• Sharp knives make cooking easier and safer. To keep your knives in good shape, you need a great knife sharpener.
• The Chef's Choice Trizor XV is our top pick because of its versatility and its three distinct sharpening stages.

While a sharp knife can be dangerous if you're not careful, a dull knife can actually do more harm. Dull knives cut poorly, causing you to apply extra force in the process, which increases the chance of injury. Additionally, dull knives tear up your food, rather than creating beautiful slices. Sharp knives have a longer lifespan, too, which is especially important for an expensive knife set.

The best knife sharpeners are easy to use and give you that desirable sharp edge. Because knife sharpeners exist in a variety of configurations, finding just the right type to best suit your needs requires a bit of research. If you're a beginner knife honer, jump to the bottom of this guide for an in-depth explainer on how knife sharpeners work and a look at the different styles you may want to consider. If you already know what you're after, dive right into our top picks.

Here are the best knife sharpeners:

• Best electric sharpener: Chef's Choice Trizor XV
• Best pull-through sharpener: Chef's Choice ProntoPro 4643
• Best sharpening kit: Edge Pro Apex 4
• Best whetstone: Smith's TRI-6 Arkansas TRI-HOME Sharpening System

Prices and links are current as of 1/4/21. We restructured the format to bring you the most relevant information more quickly. We also removed the M3 Manual sharpener as our top pick for best honing steel due to it currently being out of stock. We will be continuing to research and test new knife sharpeners and updating this guide.

SEE ALSO: The best spice racks you can buy

The best electric sharpener

The Chef's Choice Trizor XV knife sharpener is extremely easy to use and works with a nice variety of kitchen knife blades, making it a versatile option.

Pros: Triple beveled knives should need fewer sharpenings, three sharpening guide slots, easy to use, motor runs smoothly, excellent sharpening results

Cons: Doesn't work well with smaller knives, don't work with serrated knives

The Chef's Choice Trizor XV is our top pick for the best electric knife sharpener for a variety of reasons, but ease of use tops the list.

Most electric knife sharpeners offer easy-to-use features, but the Trizor XV truly simplifies things with its three sharpening guides, starting with coarse before moving to fine and polishing. It also features a strong motor, which allows it to run smoothly during sharpening with no catches on the blade.

The Chef's Choice sharpener creates a triple bevel on the blade, which allows it to work with both Asian and European/American knives. The bevels are at roughly 25 degrees, 20 degrees, and 15 degrees. This triple bevel design increases the length of time required between sharpenings.

Overall, we think it's the best knife sharpener for most people with its multiple settings, clear instructions, and decent price.

The best pull-through sharpener

If you're looking to save some money on a knife sharpener, the Chef's Choice ProntoPro 4643 provides outstanding results at a low price.

Pros: Reasonable price point, excellent results versus other manual knife sharpeners, three guide slots for different types of knives, easy to hold handle, fits in a drawer, suitable for serrated knives

Cons: Not quite as versatile as some more expensive electric options

The Chef's Choice ProntoPro 4643 is one of our favorite knife sharpeners on the market, as it provides outstanding results at a low price point. This manual pull-through knife sharpener offers a lot of the same features as our top pick, the electric Chef's Choice Trizor XV, but does so at a far lower price point.

The design of the ProntoPro 4643 is a little different from most manual knife sharpeners because it has a curved handle with a soft grip. You can hold this handle firmly to achieve the best results. Additionally, the ProntoPro 4643 is only about nine inches in length, meaning it'll fit easily in a drawer.

You can control the angle of the knife blade at either 15 degrees or 20 degrees, making it work well for both American/European and Asian knives. In fact, the manual sharpener uses different guide slots for each type of knife, as well as a third guide slot for serrated knives, making it one of the few picks on our list suitable for serrated blades.

The best sharpening kit

Simply put, the Edge Pro Apex 4 sharpens all knives at precise blade angles for some of the best and sharpest results you'll see.

Pros: Excellent sharpening kit, allows for precise multiple knife blade angles, includes multiple grit stones for fine polishing, all parts fit in a carrying case for easy portability, works with multiple blade widths

Cons: Expensive sharpening kit, requires some practice to use well, doesn't work well with thin-bladed knives

The Edge Pro Apex 4 is a thorough knife sharpening kit, giving you the ability to fine-tune your knives. The kit uses a guide system along with different sharpening stones to help you draw the blade at the right angle. It does require some know-how and practice to achieve the desired results.

Additionally, this completely portable kit fits inside a carrying case, allowing for easy transportation for camping or hunting. The kit can handle blade sizes ranging from small knives to machetes, however, the system doesn't work as well with very thin-bladed knives, such as a fillet knife.

The kit ships with five water stones, ranging from 120 to 1,000 grit, allowing for coarse to fine sharpening. It also contains 2,000 and 3,000 grit polish tapes for honing. The stones fit tightly into the kit's design, ensuring no slippage as you use the kit's angle guide to draw the knife blade across the stones.

Using the Edge Pro Apex 4 properly involves a learning curve, but the time invested pays off with incredibly sharp blades. The kit ships with a DVD, providing detailed instructions on how to use it. Once you have mastered this tool, its results are impressive.

This kit costs quite a bit more than most knife sharpeners, but it gives your knives more longevity by removing less metal from the blades during the sharpening process.

Note: This item is available to purchase, but is not ready to ship until January 19.

The best whetstone

For those who want complete control over the sharpening process, the Smith's TRI-6 Arkansas TRI-HONE Sharpening System makes it easy to use a sharpening stone.

Pros: Offers full control over the sharpening process, excellent price point, three different grit stones included, stones mounted on triangular block are convenient to access, easy to use for beginners

Cons: Takes longer to sharpen knives than an electric sharpener, longevity of the plastic frame is questionable

If you're frustrated with the performance of electric knife sharpeners – or if you're just a bit of a control freak like me – the Smith's TRI-6 Arkansas TRI-HONE Sharpening System allows you to manually sharpen your knives. The system ships with three high-quality sharpening stones and the included bracket holds the stones in place so you can work efficiently and safely.

The rotating triangle block on which the manufacturer has mounted the three different sharpening stones makes it convenient to just twist a knob and find the exact stone grit you wish to use.

Some people may be a bit intimidated by using a sharpening stone, rather than an electric sharpener, and it does take some practice to ensure you're holding your knife at the right angle and applying proper pressure. But with some practice, you'll find that using a whetstone is one of the best ways to have precise control over how your blade is sharpened.

How knife sharpeners work

Several different gadgets and kits exist that will help you sharpen a knife. Some use electrical power, while others use a manual stroke. We'll break down the different types of knife sharpeners in the next segment. If you need more information, we have further discussed knife care in a video.

As far as sharpening a knife blade goes, all types of sharpeners follow the same type of process. You'll rub the metal blade of the knife against some sort of an abrasive surface that removes some of the metal to create a thin edge.

Knife sharpeners need to be able to create an exact angle on the knife's edge. American and European knife blades use a 20-degree angle out of the factory, while Asian knife blades use a 17-degree angle. Hence, many people prefer a knife sharpening machine to a simple manual stone, because the machine helps guide you to maintain the proper angle on the blade.

If the blade is only slightly dull, using a steel rod, called knife honing steel, can give the edge a quick touch up by realigning the edge, as shown by Cook's Illustrated. Technically, using this method means you're actually honing the knife, rather than sharpening it. For a dull blade, though, a knife sharpener provides the best method of obtaining a sharp edge again.

