Jodie is a young mom with a lot on the go who believes that families need to make decisions that work for them, regardless of what others might recommend. She’s here to tell you what she really thinks and share her top family traveling advice.
Whether you’re in the market for a stroller or a car seat, you may have heard of a few big brands – in our Diono vs Britax baby brand comparison, we’ll be looking at two great companies with some brilliant products to choose from. Diono and Britax manufacture some excellent car seats and strollers.
The question is, how do you know which brand is best? Are they both trustworthy brands? What products do they make? And how can you choose between them?
We’ll answer all of those questions today. Straight away, we’ll look at the differences and similarities between the two. Then, we’ll take a more in-depth look at each brand and the products they create, including a product that we really like from each of them. Finally, we’ll try to decide which one is best.
Diono is our preferred pick if you just need a great car seat. Their innovative ergonomic design, durable quality, and additional safety impact foam give a higher end feel, but at an affordable price.
Diono was founded in 1999. They design and engineer products in the US, and they’re well known for their range of convertible car seats.
Diono offers a range of benefits for their customers (some of these benefits are exclusive to customers that order directly from them), including a discount for parents of multiples, a 2-year warranty on some of their products, the Very Important Passenger Club (an email subscription list with discount codes) and one-to-one virtual car seat fitting.
What Products Do They Sell?
Diono sells a range of baby products, focusing on car seats, strollers, and baby carriers, and today I’ll show you some of their most popular car seat options:
Some highlights here include the Radian and Diono Rainier all-in-one car seats. There are a lot of choices here – convertible car seats are a great option for those who want a car seat that’s going to last as their child grows, and Diono makes some great options.
Radian car seats are particularly good as they are slim, meaning you can fit as many as three in the back seat of your car – so if you’ve got a lot of kids to squeeze in, the Radian series is definitely worth investigating. You can see our comparison of Radian vs Rainier convertible car seats here.
Pros of Diono
So, what are the benefits of Diono as a company?
Products are designed and manufactured in the US
They offer 1-2-1 virtual car seat fitting if you buy directly from them
Their convertible car seats are designed to be narrow – great for parents of multiples
The multiples discount is also great!
They have a decent range of compact strollers, too
Cons of Diono
What are the downsides of Diono?
Strollers aren’t as good as the car seats
There aren’t really any luxury options – their strollers and car seats look fairly basic
Diono is our preferred pick if you just need a great car seat. Their innovative ergonomic design, durable quality, and additional safety impact foam give a higher end feel, but at an affordable price.
The product we want to highlight for Diono is the Radian 3RXT All-in-One Carseat. It offers a whopping ten years of use from one car seat – you can use it from birth all the way through to a belt-positioning booster seat – and it has the huge benefit of being so slim that you can fit three of them in the back of your car at once (unless you have a very small car!).
The Radian RXT is super safe. You can keep your child rear-facing until they are approximately 4 years old (includes a rear-facing tether), which is excellent for safety. It has a reinforced steel core, made from automotive-grade high-strength steel. It has reinforced sidewalls and energy-absorbing foam for great protection.
It comes in a huge range of colors (the 2020 version has 11 color options to choose from), and it comes with a cup holder too. The downside to the Radian is that it can be a bit fiddly to install in your car, so it’s better suited for you if you want a car seat that will stay in place for a while. It’s also super heavy – great for safety, but not that portable.
The last bonus is that it has a machine-washable cover – a real bonus for parents of travel-sick kids!
Here’s the specs:
Rear-facing – 5-45lbs
Forward-facing – 20-65lbs
Booster mode – 50-120lbs
Seated torso height – 8.25-17”
Overall maximum height – up to 57”
Weight of car seat- 27.68lbs
What is Britax?
Britax was founded way back in 1938. They are a British manufacturer, focusing on car seats, strollers, and travel systems. They’re a well-known brand with a lot of products to choose from, and their car seats are manufactured in the US (using global components).
Britax doesn’t offer as many benefits for customers as Diono, but they do offer a one-year warranty on their products.
What Products Do They Sell?
Britax sell a good range of car seats, strollers, and travel systems. Here are some of the products you can buy:
Car seat-wise, they have a huge amount of choice. They’re well-known for their car seat safety, and they have a lot of good models that are safe and attractive. The B-Safe 35 is a great car seat for younger babies, with a lot of safety and comfort features.
We’ve compared a lot of Britax car seats – here are some of our favorites:
We’ve chosen the Britax Advocate Clicktight as the product we want to feature, as it has superb safety features and has some great reviews from parents who were unfortunately involved in a collision – it kept their children safe, which is the most important thing.
