The Best Ultralight Tent Stakes, Weighed and Priced as a Set of Six

Tent stakes are the cheapest weight you will ever buy back. A full set of the aluminum Y-beam stakes most people upgrade to weighs 84 g (3.0 oz); a set of titanium hooks weighs 39 g (1.4 oz). That is most of a fuel canister's worth of savings for the price of a takeaway, and it is why stakes give the best grams-saved-per-dollar figures on this entire site.

The problem with every stake comparison is that makers sell them in different quantities. MSR sells six-packs. Vargo and Zpacks sell singles. TOAKS sells both. So this page normalizes everything to a set of six: six stakes' weight, six stakes' list price. Every card says exactly how that figure was built.

How we picked, and why sets of six

Full rubric at our methodology page. The reference: the MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes (set of 6) at 84 g (3.0 oz), which is what most backpackers upgrade to first and what shops stock. Not the bent wire that comes free in a cheap tent bag, because almost nobody keeps using those. Value, which is grams saved against that reference per dollar, is 35% of the score; weight alone 20%; holding power and ground range 25%; materials 10%; ease 10%.

Six is MSR's own kit size and a sensible standard: a four-stake trekking-pole shelter plus two spares, or the corners of a freestanding tent plus two guy-outs. If your tent needs thirteen stakes, scale the numbers; the ranking does not change.

The evidence side by side

The four sets that save the most weight per dollar.

The heavier, grippier and better-supported sets.

Two of the ten sets here weigh more than the reference, so their grams-saved figure is zero and their value score is zero with it. That is not a fault in the products; the Vargo Nail Peg and the Zpacks Super Sonic are deliberately oversized. It is what happens when you rank a heavy-duty stake on a weight rubric, and it is worth seeing plainly.

The four stake shapes, and what each holds

Shepherd's hook. A straight round shaft with a bent head. The lightest shape there is, and the worst in loose ground because a 3 mm cylinder has almost no surface area. The TOAKS Hook Peg and both Vargo tent stakes are this shape.

Nail peg. A thicker straight shaft with a flat head you can strike. Goes into ground a hook bounces off. Needs a cord loop on the guy line, because a flat head has nothing to catch on. The TOAKS Nail Peg and Vargo Nail Peg are this shape.

Y-beam. Three flat blades at 120 degrees. Much more surface area for the weight and far more resistance to bending, which is why MSR's Groundhog became the default and why the Zpacks Sonic and Super Sonic copy the idea.

V-shape. A folded channel. The most surface area per gram of the titanium options, so it is the pick for sand and soft duff, at the cost of bulk in the pack. The TOAKS V-shaped Peg is this shape.

Who each pick is for

1. TOAKS Titanium Hook Peg: the best set overall

6 3/8 in of 3.2 mm titanium at about 6.5 g a stake, sold as a six-pack with a pouch. A set of six is 39 g (1.4 oz), saves 45 g (1.6 oz) vs the MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes (set of 6), giving a value figure of Value 10.0/10, which is full marks on our value scale for this class. The limitation is the shape: a thin round shaft in soft ground will pull.

2. Vargo Titanium Tent Stake Ultralight: the lightest single stake

7 g each, 152 x 3 mm, sold singly by Vargo and in six-packs on Amazon. Marginally heavier per set than the TOAKS because it costs a little more per stake, and marginally shorter. Buy it if you want to buy exactly four, or exactly thirteen.

3. Zpacks 6 in Sonic: the best Y-beam per gram

A three-sided aluminum Y-beam at 8.5 g including the cord, in bright blue so you stop losing them. Six of them are 51 g (1.8 oz) and saves 33 g (1.2 oz) vs the MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes (set of 6). This is the set to buy if your ground varies and you do not want to think about it. Zpacks sells direct, so its button here is a plain reference link.

4. Vargo Titanium Tent Stake: the all-round hook

8 g, 165 x 3.5 mm. The extra half-millimeter and 13 mm over the Ultralight version is a better trade than it sounds for anything but the firmest ground, and Amazon sells it in six-packs.

