Finally, we’ll answer the big questions: Is the Snoo bassinet worth its hefty price tag? And, how can you get the Snoo cheaper?

Without further ado, we give you the following:

• A video review of the Snoo
• How does the Snoo work?
• Magic Snoo moments and… Not-so-magic moments
• Snoo Guilt: Is it a thing?
• The official verdict
• Pricing
• Optional add-ons and new products
• The rental program
• Certified Pre-Loved Snoos
• FAQs
• Snoo vs. Cradlewise (and other bassinets)
• A second couple’s review

Editor’s note: Since every baby is different, we tested the Snoo multiple times with different families to ensure we give you the most transparent and honest review possible. As a disclaimer, Fathercraft is reader-supported, meaning, at no cost to you, we may earn a commission if you buy after clicking an affiliate link. Learn more about how we operate and how we never guarantee a positive review in exchange for product.

To start, here’s our 5-minute video review of the Snoo

What is the Snoo, and how does it work?

The Snoo is like an ordinary bassinet (a small crib-like structure that allows your baby to sleep next to your bed for the first 6 months of life), except it’s equipped with sound sensors, wifi, speakers that deliver varying types of white noise, and a robotic motor that rocks your baby at different levels of intensity in response to any noise (from the baby) the sensors detect. Oh, and a swaddle and strap system designed to keep your baby from rolling over.

The Snoo bassinet is a collaboration between Dr. Harvey Karp (famous to some parents as the guy whose Happiest Baby on the Block book and videos recommend the “5 S’s” of calming your baby – these are quite effective by the way) and Yves Behar, a renowned industrial designer whose clients include Sodastream, Dyson, and Herman Miller office furniture to name a few.

The result of this collaboration is what Happiest Baby calls “the safest baby bed ever made” and “like a night nurse* for around $7 per night”.

It works like this: You swaddle your baby with the Snoo Sack that comes with the bassinet. The Snoo Sack has “wings” – clips that attach your baby to the sides of the Snoo sleeper so she can’t roll over (nearly all experts believe healthy babies should sleep on their back to reduce the risk of SIDS and SUID.) Once your baby is strapped in, the Snoo gently rocks your baby and plays white noise through its integrated speakers. This gentle motion and white noise continue all night unless your baby gets upset. If this happens, Snoo recognizes crying with its sensors and attempts to calm your baby with several levels of greater intensity – both in white noise and rocking. Ideally, your baby is calmed and goes back to sleep without you having to lift a finger … or, more importantly, get out of bed.

Happiest Baby notes that you’ll still need to feed your baby (hopefully this is a bit obvious) and that sometimes your child just needs to be comforted by a human, have their diaper changed, be given a pacifier, etc. But, the Snoo should robotically take care of the rest.

At this point, if you’re a parent who has experienced just how tired you can be taking care of a newborn, you’re thinking “Woah.” Or something to that effect. Perhaps with more profanity. If you’re not, it’s because you’re some lucky bastard whose partner did nearly all the work. I’m not judging, I’m one of them – and I was still tired a lot during this phase. You’re also experiencing some degree of serious skepticism. Perhaps some discomfort, confusion, and other mixed emotions thrown in there, too.

We weren’t sure how to feel about the Snoo either. But keep reading, and we’ll give you all the details — the awesome, the “wish it were different,” and even the outright weird.

*If you’re not familiar, a night nurse is a caretaker who comes over to your house at night and keeps an eye on your baby all night, calming them when needed, feeding them, etc. Pretty sweet, if you’ve got some serious cash.

Our Snoo review: The awesome, the ‘wish it were different’ and a verdict

Because this was such a big-ticket, profoundly-different-than-the-alternative item, I’ve included full notes from our 30 day trial at the end of this post — as well as a review from a second couple. I’m an information junkie, so I would have found this useful before purchasing. But not everyone is, so if you just want the good, the bad, and the verdict, here you go:

The awesome (Does the Snoo work?):

The magic moments: There were a number of moments during the course of our testing when I thought, “holy cow if it weren’t for the Snoo, I couldn’t be doing X, because I’d be walking around trying to rock Ruby to sleep in my arms.” For me, “X” was:

• Working from home when she was fussy and clearly needed a nap but wouldn’t have gone down without the Snoo
• Spending time with my wife in the evening

Yeah, but … how do you know the Snoo worked? This was an easy one—we spent time without the Snoo before and after, and also took a trip in the middle of our testing. And, yeah … it was the Snoo that did the magic trick of calming Ruby and improving her sleep.

The safety measures: Happiest Baby markets the Snoo as “the safest baby bed ever made” due to the fact it keeps sleeping babies on their backs, the safest position for most (your baby should be sleeping on her back unless you discuss with your doctor). I felt deeply comforted by this fact, and this allowed me to relax more and rest easier — I’m one of those parents who went into kids’ rooms multiple times a night to make sure they were still breathing. You just might find you’re one of those, too.

An extra layer of assurance was added in 2023, when the Snoo received “De Novo” FDA approval for keeping sleeping babies safely positioned on their back (“de novo” approval simply means the Snoo is the first device deemed effective in solving this problem, with no prior solution offered from the medical field).

The Snoo Sack (swaddle): The swaddle is pretty amazing. In fact, I was inspired enough to leave the following Snoo sack review on Happiest Baby’s website, and it’s not hyperbole:

 “As a dad who is utterly hopeless attempting to swaddle with a blanket and still struggles to get it right with the other velcro/zipper swaddling solutions I’ve tried, the Snoo Sack makes me feel like a pro! I’m able to get my daughter in it incredibly quickly, she feels secure, looks happy, and doesn’t escape within minutes like she does with other swaddling solutions. Just awesome!”

If a Snoo isn’t in the cards for you, fear not—Happiest Baby sells the swaddle separately as The Sleepea. You can find our review of that here.

Integrated white noise: If you believe in using white noise to help babies sleep, and you’ve had a baby, you probably know finding something to deliver consistent, not annoying, white noise for a 12- hour period is actually something of a challenge. So I very much appreciated the Snoo’s built-in speakers. While this isn’t exclusive to the Snoo — other smart bassinets have since copied this feature (more discussion on this, including Snoo vs. Cradewise and Mamaroo later) — Snoo does it extremely well.

The customer service: I contacted Happiest Baby a number of times during testing, on questions ranging from, “Isn’t Ruby going to get cold in a swaddle with mesh?” (nope, parents tend to overdress babies, and here’s how to check if you’re worried – touch her ear) to “the app isn’t working, help?” (they’ve since improved the app experience dramatically) to “the rocking at the beginning seems too vigorous” (It probably isn’t — these folks are pros, and thousands of babies have now used a Snoo. But an option for less vigorous rocking is now available via software update – how cool is that? I’d like to think we had a hand in changing this). In all cases, customer service was outstanding. Fast, thorough, and went well beyond my expectations for knowledge and general helpfulness of customer service folks.

The cool factor: Snoo has a serious cool factor. I felt the same feelings I felt as a relatively early adopter of the first iPhone (only maybe in dad form …)

The 30-day risk-free guarantee: With something this expensive, and this new, there can be a lot of angst about purchase. But, Happiest Baby includes a 30-day “worry free” guarantee, meaning if you don’t love the Snoo within the first 30 days of receiving it, you can return it for a full refund (they’ll even pay shipping on the way back).

The wish it were different:

Price: The Snoo costs $1,695. Yep, you read that right, $1,695 for a baby bed. (Before you give up, be sure to check out details of the Snoo rental program or the certified pre-loved purchasing option below.) 

The price of a brand new Snoo is by far the biggest downside I came up with after extensive testing. So, a couple of considerations when it comes to price:

Lack of portability: The Snoo is quite heavy and big. We took a weekend car trip during our testing and didn’t bother putting the Snoo in the car for this reason. The company’s sleep expert did point out to me that babies using Snoo do fine when away from it for up to a week, especially if you use the same white noise sounds (available on Apple Music) and the Snoo swaddle while you travel (this keeps things relatively consistent for the baby during travel).

Only one swaddle of each size, one fitted sheet: The Snoo comes with one small, one medium, and one large swaddle (called a Snoo Sack), and one fitted sheet. Extras are available from the website but are $38 each. [Update: the price of additional Snoo sacks has been lowered to $34.95, a small but nice gesture, and fitted sheets are now just $38.50 for a 3 pack or $19.95 for one] If your child spits up/throws at all and gets the swaddle size they’re using dirty, you’ll need extras/need to do daily laundry. But, probably worth noting, multiple swaddles are something you’d probably buy without a Snoo, and most aren’t that much cheaper than Snoo Sacks … so technically this isn’t an extra cost. Plus, as I mentioned above the Snoo Sack was definitely the best of the many I’ve tried.

The things to note (also known as “the weird”):

Snoo Guilt: When using the Snoo, I found myself feeling rather guilty sometimes in two scenarios

1) When I put Ruby in the Snoo when she was fussy and clearly tired

2) When the Snoo calmed an upset Ruby. I was letting a machine calm my kid. Was that my job as a parent? Was I missing out on critical bonding moments?

I’m confident Happiest Baby would tell me that the Snoo was helping Ruby get much-needed rest, and helping me and my wife get a much-needed break. I tend to agree with them – get rest and be a better parent during the day – but I still felt guilty on occasion. And, I wasn’t alone – other Snoo reviews I read mentioned similar feelings.

Wifi Shielding and Blue Light Emission (For those of you who think about weird things, like me): I am rather paranoid about exposing my kids to radiation from cell phones and wifi, so I worried about the fact the Snoo had wifi built in. But then I read that the Snoo has a built-in metal shield to protect the baby from any potential radiation. This was one of those, “wow, they thought of everything” moments for me that made me feel even more confident about the attention to detail on the product as a whole. Another of those moments came later when I saw Happiest Baby released “low legs” for the Snoo – designed to lower the Snoo for parents with platform beds who wanted to be able to see their baby without needing to fully sit up – a small but convenient touch (also capped off by an adorable dachshund in their picture of the legs).

I’m also obsessed with removing light (particularly blue light) from our bedroom to try and achieve the ‘sleep in total darkness’ thing, so the blue LED ring surrounding the power button annoyed me, particularly because it’s kind of bright.

Severe Congestion/Elevating the Snoo: If you’ve been reading this and wondering, “if this guy liked this thing so much, why didn’t he keep it? Well, here’s your answer. Ruby suffered from severe nasal congestion during our trial (in addition to some complications early on, we live in Denver, she was born in the winter) and as a result, two things happened: 1) frequent middle-of-the-night clearing of nasal passages – more on that soon – and 2) shifting Ruby from the Snoo to the Rock n’ Play. If you’re not familiar, a Rock ‘n Play elevates a child’s head. NOTE: most experts recommend most babies sleep flat, this happened before the Rock ‘n Play recall that occurred in mid-2019. We felt guilty using a Rock ‘n Play for extended periods of sleep, though did get the go-ahead from our doctor’s office. Ruby seemed to breathe easier with her head elevated in the Rock ‘n Play vs. flat in the Snoo. This is probably a rare problem – we live in Denver and when traveling to Phoenix for a weekend this problem magically disappeared, we presume with lower altitude. When I spoke with Snoo’s sleep expert about this he noted they were working on an insert for elevating, and in the meantime, we could try putting tuna cans under the two legs near Ruby’s head. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to dramatically help congestion, though the idea of using tuna cans to elevate a (at the time) $1,200 bassinet was pretty amusing. 

[Update] Those inserts the sleep expert mentioned are now here in the form of Snoo Leg Lifters. They elevate two of the Snoo’s legs (the ones closest to your baby’s head) to create a slight angle and relieve congestion.

The verdict … Is the Snoo worth it?

First of all, if one or more of these things is true:

1. Can spend $1,695 on something your child will use for 6 months and feel fiscally responsible (or feel comfortable renting/getting a certified pre-loved Snoo)
2. Have a particularly fussy baby or a poor sleeper
3. Desperately need more sleep, or, perhaps more importantly, have a partner who badly needs more sleep

…You should get a Snoo, hands down. It is just 100% worth it. The Snoo will almost without question save you time by helping your baby fall asleep faster without human intervention, help you get more sleep by helping your baby sleep more, and make you feel like you’ve given your child the safest possible sleeping environment you can, which is a great feeling. 

If you:

1. Aren’t getting a Snoo for a newborn (your baby will stay in the Snoo only 6 months)
2. Have a baby who already sleeps extremely well
3. Know that $1,695 will cause financial strain
4. Aren’t planning on having multiple kids

Or some combination of the above, it’s a bit of a tougher call. Clearly, parents have survived for millennia without a motorized bassinet – you can too.

