Best newborn strollers 2026: 8 tested with a real newborn

I spent six months pushing eight newborn strollers around Phoenix. About $7,000 worth. My wife pushed them, my newborn son Dean rode in all eight and had no notes on any of them, and Hank, my two-year-old, spent the entire test refusing to get into a single one.

That last part wasn’t supposed to happen. It ended up being the most useful thing I learned about newborn strollers all year.

So: the best newborn strollers of 2026, and an argument against the one everybody tells you to buy.

There’s a catch worth knowing before you spend a dollar. The stroller everybody tells you to buy, the “grows with your family” convertible that’s been the default answer for a decade, is a bet I lost. My older son won’t sit in a stroller anymore. You know what he will ride? A $115 piece of wood.

The short version is that I bought into the convertible-double plan, paid for it, and watched it fall apart in my driveway. What I’d buy now costs about $500 less.

How I tested newborn strollers

I rated every stroller here in newborn configuration. That means the way you’d actually buy it on day one, bassinet and all, not the way it works at eighteen months.

That distinction decides most of this page. A stroller that’s brilliant with a toddler and awkward with a three-week-old gets rated on the three-week-old. It’s why the stroller I’ve called the best travel stroller on the market for the past year finishes near the bottom of this list.

Six categories: push, newborn readiness, fold and size, storage, weight, and value. Dean rode in all eight over six months. The Nuna is the one exception and I’ve flagged it in its section.

Nobody paid for a placement. Some of these arrived free and got shredded anyway.

How they all stack up

★★★ Great — best in the lineup at this. ★★ Good — no complaints. ★ Meh — livable, but you’ll notice. 👎 A real problem — this is a reason not to buy it. Rated in newborn configuration. Prices all-in from birth, as of August 2026.

Every price is all-in from birth: the stroller plus whatever you have to buy before a newborn can ride in it. Bassinets are the sneaky, required, addition that hurts your wallet.

The best newborn stroller: UPPAbaby Cruz V3

We’re still using the Cruz V3. After eight strollers and six months, that’s the shortest review I can give you.

The UPPAbaby Cruz V3 costs $899.99 and weighs 26.5 lbs, and it’s the only full-size UPPAbaby you can use the day you leave the hospital. The seat lies flat and the infant insert comes in the box. Nothing else to buy.

That sounds like a small thing. It isn’t, and here’s the number that proves it: UPPAbaby lists the Vista V3 as suitable from three months. Not from birth. To put a newborn in a Vista you add the $279.99 Bassinet V3, which takes a stroller that already costs $100 more than the Cruz and lands it at $1,280 before your baby can legally ride in it. The Cruz is $900, finished.

The ride is the same UPPAbaby ride people pay Vista money for. I take one of these to the farmer’s market most Saturdays, over loose gravel and a patch of cobblestone I’m fairly sure was installed to punish people with strollers, and it steers one-handed the whole way. The magnetic buckle catches on its own while you’re wrestling a squirming baby, which you’ll appreciate roughly a hundred times a week.

It’s also narrower than the Vista by 3.2 inches, 22.5 against 25.7. That sounds like a rounding error and it isn’t. Doorways stop being a negotiation, and it fits in a normal trunk with room left for groceries.

Two things I’d want you to know before you buy it.

It will never become a double stroller. There’s no second seat, and there never will be. If you’re having twins, or you already know you’ll have two kids under two, stop here and buy the Mockingbird instead.

And it’s heavy. 26.5 lbs is a full-size stroller and it lifts like one. Getting it into a trunk is a two-handed job, and if there are stairs between you and the sidewalk you’ll think about that weight every single day. Weight is the tax you pay for the push.

The best stroller for an infant and toddler isn’t a double stroller

My double-stroller plan died in my driveway this past January.

The plan was the reason anybody buys a single-to-double. Dean arrives, Dean goes in the stroller, Hank rides in the second seat, we keep taking the morning dog walk, and my wife gets twenty quiet minutes, which in the newborn era has roughly the street value of a kidney.

Hank was two and a half when he quit. He didn’t taper off. He was done, and forcing a toddler into a stroller is a hostage situation where the hostage wins. I was left pushing a stroller with an empty seat I’d paid $300 extra for.

