How we test pushchairs

We've been testing pushchairs for more than 50 years, and only Which? pushchair reviews combine rigorous safety and durability tests, expert lab assessments and parent trials to help you find the best one.

Our extensive independent testing is carried out at an accredited laboratory and is based on UK safety standards that look at strength, safety and durability. There are also expert and parent-led assessments of how easy each pushchair is to use and how comfortable it is for both parent and child.

Our testing is funded by Which? members, and we buy everything ourselves. This prevents manufacturers from influencing our reviews and ensures we test the same pushchair you would encounter when buying it yourself.

Keep reading to find out more about our research and how our reviews answer the most crucial questions about pushchairs.

Best pushchairs and prams: tested and reviewed by experts

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What's the pushchair like to push?

A pushchair may look great, but the worst ones can be an effort to push – not what you want on a daily basis. Our parent testers get hands-on, putting each pushchair through its paces on our specially designed obstacle course.

• Obstacles Parents and experts navigate around a course with tight corners and dead ends to see how nippy or nimble the pushchairs are.
• Kerbs Pushchairs are taken up and down kerbs to replicate daily life on the move with a baby. You'd be surprised how many pushchairs struggle with this seemingly simple task.
• Uneven surfaces and rough ground Our course is designed to replicate gravelly, pot-holed car parks, sandy beaches, wood chip-covered play areas and bumpy grassy areas. It reveals which models cope best with this tougher terrain.

We mark down a pushchair if it has a wobbly frame, uncomfortable handlebar or a shopping basket that catches the top of kerbs when filled with items. We also assess whether the parking brake is easy to spot, whether it has red or green indicators showing it's engaged and how it's activated.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

Pushchairs with great ratings in this area feel smooth to push and won't get bogged down when going over gravel or sand. Parents won't complain of a rattling chassis or handlebar, and it will feel light to steer and push up onto kerbs. 

Brake pedals will be easy to spot and apply, with the best ones being dubbed 'flip-flop or sandal-friendly', meaning you won't scratch your toe because you have to flick the brake up with the top of your foot.

How to choose the best travel system – see what you need to consider and where to buy

Is the pushchair straightforward to use with your child?

In this section of the review, we look at the pushchair's daily convenience and ease of use, as well as whether it will be comfortable for your child.

This covers a range of things, including how long it takes to set it up out of the box, the comfort of the seat and back rest recline, and how easy it is to adjust the harness. Our lab also checks whether you can remove the seat fabrics for washing in case of spills or mishaps, and how easy it is to do.

In our reviews of travel system pushchairs, we share whether it's easy to attach accessories such as carrycots or infant carrier car seats, and whether you'll need separate adaptors.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

The best pushchairs have well-padded seats that recline to a nearly flat position with one hand, plus a leg rest that adjusts too, creating a comfortable space for your baby. 

Nobody wants to be fiddling with stiff buckles or hard-to-adjust harnesses, so our lab experts look at this too. If you can only adjust the shoulder height of the harness by re-threading the straps through the back rest, that will score less than a harness that adjusts from the front of the seat.

Pushchairs with easy-to-remove, machine-washable seat fabrics will score better than those where the fabrics are riveted to the chassis or need special tools to remove.

Is the pushchair easy to fold, transport and store?

Our expert and parent testers and experts get to grips with each pushchair, folding and unfolding it. This helps them work out which seats really can be folded and unfolded one-handed, and which definitely have some sort of knack to completing the job without getting frustrated.

We place each folded pushchair into the boot of a Ford Focus to see how much room it takes up and whether there will be space for other items alongside it. We also look at how easy it would be to take the pushchair on public transport, factoring in elements such as the ease of folding, and the weight and size of the folded chassis.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

If a pushchair can fold down smoothly and easily into a compact shape that's not large or awkward when fitting into a car boot, then you're onto a winner. Some of the poorest pushchairs are so bulky and heavy when folded that you'll either put your back out when lifting it into the boot or you'll need to remove a wheel or the parcel shelf in order to shut the boot door.