If your baby is much older than a newborn, your time with the Snoo is going to be shortened, especially by the time it arrives and your baby fully transitions to the point you both enjoy the full benefit.

If your baby is already a pro sleeper, you may not notice the benefits of the Snoo (other than safety benefits) all that often. Happiest Baby does point out that many babies who are at first great sleepers go through a period of “sleep regression,” during which they have a much more difficult time getting to sleep and staying asleep, and that those babies benefit from the Snoo. Can vouch firsthand for the concept of a sleep regression.

They also point out that most babies sleep better swaddled, but the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend swaddling a baby for sleep once the baby can roll over as it may increase SIDS and SUID risk. Since the Snoo’s wings physically prevent a baby from rolling over while sleeping in the Snoo, it allows babies who are capable of rolling over to remain swaddled for sleep until they’re 6 months old, thus improving sleep.

So our overall verdict? This is a badass product. If you can afford it without financial strain, you should buy it – price is the only real downside to this product based on our testing. The Snoo also includes a 30-day money back guarantee if it’s something you feel like you need to try for yourself before committing to. And, as we’ve mentioned, If $1,695 is too much, check out the alternative options below.

You also don’t need to take our word for it – there are over 2,900+ reviews from verified buyers on Happiest Baby’s website including a star rating and text reviews, which are interesting to read.

Pricing, Extras, Certified Pre-Loved Snoos, & Rental Program

Pricing

The Snoo’s price is $1,695. For that, you get everything you need to use the Snoo:

• The Snoo itself
• A mattress with fitted organic cotton sheet
• 3 Snoo Sacks in small, medium, and large – the right sizes to fit your baby as long as they’ll be in the Snoo.
• Access to Happiest Baby’s sleep consultants, 7 days per week.

Add-Ons

Happiest Baby continues to add new products and extras to their collection, which can come in handy — whether you need something functional or something whimsical (although sort of expensive). In between white noise, decorative giraffes, mosquito nets, you can almost totally Snoo-ify your nursery (yes, that’s a word we just made up).

A complete list of current optional extras includes the following:

Extra Snoo Sacks – $34.95, or $73.40 for a pack of 3.

Extra sheets (3 pack) – $38.50

“The Big Bundle” (an extra Sack of each size and two additional sheets) – currently listed at $94.10

Leg lifters (to elevate the two legs closest to the baby’s head if congestion is an issue) – $19.95

Low legs (lower height of the Snoo for easy peeking in if you have a platform bed) – $64.95

SNOO Zoo Giraffe (for a “touch of whimsy and sense of wonder) – $495

Shoo Mosquito Net (for keeping out insects and apparently also cats) – $79

SNOObie Smart Soother (white noise machine) – $41.97

SNOObear 3-in-1 White Noise Lovey (a teddy bear with white noise capabilities) – $59.95

Sky Mobile (a mobile that can securely attach to the Snoo or hang from the ceiling) – $89.95

Lola Convertible Crib – $795

The Snoo rental program

The other reason we didn’t keep the Snoo at the end of our trial period? Price. Like many families having a baby, we weren’t exactly rolling in dough. And, so paired with Ruby’s congestion preventing her from using the Snoo some of the time, the price was a deal-breaker. I really wish Snoo rental had been an option at the time—we would have definitely used it.

The Snoo rental program allows you to (wait for it …) rent the Snoo. There’s no doubt the Snoo is a pricey item, so the rental program was designed to make it more accessible to those without large baby budgets who were also in need of a safe baby bed and extra sleep.

The rental program works like this:

1. Head to the Snoo website and select the rental option
2. Choose your delivery date (you can select any date up to 6 months out, perfect if your baby isn’t born yet, you can just have it arrive a few days before your due date)
3. You’ll pay for the first month of your rental plus a $99.50 cleaning & reconditioning fee up front (shipping is free to you!)
4. Each month thereafter that you keep the Snoo, your card will automatically be charged

1. When you’re ready to return it, send the Snoo back to Happiest Baby in its original box (return shipping is $59.50). Definitely keep the box, this thing is a beast to ship without it!
2. You’ll get a refund for any unused days in your final month

Snoo rental pricing

Right now, the basic Snoo rental program is priced at $159 per month month, with a minimum rental period of 1 month. You’ll pay $258 up front (one month + the reconditioning fee).

Every Snoo rental includes everything you need to use the Snoo—the mattress, an organic fitted sheet, and 2 sleep sacks. All of this is yours to keep after your rental is over.

Another nice benefit of the rental program) is that there’s no commitment beyond the first month. So, use it for 3 months, decide you’ve had enough, and send it back. In that scenario, you’ll pay $576.50.

You’ll find all the rental program details here on Happiest Baby’s site.

Certified Pre-Loved Snoo

Not sure that you want to fork over $1,695 for the Snoo, but still think you might want to keep it?

You can now purchase a certified pre-loved Snoo directly from Happiest Baby for $1,195, saving $500. The pre-loved Snoo comes with a 1-year warranty, all new accessories, and a safety & quality inspection. To make sure your Snoo is ready for you, Happiest Baby:

• Vaccums with a high-powered vaccuum
• Sanitizes with eco-friendly, non-toxic, hospital grade sterilization products
• Steams with a hypo-allergenic formula
• Tests all levels of motion, safety clips, and sounds

If you’d like to save money, but need the Snoo for the long-haul (a great option if you’re planning on multiple children) the certified pre-loved Snoo might be for you.

Rent, Buy, or Buy Used?

As you’ll see by the math above, if you’ve got just one kid who’ll use the Snoo, and especially if you might not want to use the Snoo for the full 6 months (if your baby is already born, or you just don’t think 6 months is necessary — and we think you’ll certainly get value out of 3 months in the Snoo based on our experience), renting the Snoo will save you some serious cash.

If you plan on having multiple kids, or have a friend who might borrow/share the cost of the Snoo (or maybe buy you a really nice bottle of wine) after your first kid, giving it a good home before a potential second kid, outright purchasing the Snoo will save you money in the long term — especially if you opt for the pre-loved version.

Snoo frequently asked questions

Here are some things we get asked a lot from readers and prospective buyers/renters:

Is the Snoo safe?

Snoo is marketed as “the safest baby bed ever made”, and for good reason: its design keeps your baby on her back, the safest sleep position according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Snoo Sack promotes a healthy hip position and prevents material from covering a baby’s mouth and nose.

Is the Snoo safe for newborns?

Newborns are tiny, fragile creatures. So it’s natural to wonder if the Snoo, with its automated jiggling of your baby and white noise levels, is safe for newborn babies. But, Snoo was designed to be used from day one, and extensively tested for newborn safety. It’s also been around for 5+ years and been safely used by thousands and thousands of families

Is the Snoo FDA approved?

In April 2023, the Snoo received “De Novo” FDA approval for keeping babies safely positioned on their backs. This basically means that, while the Snoo is not a medical device, it provides a solution to a problem that previously did not have one (i.e., there was no way for parents to physically prevent their babies from rolling over). Although there is no evidence to support that the Snoo directly reduces a baby’s risk of SIDS, Snoo’s FDA press release notes that two-thirds of SUIDS deaths occur while a baby is sleeping on their stomach, which the Snoo prevents.

Why is the Snoo controversial?

If you’ve heard the Snoo talked about as “controversial,” it’s likely because of one of these reasons:

1. “Snoo Guilt,” which we addressed earlier. Some parents might feel guilty letting the Snoo help them, but we’d remind those parents that we all need help, and we should take it where we can get it.
2. Some people worry that swaddling a baby up to six months of age (and keeping him on his back) might harm his development, but Happiest Baby notes that no studies have shown this to be true. They note that cultures that use extended swaddling show no impact on development; instead, they mention tummy time as the more important factor.

How long can my baby sleep in the Snoo?

The Snoo is designed for babies up to 6 month old, 25 pounds or less, who cannot yet get up on hands and knees, so whichever of these milestones occurs first means its time for your baby to move to a crib. For most babies, this is around 4-6 months.

Should my baby nap in the Snoo?

Yep. Snoo should be used for naps in addition to nighttime. You’ll likely see your baby’s naps are longer with Snoo than without it. So, it’s possible for Snoo to be your baby’s only sleep spot for a while. That said, if you miss a nap or travel, totally fine.

Does the Snoo ever stop moving?

The Snoo’s baseline level (what your baby will experience most of the time) includes a gentle rocking motion that keeps your baby moving all night long—this is part of the program designed to maximize sleep. You can turn this off with “weaning mode” via the mobile app.

Does the Snoo make noise all night?

Yes, the Snoo’s baseline level (what your baby will experience most of the time), does include a low level of white noise, which is part of the program designed to improve your baby’s sleep.

Does the Snoo automatically turn off?

If your baby begins to cry, the Snoo cycles through increasing levels of white noise and rocking, designed to calm your baby. However, sometimes your baby just needs human interaction (or a feed), so Snoo automatically turns off after a few minutes, signaling it’s time for you to go assist your child.

Where is the Snoo available?

The Snoo is currently available in the United States and in England/the UK. It’s available on Happiest Baby’s website and on Amazon.

Can you use breathing monitoring monitors like Nanit or Miku with the Snoo?

Since the Snoo employs constant, gentle motion to help your baby sleep, and monitors like Nanit and Miku rely on computer vision to notice the movement of your baby’s chest to determine that breathing is going on, the two aren’t compatible. That said, we’d note that you’ll use a baby monitor for years, you’ll use the Snoo for a maximum of 6 months, so we don’t necessarily recommend choosing your baby monitor based on this.

Snoo vs. Other Bassinets

At this point, a variety of alternative bassinets are available. So, how does the Snoo stack up?

Snoo vs Cradlewise

The Cradlewise is one of the only other smart bassinets we feel has the potential to truly compete with the Snoo, using motion and white noise to lull your child to sleep and sensors and video to detect wake-ups. However, in our Cradlewise review, we found that it doesn’t quite deliver yet, with functionality issues frustrating our testers. Both reviewers said they’d rather purchase the Snoo plus an Owlet Sock (you can read our Owlet Dream Sock review here). That said, a big advantage to Cradlewise over the Snoo is longevity — whereas the Snoo can be used for a maximum of 6 months, Cradlewise can be used for up to two years, meaning you’re getting a lot more bang for your (potentially even more expensive) buck — Cradlewise costs between $1,399 and $1,999 — the further out you order one, the more money you save. We also think that as their app improves, their potential to be competitive will grow.

Snoo vs 4Moms Mamaroo Sleep — which is better?

The 4Moms Mamaroo Sleep might look similar to the Snoo, have some of the same benefits (moves your baby, built in white noise) and cost you a whole lot less (The Mamaroo Sleep is currently $449.99), but in reality, it doesn’t really compare. Primary differences? The Mamaroo Sleep doesn’t strap your baby into the bassinet, therefore it doesn’t prevent rollovers, a major benefit of the Snoo. Additionally, the Mamaroo Sleep isn’t “smart” in that you can set a timer on the motion patterns (you can choose from 5) but they don’t respond to your baby’s cry, they’re just on or off.

Snoo vs Graco Sense2Snooze

The Graco Sense2Snooze took a cue from the Snoo’s cry detection technology, and can start its vibration when it hears your baby cries. But, this is about where the comparison ends. Again, as with the Mamaroo Sleep, the Sense2Snooze is missing the Snoo’s key feature — the clips that connect your baby to the Snoo and prevent rollovers AND prevent your baby from being moved around the bassinet by the vibration. Again, really not a comparable product.

Snoo vs Halo Bassinet

The Halo Bassinet looks pretty sleek, and has some nice features like the ability to rotate and raise and lower its bed height. But don’t let those fool you—this is not a Snoo competitor. The Halo (like the rest of the competition) lacks the ability to clip your baby to the bassinet bed, thus it doesn’t stop your baby from rolling over. And while it does feature white noise options and vibration, these aren’t ‘smart’ — they’ don’t adjust to your baby’s cries. Additionally, Halo is only designed for babies up to 15 lbs (vs 25 for Snoo), meaning its useful life is going to be pretty darn short.

A second Snoo review: Liz & Arys

With a product like the Snoo, you might want to hear what multiple people thought. So, our Snoo review features two reviews! Here are thoughts from thoughts from Friends of Fathercraft Liz & Arys.