Then I looked up whether that was just Hank.

The window for two riders is about twelve months

The CDC tracks how far apart Americans space their kids. The median interpregnancy interval, meaning birth to next conception, runs 24 to 29 months. Add the pregnancy and your first child is right around three when the second one arrives.

Pediatricians say the stroller should be gone by then. “In general, strollers shouldn’t be necessary past the age of 3,” says Dr. Brandon Smith, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His point is that three-year-olds should be walking and running, and sitting them down every time you leave the house works against that.

So the period where two children both need to ride is somewhere around twelve months. You’re being sold a $300 second seat to solve a one-year problem.

Buy a riding board instead

A riding board is a platform that clips to the back of your stroller. Your older kid stands on it and holds the handle, which as far as a toddler is concerned means riding on the back of a garbage truck.

Read that table bottom to top. The $299.99 second seat holds 40 lbs. The $115 board holds 55. The board costs a third as much and your kid rides it for years longer. [uppababy.com and hellomockingbird.com, accessed 2026-08-12]

UPPAbaby knows this, incidentally. Their own Cruz V3 page carries a chart listing the stroller as suitable for two children with the PiggyBack attached. The board isn’t a workaround people invented. It’s the manufacturer’s answer. [uppababy.com/strollers/full-size/cruz-v3/]

Hank has never once turned down the board. This is a kid who will not sit in a stroller under any circumstances, and he treats the board like I bought him a skateboard. Dean rides, Hank stands, my wife gets her twenty minutes. Here’s what that looks like if you want to see it before you spend $115 on a plank.

Know the riding board isn’t going to help 100% of the time, and there are caveats.

Three situations make the riding board, as awesome as it is, less than perfect:

You’re tall. I’m 6’3″ and my feet catch the board unless I shorten my stride. Months in, I’ve stopped noticing. But if you’re tall, you should know you’ll whack a toe or a shin and need to practice your silent cursing.

Your toddler is genuinely wiped out. A board works for a kid with energy who wants to feel independent. It does nothing for a kid melting down at hour three of a zoo day who needs to sit, and possibly sleep. This is the reason I point people to the Mockingbird board over the other two: the seat detaches, so your kid can sit down when the legs give out. That feature answers the main objection to boards, and it’s why I’d buy that board even if you own a different stroller.

You actually need two seats. Twins. Irish twins. A toddler who still naps mid-outing. That’s what the next section is for.

For everyone else, a premium single and a board saves you somewhere between $200 and $800.

Best single-to-double strollers, if you’re sure

Read the section above first. If you’re still here, these are the three worth looking at.

Mockingbird Single-to-Double 3.0 — $549

Mockingbird makes the stroller I’d buy if I knew for certain I was having two kids close together and I didn’t want to spend Vista money.

$549 for the stroller, $175 for the second seat kit, $724 for a full double. That’s less than half what the Vista route costs, and Mockingbird states those numbers on its own site. [hellomockingbird.com, accessed 2026-08-12]

What they’re good at is the unglamorous stuff. A LegShade pulls out from under the seat, because babies have legs and the sun knows it. Pockets everywhere, inside and out. The buttons have a soft click that makes the whole thing feel like it was designed by somebody who has actually held a baby while doing four other things at once.

I’ve now tested the bassinet too, which I’d skipped when we reviewed the stroller itself. No complaints.

Two things to know. Push two heavy kids in it and you’ll feel it working harder than a Vista would. And the main seat starts at three months, same as the Vista, so newborn use means adding the $160 bassinet. A newborn-ready Mockingbird double is $884. That’s still less than a Vista costs before you add anything to it.

Mockingbird raised prices this year and says so plainly on their site, citing tariffs. If you’re looking at an older review with lower numbers, that’s why.

UPPAbaby Vista V3 — $999.99

I’ve pushed a Vista for three years and I own both generations, so I’ll say the good part first: everything people claim about the push is true. It rolls like it’s on glass, the basket swallows 30 lbs without complaint, and it’s the best single-to-double you can buy.

It’s also the most expensive way to buy an option most families never exercise.