Which pushchair brand should you buy?

Is the pushchair safe, durable and sturdy?

Which? pushchair reviews are based on more than 30 tough safety and durability tests according to the latest British Standard BS EN 1888-1:2018+A1:2022 & BS EN 1888-2:2018+A1:2022.

This includes the rolling road test, where each pushchair is wheeled for a set number of cycles – the equivalent of more than 200km of bumpy treadmill or roughly the distance from London to Birmingham – loaded with the weight of a baby in the seat and a full shopping basket.

Pushchair experts look for choking hazards and traps for arms, legs or fingers, while special equipment tests the strength of the handlebars by repeatedly pushing them up and down 10,000 times and the harness by exposing it to a range of tests and forces. 

The lab also checks the effectiveness of the brakes, and whether they'll hold your pushchair still on a slope.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

Pushchairs don't get additional points for passing these safety tests. Any pushchair that claims to meet the EN1888 standard is expected to be built to survive them. However, if a product fails any of these tests, it will reduce the score. 

The extent to which the score is limited depends on the failure, and is always discussed at length by the lab experts and the Which? pushchair experts before a final decision is made.

Remember, any pushchair might fail our structural tests. We've seen pushchairs worth thousands of pounds break on the rolling road test, and strollers that cost less than £100 sail through our tests.

Is there anything else I should know?

This is where we cover off any other important elements of our pushchairs test. This includes the coverage provided by the pushchair hood and the size and accessibility of the storage basket, as well as any other interesting bits of information about the pushchair in general.

We pull the hood back and forth to see if it's jerky or noisy, as that could wake a sleeping baby, and our lab checks for features such as a peek-a-boo window or extension panel, as well as the overall coverage it provides from the elements.

We check if the storage basket is large enough to fit a range of items and, depending on the maximum weight allowance, we'll add in a four-pint bottle of milk, a 1kg packet of washing powder, a 500ml bottle of water, a packet of Bourbon biscuits and a pack of newborn nappies to see if they fit.

What separates a good result from a poor one?

The best pushchair hoods provide coverage all the way to the crotch strap of the harness and beyond if possible, often via a zippable extension panel. The hood should feel taut and sturdy, with plenty of room under its dome for older children to fit without their head touching it.

A good basket will use the full footprint of the pushchair to ensure it's as big as it can be, with excellent access, even with the seat reclined. When it's filled, the underside of shouldn't sag so much it brushes kerbs when the pushchair goes up and down them, and items shouldn't fall out because the walls are too low.

Baby and child car seat reviews: Which? crash tests every car seat to find out which are the best baby or child car seats

Should I buy it?

We analyse the data from our parent trials, expert assessments and the safety and durability tests to give each pushchair a total test score, so you can easily see the best and worst and compare different models.

Which? members can filter all our pushchair reviews by manoeuvrability, how easy it is to travel or take it on public transport and how convenient it is to use

How we calculate the scores

Kamisha Darroux, Which? principal scientific advisor, says:

'We regularly ask Which? members what matters most when choosing a pushchair. I then use this information when developing the test programme and evaluating the testing data we receive from the laboratory. Since our members said that the daily use of the pushchair matters most, it carries more weighting than other elements of the testing when calculating the score.'

The score we give each pushchair is made up of a combination of the elements of our tests, ignoring price and broken down as follows: 

• 75% Daily use (40% manoeuvrability, 20% using the pushchair, 15% child setup, 10% transporting, 10% travel system, 5% cleaning)
• 15% Ergonomics
• 10% Storage

To become a Which? Best Buy, single pushchairs must score at least 77% overall in our tests and double pushchairs must score at least 70%.

How we choose the products

Our pushchair reviews are 100% independent, and we never accept free samples from manufacturers or brands. Instead, we buy the pushchairs we test from retailers like a consumer would.

We test around 30 to 40 pushchair models a year, in batches each month, so there are always new reviews to check out.