Types of knife sharpeners

• Electric machine: An electric knife sharpener offers the most convenient sharpening tool design. You'll pull the knife blade through the guide slot on the machine, and a motor applies the sharpening agent (usually a sharpening stone) to the metal blade. Many electric sharpeners will offer multiple guide slots that run from coarse to fine sharpening or that handle different blade angles.
• Pull-through machine: A pull-through sharpener, also called a manual sharpener, works best with kitchen knives. You'll pull the knife blade through the sharpener, which includes guide slots with the sharpening agent inside. Some pull-through sharpeners allow you to adjust the angle of the blade, which helps with different types of knives. Some provide multiple guide slots, ranging from coarse to fine sharpening.
• Sharpening kit: Sharpening kits appear at the top end of the market for knife sharpeners, as they have multiple parts to ensure a proper result. The kit allows you to set the sharpening angle you want to use while working from course to fine sharpening. Using a sharpening kit properly requires some time invested in learning to use the kit. However, for those who demand a perfect blade, the sharpening kit achieves the desired result with full manual control. They're great for both sharpening and honing.
• Stone: With a sharpening stone, or whetstone, you'll drag the blade of the knife across the rough surface of the stone. Sharpening stones consist of a number of types of material, such as diamond stones, oil stones (also called Arkansas stones), water stones (or aluminum oxide stones), and ceramic stones. Yes, the diamond stone actually contains tiny fragments of diamonds, but it's a little heavy to wear as an earring. The trick with a sharpening stone becomes applying the right amount of pressure and sharpening at the proper angle because using a sharpening stone requires a completely manual process with no guide slots. However, stones can sharpen many tools, including scissors and chisels.

One final item to mention: Serrated knife blades won't work with all types of knife sharpeners. If you're using a pull-through or electric knife sharpener, it needs to have a serrated setting or the blade will lose the serration during sharpening.

Check out our other great knife buying guides

• The best knife sets
• The best kitchen knives
• The best cutting boards
• The best knife blocks
• The best bushcraft and survival knives

The White House may be the most famous building along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, but there's a lesser-known government residence next door that has played a role in US history and American diplomacy for decades.

The Blair House, just steps from the north lawn of the White House, is the official presidential guest house.

Since World War II, it has acted as the "world's most exclusive hotel," hosting heads of state, royalty, and presidents-elect.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte stayed there for three days during President Donald Trump's first official state visit.

And former President George W. Bush stayed there with his family before his father's DC funeral.

While the White House remains the main meeting location for US presidents and their foreign visitors, the guest house carries significance. Take a look inside Blair House.

SEE ALSO: Inside Number One Observatory Circle, the often overlooked but stunning vice president's residence where the Pences live

DON'T MISS: From playing in trucks to putting 'America First': The 40 most memorable photos from Trump's wild first year in office

Blair House is the official presidential guesthouse.

It's just across the street from the White House, at 1651 Pennsylvania Ave.

Blair House was built in the 1820s as a home for Joseph Lovell, the eighth surgeon general of the US Army.

In 1836, Francis Blair, a close friend and supporter of President Andrew Jackson, bought the home for $6,500.

The US government then purchased it in 1942, while Franklin D. Roosevelt was president.

It has since served as the official guesthouse for foreign dignitaries, heads of state, and visiting delegations to Washington.

President Harry S. Truman stayed in the house for about four years during his presidency while the White House was being renovated.

In 1950, two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate Truman at the guesthouse. Police officers who stopped them from entering the home killed one and wounded the other at the scene.

Today, Blair House makes up a complex of "four seamlessly connected townhomes," with 110 rooms across roughly 70,000 square feet.

Sources: US State Department, Blair House

It's technically larger than the White House.

Sources: US State Department, Blair House

Each of Blair House's 14 guest rooms has "a full bathroom, three formal dining rooms, two large conference rooms, a hot and cold kitchen overseen by an executive chef and sous chef, a fully equipped beauty salon, an exercise room, and an in-house laundry facility."

Source: Blair House

There are also conference rooms, a library, and many seating areas for more intimate meetings. The finishings are traditional and luxurious.

"Since Blair House isn't a hotel, the approach is to make guests feel like they're staying in a personal residence," says an article about the property in the November 2001 edition of the US Department of State's magazine.

Source: State Magazine

Only those who are officially invited by the president are allowed to stay there.

But an exception is made for presidents waiting to be sworn into office during the transition period.

The residence is officially managed by the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol. Full-time staff members are responsible for cleaning and preparing the home for visitors.

Since major renovations in the 1980s, Blair House has been a frequent meeting place for bilateral negotiations and high-level talks.

A few notable guests include Queen Elizabeth II, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Visitors typically meet with a wide range of US officials at the home.

After a meeting at the White House in 2015, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping walked to Blair House for a private dinner.

A year later, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

When foreign dignitaries stay there, their countries' flags are flown from the residence.

Source: Blair House

US officials frequently hosts dinners, official receptions, and parties at the residence, too.

Though few may know about the historical significance of Blair House, it has played a key role in American diplomacy over the years.

From April 23 to 25, the Macrons stayed at Blair House during their official state visit to the US — the first of Trump's presidency.

When a former president dies, family members are also allowed to stay at the residence before the funeral.

Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush stayed there while they were in DC for his father, former President George H.W. Bush's, funeral in December 2018. The Trumps visited them the night before the ceremony.

We rounded up the best sales and deals happening online today, with savings at The North Face, M.Gemi, and more. 

Deals in this story are subject to change throughout the day. The prices listed reflect the deal at the time of publication. For even more deals and savings across the web, check out Business Insider Coupons.

The best deals available right now

• Visit Insider Reviews' deals page for more sales.

The best on-going sales and exclusive discounts happening right now

Get 30% off graphic hoodies, tees, and more from The North Face

Shop The North Face's Winter Sale now.

Though the sale features discounts on graphic hoodies and tees, The North Face's Winter Sale also includes 30% off select jackets, pants, and other cold-weather gear for the whole family. Stock is limited, so even though the sale doesn't end until January 20, make sure to act fast if you see something you like. 

Get up to 60% off at Everlane

Shop the Everlane Goodbye 2020 sale now.

We've reviewed a lot of clothing and accessories from Everlane and have collected many favorites over time, so we're constantly checking the sale section to see if our favorites have been discounted. Right now, Everlane is currently holding its "Goodbye 2020" event with styles discounted up to 60% off.

Get up to 70% off at M.Gemi

Shop the M.Gemi End of Season Sale now.

M.Gemi having a sale may already sound too good to be true, but right now, you can snag up to 70% off sitewide. It's an End of Season sale, so it's likely not going to last long. We've tested and reviewed a handful of M.Gemi styles, including the Corsa boot and the Felize loafer.

Get up to 60% off at Wayfair

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For furniture and decor for every room of the house, Wayfair has you covered. Right now the online retailer is holding its annual End-of-Year Clearance sale, during which you can snag some pieces for your home at up to 60% off.  Learn more about shopping for furniture at Wayfair here.

Get up to 75% off sale items at Too Faced

Shop the Too Faced Holiday Hangover sale now.

Too Faced is offering shoppers up to 75% off sale items during its Holiday Hangover sale. Eyeshadow palettes,  primers, lip glosses, and much more are deeply discounted, making it a great time to shop for yourself or for gifts. Though it's not included in the sale, one of our top eyeshadow palette picks is from Too Faced, and you can definitely find similarly pigmented shadows discounted. Shipping is free on orders $75+.

• Finding your ideal career path is less about looking for a "dream job" and more about assessing the day-to-day tasks you enjoy doing.
• Below are 15 online courses, books, and free resources to help you find what you like, take steps towards a career transition, or improve a current job.
• Read more: At the start of this year, I could barely sell my writing. These 10 online classes, books, and podcasts helped me get published in The New York Times and land 2 literary agents.
• Sign up for Insider Reviews' weekly newsletter for more buying advice and great deals.

A few years ago, I was having what some call a quarter-life crisis, but, ironically, lacked all the trademark signs of chaos normally associated with a true catastrophe. I was in a stable job that paid me a perfectly livable salary. I generally liked what I did, got to work in NYC, and had college students email me from time to time asking how I got my exact position. It was all good, and I was wretchedly unhappy.

Simply leaving my job for a different company within the same industry (and lightly boosting my income) didn't seem like it would help — there was a deeper issue beyond slight changes in compensation or company benefits. And fully switching fields or going to grad school felt scary, too — I knew I'd risk making an enormous commitment to start from scratch, with no guarantee it wouldn't make me feel even more stuck in the end.

