled “cold butt syndrome” due to compressed insulation not adequately keeping parts of the body warm. The unfortunate reality of hammocks is that they are not inherently warm. In fact, they are colder than sleeping on the ground. The enemy here is turbulence in the air that only gets worse as the wind picks up, which sucks heat away from a sleeping hammocker much faster than if they were on the ground. Think of it like blowing on your soup to cool it down, except in this case, you’re the soup, and any part of your body in close contact with the thin fabric of the hammock body is going to get cold quickly. 

The two solutions are sleeping pads or underquilts. Pads are more straightforward to understand; they’re the same as the backpacking pads used in tents, except you put them into the hammock first and then sleep on top of them. The upside is that you can use your regular backpacking pads, but the downside is that your shoulders often are still touching the sides of the hammock, leading to cold spots, and pads aren’t the most comfortable. It’s easy to fall off them in the middle of the night, and it can be hard to find a sweet spot. 

To combat this, hammocks are made with two layers, with the intention being to place the sleeping pad between the two so it stays in place better. Some people love this solution, but we don’t as much. The far more common solution is an underquilt. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a quilt that goes under your hammock and wraps around the body to keep things warm. They’re super comfortable and don’t get in the way, but they’re also typically made with down, so they’re quite expensive. They also generally don’t pack down as small and aren’t as light as an inflatable pad. But for serious backpackers, an underquilt is an inevitability and worth investing in, just like a quality top quilt. Underquilts will often benefit from the addition of hooks on the side that attach to loops on the edges of hammocks, so if an underquilt appeals to you, look for those features.

BUY A COMPLETE KIT OR ASSEMBLE YOUR OWN

A hammock body is only part of the system that keeps you dry and comfortable in the backcountry. Choosing a suspension and tarp is the other half, and the amount of options can either be exciting or completely overwhelming. That’s why all-in-one kits exist, and they’re a great way to get into hammocking without much fuss. Kits should include everything necessary for you to get out and start hanging, although some omit stakes. 

There are some kits that we really enjoy, but most hammockers will eventually assemble their own kit. This is definitely the way to get the most comfortable and lightweight setup that best fits your needs. It will come at a bit of a premium to assemble things yourself; hammock kits usually offer decent value. When we ran the numbers, we found that a high-end kit could be significantly lighter when assembled independently compared to when it’s bought as a complete kit. That gap widens even more if you open up your wallet to the incredible weights that Dyneema tarps can offer. Even on the budget end, assembling your own can get you a more comfortable setup than a similar kit at the same price and weight.

Conclusion

Hammocking is one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a night, or even just an afternoon, in nature. We think our top picks will offer excellent long-term value for people curious about trying out life above the ground and enable more people to keep exploring when tents and pads don’t work anymore. Keep wandering, find some good trees, and enjoy the hang!