$899.99 for the stroller. $279.99 for the bassinet you need to use it from birth. $299.99 for the RumbleSeat. That’s $1,280 before your newborn can ride and about $1,580 fully converted. The V2 included the bassinet. The V3 doesn’t.

If you’re certain about two kids close together, and the Mockingbird’s push isn’t enough for you, this is the one. Otherwise you’re paying $380 over the Cruz for a seat your kid may age out of before your second one needs it.

UPPAbaby Vista V2: the better deal… IF you can find it

If you can find last year’s Vista, consider buying it instead of this year’s.

Same frame, same push, same basket. The only meaningful difference is what’s in the box: the V2 came with the bassinet. That’s $279.99 of difference, and it’s also the difference between a Vista you can use on day one and a Vista you wait three months to use.

It’s discontinued, so 1) you have to be willing to hunt for remaining stock at odd retailers and/or go secondhand and 2) you’re likely going to get a stroller without a warranty. They still appear secondhand in good shape and in leftover retail stock, and being last year’s model, they turn up cheap. If you’re the sort of person who checks Facebook Marketplace before buying new, set an alert.

The catch is the obvious one. No warranty on a secondhand frame, no choice of color, and when it’s gone it’s gone. If that’s not how you want to shop, buy the V3 or the Cruz.

The other premium singles

Bugaboo Fox 5 Renew — $1,499

Bugaboo makes the best-pushing stroller I have ever put my hands on. Full suspension, big wheels, bassinet in the box. Curbs stop existing. It goes up and over them like it has diplomatic immunity. The curb is still technically there. It just doesn’t apply to you anymore.

If push quality is your entire personality, this is your stroller. It’s also, in every practical sense, a boat.

I don’t mean it’s big. I mean I found myself doing three-point turns in a stroller. You don’t park it, you dock it. The smooth ride and the boatiness are the same fact: all that size and suspension is why curbs disappear, and you pay for it every time you go through a doorway, around a rack at Target, or into a trunk. Especially the trunk. This thing will eat your trunk alive and then look at your back seat like it’s still hungry.

The materials are premium, no notes. But $1,499, at that size, with no path to a second seat ever, is a no from me. Best push money can buy. Bring a marina.

One trap: “Renew” is Bugaboo’s current product line, built with recycled materials. It is not their refurbished stock, which they sell under a nearly identical name at a lower price. Check which one you’re clicking.

Nuna MIXX Next — $900

I walked into a store planning to buy this stroller and walked out without it. That’s the review, but here’s the reasoning.

I like Nuna. They make my favorite infant car seat. I pushed the MIXX around that showroom long enough that employees started making eye contact with each other about me, and the whole time I was running the math. It lists at $900, Nuna sends you to local retailers rather than posting one price, and the newborn setup that store had built put me around $1,150.

The seat lies flat, so a newborn rides without a bassinet. That’s a real advantage over the Vista. It steers well. It’s built well.

It also weighs 28.3 lbs, the heaviest stroller in this test, and you feel all of it lifting the thing into a trunk. Everything else about it is fine, and fine is the problem: nothing here beats the stroller on either side of it, and I’m not spending four figures on fine.

The stroller is the easy part

Picking the right stroller solves getting out the door. Getting out the door is one piece of a much larger puzzle, and the rest of it is the part nobody hands you a manual for.

That’s why we built Father’s Ed, our course for new and expecting dads. 32 video lessons, a physical workbook, and you can try the first nine plus a 32-page companion guide for a dollar.

Best travel stroller for a newborn

If you fly, take a lot of Ubers, or live somewhere with a small trunk and a smaller entryway, this is your section. Two strollers, and one reversal.

Scope note: this covers travel strollers you can use from birth. Once your baby can sit up, the field gets much bigger and we cover it in our best travel strollers guide.

Silver Cross Nia — $549.99

My wife walked past eight strollers in our mudroom without a word and stopped at this one.

That’s not why it wins, but it’s worth saying, because you’re probably buying this jointly with somebody and pretending aesthetics don’t count is how people end up with a stroller they apologize for.

