The 7 Best Umbrellas of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Claire Wilcox

After a full round of new testing, we’ve added the Prostorm Vented Travel Umbrella, the Davek Solo, and the Six Moons Designs Silver Shadow Carbon Trekking Umbrella as new picks.

A great umbrella can take the bluster and sting out of harsh weather, keeping you (mostly) dry and sheltered. And it stows away easily when not in use.

After testing umbrellas of every type and size, we’ve concluded that most people will be happy with the Repel Windproof Travel Umbrella, which has been weathering both rain and wind in our tests for eight years. But we’ve also chosen six other umbrellas if you prefer to carry a different style.

The top job of any worthy umbrella is to keep you dry and protected from the elements.

Though we picked umbrellas of varying lengths, we confirmed that they were all light and easily portable.

An umbrella should be able to withstand strong gusts, invert without breaking, and then resume its original structure.

Of course, umbrellas should shelter you in a storm. But in our latest tests, we found an umbrella that protects you from harsh sun too.

Wirecutter has been reviewing umbrellas for at least a decade. In that time, we’ve tested everything from traditional cane umbrellas to inverted umbrellas to compact umbrellas no larger than a banana. All told, we’re up to more than 60 and counting.

Claire Wilcox, the most recent writer of this guide, has been covering travel and outdoor gear for Wirecutter for three years. She has lived in many rainy places, but none so much as Oahu, where rain lore runs so deep, Hawaiians have more than 200 names for it. Her work was informed by the reporting and testing of James Austin, Sarah J. Robbins, and Daniel Varghese, whose writing still appears in this guide.

For this guide we’ve done the following:

This solidly built, easy-to-find umbrella holds up in high winds and comes in several colors, but it requires a bit of force to close.

The Repel Windproof Travel Umbrella is a hardy, compact umbrella that performs well in wind and rain.

It’s well-built. In quality and durability, the Repel umbrella matches umbrellas that cost twice as much. It has a sturdy shaft made of chrome-plated steel, flexible fiberglass ribs, a smooth runner, and a vented canopy that withstood winds up to 40 mph in our tests.

Many of the umbrellas we tested used the same apparatus, but some of the Repel umbrella’s details — the heavier weight of its canopy fabric, for example, and the greater length and grippability of its 2.5-inch rubberized handle — set it above cheaper umbrellas of a similar design. More expensive umbrellas had nicer finishes, as well as more attractive pattern and color options, but they rarely performed better.

It provides ample rain protection yet folds down to an easily portable size. After consulting with experts, setting up a mannequin in a shower, and conducting field testing during our initial umbrella tests in 2014 and 2015, we concluded that the ideal canopy-size range for compact umbrellas is 37 to 39 inches. A decade of additional real-world testing has borne that metric out. Testers ranging in height from 5-foot-2 to more than 6 feet tall all felt well protected by the Repel umbrella’s 37.5-inch canopy in both light and heavy rains and found it easy to use while navigating New York City commutes. When not in use, the Repel umbrella folds up to just 11.5 inches long, the shortest of the umbrellas we tested that still had a big enough canopy for a wide range of people and a convenient size for stowing in most bags.

It holds up in windy conditions. The Repel umbrella’s vented canopy felt stable in windy conditions up to 40 mph during our tests and never inverted during normal use. When we held it parallel to the ground to force it to invert in high winds, and when we blasted it with a leaf blower, it stood its ground for longer than most of the other compact umbrellas we tested, and it repeatedly regained its shape, undamaged.

It has nine ribs instead of the usual eight. Most of the compact umbrellas we tested have eight or fewer ribs (except the Prostorm and Davek Solo umbrellas, which also have nine). The Repel umbrella’s extra rib gives it a bit of extra heft, sure, but the rib also adds structural integrity. You can find lighter umbrellas (this model weighs 11 ounces), but we didn’t find anything lighter that also matched the Repel umbrella’s fortitude and flexibility.

