The Best Full-Size Strollers of 2019

Best Overall Full-Size Stroller

Thule Urban Glide 2

Weight: 24.4 lbs | Folded Size: 15,388 cubic inches

The Thule Urban Glide 2 is a cool jogging stroller with impressive features for everyday use. This stroller has covered storage, giant canopy, nice suspension, and a lockable swivel front wheel with adjustable tracking. The Urban Glide 2 is easy to push and turn and equally up to the task of running. Parents will enjoy the foam covered adjustable handlebar with twisting handbrake and passengers will like the deep recline seat back, seat-side storage pockets, and padded sling-style seat. The Urban Glide 2 is also compatible with a variety of infant car seats with the purchase of an adapter.

The Urban Glide 2 is somewhat heavier and awkward when folded making it a possible no-go for parents looking for light and compact. It doesn't have a parent console or cup holder (though they do offer accessories for purchase), so you'll need to consider this in your buying decision. Overall, this stroller is an impressive stroller that does double duty at a reasonable price. This stroller is an excellent choice for parents on the move who like being outdoors or going for an adventurous run. It is also a good choice for those looking for a one and done purchase who don't need a lightweight stroller.

Read review: Thule Urban Glide 2

Best Off-road Full-Size Stroller

BOB Rambler

Weight: 25.1 lbs | Folded Size: 13,150 cubic inches

The BOB Rambler won our hearts with impressive ease of use and maneuverability, so much so, that we took away the Editors' Choice award from its bigger brother, the BOB Revolution Flex 2.0, and gave it to the Rambler. This BOB is easy to push and turn with off-road capabilities and run-ability with adjustable tracking and suspension for rider comfort. This stroller sports large pneumatic tires, giant canopy, and a locking swivel front wheel that provides versatility for errands and adventures. The Rambler has a variety of features and functions for baby's comfort and parent convenience, and we think parents will be attracted to the versatility even if it is a scaled-back version of the Revolution. And others will love that the Rambler is somewhat smaller and lighter than its larger brother.

The Rambler is somewhat heavier and larger than a traditional full-size stroller. So, while it may not be the best choice for families looking for lightweight and compact, if outdoor adventures are a must for your family, then the Rambler is a great choice for the active family. This option is less expensive than other BOB's which is one of the reasons we gave it an award-winning status.

Read review: BOB Rambler

High-end with a Reasonable Price

UPPAbaby Cruz

Weight: 21.1 lbs | Folded Size: 11,911 cubic inches

The UPPAbaby Cruz is a sleek, no-nonsense stroller that is easy to use with good scores for quality, setup, and weight and folded size. While this option is not the lightest in the group, it does have a low weight of 21.1 lbs, which is about 4 lbs lower than the average and the lightest stroller in the top four. The Cruz has a large canopy, giant storage with a 25 lbs capacity, and easy to use seatback recline and leg rest adjustability. It is also compatible with several brands of infant car seats and has a fairly compact and easy fold.

The Cruz lost minor ground for maneuverability because it is a little larger and the four-wheel design paled in comparison to the three-wheel models with pneumatic tires that were easier to navigate. However, it isn't hard to push or turn and scored above average compared to traditional full-size options. The Cruz may not be the best bet for adventurous parents who plan to go off-road regularly with their baby or hope to jog with their older baby. However, it is great for days out in the city running errands and picnics in the park. It is hard to find a lighter full-size stroller with the same level of performance, quality, or features.

Read review: UPPAbaby Cruz

Best Full-Size Bang for the Buck

Baby Jogger City Mini

Weight: 17.5 lbs | Folded size: 8,300 cubic inches

The Baby Jogger City Mini is a lightweight, compact stroller with a quick easy fold and cozy napping space. The City Mini has an ample canopy, useful storage, and a well-padded seat with almost flat recline for added comfort on longer trips. This basic stroller offers everything you need (including car seat compatibility) without the frills and fanciness that often leads to a heavier weight and a higher price. This stroller won awards in our full-size review and our lightweight stroller review.

The City Mini is not the best choice for parents who plan to head off the beaten path on a regular basis as the plastic wheels and limited suspension make pushing a little frustrating. It also isn't suitable for jogging despite its "Jogger" moniker. However, if you have a tight budget and don't want to sacrifice features or comfort, then the City Mini is a powerhouse that can pull double duty as your full-size go-to and your lightweight travel wonder.