Little by little, I started to look up resources that could address this problem, which I learned is actually extremely common. Reading books like "Designing Your Life" or combing through Ask a Manager blog posts helped me slowly dissect my role to discover which parts I actually loved (and which ones I really didn't), as well as reassess my job hunting process as a whole.

I started to dig beyond our society's common (and tired) refrain of "dream jobs" and "following your passion," which I realized led me further away from good, fulfilling work. Several years (plus more books, blogs, and online courses) later, I feel like I finally zigzagged my way into a job that makes all those pieces fit together, but I also wouldn't have known where to look if I hadn't taken the time to really understand what I want from my career in the long-term. 

It can be extra hard to get unstuck in your career during a pandemic when many of us are at home and day-to-day life can feel repetitious. But it can also be a good time to gently explore the deeper aspects of what you want to do, beyond currently existing job titles or perk-filled companies. There is also the strong possibility of new, more flexible jobs in the future, one of which might be a great fit for you — if you know to look for it.

Here are 15 online courses, books, and free resources to help you figure out what you want to do, take actionable steps to break into a field, and/or make the best of your current work situation.

For figuring out what you want to do

One of the hardest parts of a job hunt is knowing where to even look. What if your current work feels fulfilling and worthwhile, but your hours or pay don't feel sustainable? What if your ideal job requires a master's degree or Ph.D., and you just can't swing school right now? Or what if you've been hustling to get to a certain career milestone for years, and though you're totally burned out, are reluctant to quit this late in the game? 

Luckily, there are many classes and books that can help you unpack a job into digestible pieces, so that you can not only make a decision based on what you like to do, but what will also keep you financially afloat.

1. A course on figuring out your whole life — including your career

Based on the bestselling book of the same name, this course takes a design thinking approach to structuring your life (which, undoubtedly, will greatly tie into your career). In over four hours of video content, Stanford professors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans walk you through how to balance your career with the rest of your life, as well as figure out discrepancies between your "work view" (what you want out of a job) and "life view" (what brings you fulfillment). 

2. A self-paced, free class to brainstorm job ideas

A spinoff of "Designing Your Life," this free Stanford course takes the same principles and focuses specifically on your career. Self-paced and non-linear, this is an easy class to hop around in and explore whenever you feel like it, with personal reflection exercises to help you brainstorm some ideas at your own speed.

3. A manageable video class addressing your biggest questions

In this three-hour video course, thought leader Chris Croft helps you answer some tough questions about your career by first acknowledging that it's normal to have these thoughts in the first place. You'll go over the pros and cons of freelancing or starting a business, figure out what work-life balance means for you, and find a middle ground between a boring (but stable) job and an exciting (but risky) one.

4. A course that'll help you pick a lasting future job

If you're worried your career aspirations may not realistically align with job prospects of the future, this University of Exeter class is designed to help you pick a path you feel confident in. By understanding new trends and developments like 3D printing, cryptocurrency, and globalization, you'll not only narrow down your search: you can spot growing opportunities to invest your time in right now.

5. A free class on how to be adaptable and flexible in changing job markets

Meant to be a career-focused companion to Coursera's popular "Learning How to Learn" course, this free McMaster University's course teaches you how to embrace change (especially in the context of rapidly morphing job markets), make informed career choices, and adopt a learning mindset so that you remain flexible in a world that's constantly shifting. 

For creating an action plan

If you generally know what you like to do, it still doesn't mean you know exactly how to get there, whether it's advancing in your current role or switching careers. Unfortunately, a lot of popular career advice is outdated, and navigating the world of LinkedIn applications can feel like a full-time job on its own. Luckily, there are plenty of great classes to help get you up to speed with things like resume writing and interviewing, and just as many on how to set up a job-seeking action plan that actually works.

6. A classic bestseller on the current job market, updated annually

A bestselling book for over 50 years, "What Color Is Your Parachute?" is updated every year to provide the most up-to-date information about the current job market (here's the one for 2020, for example). Inside, you'll find the most relevant tips on putting together a sharp resume, using social media to your advantage, and investing time in fields that are actually growing. 

7. A course on all the trending career skills that'll help you stick out

Led by the UK's Coventry University, this course teaches you how to spot the skills you'll need for future work, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. From there, you'll learn how to put your best foot forward in applications while also troubleshooting any areas you might need extra work on so that you can feel confident that your job-hunting approach will yield results.

8. A short class on developing clear career goals

Successful entrepreneur Sarah Prevette teaches this 27-minute video course on laying out a logical career plan. Using design thinking, you'll evaluate which work you're best suited for (and like to do), assess stakeholders (whether it's your current boss or an ideal future employer), and put together a list of actionable steps you can take to reaching your career goals.

9. A robust course covering everything you need to know about applying to jobs and interviewing right now

With over 7,100 reviews and a 4.5 rating, this course is taught through Eazl, an online school used by teams at Tesla, Harvard, the World Bank, and more. You'll learn how to use the right keywords to get your resume spotted, create an eye-catching LinkedIn profile, and create opportunities throughout your job search. If you already have a good idea of where you want to apply (but know you'll be up against hundreds or thousands of applicants), this course can help.

10. A multi-course program to help you learn broader career skills no matter what field you're in

If you have the time and want to gain an in-depth understanding of what career success means in today's world, this 10-course specialization may be worth pursuing. Taught through the University of California, Irvine, it covers important areas such as teamwork, time management, communication, problem-solving, and negotiation (to name a few), and 61% of students say they started a new career after finishing this specialization. It's free for seven days with a trial, then $39 a month to keep learning.

For improving your current job

Maybe you know exactly what you want to do in the future but simply can't leave your job right now. That doesn't mean you have to settle for a less-than-stellar work experience. There are plenty of resources that can help you improve your present situation, whether it's inspiring your team, dealing with difficult coworkers, or changing your mindset. 

11. An iconic blog for all your career-related queries

The Ask a Manager blog, led by IRL manager Alison Green (who also has a podcast and several books), is a phenomenal resource for pretty much any job question you may have, no matter how niche it may seem. Feel confused about how long cover letters should be? Not sure if what your boss did was fair or appropriate? There's an answer for everything, and if there isn't, you can always submit your question. It's great for validating your experiences as an employee or job-seeker, and can help you find small solutions to make your current experience better. 

12. A fun program to help you be a better remote manager through laughter

If you're in any kind of management position (or just want to learn about what makes teams motivated and collaborative), this professional program teaches you comedy techniques to boost closeness even when you're all working remotely. By unlocking your own sense of humor, you'll learn how to bring levity to all kinds of work situations, which will make you a more effective, engaging, and empathetic boss — and lead to all kinds of opportunities in the future. While the full program is $186.30, you can individually audit each class for free.

13. A few Berkeley courses that teach you how to be happier at work

Led by Berkeley, this three-course program covers research-backed approaches to building a happier, less-stressed workplace. Whether you lead a team or want to improve your own work experience, you'll learn how to foster more cooperative work relationships, curb burnout before it happens, and look at each conflict with empathy and emotional intelligence. It can all add up to making your job so much more manageable, and perhaps even more fun. This full certificate program is $537.30, but you can audit individual classes for free.

14. A popular podcast about career, business, and living a well-rounded life

On our list of e-learning resources we loved in 2020, this show is much more than a business and career podcast. Famed hedge-fund manager, entrepreneur, and author James Altucher interviews guests on a range of topics related to both personal and professional success, from negotiating a higher salary to practicing real self-love. It solidifies the point that our self-esteem and career success are tightly interlinked, and these talks are sure to leave you with some inspiration on how to enhance your life as a whole.

