Eagle Creek vs Peak Design Packing Cubes
Two premium cube systems, two lifetime warranties, two completely different answers to the same question. One gives you graduated sizes; the other gives you two and a half times the capacity per ounce.
We have not tested this gear. Every figure here is compiled from published manufacturer specifications and published airline policies, and the arithmetic is public so you can check it. This page contains affiliate links — see the affiliate disclosure.
Peak Design, on arithmetic. Its Medium cube publishes 18 L for 5.1 oz at $39.95 — $2.22 and 0.018 lb per liter. The Eagle Creek Reveal set publishes 11 L across three cubes for 8.1 oz at $59: $5.36 and 0.046 lb per liter. Eagle Creek wins on graduated sizes and mesh fronts you can see through, which is a real reason to pick it.
Manufacturer-published capacities, weights and prices, compiled 3 September 2026. Both makers publish a warranty with no stated end date and a repair route. We have not tested these cubes.
| # | Product | Weight per liter | Fits | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peak Design Packing Cube (Medium)A single cube doing the whole job in a 40 L bag | 0.02 lb/L | 11 of 11AA DL UA WN … | 9.4 | Check price on Amazon#ad How we earn |
| 2 | Eagle Creek Pack-It Reveal Packing Cube Set (XS/S/M)Anyone who wants cubes once and never again | 0.05 lb/L | Not published | 8.3 | Check price on Amazon#ad How we earn |
| 3 | Peak Design Packing Cube (Small)Personal-item bags and 20 L daypacks | 0.03 lb/L | Not published | 8.9 | Check price on Amazon#ad How we earn |
| 4 | Eagle Creek Pack-It Isolate Compression Cube SetBuyers who want compression under a lifetime warranty | Not published | Not published | 9.3 | Check price on Amazon#ad How we earn |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price on Amazon rather than a number we cannot stand behind. See how we handle prices.
The two systems, as published
| Eagle Creek Pack-It Reveal (XS/S/M) | Peak Design Packing Cube (Medium) | |
|---|---|---|
| Published price | $59.00 | $39.95 |
| Pieces | 3 | 1 |
| Published capacity | 11 L total | 18 L |
| Published weight | 8.1 oz total | 5.1 oz |
| Cost per liter | $5.36 | $2.22 |
| Weight per liter | 0.046 lb | 0.018 lb |
| Compresses | No — organizing cubes | The cube, 6.7 in to 3.1 in |
| See inside without opening | Yes — mesh fronts | No |
| Warranty | Lifetime, repair published | Lifetime, repair published |
| Cost per covered year | $2.95 | $2.00 |
The per-liter gap is the whole story
Peak Design’s Medium cube holds 7 L more than Eagle Creek’s entire three-cube set, weighs 3 oz less, and costs $19 less. Per liter it is less than half the price and less than half the weight.
That is not a small margin and it is not an artefact of measurement: both makers publish capacity in liters and weight in grams on their own product pages, so the two numbers are directly comparable. How cube sizes are actually published.
What three cubes buy that one does not
Sorted storage. A single 18 L cube is one compartment; three graduated cubes are three, and the smallest of them — 7.5 × 4.5 × 2.5 in — is the size of socks, cables and underwear rather than shirts.
The Reveal line also publishes mesh fronts. Being able to see which cube holds the clean shirts without unzipping it sounds trivial and is the single feature people keep cubes for. Peak Design’s answer to the same problem is a divider inside the cube that separates worn clothes from clean — a different solution, and a genuinely good one on a long trip.
And in a carry-on specifically, depth decides: the Reveal cubes publish 2.5 and 3 in, so two layers stack inside a cabin case. Cube depth against case depth.
Neither of these compresses your clothes
This is the most common misreading on both product pages. Peak Design’s cube compresses itself, from 6.7 in deep to 3.1 in, which removes empty volume as the cube empties. It does not squeeze the garments inside it. Eagle Creek’s Reveal cubes do not compress at all.
For actual compression you want a zip that pulls the panel down onto the clothes — Eagle Creek’s Isolate set at $50 publishes one, and so do the budget Gonex cubes. Compression against plain cubes, with the caveat.