Read review: Baby Jogger City Mini

Off the Beaten Path Budget Ride

Baby Trend Expedition

Weight: 23.7 lbs | Folded Size: 12,463 cubic inches

The Baby Trend Expedition is a jogging stroller that can easily work for everyday use saving you money over time by buying one product, not two. We like the air-filled rubber tires and locking front swivel wheel on this stroller that makes it ideal for smaller spaces and for getting off-road or going running. The Expedition has under-seat storage, sling-style seat, and parent tray (a rare find).

This budget stroller isn't the best quality and the lack of adjustable tracking or suspension mean it isn't the best choice for dedicated runners. However, if you want an easy to push and turn stroller that can head off-road occasionally, then the Expedition could be a good fit that saves you money.

Read review: Baby Trend Expedition

Best for Seating Versatility

UPPAbaby Vista

Weight: 25.9 lbs | Folded Size: 13,043 cubic inches

The UPPAbaby Vista earned a high score in this review with impressive results in almost every test we threw at it. This stroller is easy to use, easy to push, and can accommodate up to three children, making it a versatile option for growing families with top quality materials that should last for years. The Vista comes standard with a bassinet and toddler seat, and the frame accepts up to 2 infant car seats at the same time, or 2 toddler seats, and other variations including several using the bassinet with seats that can sit forward or back. This variety makes the Vista one of the most versatile in the review and a great choice for growing families. The Vista also sports large storage, a nice canopy, easy fold, and foam-filled rubber tires.

The Vista is one of the most expensive products in this review and is heavier than much of the competition. So unless you need more than one seat, it may not be the best choice. Overall, this full-size stroller is a very nice product that testers love for its versatility of seating and easy to use features making it a great choice for growing families or those with twins.

Read review: UPPAbaby Vista

Why You Should Trust Us

Our experienced group of stroller testers is overseen by our BabyGearLab founder, Dr. Juliet Spurrier, Board Certified Pediatrician, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and mother of two. She uses her education and background as a Pediatrician, in combination with her experience as a mom, to define the BabyGearLab safety standards, and makes the final selection on the top products we include. The lead for the stroller test team is Senior Research Analyst, Bob Wofford, father of 7 who has been the leader of stroller testing development and execution since 2013. Bob's team includes Senior Review Editor and mother of two, Wendy Schmitz, who has reviewed and researched over 200 various types of strollers since joining BabyGearLab in 2014, including hundreds of hours of hands-on use. The team also includes Senior Review Editor, Abriah Wofford, who joined the BabyGearLab stroller testing team in 2015. Overall, the team has over 20 combined years of experience hands-on using and testing more than 100 strollers of all types.

Our testing took place in the BabyGearLab in-house lab and the real-world with little ones. The full-size stroller reviews use research and details on their performance and ease of use derived from real-world use and comparison to the other competitors. We use each stroller from unboxing to in-house testing and hours in the real world to determine which are the easiest to use, have the most useful features, are the easiest to push and turn and their quality level compared to the competition.

Related: How We Tested Full-size Strollers

Analysis and Test Results

We chose 22 finalists for our comprehensive side-by-side testing that includes everything from maneuverability to ease of use. The contenders were chosen based on quality, innovation, and popularity. Our goal is to provide practical, detailed information to help create your short-list of potential strollers to purchase.

Related: Buying Advice for Full-size Strollers

Value

A full-size stroller can be more expensive than other stroller types because you will use it more frequently and they typically come with more features. However, this doesn't mean you need to break the bank to find a top-performing workhorse that has what you need. The top scorers in this review happen to be jogging strollers with middle of the road prices. This means you get a dual purpose option for a reasonable price, theoretically, saving you money. Hoping for something less expensive? The Baby Jogger City Mini and the Britax B-Lively are both attractively priced with useful features and above-average performance in our tests. These options also make good lightweight strollers, doing the job of two strollers in one. The Baby Trend Expedition is also a real standout with a low price and easy maneuverability but the quality is below average.

Ease of Use

Ease of use includes the features you use repeatedly that impact ordinary functionality. These features will impact your everyday experience. Your stroller's ability to perform as desired and expected is the difference between a stroller you enjoy and one you'll want to dump on the curb.

