As long as you want to play the odious comparison game:

This forum is free; it's paid for with backpacking-related advertising. BPL charges for use but has just as many ads, many of them annoying and most unrelated to the site's subject matter. That $5 fee is strictly an anti-spam device dating from horrendous spam attacks a few years ago. It does not give access to articles and probably costs as much to administer as it brings in for BPL

Customer service here is outstanding. On BPL it's nonexistent.

Although I have life membership in BPL, I stopped visiting the site regularly two years ago, because I was getting nothing useful out of it. Not one of the benefits originally touted for life members (such as no ads, access to what turned out to be Kickstarter-financed videos that never were made, involvement in strategic planning) has been implemented. The quality and number of articles has greatly deteriorated. One of the reasons I left was because for the previous two years they had published exactly one article that I found worth reading.

IMHO, BPL is worth the price of one year's membership, in order to read the wealth of articles in their archives, the best of which were published prior to 2010. There's lots of priceless info there about backpacking in soggy wet, cold, and other adverse conditions, state-of-the-market gear comparisons (although now rather out of date) and other useful information. Unfortunately, the site started going downhill just about the time I went to life membership!

Of course this site also has useful articles on its home page, and they're free to the user, too!

OK, diversion over, let's go back to tents!!!