The Silver Cross Nia costs $549.99, weighs 15.7 lbs, and its bassinet folds with the stroller still attached. Nobody else has solved that. The whole thing collapses into one compact self-standing package, which makes it the only travel stroller that stays cabin-compliant in seat mode and bassinet mode both. That’s not marketing copy; reviewers who’ve handled it say the same. [silvercrossus.com and motherandbaby.com, accessed 2026-08-12]

For anyone traveling with a newborn, that’s not a tiebreaker. That’s the whole thing.

Three things to weigh, and the first is real. The push is the weakest in this test. Small wheels and a light frame are what make that fold work, and they’re also what you feel on a bad sidewalk. If most of your miles are on pavement at home rather than through an airport, buy something else. Second, the seat faces forward only, so once your baby is out of the bassinet you’re not looking at them. Third, the bassinet is a separate $299.99, which puts you at $850 all-in.

See the Nia

Joolz Aer 2 — $579

A year ago I told you to buy this stroller. For a newborn, I was wrong, and I want to be specific about why.

The Joolz Aer 2 costs $579 and weighs 14.3 lbs, and it still has the best fold I’ve ever tested: one hand, about a second. It’s still the travel stroller I’d hand you the moment your baby can sit up, around six months. None of that has changed.

From birth, two things break it.

The bassinet doesn’t fold with the stroller. Fold the Aer 2 with the bassinet on and the frame collapses beautifully, instantly, straight into a bassinet that doesn’t collapse at all. Two and a half feet of bassinet scrunches down to about ten inches of crumpled fabric and hardware. The best fold in the business, dragging a quilted tail behind it. It can’t stand up like that; it lies on your entryway floor like it gave up. Where the Joolz becomes a peacock, the Nia becomes a suitcase.

If that’s hard to picture, watch it happen. I laughed out loud the first time, alone, in my garage, at a stroller.

The recline has no usable middle. Joolz lists three positions and on a spec sheet that’s accurate. In practice you unzip the back and the seat drops about an inch onto a hook on one side. It wobbles. It isn’t a real setting. Unclip the hook and it goes flat. So what you actually have is upright or flat, with a wobble in between. On a toddler that’s an annoyance, and we said so a year ago. On a sleeping newborn, when the recline is the product, it’s disqualifying.

The $219 nest-to-seat accessory inherits the same behavior, so it doesn’t fix it.