15. A series of super-short interviews with the most successful people out there

With a LinkedIn Learning subscription, you can watch these super-short episodes of LinkedIn Editor-in-Chief Daniel Roth asking successful people for quick, digestible career advice. Guests range from famous CEOs like Jamie Dimon and Indra Nooyi to celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Priyanka Chopra, and Judd Apatow. Episodes rarely exceed five minutes but provide a great dose of career inspiration, whether you plan to stay put at your job or want to prepare for a new career.

• Representation matters: Exposure to different people and beliefs encourages empathy, acceptance, and perspective-taking.
• When you encourage diversity in your children's books early, you facilitate their social-emotional intelligence. 
• Here are 13 children's books that feature protagonists of color and explore themes like empowerment, sharing, empathy, and cultural pride.

Undoing generations of systemic, damaging attitudes toward people of color is an enormous undertaking that is paramount to their health, safety, and quality of life. One small way you can contribute to this ongoing movement is by encouraging your children to talk and think about race. My family lives in a diverse city, but I still feel day-to-day as though we are not always exposed to or doing our most to talk about diversity or racism. This is why I make sure my children's library is full of books that feature protagonists of color, so they see and hear the things that make us similar and different.

This list includes some of the books that my children — almost 2 and 5 years old — enjoy reading. Sometimes a character's background is central to the story. Other times, it's not a focus at all.

The value of representation in your child's library is substantial. These stories frequently explore salient themes like empowerment, sharing, empathy, mental health, and cultural pride. Unlike other popular children's books, the main characters in these stories are more likely to be portrayed in STEM or leadership roles. And these books give voice to authors and illustrators of color who are typically underrepresented in the literary world. There are 11 and 5 on this list, respectively. 

The books below are diverse, informative, and vividly illustrated — all the best things a picture book for children can be. Some of the titles came into our lives organically and have been enjoyed over and over. Some are new acquisitions that were thoroughly researched based on recommendations by teachers. They were all chosen because of the beauty of their characters, inside and out. If your toddler can handle non-board books, introduce these (and others like them!) as early as you can.

"Thank You, Omu" by Oge Mora

"Thank You, Omu" by Oge Mora, available at Amazon for $14.89

This is a beautifully told and illustrated story of Omu (pronounced AH-moo), who makes her best stew ever and then shares it with neighbors and friends as they drop in one by one for a taste. When there is no stew left for Omu, an impromptu feast is born, with special dishes from all of her thankful stew recipients. I love the images featured in a paper cutout style, and the way Omu's kitchen plays against the city backdrop.

"Leila in Saffron" by Rukhsanna Guidroz

"Leila in Saffron" by Rukhsanna Guidroz available at Amazon for $11.99

Leila is at her grandmother's house and on the search for things that make her feel good about herself. She finds that the love of her family, the pride of cooking a good meal, and the beauty of her grandmother's saffron scarf all make her feel special. A glossary at the end helps with the pronunciation of some Arabic words woven throughout the bright colors and patterns of the story.

"Mae Among the Stars" by Roda Ahmed

"Mae Among the Stars" by Roda Ahmed, available at Amazon for $13.49 and Barnes & Noble for $15.99

A quiet tale about real-life astronaut Mae Jemison's early childhood challenges of asserting her desire to go to space, I love this book for its spotlight on an incredibly smart, driven woman in STEM almost as much as its message that if you "dream it, believe it, and work hard for it, anything is possible." A page at the end offers a brief bio of the real Mae's lifelong achievements, solidifying that mantra as fact.

"Alma and How She Got Her Name" by Juana Martinez-Neal

"Alma and How She Got Her Name" by Juana Martinez-Neal, available at Amazon for $13.99 and Barnes & Noble for $15.29

Alma doesn't love that her name has so many, well, names! But by the end of this book, she is excited to know all of the fascinating ancestors she shares them with, and it is a delight to take that journey with her. Combined with the illustrations that feel like flashbacks to the time each ancestor was alive, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn briefly about different Latinx traditions and histories.

"Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall

"Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall, available at Amazon for $13.76 and Barnes & Noble for $15.49

It's not always easy for kids to process their emotions, and fear is a BIG one. Jabari's dad is thoughtful and supportive while Jabari reckons with the high diving board, and we get to see how he eventually meets his goal from different perspectives at the pool. A quick and easy read about perseverance, this would be a great tool for talking to your little one about confronting their own fears.

"Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story" by Kevin Noble Maillard

"Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story" by Kevin Noble Maillard available at Amazon for $16.99 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99

A Best Picture Book on about a dozen lists in 2019 and 2020, Maillard and illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal (yes, from No. 4 on this list!) combine simple prose with round, doughy, subtle depictions of all the new and old elements that make fry bread special: color, time, history, art, place, and you, among other things. A deep look at the cultural roots of fry bread, this story is abstract in many ways and the illustrations emanate so much love that even younger toddlers can see that sharing really is caring.

"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats

"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats available at Amazon for $13.49 and Barnes & Noble for $16.49

Quiet Peter has quite a day enjoying the new snow that has blanketed his neighborhood, but I don't have to tell you that since this book has been a classic since it was first published in 1962. Enjoy this sweet tale of a boy on a snowy city adventure with your kids, or without.

"A Big Mooncake for Little Star" by Grace Lin

"A Big Mooncake for Little Star" by Grace Lin available at Amazon for $11.59 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99

Written as a way to share the importance of the Asian holiday Mid Autumn Moon Festival with Lin's own daughter, the focus of this story is Little Star's love affair with the big mooncake her mama made. When Mama eventually discovers that the once full moon(cake) has been whittled down to a crescent before being completely consumed, you can almost feel her quiet joy. The black pages of this book create an all-consuming backdrop for the bright yellow of Little Star's pajamas, blanket, and later, her crumbs.

"Sofia Valdez, Future Prez" by Andrea Beaty

"Sofia Valdez, Future Prez" by Andrea Beaty available at Amazon for $15.28 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99

Sofia serves as a wonderful example for young friends wondering how they can make a difference in their communities, and how to motivate others to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. I love the intersectionality of this story and others in this series from Beaty and illustrator David Roberts, including Ada Twist, Scientist, which features a young black girl who loves solving mysteries in science.

"We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga" by Traci Sorell

"We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga" by Traci Sorell available at Amazon for $14.49

This is a very loaded book that features Cherokee vocabulary words, including their phonetic pronunciations, symbols, and English translations. Told chronologically, this story and the accompanying illustrations depict how a Cherokee family adapts with the changing seasons, including what they celebrate, eat, plant, and create. Younger children will love looking at all the busy people, while older children may have an easier time relating to the book's discussion of gratitude.

"The King of Kindergarten" by Derrick Barnes

"The King of Kindergarten" by Derrick Barnes, available at Amazon for $11.50

This bright, fun story piles on themes of self-esteem about as high as they can go. Barnes' prose helps young friends feel confident and ready for kindergarten, with palpable excitement about the day. He offers a brief glimpse at the structure of a real-life school day, which I also love for my almost-kindergartener. Modeled by the eponymous King, this is a strong lesson in self-confidence, via an author who has made a career of empowering young black children through his literature.

"The Proudest Blue" by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali

"The Proudest Blue" by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali, available at Amazon for $15.78 or Barnes & Noble for $15.99

Muhammad is known largely for being the first woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics, and now she can add storyteller to her list of achievements. Unsurprisingly, this story is all about pride, in yourself and your heritage, as our main character, Faizah, watches her sister wear her first hijab on the first day of a new school year. I love the delicate descriptions of the experience of wearing your first hijab, and the bright, almost emotional illustrations that are paired with them.

"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña

"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña, available at Amazon for $14.51 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99

Precocious CJ has a lot of big, important questions for his grandmother during the trip back to their neighborhood after church. His experience is different (and in many cases, more difficult) than others', but his grandmother replies with optimism and her deep laugh. CJ has many opportunities to interact with a wide variety of people — the blind person who hears and smells their way around the city, for example — and it is not lost on me the value of having conversations about privilege and perspective with my own city babies. This author/illustrator team released another subtly challenging story in 2018, "Carmela Full of Wishes," also worth checking out.

