I Tried 3 Bassinets Before I Found the Miracle That Let My Husband & Me Get Some Rest

The Best Bassinet for Me

Happiest Baby SNOO Smart Sleeper Baby Bassinet

$1,695 at Amazon $1,696 at Target View on Pottery Barn Kids

Why We Like It

The Snoo is a smart bassinet that automatically responds to your baby’s crying with soothing sound and motion. It comes with an easy-to-use app that allows you to control the level of noise and motion manually, but you can also keep it in auto-adjust mode, allowing it to increase or decrease the level of noise and rocking based on your baby’s fussiness. We used it as a bedside bassinet and found it to be incredibly effective in soothing newborns to sleep. Other Parents testers found it to be helpful in relieving caregivers in the immediate postpartum period—its intuitive features make it easy for additional caregivers to put the baby to sleep, and the automatic soothing allows parents to go back to sleep sooner after nighttime feedings, rather than staying up to soothe a fussy baby.

It has a sturdy construction with mesh walls, and comes with a breathable mattress, crib sheet, and multiple sizes of soft, Velcro swaddles specially designed for use with the Snoo. 

The Snoo was, for about eight weeks, a miracle for us. My daughter often fell asleep quickly to the gentle rocking motion, and I appreciated how I could go right back to sleep after nighttime feeds instead of keeping my hand on her until she fell asleep. As an anxious new parent, I also liked that its swaddle attachment prevented her from rolling over, and that I could track her sleep in the app it came with. For a brief period, I became so attached to the Snoo and the sleep it afforded both me and my newborn that I even packed it in the car when we went on a week-long family trip. 

“I'm a mother who had multiple postpartum complications,” Phedra, mom of a 2-month-old, told us after testing the Snoo for Parents. “The ability to have one less thing to worry about and maximize my sleep, giving my body the needed recuperation was priceless. The Snoo not only helped my baby sleep more soundly, it helped me heal."

But Take Note

The biggest tradeoff to consider with the Snoo is its price tag and how long your baby will use it. It’s safe for babies up to 6 months old who don’t roll over consistently, but both our tester’s and my baby aged out of the Snoo earlier. Our tester found her baby was getting too big for the bassinet after around two months. My daughter was an early mover, and as soon as she started rolling during tummy time around 12 weeks, she wanted out of the Snoo. After waking up too many nights in a row to her thumping her legs against the bassinet mattress in an attempt to roll over, I moved her to a pack-and-play and, soon after, her own crib. But if the price tag is too much to swallow and you aren’t sure how long your baby will use it, the Snoo is also available to rent month-to-month for $159. You can also try to resell your Snoo.

The Details:

• Dimensions: 35.75 × 19 × 31 inches
• Weight: 38 pounds
• Special features: 5 levels of specially designed sound and motion
• Weight/age limit: 6 months or 33 pounds (or until they can roll over or push up on hands and knees)

In addition to trying the Snoo, Parents staffers have been testing the most popular bassinets over the last two years, taking into consideration factors like ease of use, durability, adjustability, and value. Below, we’ve rounded up the other winning bassinets based on feedback from real-life parents who used them at home with their newborns.

Best Bassinet for Most Families

Newton Baby Bassinet & Bedside Sleeper

$300 at Amazon View on Newtonbaby.com View on Babylist.com

Why We Like It

The Newton Bassinet has a durable, high-quality design and convenient features like multiple height settings and a machine-washable fabric and mattress, making it one of our top choices. It features an ultra-breathable mattress, a large sleep surface to accommodate infants until 6 months of age, and mesh walls, which our tester particularly liked for easy visibility and peace of mind at night. The multiple height settings are designed to align with different bed heights, so it’s easy to put your baby in and take and take them out without straining your back. 

Our parent tester kept the bassinet positioned 1-2 feet from the bed, but it can also be placed directly next to the bed as a bedtime sleeper, thanks to a breathable zippered flap on one side—a useful feature for parents recovering from a C-section or who have a harder time getting up to check on the baby. Though not designed specifically for travel, it does come with a travel bag and is easy-to-assemble, plus its minimalist design seamlessly blends into various bedroom decors.

But Take Note

Though it’s lightweight, our tester found it too cumbersome to move from room-to-room on a daily basis, so it’s best to keep it in one place, like next to the bed for nighttime sleep. We also found the fabric side, designed for bedside sleeper access, concerning for visibility if you plan to keep it zipped up as a standalone bassinet—we’d prefer the entire bassinet exterior to be made of see-through mesh.

The Details:

• Dimensions: 41.5 x 22 x 26-31.75 inches (depending on adjustable height level)
• Weight: 22 pounds
• Special features: Comes with a machine-washable mattress and a cotton muslin sheet
• Weight/age limit: 6 months, 20 pounds (or until they can roll over or push up on hands and knees)
  

Best Bedside

Halo BassiNest Swivel Sleeper 3.0

$220 at Amazon $220 at Nordstrom $220 at Target

Why We Like It

The Halo BassiNest’s swivel feature and adjustable sidewall make it a great bassinet option for parents who value easy access to their baby through the night, as well as safety and convenience. Our tester found the mesh sidewall useful for nighttime breastfeeding, allowing her to pick up the baby without having to get out of bed. The ability to rotate the bassinet over the bed was also a standout for our tester, who liked that it allowed her to sleep inches away from her baby without the risks and anxiety of bed-sharing. 

