Bugaboo Butterfly vs Joolz Aer Stroller Comparison

Out of the 20 lightweight strollers we purchased and tested the Bugaboo Butterfly and Jooz Aer+ are two of our favorite compact strollers and both make excellent travel strollers.

The Joolz is lighter and a tad smaller when folded. The Bugaboo has some small advantages in ease of use and kid comfort which we’ll show you in detail below.

First, we’ll look at some of the negative feedback for each stroller.

Common Complaints vs Our Experience: Bugaboo Butterfly

We’ve read and cataloged all the common criticisms of the Butterfly and written a response to that criticism from our own experience.

These are the first few. To see the full list and our complete review, visit: Bugaboo Butterfly Stroller Review.

Criticism	Our Experience
Collapsing and opening is awkward	Having become proficient at folding all 20 strollers we can confidently say that the Butterfly is among the easiest to fold and unfold.
Hard to find the carry strap	Agree. There is a shoulder strap for carrying the stroller when folded, but we have to search for it each time we want to use it.
There are two buttons to press to fold the stroller	Correct. Most of the tri-fold strollers including this one have a release button or slide that must be held while the main fold button is pressed. The Butterfly’s buttons are intuitive.
Leg rest requires two hands to raise	Yes, there are buttons on each side that have to be pressed at the same time to adjust the leg rest.
Stroller doesn’t fold compactly	There are a few strollers that are smaller when folded than the Butterfly, including the Joolz Aer+, but at 2 cubic feet, the Butterfly is more compact than most strollers.

Common Complaints vs Our Experience: Joolz Aer+

The Joolz Aer+ also has a few complaints, a few of which we’ve listed here and responded to. To see the full list see our: Joolz Aer+ Stroller Review.

Criticism	Our Experience
Basket too small	The Joolz storage basket is on the small end of the spectrum at .49 cubic feet.
Leather peels	The handlebar is made from soft faux leather. We haven’t had any problem with it coming off.
Too bulky to travel with	Disagree. This stroller folds down to less than 2 cubic feet and will fit in many airlines’ overhead bins (not all). It is also very light at 13.4 lbs.
No longer stays folded	Ours stays folded but we’ve noticed that sometimes the latch that keeps it closed doesn’t engage without a push.
Folding mechanism breaks	This hasn’t happened to us.

How We Researched and Tested

We ran these strollers through 100+ controlled tests and measurements and our team used them with their own kids and grandkids. We scored them in the following categories:

• Weight and folded size
• Kid comfort
• Ease of use
• Folding
• Steering and maneuverability
• Quality

Related Reading: The Best of All 20 Lightweight Strollers

Value

Generally, the better-performing strollers are also a bit more expensive.

Weight and Folded Size

The Butterfly is on the higher end of the weight class we evaluated and is 2.7 lbs heavier than the Joolz Aer+. Both strollers are quite small when folded. Here are the lightweight and umbrella strollers we tested:

These strollers are very similar in size when folded. Carry-on bag size requirements are different for each airline. US domestic airlines often use 22 x 14 x 9 inches as a maximum size.

	Folded Dimensions
Bugaboo Butterfly	21.5 x 17.7 x 9 inches
Joolz Aer+	21 x 17.7 x 8.5 inches

Parent Ease of Use

The Butterfly underseat basket is quite large for a lightweight stroller at .75 cubic feet. It holds up to 18 lbs and as you can see below it is wider than the Aer+ basket. The Aer+ handles up to 11 lbs and is .47 cubic feet.

The baskets are accessible from the front and the Butterfly has a larger opening. We noticed that when we have the Butterfly basket full we can’t raise the leg rest, so that needs to be done first.

The Joolz has a thin pocket that is useful for small items like a phone and keys. I found it hard to reach and wished it was located closer to the handle. The Bugaboo stroller doesn’t have any additional compartments.

Both of these strollers have faux leather handles that feel soft and look stylish. The Joolz Aer+ handlebar is 40 inches, which is an inch higher off the ground than the Butterfly’s handle.

The Joolz handle feels slightly more rigid than the Bugaboo’s. The Bugaboo doesn’t feel flimsy but as in most strollers, there is a little bit of give in the hinge areas where the frame bends to fold.

It took us only 3 minutes each to unbox and assemble these strollers. We didn’t care for either of the user manuals but fortunately, neither stroller is difficult to operate or set up.

They both have peekaboo windows in the canopy. And the windows are only visible by unzipping and extending the canopies. The Bugaboo window is large and allows for quite a bit of airflow. The Joolz window is wide and narrow, and almost too small.

Where are the parent cup holders? Neither stroller has one.

The Joolz Aer+ buckle is more annoying than the Butterfly’s because the hip and shoulder clips have to be placed into the buckle separately. The Butterfly’s clips can be connected so that only two insertions need to be made.

The Butterfly also makes harness strap adjustment easier than the Aer+.

However, when it comes to the parking brake, we prefer the Joolz. It is comfortable to engage and disengage even with bare feet. It works consistently every time. The Butterfly brake was also pretty comfortable but slightly less reliable in that the brake doesn’t click in and set every time we push the pedal.

Both strollers have a single pedal that operates both rear wheels.

