Naturehike Cloud Up 2 vs Cloud Up Pro 2

Naturehike sells three two-person tents under the Cloud Up name at the same time, and the naming gives you no help at all: Cloud Up 2, Cloud Up Pro 2, Cloud Up UL 2. They are not a good-better-best ladder. They are one discontinued model, one current model, and one lighter model that gives up weather protection to get there.

Everything below is read off Naturehike's own product pages and linked at the bottom, including the sentence on the original Cloud Up 2 page that most comparisons never mention.

The short verdict

The three tents side by side

The three minimum weights are 1,360 g (2 lb 16.0 oz) for the Pro, 1,220 g (2 lb 11.0 oz) for the UL and 1,380 g (3 lb 0.7 oz) for the original. All three are freestanding on a single aluminum pole, all three publish the same 210 cm inner length and 105 cm peak height, and all three have one door.

What actually changed on the Pro

And the sentence that decides it: Naturehike states on the Cloud Up 2 page that it is a clearance model which will not be restocked once sold out, and recommends the Cloud Up Pro. Buying the original today means buying into a product with no future supply of parts, poles or replacement flies.

The Pro also lists lower than the original, which is unusual for a replacement model and is the main reason this comparison has an easy answer.

Where the UL saves its grams

The Cloud Up UL 2 is 140 g (4.9 oz) lighter than the Pro, at 1,220 g (2 lb 11.0 oz), with the same 130 cm inner width, an enlarged front door with a ventilation window and an inner area Naturehike puts at about 2.73 m². It saves those grams in the fly: 15D ripstop nylon instead of 20D, and the tech specs rate it PU 1500 mm+ against the Pro's PU 3000 mm+.

There is a complication worth knowing. A feature blurb on the same UL page claims 4000 mm. Where a maker contradicts itself we use the figure that does not flatter the product, so this site rates the UL fly at PU 1500 mm+ — which is also why the UL does not appear on our rain tent ranking while the Pro does.

PU 1500 mm sheds rain perfectly well on a weekend. What it does less well is sustained wind-driven rain over several days, which is the case where fly coatings earn their numbers. If your trips are dry-season trips and every gram counts, the UL is the better buy; if you camp in weather, the 140 g is cheap insurance.

The thing none of them fixes

All three Cloud Ups are single-door, single-vestibule tents. For one person that is fine and arguably preferable. For two people it means one of you climbs over the other to get out at 2 am, and one vestibule holds one person's wet boots and pack, not two.

That is the real reason to look past this family rather than any coating figure. A trekking-pole shelter like the Lanshan 2 gives you two doors and two vestibules at a lower weight, at the cost of learning a different pitch — our Cloud Up 2 vs Lanshan 2 comparison puts those two side by side, and trekking pole vs freestanding covers the trade-off in general.

All three against a mainstream tent

The point of this family is price per gram against the tents most beginners buy. Measured against the Kelty Late Start 2P at 1,900 g (4 lb 3.0 oz), which is the reference this site uses for two-person tents:

• The Cloud Up Pro 2 saves 540 g (1 lb 3.0 oz) vs the Kelty Late Start 2P.
• The Cloud Up UL 2 saves 680 g (1 lb 8.0 oz) vs the Kelty Late Start 2P.
• The Cloud Up 2 saves 520 g (1 lb 2.3 oz) vs the Kelty Late Start 2P.

All three do it at a similar or lower list price than the Kelty, which is the argument for the whole brand. What you give up against the Kelty is a second door, a US warranty process and the ability to walk into a shop and hold one. What you gain is roughly half a kilo.

Which one to buy

Buy the Cloud Up Pro 2 unless you have a specific reason not to. It is the current model, it is wider inside, it has the better fly rating of the two light ones, it includes more stakes, and Naturehike is pointing its own customers at it.

Buy the Cloud Up UL 2 if your base weight matters more than your fly coating and you camp in settled weather. It is the lightest budget freestanding two-person tent we track.

Buy the Cloud Up 2 only if you find it heavily discounted and you accept there will be no restock. It is a good tent; it is a dead end.

If none of those fits, the wider field is on our 2-person tent ranking, and the budget end is on best budget backpacking tents.