Watch the testing

These are the best newborn strollers on the market. Eight strollers, six months of testing, over seven thousand dollars worth of baby transportation, and one three month old test pilot, my son Dean, who has ridden and napped in every single one of these and has no idea how much journalism he’s done. And here’s why you should stay for this one. The stroller everybody tells you to buy, the grows with your family one, is a bet I lost. My older son won’t sit in a stroller anymore. You know what he will ride? A hundred dollar piece of wood. I’ll explain. Three categories, eight options, and at the end, exactly which one to buy for your family. I’m Mark with Fathercraft. Let’s go. Quick housekeeping so you know you can trust me. Though, just look at me. How could you not? We scored everything the same way we always do. Push quality, fold, weight, storage, newborn setup, and cost. Full rubric and raw data available at fathercraft dot com slash strollers for the spreadsheet people. I see you. And critically, this is not a sponsored review. You’re going to be able to tell. A few of these companies sent me free strollers and are about to get shredded anyways. Three categories today organized around one question and it’s the most expensive question in the video. Do you actually need a stroller that turns into a double? If you think the answer is yes, category one is the best single to double conversion. Category two is what most of us should probably do instead. We’ll get there. And category three is travel. Links to everything in the description. They’re affiliate links, they cost you nothing and keep the testing budget alive. Category one, single to double, if you’re sure. The UPPAbaby Vista V3, dollars nine ninety nine. The Vista is the reason this category exists. It’s been the default answer to what stroller should I buy for a decade. One stroller, newborn to age five, converts from a single to a double. I pushed Avista for three years. I own the V2 and the V3. I did a whole video on the difference, which you can see here. The short version, everything they say about the push is true. UPPAbaby strollers push like you are rolling them across glass. Glass. Every Saturday, when Phoenix doesn’t feel like the surface of the sun, we take the kids to the farmer’s market, which is a multi terrain hellscape. Loose rocks, patchy grass, a stretch of cobblestones I’m pretty sure was installed as a stroller deterrent. The Vista does it all one handed. The new magnetic buckle nearly buckles itself while you’re holding a squirming baby, for which you will silently thank up a baby at least a hundred times a week. The basket holds thirty pounds and has never once said no to me or the very weird things I put in there for my toddler. Now the math because the sticker lies to you a little bit. The stroller is nine ninety nine. The bassinet, which the v two included and the v three does not, is another two eighty dollars. The second seat, the rumble seat, is three hundred more. So by the time the Vista is done growing your family, it’ll shrink your wallet by about sixteen hundred dollars Is it worth it? It is the best single to double you can buy. But whether you should buy a single to double at all, hold that thought. If your answer to am I having multiple kids is a confident yes and fifteen hundred dollars made you laugh, this is the one. The Mockingbird three point zero is the value single to double and I legitimately mean that as a compliment. Dollars five fifty for the stroller, one hundred and seventy five for the second seat kit. That’s seven twenty five bucks for a full double, less than half the Vista route. I also reviewed this stroller on its own, which you can find here. And since then, I’ve tested the Bassinet too. I promised a follow-up in that video. This is it. The Bassinet is good. I have zero complaints. You will have zero complaints. You’re welcome. What Mockingbird actually does better than anybody else is the unglamorous practical stuff. There is a built in leg shade because it turns out babies have legs and the son knows it. There are pockets everywhere inside, outside. It’s great. The buttons all do this soft click thing that makes the whole stroller feel like it was designed by someone who has actually personally held a baby while doing four other things. Nothing about it is showing off. Everything just works. It has features that make you look at other strollers and think, why the hell didn’t they think of that? The honest downside, push two heavier kids in it and you’ll feel it working harder than a Vista. It’s a seven twenty five dollars double, not a sixteen hundred dollars double. But PhysX sends the bill directly to your arm muscles. So premium single to double Vista. Value Mockingbird. And honestly, if you’re budget conscious, it’s not that close on dollars per usefulness. Mockingbird will not disappoint you. But before you buy either one, are you sure you actually need two seats? Really sure? Because I was sure. Keep watching. Category two, the premium singles. This is the category I would guess that most of you actually came for, whether you know it yet or not. Bugaboo Fox five Renew, dollars fourteen ninety nine. Let’s give this thing its crown first because it’s earned. The Bugaboo Fox five has the best push of any stroller I have ever tested. Any. Ever. Full suspension, big wheels, bassinet included in the box. Curves simply stop existing. It goes up and over them like it has diplomatic immunity. The