Ad holding company Interpublic Group has launched a consulting firm called Black Glass to help chief marketing officers grow their businesses while fending off consulting firms that are encroaching on agencies' turf.

IPG said it's invested close to $5 million into the consulting group, whose pitch is that it can help clients like BMW make fast decisions using IPG's data hub Acxiom, other data sources, financial modeling, and a network of internal and external experts.

Black Glass is trying to capitalize on the rise of data's role in business, the expansion of the CMO role, and clients' shift to project-based work.

It uses a tiered membership model and works on timelines lasting six to eight weeks as opposed to traditional consulting firms charging hourly rates for months-long projects, said former Deloitte Digital exec and Black Glass's founder and CEO Katie Klumper.

"The holding companies are really focused on advertising, which is only about 25% of a CMO's job," Klumper recently told Business Insider. "There's a whole 75% as it relates to distribution, pricing, product assortment and growth strategies that all then impact the advertising. The most questions we get from CMOs are around investment strategy and structure."

Here's how the firm is pitching itself to advertisers to help IPG compete with Accenture, Deloitte and other consultancies:

Black Glass sees opportunity in helping CMOs scrambling to navigate the pandemic and the evolving business landscape.

It says it can help CMOs increase growth, reduce costs, and deliver results.

Its process includes using data from IPG's data hub Acxiom and other sources and using financial modeling to develop frameworks.

It also promises to execute rapidly, and seeks to be compensated based on performance.

Black Glass says it can help with near-term goals like advertising and automation to longer-term ones like customer acquisition and loyalty.

Its main offering is optimizing marketing for efficient revenue growth and driving long-term value.

Specifically, Black Glass says it can help translate consumer data to help CMOs make key business decisions.

The pitch breaks down how Black Glass can help CMOs develop a lean marketing model that delivers on growth while cutting costs.

Its hypothesis is that marketers should identify areas of focus, as this is what increases growth while creating savings.

By focusing on certain areas, Black Glass can drive savings of up to 22% and efficiency by 1.5x, according to Klumper.

Black Glass works in 6-8 week sprints.

Black Glass summarizes its benefits as access to data and a network of experts.

This year, investors poured more than $4 billion into EdTech startups by August, according to Crunchbase, rising to $9.7 billion by November, Wired reports.

When the pandemic forced many students into full-time remote learning last spring, people begun reconsidering the value of a traditional college education in its present form. This helped spur the growth of online education options across the educational ecosystem, not just to replace classrooms but to deliver virtual alternatives to every part of college life. 

CB Insights referred to the phenomenon as the "Unbundling of Harvard."

The 64 startups on this list that aim to replace or amend the traditional college or graduate school experience have raised at least $1.2 billion in funding this year, according to our calculations by public funding records in Crunchbase.  

Among this list there are enough digital offerings for students to get an education, and all that it entails, without ever needing to step foot on a campus.

The companies are listed in order of total funding raised, according to Crunchbase.

Coursera: online learning from top universities

Total funding raised: $443.1 million (latest a $130 million Series F round in July 2020)

What it does: Founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, Coursera's online learning platform for higher education boasts 73 million learners from around the world. With a partnership base of more than 200 of the world's top universities and industry educators, Coursera offers courses, specializations, certificates, and degree programs. Includes Coursera for Business for corporate training and Coursera for Government to train government employees.

Udemy: 130,000 online video courses

Total funding raised: $273 million (latest a $50 million Series F round in November 2020)

What it does: Online learning platform with more than 130,000 online video courses, including a range of topics such as Python, Excel, web development, JavaScript, data science, AWS certification, and drawing. Site also offers Udemy for Business, with more than 5,000 courses aimed at corporate training purposes. Marketplace also connects students to instructors, with experts having a way to share their knowledge with the world.

Chegg: study assistant platform

Total funding raised: $252.3 million pre-IPO; now listed on NYSE: CHGG

What it does: Student-first connected learning platform providing books, study guides, writing assistance, flashcards, math solvers, tutors, and internships.

Everfi: building crucial workplace skills

Total funding raised: $251 million (latest a $190 million Series D round in April 2017)

What it does: Digital education platforms and networks with programs for workplace training, financial education, higher education, and community engagement. Company seeks to bring together the public and private sectors to change how education is delivered and also equips learners with the skills they need to become tomorrow's leaders.

Udacity: online tech training

Total funding raised: $235 million (latest a $75 million debt financing round in November 2020)

What it does: Online learning platform with a variety of programs, including data science, programming, business, artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among others. Services offered for individuals, enterprises, and government employees. Curriculum is designed with industry partners, and includes project-based, active learning modules.

MPower Financing: funding and supporting international students

Total funding raised: $229.5 million (latest a $9 million venture round in June 2020)

What it does: Student loans and funding for international students, through a partnership with investors and universities. System includes loans, scholarships, immigration support, and job search preparation services. Works with leading universities and schools in the US and Canada.

Grammarly: AI writing assistant

Total funding raised: $200 million (latest a $90 million round in October 2019)

What it does: AI-powered writing assistant that helps people with their writing, corrects mistakes, and helps writers find the perfect words in their text messages, emails, and apps.

ApplyBoard: pairs international students with ideal programs

Total funding raised: 242.6 million Canadian ($186.7 million)

What it does: Connects international students and recruitment partners to educational opportunities at institutions around the world. Students get matched and apply to programs and schools that align with their background, skills, and interests; schools diversify their campuses by attracting qualified students from countries around the world.

Duolingo: language learning through games

Total funding raised: $183.3 million (latest a $35 million Series H round in November 2020)

What it does: Language-learning app and platform that utilizes gamification to personalize lessons. The company provides a version specifically for schools and includes English proficiency testing for English language learners.

Handshake: job search tool for students

Total funding raised: $154 million (latest an $80 million Series D round in October 2020)

What it does: College career network that helps students and recent graduates find their next opportunity. Includes personalized job recommendations, virtual recruiting events, and a list of companies hiring. Students can sign up via an .edu email address.

Lambda School: ISA tech bootcamp

Total funding raised: $122.1 million (latest a $74 million Series C round in August 2020)

What it does: Online learning platform for data science and fullstack web development that uses an income share agreement (ISA) approach. Students pay no tuition upfront and agree to pay back 17% of their income post-graduation for two years, but only once they're making $50,000 or more. If they don't find a high-paying job after 60 months of deferred payments, they pay nothing.

Examity: secure and fair online exam proctoring

Total funding raised: $122 million (latest a $90 million private equity round in April 2019)

What it does: Online exam proctoring company. The learning validation system works with colleges, universities, employers, and certification providers to create secure, high-quality educational experiences — and to ensure that learners who "play by the rules" are honored for their work.

General Assembly: in-person and online coding bootcamps

Total funding raised: $119.5 million

What it does: Founded in 2011, General Assembly uses experiential education for in-demand skills, including web development, data, design, and business topics. Full-time, part-time, short-form, and on-demand courses are included, as well as free "learn to code" programs. Includes locations around the world, although at the moment all courses are conducted online due to COVID-19.

Top Hat: virtual classroom assistant for teachers

Total funding raised: $104.4 million (latest a $55 million Series D round in February 2020)

What it does: The Top Hat platform provides easy-to-use tools that let instructors engage a classroom, adopt, and autor next-generation interactive textbooks and create assignments on the fly with securely administered testing. Tools include virtual classroom streaming, lecture recordings, attendance, polls and quizzes, live chat and discussions, and labs, among others.

Course Hero: subscription to 40 million tutoring and study materials

Total funding raised: $97.4 million (latest a $70 million Series B round in August 2020)

What it does: For-profit online learning platform that enables students to subscribe or contribute their own resources to earn a Netflix-like subscription to more than 40 million course materials, tutoring, and support resources. More than 50,000 faculty have joined the educator community to share resources, collaborate with faculty in other fields, and develop new strategies for instruction.

