Four geosynthetics, four different functions: geogrid reinforces, geotextile separates and filters, geonet drains, geocell confines. Plus the "geo grid" mix-up that sends gravel driveway buyers to the wrong product.
These four products get compared as if they were competing versions of the same thing. They are not — each one does a job the others cannot, and most real projects use two or three together. Geogrid reinforces: it takes tension a soil mass cannot. Geotextile separates and filters: it keeps two soil layers from mixing while letting water through. Geonet drains: it carries water sideways within the structure. Geocell confines: it holds material inside three-dimensional cells so it cannot spread. Decide what the layer must do and the choice usually makes itself.
This is the comparison people search for most, and the answer is usually "both". A biaxial geogrid works by letting aggregate drop into its apertures and lock there, so the fill stops moving laterally and the layer stiffens. It cannot separate anything — its whole design is holes. A woven geotextile or nonwoven geotextile is a continuous fabric: it stops soft subgrade fines pumping up into the granular layer, filters water without losing soil, and cushions liners against puncture. Put a grid alone on soft clay and the base course slowly contaminates itself until the design strength is gone. The standard build is fabric on the subgrade for separation, grid above it for tension, aggregate over both. Woven geotextile adds tensile capacity of its own, which is why a light job sometimes uses it in place of a grid — but per kN of reinforcement, the grid is the cheaper and stiffer answer.
A geonet looks like a coarse geogrid and does something entirely unrelated. Its ribs cross at an angle to leave open channels in the plane of the sheet, so liquid or gas travels along the sheet rather than through it — landfill leachate collection, drainage behind a retaining wall, gas venting under a cap. Bond a nonwoven to each face and you have a geocomposite drain that filters and drains at once. Nobody designs a geonet as reinforcement, and no geogrid should be counted on for in-plane flow; the aperture geometry that interlocks aggregate is not a drainage channel.
A geocell is the odd one out because it has depth. Strips of HDPE are welded into a honeycomb that expands on site into cells 50 to 200 mm deep and filled with soil, sand, gravel or concrete, so the fill is wrapped on all sides instead of interlocked in one plane. That makes a geocell the better answer where the fill is poor or rounded and where the layer surface itself has to stay put, while a grid is more economical under traffic with good angular aggregate. We have written that comparison out in full — see geocell vs geogrid if that is the decision in front of you.
Two different products share a name in everyday North American usage, and it costs buyers money. Search geo grid driveway, gravel geogrid, geogrid ground grid or honeycomb geogrid and most of the results are cellular panels — the honeycomb or diamond-cell trays laid on a prepared base, filled with gravel or planted with grass, that keep a driveway or parking area from rutting and migrating. Those are gravel grid panels or HDPE geocell, and for a residential drive, a grass overflow bay or a garden path they are almost always what the job wants. A structural geogrid is a flat mesh with no depth; it goes under the base course to reinforce it, and laid at the surface it does nothing to stop loose gravel wandering. The two are complementary rather than rival: on a soft-ground driveway you may well want a geogrid down at the subgrade and a gravel grid at the top, each doing its own job.
Half the enquiries we answer name a product that is not the one the site needs, usually because the terminology overlaps. Describe the subgrade, the load, the fill you can get locally and what is going wrong or being built, and we will say which of these four applies — including when the honest answer is that you need two of them, or that the cheapest one is enough. Everything above ships from the same range: see the full geosynthetics catalogue for grades, roll sizes and container loading.
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A geogrid is an open mesh that reinforces — aggregate locks into its apertures and can no longer spread sideways. A geotextile is a continuous fabric that separates soil layers, filters water and protects against puncture; woven types add tensile strength as well. They solve different problems and are commonly installed together, fabric below and grid above.
On a firm, clean subgrade a grid alone is often enough. On soft, wet or fine-grained ground use both: without a separation fabric, fines migrate up into the granular layer and the base loses the strength the design assumed, no matter how strong the grid above it is.
For the gravel surface itself, the cellular product. Gravel grid or geocell panels wrap the stone on all sides so it stops migrating, rutting and washing out, which a flat grid at the surface cannot do. A geogrid still helps on a soft subgrade, buried below the base course, so a bad-ground driveway can reasonably use both — <a href="/resources/geocell-vs-geogrid/">geocell vs geogrid</a> works through that choice in detail.
No, though both get called geo grid. The honeycomb type is a geocell or gravel grid — a three-dimensional cellular panel, typically 50–200 mm deep, that confines fill. A structural geogrid is a flat mesh installed within or under a soil layer to carry tension. Different geometry, different function, different price.
A geonet is a drainage product: its ribs cross at an angle to form open channels that carry water or gas along the plane of the sheet. A geogrid is a reinforcement product: its apertures exist so aggregate can interlock. They look similar and are never substituted for each other.
Only indirectly — it reinforces the soil mass so a steeper slope can stand, but it does not hold surface material against rain and runoff. For surface protection use a geocell filled with topsoil or gravel, which confines the face layer and can be vegetated.
Geogrid Punched and drawn PP biaxial geogrid for subgrade stabilization and base reinforcement — 15-15 to 50-50 kN/m grades, square apertures, 93% junction efficiency.
Geogrid PP and HDPE uniaxial geogrid for retaining walls, MSE walls and reinforced slopes — 60–300 kN/m machine-direction strength, long oval apertures, low creep.
Gravel & Grass Grids HDPE gravel grid / grass paver — a snap-together cellular grid that confines gravel or grass for permeable, load-bearing driveways, paths and slopes.
Geocell Smooth HDPE geocell — a 3D honeycomb ground grid for slope protection, gravel driveways and load support. Ultrasonically welded, panels custom-sized.
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