curb is technically still there, it just doesn’t apply to you anymore. If push is your entire personality, this is your stroller and I’ll see you at the yacht club. Because here’s the thing, it is a boat. I don’t mean it’s big. I mean I found myself doing three point turns in a stroller. I mean you don’t park it, you dock it. I mean the smooth ride and the boatiness are the same fact. All that size and suspension is why the curbs disappear, but you pay for it every time you try to get through your doorway or around a rack at Target or into your trunk, especially your trunk. This thing will eat your trunk alive and look at your back seat like it’s still hungry. The materials are genuinely premium, no notes. But at fifteen hundred dollars for something this large with no path to a second seat ever, for me it’s a no. So that’s where the boat metaphor ends. Best push money can buy, bring a marina and an Escalade or at least a Sequoia. Okay, two more in this category and one of them is the winner of this entire video. Nuna MIX NEXT six fifty dollars Full transparency on this one, Nuna MIX NEXT is the only stroller in this lineup I tested in a store instead of bringing it home. And the store test is the review because I went in planning to buy it. I like Nuna a lot. They make my favorite infant car seat and we own the UPPAbaby one. I pushed the mix around that showroom for a good long while. Figure 8s around the crib displays, employees starting to make eye contact with each other about me. And the whole time I’m doing the math, the way they’d set it up for a newborn, stroller, bassinet, stand you’re at about eleven hundred bucks. And I stood there wanting to buy it, trying to close the deal with myself. I couldn’t. And that’s the review. It’s premium. It steers great. The seat lies flat so a newborn can ride without the bassinet. There is nothing wrong with this stroller. There’s just nothing about it that beats the two strollers on either side of it in this video, and I’m not spending four figures on perfectly fine. I left the store empty handed, which at the end of the day says it all. UPPAbaby Cruise V3, eight ninety nine, which brings us to my favorite stroller in the entire video. The Cruise V3 is everything I just praised about the Vista. The ride, the wheels, the zero wobble frame, the magnetic buckle, all in a package that’s three inches narrower, a hundred dollars cheaper, and ready for a newborn out of the box. The seat lies flat and the infant insert is included. No two eighty dollars bassinet toll. You open the box, you have a newborn stroller. It’s the Vista for people who realized they were paying Vista money for a convertibility feature they were never going to use. But Mark, it can never be a double. What happens when kid number two shows up? I’m so glad you asked. The stroller industry would like me to skip this next part. So Fox five, best push alive, bring a marina. Mix, totally fine, couldn’t close a sale on me in a literal store. Cruise, my number one recommendation, the one we’re daily driving with Dean after testing all of these options. Now, the most expensive question in this video. So here’s what happened to my double stroller plan. Every morning, I walk the dog. Hank, my toddler, comes with. It buys my wife twenty quiet minutes, which in the newborn era has roughly the street value of a kidney. The plan, the whole plan, the reason you buy a single to double, Dean arrives, Dean goes in the stroller, Hank rides along, walks continue, marriage flourishes. Hank was two and a half when he unsubscribed. That was this past January. He didn’t taper off. He was just done. The double stroller plan died in my driveway next to a stroller with an empty seat I’d paid extra for. And it turns out that’s not just a Hank thing. The CDC tracks spacing between kids. The median gap between having your first and conceiving your second is about two and a half years. Add the pregnancy and your first kid is right around three when baby number two shows up. And pediatricians, this is Doctor. Brandon Smith at Johns Hopkins, says strollers shouldn’t necessarily be used past age three anyways. So the window where you genuinely have two stroller riders at once, for the typical family, that’s somewhere around zero to twelve months. So what do you actually do when kid number two arrives? This. It’s a riding board. Every big stroller brand makes one or fits one. Your toddler stands on it, holds the handle, rides like he’s on the back of a garbage truck, which, and I cannot stress this enough, is a toddler’s dream job. The Mockingbird board is one hundred and fifteen dollars and your kid can sit on it. UPPAbaby’s piggyback is one hundred and forty nine dollars The universal last cow board is one hundred and thirty dollars and it officially takes a fifty three pound kid, which is roughly age six. The Vista’s second seat? Three hundred dollars and it maxes out around thirty five pounds. The cheap piece of plastic outlasts the expensive seat by three years. And the real test, Hank, the boy who looks at strollers the way I look at a group text with my thirteen year old nephew who just discovered memes in it, has never once refused the board. He thinks it’s awesome. Dean rides, Hank surfs, and Marion gets her twenty minutes. Everyone wins. Two honest caveats because we earn our roast around here. One, tall humans beware. I’m six’three and my feet clip the writing board unless I adjust my stride. But after months of use, I genuinely don’t