ResearchGate: network for sharing and discovering research papers

Total funding raised: $87.6 million (latest a $52.6 million Series D round in February 2017)

What it does: A professional network for scientists and researchers, ResearchGate claims more than 19 million members from around the world who share, discover, and discuss research.

Graduway: virtual community of alumni, students, and prospects

Total funding raised: $75.8 million (latest a $60 million venture round in July 2019)

What it does: Graduway offers a virtual community that enrolls prospects, mentors students, engages alumni, and cultivates donors for colleges and universities.

zSpace: VR learning for sciences and tech

Total funding raised: $76.6 million (latest was $10 million in May 2019)

What it does: Learning system that teaches through augmented and virtual-reality experiences. The company supports a number of applications, including STEM, advanced sciences, conceptual physical science, K-12, career technical education, and post-secondary education. This includes certificate, undergraduate, graduate, and professional school levels.

OpenClassrooms: employment services and career coaching

Total funding raised: $69.7 million (latest a $60 million Series B round in May 2018)

What it does: OpenClassrooms is an online platform that offers top quality, education-to-employment programs and career coaching services for students around the world. The platform's Career Paths include weekly, one-on-one mentorship sessions with a dedicated professional in each field, supporting students through their studies.

Brainly: collaborative study community

Total funding raised: $68.5 million (latest a $30 million Series C round in July 2019)

What it does: Students and others combine their strengths and talents to tackle problems together through Brainly. The site includes 350 million unique users monthly and more than 2,000 moderators that help students answer questions and give explanations for the answers. 

Everspring: powering online university programs

Total funding raised: $63.5 million (latest a $3 million venture round in November 2020)

What it does: Platform builds online and hybrid courses that deliver engagement free from traditional constraints. Includes CourseBuilder for the Canvas learning management system and Atlas Publisher, a proprietary, mobile-first, online content platform.

Quizlet: quiz-based study materials

Total funding raised: $62 million (latest a $30 million Series C round in May 2020)

What it does: Free and subscription-based online learning platform that uses activities and games to help students practice and master what they're learning. With a variety of different quizlets and subjects, students can use Quizlet to enhance what they're learning in classes.

Pearson/Smart Sparrow: digital learning platform for educators

Total funding raised: $23.5 million prior to $25 million acquisition by Pearson in January 2020

What it does: Digital learning platform that lets educators deliver digital learning experiences that lead to better learner outcomes. Also includes studio services that help educational institutions with their digital-learning initiatives. With the acquisition, Pearson will use Sparrow to accelerate the rollout of its Global Learning Platform.

Codecademy: hands-on coding bootcamp

URL: https://www.codecademy.com/

Total funding raised: $47.5 million (latest $30 million in July 2016)

What it does: Free and subscription-based platform that aims to teach people how to learn to code. From programming languages to subjects like web development, data science, machine learning, and even game development, Codecademy offers a complete catalog of offerings.

RedShelf: digital textbook provider

Total funding raised: $43.1 million (latest a $10 million venture round in October 2020)

What it does: With almost one million digital titles, RedShelf aims to provide textbooks at a fraction of the cost of physical copies. Books can be accessed from any device and includes built-in study tools, such as highlighting, notetaking, and creating flash cards.

Noodle: college or graduate school matching

Total funding raised: $36.3 million (latest an $8 million Series A round in January 2017)

What it does: Organization that helps students find the right school, college, or graduate program, along with the best path to get in and pay for it. The group partners with dozens of top universities, helping them use technology to lower tuition and improve access to their programs. The site brings together expert counselors, schools, real-time information, and helpful tools to manage the process from the first web search to the first day of class.

Academia.edu: free academic papers

Total funding raised: $33.8 million (latest a $16 million Series C round in March 2019)

What it does: Online platform that lets academics share papers with millions of people across the world for free. Users have uploaded 22 million papers, and more than 102 million academics, professionals, and students have read papers on the platform every month.

Babbel: language learning app

Total funding raised: $33.3 million (latest a $22 million Series C round in July 2015)

What it does: Language learning app, with millions of active subscribers. The courses are geared to teach language skills you can use right away, with a short path to real-life conversations. Offers lessons in 13 different languages.

Simplilearn: 400 online tech bootcamps and certifications

Total funding raised: $31 million (latest was $3 million in debt financing in September 2016)

What it does: Online bootcamp and certification training providers, with more than 400 courses and 2,000-plus qualified trainers. Topics include data science and business analytics, AI and machine learning, DevOps, cybersecurity, and IT service and architecture, among others.

mmhmm: virtual classroom app

Total funding raised: $30.5 million (latest a $21 million Series A in October 2020)

What it does: This app is a virtual camera application used to create virtual rooms, backdrops, and presentations during video-conferencing calls. From an educator's standpoint, teachers can use this to create more interesting virtual classrooms. Premium services ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year) are being offered free to students and educators for one year via verified school email addresses.

Fullbridge: bootcamps, online modules, and courses

Total funding raised: $27.9 million (latest $15.4 million in June 2015)

What it does: Aims to bridge the knowledge and skills gap between educational institutions and employers. Online platform includes short, powerful, and affordable learning experiences through bootcamps, online modules, and full-on courses.

irl: online college social events

Total funding raised: $27 million (latest at $16 million Series B round in September 2020)

What it does: Social planning application that keeps users connected with each other. The On Campus section lets you view and discover online college events (enabled via student email address). Follow friends, favorite TV shows, livestreamers, podcasters, and more while you're stuck at home.

Jolt: subscription-based live classes

Total funding raised: $23.3 million (two seed rounds, Series A in January 2020)

What it does: Subscription-based business program with live, interactive classes taught by world-class experts. Classes are tailored to allow for discussions and group collaboration with up to 18 other professionals. 

Hivebrite: alumni community management platform

Total funding raised: $23.1 million (latest a $20 million Series A round in January 2020)

What it does: An all-in-one software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to help businesses build and manage their own community website. Education version allows universities to boost alumni placement statistics, facilitate fundraising, foster a sense of belonging, and offer real-time analytics about the alumni community.

InterviewBit: tech interview prep

Total funding raised: $21.5 million (latest a $20 million Series round in January 2020)

What it does: The platform assists programmers or recent graduates with a series of coding interview questions for different technologies or companies (including Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Google), as well as connects graduates to companies.

Busuu: language learning with personalized study plans

Total funding raised: €14 million ($16.7 million)

What it does: Language learning app with more than 1,000 lessons created by expert linguists, enhanced with machine learning technology such as personalized study plans and speech recognition. Connecting with native speakers gives instant feedback on written and  spoken lessons. Offers lessons in 12 different languages

BibliU: eTextbook platform

Total funding raised: $16.2 million ($10.6 million Series A in April and August 2020)

What it does: Originally spun out of the University of Oxford Innovation Fund, London-based BibliU has developed a modern eTextbook platform that integrates fully with library and university systems to fill the gap in e-reading and e-distribution markets. With support from more than 130,000 universities in the UK and US, the system aims to give students easy tools for studying, including instantaneous search in content and images.

Class for Zoom (ClassEDU): virtual classroom software

Total funding raised: $16 million (seed round in September 2020)

What it does: Virtual classroom software developer that helps teachers initiate live assignments, quizzes, and tests for students. System aims to fill in the gaps between what teachers can do in live classrooms in a virtual environment, such as take attendance, host group presentations and one-on-one discussions, watch videos, and more. Currently in early access.

Osso VR: virtual reality training for healthcare professionals

Total funding raised: $16 million (latest $14 million Series A in September 2020)

What it does: Virtual-reality training platform that lets surgeons and other healthcare professionals learn and review medical procedures. The company says the platform is used by more than 20 teaching hospitals and 11 medical device companies across 20 countries. Johnson & Johnson Institute recently launched a partnership with Osso VR to provide headsets and systems to doctors around the world.