Both warranties are the same shape
Eagle Creek and Peak Design both publish a warranty with no stated end date and both publish a repair route rather than replacement only. Against the site’s 20-year horizon that is $2.95 a year for the Eagle Creek set and $2.00 for the Peak Design Medium.
Neither publishes cover for airline handling damage, which for a packing cube is the correct omission — a cube inside a bag is not what an airline breaks. Every open-ended warranty in the ledger, priced.
The verdict
- Buy the Peak Design Medium if you want the most capacity per ounce and per dollar, and one compartment is enough. Its con: a 12.6 in square footprint that wastes the corners of a 13 in wide case, and you open it to see inside.
- Buy the Eagle Creek Reveal set if you want graduated sizes, mesh you can see through, and cube depths that stack two-deep in a cabin case. Its con: $5.36 per liter, which is more than twice the Peak Design figure.
- Buy neither if what you actually want is compression. Both of these organize; only the Isolate set and the budget compression cubes squeeze.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry below shows the published inputs, the four axis scores they produce, and what you give up. The order is the computed order, not a commercial one.
1 · A single cube doing the whole job in a 40 L bag
Peak Design Packing Cube (Medium)
18 L in one cube for 5.1 oz, with a divider that separates worn clothes from clean — the only cube here that solves the second half of a trip.
- Published size
- 12.6 × 12.6 × 6.7 in
- Weight
- 0.32 lb
- Capacity
- 18 L
- Weight per liter
- 0.02 lb/L
- Cost per covered year
- $2.00/yr
- Published list price
- $39.95
Warranty Peak Design lifetime guarantee
Fits 11 of 11 US carriers: AA, DL, UA, WN, AS, B6, F9, G4, HA, MX, SY. See the limits.
What it does well
- 18 L in 5.1 oz is 0.018 lb per liter, the best carry efficiency in the packing category
- Halves in depth from 6.7 in to 3.1 in as it empties
- Dual compartments keep clean and dirty apart without a second bag
What you give up
- $39.95 for one cube against $59 for a three-cube Eagle Creek set
- 12.6 in square footprint wastes corners in a 14 in wide case
- Compression here reduces the cube, not the clothes inside it
The arithmetic behind the score
- Value 9.5/10 — $39.95 ÷ 20 yr = $2.00/yr; $39.95 ÷ 18 L = $2.22/L
- Airline-fit breadth 10.0/10 — Fits the published carry-on limit at 11 of 11 US carriers: AA, DL, UA, WN, AS, B6, F9, G4, HA, MX, SY
- Carry efficiency 10.0/10 — 0.32 lb ÷ 18 L = 0.018 lb/L
- Warranty & support 8.0/10 — no stated end date (6 of 6); repair published (+2); airline damage not covered (+0)
Weights and breakpoints are published on how we rank. Where an input is not published, that axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
Specs: Peak Design published specifications and price, compiled 3 September 2026. Published compressed at 12.6 × 12.6 × 3.1 in and expanded at 12.6 × 12.6 × 6.7 in. The expanded figure is used here.
2 · Anyone who wants cubes once and never again
Eagle Creek Pack-It Reveal Packing Cube Set (XS/S/M)
11 L of organization for 8.2 oz of added weight, under a warranty with no end date — the cleanest arithmetic in the packing category.
- Published size
- Not published
- Weight
- 0.51 lb
- Capacity
- 11 L
- Weight per liter
- 0.05 lb/L
- Cost per covered year
- $2.95/yr
- Published list price
- $59
Warranty Eagle Creek lifetime warranty
Fits No published dimensions to check.
What it does well
- Published weights of 45.4 g, 70.9 g and 113.4 g total 229.7 g — 8.1 oz for the set
- Lifetime warranty at $2.95 per covered year
- Mesh fronts mean you can see what is in a cube without opening it
What you give up
- $59 published is four to six times what an unbranded six-piece set lists at
- Organizing cubes, not compression cubes — they will not shrink anything
- 11 L across three cubes fills a fraction of a 40 L bag
The arithmetic behind the score
- Value 7.4/10 — $59 ÷ 20 yr = $2.95/yr; $59 ÷ 11 L = $5.36/L
- Airline-fit breadth not scored — No published dimensions to check against carrier limits.