care because the kid is on the board, which is the entire point. Two, there are families who really do need the true double. Twins, kids under two years apart, a toddler who still naps on the stroller mid outing. If that’s you, that’s exactly what category one was for. Mockingbird, seven twenty five bucks, done. Everyone else, premium single plus the piece of wood. You just saved somewhere between two hundred dollars and eight hundred dollars Put it towards diapers. Actually, you’ll spend it on diapers either way. I’m sorry. And briefly, before we get to the travel category, if you’re a new dad, the right gear solves getting out the door. But getting out the door is only one piece of the new dad puzzle. The rest of it, the stuff nobody hands you a manual for, is exactly why we built Father’s Ed, our course for new and expecting dads. You can try the first nine videos plus a thirty two page companion guide for a dollar. Head to fathercraft dot com slash one or click the link in the description. Compact strollers that can genuinely handle a newborn. Joules Air two, five seventy nine. If you’ve watched this channel, you know my affection for the Joules Air. Best fold of any stroller I have ever tested. One hand, one second. A year ago, I made my wife time it, which she loved. It’s still under two seconds. We’re still married. That is still true. Fourteen pounds, fits in an overhead bin, still the king of travel strollers for a kid who can sit up. But this is a newborn video, and for a newborn, the Air needs its bassinet or the Nest to seat. So let me show you what happens when you fold the Air with the bassinet on it. The stroller folds in half beautifully, instantly, and runs into a bassinet that does not fold. It scrunches. Two and a half feet of bassinet compresses into about ten inches of this. Look at it! The best fold in the business dragging a giant quilted tail behind it. It is a peacock. It cannot stand up like this. It just lies on the floor of your entryway like it gave up. I laughed out loud the first time I folded it. Not a chuckle. A real laugh alone in my kitchen at a stroller. Okay, so skip the bassinet. They make that nest to seat thing for newborns. They do. It’s two nineteen dollars it’s compact, and I’ve been testing it too. It’s basically their regular seat with an apron on it and critically it inherits the Air’s one genuine flaw which I flagged in the travel video about a year ago. The recline is all or nothing. You unzip the back and the whole seat drops. Upright or flat, there is nothing in between. On a toddler, that’s annoying. On a sleeping newborn, when the recline is the product, you are hosed. So the Joules Air two keeps its crown. Best travel stroller once your kid sits up at roughly six months. From birth, disqualified by its own accessories. Silver Cross Mia five forty nine, which hands the newborn travel crown to a stroller I did not expect, the Silver Cross Mia. First, this stroller is fancy. My wife walked past our mudroom containing eight strollers without comment, Eight. And stopped at this one. I am not gonna lie to you, I don’t understand the female brain well enough to explain that to you. To me, it just looks fairly similar to the other strollers. But I’m just reporting the data. For dudes, the Nia passes the vibe check. But for women? Super hot. This is the stroller equivalent of Paul Rudd. I mean Paul Rudd looks great, don’t get me wrong, but why do you ladies think he’s so hot? I just don’t get it. Cute at best. And if you think aesthetics don’t matter in a purchase you’re jointly making with your spouse, I have a boat sized bugaboo to sell you. Now the part that actually won the category. The Neos bassinet folds with the stroller ingeniously. I genuinely don’t know how they got it to do this. The whole thing collapses into one compact self standing package fifteen point seven pounds, and Silver Cross claims it’s the only stroller that’s cabin compliant in both seat and bassinet mode. Where the Joules becomes a peacock, the Nia becomes a suitcase. For those of you with a newborn that you actually travel with, joking aside, it is not a contest. And it’s five fifty plus three hundred dollars for that bassinet, so about eight fifty dollars all in. But from birth, in a travel package that folds like it was designed by SpaceX, the NEO wins the category comfortably. Category three verdict: from birth, Silver Cross NEO. Kid already sitting up, Joules Air two. Still the king. Alright. Six months, eight strollers, seven thousand dollars worth of hardware, and one extremely well traveled newborn. Here’s the leaderboard. For most people, they pick up the whole video, UPPAbaby Cruise V3, and when kid number two shows up, a writing board. A little over one thousand dollars covers you to about age six. Definitely having multiple kids and watching the budget, Mockingbird three point zero, dollars seven twenty five and nothing touches that math. Money’s no object and you have the trunk of an SUV in the heart of a sea captain? Bugaboo Fox five, best push on earth. Travel from birth, Silver Cross Nia. Travel once they can sit up, Joules Air two. Every link is in the description along with the full scoring data at fathercraft dot com slash strollers. If this saved you three hundred bucks or a driveway standoff with a two year old, subscribe. The Vista v three deep dive and the Mockingbird review are on screen now if you’re going down the rabbit hole. I’m Mark with Fathercraft. Until next time. Adios.

