Quite frequently the analysis and design of soil nailed structures is based upon the Limit Equilibrium Method. This is, in a sense contradictory, since soil nails constitute a passive reinforcement which requires deformation for the resistance to be mobilized, making it desirable to be able to predict the displacements of soil nailed structures, as well as the redistribution of stresses among nails during the several phases of the excavation/installation procedure. This is especially true when nailed excavations are close to sensitive structures or utilities, as it is often the case in densely populated areas. In this study, two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) stress-strain analysis are compared for hypothetical and real situations, in an attempt to explore how simple a model can be adopted and still allow reasonable prediction of the behavior of nailed excavations. Solutions based on elastic-plastic Mohr-Coulomb and hyperbolic models are compared with incremental linear elastic analyses. In all cases considerable attention is focused on the choice of parameters that are compatible with the stress path prevalent in different regions of the excavated material.