Swing Gate vs Cantilever Slide Gate
Four questions decide it. Answer them honestly and the right gate for your driveway is usually obvious in five minutes.
5 min read
A swing gate hangs on hinges and arcs open like a door. A cantilever slide gate is longer than the opening and rolls sideways along the fence line, hanging in the air with nothing on the ground. Both close the same hole; they fail for different reasons. Here is how the shop talks a customer through it.
1. Does the ground slope where a gate would swing?
Flat, or slopes away from the gate.
Slopes up toward the gate on the swing side — the leaf hits the ground before it opens.
The most common reason a swing gate fails on site. A leaf can be hung high to clear a slight rise, but the gap at the bottom when closed gets ugly fast.
2. How wide is the opening?
Under about 12′ for a single leaf; 12′–40′ as a double.
Anything, but it pays off past about 16′ — one leaf, one operator, no centre stop.
Wide doubles work, but two heavy leaves mean two operators and two sets of hinges. A cantilever is one moving part.
3. Is there a straight fence run beside the opening?
Not needed.
Required: about 1.5× the opening in a straight line (16′ opening → ~24′ of run).
This is the one that rules out a cantilever. A curved drive or a garage right at the property line leaves nowhere for the tail to go.
4. Will it be automatic?
One swing-arm operator per leaf; needs power at the hinge post.
One slide operator at the tail post, whatever the width.
Both are UL-325 packages with safety edges and photo eyes. Slide operators cost more per unit but a wide double swing needs two.
Picked a slide? Roller cantilever or top track
There are two ways to build a cantilever, and they are not interchangeable.
Roller Cantilever Slide Gate
The gate frame is roughly one-and-a-half times the opening. Two ground-set posts carry four nylon cantilever rollers; the extra length (the tail) counterbalances the leaf so it hangs in the air across the opening with no track on the ground.
- Sloped or gravel driveways
- Openings 10′–30′
- Snow, leaves or debris that would foul a ground track
- Commercial and farm entrances
- Needs fence line beside the opening for the tail (about half the opening again)
- Heavier than a top-track aluminum gate
Top-Track Cantilever Slide Gate
An aluminum track spans the top of the gate and rides on trucks fixed to two posts. The leaf hangs below the track and slides across the opening with no ground track and no exposed rollers.
- Residential and light-commercial driveways
- Openings 10′–38′
- Customers who want a factory-finished aluminum gate
- Instant online pricing
- Aluminum picket infill only
- Track height adds to the overall gate height
Short version: if you want aluminum picket and an instant price, top track. If the gate has to be chain link, wood, vinyl or slat — or match a steel fence line — roller cantilever on a galvanized or black steel tube frame.
Three things people get wrong
- Ground-track sliding gates. Cheaper up front, and the track fills with leaves, gravel and ice by the second winter. A cantilever touches nothing on the ground; that is the whole point of it.
- A wide wood or vinyl swing gate with no steel in it. Wood-on-wood and vinyl-only leaves sag past about 5′. The fix is a welded steel tube frame under the skin, not a bigger turnbuckle.
- Measuring the gate instead of the opening. We build from the clear opening between posts and take the hardware allowance ourselves. See how to measure a gate opening.
Know which one you need? Quote it in two minutes.
- 1Tell us the gate
Swing or slide, frame, infill, opening and height — two minutes in the quote builder.
- 2We confirm and price
Aluminum prices instantly. Steel frames get a written estimate from the shop, usually within a business day.
- 3Accept and schedule
Accept from your customer portal, pay a deposit, and we build, deliver or install.