Note: This is the Recommended Car Seats Page for US shoppers. If you are in Canada, please use this list of Canadian Recommended Car Seats instead, as it will direct you to Amazon.ca links, which you need for shopping in Canada rather than Amazon.com links. Some Canadian seats also have different weight limits than their US counterparts.
Although this is primarily a car safety blog, car seat safety is also important, as our children are our most precious travelers. As a result, this is also a car seat blog, with information about car seat safety, recommended car seats, car seat reviews, and similar information.
When it comes to car safety, you can focus on driving safely and you can focus on choosing a safe car. However, if you have children, you also need to focus on choosing a safe car seat. In fact, choosing the right car seat and installing it properly can easily mean the difference between life and death for a child. Here are my reviews and recommendations of what I consider to be the best car seats on the market. For a collection of reference articles on best practices in car seat safety, click here.
Looking for a specific kind of seat? Jump to Recommended Convertible Seats, Recommended Infant Seats, Recommended Combination Seats, or Recommended Booster Seats.
Click Here for Best Practices on Car Seat Selection, Installation, and Overall Car Safety.
Click Here for Best Practices in Driving Technique, Vehicle Selection, and Road Design.
Convertible Car Seats
Convertible car seats are my favorite kinds of car seats. You can use them in both rear-facing and forward-facing configurations, and convert them from one to the other, hence the name. Many of these seats will fit newborns, which means you can use them from the day you leave the hospital. Best practices indicates you should rear-face your seats until your child reaches the weight or height limits in the rear-facing position, and then switch to the forward-facing position. The drawbacks of convertible seats is that they tend to be heavier, larger, and more expensive than infant car seats. The short version of how to use them? Buy 50-pound seats and use them to rear-face until at least 4; 5 is even better. And if you make it past that, there’s no reason to stop until your child outgrows the seat. My kids rear-faced until 6+.
Convertible Comparisons
The Clek Foonf – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Diono Rainier – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Clek Fllo – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Nuna Rava – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Extend2Fit – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+ – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Safety 1st Grow and Go EX Air – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Contender – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Chicco NextFit Zip – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Maxi-Cosi Pria 85 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Advocate ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Marathon ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Boulevard ClickTight – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Evenflo Triumph LX – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Recaro ProRIDE – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Boulevard G4.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Marathon G4.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Evenflo Symphony Elite – Review Here, Buy Here.
Travel / Portable / All In One Seats
The Combi Coccoro– Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco 4Ever All-In-One – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Milestone All-In-One – Review Here, Buy Here.
Infant Car Seats
Infant car seats are the most commonly purchased kinds of car seats. You can use them only in rear-facing configurations, and they are designed to fit newborns, which means you can use them from the day you leave the hospital. Best practices indicates you should rear-face your seats until your child reaches the weight or height limits in the rear-facing position, and then switch to one of the long-range convertibles above to allow you to continue to rear-face! The drawbacks of infant car seats is that they aren’t practical solutions for ERF compared to convertible car seats. At least, that’s the case unless you’re buying the Kiddy Evolution Pro.
The Kiddy Evolution Pro – Review Here, Buy Here. The UPPAbaby MESA – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Cybex Aton 2 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Recaro Performance Coupe – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax B-Safe 35 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax B-Safe 35 Elite – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Chicco KeyFit 30 – Review Here, Buy Here.
Combination car seats
Combination car seats are the next phase in car seats after the infant/convertible stage unless you rear-face to at least 5. You can use them in forward-facing harnessed and booster configurations, as they are harnessed and booster seats combined, hence the name. Best practices indicates that after rear-facing, you should forward-face harness until children reach the weight or height limits in the forward-facing position and are mature enough to use boosters, which is ideally no earlier than 5. The drawbacks of combination seats is that they tend to be heavier, larger, and more expensive than simple harnessed or booster car seats.
The Britax Grow With You ClickTight [Frontier] – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus Harness [Pinnacle] – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Pioneer G1.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Evenflo Maestro – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Nautilus 80 Elite – Review Here, Buy Here.
Booster car seats
Booster car seats are the next phase in car seats after the forward-facing stage when your child outgrows a convertible or forward-facing only seat. They are essentially combination seats without the forward-facing configuration. You can only use them in booster configurations. Best practices indicates that after rear-facing, you should forward-face harness until children reach the weight or height limits in the forward-facing position and are mature enough to use boosters, which is ideally no earlier than 5. The drawbacks of booster seats is that they aren’t as versatile as combination seats. They have the advantage of being cheaper, lighter, and easier to use.
The Clek Oobr – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Britax Parkway SGL G1.1 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Maxi-Cosi RodiFix – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Highback TurboBooster – Review Here, Buy Here.
If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.