The Best Snowboard Bindings of 2025

How We Tested Snowboard Bindings

Our Expert Testers

Leading the snowboard gear crew, Senior Editor Morgan Tilton specializes in snowsports and has been a snowboarder since 2002, when she learned to ride at her home ski area in Telluride, Colorado. While she grew up competing in slopestyle, Tilton enjoys backcountry and in-bounds days alike. In the 2024-2025 season, she tested snowboard bindings (on solid boards) for more than 126 hours, 688 miles, and 194,500 vertical feet. In early 2024, she has tested snowboard bindings for 135 hours across 38 days. She tested snowboard bindings for 104 hours across 34 days, in 2023. She’s also a former manager of the late TransWorld Snowboarding annual snowboard bindings test. (R.I.P. TWS.)

Contributing photographer and tester Eric Phillips is a formerly certified Level II PSIA-AASI instructor and big mountain pow surfer when he’s not at the resort or on splitboard tours.

Gear tester Austin Beck-Doss has been snowboarding since 2005. Growing up far from the mountains, trips to the slopes were a special once-a-year treat for Beck-Doss. After moving to Colorado in 2014, his repetitions increased dramatically. In recent years, he has logged lots of glorious days at various resorts in the Wasatch mountains of Utah. He’s also worked as an adaptive snowboard instructor with people with disabilities.

California-based GearJunkie Editor Billy Brown contributed to this guide when it was first scribed in 2020. Since then, the guide has been updated many times.

Our Testing Grounds

Beck-Doss is based in Wyoming, Phillips is based in Crested Butte, and Tilton typically tests bindings at Telluride Ski Resort and Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

The GearJunkie team meets for on-snow test weeks to grind out turns and swap notes, including two previous gatherings at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, which is known for its expert terrain.

Our Testing Process

While we test snowboard bindings, we consider the flex, highback shape and height, baseplate, strap ergonomics, ratchet and release system, materials, durability, ease of use, ease of installation and adjustment, snowboard compatibility, boot compatibility, and price.

We research the best options before pulling them into the field for tests including consideration of the most innovative, popular, and legacy bindings.

Buyers Guide: How to Choose Snowboard Bindings

Snowboard bindings are built to accommodate riding styles starting with freeriding, which consists mostly of surfing through powder or carving down groomed runs. Bindings that are ideal for freeriders are stiffer and more aggressive. This provides the quick and reliable response that carvers need to make fast turns on steep downhill slopes.

Freestyle and park riders are the snowboarders that you see bombing off kickers, sailing over tabletops, and grinding everything that you can slide on. Freestyle bindings tend to be more flexible to allow for tweaking grabs and for adjusting your balance on rails.

All-mountain riders do a little bit of everything — hitting the groomers, finding powder off-trail, and making a few park runs here and there. All-mountain bindings need to ride a delicate balance between flex and rigidity.

They need enough stiffness to provide control on steeps while maintaining enough flex to hit the park. All-mountain snowboarders should look for bindings that are in the medium range of flexibility.

Flex: Snowboard Bindings

Flex of snowboard bindings refers to how rigid the construction is, particularly in the highback and the heel cup. This affects responsiveness, or how quickly the snowboard reacts to varying amounts of pressure you create as you carve.

A rigid flex provides stability and increases the binding’s response to your movements. This is ideal for high-speed runs and steep hills, where a quick turn can make a difference between holding your edge or catching it and cartwheeling down a hill.

More flexible bindings are ideal for park riding. Snowboarders who ride mostly in terrain parks value a more flexible binding profile, which allows for more mobility. This is ideal for tweaking grabs and for adjusting your center of gravity on rails.

Baseplate

The baseplate is what attaches the binding to your board. It can be adjusted to vary the angle of a rider’s foot in relation to the board. This is based on the rider’s stance preference.

Some riders prefer a narrower stance or a neutral angle. However, others may want a wider stance or have their toes pointed slightly outward, based on their anatomy and style of riding.

Baseplates also generally feature some sort of damping technology that allows them to act as shock absorbers. This is usually made up of rubber or a composite. The damping helps absorb the shock of landings and minimizes vibration (also known as chatter) on icy or excessively bumpy terrain.

Highback

The highback is the wing that comes up the back of the binding, supporting the back of the leg. Highbacks are what give you control of your snowboard and add power when riding on your heel edge.

They vary in flexibility — more rigid highbacks increase the board’s response, while flexible highbacks are generally more comfortable.

Two Straps: Ankle & Toe

Not only do straps secure your boots to your binding, but they also provide control and power when carving on your toe edge. Snowboard bindings have a larger ankle strap that wraps around the ankle and top of the foot, as well as a toe strap that wraps over the forefoot.

Some bindings’ toe straps go over the boot’s toecap, which can more effectively secure the boot in the binding. Straps are secured via ratcheting buckles, which allow for fast entry and exit. The ratchet levers also let you adjust your straps, tightening and loosening them as needed.