Liz and Arys used their Snoo for 4 months and found it helpful to say the least.  They loved the technology that came with the Snoo. The fact that it would turn on motion and white noise in response to their baby crying was so helpful and worked to put her back to sleep many times without anyone ever having to go in the room. Amazing! 

They kept the motion set to “limited” the entire time they used the Snoo and felt that was enough motion for a tiny baby.  

Liz and Arys also appreciated being able to see how long their baby was sleeping, because life with a newborn is a bit hectic.  It was easy to forget what time she actually fell asleep and woke up.  

The Sleep Sack was also a bonus that came with the Snoo.  Baby Aviana loved being swaddled, so the Snoo Sleep Sack, which acts as a swaddle prevented her from getting her arms out during naps and at night.  She had a hard time sleeping anywhere other than the Snoo, so they rented a Snoo when they were on vacation for consistency.  Liz said she thinks their trip would have been much less enjoyable without the Snoo.  

Liz said the transition out of the Snoo wasn’t terrible, but they stopped using it when Aviana was 4 months old because she was rolling over and their doctor said she should not be swaddled anymore.  She does still rely on white noise for sleeping, but how many babies don’t need that?  

The Snoo has a very sleek appearance, and they appreciated that it looked nice anywhere they went with it.  They liked the look of the Snoo and said it was easy to assemble.  

Liz and Arys did not use the Snoo for their firstborn. If you have a “good sleeper,” the Snoo might just get the baby used to “luxuries” that he or she will then need to be weaned off of.

Liz definitely thinks they all benefited from extra hours of sleep that the Snoo provided – what family with a newborn doesn’t want that?  She does suggest renting a Snoo before purchasing, or even renting for the 4-6 months that you use it.  She rented hers while on vacation and thought it was definitely worth the cost.  

Finally, Liz and Arys think that the price of the Snoo is justified because the technology is so advanced and it helped them get some much wanted extra sleep with a newborn baby.

The Awesome

The Technology – The Snoo automatically turns on white noise or motion based on sensors that detect if your baby is making noise. This allows the parents to hopefully not even enter the baby’s room unless necessary. 

The Snoo app also records the baby’s sleep. This allows sleepy parents to easily access the baby’s sleep patterns. 

The Swaddle – many babies love being swaddled as newborns. The Snoo comes with a sleep sack that clips into the bassinet so that babies don’t become escape artists. 

The Appearance – the Snoo has a sleek and modern design that becomes an accessory in most rooms.  It fit nicely in the space Liz and Arys used it in.

Easy Assembly – Liz reported that the Snoo was very easy to put together.

Option to Rent – the Snoo has a hefty price tag, and you can only use it until your baby can roll over (typically about 4-6 months).  Liz and Arys rented a Snoo and found that well worth it while on vacation. On the Happiest Baby web site, the Snoo rental is $159 per month plus a reconditioning fee—check the Happiest Baby site for special offers on rentals—they do pop up.  

The ‘Wish it Were Different’ … was the Snoo worth it for Liz and Arys?

The Price – The Snoo costs almost $1,700.  While Liz said the technology makes the Snoo worth the cost, she also said she never would have even considered the Snoo for her firstborn who slept well.  She said despite the cost, she wouldn’t change anything about the Snoo or the app.

The Verdict

The Snoo is totally worth it if your baby has any issues sleeping, but it’s probably best to rent and make sure it helps. You will only use the Snoo for 4-6 months anyways, so renting for the entire time is probably the way to go no matter what – unless of course you’re planning on a house full of children!

Find more information on Snoo rentals, including the current “Newborn Special” right here.

Wrapping up, additional photos & full notes

Hopefully that was helpful as you consider the Snoo! We’ve included some additional photos of the Snoo below, as well as the notes I took as we were testing it out.

Based on what we saw firsthand of the Snoo, plus the positive reviews elsewhere (we’ve also got a friend of Fathercraft testing the Snoo for us right now–she, too, loved it), we’ve added the Snoo to our newborn essentials list, which covers all the stuff you need for your newborn, plus a few splurge to make your life easier items like the Snoo.

Before we dive into the additional photos & notes, an editor’s note: this post was first published in March 2017 but has been updated with more relevant details and updates to the Snoo over time and republished several times, most recently in April 2022.

Additional Photos

Notes from the journey

Below are the notes I took along the way on what we observed, how we felt, etc. I’ve edited them for clarity.

Pre-Delivery

• Sticker shock

• Ordering process very much like interacting with a modern tech company. Mobile ordering worked well, well-designed emails

• Disappointed b/c the website noted if I ordered before noon PST it’d be shipped that day, it didn’t ship until the following day

• Nice series of well-timed emails preparing me for Snoo delivery – setup and use emails came on the day the Snoo arrived

• As someone who likes to read lots about products before I buy them, I found myself wanting more. Snoo has a list of questions from prospective customers and answers in the reviews section, but it wasn’t very robust. A bit more information lived in blog posts, but this wasn’t obviously accessible
• Most of the 3rd party sites I found when searching for Snoo reviews were actually just press the company received when launching

Day 1 (12/30/16)

Unboxing and Setup

• Very easy to put together. Loved the fact no tools were required. Legs snapped in with a very satisfying click and the double hand-tightened bolts made me feel like they were very secure

• The unboxing experience felt much more like unboxing a new iPad or MacBook than a standard piece of baby equipment

• Only trouble was trying to get the power cord to stay in the small channel along a leg
• Really heavy

First Night

• Jamee remarked the sack’s straightjacket like effect and the all-white design made it look like Ruby was in some sort of institution when we laid her down in the Snoo

• Actually turning it on was quite easy to do, just the push of a button. Ruby started to cry and the Snoo cycled up through higher levels of rocking and white noise, which sound like rain, a vacuum cleaner, and a washing machine at higher levels

• This was noticeable but didn’t prevent me from falling asleep

• The rocking is quite vigorous. Ruby’s head rocked back and forth in a manner that was close to alarming at higher levels of intensity. Jamee asked if I was certain the Snoo knew how old Ruby was and was rocking an appropriate amount

• The 3rd level of Snoo’s white noise/rocking combo calmed Ruby and stopped her crying and she slept for a while in the Snoo but seemed more restless than she has in her Rock ’n Play, which has been her previous bed. This certainly could be a familiarity thing and since I’d read Snoo’s tips for transitioning to the Snoo (can take a few days for babies to get used to, up to a week for older babies) it made me less anxious the Snoo wasn’t going to work
• After about an hour and a half in the Snoo and another feeding, we decided to resume Snoo training the next day during naps and returned Ruby to her Rock ’n Play due to restlessness in the Snoo

Day 2

First nap

• Put Ruby in the Snoo Sack when she was getting tired after some play, rocked her to sleep in our arms and put her in the Snoo. The transition went well and Ruby slept peacefully for about 45 minutes while the Snoo gently rocked her.

• I realized after the initial “purple” level the Snoo’s rocking slows down and white noise quiets down as it transitions to a “sleep” level marked by a blue light. Rocking and white noise continues at some low level the whole time Snoo is on.
• At 45 minutes, Ruby got hungry and the Snoo cycled through its levels as she started to cry. I decided to pull her out before it went through the full cycle since I knew she was hungry

Day 4

First full night in the Snoo

• Successfully used Snoo to calm down Ruby when nothing else was working, get ourselves 15 precious minutes to eat dinner
• Pulled Ruby out of the Snoo around midnight when it wasn’t calming her down, but then was able to put her back in. Pretty much a normal night, Jamee was too tired to give her thoughts but I slept well

Day 5

• Ruby got fussy after being in the Snoo before we went to bed and wasn’t calmed by increased motion and white noise. Pulled her out, which instantly calmed her and tried again.

• Repeated this process several times. She seemed to be having gas pains and seemed to be calmed when her head was elevated, which we accomplished by holding her and putting her in the Rock ’n Play. It was hard to tell whether the Rock ’n Play was actually better at keeping her calm during the gas pains, we alternated between Rock ’n Play and Snoo throughout the night.
• Note here: it’s really hard to tell with kids whether one thing is working better as you can’t try both simultaneously

Day 7

• Ruby fell asleep in my arms the early evening for a nap and I thought about sticking her in the Snoo, but then thought about the extra few seconds it would take to stick her in the Snoo Sack and then the Snoo, and that she might wake up, and ended up just using the Rock ’n Play

• Peacefully down at night in the Snoo, a few minutes later she vomited all over the Snoo Sack, mattress, and through the mesh onto the floor. Since there were only one small sleep sack and one fitted sheet, we put her back in directly on the mattress and in the medium sleep sack, which seemed to fit fine.

• Really, only one sheet and one sack of each size? Price of extras felt exorbitant

• Down awake in the Snoo
• Jamee read about Snoo winning awards as we lay in bed after the incident

Day 10

• Put Ruby down in the Snoo. About 15 minutes later I was reading out loud when she got fussy. We decided to get see if the Snoo could calm her. She cried for the first 2 levels (2 minutes). At the 3rd level, she calmed and then went to sleep. Wow. I would have had to get out of bed to rock her in my arms for who knows how long if it hadn’t been for the Snoo.

Day 11

• Ruby was fussy when we got her ready for bed and in a Snoo Sack for the evening around 10:15. Jamee suggested I put her in the Snoo instead of trying to rock her calm/to sleep. I did. She calmed pretty darn quickly. Woah, that was pretty sweet. Almost made me feel guilty.
• 15 minutes later, fussy again, calmed at orange level.

Day 14

• Calmed Ruby in my arms before bed and put her in the Snoo. She got fussy upon being put down but calmed as the Snoo went up a few levels

Day 15

• Snoo app updates. Pretty cool to have a baby bed that gets smarter with software, just like your iPhone or a Tesla

Day 18

• Had discussions with Jamee about just how useful this thing really was. On the downside, it didn’t work when Ruby had stomach pains. However, at other times when Ruby was tired but just seemed to want to be carried around, we put her in the Snoo and it gently rocked her while she was calm and went to sleep. We started to realize this probably saved us 30 minutes a night of walking her around while she fell asleep

Day 20

• The Snoo was a huge help today while working from home. It was clear Ruby was getting tired but wouldn’t sleep in the Rock ’n Play and was fussy even when I held her. Put her in the Snoo for two naps and she conked right out both times.

Day 21

• Experiment day.

• Put Ruby down for a nap in her crib while she was asleep. She woke herself up by vomiting, put her back down after a change of clothes and she went back to sleep in the crib
• We tried again at night. Ruby was fussy in her crib. After about 5 minutes Jamee asked, I wonder what would happen if we put her in the Snoo. Would she calm down right away? I wholeheartedly agreed. We did and she calmed instantly, even though she was still awake. Jamee, “this is how they hook you. What wouldn’t you pay for your child’s happiness?” Me, “and your own” Jamee, “it’s win-win”

Day 23

• another experiment with putting Ruby down in the crib for the night. She’s fussy and we give up after approximately 5 minutes, put her in the Snoo, and find she’s perfectly calm and goes to sleep
• We begin to wonder if Ruby is addicted to the Snoo. Is this now just her comfortable place?

Day 24

• Time to make a decision.  