The Halo BassiNest comes with easy-to-control battery-operated soothing features, including white noise and vibration. It’s also height-adjustable and sturdy with wide legs and gripped feet that feel secure on both hardwood floors and carpeting. Our tester also found it easy to assemble—it arrived in seven pieces that clipped together without the need for extra tools, and set up only took a few minutes.

But Take Note

Notably lacking from the soothing features is an automatic rocking function, which many babies, including our tester’s, respond best to for soothing. And though the Halo is sturdy and well-built, it’s not easily portable. The wide base makes it difficult to fit through standard doorways without disassemby.

The Details:

• Dimensions: 34 x 34 x 36-42.5 inches 
• Weight: 23 pounds
• Special features: Soothing features (white noise, vibration), red floor light; mattress pad and fitted sheet included
• Weight/age limit: 5 months, 20 pounds (or until they can roll over or push up on hands and knees)

Best Rocking

Delta Children Rockaway Rocking Bassinet

$350 $300 at Amazon $350 at Target View on Deltachildren.com

Why We Like It

The Delta Children Rockaway bassinet has a beautiful, modern design and a soothing rocking feature that makes it a standout pick for parents looking for a stylish but functional newborn sleep solution. Our tester found the manual rocker to be a gamechanger for middle-of-the-night fussiness, as she kept the bassinet close enough to her bed that she could rock it without having to get up. She also found that it encouraged independent sleep, as she could place her baby in the bassinet drowsy and then rock him to sleep, rather than fully rocking him in her arm’s first. While it doesn’t have smart features, the rocking feet come with metal stoppers, adding stability when needed—especially useful with toddler siblings who might be a little too eager to "help" rock the baby.

In terms of usability and durability, this bassinet checks all the boxes. It’s easy to assemble in just minutes without complicated instructions, and its sturdy build ensures that frequent rocking won’t loosen the legs over time. Our tester also appreciated its height, finding it comfortable for reaching in during her postpartum recovery. 

But Take Note

While the bassinet is beautiful and modern, its large footprint could be challenging for small spaces as the legs take up a lot of real estate. Our tester also found that the rocking motion creaked on her hardwood floor, making it better-suited for carpets. It was also too unwieldy to carry from room to room. 

The Details:

• Dimensions: 37.5 x 21 x 29 inches 
• Weight: 20.65 pounds
• Special features: Comes with machine-washable sheet
• Weight/age limit: 5 months, 30 pounds (or until they can roll over or push up on hands and knees)

Best Budget

Chicco LullaGlide 3-in-1 Bassinet

$160 $149 at Amazon $160 at Target View on Chiccousa.com

Why We Like It

The Chicco LullaGlide is a portable, lightweight bassinet that’s perfect for parents looking for an affordable and versatile newborn sleep environment. Our tester used it for both nighttime and daytime sleep, keeping it on its stand next to her bed at night and detaching it from its base to move it around her apartment as needed during the day. The detachable design also makes it great for travel, as the baby can safely sleep in it without the standing base. It comes with a manual rocking and gliding feature, is easy to assemble, and has a minimalist design with wood-grain finish legs.

But Take Note

Though we appreciate the breathable mesh walls for easy viewing, we wish they were machine-washable. We also found it to be a little smaller than other bassinets we tested, making it more of a temporary sleep solution than larger newborn bassinets.

The Details:

• Dimensions: 41.75 x 25 x 29.5 inches
• Weight: 16 pounds
• Special features: Manual rocking and gliding feature; comes with fitted sheet
• Weight/age limit: 20 pounds (or until they can roll over or push up on hands and knees)
  

Best for Travel

Guava Family Lotus Bassinet Kit & Crib Bundle

View on Guavafamily.com

Why We Like It

The Guava Lotus is designed as a two-in-one bassinet that can easily transition into a portable pack-and-play. It took less than five minutes for our tester to assemble out of the box. She primarily used it for overnight sleep next to her bed but frequently moved it around the room for daytime naps. It’s lightweight and compact—it folds up into an easy-to-carry backpack—making it our top bassinet pick for travel. Though our tester only used the bassinet option for her newborn, at the larger and lower crib setting, it can be used by toddlers up to age 3. It has a minimalist design without any special features, but it does have an analog rocking mechanism for babies who need gentle soothing.

But Take Note

Note that the bassinet mode doesn’t have multiple height settings, and our tester found the height uncomfortable for getting the baby in and out of the bassinet as she was recovering from a C-section. And though it’s lightweight, it has a bulky footprint that makes it cumbersome to move from room-to-room regularly. 

The Details:

• Dimensions: 50 x 31 x 26 (bassinet option)
• Weight: 15 pounds, including carry bag
• Special features: Manual rocking feature; comes with fitted sheet
• Weight/age limit: 18 pounds (bassinet option); floor crib has no weight limit