Plastic greenhouse vs polycarbonate
Updated: October 2026
You are looking at a zip-up cover around £50 and a polycarbonate house at several hundred pounds, and the titles both say greenhouse. They are not the same purchase. A plastic greenhouse vs polycarbonate choice is about whether you want a seasonal cloth you can move, or a framed sheet you leave up. The twelve listings in the [Gardebruk greenhouse comparison](/hub/raised-beds-greenhouses-and-compost/gardebruk-greenhouse) are mostly the cloth. None of them is a Gardebruk model. Peter F. used amazon.co.uk shelf figures from those listings, or from Gardebruk pages checked the same day, 20 October 2026, and each figure below says which. Light was not measured in a lab. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
You are looking at a zip-up cover around £50 and a polycarbonate house at several hundred pounds, and the titles both say greenhouse. They are not the same purchase.
You are looking at a zip-up cover around £50 and a polycarbonate house at several hundred pounds, and the titles both say greenhouse. They are not the same purchase. A plastic greenhouse vs polycarbonate choice is about whether you want a seasonal cloth you can move, or a framed sheet you leave up. The twelve listings in the Gardebruk greenhouse comparison are mostly the cloth. None of them is a Gardebruk model. Peter F. used amazon.co.uk shelf figures from those listings, or from Gardebruk pages checked the same day, 20 October 2026, and each figure below says which. Light was not measured in a lab. A qualifying purchase can earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Cover | Hold-down | Ventilation | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  DIVCHI DIVCHI Shelf growhouse | Polyethylene | None stated | 4 vents | 9.2 | about £33.29 | View offer |
| Best value |  Ohuhu Ohuhu 12-shelf growhouse | Plastic / PVC | Pegs and ropes | 2 side windows | 8.8 | about £69.99 | View offer |
| Alternative |  HAPPYGRILL HAPPYGRILL Polycarbonate walk-in | Polycarbonate | Plates and stakes | 2 roof vents | 8.8 | about £723.86 | View offer |
On this page
Two families in this set
The first family is a steel or plastic tube frame with a polyethylene or PVC cover and a zip door. In these listings that is the band from the VOUNOT tomato house at £23.49 up to the wide VOUNOT and the twelve-shelf Ohuhu at £69.99. You peg it, you guy it, and you expect the ropes and the zip to be the parts that fail. The second family is twin-wall polycarbonate on an aluminium or steel frame, with a sliding or hinged door and roof vents. Here that is the HAPPYGRILL at £723.86, the Pipleo at £1,850.14, and the Greenhouse Factory Ruby 3 at £2,440.
Gardebruk sells both families, and those pages are not among the twelve. Checked on amazon.co.uk on 20 October 2026: a foil house, ASIN B08BS4JBDL, 200 × 173 × 80 cm, 140 g/m², £49.99, 3.5 from 223 reviews; a 6 × 6 polycarbonate, B00TU0I3N2, £208.20, 3.5 from 292; a 6 × 8 with a foundation line, B07B9VTWTV, £254.95, 3.4 from 734, with conflicting footprint wording on the listing; a 6 × 12, B0DYF15VHB, £369.99, with no star line on the page checked. These twelve listings therefore jump from about £70 of cloth to £723 of sheet and skip the brand’s usual aluminium prices. The full buying order is in the buying guide.
Light and heat
The RHS says clear polycarbonate transmits about 83 per cent of light, and glass about 90 per cent. That is a reason high-light crops can prefer glass, and a reason polycarbonate is still bright enough for many seedlings. It is not a measurement of the PE covers in these listings. A thin zip cloth looks very bright when it is new and still cooks plants when the door is shut, because the vent is the zip, not a roof light. Which? notes that twin-wall polycarbonate on plastic-framed houses can cloud over years. Clouding is a slow loss of light, not a number timed on these ASINs.
Heat follows the vent, not the slogan. The RHS wants roof vents around 15 to 20 per cent of floor area. The HAPPYGRILL lists an adjustable roof vent. The Pipleo lists four. The Ruby 3 lists two folding windows on about 18 m², which is a small share of that floor. The cloth houses mostly offer a roll-up door and a mesh window. For a bright day with you at home, the door is enough if you open it. For a house you leave shut while you are at work, the cloth is the one that overheats first. Do not claim the PE cover lets in more light than 83 per cent. That figure is not in these sources.
Wind, base and assembly
A cloth tent is a sail with a stated packed weight of about 3 to 9 kg. Hold-down is pegs, ropes, and a skirt you weight on paving. UK reviews on the Ohuhu, VOUNOT, Taylor & Brown and heyfurni houses repeat the same limits: ropes perish, zips leave the track, and panels lift when the tie-down is light. A heavier printed cloth, 135 g/m² on the VOUNOT, does not replace those pegs.