• Here are some things we consider: 1) The Snoo absolutely calms Ruby and puts her to sleep in the evening and for naps. 2) We have no way of knowing whether, if we hadn’t gotten a Snoo, whether Ruby would have trained herself to fall asleep in the crib just as she did in the Snoo, 3)The Snoo has absolutely saved us some evenings of walking her around while she falls asleep, 4) Unless you have twins, you can’t really run an experiment on your baby to see how effective something is or isn’t. Even with twins, small sample size, 5) Other than her congestion and stomach pains, Ruby seems to be a good sleeper. There haven’t been any instances where Ruby woke up in the middle of the night (other than to feed) and the Snoo calmed her back to sleep. 6) Ruby’s reflux (we assume it’s that) is causing her to be majorly congested at night. We end up trying to clear her nose 1x per night, and also finds that she seems to breathe easier in the Rock ’n Play so we end up transferring her there with frequency. This makes the Snoo less useful, though we’d both rather have her sleeping flat if possible. 7) There have definitely been some ‘miracle/night-nurse moments in the evening as we were getting ready for bed where Ruby was fussy and only calm when we walked her around, we got exhausted, tried the Snoo, and she calmed right down as if we were holding her and walking 8) our first daughter was an excellent sleeper. Maybe Ruby would be too without the Snoo? (She didn’t start out that way, but maybe she just needed time?)
• We determine the only way to really determine how effective this thing is to put her back into the crib for a period of 7-10 days. This should give her enough time to get used to the crib – it took almost a week for her to adjust from Rock ’n Play —> Snoo

Day 25

• I email the Snoo people and tell them we need to return the Snoo as our 30-day trial period is almost up, the reflux/transfer bit, and that we’re not fully convinced this thing is “night nurse” level
• They email me back right away with a very nice message saying that they’re very sorry to hear the Snoo hasn’t lived up to expectations, are happy to process my return, but before they do would I want to talk to their Sleep Expert who has 30 years of experience

Day 31

• After getting back from a long weekend where Ruby was in the rock n play (lack of portability), we put Ruby in the crib. She lets out the occasional annoyed squawk for about 20 minutes while falling asleep, but does go to sleep without interference from us

Day 32

• Ruby is relatively alert when bedtime rolls around, and we rock her to sleep in our arms for a total of about 15 minutes. While I’m doing my portion of this, I think “I am basically a human Snoo” and ask myself questions like, “is this time when I’m bonding with my daughter, and therefore something I *should* be doing? / as a busy parent, should I not have to feel guilty about doing this rocking for me?”, “What would I rather be doing? What do I have to do?”, “If I spend this amount of time each night for the next 4.5 months, how much time will that be? And what would the Snoo be worth on a per-minute basis to save my time?”

• About half an hour later, Ruby starts to be unsettled and crying a bit. We give it a couple of minutes then I go in there, hold her while walking her around and walking for about 5 minutes. Put her back and she goes down again
• Middle of the night snot clearing. Out Ruby down in the crib after and she got fussy. Had to pick her up and rock her for 5 min. Wanted to attribute not being able to fall asleep after this to rocking, not sure if this is fair – Ruby was fussy again, got fed, was congested, I put her in rock n play

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published in 2017, but we’ve updated it numerous times along the way with new information and a new review. It was last revised in April 2023.

Here’s the deal: most baby monitors suck. We’ve tried A LOT of them. Picture quality, range, ease of use, sound quality—you’re always going to compromise on something.

The Nanit calls itself “the ‘Tesla’ of baby monitors”. Pretentious? Sure. Intriguing? Definitely. Accurate?

Let’s find out.

An in-depth review of the Nanit Pro Smart Baby Monitor

Like all of our reviews, we went all out. We’ve spent over six months with the Nanit Original, spent two years with the Nanit Plus, and have been testing the Nanit Pro since it came out earlier this year.

We kept detailed notes, built a floor stand of our own out of an old floor lamp and an iPad holder (seriously – we weren’t able to get ahold of the floor stand during the original testing), and more.

We’ll start with a quick video, and then cover (click/tap on a section to skip ahead to it)

• What is the Nanit?
• What’s the difference between Nanit Pro and Nanit Plus?
• How the Nanit works, broken down into its various parts
• What about Breathing Wear?
• Nanit pricing and options
• The awesome, the wish it were different, and a verdict
• The Nanit vs Nest Cam
• Nanit vs Arlo Baby
• Nanit vs iBaby
• FAQs: Alexa, HSA eligibility, and more

So, here we go. 

To start, here’s a video review of the Nanit Pro, along with a deeply weird (and fake) press briefing:

Editor’s note: wondering WTF about the press conference? Short story: we recently got accused (via YouTube comment) of having our channel be “heavily sponsored” by Nanit. Not actually true, we’ve never received sponsorship from Nanit. We may be compensated, via affiliate links, if you click a link and make a purchase. This is at no cost to you and supports our reviews. More on our policies here.

What, exactly, is a Nanit?

“Smart” technologies are infiltrating every corner of the home, from smart thermostats to smart refrigerators. When it comes to technologies for parents, smart tech is just as prevalent. (For another impressive example, check out our review of the Snoo smart bassinet.)

The Nanit Sleep System (perhaps baby surveillance system would be more appropriate) is a smart baby monitor billed by the company as, “part baby monitor, part baby translator, part sleep guru” and “the most advanced baby monitor ever.” (Not exactly lacking for superlatives, are they?) By “smart” the company means that the Nanit not only monitors your child as she sleeps but analyzes her sleep patterns using machine learning to make a determination about the quality of sleep she got. Oh yeah, and after that Nanit offers insights into how to improve your baby’s overall nighttime sleep experience.

All right … skepticism level continues to rise … but given that sleep quality is a huge determining factor in the health and development of your child (not to mention maintaining the sanity of parents) any tool that can potentially improve life in this area is worth an in-depth look.

What’s the difference between Nanit Pro and Nanit Plus?

In March 2021, Nanit launched the Nanit Pro, the 3rd iteration of the Nanit baby monitor (The Nanit Plus, version 2 of Nanit, launched in October 2018). Nanit no longer sells the Nanit Original or Nanit Plus.

So, what upgrades for Nanit Pro vs Nanit Plus? The biggest differences:

The big one? Resolution. The Nanit Pro brings full 1080p resolution to the Nanit. (Nanit Plus is 960p.) This is a big improvement, and also Nanit playing a bit of catch-up with some of its high-res competitors like Miku Pro (our Miku review here).

Related: night vision improvements. Nanit Pro also makes a big leap in night vision image quality, offering a noticeably crisper image.

Add-on accessories and software improvements. Nanit Pro also features an updated app experience, and some added features like baby measurement (you need Nanit’s crib sheets—’Smart Sheets‘, of course—for this to work, but hey, you need crib sheets anyway), and a surprisingly adorable ‘smart memories’ feature that creates a virtual scrapbook of your babies growth and moments.

Nanit has made a lot of improvements since launch. Here are Nanit Plus upgrades over Nanit Original:

Two-way audio communication. In our review of the Nanit Original, we noted that two-way audio communication (meaning, in addition to you being able to hear your baby, you can also talk to your baby), was lacking. Nanit billed this as a security feature at the time — a hacker couldn’t hack your monitor and yell obscenities at your baby. Now, they’re confident enough in their security to have released two-way communication.

Better sound quality. In our side-by-side testing, we noticed a marked difference in sound quality between Plus and Original (Plus being the winner).

Better picture quality (slightly). Picture quality was better in the Nanit Plus than the Nanit Original, but only slightly. And they seemed nearly identical with night vision turned on in a darkened room. This isn’t a knock on the Plus – picture quality is great in the Nanit Original.

Nature sounds. Nanit Plus allows you to play nature sounds as white noise for your child. Note this feature hasn’t yet been set live, but will be made available soon as a software update.

App Upgrades. Nanit’s smartphone app has continued to get better, and the Nanit Plus benefits from these (as does the Nanit Original, for most of them).

Unboxing Nanit Pro, and how does it work?

The Nanit Pro is comprised of several parts – a monitor/camera (the child unit), several options for stands, a wall mount, and the Nanit App for your smartphone or tablet. This last part is an important distinction – unlike most monitors, the Nanit does not come with a dedicated ‘parent unit’ – a screen with a speaker that allows you to watch and hear your child – Nanit is BYOD (bring your own device) for the parent unit, via an iOS or Android app.

Here’s what’s in the box:

Let’s dive into each of these components …

The child unit (monitor/camera)

If you’ve been following the self-driving car movement, you’ve likely heard of computer vision as the process by which computers can “see” through cameras and interpret visual inputs. Nanit applies this technology to “see” your baby and interpret things your baby does (tiny movements while sleeping, larger movements when awake or crying). The monitor’s camera records high definition video, which is then run through an algorithm that learns your child’s sleep patterns over time and uses this pattern recognition to send you alerts (your baby is awake, for example) and make recommendations for improving her sleep quality.

This all starts to feel very ‘next level AI futuristic’, but there some distinctions that bring you back to present – for example, Nanit’s sleep analysis works only if the camera is mounted directly above your baby’s crib, looking directly down in birds-eye view. So you’ll forgo the sleep analysis feature if you use the multi-stand that allows the Nanit camera to sit on a dresser.

There are some real advantages to forcing this directly overhead view – primarily that Nanit’s wide-angle lens captures the entire crib, meaning that your child is always in view. If you’ve used a traditional monitor on top of a dresser near the crib, for example, you’ll know this can create blind spots or near blind spots in the crib that can get frustrating as your child begins to roll around when sleeping.

Camera performance

Picture quality is one of the highlights of Nanit Pro. It boasts a true HD-quality 1080p real-time feed, made to look even better if you have a newer smartphone or tablet with a great-looking screen. Nanit also features infrared light for night vision, which was excellent in my testing.

Mounting Nanit’s camera

Ther are three ways to mount the Nanit camera (note that when you order Nanit the wall mount kit and multi-stand are included by default, you’ll need to add the floor stand separately for $80 if you want it, and you’ll need to do so during your initial order – the floor stand isn’t currently sold separately):

1. Wall Mount. This is the default. You screw the Nanit into the wall above your child’s crib in a location that places the camera in the center of the crib. It’s critical that the camera is in the middle of the crib on a long side as the Nanit app isn’t flexible with orientation. So if you mount the camera on the end of the crib as opposed to the side, your orientation will be screwed up. (Within the app settings you can tell the Nanit exactly what area of the crib it should focus on, so even if you are forced to place the stand at the foot of the bassinet/crib the monitor should be able to capture what it needs (see app settings section for more info).  The wall mount also comes with a cable cover to prevent your child from reaching through crib bars and yanking the cable. Once your wall mount is set up, the camera snaps in and out easily in case you want to bring it (along with the Multi-Stand) with you on a trip.
2. Floor Stand mount. For those not wanting to drill into their walls, an optional floor stand is available for Nanit. Though for some reason, it isn’t available separately, so if you think you might want it, add it to your order from the beginning. The Floor Stand positions the Nanit in the overhead orientation, allowing you to mimic where the Nanit would be if installed via wall mount.
3. Multi-Stand mount. Nanit bills the Multi-Stand as a stand you can use to bring the Nanit on the go – to grandparents’ houses, on trips, etc. It’s a small 6-inch stand that positions the camera to face outward toward a crib, pack ‘n play, bassinette, etc. Again, it’s important to be aware Nanit Insights, the sleep quality tracking and recommendations element of the Nanit Sleep System isn’t available when the camera is mounted on the Multi-Stand. I appreciated that the Multi-Stand comes with an 8’ cord, as it seems plugs are always further away than you want them to be.

The parent unit (the Nanit App + your smartphone or tablet)

The Nanit App is available as a free download for iOS and Android, and acts as the control center for the Nanit monitor. I’ll break down the individual sections of the app below, but an important overall note is that the app *does* allow for background audio, meaning that even while the app is closed on your phone, you’ll still be able to hear your child. I also experimented using an old iPad as a “dedicated” parent unit with the Nanit by disabling auto-screen lock. This worked quite well, though did require it be plugged in if using for long periods with the screen on, as that required lots of battery life. Inside the app you’ll find:

The monitor’s live feed. Here’ you’ll see what you’d expect from a baby monitor – the HD live feed of what’s going on in the crib, the ability to see full screen, snap a picture of your baby, turn on the Nanit’s light (this is angled upward to help you see when visiting your child, but not shine a light directly in his eyes), and the ability to turn on and off audio. There are also a few bells and whistles – Nanit monitors temperature and humidity in the room. And finally, in the upper-right-hand corner a comforting “live” indicator and connection status bars, much like the cellular reception bars on your phone, indicates the monitor is working. Here’s what it looks like on an iPhone 8+

Activity. Within this section of the app, you’ll be able to scroll through a history of what your child’s been up to while in his crib, and can jump back in time to previous days (up to 30 days back with the standard Nanit Insights package, up to a year back with the “Unlimited Insights” package. Within the Activity Stream, you can view a sped-up version of your child’s previous nights, showing you when he woke up, stirred, was attended to by you or your partner, etc. More on Nanit Insights below.

Dashboard. The dashboard is a collection of your child’s sleep stats, including an overall score, when she went to sleep, the total time spent in the crib, total time asleep, how many times you or your partner visited your child, and “sleep efficiency”, a metric calculated by how much time your child spent asleep divided by the total time she spent in her crib.

Settings. Within settings, you can add users (adding your partner, another caregiver, etc.), add additional cameras, etc., and do some configuration – for example showing the Nanit the area of its view that constitutes your child’s sleeping area.

Nanit Insights

Nanit Insights is a software subscription service that takes all of the data collected by the Nanit camera and sensors and turns it into insights – stats, analysis, and personalized sleep recommendations for your child.

