You’ll need a booster seat for when your child has outgrown your car seat but are still too small for the adult car seat. Here are the best booster seats available right now in Australia.
The Best Booster Seats Australia 2020
- Nuna Aace Booster Seat
- Britax Kid Guard Booster Seat
- Infasecure Aspire Premium Booster Seat
- Maxi-Cosi Titan Pro
- Infasecure Visage Astra
- Mother’s Choice Prime AP
- Britax Maxi Guard PRO
- Infasecure Grandeur Caprice
- Maxi-Cosi Luna Pro
>> Want to see the complete range of booster seats? Check this out.
The Best Untethered Booster Seats in Australia
1. Nuna Aace Booster Seat
Key features
- 4 – 8 years
- 62-83.8 H x 50-55.8 W x 40-40.6 D cm
- 6.75kg weight
- 5.0 star safety rating
The only booster seat to score 5.0 stars under the new 2018 CREP testing critiera, the Nuna Aace is a well made premium booster seat from the Dutch company, Nuna. Side impact protection, Nuna’s ‘3D growth’ expandable system and comfortable knit fabric round out what is a quality seat. The only catch is the price, but you can’t beat the safety features and rating this seat achieves. A great booster seat.
2. Britax Kid Guard Booster Seat
Key features
- 4 – 10 years
- 75-88 H x 47-57 W x 38-44.5 D cm
- 7.25kg weight
The Britax Safe-n-Sound Kid Guard is the booster seat for tall children. Extending up to 88cm high, it is also the only booster seat in the market that is officially rated up to 10 years of age. It also has Active Head Restraint head protection to keep your child’s head protected.
While this seat hasn’t yet been tested, its predecessor the Britax Kid Guard PRO scored 4.7 stars for safety (and a handy 4.4 stars for ease of use too).
3. Infasecure Aspire Premium Booster Seat
Key features
- 4 – 8 years
- 73.5-83.5 H x 44 W x 36.5 D cm
- 5.0kg weight
- 4.5 star safety rating
Want a booster seat that will grow with your child for a long time? The Infasecure Aspire Premium has the highest top height marker of any booster seat, at 57cm. Plus, it is has Infasecure’s Secur-air and Air Cocoon Technology head and side impact protection as well as premium Bamboo Fabric to make sure your tot is both safe and comfortable in their car seat.
The Best Convertible Booster Seats in Australia
4. Maxi-Cosi Titan Pro
Key features
- 6mo – 8 years
- 68 H x 48 W x 53.5 D cm
- 7.5kg weight
The Maxi-Cosi Titan Pro is loaded with the latest protective features from Maxi-Cosi: G-Cell side protection & Air Protect head protection make its way into this new convertible booster seat. The booster is also trimmed with the Cool baby wicking fabric to keep your baby comfortable. You do pay up for it but it is the best convertible booster seat in its class.
5. Infasecure Visage Astra
Key features
- 6mo – 8 years
- 76-86 H x 44 W x 41 D cm
- 7.0kg weight
- 3.5 star safety rating
The Infasecure Visage Astra is the convertible booster seat to get if you have tall children. The headrest is extendable upwards to make the top marker reach a whopping 57cm high, which is best in class. Even better, it is only 44cm wide making it narrow enough to squeeze in smaller cars.
6. Mother's Choice Prime AP
Key features
- 6mo – 8 years
- 77-85 H x 45 W x 40 D cm
- 5.8kg weight
- 4.7 star safety rating
The Mother’s Choice Prime AP is Mother’s Choice’s top of the line convertible booster seat. Only available at Baby Bunting, it features AirProtect side impact head protection and an adjustable headrest. It also features cup holders which are always welcome by thirsty rear seat travellers.
The Best Harnessed Car Seats in Australia
7. Britax Maxi Guard Pro
Key features
- 6mo – 8 years forward facing harnessed
- 68-86.5 H x 46 W x 50.5 D cm
- 8.6kg weight
- 1.9 star safety rating
The Britax Maxi Guard PRO is the best 6mo-8yr harnessed car seat available today. Not only does it have the safety benefit of keeping your child harnessed for longer, it is also loaded with Britax’s top safety features: Dual SICT side protection, Active Headrest protection, no rethread harness (meaning you don’t need to remove the seat to adjust the harness height) and the comfort features of Thermo 5 bamboo fabric. The PRO+ adds memory foam for quite a few extra beans but the regular PRO is the one to go for.
