Best cabinet locks for babyproofing: the lock that holds on your doors, and the one a two-year-old opens

The five types, in one paragraph each

Magnetic locks mount inside the cabinet, on the frame, and catch a plate on the door; a magnetic key held against the outside releases them. Invisible, hard to defeat, and dependent on a smooth non-metal door thin enough for the magnet to reach through. Adhesive exterior locks stick a latch to the cabinet face and a catch to the door; visible, tool-free, only as strong as the finish they are stuck to. Strap locks are an adhesive latch with a flexible strap, which is why they fit appliances, trash cans and toilets as well as cabinets. Spring latches screw inside the cabinet; the door opens an inch, you press the latch, it opens. Cheap and permanent. Slide locks loop over a pair of knobs or handles with no install at all; they only work on side-by-side doors with hardware. The full explainer is cabinet lock types explained.

What your doors decide

Cabinet locks fail more often because of the cabinet than because of the lock. Run through four questions before you buy. Is the door metal? Magnetic locks are out; Roving Cove says so on its page. How thick is the door? Perma's key reaches 1 inch, Roving Cove's 1.5, Baby Proof Me's 2; measure a solid-wood door before ordering magnets. What is the inside made of? Safety 1st's own page for its HS292 kit says particle board needs the included screws, not the adhesive; laminate and melamine interiors are the same story. Do the doors have knobs or handles, in pairs? If yes, the cheapest lock in the ranking works with no install. The three hardware cases are compared in cabinet locks for knobs, handles and no hardware.

How many you need

Count every door and drawer a crawler can reach that holds something sharp, hot, heavy, breakable or poisonous, then add the trash, the dishwasher and the oven. Poison Control's 2024 data puts household cleaning substances at the top of exposures in children under six, and those live under the sink; the cabinet under the sink is lock number one. Most kitchens land between 12 and 20, which is why the packs here run 8 to 20 and why the per-lock price is 20 percent of the score. The room walkthrough is in babyproofing the kitchen.

How we ranked these

Bulk weighting: standards 20 percent, installation truth 15, toddler resistance 25, one-hand use 15, reversibility 5, value 20. Resistance leads because a cabinet lock is opened by a toddler in private, not pushed on in front of you; value is high because you buy a lot of them. Safety 1st's magnetic set wins on the certification statement and the indicator; the slide lock places second on value and zero install while being the least resistant lock here, which is why it is limited to the doors it fits. The full rubric is on how we choose, and the magnetic-only ranking is best magnetic cabinet locks.

The standard nobody states

ASTM F3492 is the Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Child Safety Locks and Latches for Use with Cabinet Doors and Drawers, published in 2021. It exists, it is voluntary, and not one manufacturer in this ranking states compliance with it on its product page. Safety 1st states JPMA certification for its magnetic set, which is the closest thing to a third-party claim in the category. So we score what is stated: a JPMA mark scores high, a maker's own pull-force figure (Perma's 44 pounds) scores in the middle, and silence scores low. When a manufacturer starts printing F3492 on the box, this ranking will change.

Who should skip all of these