Longitudinal stiffeners are commonly used in engineering practice to enhance the strength and buckling resistance. This study examines the effects of three stiffener geometries (I-, L-, and U-shaped) under equal-mass conditions to quantify the influence of longitudinal stiffener geometry on the buckling behavior of thin-walled SS304 cylindrical columns. To evaluate their influence on the buckling response, following factors were chosen: stiffener shape, number of longitudinal stiffeners (Ns), stiffener circumferential spacing ratio (p/s), and stiffener width-to-stiffener thickness ratio (b/ts). An experimental program was conducted to validate the finite element simulation. Nonlinear finite element simulations were applied using Abaqus. The finite element output was analyzed using the Taguchi method to identify the best parameter combinations for highest buckling strength. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) method was utilized to determine the influence of each parameter on the critical buckling load. The outcomes indicated that the combination of parameters exhibiting the greatest buckling resistance corresponds to the U-shaped stiffener configuration with several longitudinal stiffeners (Ns = 6), stiffener width-to-stiffener thickness ratio (b/ts = 2.2), and a circumferential spacing ratio (p/s = 0.6). The results further indicated the number of stiffeners and their circumferential spacing are the most influential factors for buckling resistance, and stiffener width-to-stiffener thickness ratio is the least influential.