Choosing a swing set these days is way more complicated than deciding if you want to sit on a wooden plank or an old car tire. Looking at the commercial products available right now you can choose a rudimentary swing set or go for an entire playground – or anything in between.

Good dealers, like WillyGoat Toyland for example, will help you out by allowing you conveniently to sort by different brands, sizes, materials, price, number of swing positions and so on.

Click Here To compare some of the most popular swing sets side by side.

Here I’ll primarily focus on the pros and cons of the various swing sets, but the same principles can be applied to bigger playgrounds as well.

Before you can choose from among the many swing sets available on the market, you first task is probably to narrow down which type of material you want your set to be made of. There are different advantages to each of them, meaning you could choose a plastic, a wooden or a metal swing set with equal justification, depending on what type of accessories and durability you’re looking for. And once you’ve chosen the basic type of swing set, then you can start tweaking the extras.

Metal Swing Sets

Remember those two “A” angled metal legs that supported the long bar that the swings hung from? The metal swing sets of so many people’s childhoods are still around, even if they’re not as widespread as they used to be. Those sets are sturdy and can take a lot of wear and tear, and still often appear on large sites like playgrounds or other public places such as church play yards. If they’re made of rust-resistant galvanized steel, they can last for a very long time. They may be less easily altered or added to than other types of swings, but these swing sets can come in many combinations, adding a slide at one end, for example, or attaching a module of climbing bars.

Plastic and wooden swing sets

A complete plastic swing set may be harder to find in the same variety and numbers as the wooden or metal sets, but several companies do make them, and they come in many bright, cheerful colors. The plastic sets are probably better suited to younger, lighter children, and they don’t have as long a lifespan as the other kinds of sets do.

Yet where the plastic excels is when it’s attached either to the metal or wooden swing sets. Most often this occurs when a plastic slide is added on one end. But on the wooden sets particularly, a large number of accessories are available so that you can add colored plastic pieces, such as yellow telescopes, red steering wheels and white blocks, and all sorts of other toys. The combinations are endless.

Of all the options available, the swing sets of wood are probably the most adaptable, since they’re currently the most popular and more attention is paid to them. These allow you to add things like forts, climbing walls, ropes, tire swings, punching bags, and a host of other accessories and equipment. But plastic sets are almost equally modular, and metal sets are strong and will last almost a lifetime.