The seats of both of these strollers recline. The Butterfly has the advantage on the seat recline mechanism. It is a fast, one-hand operation for both raising and lowering the seat.

The Aer+ has a zipper that goes all the way around the back of the seat. Once unzipped some adjustment can be made to the seat recline position with straps and clips.

The Butterfly has an infant car seat adapter that can be purchased separately. It is compatible with certain Nuna, Clek, Cybex, Kiddy Evolution, and Maxi-Cosi infant car seats and with the Bugaboo Turtle Air and Turtle One car seats. The Joolz Aer+ also has a car seat adapter as a separate purchase and is compatible with the

• Clek: Liingo, Liing
• Nuna Pipa: Pipa, Pipa Lite, Pipa Lite R, Pipa Lite LX
• Cybex; Aton2, Cloud Q, Aton M

The Joolz Aer+ includes a rain cover and travel bag.

Many other accessories like bumper bars, footmuffs, organizers, cup holders and footboards can be purchased separately. A bassinet is available for the Joolz Aer+.

Steering and Maneuverability

The Joolz Aer+ performed as well or better than all other strollers in our basic steering test on reasonably flat surfaces with small bumps. It feels very responsive turning even when the stroller is completely loaded down.

The Bugaboo Butterfly is also decent at basic steering but not quite as easy as the Joolz.

Neither stroller performs well on bumpy terrain or sidewalks with lots of cracks.

The Joolz required 13 kg of downward force on the handlebar to jump a curb. The Butterfly took 11 kg of force.

Both the Aer+ and Butterfly tend to stay straight when pushing with minimal pulling to one side or the other, although the Butterfly performed better in this test.

When considering basic steering, curb jumping force, wheel vibration, tendency to veer and offroad performance, the Joolz Aer+ has a better overall score than the Bugaboo Butterfly, but we consider both to be very maneuverable strollers. Overall Steering and Maneuverability Scores:

Folding and Transport

There is very little difference in the folding and unfolding speed and difficulty of these two strollers. Both take 2 seconds to fold and 3 seconds to unfold on average. Both require pressing a release button on the handle and then squeezing the main fold button.

Both strollers stand when folded, although the Joolz is slightly more stable.

I found that I can pull the Joolz by its strap and it will roll on its rear wheels while folded. I can’t get the Bugaboo to roll.

Both have carry straps that are padded and fairly comfortable, although both straps are a little short.

These strollers are very portable and as mentioned earlier, both are slightly bigger than the most common airline guidelines for carry-on bags in an overhead bin but there are plenty of examples where airlines have let these strollers be carried onboard.

Kid Comfort

The Joolz Aer+ is easy to push, but it is also easy to ride in. We used a device to measure bumpiness and vibration and found the Joolz to have excellent ride smoothness (lower numbers represent a smoother ride):

Both strollers have 4-wheel suspension.

Both strollers support children up to 50 lbs and from 6 months to 4 years old. The Joolz Aer+ has a height limit of 42.5 inches. The Butterfly seat is 22 inches high and the Aer+ seat is 20 inches high, although the seat base of the Aer+ is an inch wider and deeper than the Butterfly.

We believe the Butterfly seat is slightly more comfortable than the Aer+’s although both are very nicely padded. They both have 5-point harnesses. Both have shoulder and crotch padding on the harnesses, and the Butterfly also has hip harness padding.

The Butterfly has an extendable foot rest that the Joolz Aer+ does not have.

The Joolz Aer+ seat sits a little more upright than the Bugaboos. The Joolz seat angle is 56 degrees while the Butterfly’s is only 51 degrees when fully upright. Some kids complain that both are too reclined.

When the seats are fully reclined they go back to 33 degrees (Joolz) and 28 degrees (Bugaboo). Both are adequate for napping but would be even better with a greater recline. Both have adjustable recline but the Joolz’s clips and straps aren’t that easy to adjust.

The Butterfly canopy extends further than the Aer+’s canopy and provides more sun coverage as a result. Both have a UPF50+ sun protection rating. Neither fully cover the knees and legs.

Neither stroller comes with kid cup holders or a snack tray.

Quality

If noisy strollers bother you, you won’t have to worry about the Butterfly or Aer+. We performed a sound test and measured average decibel level of each stroller over a standard course. The Butterfly was tied for the quietest stroller and Joolz Aer+ was only slightly louder:

The wheels on the Butterfly and Aer+ are good quality. Treads on the Butterfly are made of rubber and the Aer+ are polyurethane.

There have been some complaints about the folding mechanisms of these strollers breaking over time. We haven’t had any reliability problems with the wheels or folding.

Overall we like the part and material quality of the Butterfly over the Joolz but both are clearly well-made, high-end strollers.

Tip-overs and pinching are some of the most common safety concerns for strollers.

We searched for pinch-points on the strollers to see how many places little fingers or limbs could get caught or pinched. The Joolz Aer+ had among the fewest pinch-points of the strollers we tested, and the Butterfly had more but still performed well in the test.

We also did tip-over testing. Both strollers tipped backward when we put a 12 lb bag on the handlebars. The Bugaboo took slightly more force to tip over sideways than the Joolz.