- Carry efficiency 10.0/10 — 0.51 lb ÷ 11 L = 0.046 lb/L
- Warranty & support 8.0/10 — no stated end date (6 of 6); repair published (+2); airline damage not covered (+0)
Weights and breakpoints are published on how we rank. Where an input is not published, that axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
Specs: Eagle Creek published specifications and price, compiled 3 September 2026. Published per cube: XS 7.5 × 4.5 × 2.5 in, S 10 × 7 × 3 in, M 14 × 10 × 3 in.
3 · Personal-item bags and 20 L daypacks
Peak Design Packing Cube (Small)
The medium cube's mechanism at half the volume — worth it only if 18 L is genuinely more cube than your bag can take.
- Published size
- Not published
- Weight
- 0.25 lb
- Capacity
- 9 L
- Weight per liter
- 0.03 lb/L
- Cost per covered year
- $1.50/yr
- Published list price
- $29.95
Warranty Peak Design lifetime guarantee
Fits No published dimensions to check.
What it does well
- Compresses from 9 L to 4.5 L, a true halving
- 3.99 oz added weight
- Same lifetime guarantee as the medium
What you give up
- $29.95 for 9 L against $39.95 for 18 L — the medium is better value per liter
- Small cubes encourage more cubes, and each one is added weight
- No mesh front, so you open it to see inside
The arithmetic behind the score
- Value 8.8/10 — $29.95 ÷ 20 yr = $1.50/yr; $29.95 ÷ 9 L = $3.33/L
- Airline-fit breadth not scored — No published dimensions to check against carrier limits.
- Carry efficiency 10.0/10 — 0.25 lb ÷ 9 L = 0.028 lb/L
- Warranty & support 8.0/10 — no stated end date (6 of 6); repair published (+2); airline damage not covered (+0)
Weights and breakpoints are published on how we rank. Where an input is not published, that axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
Specs: Peak Design published specifications and price, compiled 3 September 2026. Published at 32 × 17 × 8 cm compressed, 32 × 17 × 17 cm expanded.
4 · Buyers who want compression under a lifetime warranty
Eagle Creek Pack-It Isolate Compression Cube Set
Skip this one. The only product on this page we cannot check. Eagle Creek publishes $50 and a lifetime warranty for the Isolate compression set and — on the page read on 3 September 2026 — no weight and no packed capacity. On a page whose entire argument is capacity per ounce, a product with neither figure published cannot be ranked. It may well be the right buy; we simply cannot show you that it is.
The compression counterpart to the Reveal set, at $50 published and the same warranty with no stated end date — but Eagle Creek publishes no weight for it.
- Published size
- Not published
- Weight
- Not published
- Capacity
- Not published
- Weight per liter
- Not published
- Cost per covered year
- $2.50/yr
- Published list price
- $50
Warranty Eagle Creek lifetime warranty
Fits No published dimensions to check.
What it does well
- $2.50 per covered year against a warranty with no published end date
- Compression zips rather than organizing cubes alone
- Same recycled polyester construction as the Reveal line
What you give up
- No published weight, so the added-weight question cannot be answered for it
- No published packed capacity either
- Compression zips are the part of a cube that fails first
The arithmetic behind the score
- Value 10.0/10 — $50 ÷ 20 yr = $2.50/yr
- Airline-fit breadth not scored — No published dimensions to check against carrier limits.
- Carry efficiency not scored — No published capacity, so weight per liter cannot be computed.
- Warranty & support 8.0/10 — no stated end date (6 of 6); repair published (+2); airline damage not covered (+0)
Weights and breakpoints are published on how we rank. Where an input is not published, that axis is dropped and the remaining weights are re-normalized.
Specs: Eagle Creek published price, compiled 3 September 2026.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price on Amazon rather than a number we cannot stand behind. See how we handle prices.