It has a reliable automatic open-and-close mechanism. Like many compact umbrellas nowadays, this umbrella deploys at the push of a button. To close the canopy, you push that same button and then compress the telescoping shaft until it clicks. (Be mindful of that click. If you don’t push the canopy in all the way, the umbrella will pop back out — with gusto.) During our testing, the automatic-deploy function remained punchy and robust; we have yet to experience a single failing.

It comes with a lifetime replacement guarantee. If you do encounter a failure, however, Repel offers lifetime replacement with no return required, as long as you order your umbrella from Repel directly and register it.

Wirecutter writer Tim Heffernan used the Repel Windproof Travel Umbrella in New York City for over a year in rough-weather commutes and said that it remained in excellent condition, though he has since misplaced it. Writer Sri Rain Stewart has been through two Repel umbrellas and reports, “I haven’t had a single issue with it! But I do wish [I wouldn’t] lose my umbrellas so easily!”

This inexpensive umbrella has a deeper dome than the Repel model and is easier to close, but you may have to give it an extra shake to fully deploy it.

The Prostorm Vented Travel Umbrella is an automatic compact umbrella that’s nearly as sturdy as the Repel model.

It’s easy to close. Most of the compact umbrellas we tested, including the Repel model, used a spring mechanism to open, but sometimes that spring could require a bit more force to compress than our testers preferred when they wanted to close the umbrella. The Prostorm Vented Travel Umbrella, in contrast, is our only pick to employ a ratchet safety system that allows you to close the telescoping shaft bit by bit (though you still need to hear that telltale click to reset the mechanism). This design can result in an overall mellower experience, especially if your hands are full or if you don’t have great dexterity or arm strength.

It offers the best value of any umbrella we tested. At the time of our testing, the Prostorm umbrella was the least expensive model in the group that also performed well.

It’s made by a reputable umbrella designer. Although sold under a separate label, the Prostorm umbrella is designed by Davek, the company that manufactures our most luxurious umbrella pick. We’re not surprised that this budget design includes thoughtful elements such as the ratchet system, as well as a wide Velcro tie-strap that helps keep the fabric folds under wraps.

It’s slightly bigger than the Repel umbrella, and it has a deeper dome. We found that the Prostorm umbrella’s canopy is 39 inches across (it’s listed as 38 inches on the Prostorm website); by our measurements it provides at least an inch more coverage than the Repel model. Its dome is also deeper, by 4 inches — the Prostorm umbrella has a 46-inch arc, in contrast to the Repel model’s 42 — providing more protection from sideways rain.

It’s sturdy enough in the wind. The Prostorm umbrella shook a bit more in windy conditions than the Repel model during tests, but it never inverted with normal use. When we forced it to invert, its ribs (it too has nine, like the Repel model) flexed and regained their structure seamlessly. Like the Repel and Balios umbrellas, it has a vented canopy that helps it mitigate gusts.

It has an ergonomic handle. Some testers preferred the grip of the Prostorm umbrella’s slightly curved handle to the Repel model’s straight handle.

This umbrella performs well in wind and rain, and it has some luxe styling details. However, it lacks a wrist strap.

The Balios Folding Double Canopy Umbrella is an inexpensive, compact umbrella with a fancy feel.

It looks and feels a bit more premium than our other compact picks in the same price range. The Balios umbrella’s core apparatus is similar to that of the Repel and Prostorm umbrellas: It has a steel shaft, runner, and (eight, not nine) fiberglass ribs that are nearly identical, and it opens and closes automatically. But whereas the Repel and Prostorm models are fairly nondescript, the Balios umbrella carries a hint of craft and style: It has a lovely real-wood handle with notches for your fingers, and its canopy is better stitched and silkier. Among our compact picks, only the expensive Davek Solo felt more premium.

It’s inexpensive. The Balios umbrella may feel fancy, but a heritage umbrella it is not. Like most of the umbrellas we tested, it’s made in China, and at the time of our testing it cost about the same as the Repel model.

