I launched MyPushchair in 2006 with my mother. The two of us built it together — attending baby shows, testing pushchairs, writing reviews, and trying to create the honest resource that neither of us could find when we needed it most. At the time I was Managing Director of a coach tour company, so this was a passion project born out of genuine frustration: I’d found choosing a pushchair for my young children bewildering, and I couldn’t understand why no one was giving parents straight answers.
The site grew to become one of the UK’s most visited pushchair resources — ranking number one on Google for pushchair reviews at its peak. Then life got in the way, as it does. The business consumed more time, the children grew up, and the site went quiet.
Now it’s back. And if anything, I have more to say than ever.
Why I relaunched
My daughter is currently navigating exactly what I went through nearly twenty years ago: two young children, too much information, too little of it honest, and nobody who’s actually tried pushing the thing through a real doorway. Helping her find the right pushchair reminded me why I built this site in the first place. So here we are.
Real pushchairs. Real families. Real life.
We don’t test pushchairs under studio lights. We take them where parents actually use them — pavements, shops, restaurants, car boots, country paths and family days out. Sometimes our testing is carefully planned. Sometimes real life does the testing for us. Either way, we’ll tell you what actually happened.
A pushchair isn’t really tested by photographing it against a white backdrop. It’s tested when you try to get it through your front door, fold it on the drive, put it into an actual car boot, push it around town, squeeze it into a restaurant, and discover the little things that annoy you after using it.
The most useful data point in our Puggle City Traveller review wasn’t a specification — it was a measurement. The pushchair is 76cm wide. The doorway at our house in Wooler is 77cm. One centimetre of clearance. We discovered that because the pushchair nearly didn’t fit, not because we designed a test to establish it. That’s the kind of evidence a controlled review never produces — and it’s the most useful thing a parent considering that pushchair could know.
Equally, the Out n About Nipper V5 specification sheet described the fold as “one-handed.” Our own testing established it isn’t — it requires two levers, reaching under the seat fabric, a lifting handle, and a clip to keep it closed. The specification was wrong. We only found out because we actually folded it. That’s why real-world testing matters.
How we review pushchairs
We don’t just read spec sheets. We consider doorways — specifically the narrow hallways of real British homes. We think about bus aisles, car boots, café gaps, park paths with uneven surfaces, and what it actually feels like to fold a pushchair one-handed while holding a child. These are the things that matter in real life and the things that most reviews ignore.
My wife Janette is a key part of how we assess pushchairs. We often notice different things when using the same pushchair — particularly around folding, lifting, handling and everyday practicality. Having two people assess the same product helps us distinguish a genuine usability issue from something that’s simply personal preference.
Our daughter — a current parent of two young children — tests pushchairs in genuine daily use: buses, shops, restaurants, pavements, stairs, and the full reality of family life. Her feedback informs our reviews directly. When she encounters something in real use that contradicts a specification, we update the review.
We’ve also attended baby shows over the years — getting hands-on with products before they reach the shops, talking to manufacturers, and understanding what’s coming to market before most parents have heard of it. And we talk to real owners wherever we find them — in parks, on coastal paths, in car parks — because owner experience after months of daily use tells you things a first-impression test never can.
How we label our evidence
Not every review on this site has the same depth of evidence behind it. We think you should know which is which. Every review carries one of these labels:
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Full test | Extended real-world testing over multiple days in genuine conditions. The Out n About Nipper V5 — tested over two days on Bamburgh Beach and the Northumberland coastal path — is the benchmark for this standard. |
| Hands-on assessment | Physically tested — fold, push and handling confirmed in person. May include real owner feedback from daily users. The Out n About Nipper V6 (fold tested in Ilkley Park, owner feedback from Middleton Woods) and the iCandy Pip (fold tested, owner encounter at a pub beer garden) are examples of this standard. |
| Owner interview | Real owner feedback incorporated directly, based on extended daily use. May or may not include our own hands-on time with the pushchair. |
| Researched review | Based on specifications verified against primary sources, product demonstrations, manufacturer information and extended independent research. We clearly identify what we have and haven’t personally tested. |
We’re building towards every review reaching at least hands-on assessment standard. Where a review is currently researched, we say so. We’d rather be honest about the evidence level than claim testing we haven’t done.
The things other sites don’t talk about
Our personal experience with children with disabilities has shaped how we think about pushchairs in ways that most review sites simply don’t consider. Which direction is the child facing — and does that matter for this particular child? In a double buggy, are the children comfortable side by side — or could that be a problem for a child with specific medical or sensory needs?
These aren’t obscure considerations. They’re real questions parents face, and they’re surprisingly difficult to find useful answers to. We try to address them.
We have written a detailed guide to choosing a pushchair for a child with additional needs, drawing on our own family experience. If this is your situation, read our special needs pushchair guide →
We also think about grandparents — specifically grandparents with arthritis, bad backs, or limited strength. The grandparent who does the school run two days a week deserves a pushchair that works for them too, not just for a parent in their thirties. It’s an angle the market almost entirely ignores.
How we make money
We use affiliate links. If you click through to a retailer and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. This helps fund the site, but it does not determine which pushchairs we recommend or how we rate them. We choose the pushchair first; the commercial relationship comes afterwards. If the best product for a particular parent doesn’t earn us a commission, we’ll still recommend it.
What we will never do
We don’t take payment for reviews. Brands do not control our reviews, ratings or recommendations. If a pushchair isn’t right for your life, we’ll say so, regardless of how much it costs or how well-known the brand is. If we think a cheaper model is the better buy, we’ll say that too.
If you have a question about a specific pushchair — or a situation that doesn’t fit neatly into any buying guide — get in touch. I read every message and reply to as many as I can.
Mark — Founder, MyPushchair (est. 2006)