Nothing irritates me more than when manufactures post pictures of a product and include essential parts of the product in the photo that are not actually included in the product    I ordered this umbrella specifically because I thought it included a base. You absolutely need the base for this because it is especially top heavy   It does not include the base. The other thing I don’t like about this umbrella is there’s no real way to tilt it. If you have it fully extended, you can’t shift the umbrella you have to shift the umbrella stand. If you try to make it flatter or not tilted it just weakens the umbrella coverage. I wouldn’t buy this again.