It functions well, and it offers a bit more coverage. With a canopy measuring 40 inches in diameter, this is the broadest compact umbrella we tested (only the Shed Rain Vortex V2 matched it in size). Perhaps in part due to that larger canopy, and its lack of a ninth rib, the Balios umbrella didn’t best our other compact umbrella picks in wind tests, but it still held its ground in winds up to 40 mph, and it handled our forced-inversion tests just as well.

We also never had a problem with its open-and-close mechanism, and testers found it easier to close than the Repel umbrella.

It comes with a zippered storage case. All of the umbrellas we tested come with a storage sleeve. In our experience, these bits of fabric are born to disappear. But if you do happen to hold on to yours, note that the Balios umbrella’s sleeve is more functional than most: Instead of a tight casing, it’s zippered and equipped with a strap. This makes it much easier to maneuver, so you might — might — actually end up using it.

It’s covered by an unconditional one-year warranty. If your Balios umbrella fails in your first year of ownership because of flaws in workmanship or faulty parts, Balios will repair or replace it.

The Davek Solo is the best compact umbrella we tested, but it’s expensive, and it weighs a bit more than our other picks. It’s warrantied for a lifetime against defects and (partially) against loss.

Generally we don’t recommend spending a lot on umbrellas, but if you want the best compact umbrella, and you’re willing to spend the money for it, we like the Davek Solo.

It excels in windy conditions. All of our picks performed well in our wind stress tests, but none stood as firm as the Solo. Not only did it resist inverting during regular use, but it also withstood the direct blast of a leaf blower, as well as the gustiest conditions that Claire could find on the very windy northwest point of Oahu (she measured winds of around 40 mph). We could barely get this umbrella to invert — it flexed backward, but we had to physically push it to get it to turn inside out. This umbrella was also the easiest to hold through turbulence, which is all the more impressive since its canopy is unvented. (Curiously, unvented umbrellas performed both best and worst in our test group.)

It has the smallest canopy of our compact picks, but it still provides just as good (or even better) coverage. Fully deployed, the Solo has the shortest diameter of all our compact umbrella picks at 37 inches, according to our measurements, but its angled sides allowed it to do a better job of shielding the user’s head and shoulders from driving rain in comparison with the Repel and Balios models (the Prostorm umbrella, Davek’s budget side project, has this feature, too). Of all the umbrellas we tested, the Solo felt the most well balanced in terms of coverage and economy of space.

It’s made of premium materials. The Solo’s frame is made of reinforced fiberglass, steel, and aviation-grade aluminum, and it has a 100% steel shaft that felt more sturdy in the wind during our tests than those of our other compact umbrella picks (although generally their shafts are also made of steel, they tended to shake more). It has a soft yet grippy leather handle inlaid with metal detailing, a leather wrist strap, and a strong metal belt clip. Its dense microweave fabric looked and felt luxuriously soft but remained taut throughout our tests and rarely flapped in the wind. Each umbrella comes in a gift box inside a color-matched sleeve.

It has an unconditional lifetime guarantee and loss-protection redemption. Inside your Davek box, you receive a card with a loss-protection number, as well as information on the company’s warranty. If you register your umbrella, you receive lifetime support for repairs and 50% off a replacement if you have the misfortune of losing yours.

This stick umbrella has a classic style and impressive durability. However, it’s heavier and more difficult to stow than our compact picks.

If you love the classic look and feel of a stick-style umbrella, the affordable Totes Auto Open Wooden Stick Umbrella is hard to beat.

It’s classic yet functional. Stick (or cane) umbrellas are taller and often have significantly larger canopies than their compact cousins. Though they’re fun to use, they can be a pain to hold with one hand, especially if you’re on the smaller side. But at just over 20 ounces, the Totes Auto Open Wooden Stick Umbrella has good weight distribution, and its 42-inch-wide span kept us dry while we were running around town, even in rough weather. That combination of usability and coverage put it ahead of other similarly sturdy but more expensive stick models, such as the GustBuster Classic, which felt considerably more top-heavy.

