Types of Gates: Which One Should You Build?

Most people pick a gate by how it looks. That is the wrong place to start. The site makes the big call for you: how wide the opening is, how much room sits in front of it, and how much fence runs beside it.

This guide walks through the seven common types of gates, what each one needs, and where each one goes wrong. Get the type right first. The infill, colour and latch come after.

What are the main types of gates?

There are seven you will see on most jobs:

• Pedestrian gate. One leaf, sized for people. Usually 900 to 1100 mm wide. Front fences, side paths and the gate beside a driveway.
• Single swing gate. One wide leaf on one post. Simple and cheap, as long as the leaf is not too wide.
• Double swing gate. Two leaves that meet in the middle. Each leaf is half the width, so each post and hinge does half the work.
• Tracked sliding gate. The leaf rolls on wheels along a V-track set in the driveway.
• Cantilever gate. A sliding gate with no ground track. It hangs from rollers on posts beside the opening, balanced by a tail.
• Telescopic gate. Two or more sliding leaves that stack behind each other, so they need less room to open.
• Bi-fold gate. Leaves that fold in half as they swing. Less arc than a double swing, more moving parts.

The first one is the easy call. If only people go through, build a pedestrian gate. Our guide to standard pedestrian gate sizes covers the widths and heights. The rest of this page is about the driveway types.

How wide can each type of gate go?

Every type has a width where it stops making sense. Past that point the posts, hinges or rollers get big and dear, and a different type does the job better.

Width alone rarely settles it, though. A 4 m opening could be a single swing, a double swing or any of the sliders. Space is what narrows it down.

How much room does each gate need to open?

There are two kinds of room to check on site. Front clearance is the space a swing gate sweeps as it opens. Runout is the length of fence a sliding gate parks along.

• Single swing: a clear arc as deep as the leaf is wide, plus about 0.5 m. A 3 m leaf wants about 3.5 m of flat, clear ground behind the gate.
• Double swing: about half that. Two 1.5 m leaves need about 2 m of clear ground.
• Bi-fold: the folding cuts the arc roughly in half again. Handy when a parked car sits just inside the gate.
• Tracked sliding: runout of about 1.0 to 1.2 times the opening.
• Cantilever: the opening plus the tail. A 4 m opening needs about 5.6 to 6 m of clear fence line.
• Telescopic: the opening divided by the number of leaves, plus a little overlap.

Walk the site and measure both before you talk style. A sloping driveway, a tree, a meter box or a neighbour's fence can rule out half the list in one go.

Should a driveway gate swing or slide?

If the site has room for both, swing gates are cheaper to build and simpler to motorise. They have fewer moving parts and no track to keep clean. That is why single and double swings are still common on narrow suburban driveways.

Sliding gates win when any of these is true:

• The driveway slopes up from the street, so a swing leaf would hit the ground.
• Cars park close inside the gate.
• The opening is wider than about 5 m.
• The gate opens onto a footpath, where it cannot swing out.

Sliding gates also look cleaner when shut and handle wind better, because the leaf runs along the fence line instead of catching the wind like a door.

Is a cantilever gate better than a tracked sliding gate?

It depends on the driveway. A tracked gate is cheaper to build because the leaf only needs to cover the opening plus a small overlap. The catch is the track. Leaves, gravel and water collect in it, and a V-track across a driveway can dam water if it crosses a drainage line.

A cantilever gate has no track at all. It hangs off roller carriages bolted to posts beside the opening, and a tail behind the rollers balances the leaf. Nothing touches the driveway, so there is nothing to clog. The price is a longer leaf, a longer runout and heavier posts.

As a rule of thumb, plan a tail of about 40 to 50% of the opening. Our guides on cantilever vs sliding gates and cantilever gate tail length go into the detail.

Which gate type works on a sloping driveway?

On a slope across the opening, cantilever is the easiest slider. The rail stays level and only the bottom of the leaf follows the rake. A tracked gate is harder, because the track has to run straight and the wheels cannot climb.

Swing gates handle a slope across the opening well. They struggle with a slope that rises up the driveway, away from the street. The leaf hits the high ground before it opens fully. You can raise the leaf, fit rising hinges or step the bottom rail, but often a slider is the cleaner answer.

Measure a raked site carefully before you pick a type. The guide on measuring sliding gates on raked ground shows the datum line method.

Which type of gate costs the most to build?

For the same opening, the order is nearly always the same, from cheapest to dearest:

1. Pedestrian gate
2. Single swing
3. Double swing
4. Tracked sliding
5. Cantilever
6. Bi-fold
7. Telescopic

A double swing has two sets of hinges, two posts and a drop bolt. A cantilever leaf is 40 to 50% longer than the opening and needs roller carriages. A telescopic gate has two or more leaves and the hardware to make them move together. Bi-fold and telescopic gates also take more time to set up on site.

A gate motor adds cost to any of them. Every type has off-the-shelf motor kits, but bi-folds are the fiddliest to automate well.

How do you pick the right gate in five questions?

Ask these in order. Stop at the first answer that fits.

1. Is it only for people? Build a pedestrian gate.
2. Is the opening under 3.5 m, with clear flat ground behind it as deep as the opening? Single swing.
3. Is it 3 to 6 m, with clear ground about half that deep? Double swing.
4. Is there fence beside the opening to slide along? Sliding gate. Pick cantilever if the driveway must stay free of track or it slopes. Pick tracked if it is flat, hard and clean.
5. No arc and no runout? Telescopic. Or bi-fold, if a short swing arc is all you have.

Once the type is set, the next job is the frame and the posts. The guides on RHS vs SHS for gate frames and gate post size pick up from here.

Common questions