In our tests, the UPPAbaby Vista (above left) and the UPPAbaby Cruz (above right) both earned impressive scores for ease of use. These strollers have nice features that work well and both offer high maximum storage limits and the largest canopies. The UPPAbaby strollers have adjustable leg rests, easy to use recline adjustment, and indicators seat attachment. The Thule Urban Glide 2 earned second-place for ease of use with intuitive features that are useful and improve the overall experience for passengers and parents.

The UPPAbaby strollers and the Thule Urban Glide 2 lack amenities like a parent or child console, but these accessories are available for purchase if you need them. We believe these conveniences can be useful and we recommend you consider their cost in your decision-making process. However, we don't believe they are mandatory and found that many strollers with these features were often not that useful.

The worst performer in our ease of use tests is the Mountain Buggy Swift which is somewhat awkward, has smaller storage, and is harder to operate.

Maneuverability

To test maneuverability, each product is put through a course of convoluted turns and corners covering a variety of surfaces including hardwood, pavement, gravel, grass, snow/ice, and dirt. To compare them, we created the crowded-supermarket-from-hell simulator which is a multi-surface obstacle course that contains tight corners and real-world challenges you'll face in real life. We then compared them for ease of pushing, turning, and performance over various surfaces.

The top performers for maneuverability all share a 3-wheel design and larger rubber tires. The top-scoring options are the Thule Urban Glide 2, BOB Rambler, and the BOB Revolution Flex 3.0 all with 9 of 10. These jogging strollers feature pneumatic (air-filled) tires, suspension, adjustable tracking, and a locking swivel front wheel. The Mountain Buggy Swift, Baby Jogger City Mini GT, Baby Trend Expedition and the Bumbleride Speed all earned 8s. These strollers performed well in our obstacle course and managed uneven terrain better than the rest of the competition.

Related: The Best Jogging Strollers of 2020

The Bumbleride Speed, Mountain Buggy Swift, and the Baby Trend Expedition all provide impressive pushing, smooth rides, and effortless turns. Quality construction makes them more responsive and easier to guide through tight aisles and turns. Bumps in the sidewalk were no problem thanks to the larger air-filled tires with minimal impact passed on to the baby. The strollers with designs for jogging were notably better than the traditional full-size options.

It is worth noting that most of the high scoring strollers perform well on both paved and unpaved surfaces. On pavement, the more substantial wheels make for very easy pushing, single-handed turning, and they excel in smaller spaces. When going over grass or gravel in the park, their advantages were even more pronounced. Smaller wheel products with solid tires got bogged down on rough surfaces, often to unworkable levels. The plastic wheels also transmit jarring shocks directly to the baby because they do not absorb the energy and often lack suspension. If you need to stroll regularly over grass, gravel, or dirt, then maneuverability should be a critical factor in your decision-making process, and those with rubber tires should be at the top of your list.

The Baby Jogger City Mini GT is a little bit of an anomaly in this metric. It performed well in our tests but has smaller wheels. It is not as good at traversing rougher terrain as the larger wheel products, but it is still superior to the plastic wheeled competition, dual front wheel designs, and options lacking suspension. Baby Jogger advertises the GT as an all-terrain option. While we don't feel it is a good choice for regular off-roading (like hiking in the backwoods), our tests indicate it manages uneven surfaces better than other small-wheeled competition.

The worst performer for maneuverability is the Chicco Bravo LE. This option has foam-filled plastic wheels under 7" on the front and less than 8" in the back. We found turning the Bravo through our obstacle course is difficult, and moving over bumpy and/or non-paved surfaces is frustrating or impossible.

Quality

Many parents believe that quality is directly related to price, and while this is somewhat true, we found that some of the mid-range products offer quality on par, or better than, the more expensive choices. These observations are good news for parents hoping to find a high-performing, quality stroller without breaking the bank.

The highest quality option is the Thule Urban Glide 2 with a 9 of 10, followed closely by the BOB Revolution Flex 3.0, the UPPAbaby Vista, BOB Rambler, Thule Sleek, each with an 8. These strollers combine quality components of high-end materials with a fit and finish that stands apart. As you can see, there is a significant price gap between them. In general, products earn higher scores in this metric if they offer comfortable and durable fabric, pneumatic or foam-filled rubber tires, and sleek frames with smooth finishes and little flex. The lowest scoring products earned 4s including the Baby Trend Expedition and the Graco Aire 3. Most of the low-scoring strollers have plastic wheels, stationary handlebars, and a lot of flex with multiple connection joints.

