The Best Toilet Seats For Style And Everyday Comfort

The Mass Dynamic covers both of the features we insist on. Its soft close hinges lower the lid gently, and the quick release lets you lift the seat off in seconds to clean the hard-to-reach area around the fixings.

It's made from urea-formaldehyde, a hard plastic that resists scratches and has a smooth, ceramic-like feel. It's sized to suit most standard UK pans at 46 cm x 37 cm. What sets it apart is that the adjustable hinges take both top and bottom fixings, so you can fit it from above on a back-to-wall toilet or from below on a traditional one.

All the fixings come in the box. Because the seat is light, the soft close action is slower than some, so the lid takes a while to settle.

D-shaped seats have a straight back and a rounded front, matching the pans fitted in most modern bathrooms. The Home Standard follows that shape with square edges at the back and a curved front, and it's made from Duroplast, a dense plastic that feels more solid than cheaper thermoplastic seats.

This model measures 36.2 cm x 44.5 cm, and Home Standard sells other sizes in the same range. It fixes from the top, which suits back-to-wall and close-coupled toilets where you can't reach underneath, and the quick release makes cleaning straightforward.

Home Standard says the soft close mechanism is tested to 100,000 cycles. It's a chunky seat, though, so it can look oversized on a small cloakroom toilet.

A seat that slides about every time someone sits down is one of the most annoying things in a bathroom, and the Bemis Buxton is built to stop it. Its STA-TITE fixing system locks the seat to the pan, and it didn't budge in our testing. Bemis says it stays up to 30 times tighter than standard fixings.

The seat is made from a recyclable material Bemis calls tecno-plast, which the brand describes as virtually unbreakable. It suits most universal-shaped pans, has adjustable plastic hinges and only needs a 13 mm spanner to tighten.

It's a plain, practical seat rather than a stylish one, but for a rental or a busy family bathroom that's no bad thing.

A wooden seat feels warmer to sit on than plastic on a cold morning, and the Croydex Rutland in solid oak looks the part in a bathroom with wooden furniture or flooring. Croydex also makes the Rutland in other finishes, including moulded wood and pine.

Underneath, Croydex uses Flexi-Fix grip pads to stop the seat sliding, and the adjustable V-plate hinges in the box let it fit most standard UK pans. It has soft close and quick release, top and bottom fixing options, chrome-plated hinge covers and an anti-bacterial finish.

It's the most expensive non-bidet seat in this roundup. Like any wooden seat, it'll scratch more easily than a hard plastic one, so avoid abrasive cleaners.

Square pans need a square seat, as a rounded one leaves the corners of the pan showing. The ECOSPA is technically a D-shape but with much squarer corners than the Home Standard, so it sits neatly on the boxier pans common in modern bathrooms.

It's made from recyclable Duroplast and measures up to 44.2 cm x 35.5 cm, which suits most UK square pans. A single button releases the seat for cleaning, the lid closes softly, and the hinges fix from the top.

ECOSPA backs it with a 5 year guarantee. It costs more than most of the plastic seats here, so it's worth checking your pan's shape before deciding you need it.

A raised seat lifts the sitting height of the toilet, so there's less bending at the knees and hips when you sit down or get up. That makes a real difference for anyone elderly, disabled or recovering from an operation. The Homecraft Ashby comes in three heights, adding 2, 4 or 6 inches, which is roughly 5, 10 or 15 cm.

It's a one-piece seat moulded from polyethylene with an anti-bacterial finish, and it weighs just 2.8 kg, so it's easy to lift on and off. Adjustable brackets hold it in place on the pan.

Homecraft rates it for users up to 190 kg. Getting the height right is the key to it working well, so measure the existing seat height and think about the user's leg length before choosing.

Bidet seats are far more common abroad than in the UK, and a seat like the FLORYEU FBD600 is the simplest way to try one. It replaces your normal seat and adds washing functions without the need for a separate bidet.

It's designed for UK toilets, and its 12 functions are run from a touch control panel on the side of the seat. FLORYEU rates it for users up to 200 kg and backs it with a 2 year warranty.

Before buying, check you have a power socket near the toilet and a way to connect to the cold water feed, as a bidet seat needs both. In a bathroom, any new electrical supply needs to meet the wiring regulations, so get an electrician to add one if there isn't one already. It costs far more than any standard seat in this list.