ABA English: 1,500 live English classes

Total funding raised: $15.4 million (latest a $12 million venture round in May 2016)

What it does: Online platform that teaches English with more than 1,500 live classes around the world for a flat rate. Founded in 2006, the company aims to reinvent how people learn English through the use of video. The platform combines technology with a unique natural method and human interactions with certified teachers and tutors.

Engageli: boosts and tracks student engagement online

Total funding raised: $14.5 million (seed round in October 2020)

What it does: Digital learning platform that enables higher education institutions to provide students with an inclusive and engaging learning experience while also integrating with existing learning management and student information systems. Built-in engagement drivers includes quizzes, polls, and content sharing. System tracks student activity both individually and as a group, providing instructors with insights in real time and after the class ends.

AstrumU: predictive career pathing

Total funding raised: $13.2 million (latest was $7.7 million Series A round in July 2020)

What it does: Aims to close the gap between education and industry by helping students, colleges, universities, and employers identify the most predictable pathways to take from education to high-impact employment. The company provides a predictive individual learning score for every lifelong learner so they can invest in educational experiences to maximize outcomes while opening up opportunities for everyone via a level playing field.

Teachable: 100,000 teachers and coaches

Total funding raised: $12.5 million (latest a $4 million Series A round in April 2018)

What it does: More than 100,000 creators use Teachable to share their knowledge. Teachable allows anyone to create an online course or coaching business with a powerful, yet simple, all-in-one platform. Learners can pay for courses or take free courses through the platform.

Podium Education: skills training in partnership with universities

Total funding raised: $12 million (Series A in October 2020)

What it does: Online learning platform that partners with colleges and universities to deliver online programs that provide soft-skilled students with in-demand hard skills for better employment opportunities. Offerings can be packaged as individual courses, summer bootcamps, full minors, or an online semester.

EduPristine: India-based online training and certification

Total funding raised: $11.5 million

What it does: Founded in 2008, EduPristine offers online training and international certifications in finance, accounting, analytics, marketing, and healthcare. Includes an online platform and network of classrooms across India and caters to self-paced learning, online learning, and classroom modes.

SV Academy: tech sales training

Total funding raised: $11.5 million

What it does: Looking to help empower underrepresented job seekers to forge a path into tech, SV Academy provides online tech sales training and fellowship opportunities.

AdmitHub: admissions chatbot

Total funding raised: $11.3 million (latest a $7.5 million Series A round in January 2020)

What it does: Student communication platform powered by artificial intelligence, the AdmitHub chatbots use natural language processing to help answer student questions for admissions departments at colleges and universities.

AMOpportunities: connecting medical students with clinical opportunities

Total funding raised: $10.2 million (latest a $4.4 million venture round in November 2020)

What it does: Connects medical students, graduates, and professionals with US clinical experiences. The platform gives opportunities to explore and apply for clinical experiences at more than 200 clinical sites across 70-plus medical specialties and subspecialties, and also provides support services, such as visa and housing assistance. Site also includes virtual rotations to train students in telehealth scenarios.

Kira Talent: standardized admissions tool

Total funding raised: $8.2 million

What it does: Holistics admissions platform for higher education that assesses applicants for program fit and key traits like leadership, critical thinking, and communication skills. Aims to give every applicant equal opportunity by building a standardized assessment that reduces bias in the admissions process.

Studyportals: international study platform

Total funding raised: €5.3 million ($6.3 million)

What it does: International study research platform that lets students find and choose university degree programs from anywhere in the world. Began as a spin-off from large international study associations and grew from there. Includes other portals, such as Bachelorsportal, Mastersportal, and PhDportal, among others.

Uwill: online counseling for students and university staff

Total funding raised: $3.3 million (September 2020)

What it does: Teletherapy for students and employees of colleges and universities. The service incorporates technologies that facilitate best-in-class video and message-based counseling within a secure environment. The goal is to create a two-sided platform that connects students with experienced mental health professionals for when the need arises.

Studapart: seamless student housing

Total funding raised: €2.3 million ($2.75 million); latest round in June 2018

What it does: Student housing rentals platform, with bookings from one to 24 months with certified lessors. Platform connects students with landlords to make the house and apartment rental process more seamless.

Iris.AI: artificial intelligence assistant for research papers

Total funding raised: $2.5 million

What it does: Via an artificial intelligence science assistant, Iris.ai uses natural language processing to review massive collections of research papers or patents for academia or research and development groups.

iPleaders: legal training

Total funding raised: Undisclosed funding in January 2019 and equity crowdfunding round in October 2019

What it does: Based in New Delhi, India, iPleaders offers more than 60 in-depth online courses through LawSikho.com and top universities. Legal courses for corporations are also offered to fulfill internal training requirements, as well as colleges that want to train students for the emerging needs of the legal industry.

Oxford Medical Simulation: VR medical training

Total funding raised: Two rounds of undisclosed seed funding (latest by Qventures in May 2019)

What it does: Virtual-reality medical training for students, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals with headsets. Learners can practice in immersive, fully interactive clinical scenarios as if in real life, and receive personalized feedback. The NHS England diabetes team has partnered with the company to train doctors to practice VR medical emergencies to improve care for diabetes patients in the real world.

Reculta: campus recruiting tool

Total funding raised: Undisclosed seed round in June 2018

What it does: Digitizes campus placements for educational institutions and recruiters through a SaaS and controlled marketplace model. Through technology and data analytics, the platform seeks to connect multiple stakeholders with one platform, minimize recruiting costs, and record, track, and benchmark data to gain further insights.

Omegafi: creating efficient and effective Greek organizations

Total funding raised: Undisclosed private equity round (December 2015).

What it does: Tools for fraternities and sororities that help them optimize operational efficiency in order to build thriving, fiscally sound communities across generations of their memberships. The company strives to make fraternity and sorority chapters as well as national and international headquarters run efficiently and effectively.

Fullstack Academy: full-time and part-time coding bootcamps

Total funding raised: Undisclosed seed round funding in 2012

What it does: Offers full-time and part-time coding bootcamps in New York and Chicago. With COVID-19, the academy has moved to its online platform, with live instruction and project-based curriculum. The company aims to teach cutting-edge software development in 17 to 28 weeks to give users the skills to get hired as a software engineer.

Law Dojo: study games for law students

Total funding raised: No apparent funding raised other than revenue from the apps.

What it does: A family of legal game apps for law students and "legal aficionados" that let you learn about law in a fun way. Free, limited versions available, with full versions available via Google Play or Apple App Store. Began as a side project for Margaret Hagan when she was a second-year law student at Stanford Law School. Hagan learned how to code and wrote thousands of questions so she could play multiple-choice games to prep her for exams.

Congregate Communications: online networking and classroom tool

Total funding raised: Privately funded

What it does: Dynamic platform for online gatherings with the ability to host networking or breakout sessions and presentations through a single platform. Also includes end-to-end encrypted video calling, scalable to hundreds of event attendees. Also includes social app (Congregate Social) and virtual classroom (Congregate Classroom) versions.

OverDrive: digital library for schools

Total funding raised: Acquired from Rakuten Inc. by private equity firm KKR

What it does: Digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide. Aims to deliver the industry's largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, and other digital media to more than 50,000 libraries and schools in 78 countries.

Meta ULC: research discovery tool for scientific papers

Total funding raised: Backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

What it does: A biomedical research discovery tool that provides a faster way to understand, organize, and explore science. Through machine learning, the tool can analyze, map, and cluster tens of millions of scientific papers and preprints, allowing researchers to follow developments or find emerging trends.

Facebook Campus: campus-specific social community

Total funding raised: n/a, part of Facebook

What it does: Launched as a college-only space designed to help students connect with fellow classmates over shared interests. Campus profile is separate from a student's main Facebook profile, and students can discover Groups and Events unique to their school and connect with classmates who share similar interests. Content shared on Campus is only seen by other Campus members. Accounts verified by college email addresses.

Proctorio: automated software for ensuring academic integrity

Total funding raised: Privately held and funded

What it does: Learning integrity platform that utilizes facial detection (not recognition) and other automated software to ensure academic integrity for online courses and test takers. Includes ID verification, automated proctoring, content protection, secure browser settings, computer lockdown, originality authentication, and instant analytics.

