Best High Chair: Mockingbird High Chair vs Stokke vs Ergobaby

If you're looking for the best high chair currently on the market, the Mockingbird wins by a landslide thanks to its moderate price, small footprint, and ease of cleaning. But if you're still curious how it stacks up to other top competitors, we'll do a deep dive on it compared to the Stokke Steps, Stokke Tripp Trapp, and Ergobaby high chair in this post and video review.

NOTE: I was gifted all of the high chairs shown in this post – minus the Stokke Steps – I was *not* required to write a review for any of them. I evaluate and test thousands of kids products and only honestly share about what makes sense.

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RELATED READ: Mockingbird High Chair Review: Worth It?

Mockingbird vs Stokke Steps high chair

Visually the Mockingbird is the most similar to the Stokke Steps high chair.

Historically, I've recommended the Stokke Steps or Stokke Nomi to those wanting a Stokke brand high chair. However, given the price difference and minimal differences between the Steps and Mockingbird, I'm going to suggest the Mockingbird from here on out.

Let's take a deeper look:

As you can see, for nearly $200 less you can get a high chair with the a smaller footprint, same style footrest adjustment, and an easier to clean safety strap system.

The major difference here is that the Steps moves the backrest back and forth, while the Mockingbird adjusts the tray back and forth.

In doing this, the Steps *may* provide better posture support for early eaters, however that's a short lived problem that many feeding experts, like Feeding Littles, recommend just rolling a hand towel at the base of the babies back to offer more support, as long as their feet can firmly plant on a foot rest, if you run into an issue.

Whereas the tray adjustments I think are easier for parents navigating little ones in and out as baby gets bigger – which will be the longer term, persistent problem you'll ultimately want to solve.

Lastly the Steps offers an adjustment where you can purchase a baby bouncer to fit in it, but I don't see many families using this. Personally, one of my favorite parts of baby bouncers are bringing them to the beach, outside, or bouncing baby while I watch TV, so this is kind of silly in my opinion having them so high up.

Stokke Tripp Trapp vs Mockingbird High Chair

While the Mockingbird is more similar to the Stokke Steps, their Tripp Trapp has been considered the best high chair on the market for years. As a first time mom, it's what I got… only to quickly hate it.

Assembly takes forever, you need tools to do any adjustment, and all those screws means loads of crevices for food to get gunked up in.

But honestly the worst part was the high chair tray and seat itself. I find the seat opening was too tiny once my baby got a little bigger and the tray features a lattice criss cross design that was impossible to keep clean.

While I've spoken – and ranted – to many moms the general consensus is the same:

The Tripp Trapp has been around forever and is a solid piece of baby gear.

If it's gifted to you, great! Many European families hand this heirloom baby furniture down from child to child for generations. However with modern times has come easier to clean designs that have only highlight many moms headaches with this chair if buying one new for yourself.

Like I said, the Tripp Trapp assembly time is longer, I ended up using my power drill to speed it along and make adjustments quicker over the years we used it.

While the Mockingbird takes about 10 minutes to set up and requires no tools for future adjustments.

Moms have also agreed with me that once baby gets bigger – but is still under that 3 year old range to convert to the regular chair with the Tripp Trapp – the opening is too small to get baby in and out comfortably. Seriously, wrestling a 2 year old in and out of this is a headache!

The Mockingbird's tray is totally smooth on the top and bottom, with a well fitted tray liner that's dishwasher safe for even easier cleans. Suction toddler plates also stick to it with ease. The Tripp Trapp has a difficult to clean tray, no liner, and suction plates do not stick well to it.

The Tripp Trapp features nylon straps which need to be machine washed, while the Mockingbird uses a one-of-a-kind silicone coating you can wipe clean with ease or toss in the dishwasher for messier meals. 

Now the one noteworthy thing here regarding footprint:

The Mockingbird boasts the smallest footprint of any high chair currently on the market thanks to its narrow width; not the depth.

The Tripp Trapp, with it's foot extenders, actually comes in about a 1/2 in less than the Mockingbird.

Basically, if you're an adult under 150 lbs, you won't be sitting in the Mockingbird as comfortable as the Tripp Trapp.

But if you want to squeeze an extra see at the table, then Mocking wins.

Tripp Trapp pricing comes in at ~$380 to $420 with free shipping and but you’ll have to pay for returns and there are a lot of little nuances to their policy. While the Mockingbird is just $225 with free shipping and a 30-day home trial with free returns. 

Overall, I’d say it’s no comparison, skip the Tripp Trapp and get the Steps or Mockingbird.

Mockingbird vs Ergobaby high chair

I'm including this comparison here just because I've done an in-depth review on the Ergobaby high chair to toddler tower system and they have some visual similarities and people have asked follow up questions over the years I think this comparison will help answer.

In my Ergobaby high chair review, I made is abundantly clear the footprint on this thing is LARGE. Easily one of the biggest on the market due to the fact it doubles as a kitchen helper. Also due to the toddler tower feature, sliding it around isn't easy as it features safety grips on the feet. So if you need something small or that slides around easily skip this.

With that said, I do still love this high chair if you're looking for an option more geared towards the toddler years and less for new eaters.

The bucket to get baby in an out is big and easy. Montessori families will love that toddlers can even climb in and out freely as the T bar is affixed to the tray, not the chair. And if you're a family who doesn't use a high chair tray you'll be happy to know the safety harness can still be used without the T-bar on the tray.

Toddlers inevitably protest their high chair at some point so the toddler tower option for standing meals at the kitchen counter is also a saving grace at some point in my experience.

The Ergobaby has a tray liner that works well for suction plates or bowls, or to use as a plate itself for easier clean ups (it's base tray doesn't suction as well).

Assembly is easy and clean up is relatively easy too – though the Mockingbird is just as easy to clean, with even easier to clean straps and probably has it beat by a hair on assembly.

I'd say my biggest complaint with the Ergobaby after having it for about a year now is that it has SO many pieces. It's kind of cumbersome to store the highchair seat and chair backing as they're odd shapes. Thus the Mockingbird really has it beat with the streamlined design.

Ultimately, if you want to budget hack to get a high chair and kitchen helper in the most cost effective manner and have the space to store the pieces/footprint of the system itself, Ergobaby wins. If you want the most montessori high chair, Ergobaby wins.

If you don't care about the toddler tower, then Mockingbird.

If you're prioritizing the best posture for early eaters and beyond, smallest footprint, and truly the easiest clean, Mockingbird.

Final Thoughts

While I think the best high chair is the Mockingbird for most families, each high chair does something really well:

• Best High Chair For Montessori Families: Ergobaby
• Most customizable high chair: Stokke Tripp Trapp
• Most Ergonomic: Stokke Nomi
• Solid pick: Stokke Steps

As far as early eating days posture wise, that would go to the Steps, Nomi, or Mockingbird are all great. I know everyone says the Stokke Tripp Trapp for this, but I find most families don't use the harness because it's so hard, which ultimately compromises the posture.

If you're still unsure, read my Mockingbird High Chair Review for a deeper dive on it's features, as I only touched on some in this post!