7 Best Infant Car Seats of 2023: Find Your Baby Seat

How we select the best infant car seat of the year?

We worked hard to make this list of the top infant car seats of 2023 as objective as possible. For us, this started by recognizing that there is no absolute best. Every family has different needs and lifestyles, so we needed to first understand what the different expectations might be before evaluating car seats against those expectations.

For example, you’ll have very different expectations from your car seat if you’re always using it with its base fixed in your car versus using the seat in taxis without its base. Similarly, families who already have a stroller and want a car seat that is compatible with that stroller, will have different criteria (take a look at our ultimate infant car seat and stroller compatibility guide if that’s the case for you).

Photo by Ana Sloan.

So how did we go about selecting the best infant car seats of the year? We started by creating a list of the top 35 best infant car seats available today by cross-referencing authoritative resources (see the full list below) with the best-selling models online. We then analyzed safety ratings, scores and reviews for each model to narrow down our list to the top models.

We purchased each seat on that list and gave two models to each family in our group. Everyone used their seats for a period of five months with their kids. Each seat was used extensively to get hands-on experience. We paid particular attention to their pros and cons and what they are like on a day to day basis.

After five months of testing, we all sat down together and shared our notes. We sometimes exchanged seats among us when we couldn’t reach a consensus on our reviews.

Finally, we assigned our rating to each seat. Safety is absolutely paramount when choosing an infant car seat, hence we gave more importance to crash test results in our ratings. We also considered the value that you get for the price of each seat and all the other extra features that make it easier to use them.