This comparison is decided by your property rather than your preference, and it is decided before you look at a single product. One of these games needs a hard surface. The other needs soft ground. Whichever you have more of is the game you should buy.
The spec sheet
The published figures
| Pickleball | Volleyball | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing body | USA Pickleball | FIVB, via recreational sets |
| Court | 20 ft x 44 ft (about 880 sq ft) | 60 ft x 30 ft boundary (about 1,800 sq ft) |
| Net | 36 in at sidelines, 34 in at center | 32 ft span, 3 ft deep |
| Net heights published | 36 in / 34 in | Men's 8 ft, co-ed 7 ft 8 in, women's 7 ft 4 in |
| Surface | Hard and flat — the ball must bounce | Grass or sand that takes a stake |
| Anchoring | Freestanding net | Guylines and four 12 in steel stakes |
| Players | 2 or 4 | 6 a side officially; 4 works |
| Special rule | 7 ft non-volley zone each side | None in the backyard game |
The decision
How to choose
Have a driveway? Pickleball, and it is not close
A driveway is already flat, already hard and already rectangular. It is the surface the game wants, and most American households own one — see pickleball sets for a driveway.
Have a big lawn and a crowd? Volleyball
Nothing else on this site absorbs twelve people the way volleyball does, and the lawn is exactly the surface it needs for stakes and for diving. The nets themselves are compared in portable volleyball nets.
Have a small lawn? Neither, probably
Pickleball on grass does not bounce and volleyball at 1,800 square feet does not fit. The net game for a small lawn is badminton, which plays a real game in about 450 square feet — see volleyball vs badminton.
The other side
Where to buy the other one
The card at the top of this page covers one side of the comparison. This is our current pick for the other, ranked on published specifications rather than on play we have not done.
Best overall
Park & Sun Sports Spectrum Classic Portable Outdoor Volleyball Net System
Park & Sun Sports
The most completely specified net system on this site: a 32 by 3 foot regulation net on 2-inch extruded aluminum telescoping poles, a pre-measured 60 by 30 foot boundary, four 12-inch steel stakes and a published 21-pound set weight.
Skip this if
Skip this if your yard is under about 70 feet long. The boundary Park & Sun ships is 60 by 30 feet before you add run-off behind each end line, and shortening a volleyball court changes the game far more than shortening a bocce court does.
Price as of October 19, 2026. #ad How we make money
FAQ
Questions people actually ask
Which needs more space, pickleball or volleyball?
Can you play pickleball on grass?
Which is easier to set up?
Why you can check our work
We have not played these. Every figure above is copied from a manufacturer's published listing or a governing body's published rules, and named so you can verify it. Where a maker publishes nothing, the field is blank rather than filled in. How we pick explains the whole method, including what would change a recommendation.
Read next
Related pages
Picks
Compare yard games
Twenty-one head-to-heads with the verdict first and the published specs behind it.
Picks
Best portable pickleball net
22 feet wide, 36 inches tall, and the one portable net we could verify as in stock.
Picks
Best volleyball net for a backyard
32 ft of net, a 60 by 30 ft boundary and a published 21 lb set weight — the most fully specified net system here.
Comparison
Volleyball vs badminton
Footprint, player count and wind — the three figures that decide which net goes up in your yard.
Picks
Yard games for driveways and hard surfaces
Hard, flat and long — what a driveway is genuinely good for, and what it will destroy.
Sources
Every figure on this page is copied from one of these sources. If you find one that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will fix it.