Weight and Folded Size

To test weight and folded size, we performed our own measurements. This proved important as we discovered that some manufacturers provided weights or measurements that excluded components such as wheels or detachable seats. Our measurements include wheels and seats but do not include additional accessories like bassinets or rain covers.

The best scoring products for weight and folded size, scoring 8 of 10, are the Britax B-Lively, and the Baby Jogger City Mini. The City Mini weighs about 17.5 lbs and the B-Lively is only 6,612 cubic inches when folded. These strollers are light and small enough that they are considered good choices for travel or situations where weight and size are key considerations. The Mountain Buggy Swift and the Bugaboo Bee3 are also smaller and lighter but didn't score well overall.

Related: The Best Umbrella Strollers

The lowest result for weight and folded size is the Bugaboo Cameleon3. It is 25.7 lbs, which isn't the heaviest, but it is large when folded at 16,022 cubic inches. The largest is the Thule Sleek at 16,493 cubic inches and the heaviest is the Baby Jogger City Select at 29.3 lbs. The average for the group is closer to 11,500 cubic inches and 24 lbs, with the UPPAbaby Cruz (21.2 lbs) coming close to these values.

Car Seat Compatibility

Most of the full-size strollers we tested are compatible with different infant car seats, and some are light enough to work as a possible stand-in for a car seat frame product. Some of the products are restricted in the seats they work with or they don't accept car seats at all. Other strollers have significant brand compatibility, including the Chicco Keyfit 30 and the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio 4-35 which both won awards in our infant car seat review.

The photos show the UPPAbaby Cruz coupled with the Chicco Keyfit 30 (above left) and the UPPAbaby Mesa (above right).

If your plan is to combine your stroller with an infant car seat, then we encourage you to choose a car seat first. We also think most parents should consider purchasing a car seat frame stroller for the first 6-9 months because they are easier to use, lighter, cheaper, and can give parents a better idea of how they will use their full-size stroller.

We test the strollers with their brand compatible car seat if we have it in the lab and we ordered an adapter for the Chicco Keyfit 30 if one was available. We use the Chicco because it is compatible with the most products in the review, and it is an award-winning seat with a reasonable price. For the most part, the strollers work best with the same brand seat (i.e., the UPPAbaby Vista and UPPAbaby Cruz with the UPPAbaby Mesa). However, many work equally well with the Chicco, and a few even seemed more stable or easier to install.

Some car seats use a click-in method, while others require click and strap steps. On the whole, we prefer the click only variety because they are easier, more foolproof, and often feel more stable. That being said, the strap isn't challenging, it is just another step and we worry parents will fail to use it, which could create safety concerns. If you choose a product that has a strap, like the BOB Revolution Flex 3.0, we encourage you to use the straps every time as the manufacturer describes.

Ease of Setup

Ease of setup has the least impact on the final score because it is a one-time task. We considered how long it takes, difficulty, required tools, and how useful the manual is.

The easiest to assemble is the UPPAbaby Cruz, with a perfect 10 of 10. It took just over four and a half minutes to put the UPPAbaby Cruz together with a simple startup guide, and we believe it is so intuitive you may not need the manual. Close behind is the Baby Jogger City Mini and the BOB Revolution Flex 3.0 that also took around 4:30 minutes. The UPPAbaby Vista and several others earned 9s rounding out the easiest to set up. The worst to set-up is the Bugaboo Bee3, which took us more than 23 minutes to assemble, due to far more component assembly than the competition and documentation so poor that we put portions together incorrectly.

We were disappointed to find that many of the more expensive products were the hardest to assemble, due to poor documentation and more parts. These include the Bugaboo Cameleon 3, and Baby Jogger City Select. We think the combination of a high price and poor documentation to be particularly distasteful. Excellent manuals are largely a result of an intentional investment decision to create clear, easy-to-understand documentation in each target market language. In our experience, poor manuals usually have an "international approach" where vague illustrations without text are in one part of the manual, and text referring to the figures is in another.

Conclusion

Is there a perfect stroller for everyone? We don't think so. Everyone's needs naturally vary due to strolling habits, travel, location, family size, and budget. In this review, our goal is to share the differences we experienced or observed between products and relay information on performance so you can make an informed decision for your family.

We believe that between our award winners and higher ranking options that you can narrow your options to a few top contenders. We provide the information required to find the best option for your family's budget and your baby's needs.