Insights allows you to see time-lapse videos of your baby’s night, keep a video history of these time lapses, and get sleep tips from Nanit’s experts. I found the time-lapse videos fun and interesting, but there’s only one speed at which you could play back the timelapse and it’s a bit slow for my taste.

Beginning in March 2019, Nanit started offering 1 year of Nanit Insights for free with every purchase of Nanit Pro.

What about Breathing Wear?

Breathing Wear is a new addition to the Nanit family of products as of Summer 2019. Breathing Wear is a band (or a band incorporated into a sleep sack or pajamas) that allows Nanit Pro to monitor your chid’s breathing using the camera to “watch” the movement of a special pattern of shapes printed on the Breathing Wear band. This differs from some monitors (like Owlet) that monitor breathing by attaching actual tech to your child’s foot, and from monitors like Miku, which monitor breathing without the use of wearables. Breathing Wear includes no tech in the band that attaches to your child, just fabric, which is certainly a benefit.

In our testing, we’ve found Breathing Wear to be a strong option for monitoring breathing, if a bit of a hassle in the sense that you need to manually lock on to the pattern each time you put your baby using the Nanit app. Breathing monitoring does require the additional purchase of something from the Breathing Wear line of products, but you’re going to want a sleep sack anyway, the Breathing Wear Swaddle is a good one. When your baby is rolling over, you can transition to the Sleeping Bag or Nanit Pajamas.

Nanit Pro Price & Options

The Nanit is pretty darn expensive, though we think it’s a lot more reasonable now that Nanit Insights is included for 1 year.  That said, it’s clear with Nanit you’re also paying for quality – a truly excellent camera and monitor (see below), well thought out design, an intuitive app, and really impressive insights.

Nanit recently simplified their pricing. Here’s a breakdown:

Individual component prices:

Camera + wall mount + 1 year of Insights: $299

Floor stand: $80 <– currently, you can only purchase the floor stand at the time you purchase the camera, bringing the price for both to $379

Multi-stand: $49

Nanit Insights: Included for 1 year, starting at $5/month or $50/year for 7 days of history, up to $30/month for unlimited history after that. (Since most of the insights apply to babies less than one year, your need for this product will go down after a year).

Breathing Wear: $19.99 and up (the cheapest option is a band, which can be placed around your baby’s middle, but must be put underneath her arms, meaning it won’t work on top of another swaddle—you’ll have to wait til your baby is done with a swaddle or at least has her arms out of her sleep sack. There are a shockingly large number of discounted bundles to choose from, so you can choose your preferred type of Breathing Wear and save if you buy in sets.)

Total:

$299 – $449, depending on options. The cheapest end of the spectrum is to buy just the Nanit camera with wall mount and Insights (comes with the wall mount for no additional cost) without the Multi-Stand, Floor Stand, or add any or all of these components individually.

Amazon is another good option – you can purchase bundles of the camera and wall mount or the camera and floor stand. The multi stand is also sold as a standalone item. (Nanit Insights, if you want it, will need to be purchased separately directly from Nanit after the fact – you can do this anytime through the Nanit App.)

Bundles & Discounts

It’s definitely worth checking Nanit’s website as the company has been offering discounts when you bundle with a cool new ‘bundle builder’ that allows you to build your dream Nanit system and save 10% when you do.

Nanit also offers a 45-day “worry free” guarantee, meaning you can return it, no questions asked, within 45 days for a full refund, less the cost of shipping it back to Nanit.

The awesome, the “wish it were different” and a verdict

The awesome

Picture and sound quality is simply outstanding. The Nanit’s HD camera, paired with a retina-display-quality smartphone makes for truly excellent live video feed quality. Even when zooming in, very little picture pixelation occurs. This was one of the things that consistently surprised me about Nanit – the experience of being relatively far away from Calvin and seeing a crisp, clear picture was so unexpected versus other baby monitors I’ve used it was an ongoing positive surprise. Likewise, sound quality, produced by the Nanit’s highly-calibrated microphone and my phone’s speaker (I used my iPhone 12 for testing) produced extremely clear sound.

Unlimited range. When we made our complaints about baby monitors to kick off this review, lack of range was a big one, and often something you end up sacrificing. With Nanit, so long as you have a reliable wifi network where your baby is located and you and your smartphone or tablet are either connected to either that wifi network, a different wifi network, or cell service, you’ll be connected to your baby. Practically, I found this to come in handy when I was:

1. Separated from Calvin by several floors (he’s currently sleeping in our room on the top floor, our traditional monitor wouldn’t reach to the basement.
2. Outside doing yard work. Our wifi doesn’t reach all the way to the edge of the yard, but with cell service, I remained connected.
3. At work and wanting to check in. A magic moment happened for me with the Nanit when I was at work and Calvin’s grandpa was watching him. I got a text that Calvin was moving around a lot, and wondering if he should be gotten up. I was able to check Nanit, see that he was just doing his normal stirring, and tell his grandpa to let him be for a bit. Calvin slept for another precious hour.

Portability. If you travel with your baby or have family you visit frequently, you’ll know the pain of trying to bring your monitor with you – unplugging both the parent and child units, packing them (and their individual cords) up, setting them up at your new location, etc. Nanit has two advantages here – first, since your smartphone is the parent unit, that’s coming with you anyway and isn’t an extra item (and cord) to pack up. Second, since the camera easily snaps into and out of the wall or floor stand mount, and the Multi-Stand is designed for travel, it’s as simple as grabbing the camera, the Multi-Stand, and walking out the door. When you’re back, just snap the camera into your permanent setup at home and everything’s good to go and perfectly set up. This is quite different than a monitor that doesn’t snap into and out of a permanent wall or floor stand – with those monitors, you end up trying to remember exactly where you had it set up, and needing to reposition to find that perfect angle again. Heads up that connecting to hotel wifi networks that don’t require a password or have some non home-wifi type setup may be challenging or impossible. We recommend the Cloud Baby Monitor app for those instances—any two phones or tablets, one is parent unit, one is child unit.

App bells and whistles. Overall, the app has an intuitive and easy to use interface. And its bells and whistles can come in handy. For example, you can have Nanit’s app alert you if the temperature drops below a certain pre-set threshold. Over the winter when we were out with Calvin for the evening, I got an alert that the temperature had dropped due to our Nest Thermostat’s Eco Mode. I was able to use the Nest App to adjust the temperature so it was a comfortable sleeping temp by the time we got home, which was good because it was emergency bedtime for Calvin upon arrival.

Safety and security. I really appreciated the fact Nanit has put so much effort into safety and security across a number of different areas. Cables are well managed and kept away from your child, which is particularly useful for older children apt to reach through crib bars. Nanit features 256-bit encryption and, according to the company, “IP addresses that can’t be hacked” to keep your baby’s images and data safe. If like us, you have some level of concern about signals from devices and wifi, this is comforting. It’s also something other forward-thinking connected-devices for kids companies are thinking about – we appreciated a similar feature in the Snoo robotic bassinet from Happiest Baby.

The bird’s eye view. Because of the way Nanit is mounted (with the wall mount or floor stand) the camera looks down on your baby from directly above. This took some getting used to vs. a typical monitor that looks at your baby from an angle, but as Calvin got older and started rolling around, I came to deeply appreciate the fact it was impossible for him to roll out of view behind crib bars or into a corner – he was always captured perfectly by the Nanit’s wide-angle lens.

The “wish it were different”

The floor stand is expensive when sold separately. If you haven’t bought a Nanit yet, this is something to be aware of. If you purchase the floor stand after the fact, it’ll set you back $125. For us, this was annoying because we wanted Calvin in our room for the first 6 months or so (as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for safe sleep) and didn’t want to drill a hole in our bedroom wall knowing we’d be moving Calvin, and the Nanit, into his room after that.

No two-way communication [Nanit Original Only—this feature has been added in Plus and Pro]. (You can’t speak to your baby through the Nanit’s child-unit speaker to attempt to calm her.) Nanit bills this as a safety feature (you may have read about other wifi baby monitors being hacked and some very twisted hackers with, apparently, very little to do scaring babies by screaming at them through their monitors), but you cannot talk to your baby through the Nanit. This was a disadvantage for us as with our older son and a different monitor, we were able to successfully soothe him by talking to him through the monitor and avoid having to go into his room to comfort him. While I understood why Nanit didn’t include this feature, since I’m not personally all that concerned about being hacked, I’d have preferred this feature to be available.

You can’t rotate the camera’s orientation. The Nanit’s camera captures a rectangular field of vision and is designed to only fit your child’s crib in that field of vision … if you install the camera on the long side of the crib as opposed to the end of the crib. If you don’t, you’ll still be able to see your child, but you’ll also see large swaths of the floor and a much smaller image of your child. Here’s what the view looks like if set up rotated 90 degrees from how Nanit is designed:

The Verdict

$300+ is a lot of money to spend on a baby monitor, and there are certainly functional, if frustrating, video monitors available for a lot less than the Nanit. So, if cost is your most important decision criteria, you might look at other monitors (though do check the Nanit website first for discounts offered when you purchase bundles.)

If you’re looking at a monitor as a long-term investment that’s going to serve you for years to come (and perhaps can be used for multiple kids), Nanit is by far the best monitor we’ve tried. After spending over three months using Nanit, I can confidently say it hits high marks in all the right places. From its superb picture quality to its unlimited range to its sleep insights, Nanit actively seeks to help your child get a better night’s sleep (and just maybe you too!) – and that is worth quite a bit. You can check out our full list of best baby monitors here (hint: Nanit is the overall winner).

There you have it, our complete Nanit review. Hopefully, that was helpful. If you’re looking for more thoughts on the Nanit, this page on the company’s site updates with the most recent reviews from buyers.

Before we leave, we’ll tackle:

How does the Nanit stack up vs other baby monitors?

Nanit vs Miku

Here’s our full review of the Miku Pro baby monitor, but if you’re looking for just the highlights in the Miku Pro vs Nanit Pro battle, here they are:

• Image quality: it’s darn close. Edge: Nanit
• Breathing monitoring: Miku—no wearables
• Overall user experience—Nanit. Their app is just better (though Miku is catching up). Sleep Insights is amazing.
• Floor stand: we’ve got to give this to Nanit Pro. It’s taller, it’s sturdier, and it’s easier to move around.
• Overall winner: damn it’s close.

Nanit vs Nest Cam

There’s really no comparison between Nanit and Nest (we’re talking the Nest Cam Indoor here) because the Nest Cam isn’t a baby monitor, and isn’t particularly useful when used as one, primarily because you can’t hear the sound from the Nest Cam unless the Nest App is open. Since hearing sounds your baby is making is one of the primary functions of a baby monitor, this is pretty much a non-starter for using Nest Cam as a baby monitor. (The Nest Cam *will* give an alert when it senses movement even while the app is closed, as a typical alert on your smartphone.)

As we’ve discussed, the Nanit does play sounds made by your baby even if the Nanit App isn’t open on the smartphone or tablet you’re using as your Parent Unit. If you’re interested, we further discuss using the Nest Cam as a baby monitor here.

Nanit vs Arlo Baby

The Nanit and the Arlo baby are a relatively close match for picture and sound quality (Arlo has the edge), but Arlo has severe user experience drawbacks and we don’t recommend it because of those. To dig more into the Arlo Baby, you can see our review here. The Arlo Baby edges out the Nanit when it comes to image quality and sound quality. It’s also cheaper, retailing for $199. And the Arlo packs a few features the Nanit Original does not—the ability to play white noise for your child, for example (Nanit Plus adds the ability to play white noise).

However, the Nanit is the clear winner from a user experience perspective – its app is an absolute dream compared to the mess that is Arlo’s app. And, the Nanit’s sleep insights and recommendations are in a class of their own – these aren’t even something the Arlo tries to tackle. Since reviewing the Arlo, we’ve also noticed severe latency issues, up to 4-5 seconds and heard about software issues from readers. 4-5 seconds of latency (lag time between real-world and when you see/hear through the monitor) might not sound like a lot, but in our experience, when you’re wondering or worried about a newborn, it can feel like an eternity.

The Arlo is available on Amazon.

Nanit vs iBaby

We reviewed various iBaby monitors in depth here. What we’ll say here is that Nanit is in a league of its own. In testing, iBaby monitors proved solid, if unintuitive, and have some cool features around air quality monitoring (though our testing brought into question just how accurate this might be). Another feature offered by iBaby and not by Nanit is two-way communication – the ability to speak to your baby through the monitor. (Again, Nanit promotes the lack of this feature as a feature – they maintain that two-way communication creates a security risk.)