A polycarbonate house in this set is a different mass and a different fixing. The HAPPYGRILL is listed at 30.4 kg with anchor plates and stakes. The Pipleo is listed at 62.4 kg with a galvanised base. The cloth hold-down is in the anchoring guide. The review catch is the sample. The HAPPYGRILL’s eight review texts are from Canada and the US, and they mention both a sturdy frame and water ingress plus wind lift. The Pipleo’s two texts are from the US, on a 1.0 from 3, and they disagree with each other about whether the frame is sturdy. That is not a UK failure rate. The Ruby 3 has no review line at all. Assembly claims on the cloth listings are no tools. On the polycarbonate pages they are a longer build. A concrete base or mains power is when you call a professional.
Price bands
Label the source before you compare. These amazon.co.uk listings: entry PE houses £23.49 to £33.29; mid walk-in covers £44.99 to £69.99; then a gap; then HAPPYGRILL £723.86, Pipleo £1,850.14, Ruby 3 £2,440. Gardebruk’s own pages the same day, outside these twelve: foil about £49.99, polycarbonate about £208 to £370. A best-seller snippet that day showed a VonHaus PVC walk-in at £32.99 with 4.4 from 3,696, which supports about £30 to £70 as the ordinary plastic band. It is not a row in this comparison.
When to pick which
Pick the plastic zip cover when the job is this season’s seedlings, herbs, or a row of tomato bags, you can peg or weight it, and you accept a cover and a zip as wearing parts. The condition is that you will open the door on sunny days and you are not using a star rating as a storm certificate. Inside that choice, a square such as the Ohuhu at £69.99 is for standing room, and a 45 cm shelf such as the DIVCHI is for trays.
Pick polycarbonate when you want the structure to stay up through several winters, you have a level site that meets the Planning Portal height rules, and you can pay from about £208 on Gardebruk’s own pages or from £723.86 for the HAPPYGRILL in these listings. The condition is that you read a UK review count on the live page before you treat £700 or £1,850 as settled. Growsave’s commercial note of a 10 to 15 year polycarbonate life is not transferred onto these consumer ASINs. If you only need bags for one summer, the polycarbonate house is the wrong spend. If you need the frame in five years and you will not guy a tent, the £50 cloth is the wrong spend.
Common questions
Is a £50 PE house the same as polycarbonate?
No. A PE or PVC house in this set is a zip cover on a light frame, about £23 to £70 on these listings, held by pegs and ropes. Polycarbonate here is twin-wall sheet on a heavier frame, from £723.86 in these listings or about £208 to £370 on Gardebruk’s own pages checked 20 October 2026. The word greenhouse on the title does not make them one product.
Does polycarbonate let in less light than a PE cover?
The RHS figure is about 83 per cent for clear polycarbonate and about 90 per cent for glass. There is no matching percentage for these PE covers. New cloth looks bright and still overheats if the only vent is a shut zip. Polycarbonate can cloud over years, which Which? notes as a slow loss of light, without a timer attached to these ASINs.
Do I need a base for polycarbonate?
The Pipleo listing includes a galvanised base. The HAPPYGRILL lists anchor plates and stakes for soft ground. Gardebruk’s 6 × 8 page mentions a foundation and also conflicts on footprint wording, so read that live page. A poured concrete base is a professional job, and it can change the planning position. A cloth tent does not need that base. It needs pegs or a weighted skirt.
Why are some polycarbonate listings over £700 in this set?
Because the polycarbonate rows here are the HAPPYGRILL at £723.86, the Pipleo at £1,850.14, and the Ruby 3 at £2,440. They are not the only prices on amazon.co.uk. Gardebruk’s own 6 × 6 to 6 × 12 pages, checked the same day, were about £208 to £370. Compare like with like, and check the review country before you pay the tail.
Where do Gardebruk polycarbonate prices sit?
On 20 October 2026 the 6 × 6 was £208.20, the 6 × 8 with a foundation line was £254.95, and the 6 × 12 was £369.99. The foil house was £49.99. Those pages are outside these twelve listings. The 6 × 8 listing disagrees with itself on footprint, so confirm the size on the live page.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources and amazon.co.uk listings, last checked on 20 October 2026.
- Planning Portal, Outbuildings (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- RHS, Choosing greenhouses (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 11 (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Growsave, Alternative greenhouse materials (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Gardebruk foil, amazon.co.uk B08BS4JBDL (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Gardebruk 6 × 6, amazon.co.uk B00TU0I3N2 (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Gardebruk 6 × 8, amazon.co.uk B07B9VTWTV (retrieved 20 October 2026)
- Gardebruk 6 × 12, amazon.co.uk B0DYF15VHB (retrieved 20 October 2026)