It’s affordable. Though it offers the same length and canopy size as the other stick umbrellas we tested, this Totes model is significantly cheaper. Its canopy is made from a lighter material in comparison with the other umbrellas we considered, and we wondered whether it would hold up to strong winds.

It holds up in bad weather. During our blizzard tests, however, as hard as Sarah tried, she couldn’t get this umbrella to flip inside out. James had this umbrella for several years (before it eventually went MIA). He says it continued to hold up well in city storms despite being used in a few too many Gene Kelly impressions.

If you’re willing to pay a lot more for a timeless umbrella with sophisticated style and construction, the Davek Elite is the one to get. Smaller people may find this umbrella a bit cumbersome, though.

If you’re looking for an elevated, stick-style umbrella, consider the Davek Elite.

It feels sumptuous. This umbrella has a stitched top-grain leather handle, a fiberglass frame, and a 44-inch canopy, the largest of all our picks. The fabric stretches taut over eight reinforced ribs, creating an ample, stately dome that shelters you with room to spare.

It performs exceptionally well in the wind. Like its compact cousin, the Davek Elite handles rough weather with aplomb. Big umbrellas can be scary in high winds; if they don’t invert, they can become giant, unruly kites. Thanks to its flexible ribs, the Davek Elite turned inside out during our tests and then easily recovered.

It comes in three colors. You can get the Elite in black, navy blue, and copper. Although we listed the compact Davek Solo’s lack of color options as one of that model’s flaws, a cane umbrella is a slightly more formal creature, and we find the limited color range fitting in this case.

It’s covered by Davek’s Forever Guarantee. Like the Solo, the Elite is warrantied for a lifetime of repairs, and customers also receive a loss-protection serial number for a discounted replacement.

This lightweight trekking umbrella has a silver reflective coating to block UV rays and works just as well in rain. But it doesn’t pack easily in handbags and totes.

The Six Moons Designs Silver Shadow Carbon Trekking Umbrella is a lightweight umbrella that provides both sun and rain protection.

It’s great at blocking UV rays. The Silver Shadow Carbon’s 37.5-inch-wide canopy provides ample space and a deep dome of shade for shelter from both sun and rain.

Trekking umbrellas are designed for thru-hikers who want lightweight protection from both sun and rain. As such, they’re purpose-built to provide maximum UV protection: They have a silver reflective top layer and a black bottom layer, which helps absorb rays that bounce off the ground. A regular black umbrella, like the Repel model, blocks most UV rays too, but these umbrellas do it better, as our tests with UV cards confirmed.

It’s ultra lightweight. You can find plenty of silver reflective UV umbrellas if your needs stop at sun protection (in fact, the Repel umbrella also comes in a silver and black version), but at a scant 6.8 ounces, the Silver Shadow Carbon weighs no more than a softball. As a result, it’s much more convenient to bring on trips where carrying extra weight can be a literal pain or cost money.

It’s comfortable to hold for long periods of time. Because it’s so lightweight, the Silver Shadow Carbon is easy to carry for miles on end. Claire carried a comparable umbrella for six miles across Haleakalā, the volcano that covers East Maui, and regularly uses it for sun protection at track meets. The trekking umbrellas that we tested were nearly identical in materials and design, but testers with big and small hands alike found the Silver Shadow Carbon’s long, molded handle to be the most comfortable.

It’s strong and stable. For such a slight object, the Silver Shadow Carbon umbrella is impressively strong. It has a carbon fiber shaft (Six Moons also sells a less expensive version with a fiberglass shaft, which we haven’t tested), as well as a carbon fiber spreader and ribs, all of which make it stronger and lighter than its fiberglass counterparts. Fiberglass is generally more flexible than carbon fiber, though — and for this reason, people who don’t care that much about their gear’s weight may want to opt for the regular Silver Shadow, or one of the other good trekking umbrellas we tested — but in wind tests the Silver Shadow Carbon stood up just as well to violent gusts, and a leaf blower, as fiberglass models did.

