Compact CampingTent footprint: do you need one?
Every compact tent already ships with a waterproof floor. A footprint doesn't add waterproofing — it adds a sacrificial layer between that floor and the ground, and whether that's worth the extra weight depends entirely on where you pitch.
What a footprint actually protects against
A tent floor's coating handles water fine on its own; what it can't handle indefinitely is abrasion — sharp gravel, twigs, and grit grinding against the same spot every time you shift inside the tent. A footprint takes that wear instead, and since it's cheap to replace compared with a whole tent floor, it's the part you sacrifice rather than the part that actually matters.
When it earns its weight
On rocky, gravelly, or unprepared ground — the kind you can't fully clear of sharp debris before pitching — a footprint measurably extends a tent floor's life. It's also worth carrying if you regularly camp on the same rough sites repeatedly, since floor abrasion is cumulative and shows up over many nights, not one.
When it's just extra grams
On established, cleared campsites — the flat, debris-free plots most campgrounds and popular backcountry sites maintain — a footprint is protecting against a problem that mostly isn't there. Adding roughly 150–300 g and another item to pack for marginal benefit is a bad trade on that terrain; most of a compact kit's weight savings come from skipping exactly this kind of "just in case" item.
What a real one looks like
A dedicated footprint like the Six Moon Designs Tyvek Footprint (roughly 184 g at 213×122 cm) is cut to a specific tent's floor plan and made from Tyvek — the same DuPont material used in house-wrap, chosen here for being tear- and puncture-resistant at very little weight. A cheaper DIY alternative many ultralight hikers use is a sheet of polycro (a thin, clear packaging film), which weighs even less but tears more easily and needs replacing more often.
Verdict
Skip it for cleared, established sites — the tent floor alone is doing its job there. Carry one for rocky, unprepared, or repeatedly-used ground where floor abrasion actually accumulates, and treat the footprint's replacement cost as the whole point: it's designed to wear out before your tent does.