Due to the poor structure and severe compaction of tailings, surface runoff is easily generated. Water has become an important limiting factor for its ecological restoration. In order to further understand the difference of hydraulic characteristics between tailings and soil, and to provide a scientific improvement for iron tailings sand, the water transport characteristics of iron tailings and soil under five compaction levels from natural bulk density to maximum compaction density (iron tailings from 1.50 g/cm³ to 1.70 g/cm³, soil from 1.30 g/cm³ to 1.50 g/cm³) were compared by indoor soil column simulation. The water infiltration capacity of natural bulk density of 1.50 g/cm³ iron tailings sand was lower than that of soil with 1.30 g/cm³ under natural bulk density. With the increase of the bulk densities, the water infiltration parameters of both tailings sand and soil decreased in the form of power function. But the infiltration capacity of iron tailings and soil presented respectively significant reduction at the level of 1.60 g/cm³ and 1.40 g/cm³. Based on the overall water parameters including water infiltration rate, wetting front distance, cumulative infiltration volume, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and water distribution in profile, the water transport capacity of soil was higher than that of iron tailings in the lower bulk density levels; however, due to the effect of bulk density on soil water transport was greater than that on iron tailings, the water transport capacity of soil was not as good as iron tailings under the higher bulk density levels. The shape of the water characteristic curve of the iron tailings sand was completely different from soil; the iron tailings sand was "convex", which was characterized by gentle change in the high suction and steep change in the low suction section, while that of soil was "concave", which was characterized by steep change in the high suction section and gentle change in the low suction section. Therefore, soil or other matrix similar to soil structure can be added to tailings to tailings sand could be added by soil or other matrix similar to soil structure to enhance its poor water holding and hydraulic conductivity, and promote ecological restoration.