5 Bifold Door Alternatives You Should Consider for Your Extension Project (and Which Is Most on Trend for 2025)
There was a time when everyone wanted bifold doors. They are, after all, one of the most effective ways of opening your home up to your outside space. Yet, after this boom, this door’s popularity has waned to some degree, and bifold door alternatives are having their moment in the sun.
“I’m not a fan of bifold doors,” architect Adam Draper tells me. “For the handful of days you concertina them open, you inevitably look through thicker glazing frames for the rest of the time.”
Listen, they’re still the right answer for some homes undoubtedly, but they shouldn’t be the only option when considering patio door ideas. But, what can we use instead? Here are five options that might suit your project, and how you want to use your home, better.
1. Sliding Doors
Sliding doors don’t open up entirely unlike bifold doors.
(Image credit: Malcolm Menzies. Design: The Vawdrey House)
One of the simplest bifold door alternatives is, arguably, what the bifold door replaced in the first place — the sliding door.
“Sliding doors are always a good way to go,” says Adam Draper, but you’ll need to work around the limitations that this type of patio door comes with, which includes not necessarily opening up your kitchen extension entirely to your patio. “You typically have to choose which side is going to be fixed,” Adam says, “but having a chair or dining table behind that fixed panel helps with the layout. You can of course have each side sliding, but that means your floor track gets wider.”
The benefits they offer are what set them as competition when comparing bifold vs sliding doors, too. “They’re slimline, and always a better view out,” Adam says.
Adam Draper
Adam is a London-based architect who welcomes tricky projects such as listed buildings and conservation areas. His projects have been nominated for nationwide architectural awards.
2. Pivot Doors
A pivot door can foster a good connection between indoor and outdoor spaces by straddling both.
(Image credit: MWAI Architects)
If there’s one emerging trend in patio doors that stands apart as a bifold door alternative, it’s the pivot door. These doors might not seem hugely different to standard doors at first glance, but they allow for larger, more impressive expanses of glazing.
“Pivot doors make for a fantastic design feature, an installation-like gesture, when they are fully open they have the power to enhance the visual connection between spaces by literally bridging between two rooms or between inside and outside,” says Alessia Mosci, director of MWAI Architects, who often specifies this type of door.
“On the technical side, they are great as they can achieve greater widths compared to hinged doors whilst retaining slim frames,” Alessia adds, however, there are potential drawbacks, too. “They can be heavy to swing open if too big and this can become an issue if in constant use,” she says.
3. Steel Frame Doors
Steel framed patio doors can sit within larger expanses of glass.
(Image credit: French & Tye, courtesy of Fabco)
The brilliance of steel framed doors comes not only in their aesthetic appeal, but that they’re easy to situate in more expansive glazed walls, with frames that define the space, but that also feel elegant and slim. They’re also a good option when you want to just open a door or window for kitchen ventilation, without having to open your doors entirely, as with a bifold door.
“The slimmer frames from steel-framed doors like Fabco maximize the glazing area flooding your internal space with natural light and the design can incorporate ventilation options, static side screens adjacent to French doors can house opening casements, giving a homeowner alternative means to ventilate their space without having to open large doors,” explains Tim Randolph, director of Fabco.
The right style of steel framed French doors can create an opening from your living area to your patio, without encroaching on your outdoor space. “Bifold doors open stack to one-side and protrude into your usable garden space, while French doors with adjacent side screens fold back 180 degrees,” Tim explains. If you can spare the swing radius, once the door is open, it’s tucked neatly out of the way.
4. Slide-and-Turn Doors
Slide and turn doors have thinner frames than bifolds.
(Image credit: IDSystems)
If you want the closest alternative to bifold doors, look no further than the ‘slide and turn’, says Edward Stobart, technical sales manager at IDSystems. “Slide and turn doors bridge the gap between bifold doors and sliding doors,” he explains. “The vistaline system from IDSystems is designed with 45mm frames between the glass, less than half the width of most folding doors, whilst their ability to slide and stack to one end allows for a completely unobstructed opening to be created to connect inside and out.”
The differences in how the systems work mean that you can have thinner frames, cancelling out concerns about the thicker-sized bifolds. “Bifold doors are typically popular because you can completely open up an aperture, but with chunkier frames and less glass they are less attractive when closed,” Edward adds. “Sliding doors, with narrow frames and large panes of glass are perfect at minimizing the impact on the view out, but needing a fixed panel for the doors to slide behind means you are sacrificing part of the opening to accommodate it.”
Slide and turn doors combine the best bits of both, they are slender and stylish like sliding doors when closed, but create a real ‘wow-factor’ to extend a living space out on to the patio when open.
5. Pocket Doors
Recessing into the walls, pocket doors will open up your vista entirely.
(Image credit: IDSystems)
Last but not least on our tour of bifold door alternatives is the pocket door, something you might already know from its applications for internal doors, but that can be used externally too.
Like all the doors we’ve looked at, external pocket doors have their pros and cons. Like bifolds, they can allow for you to open up your entire door opening to the outside, and even more neatly than bifolds, as everything is hidden away, while retaining all of the benefits of traditional sliding doors, too.
That also means that you can’t really have as big of an opening, depending on how your home or extension is designed, as a pocket door needs something to recess into. It’s much more of a complex addition to your architecture, and not something that can be added in at the last minute by any means. That also, of course, means that they tend to be more expensive, too.
FAQs
Are Bifold Doors Out of Style?
Bifolds aren’t out of style as much as they’re just not as hugely appealing as they once were — especially after becoming the go-to for almost every extension built in a certain period.
Tim Randolph, director of Fabco, has seen their star dim in recent years. “I do think their popularity is waning; The British weather being a key factor, Britain’s driving wind and rain does not lend itself to opening large expanses of glazing across the rear of a property, with them only being fully open if the weather allows,” Tim explains. “When the doors are closed, as they are the majority of the time, clients are valuing a more elegant and considered aesthetic and slim steel frames provide this over chunkier bifold frames.”
There are, still arguably, great examples in architecture where bifold doors are the right choice, but people are looking more into the options available than ever before.
What Is the New Trend Instead of Bifold Doors?
So, which of these doors is the big trend replacing bifold doors? After scanning architects’ websites for projects completed in 2024 and 2025 so far, I think I know the answer. In terms of actual volume, it’s got to be the classic sliding door, used with increasingly slimmer frames. However, you could argue that sliding doors have always been a popular option, and that the upstart door trend that we’re seeing more than ever before is the pivot door. It’s an exterior door trend that feels as special as the bifold, offering the same wow factor, but places values on what people are looking for from their glazing now, instead.