Price is another consideration. Depending on setup and options, Nanit can be considerably more expensive that iBaby monitors, which start at around $135 for the iBaby M6S on Amazon and range up to a about $250 for the flagship M7. Nanit, while you can get it for as cheap as $279 for a camera + wall mount, can certainly cost more with additional accessories and features.

Overall, Nanit’s picture quality, birds-eye mounting setup, intuitive user experience, and Nanit Insights make it the superior, if more expensive choice.

FAQs

Here are some things we get asked a lot about Nanit:

Does Nanit Plus integrate with Google Home or Amazon Alexa? As of Fall 2019, yes! Nanit added Echo Show integration, which allows you to stream video from a Nanit to your Echo Show. Google Home is not yet supported.

Is Nanit Plus HSA eligible? Yep. (At least some configurations.) If you purchase Breathing Wear products OR the Nanit Complete Monitoring System, you’ll be able to pay for them with your HSA or FSA accounts.

Editor’s Notes:

1. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
2. We purchased a Nanit Original for our original review but have received several free monitors from the manufacturer for testing. We never guarantee positive reviews or bias in exchange for a free product, but thought you should be aware.
3. This Nanit review was originally published in January 2018 but was updated and republished in November 2019 based on new information after spending more time with the Nanit and adding the Nanit Plus to our review, plus information on new Breathing Wear products, Echo Show integration, and HSA eligibility. It was updated again in February, 2021 with information on the Nanit Pro, and again in July 2021 with further Nanit Pro information.

We ended up using an 80s-style borrowed swing for our first daughter about four years ago.  When I was pregnant with our second daughter, my friend asked if I wanted to borrow anything, and this was on her list of possibilities.

I was thrilled about the prospect of using such a fancy swing for our daughter who would probably be getting hand me downs for almost everything else. 

For this 4moms mamaRoo review, I spent about six months using the 4moms mamaRoo4 with my newborn baby.  After I got over everyone asking why we had so much “space equipment” in our living room, I began to enjoy the ease of putting our baby in the swing, snapping her in, pressing the motion I wanted, and sitting down on the couch to almost relax.  

Heads up: we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. You can learn more about our policies regarding affiliate links here.

What’s a Mamaroo?

There are a multitude of swing, bouncer, and rocker choices for newborns and babies on the market, but adults don’t swing or vibrate, we sway back and forth and bounce our babies gently in our arms.  That’s the beauty that I found in the 4moms mamaRoo. The 4moms Momaroo is like a combination of a swing, a rocker, and a bouncer all in one, that also happens to look like it belongs in an episode of The Jetsons.  

The mamaRoo has five motions that are meant to mimic the way in which we hold our babies.  Car ride, kangaroo, tree swing, rock-a-bye, and wave are the unique variations on motions that the 4moms mamaRoo4 moves in to soothe your baby when fussy or to just relax with while staring at the mobile.  There are also various speeds to choose from once you pick the motion you want.  

This swing is more compact than some others on the market because its base doesn’t extend out as far as some others and it doesn’t hang from framing.  That makes it slightly more desirable in terms of how much space it takes up in your living areas. In creating a 4moms mamaRoo review, it is important to note that every baby is different and while one of your children might love the 4moms mamaRoo, the other might hate it.  All three of my friends’ babies hated this swing, but my daughter loved it! 

The mamaRoo looks a bit like a space saucer that sits up off the ground and sways back and forth on one arm that reaches from the base of the product up to the seat.  You can also connect your phone to your mamaRoo and switch the motions without even getting off the couch. It will cost you either $220 or $250 for these unique features depending on the kind of seat you purchase, while some other rockers are less than $100.  

One night, our newborn baby Ryan was crying up a storm and nothing seemed to be working.  She wasn’t hungry, didn’t seem tired, and didn’t want to be snuggled, so we put her in the 4moms mamaRoo4, turned on the tree motion, and that was that.  It was easy to place her in the seat, I simply laid her in and snapped the safety straps like I would in a high chair. You can recline the seat more or less depending on your baby’s needs and size.  She quieted down almost instantaneously.  

The only problem we found with this swing was that occasionally, it would just stop.  Ryan would be happy as a clam, and then the motion would stop. That either woke her up or upset her which completely defeated the purpose.  I asked my friend who loaned us the mamaRoo if that ever happened when she was using it, and it did not.  

I looked up some reasons why the motion might halt completely, and all I could find was that if something was blocking the swinging motion, that might cause the 4moms mamaRoo to stop moving entirely.  We did use a blanket to protect the seat cover, and that occasionally dipped below the swing which might have inhibited movement. I also think the base might have just gotten dirty and that was blocking the range of motion.  

The seat cover is removable and machine washable, which makes it nice when you have one of those horrible baby blowouts.  The mobile on the machine lacks durability. It is not a necessary piece, but a nice feature for keeping babies occupied. Ours was pulled on enough that it tilted so far forward, it was in Ryan’s face, so we just removed it.  

How to set up your 4moms mamaRoo

This mamaRoo swing comes in several pieces, but the assembly is pretty straight forward.  On the base, unlock the recline switch, slide the center support bar through the back of the base until it comes through the front several inches, then lock the recline switch.  Place the front end cap on the front of the support bar until it clicks. Then attach the two rounded side rails to the front and back end caps. Next, zip the fabric to the side rails.  Place the top of the fabric over the toy bar and snap together. Pull the bottom of the fabric and snap in place. Thread the child safety belts through the back of the fabric, making sure they are not twisted.  Insert the toy bar at the top of the seat so that it is off to the side and then rotate 90 degrees until it is over the seat. Once all steps are complete, plug in the mamaRoo. Press the play button to begin motion.  

Who can use the 4moms mamaRoo

This unique baby swing can be used from birth to 25 pounds or until a baby can sit up on his or her own.  We found that our baby grew out of it rather quickly, but we probably could have pushed using the swing for a little bit longer.  For the first couple of months of her life, this was a great addition to our baby equipment repertoire. Then we found that our daughter enjoyed being on the ground, or let’s be honest, in our arms, and playing with toys.  

What sounds can the mamaRoo play? 

The mamaRoo has sounds similar to a sound machine including rain and waves, but it can also be connected to your phone to play whatever music you’d like.  We never used this feature because the sounds seemed sufficient for our daughter. There are several complaints on the 4moms web site about how connecting your phone to the swing seems outdated and annoying. 

What accessories are available with the mamaRoo? 

When you’re spending upwards of $200 on a swing that you’re going to use for six months, but probably less than that, it’s hard to imagine that there might be add ons, but there are if you want them.  The classic mamaRoo starts at $220 and the plush and cool mesh models are $250. Then if you want a Newborn Insert, we never used one even though our daughter was a newborn when we started using this product, that will run you another $30-$35.  You can also purchase an additional seat cover for $40.

How safe is this product? 

If you follow the safety guidelines and don’t use this product when your child can climb out of it, exceeds the 25-pound weight limit, or is left unattended without the safety straps, it seems very safe.  We never used the fastest speed on our mamaRoo because our baby was such a little peanut it made me nervous, but I would assume all speeds are safe with the safety straps properly secured. We liked to leave ours at about a level 3. 

It might be comforting to some if there were shoulder straps to make sure the baby is secure, but when Ryan was using the swing, she was not going anywhere.  We didn’t even strap her in most of the time, until she got big enough to slouch down in the seat and I was worried she’d scootch out the bottom.

What other 4moms products are out there?

If you want a more budget-friendly option, you could opt for the 4moms rockaRoo.  We never used this 4moms product, but it will run you about $160. In this swing, your baby is rocked like they are on a rocking horse or in a glider chair.  This swing has five speeds but does not have the unique swinging motions of the mamaRoo. It’s more compact than a typical swing so it doesn’t take up your entire living area.  This is still more expensive than several other swing options on the market and does not have the unique swinging features that set the mamaRoo apart. 

The Awesome

Space Saver – this swing got the job done taking up considerably less space than the one we used with our first daughter.  I really appreciated that especially since items tend to accumulate when a new baby is around.

Unique Movements – these movements mimic a human’s so it makes sense to comfort your baby in the same way.  Ryan instantly calmed down the first time we put her in there when she wouldn’t calm down using our typical methods.

Sound Included – most swings do include sound, but I appreciated that this came with both white noise and the option for music.

Somewhat Portable – while this isn’t exactly a portable swing, I moved it from our family room to our dining room almost every night while Ryan was a newborn.  It was so nice to have a place to put her down while we were “living,” or likely sleeping during the day, and also while we were eating dinner. It wasn’t hard or heavy to move, but it was somewhat awkward.  I think I got to the point where I was able to hold the baby in one arm and move the mamaRoo with the other.  

The ‘Wish it Were Different’

The Price – this is a big-ticket item that you will only use for a few months, maybe six at most.  While it was lovely to have, I never would have spent that much on my own. The old school, 80s style swing we used for our first daughter also worked for us.  If this is not a financial strain for you – go for it! This is a lovely swing that your baby will hopefully love.   

The Verdict

While my family was in no position to buy a swing of this cost, it was a nice addition to our baby equipment.  We borrowed a swing from a friend for our firstborn, and it took up a huge portion of our living room. It worked well and we used it for about the same amount of time as we used the mamaRoo.  We also borrowed this mamaRoo from a friend, and it worked well. I appreciated the smaller amount of space that it took up, but was frustrated when it stopped working.  

If this swing makes sense for you financially, or if a few people want to buy you a big-ticket item, the mamaRoo is a really nice swing (especially if you can use it for multiple children).  If you don’t have friends and family lined up around the block to get you gifts, you might want to invest in some other things like a variety of baby bottles to try, burp cloths for all those spit-ups, and a wubbanub pacifier for those late-night cries.  And diapers! If it were me, I would maybe put this on my registry and keep my fingers crossed that someone buys it for me. Our friends were much more willing to buy us smaller, more cost-effective items.  

Where to buy

The Mamaroo is available on Amazon here and part of Prime for fast shipping if that’s your thing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if … it was also a nightlight?

And an audio baby monitor?

And, it evolved as your baby grew into a toddler and beyond? Into a time-to-wake trainer and alarm clock?

That (yes, all of that) is the promise of the Rest Plus from Hatch.

Does it live up to the promise? We find out in our Hatch Rest Plus review. Actually, technically, reviews plural since both of us co-founders here at Fathercraft tested the Rest+ with our kids—me with my 3 year old Ruby and John with his two year old Calvin. Our older kids (6 and 7) tried it out too.

Here’s what we found … first in video form, then in our detailed written review.

Please note: Fathercraft is reader-supported: we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

What is a Hatch Rest? And what adds the Plus?

The Hatch Rest is a combination of a few things:

• A sound machine (aka white noise machine)
• A nightlight
• A time-to-rise / time-to-wake system for toddlers and older kids
• An iOS/Android app that allows you to control the Rest from your phone (only via Bluetooth for the Rest)

The Hatch Rest+ adds a few features on top of the core Rest features: a clock, 2-way audio monitor, a backup battery (for storms or naps), and the ability to control it through Alexa and over wifi.

Let’s delve briefly into each one of those things:

White noise & sound options. White noise is something we’ve talked about frequently before here at Fathercraft; we’re strong believers that white noise helps kids sleep. And we’re not alone: it’s a strong recommendation of experts like Dr. Harvey Karp, who built in to products like the Snoo (our review here), and was highly recommended by Dr. Natalie Barnett, PhD, in our interviews with her for our Baby Sleep School online course.

But, a good white noise solution is surprisingly hard to find—one that plays the white noise all night long, isn’t bulky, has good volume range, and that has a strong selection of noises. Before the Rest+, I was using an old Amazon Fire tablet, John was using an old iPhone with a cracked screen.

The Rest and Rest+ bring with them a selection of 8 white noise options (from rain to wind to ocean waves) and 3 lullaby tunes.

A nightlight. Pretty self-explanatory here, BUT a couple of things to note: first, if you’re like me, you believe that color matters, and soft colors with red hues can help with sleep. Secondly, brightness, and the ability to control brightness, is super helpful. Nightlights can have several applications with babies and young kids; a reading light before bed, a middle-of-the-night feeding light for young babies, an all-night-long comfort light for older kids (just a note, we believe babies, in particular, should sleep in darkness).

with Hatch Rest/+, you have the ability to control color to an infinite degree using a color wheel in the app and an LED bulb that can produce any color in the rainbow. Additionally, you can control the brightness level with the push of a virtual button.