It’s simple. As much as we appreciate automatic umbrellas, particularly in busy urban settings, we found the Silver Shadow Carbon’s minimalism refreshing. It has no latches, buttons, or springs — it’s just a simple, 25-inch manual umbrella with a smooth runner and a Velcro tie-strap to secure the fabric when it’s not in use.

If you need a solid alternative to our top compact umbrella picks: The LifeTek Traveler 45 FX2 impressed us in our 2018 tests. It withstood being battered by violent gusts without inverting, and it’s one of the strongest umbrellas we have ever tested. However, depending on the color, the LifeTek umbrella often costs more than our top compact picks (except the Davek Solo), and it doesn’t offer enough of an advantage over those models for us to justify making it a pick. That said, because it’s an excellent umbrella with a solid warranty (LifeTek’s two-year “Peace of Mind” replacement guarantee against defects and malfunctions), it’s still a good alternative if our picks are unavailable.

If the Silver Shadow Carbon is out of stock: A few of the hiking umbrellas we tested for this guide were nearly identical in design and performance. The Six Moons Designs Silver Shadow Carbon is our pick because of its superior handle and weight-to-strength ratio, but we also loved EuroSchirm’s SwingLiteflex, which has a larger runner and comes with a mesh carry sleeve. Gossamer Gear’s Lightrek Hiking Umbrella performed just as well in our UV and wind tests, and it weighs the least of all the hiking umbrellas we tested. We didn’t like its handle as much as we did that of the Silver Shadow Carbon, though. And the EuroSchirm umbrella is more expensive than the Six Moons model and weighs a few more ounces.

If you want a smaller premium compact umbrella: The Davek Commuter is the next size down from the Davek Solo, and it offers most of the Solo’s excellent features, including its seamless automatic open-and-close mechanism and swanky leather handle. (Davek’s smallest offering, the Mini, was a bit too pared back, in our opinion.) The Commuter has a 35-inch canopy instead of the Solo’s 37 inches, and it measures 9 inches when closed instead of 11.75 inches. As a result, it’s a bit more portable and easier to operate on tight commutes (hence the name), but our taller, larger testers found the canopy insufficient, and they weren’t as comfortable holding its smaller handle.

If you want your umbrella to keep you dry for a long time, you need to remember to let it dry. Just leave your umbrella open after use — the bathtub is a handy spot. If you don’t, its metal parts — especially for its automatic open-and-close function, if it has one — can corrode. And mildew can develop in the canopy of a wet umbrella that’s left closed; this not only smells awful but also can destroy the fabric over time.

We started by reassessing our past work, gathering feedback about our picks, and researching new models. We read reviews from trusted sites such as GearLab, which also conducts rigorous tests on umbrellas, and we checked in with reader comments and questions.

We then assembled a group of both new and familiar umbrellas, and we set about putting them through real-world and orchestrated stress tests.

In 2025, Claire conducted tests in Honolulu and Waialua on Oahu, focusing primarily on compact and hiking umbrellas. Previously, James, Daniel, and Sarah had conducted extensive testing on compact, stick-style, and inverted umbrellas in New York City between 2015 and 2022.

We evaluated umbrellas according to the following criteria:

In a decade of umbrella testing, we’ve looked at dozens of models. This is not a comprehensive list; it represents our most recent and relevant reviews.

AmazonBasics Automatic Travel Umbrella with Wind Vent: We recommended this umbrella for years — it’s cheap, and it does great in windy conditions — but it’s been bedeviled by ongoing stock issues, and during our 2025 tests the Prostorm umbrella outperformed it in every metric.

Blunt Metro: This umbrella has a flowerlike shape, a direct result of some innovative engineering, and it handles wind with ease. It’s also designed with repair in mind, a unique feature among our test group. But its scalloped edges left us exposed to sideways rain, and it’s pricey.

