4 Best Smart Bassinets—Tested with Newborns

The Happiest Baby SNOO smart bassinet is a longtime favorite at The Bump, and a Best of The Bump award winner for three years straight. We had two product testers try this smart bassinet with their newborns, and it’s the one I used in my own home with my second child—it got rave reviews across the board. We all noted that our babies have gotten more sleep since using it. Our tester Caitlin, who used the SNOO with her 1-month-old, says, “The bassinet is very effective in calming down our baby. Especially in the middle of the night when our baby eats and does not want to go back to sleep, the gentle rocking motion is very effective.”

One reason for this high performance is the top-notch cry detection on the SNOO. It’s my favorite feature of the bassinet, and our product testers agree; Shawna, who tested the SNOO with her 6-week-old, tells us, “It knew when my baby was fussy and automatically responded… when it detected restlessness or crying it would start to slowly move and shush the baby back to sleep… I would say 75% of the time it soothed him before he started crying worse!” Three separate microphones are hidden in the area around baby’s head, so the SNOO can easily pick up the first sign of restlessness from baby (although it purposefully gives baby a few seconds before starting, to see if they can self-soothe). Knowing the SNOO will detect your baby’s fussiness, and reliably spring into motion gives peace of mind to tired parents who can stay in bed a little longer. And if your little one gets a little too fussy, the SNOO will shut off automatically so you don’t sleep through a necessary feed or dirty diaper.

The effective sleep analytics were another standout feature for our testers, with useful metrics like total hours slept and longest stretches of sleep. Caitlin was able to use them to identify patterns in her baby’s sleep habits, and reports, “I noticed some nights my baby could sleep until 3 a.m., but some nights he was waking up around 12:30 and whining. As a mom it’s sometimes hard to know when to let your baby cry a couple of seconds and when to jump up and get them immediately. The tracking features reassured me that he could sleep longer stretches of time and he most often was easily soothed back to sleep by the SNOO if he woke up at the 12:30 time.”

One common complaint we saw from parents about smart bassinets was that once babies get used to them, it can be hard to make the transition to a crib. But the SNOO has a built-in weaning feature (which Caitlin loved) that helps baby move gradually off the soothing motions. And on top of the smart features, the SNOO has a built-in swaddle, and is the first device of its kind to receive De Novo FDA authorization for keeping babies safely positioned on their back.

It has to be noted that while the SNOO is an extremely high-performing device, it also comes with a hefty price tag. But it can be purchased with HSA or FSA funds, or rented directly from the manufacturer, which can help make it more affordable.

Exclusive offer from The Bump: When you buy directly from Happiest Baby, receive a complimentary SNOO sleep sack in Ivory with code BUMPSS.

Age range: 0 to 6 months | Dimensions: 35.75" (L) x 19" (W) x 31" (H) | Weight: 38 lbs. | Weight capacity: 33 lbs. | App requirements: iOS 14 or Android 8.0

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Dreading how long your list of baby items is getting? We love a multipurpose product, and the Cradlewise folds a built-in video monitor into an all-in-one bassinet and crib solution. While the other smart bassinets on our list use microphones for cry detection, the Cradlewise adds video monitoring to track visual cues with a 1280 x 720 HD camera, and sends the footage to the app on your phone just like a regular WiFi baby monitor. And as our product tester Sammy tells us, “The camera on the bassinet is fantastic during both the day and night. When the room is pitch black, I can easily see the baby in detail.” She says the sound quality is no slouch either, adding, “I was able to clearly hear the noises my baby was making even when he was just stirring, not crying.” What’s more, the monitor data is encrypted in transit to protect your privacy, and non-baby sounds are filtered out before anything is stored on the cloud (with user permission, of course).

And while the audio and video is useful for keeping an eye on baby, that’s not all the Cradlewise is doing—when baby’s movements and noises indicate that they’re starting to wake, the Cradlewise automatically begins bouncing and playing white noise to lull them back to sleep, and changes the intensity according to the severity of baby’s fussing. “When my son would start to cry, the bassinet would try to soothe him with sounds and bouncing motions,” says Sammy, who tried the Cradlewise with her 15-week-old son. She adds, “When he’s really crying, the more intense bouncing helps soothe him and when he just moves a little in his sleep, the crib offers a nice gentle movement to lull him back to a deep sleep.” If you’d like more manual control, the sensitivity of the cry detection and the intensity of the bounce can both be controlled via sliders in the app. Lowering the sensitivity as baby grows will help wean them off the bouncing motions so they can learn to self-soothe. There are also a number of sound options—you can even stream Spotify through the speakers! But Sammy preferred the default “calming rain” white noise setting.