The time-to-rise system. If you’ve got a kid who’s out of the crib, it’s not going to surprise you to hear that kids LOVE to get out of bed early in the morning. Especially kids who are too young to tell time, even with a digital clock. With a time-to-rise system, you use another system to visually tell kids it’s time to get up or (please, please) it’s too early to come see mommy and daddy. With Rest, you can program a time to rise that changes the color of the Rest’s nightlight from, say, red to green. You can also build in sound if you want it to be a true alarm clock, or keep sound levels the same if you don’t want to let your child wake up on her own.

2-way audio monitor. Let’s get straight to the point here: you’re probably going to want a video baby monitor for a baby. We’ve got much more on that topic, including our pick for best baby monitor, over here. With that said, there are certainly applications for an audio-only monitor, and you can get by with just that if you so choose. We like it for older kids and trips to grandma’s house. The 2-way in this monitor refers to the fact you can talk to your child through the Rest+, helpful for attempts at, “time to go back to sleep …” from the comfort of your own bed/couch.

The iOS/Android App. The Rest/Rest Plus have some physical controls, but they can both be controlled, and programmed, with a smartphone app. The app allows you to turn the machine on and off, set color, brightness, and white noise. But, Rest products take it a step further by allowing you to program different combinations of these things at different times of day/days of week—scheduling bedtimes, wake times, and naps.

All the other Hatch Rest+ features. Rest+ takes things up a notch; a battery that lasts for a few hours if you’re napping somewhere else, ability to control via wifi if you’re out of Bluetooth range, and the ability to control your Rest+ with Amazon’s Alexa (useful so you don’t have to go through the process of opening the app on your phone.

Alright, you’ve got the basics, and the not-so-basics, let’s jump into the review.

Our Hatch Rest Plus reviews

A note to kick things off here; John and I tested the Rest+ independently and then compared notes. We found we agreed on most stuff, so you’ll find notes from both of our reviews mixed in here. I’ve noted where experience differed.

Setting up the Rest+

First things first: setup and installation.

The first thing you notice about the Rest+ is that it feels like a modern IOT product; the packaging is sleek and well-designed, the unboxing experience is simple and pleasing, and the contents of the box are sparse; just the Rest+, the power cord, and a slim instruction manual (your app will guide you through most of the setup.)

The first step is to connect your Rest+ to wifi. John was able to do this with no trouble at all, I struggled a bit, perhaps something to do with my dual-band router where I combined 2.4 and 5 gigahertz.

One thing I found slightly annoying was that when I reached out to customer service for help, I got back a generic response, it appeared the representative hadn’t read my message, she suggested the methods I said I’d already tried, and then requested proof of purchase along with other information, which seemed like an extra step that had me searching through my email.

But, round 2 got me a different rep who was much more helpful, and my Rest Plus magically connected right before I attempted her setup hack, which involved first connecting my Rest Plus to my phone’s hotspot.

Once connected to wifi, setup was a breeze, guided by the app you learn the basic features and can set up your first ‘program’.

And that is that. Let’s dive into using the Rest+

Using the Rest Plus

Once set up, the Rest Plus is quite easy to use, and you have choices.

On the device, you’ll find volume and brightness up/down buttons; turn either one up or down easily with the push of a button. Plus, on top of the device you’ll find a ‘touch ring’ (a metal band around the top), which can be used to turn on and off the device and cycle through any pre-set color and sound combinations you’ve programmed with your app.

As we mentioned earlier, the app allows you to pick light, sound, and color combinations, program intervals of time (naps, bedtime, sleep time, wake time), use the two-way audio monitor on the Rest Plus, or add users to your device.

Ok, here we go: what’d we like, what didn’t we, and what’s the final verdict?

The awesome

Design. The Rest and Rest Plus are undeniably sleek; part of the club when it comes to companies producing stuff for babies and kids that belongs in the conversation with products from Apple, Nest, and other leading consumer goods companies.

Creating programs. If you’re a parent already, you know bedtime is chock-full of things to do to get your kid ready; getting a cup for water filled, reading stories, turning down lights … it goes on and on … not to mention actually getting your kid in bed. We loved the fact we could program Rest+ to turn on at exactly bedtime with white noise and light at perfect levels—two less things to do.

Once we got more comfortable, we ended up setting up multiple programs; in my house that meant a brighter light and louder white noise levels from 7-10 to help everybody get to sleep and stay asleep while the apartment was noisier, then turn down brightness and noise levels overnight, switch to green at 7 AM (but no noise as I didn’t want it to be an alarm clock).

High-quality, powerful speakers and light. This thing can get bright, and loud, if you need it to.

The Toddler lock. Our 3 year old immediately figured out how to use the touch ring, then quite quickly stopped playing with it after we turned on the toddler lock and she realized she couldn’t play around with the lights.

Colors! As a big believer in red light for sleep, I was able to incorporate that into nightlight. Ok, actually it’s pink until the girls fall asleep because they like that a lot better, then switches to dim red overnight.

The app interface. The Hatch Rest app is simple, intuitive, and easy to use.

The wish it was different

The flip side to powerful light and sound: this thing is incredibly powerful, we ended up having brightness at just 2% overnight, it still feels a little bright.

You can’t adjust clock brightness. Speaking of bright, the LED numbers on the digital clock at the base of the unit are too bright for our taste.

It’s kinda big, which makes it less travel-friendly. The Rest Plus doesn’t seem overly big, until you start to think about putting it into a suitcase. And, given how loud and bright it is, it just doesn’t seem like it needs to be as big as it is. If your kid gets attached to it, you’re gonna want to think about bringing it on trips, it’s going to take some room in your luggage. To be fair though, there is a decent amount of tech packed into the guts of this thing.

Smudges easily. So, little grabby hands are going to = a frequently smudged device.

Inconsistent volume levels across sounds. Some white noise options seemed to have different volume levels—for example the TV static seemed quite loud at 30% volume, the forest sounds quite quiet.

Limited music choices, can’t play your own. With just 3 lullaby music options, your choice is definitely quite limited, we think it’d be cool if you could play your own music library through the Rest’s speaker.

A verdict—is the Hatch sound machine worth it?

$89 ain’t cheap for something that’s primary functions are white noise and a nightlight. After all, you can pick up a nightlight for a few bucks. And you can find cheap white noise machines too. That said, we loved the thoughtful design of the Rest Plus, and that it was designed to be a product your child can use starting at birth and for years and years after.

After extensive testing, we’d put it in the ‘it’s a luxury, but it sure is nice’ bucket—you can find cheaper alternatives that work well, but the feature-packed machine does have some seriously handy stuff built in.

Pricing and where to buy

Hatch Rest Pricing is pretty simple, if not super cheap:

$59.99 for the Rest

$89.99 for the Rest Plus

$11.99 for a set of 3 ‘coverlets’ to decorate your Rest or Rest Plus.

The mobile app is free to use and there are no subscriptions.

Hatch Rest and Rest Plus are available on the company’s website.

Or, if you’re a Prime member and want it fast, you can get the Rest here on Amazon, or splurge on the Rest Plus here on Amazon. You can add a set of 3 ‘coverlets’ here on Amazon.

Hatch Rest+ FAQs

Does the Hatch Rest use batteries? It depends on the model; the Hatch Rest does not have a battery backup option—it’s plug power or nothing. Upgrading to the Rest Plus gets you a battery backup that lasts for a few hours.

Can you play your own music on Hatch Rest/+? Nope, not currently. You can only use pre-recorded white noise options and lullabies. But, an app-based product like this does leave the possibility open in the future if the company decides to go that way.

Does Hatch Rest work with Alexa? Again here, depends on the model; Rest does not, Rest Plus does. Fun fact: Amazon actually invested in Hatch Co, presumably to add more devices with Alexa skills to its arsenal.

How do you connect to the Hatch Baby? Via iOS or Android smartphone app, or with controls located right on the device.

Is this the same Hatch Company I saw on Shark Tank? Sure is. Co-founder Ann Crady Weiss got a deal with Shark Chris Sacca back in 2016, even after being turned down by all 5 Sharks, typically the kiss of death. More here.

Here’s a quick video of me walking through setting up and using the Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced, and sharing some thoughts on the experience:

Ok, let’s dive in further. Since Calvin’s adopted and formula-fed, the two months I spent reviewing the Formula Pro Advanced added up to a lot of bottle making and heavy use of the machine. After all of that use, I’ve distilled down my thoughts into this Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced review and included the awesome, the wish it were different, some tips on setup and use, and a verdict. For this review, we’ll cover (click a link to jump ahead to that section):

• What is the Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced?
• Initial setup
• Using the Formula Pro Advanced
• Maintenance
• Our review of the Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced – the awesome, wish it were different, and a verdict.

What is the Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced?

In short, the Baby Brezza Formula Pro makes bottles of formula. But that’s a simplification. The best way we’ve found to really capture what it does is a cross between a Keurig machine and a high-end coffee maker. You don’t use pods, but rather dump powdered formula (you can use nearly any brand you like) into the top of the Formula Pro Advanced, add water to the Brezza’s water tank, and push a button. When you do this, the Formula Pro Advanced will mix the formula with the warm water in the tank (it heats water to approximately 98 degrees and holds it at that temperature until you’re ready to make a bottle) to create a perfectly mixed and heated bottle, all in less than 20 seconds.

The Formula Pro Advanced holds 700 grams of formula and 50 ounces of water – enough for 9 six-ounce bottles before you need to replace the water, and about 25 six-ounce bottles before you need to add more formula. The water tank in the Formula Pro Advanced holds water at a constant temperature at all times, meaning it’s ready to go at the push of the button and you won’t need to wait for the water to heat up, which is how the unit is able to achieve such a fast time to finished bottle.

Initial Setup

The original Formula Pro was a beast of a machine. It had a relatively large footprint and came with 13 removable parts in addition to the main unit. The Formula Pro Advanced is slightly smaller, and really cuts down on the removable parts that need cleaning. In the original Formula Pro, there were 7 removable parts in the formula container, in the Advanced version, this has been reduced to just 3. All of these parts come disassembled (Baby Brezza recommends you sterilize all parts before initial use), which can seem a bit intimidating at first, but in practice, we found it was relatively straightforward and quick to assemble – it took about 30 minutes including the initial washing and drying of parts to sterilize them. The instruction booklet was clear and included pictures as a visual guide.

Another big upgrade with the Formula Pro Advanced is that whereas with the original, you had to manually set the number that corresponds to your formula of choices, with the Advanced, you can set this on the digital display and change it anytime. You still have to figure out the right number for your brand, which involves going to a page on the company’s site that’s a bit hard to find (here’s a direct link to it), and then set the display to the number that corresponds to the formula you’re using.

In the end, especially after using the Formula Pro Advanced a few times and discovering just how fast and easy it was compared to other methods of making a bottle, the initial setup was well worth the half-hour time investment.

How to use the Formula Pro Advanced

Since the Formula Pro Advanced stores formula and water and holds the water at the temperature you want, using it is incredibly simple. Assuming you have enough water and formula (there are clearly marked lines on each holding tank that indicate the need to refill), you’ll just put a bottle under the spout, select the size bottle you want to make (options are anything from 2 to 10 ounces, in one ounce increments (another upgrade from the original, which only did 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 oz), hit the start button, and you’re off to the races. The Formula Pro Advanced is designed to work with nearly any baby bottle and handled the big Dr. Brown’s bottle we used quite easily. It even has an adjustable bottle holder that moves up and down depending on bottle height to prevent splashing.

Pushing start on the Formula Pro causes it to start turning all those wheels you put together in the initial setup process and, by some mysterious means, mix the formula and the warm water together, and then funnel the completed formula into the bottle via the spout. Since you’ve set your size, the Formula Pro Advanced will automatically stop once it has produced the correct amount of formula. The length of this process depends on the size of bottle you’re making, but all are pretty darn fast – 14 seconds for 2oz, 30 seconds for 10oz.

You can actually make a bottle with water that isn’t fully heated, which was useful when a couple of times I realized the water tank was empty, and when I had a hungry baby in the middle of the night it was better to have a bottle of cooler water than wait for the water to heat up.

Design

The Formula Pro Advanced moves the water tank from the side, where it was located on the original, to the back, where it’s out of the way and creates a slimmer profile and sleeker look and feel. To allow for easy access to the tank for refills and cleaning, the Advanced has a small set of wheels on the bottom that allow for easy rotating.

