The biggest difference between suction cup lysimeters or pore water samplers and pan lysimeters, static tension lysimeters, controlled tension lysimeters and weighing lysimeters is what they are capable of measuring. Suction cup lysimeters are able to collect soil water samples from the vadose zone while the other mentioned lysimeters are capable of both collecting soil water samples and measuring flux rates.

One advantage of suction cup lysimeters is they require little disturbance to be installed. For most typical installations a small augered hole is all that will be required to install the suction cups. However, if you are in need of measurements of water and contaminant flux rates then they other mentioned lysimeters would be the way to go.