Two real online sellers cover almost every compound bow worth buying in the US right now: Bear Archery, if you already know you want a Bear bow, and Creed Archery Supply, if you want to compare Hoyt against Mathews against Bowtech without opening ten different tabs. A handful of other archery sites turn up in the same searches and don't actually sell compound bows at all, which wastes a shopper's time if nobody says so plainly. This guide names the real options, what each one actually offers, and where a purely online purchase still falls short.
Buy direct from Bear Archery if you already want a Bear bow
Bear Archery sells its own compound bow lineup straight through beararchery.com, with no retailer standing between the shopper and the brand. The company leans hard on its own history in how it sells itself, positioning "90 years" of American manufacturing since its 1933 founding by Fred Bear as part of the pitch. That heritage angle matters less than the practical point: buying from beararchery.com means Bear's own current lineup, including the Legend Series, the Mainline Compound line, and models like the Adapt 2 HP RTH and Paradigm RTH, at Bear's own listed prices. If a shopper has already decided on a Bear bow, or wants to browse Bear's full current catalogue in one place, this is the direct route.
The tradeoff is exactly what you'd expect from a single-brand site: no side-by-side comparison against a Hoyt or a Mathews, and no way to see how Bear's pricing stacks up against a competitor's equivalent draw weight and axle-to-axle length without leaving the page.
Shop by brand at Creed Archery Supply if you're comparing across brands
Creed Archery Supply is a real, physical pro shop with an indoor archery range in Macon, Missouri, that also runs a full online store. Its own site lists compound bow brands including Mathews, Bowtech, Hoyt, Elite, Diamond, Mission, PSE, and Bear Archery, alongside others in its brand directory. That range is the actual reason to start here instead of at a single manufacturer's site: a shopper who isn't sure yet whether they want a Mathews or a Bowtech can look at both without switching retailers.
Creed also publishes real, checkable policy terms rather than leaving a shopper to guess. Standard shipping is free on orders of $49 or more, and the company states a 45-day return policy on the page it runs for its affiliate partners. Both of those are the kind of detail that actually affects a bow purchase, since a bow that doesn't fit once it arrives is a real, common outcome of buying without handling it first.
| Bear Archery | Creed Archery Supply | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Manufacturer, sells its own bows direct | Multi-brand pro shop and online store |
| Brands carried | Bear Archery only | Bear Archery, Hoyt, Mathews, Bowtech, Diamond Archery, Elite Archery, Mission Archery, PSE, Darton |
| Physical location | Online store only, no storefront referenced on site | Macon, Missouri, with an on-site indoor archery range |
| Free shipping | Not found in available sources | Orders of $49 or more |
| Return policy | Not found in available sources | 45-day return policy |
That table is really a shortcut for one decision: already committed to Bear, go direct; still comparing brands, go to Creed. Neither site publishes a compound-bow price list broad enough to build a full price-tier breakdown from, so this guide doesn't manufacture one, what's confirmed above is what's confirmed, and nothing here is a guessed number standing in for a real one.
À retenir : Bear Archery only sells its own bows, direct, with no comparison shopping built in. Creed Archery Supply is the one confirmed retailer carrying every major brand this site covers, plus a real free-shipping threshold and a stated 45-day return window.
Two names that show up in the same searches but don't sell compound bows
Two other archery retailers turn up often enough in "compound bow for sale" searches that they're worth naming directly, along with the reason they're not listed as a place to buy one. Vantage Point Archery is a real, US-made broadhead manufacturer whose actual catalogue is broadheads, third-party arrows, arrow accessories, and one traditional takedown recurve riser, not a single compound bow anywhere in its lineup. It's a legitimate stop once you own a bow and need broadheads, never a stop for buying the bow itself.
CenterPoint Archery is the second one, and its catalogue leans almost entirely crossbow: models like the Amped G2D and the Sinister 430D, plus recurve and youth bows. A direct request to its own /compound-bows page comes back as a plain HTTP 404, which is about as clear a confirmation as a retailer can give that the category doesn't exist on its site. If crossbow shopping brought you here by mistake, that's worth knowing before you spend time digging through CenterPoint's catalogue looking for something it doesn't carry.
Buying online doesn't replace a real draw-length fitting
Every retailer above will sell a bow sized however you tell them to, and that's exactly where an online purchase can go wrong. Draw length isn't something most people guess correctly on their own, and a bow set two inches too long fights your form on every single shot. A local pro shop that measures your actual draw length and lets you feel the difference between a 60% and an 80% let-off before you buy is worth the trip, especially for a first bow, our guide to buying a first compound bow goes into exactly why that fitting step matters more for a beginner than any spec on a page. Creed Archery Supply's own physical location does double duty here: the same shop that ships online orders can also measure a shopper who happens to be in Missouri, which is a genuine advantage neither a pure online retailer nor Bear's direct site can offer.
Already know the brand? Browse by brand instead
Everything above assumes a shopper is still deciding where to buy. A shopper who's already settled on a brand doesn't need a merchant comparison at all, our brand directory breaks down Bear Archery, Hoyt, Mathews, Bowtech, Diamond Archery, and Darton on their own dedicated pages, with the real retailer to buy each one from named directly on that brand's page.
FAQ
Is it better to buy a compound bow from the manufacturer or from a retailer like Creed Archery Supply?
It depends on how settled the decision already is. Buying direct from Bear Archery makes sense once a shopper has already decided on that brand specifically, since there's nothing left to compare. Creed Archery Supply is the better starting point while a shopper is still weighing brands against each other, since it's the one confirmed retailer stocking Bear, Hoyt, Mathews, Bowtech, and the rest in one place.
Can I buy a compound bow from Vantage Point Archery or CenterPoint Archery?
No. Both are real, legitimate archery retailers, but neither sells compound bows. Vantage Point's actual business is broadheads and arrows, and CenterPoint's is overwhelmingly crossbows, its own site returns a 404 error for a compound-bow category page, confirming there isn't one.
Should I still visit a local pro shop if I'm planning to buy online?
Yes, at least for the fitting. A pro shop can measure your real draw length and let you feel the let-off on a few bows before you commit to one online. It costs nothing to check, and it prevents the single most common mistake in a first bow purchase: buying the wrong draw length.
Sources
- [S001] Creed Archery Supply : homepage, (accessed 2026-09-06)
- [S002] Bear Archery : homepage, (accessed 2026-09-06)
- [S003] Bear Archery : Affiliate Program page, (accessed 2026-09-05)
- [S004] Creed Archery Supply : Affiliate Partners page, (accessed 2026-09-05)
- [S005] Vantage Point Archery : Affiliate Program page, (accessed 2026-09-05)
- [S006] CenterPoint Archery : Affiliate Program page, (accessed 2026-09-05)