Cleaning and Maintenance

The Formula Pro Advanced cleaning and maintenance does require a bit of work here and there, which falls into three categories – adding more formula and water as needed, cleaning you should do after several uses, and monthly sterilization.

Adding more formula and water

Every 20-50 or so bottles you make, depending on the current size of bottle you’re using, you’ll need to add more formula. This process was incredibly simple – just remove the lid and dump in a bag or scoop formula out of a container.

Slightly more frequently – every 6-25 bottles depending on size – you’ll need to add more water. The water tank is detachable so you can add water directly by placing it under the tap or your filtered water source, but Baby Brezza makes a huge deal about not getting any water underneath the tank, so I worried about using this process. Instead, I ended up using a big water bottle to pour water into the tank while it was attached to the unit.

More frequent maintenance

According to Baby Brezza, you’ll want to clean the funnel piece after every fourth use to remove any formula buildup. This piece is easily removable, so this is quick, and the Advanced has an indicator on the digital display to remind you when it’s time to do this.

(Note that the Formula Pro Advanced forces you to “clean” the funnel, but in practice, you can simply pull it out and put it back in again.)

One place I did notice gunky formula buildup more frequently than Baby Brezza suggested was on the bottom of the formula canister where the water mixes with the formula. I ended up cleaning this after every 5 or so uses. The times I forgot and waited longer than that resulted in some very crusty buildup that required some scraping to remove. I used a fork for this and found it weirdly satisfying to do.

Once per month sterilization

Once per month Baby Brezza recommends you fully disassemble the unit and sterilize the water tank, formula tank, and individual funnel and mixing components of the unit. This process took about 20 minutes to disassemble, wash, and reassemble, not including drying time (make sure all of the pieces are completely dry before you reassemble to prevent wet pieces from collecting formula powder.

Baby Brezza recommends cleaning the formula canister and mixing pieces and the funnel by hand using warm water and gentle soap, but the water tank is dishwasher-safe.

My Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced review

Overall, the Formula Pro is super easy to use. The convenience of just pressing a button and having a ready-to-go bottle was incredibly awesome, especially when compared to alternative methods of making formula bottles. Again, since Calvin is adopted and breastfeeding isn’t an option, we made a lot of bottles at our house. Having used the “hold it under the faucet” and bottle warmer methods with my older son, I know just how painful these can be, especially in the middle of the night. There’s not much worse than waiting and waiting for a bottle to be warm when you’ve got a hungry, crying kid. Beyond the time, the prospect of measuring formula and trying not to spill in the middle of the night and having to turn on bright lights to do so is worth noting too.

The awesome

• Speed. 30 seconds or less from start to finish is darn fast, especially when compared to alternatives.
• Convenience. Again, compared to alternative methods, the Formula Pro is easy and never makes a mess or wastes water.
• Design & aesthetics. The Formula Pro Advanced is a good looking machine and one we didn’t mind having on our kitchen counter. But, more importantly, I felt the design was well thought out to make it easy to use, keep it clean, decrease the likelihood of spills, and work well with bottles we already had.

The ‘wish it were different’

• Water tank size. At 50oz, the water tank needed refilling after just 9 six-ounce or 6 eight-ounce bottles. This added some time to that ’30 seconds or less’ number and resulted in a few times when I forgot to fill it up and had to do so in the middle of the night. Obviously, the company was thinking about the size of the unit here, and a bigger tank would have meant more counter space.
• Not a lot of detail on inner-workings. I realize this won’t apply to everybody, but I felt like the ‘how it works’ behind the Formula Pro was a bit lacking. I wanted to understand more about how the thing actually created the bottles, where the mixing happened, etc., but this was lacking from the documentation that came with it, and perhaps caused the issue where I didn’t realize I needed to clean the underside of the formula compartment more frequently.

A verdict

I’d struggle to say the Formula Pro Advanced is a ‘must have’ – you can certainly make bottles of formula without it.  But, especially if you’re a formula family and are going to be making a lot of bottles over a long time period, it’s just awesome and about as close as I’ve found to a must-have baby product. And, at around $199, it’s reasonably priced for what it does and if you’re going to be using it for a long time, or perhaps across multiple kids, you can amortize that cost over a ton of bottles made.

The Formula Pro Advanced also ended up saving me an incredible amount of time, which as any parent knows is something that is in short supply and worth a whole lot. For these reasons (and all of the middle-of-the-night heartache the thing saved me, I strongly recommend it. Based on our review, we’ve added the Formula Pro Advanced to our highly-selective baby must-haves list, which details items we think are at the top of the heap, and can make life with your newborn a whole lot easier.

Formula Pro Advanced FAQs

Cleaning the Formula Pro Advanced

To Clean the Formula Pro Advanced, you remove the funnel every 4 cleanings and gently wash it by hand with warm, soapy water. Less frequently, clean the formula canister and 3 mixing parts by hand, and monthly, clean the water tank, which is dishwasher-safe.

Formula Pro Advanced Powder Settings

The Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced uses powder settings to ensure formulas that have different-sized powder grains to mix properly with heated water. Formula Pro Advanced works with around 20 major formula brands in the U.S., you can find a full list here.

Baby Brezza Formula Pro vs Advanced

With the Formula Pro Advanced, Baby Brezza made a number of upgrades vs the original Formula Pro: the number of pieces that needs cleaning is reduced, the unit is smaller, there’s now a digital display to choose settings and make bottles, and you can now make bottles in one ounce size increments instead of only even-numbered sizes vs the original.

How long does it take for the Baby Brezza to heat up?

The Baby Brezza Formula Pro Advanced actually stores water heated in order to allow you to heat bottles more quickly. So, the total time to make a bottle is less than 30 seconds (it varies based on bottle size). If your Formula Pro Advanced tank is empty and you need to add cold water, you’ll need to allow a few more minutes to allow water to heat up.

Do you need to boil water for Baby Brezza?

Baby Brezza does recommend you use filtered water for the Formula Pro Advanced—in addition to possible health reasons for this, filtered water can prevent buildup in the parts of your Formula Pro. Boiling isn’t likely to help with either of these if you’re living in a place that has safe drinking water as it’s not going to remove the elements that make up ‘hard’ water or other things your city may have added like fluoride.

Where to buy

The Formula Pro is available at Buy Buy Baby, Babies ‘r Us, big box stores like Target & Walmart, and for all you Prime members out there, available through Amazon with free, fast shipping.

The Formula Pro Advanced also comes in Silver and (because what doesn’t these days) Rose Gold

Editor’s Notes:

1. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. You can learn more about our policies regarding affiliate links here.
2. This review was originally published in 2018 as a review of the Formula Pro Original, but was extensively updated to focus on the Advanced and republished in January 2020.

The company advertises that the Babycook can replace your steaming pot setup, blender/food processor, and a potato masher. [Quick note – we’ve never even heard of a potato masher, much less do we own one.] We’d add a microwave to this list as the defrosting component of the Babycook might reduce your reliance on that, which, depending on who you talk to, might increase the nutritional value of your baby’s food.

In this Babycook review (we tested the Beaba Babycook – the newer model), we break down how the Babycook works, how to use and maintain it, and then dive into our review – the awesome, the wish it were different, and the verdict.

If you’re a visual learner, John gives you the highlights in this video:

How the Beaba Babycook works

The Babycook takes the “all-in-one” concept pretty seriously when it comes to making homemade baby food – it really does do everything you need (with the notable exception of washing, peeling, and chopping up vegetables – that part is still on you). It’s also quite simple, which is mostly a good thing (more on that later.)

What’s in the box?

The Babycook is comprised of a base unit, the bowl (with a built-in blade for blending), the steaming and reheating basket, a spatula, a bowl lid, and a recipe booklet.

Using the Babycook

To start, you assemble the Babycook, which is really a matter of snapping together a few things – it basically comes pre-assembled. The company recommends you sterilize the unit first, which is accomplished by running it through a few steam cycles, sans food, which heats everything up hot enough to sterilize.

Once your unit is assembled and sterilized, it’s time to get to work. To start, add water to the bottom of the base unit, according to the company’s guide. Somewhat weirdly, they refer to water amounts as “doses”. You add one dose for softer vegetables, 3 doses for harder vegetables like carrots and butternut squash, and two for those vegetables that can’t quite decide what they want to be.

Next, add your vegetables, rough-cut into cubes, put the lid on the steaming bowl, and press the steam button. The Babycook will heat up to the point where the water vaporizes and cooks your vegetables [note – we keep saying vegetables – you can cook fish or meat too, but we’ve been a bit weirded out by this and haven’t tried it yet.] This steaming process takes either 5, 10, or 15 minutes, depending on the number of water doses you added. You can stop the steam a bit early if you want to change the texture and water content of the food you’re making.

Once steaming is done, which is indicated by a small light flashing on the Babycook’s main button, you use the spatula included with the Babycook to lift the steaming basket out of the unit and dump the food you’ve steamed back into the bowl of the Babycook. Since the bowl already has the blending blades in it, from there it’s a matter of turning on the blending function to puree your baby food. In a few seconds, you’ve got (piping hot) homemade baby food. It’s important to note it took some time for the food to cool down to a safe temperature.

Cleaning & Maintenance

Cleaning and maintaining the Babycook is pretty simple – the main parts you’ll need to wash are the blending bowl, the steaming basket, the lid, and the spatula. All disassemble easily for hand washing. The company also recommends monthly sterilization through the same process noted above for new units.

John’s Beaba Babycook review

I bought a Babycook to review when my son Calvin was about 6 months old and we were beginning to introduce solids. As of the time of this writing, I’ve been using the Babycook for about 2 months, and have made about 10 different batches of baby food from various vegetables.

Overall

First thing’s first here – the Babycook isn’t going to turn you into a superstar chef for your baby if you aren’t into cooking. While the Babycook does add some convenience to the process of making your own baby food, you’ve still got to do all of the prep work the old-fashioned way. You’ve still got to put the food into containers, freeze what you aren’t going to use in the near future, and you’ve still got to procure the high-quality food you’ll need as a starting point to high-quality baby food. And all of that is work and takes time that many parents don’t feel they have.

That said, if you are into the concept of making your own baby food, the Beaba is a slick tool to have around – while it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, it performs the key functions of making your own baby food extremely well.

And, if you really like the idea of making food for your baby, it might be worth a shot – I found myself getting more into it as I used the Babycook more, and could see it becoming a thing for me.

The Awesome

• 3 in 1 design. The Babycook really can replace the functions of a steaming setup, a blender, and a microwave or other tool for re-heating. Combining these functions into one tool, and doing all 3 well, is impressive. I also liked replacing the microwave as we tend to try and minimize microwave use at our house.
• Easy cleaning. Speaking of separate tools, if like most of us you’ve used and cleaned a stovetop steaming setup and blender, you know they can be a pain in the ass to clean. The Babycook was surprisingly easy to clean in comparison.
• Compact design. The Babycook took up counter space of about two pineapples. In our relatively small kitchen, this was nice, and meant we could just leave it on the counter for easy access.
• Ease of use. The Babycook comes basically pre-assembled, is intuitive to use, and is spartanly simple, which makes using it quite easy. Little touches like the spatula holder on the side of the unit prevented me from what would have undoubtedly happened otherwise, which is putting the spatula in some random kitchen drawer and having to hunt for it.

The wish it were different

• No indicator for the cook time remaining. The Babycook doesn’t have a screen or readout of any kind, so it doesn’t indicate how much time is remaining in your steam. There were a few times when I wished there was an indication of this.
• Water reservoir isn’t transparent. You pour water for steaming into a small hole in the bottom of the base unit, and don’t see where it goes. So, it’s nearly impossible to tell if there’s any water in the unit. One time when using the Babycook, I got distracted for a bit, forgot I’d added water, added some more, and ended up with water all over the counter.

Our verdict

While the Babycook didn’t feel essential enough to get added to our Tools of the Modern Father list – there are enough high-quality pre-made baby food packets these days that you can give your kid high-quality food that way – if you’re into making baby food at home, or want to give your kid organic, fresh baby food without the cost of pre-made options that do this, the Babycook is an excellent option that really does make the process of making baby food at home easier, and replaces reheating and defrosting options that might be less healthy (looking at you, microwave.)

So, there you have it. Questions about the Babycook we didn’t cover? We’d love to hear from you – paul[at]fathercraft.com

Looking for more reviews and information on products for your child? Check out our other product reviews or our essential list of gear for babies 0-6 months old.