We try to cater to a range of budgets and pushchair types, from around £100 for a lightweight, holiday-friendly stroller to double pushchair travel systems that cost nearly £2,000. This means we can showcase premium Best Buy models alongside Great Value machines that punch above their price.

Lauren Temple, Which? principal market analyst, says:

'To make sure we're testing the pushchairs parents want to see, I scour the market to track the latest launches and features while monitoring market trends and consumer habits. Whether it's the latest all-terrain travel system from Bugaboo or a lightweight stroller from Joie, I keep in regular and direct contact with manufacturers so that we're ahead of the curve.'

Is it a Best Buy? What our verdicts mean

Best Buy single pushchairs

These pushchairs excel most in our tests. To become Which? Best Buys, single pushchairs must score at least 77% overall. But you should still read our reviews to find a pushchair that best fits your preferences.

Best Buy double pushchairs

To become a Which? Best Buy double pushchairs must score at least 70% overall in our tests. The cut-off point for doubles is lower because it would be unfair to penalise heavier or bulkier pushchairs when they've been designed that way to accommodate two children.

Great Value single pushchairs and prams

How much buyers are willing to spend on a pushchair varies dramatically, so that's where our Great Value recommendation comes in.

Great Value models do pretty well in our tests, scoring 70% or more for pushchairs and prams. They're also at least 20% cheaper than the average cost of a pushchair, pram or double pushchair of a similar design in our tests. 

Great Value double pushchairs

These are models our experts highlight if you're looking for a bargain. Only models tested since October 2023 are eligible for a Great Value badge, as that is the last time we significantly updated our test programme.

Don't Buy pushchairs

Poor-performing and unsafe pushchairs that receive a substandard score of 45% or lower are Don't Buys and should be avoided. If any of the pushchairs break during our testing, or our experts feel there is a serious durability issue demonstrated, we will take this into account in the pushchair's overall total score and points will be deducted. 

A pushchair's score will be limited depending on the severity of the issue. If we see multiple durability issues, breakages, or if the pushchair is unusable at the end of testing, we may lower the score so much it could be rated as a Don't Buy.

If our pushchair experts uncover any serious safety concerns about any of the pushchairs we test, we will automatically name the pushchair a Don't Buy. We also let the manufacturer know about the issues we uncover by sending them a report, and we aim to include a reply from them on the failures in our review.

Improvements to our tests

We're constantly seeking to improve our testing, to ensure that only the very best models can earn our Best Buy recommendation.

Some of the pushchairs you'll see reviewed on our website have been assessed under an older test programme and aren't entirely comparable to our newer results. The review date appears at the top of each product's main review page, under the key test results.

Our pushchair experts

Running our test projects is a group effort, with several team members contributing to each one.

We re-evaluate our testing processes every year to ensure they're useful to you, and we ask parents what matters most when choosing a new pushchair.

Here's the team that makes it happen:

Hannah Fox, Which? principal researcher and writer: Hannah turns the enormous amount of data, test results and feedback from our panel of parents and lab experts into in-depth and unbiased product reviews. She's reviewed thousands of baby products, and from her experience writing pushchair reviews, she knows exactly how to cut through the marketing jargon to spell out what makes a pushchair good or bad.

Daniel Davies, Which? baby and child editor: Daniel reviews all our pushchair content, ensuring what you're reading is clear, easy to understand, free of confusing jargon, and exactly what you need to know about pushchairs, prams and travel systems.

Kamisha Darroux, Which? principal scientific advisor: Kamisha knows the pushchair safety standard inside and out, and has an in-depth knowledge of what happens when a pushchair performs poorly in our structural and safety testing, and how that will impact the total test score. She helps shape the pushchair test programme, and is a whizz at turning hundreds of lines of data into the star ratings and scores you see in the reviews.

Lauren Temple, Which? principal market analyst: Lauren is constantly on the lookout for the latest new launches in the pushchairs market to ensure we're testing the models that parents want to know about. She regularly attends press events, product launches and industry trade shows so she knows which pushchairs will launch and when.