Davek Duet: With a 48-inch canopy, this umbrella provides enough shelter for two, yet it’s less than 15 inches long when folded and weighs under a pound and a half. If you’re big or tall, if you travel in pairs, or if you just want maximum coverage (and can afford this model’s eye-watering price), it protects well against the elements, but our testers for the most part said that it was bigger and wider than they wanted or needed.

Davek Mini: Though the Mini carries all the hallmarks of Davek’s thoughtful design, this umbrella’s 34-inch canopy was insufficient in coverage, even for our more diminutive testers. It also felt unstable in windy conditions during our tests.

GustBuster Metro: This umbrella has a well-deserved reputation for durability in the wind, and it never came close to inverting during our testing. But its strength comes from a complex truss of multiple ribs and springs, which makes it extremely top-heavy and unwieldy when the wind catches the canopy.

Lewis N. Clark Travel Umbrella: This low-cost umbrella was our budget option for years, and it’s still a decent choice if you’re looking to spend as little as possible, but in our 2025 tests it underperformed in comparison with the Prostorm umbrella, which costs only a few dollars more, in every regard.

Original Duckhead Daily Compact Straight Umbrella: This sleek umbrella comes in an array of stylish patterns, but when we tested it in 20 mph winds, the canopy not only inverted but also collapsed.

Original Duckhead Eco-Friendly Compact Duck Umbrella: This umbrella’s carved wooden duck-head handle is so charming, it had us wishing for a rainy day, but it inverted a few times when we were using it, and its frame and shaft felt less robust than those of our picks.

Shed Rain Vortex V2 43" Vented Compact Umbrella: We were impressed by the Vortex V2’s fortitude in windy conditions, as well as its sturdy build. But it didn’t perform any better than our less expensive picks. We’ve also read some reports of a malfunctioning open-and-close mechanism. We’re intrigued enough to keep testing it, though, so stay tuned.

Davek Savile: The Savile’s handle and shaft are hand-carved from chestnut wood, which adds to this umbrella’s weight (30 ounces). It’s impressive, for sure. But for an umbrella of this style, we prefer to save $190 and choose the still luxe and more portable Davek Elite.

GustBuster Classic: The Classic is a high-quality tool at a good price, but it didn’t lead the pack in value or function.

Totes Signature Clear Bubble Umbrella: The bubble-style umbrella makes sense conceptually to provide more coverage with a longer canopy that surrounds a person in a sort of traveling dome. But in practice, at least with the Totes Signature Clear Bubble Umbrella, that extra wall of material is just something for the wind to push against, making the umbrella difficult to control, even though it’s light. Also because of its design, the canopy isn’t as wide as those on other, similar-size stick umbrellas, and that limits its protection.

EuroSchirm Light Trek: This compact umbrella’s lightweight ribs were much more sensitive to violent gusts than those of the stick-style hiking umbrellas we tested. Granted, we pushed it to the max during our wind stress tests, but it was the only umbrella that broke.

EuroSchirm Light Trek Automatic: The automatic version has the same issues as the manual version but weighs a lot more.

Sharpty Inverted: Like all the inverted umbrellas we tested, the Sharpty model looked neat but underwhelmed us in practice. It felt cheap and was difficult to deploy correctly, often requiring a few shakes on our part to get the canopy to unfold fully. And it was a pain to hook this model’s C-shaped handle on a bag strap or a cubicle wall (as you can easily do with most regular stick umbrellas).

Our most recent update focused on compact and hiking umbrellas. Next, we’ll be testing a new round of cane, or stick-style, umbrellas from Totes and Shed Rain, among other companies. We also plan to continue testing new compact umbrella models from Knirps and Weatherman.

This article was edited by Ria Misra and Christine Ryan.

Claire Wilcox

I research, test, and write about tents, sleep systems for camping, toiletry bags, umbrellas, and more. Much of my beat can be summarized as shelters, blankets, and pouches for people and things.

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