8. Infasecure Grandeur Caprice
Key features
- 0 – 30mo rear facing, 6mo – 8 years forward facing harnessed
- 73-88 H x 44 W x 50 D cm
- 11kg weight
- 2.6 star safety rating
Looking for the one car seat to take your bub all the way from birth to car seat graduation? The Infasecure Grandeur Caprice does just that. From newborn, the seat can be placed in rearward facing mode until about 30 months old, then turned around and used to 8 years old.
As a bonus, it is quite narrow and suitable for trying to squeeze three seats in the rear, but it is quite deep in rearward facing mode so if you don’t have a larger/longer car, the front passenger might be sitting with limited legroom.
The Infasecure Grandeur Caprice is the same basic seat as the other Grandeurs, the Emperor, Achieve, Cadence and Titanium. The only differences are the trim and in some cases safety features.
9. Maxi-Cosi Luna Pro
Key features
- 6mo – 8 years
- 73 H x 47.5 W x 47 D cm
- 10.5kg weight
- 1.7 star safety rating
Maxi-Cosi joined the harnessed car seat club with the Luna, and the Maxi-Cosi Luna Pro is the best one they have. With Air Protect and Cool baby wicking fabric it is a safe and comfortable car seat for your toddler. With the Pro version, Maxi-Cosi offer a chin support built into the headrest to help your little one’s head from flopping when they nod off. Neat!
What types of booster seats are there?
There are actually a few different types of car seats that are booster seats. They vary on the types of restraints they have which ultimately suit children of different ages.
Untethered booster seats (Types E & F)
The regular booster seat is a booster seat which helps your child be raised up in the car seat so that the seat belt fits properly. While there may be some additional impact protection provided by the booster seat, these seats are not tethered to the car. They also don’t provide additional harnessing for your child while they are seated – they solely use the car’s seat belt.
Booster seats are only permitted to be installed for children of about 4 years and older, up to 8 – 10 years of age after which they are generally large enough to sit in a regular seat.
Typically these are the most affordable of seating options and depending on features, prices vary from ~$70 to $400.
Convertible booster seats (Type B/E)
The convertible booster seat is a seat that can be used as a forward-facing harnessed car seat initially, from approximately 6 months of age. The seat then converts from a harnessed car seat to a booster seat at around age 4, and is then used as a booster seat from 4 to about 8.
The benefit of this is that you can potentially use this seat all the way from about 6 months of age until your child is ready to graduate to the adult car seats.
The downside is that when it comes to safety, the best practice is to have your child rearward facing, up to 2-3 years if possible, while these seats can only hold your baby in forward facing harnessed mode.
These seats vary in price from ~$160 to $450, also depending on brand and features.
What about 0-8 convertible booster seats? (Type A2/B/E)
Unique to Infasecure, the Luxi II (and Everest and Gold Quantum) also allow rearward facing from 0-12 months, then forward facing to about 4 years and use booster mode after that. So theoretically, you only need to buy one seat to fit your child all the way through.
This does seem like the perfect option, they aren’t cheap (~$400-$550) and there are better options out there such as 0-8 convertible car seats and the new Type G harnessed car seats.
Harnessed car seats (Type A4/G and Type G)
A relatively recent addition to the market, harnessed car seats allow your child to be harnessed all the way through to 8 years old or so. In comparison to untethered booster seats, this is believed to be a safer way for your child to be in the car seat.
Harnessed car seats can generally be used once your child is large enough to be forward facing in the car seat, which is normally from about 6 months of age, though recommended best practice is to remain rearward facing until about 2-3 years old (in a different rearward facing seat).
Also unique to Infasecure is the Grandeur/Achieve/Cadence/Emperor/Titanium range of car seats which allow your child to be in rearward facing from birth up to 2-3 years old. The seat can then be flipped to forward facing mode for your child to be harnessed all the way to 8 years old. These seats are a potential one seat fits all seat.
Want to find out more about this types of seat? We’ve got a whole article on harnessed car seats.
>>Check these articles out too:
Still not sure what to get? Our interactive car seat selector might help you…
Looking to upgrade to a booster seat or want to know a bit more? Comment below!