Eight strollers, six months, one newborn and one toddler who wanted no part of it.

The Strollers we didn’t pick, and why

If you’ve been searching for a while, you’ve probably seen these names. Here’s where we land on each.

Cybex Gazelle S2 (~$1,000) and Nuna Demi Next (~$1,000): both are capable single-to-doubles and both land in the same trap as the Vista at roughly the same price. If you’ve read the riding board section, you know what we’d tell you.

Doona (~$550): a car seat that turns into a stroller with a lever pull. Real use case for the first few months and for taxi-heavy city life. But it’s a car seat that rolls, not a stroller you’ll want to push daily, and kids outgrow it fast. Buy it as a second thing if you have the budget, not your only thing.

Britax Willow Brook and Graco travel systems (under $500): the budget answer most sites give. We haven’t tested one to our standard, so we’re not going to pretend we have. I’m testing budget strollers now and we’ll update this section when that’s done. What we can say: a travel system bundles an infant car seat with a stroller, which does save money up front, and the tradeoff is usually push quality and a frame you’ll want to replace by age two.

Stokke YOYO3 and Nuna TRVL LX: travel strollers we’ve covered in the best travel strollers guide. Neither beats the Nia from birth.

Joolz Hub², Joie Nutmeg, Silver Cross Clic: all newborn-capable, none tested here. The Clic is the Nia’s lighter sibling and worth a look if the Nia’s bassinet math scares you.

Thule Urban Glide 3: a jogging stroller, different category. If running is the point, that’s the one people land on.

Specs at a glance

Prices as of August 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best stroller for a newborn?

The UPPAbaby Cruz V3 ($899.99) is the best newborn stroller for most families. It’s newborn-ready out of the box with a lie-flat seat and an included infant insert, so you don’t have to buy a bassinet to use it from day one. It’s also over three inches narrower and $100 cheaper than the Vista V3, which UPPAbaby rates from 3 months rather than from birth.

Can a newborn go in a regular stroller seat?

Only if the seat lies fully flat and the manufacturer rates it from birth. Newborns can’t hold their heads up, and a seat that only reclines partway puts their airway at risk. Of the strollers we tested, the Cruz V3 and the Nuna MIXX Next both lie flat and are rated from birth. The Vista V3 and the Mockingbird 3.0 both start at 3 months and need a bassinet or infant insert first.

Do I need a bassinet for a newborn stroller?

Not always, and it’s a $160 to $300 question. If your stroller’s seat lies flat and is rated from birth, you don’t need one. If it isn’t, you do. The Vista V3 needs a $279.99 bassinet, the Mockingbird 3.0 needs a $160 one, and the Cruz V3 and Fox 5 Renew need nothing extra.

What is the best stroller for an infant and toddler?

For most families, a premium single stroller plus a riding board, rather than a double. The CDC’s median interpregnancy interval is 24 to 29 months, which puts your first child near age three when the second arrives, and pediatric guidance says strollers shouldn’t be necessary past three. That leaves a window of roughly a year where both kids need to ride. A $115 riding board covers it, holds 55 lbs, and outlasts a $299.99 second seat rated to 40 lbs.

Is the UPPAbaby Vista worth it?

It’s the best single-to-double you can buy, and most people who buy one don’t need the second seat. All-in with the bassinet and RumbleSeat it’s about $1,580. If you’re certain you’ll have two kids close together, it’s a fine buy. If you’re guessing, the Cruz V3 plus a board does the same job for about $1,015.

What is the best travel stroller for a newborn?

The Silver Cross Nia ($549.99, 15.7 lbs). Its bassinet folds together with the stroller, making it the only travel stroller that stays cabin-compliant in both seat and bassinet mode. The Joolz Aer 2 is the better travel stroller overall, but its bassinet doesn’t fold with it, so it isn’t the right pick until your baby can sit up.

How long can a baby stay in a stroller bassinet?

Most stroller bassinets are rated to 20 lbs or until the baby can push up on hands and knees, whichever comes first. In practice that’s around 4 to 6 months. Both the UPPAbaby Bassinet V3 and the Mockingbird bassinet use that 20-pound limit.

What’s next?

If you’re reading this before the baby arrives, you’re in the best position you’ll ever be in: you can make this call once, calmly, instead of at 2am on your phone with a newborn screaming in the next room. Buy the Cruz, or buy the Mockingbird if you’re sure about a second kid, and then stop reading stroller reviews. Including mine.

If you’re here because kid two is coming and you’re looking at a $300 second seat, buy the board first and give it a month. Worst case you’re out $115 and you buy the seat anyway.

And if you’re in the thick of it right now, with a baby who only sleeps in motion and a toddler with opinions about everything, the stroller isn’t really your problem. The problem is that nobody prepared you for any of this. That part we can help with. Father’s Ed is our course for new dads and the first nine lessons cost a dollar.

Get yourself a stroller and go outside with your newborn. It’ll be good for both of you.