The Advocate Clicktight can be used from 5lbs right through to 65lbs, between 8-10 years of age (but they may hit the height limit way before they hit the weight limit). It has an impact-absorbing base, tether, and harness, and an impact-stabilizing steel frame. The deep shell allows for side-impact protection, too.
What’s great about the Clicktight is the easy installation – it has a simple 3-step installation process that most parents love, with auto-level indicators and 3 recline positions. It has a range of color choices, and the cover is removable and machine-washable, which is an excellent bonus.
Both brands offer a vast range of high-quality options to choose from and are pretty similar in terms of features and quality, but if we had to pick one, we would go with Britax Brand. Their products have an edge in terms of safety and appear to be better reviewed by parents in general. In the end, you can pick any of the two brands, and you won't be making a mistake.
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02/14/2023 05:25 pm GMT
How do Diono and Britax Products Compare?
So how do the products compare?
In terms of car seats, Britax and Diono are pretty close. Diono is better in terms of convertible car seat models – they’re narrow, versatile, and have great reviews – whereas Britax is known for their very safe, comfortable car seats for infants.
In terms of strollers, we think that Britax wins over Diono – they have a lot of choices, their strollers are high-quality, and they have a good range of travel systems. Diono has some decent strollers, but they do have a couple of duds, too.
As Britax doesn’t manufacture baby carriers, we can’t make a comparison here. (They used to manufacture a baby carrier, the Britax Baby Carrier, but this has been retired.) Diono baby carriers have great reviews from parents, so they’re definitely worth checking out if that’s what you’re looking for.
Final Thoughts on Diono vs Britax – Which is the Best Brand?
So if we had to choose between Diono and Britax, which one would we choose?
Diono is a great brand with some excellent products, and we really like their Radian car seats. We also like the focus on parents with multiples – the multiples discount and narrow car seats make it much easier for parents of twins or triplets.
Diono has a good reputation and a lot of happy customers, which is great. They have a good focus on convertible car seats, so if you want to buy a car seat that’s going to last you a long time, we’d recommend looking into them further.
Diono is our preferred pick if you just need a great car seat. Their innovative ergonomic design, durable quality, and additional safety impact foam give a higher end feel, but at an affordable price.
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Britax also offers an excellent range of car seats, and while some of them may be bulkier, they’re also incredibly safe. Their safety standards are very high, and they offer a great range of strollers and travel systems, most of which are highly rated by parents.
They have more years of experience under their belt than Diono, and for those reasons, we’re going to pick Britax as our favorite brand for travel systems and strollers.
If you’ve used either Diono or Britax products, we’d love to hear from you – leave us a comment and let us know your experiences!
FAQs
Question: What other companies are similar to Diono and Britax?
Answer: Similar companies to check out are Uppababy (they produce travel systems and strollers) and Graco (they produce car seats, travel systems, and strollers).
Question: Can I take Diono or Britax car seats on a plane?
Answer: Diono have a few options that can be used on a plane, including Radians, Rainier, Pacifica, and Olympia. Britax have a few too, including Emblem and Marathon. Your car seat must be FAA-Approved to take it onto a plane – you can check this by looking at the sticker on the side of the seat, which will make it clear if it’s approve to use on a plane or not.
Question: Are Britax and Diono good brands?
Answer: In our opinion, yes. Both Britax and Diono are solid brands with some good products. Britax has a bit more history behind them as they’ve been around for quite a lot longer, but they both have good reputations with parents.
Question: How do they compare in pricing?
Answer: Price-wise, they’re actually pretty similar. The two-car seats we featured earlier (the Diono Radian and Britax Advocate Clicktight) are fairly close in price, with the Britax costing a little more. In general, Britax is slightly more expensive, but it’s not a huge difference. If you’re on a budget, you might be tempted by the slightly cheaper prices of Diono. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that there is a good second-hand market out there for strollers (it’s not recommended that you buy a second-hand car seat, so even if you find them out there, it’s safer to avoid them and buy new) – so if you do fancy a Britax stroller but feel it’s out of your price range a bit, you can always try to find a used one instead.
Question: What accessories do Britax and Diono offer?
Answer: They offer a ton of accessories. Diono has the following: • Car seat accessories – mirrors, seat protectors, back seat organizers, and sunshades • Stroller accessories – including padded stroller liners, rain covers, organizers, and adapters • Travel accessories – like buggy hooks, buggy bags, car seat travel bags, changing bags, and cup holders Britax offers: • Car seat accessories – like sunshades, mirrors, seat protectors, car seat travel bags, and seat organizers • Stroller accessories – like head and body pillows, waterproof liners, rain covers, bug covers, stroller boards, and stroller organizers • They both offer replacement parts for their products, too.