The app also provides great sleep insights to help you see how well your little one did overnight—as Sammy tells us, “The images of the sleep tracker are very visually appealing and easy to analyze. I can see when my son was awake, stirring or sleeping and when the bassinet was triggered to soothe him. It seemed accurate as far as I could tell and was very easy to read.” The app also offers information about what to expect based on your baby’s age, which Sammy says was helpful, as it reassured her that her son was on the right track.

Now the elephant in the room: Even in a field of expensive products, this is a very costly option. However, once baby outgrows the bassinet mode, parents can lower the mattress and use the Cradlewise as a crib up to 2 years old, extending the life of the device up to four times as long as other bassinets.

Age range: 0 to 24 months | Dimensions: 40" (L) x 25" (W) x 42" (H) | Weight: 88.2 lbs. | Weight capacity: 18 lbs. (bassinet); 33 lbs. (crib) | App requirements: iOS 15 or Android 7.0

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No matter how useful it is, some parents may hesitate to buy a product that costs as much as their monthly mortgage payment, especially if they can only use it for a short time. But the Graco Smartsense Soothing Bassinet delivers smart performance at a price that’s comparable to many standard bassinets. In fact, our product tester Ashleigh, who tested this product with her 13-week-old, calls it “the most fairly priced smart bassinet on the market.”

Although there’s no app, the Smartsense’s cry detection technology will kick in when baby starts fussing, and the bassinet will enter your choice of three different motion speeds, two levels of vibration and either white noise or songs. And if you don’t like the sound options on offer, you can quickly connect your phone via bluetooth to play the songs of your choosing. Ashleigh says, “My son loved the gliding feature on level three as it mimics me rocking him to sleep.”

The lower price doesn’t come without disadvantages—because there’s no app, you have to switch cry detection on with a physical push-button, which might be hard for a sleep-deprived parent to remember. And there won’t be any of the detailed sleep reports you get with other models. But it’s not without its advantages too—at 31 lbs., it’s the lightest option on our list, making it easier to move from room to room to keep baby close by during naps. Ashleigh found the machine-washable mattress nicely firm but still comfortable for her child, and—most importantly—she tells us, “My baby falls asleep so much quicker and stays asleep longer in this smart bassinet versus a standstill one.”

Age range: 0 to 5 months | Dimensions: 22.75" (L) x 31.5" (W) x 36" (H) | Weight: 31 lbs. | Weight capacity: 20 lbs. | App compatibility: N/A

With all the settings, options and high-tech capabilities smart bassinets have to offer, you might be worrying about the learning curve. But our product tester Nathalia, who used the Maxi-Cosi Starling Smart Bassinet with her 2-month-old, assures us, “The app is very user-friendly and straightforward. Not overcomplicated. The options are simple and it comes with several built-in settings that are very useful, so I haven’t needed to create my own custom scenes.” The four different presets (normal, weaning, fussy and newborn) can be customized with five motion settings, three speeds and five sounds, which Nathalia says “can sway, flutter and move around in different directions.” And she adds that even at the highest speed, it’s still very soothing for her child.

The cry detection capabilities on this bassinet may put others to shame—in fact, they may be a little too sensitive for some families. “It’s so responsive that it actually activates when my toddler cries, even if the baby is not inside,” notes Nathalia. (Thankfully her toddler finds it funny!) But what might be the coolest—or smartest—feature is CryAssist, Maxi-Cosi’s AI cry translation technology. You get six free months of access with your purchase (enough to take you through the bassinet days), during which the app will analyze baby’s cries using data from other babies’ cries to let you know whether baby is hungry, gassy, agitated or sleepy. That might sound too good to be true, but our product tester swears it was right every time. A way to finally reveal the mystery of the never-ending crying baby? Sign me up!

It’s not just the smart features that make life easier for parents—the Starling even comes with “night mode” so you can see where the buttons are in the dark without having to turn on a light or glare into a bright phone screen. However, it’s important to note that Nathalia thought the mattress was thin, and the sheets it comes with weren’t very soft material. You may want to invest in a new set of sheets for added comfort.

Age range: 0 to 5 months | Dimensions: 35.75" (L) x 19" (W) x 31" (H) | Weight: 38 lbs. | Weight capacity: 25 lbs. | App compatibility: iOS 15 or Android 10