Snowboard Binding Entry Systems

Traditional Strap-In Bindings

This traditional setup has two straps — the ankle and toe — that secure the snowboard boots into the bindings. The straps are ratcheted down each time you put your boots in, and they need to be released to step out.

This style offers the most adjustable and customizable fit between the binding and boot. The bindings tend to be compatible with most boot styles, and these designs are also usually more cost-friendly.

But they’re slower to get into than rear-entry or step-on designs. The majority of our favorite snowboard bindings fall in this zone, including the Rome Men’s Katana Pro and Union Legacy.

Rear-Entry (Speed-Entry) Step-In Bindings

With rear-entry snowboard bindings, the highback reclines backward, like on the fast-entry Jones Mercury FASE or System MTN Men’s Rear-Entry Step-In Bindings, so that you can slide your boot in from behind. When you step inside, the highback snaps and locks into place. The straps are all pre-set to your boot, so once you step down, you’re ready to slide.

The system is faster than traditional designs, and there’s a bit of strap adjustability. If you prefer adjustability throughout the day, traditional bindings might be a better choice. Rear-entry designs can also feel cumbersome when strapping back into your snowboard in deep snow or on a steep slope, like in hike-to terrain or sidecountry.

Step-On Bindings (Boot-to-Binding Interface)

For this design, you need specific snowboard boots that lock directly into the binding plate. There aren’t any straps. You step down, click in, and pull a lever to release. One of the most popular examples is the Burton Step On snowboard binding.

It’s a really quick system and hands-free, so it’s convenient on flat ground or at the ski area base before loading the lift. But it does require that you purchase system-specific snowboard boots. There’s less adjustability compared to other binding systems. They can also be pricier.

Snowboard and Snowboard Binding Compatibility

Most all-mountain snowboards are compatible with most snowboard bindings, but there are a few key factors to consider when rounding out your setup. If your snowboard is a stiff and aggressive hard-charger, you’ll probably want a stiffer set of binders to go with it.

When purchasing bindings, be sure that the size range is compatible with your board’s width. You don’t want a binding base that hangs off the edge of your snowboard.

Most importantly, make sure that the attachment pattern for your snowboard bindings is compatible with your snowboard. Several hole patterns are on the market:

• Channel system: Burton’s specific mounting system, where the bindings are mounted to and slide along a track
• 4×4: Two rows of holes that are 4 cm apart, plus each hole is 4 cm apart, and three holes per row
• 2×4: Two rows of holes that are 2 cm apart, plus each hole is 2 cm apart, and six holes per row
• 3-hole: The holes are in a triangular pattern, and three screws are used to mount the bindings

Sizing, Fit, & Women’s Specific Snowboard Bindings

Instead of the specific fits that you’ll find in shoes and snowboard boots, bindings tend to come in small, medium, and large sizes, with additional sizes for youths and women. Each size accommodates a range of snowboard boot sizes.

An important note is that the size run for unisex and men’s snowboard bindings is usually different than the size run for women’s specific bindings. The ankle and toe straps offer a wide range of adjustability, which lets you dial in your binding’s fit every time you step into it. Before buying, check your binding’s webpage to see which category your snowboard boot size fits in.

Also, if you wear a pair of snowboard boots that’s generally more streamlined, like Salomon, or beefier, like Vans, that’ll affect how the binding fits. If you’re on the cusp of a size range, we suggest taking your snowboard boots to your local retailer to see how they fit the snowboard binding. If that’s not possible, size up in the binding.

Despite the range of shoe sizes per category, bindings are designed to fit securely without feeling restrictive. You don’t want to allow any movement between the boot and the binding, as that results in a loss of control.

Price & Value

The price of bindings varies widely, from the least expensive sitting at under $100 to the higher end reaching into the $500-600 range.

Budget

Beginners may want to look for a lower-end binding while they learn — they can upgrade as they improve without taking a big bite out of their wallets. Check out a snowboard bindings review or two to find a good, low-cost binding that doesn’t sacrifice functionality.

For instance, the rear-entry step-in System MTN Men’s Rear-Entry Step-In Bindings ($120) offer an efficient, progressive design at under $200. To keep the price lower, no carbon or glass is woven into this construction, and the EVA padding is likely a tier lower and less durable. But these offer plenty of comfort and long-lasting durability for most riders.

Mid-Tier

Bindings such as the Union Legacy Women’s Snowboard Bindings ($260) are made with stiffer materials for a more responsive feel that some experienced riders tend to prefer. The flex is intricate, too, in that there’s longitudinal rigidity but a forgiving feel from side to side.

Premium

Usually, the cost comes with more durability and responsiveness, as well as more sport-specific features like aggressively angled highbacks for big-mountain riding.

If you know what style of riding you prefer, it can be worth it to opt for a higher-end binding that will accommodate your riding style. Bindings like the Rome Women’s Katana and Rome Men’s Katana Pro ($400-450) boast an innovative design — like the asymmetrical heel skeleton and the woven straps — and are made with very lightweight, tenacious materials that are extremely comfortable and form-fitting to whatever boots they come across.

Frequently Asked Questions