5. TOAKS Titanium Nail Peg: the budget hard-ground stake

9.4 g each, 4 mm thick, flat head. The cheapest way to carry stakes you can drive into gravel with a rock without ruining them, at the same list price per six as the hook peg. Check your guy lines end in a loop.

6. MSR Mini-Groundhog: the best-supported Y-beam

9.4 g a stake in 7000-series aluminum, the shorter version of the stake that made the Y-beam standard. It saves 28 g (1.0 oz) vs the MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes (set of 6) against the full-size Groundhog, but at its list price that works out as the weakest value figure of any set here that saves weight at all. You are paying for availability and brand support, both of which are real.

7. TOAKS Titanium V-shaped Peg: for sand and duff

11.3 g each in a folded V, 165 mm long. The most surface area of any titanium stake here and the one to carry on beach or desert trips. Six of them still saves 16 g (0.6 oz) vs the MSR Groundhog Tent Stakes (set of 6), so even the grippy titanium option beats the mainstream aluminum set.

8. Vargo Titanium Nail Peg: the toughest

15 g each, 5 mm thick, with a reflective cord and a head Vargo builds to be hammered. Six of them are 90 g (3.2 oz), which is more than the reference set, so its grams-saved figure is zero. Carry two of these with a lighter set rather than six.

9. Zpacks 7 in Super Sonic: the guy-out stake

16 g, 11.5 mm across, 7 in deep. The most holding power on this page and the cheapest set of six here, which is a strange combination. Like the Vargo Nail Peg, this is a stake to buy two or four of for the main guy-outs, not a whole set.

10. MSR Groundhog: the reference

7.5 in of 7000-series aluminum Y-beam with a reflective pull loop, at 13.95 g a stake. It is the stake everything above is measured against, so it necessarily scores zero on both computed metrics. If you already own a set, there is no reason to replace it; the picks above are the upgrade path if you want the grams back.

How many stakes you actually need

The practical answer for most shelters: carry the number your tent needs for a fair-weather pitch, plus two. Mix shapes if your ground varies, which is the single most useful thing on this page. Four light hooks and two heavy nail pegs weigh less than six mid-weight stakes and cope with far more.

What missed the cut

MSR CarbonCore stakes. Under 6 g each by MSR's own figure, which would have topped this page on weight, but MSR's store had them out of stock at the time of checking and we only rank what you can currently buy.

Big Agnes Dirt Dagger UL. A well-regarded I-beam stake sold in six-packs on Amazon, but Big Agnes does not publish a weight on its product pages, and a stake page without weights is not a page.

The stakes that came with your tent. Most budget tents ship with thin aluminum hooks or plated steel pins. They work. They are also usually the single easiest 40-60 g you will ever drop, which is the entire reason this page exists.

Snow and sand anchors. MSR's Blizzard and Cyclone stakes are 9.5 and 10 in respectively and belong to a different problem. If you are pitching on snow, read the maker's own stake guide rather than a weight ranking.

How to choose ultralight tent stakes

1. Count what your tent needs. Four, six or thirteen changes the weight maths completely. Check the maker's pitch instructions before you buy a set of six.
2. Pick the shape for your ground, not for the scale. A 6.5 g hook that pulls out at 2am is heavier than a 9 g Y-beam that does not.
3. Mix shapes. Light hooks for the perimeter, two nail pegs or Y-beams for the main guy-outs. This is the cheapest upgrade on this page.
4. Titanium or aluminum. Titanium springs back; aluminum takes a set. Aluminum Y-beams hold better per gram. Neither is wrong.
5. Check the head against your guy lines. A flat nail head needs a loop to catch. A hook head catches anything but is easy to lose in leaf litter.
6. Buy a couple of spares. Stakes get left in the ground. A spare pair weighs almost nothing and saves a pitch.

Mistakes to avoid

• Comparing per-stake prices to six-pack prices. It is the single most common error in this category, and it is why every figure on this page is normalized to six.
• Buying the thinnest stake available for soft ground. A 3 mm shaft in duff is a tent on your face.
• Hammering a shepherd's hook with a rock. It bends the head, which is the part that holds the line.
• Ignoring visibility. Bare titanium in leaf litter disappears. The Zpacks stakes are anodized blue and the Vargo Nail Peg has a reflective cord for exactly this reason.