An experimental study into the pullout resistance of cylindrical anchor in sands was carried out in a triaxial testing tank that applied horizontal and vertical confining pressures. The experiment was carried out on both dense and loose sand conditions at various confining pressures. Several types of anchors were investigated, they included smooth, rough, and ribbed anchors with different rib spacings. In dense sand, degradation that results in increasing void ratio occurs at the interface, therefore anchor resistance decreases in subsequent cycles. In loose sand, the degradation tends to decrease the void ratio at the interface. As a result, anchor resistance in subsequent cycles is either relatively constant or increases. The contribution of passive resistance on the ribs and friction at the interface results in a coefficient of apparent friction (μ^*) for both the peak and the residual conditions. The value of μ^* is influenced by compressive normal stress, soil density and rib spacing, whereas the coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest (Ko) has little influence on the anchor resistance.