Visitor management software startup iLobby has raised a more than $100 million Series A funding round. 

The Toronto-based company provides organizations with software to manage staff and guests as they enter their premises, and says it has seen rising demand driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. iLobby counts Pepsi and Nikon as clients. 

The startup estimates that its market opportunity is around $8.7 billion. The round, led by Twitter backer Insight Partners, is more than $100 million but the full amount has not been disclosed. 

"This investment will substantially accelerate the pace at which we build and deploy the iLobby product suite to power the future of safety and visitor management in the workplace," iLobby CEO Ariel Mashiyev said.

iLobby's funding will go towards scaling its product offering in the 45 countries it operates in. 

"As businesses are starting to reopen, there is an increasing need to not only know who is entering your facilities, but also assess whether they are a potential risk to your workforce," Mashiyev added.

Check out iLobby's pitch deck below:

SEE ALSO: Digital banking is booming due to Covid but remains unprofitable. Here's why fintech executives and investors believe 'rebundling' is key for fast growing challenger banks in 2021.

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After a record-breaking year of VC funding, some healthcare startups are coming into 2021 with healthy balance sheets and shiny new valuations.

According to Pitchbook data provided exclusively to Business Insider, eight digital health startups earned unicorn status in 2020 with valuations at or above $1 billion. Digital health startups made up eight of the 15 newly minted unicorns in 2020.

Complete private funding data for 2020 is not yet released, but measures through September indicated record-setting activity for startups across the industry.

Some startups that raised funding earlier in the year, for example, raised again once the funding conditions proved to be in their favor. Olive, an AI healthcare startup that reached a $1.5 billion valuation in 2020, raised $106 million in funding in September after completing a $51 million round in March.

Read more:Meet the 35 healthcare startups VCs say will take off in 2021

Many investors attribute the funding boom to increased attention on the shortcomings of America's healthcare system during the coronavirus pandemic. Some startups quickly worked to apply their technology to the newly attention-grabbing problems, while others were beneficiaries of being in the right place at the right time with the right solution. 

The pandemic also accelerated what many investors said was a slow-moving technological revolution within healthcare. Hospitals, clinics, and patients may be more willing to try new technology during a crisis, investors and founders predicted. A boom in telemedicine services, virtual therapy, and direct-mail pharmaceuticals followed.

Here are the eight digital health startups that achieved $1 billion valuations or higher in 2020.

SEE ALSO: Investors are betting billions of dollars that Silicon Valley can upend mental healthcare in America

Cityblock Health - $1 billion

Cityblock Health wants to improve healthcare outcomes for low-income patients through its social support services for what investors call social determinants of health in addition to its virtual care service. These factors, which include access to public transportation, affordable and reliable housing, and nutritious food, operate outside the four walls of a clinic or doctor's office but have massive implications on patients' long-term health.

Cityblock Health raised $160 million in Series C funding on December 14, catapulting the three-year-old startup to the unicorn club. Investors recently told Business Insider that startups like Cityblock could be poised to rise even further in 2021 as the pandemic continues and the inequities in care remain at the forefront of the nation's response.

MDLive - $1 billion

MDLive is a long-standing telemedicine provider that has boomed during the pandemic. The 11-year-old company offers a suite of digital health and virtual care services to its patients in the United States and operates on a similar level to its competitor, telehealth giant Teladoc. Teladoc recently acquired Livongo, a company that helps patients manage chronic conditions like diabetes, spurring speculation that MDLive may pursue a similar blockbuster deal in 2021. 

However, MDLive indicated its plan to go public in 2021 instead when it announced $50 million in equity investment in September. According to Pitchbook data, the round valued MDLive at $1 billion and also included $25 million in debt financing as a separate transaction.

Lyra - $1.1 billion

Lyra is a mental health startup that works with companies to provide better benefits to employees. The startup has a network of therapists, coaches, and other care providers that provide virtual care visits to any employee with access to the software at little or no cost.

The service has been booming during the pandemic, according to investors, as remote employees struggle with work-life balance and employers seek to replace the enticing in-office perks with options that benefit more people.

Lyra raised $110 million in Series D funding on August 27, earning the five-year-old startup a $1.1 billion valuation, according to Pitchbook data. Investors have been eager to back mental health startups in 2020, and many told Business Insider they foresee that trend only increasing in 2021. 

Virta Health - $1.1 billion

Virta Health is a Silicon Valley startup that combines virtual care and the trendy ketogenic diet to help patients with diabetes. Virta encourages patients with type 2 diabetes to adopt a low-carb, high-fat diet and matches them with trained professionals to help track and manage their symptoms. In a peer-reviewed study Virta funded, researchers found that these changes to a patient's diet could ultimately reduce or remove the need for medications like insulin.

Virta raised $93 million in Series C funding in January 2020 before raising another $65 million in Series D funding on December 2. The subsequent round garnered the startup its $1.1 billion valuation, according to a Bloomberg report.

Whoop - $1.2 billion

Whoop makes a health and fitness tracking strap that has won over everyone from Lebron James to Eli Manning to Kevin Durant. The strap, which functions similar to existing watch fitness trackers, allegedly helped PGA Tour golfer Nick Watney detect early COVID-19 symptoms by picking up on his elevated respiratory rate, in addition to integrating with popular fitness app Strava. The strap itself costs nothing and is included with a membership for $30 a month or $288 for one year.

The 8-year-old startup was founded by 31-year-old founder and CEO Will Ahmed. On October 28, Whoop announced that it had raised $100 million in Series E funding at a $1.2 billion valuation. 

Grand Rounds - $1.3 billion

Grand Rounds works with companies like Walmart and Home Depot to offer an on-demand healthcare virtual assistant to employees as an employer-provided benefit. The company previously focused on large self-insured companies like the aforementioned, but have recently started selling to medium-sized companies as the pandemic left many employers scrambling to offer relevant benefits while maintaining low costs.

In September, Grand Rounds raised $175 million from private equity firm Carlyle Group that launched its valuation to $1.3 billion, according to Pitchbook data.  

"As COVID hit and these employers, to take care of digital and work-from-home workforces across the country, they all had unique situations and needs pop up," Carlyle Group investor and Grand Rounds board member Robert Schmidt told Business Insider in September.

Olive - $1.5 billion

Olive makes automation technology for healthcare workers. Its artificial intelligence software picks up on keystrokes to learn how a healthcare worker interacts with specific applications and provide suggestions for tasks like prior authorizations or patient verifications. It also has a tool to help automate processes in hospitals' human resources, finance, and supply chain departments.

Olive raised $106 million in venture funding in September, just months after raising $51 million in March. It is currently valued at $1.5 billion, according to Pitchbook data, and in December acquired Verata Health to further expand its services to insurance companies and hospitals.

Ro - $1.5 billion

Ro is a direct-to-consumer provider that offers generic medications for conditions such as erectile dysfunction, hair loss, and weight management through the mail. Patients can consult a doctor through Ro's telemedicine service throughout the course of treatment and are required to pay a cash fee for medication and the visit since Ro doesn't accept insurance. 

The three-year-old company raised $200 million in venture funding on July 27, nabbing a $1.5 billion valuation as a result. It acquired Workpath, another startup that provides in-home care services, in December as it seeks to expand beyond digital health.

With 2020 rapidly fading into the past,  the time has come to start looking forward to all the huge games coming to your new PlayStation 5 in 2021.

Whether you're looking for major exclusives like "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," or next-gen updates to long-running franchises like "Hitman 3," there's something to get excited for this year.

These are the 18 biggest games scheduled to launch on the PlayStation 5 in the next 12 months:

1. "Hitman 3"

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Release date: January 20

2. "Outriders"

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Release date: February 2

3. "Destruction Allstars"

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Release date: February 5

4. "Returnal"

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Release date: March 19

5. "It Takes Two"

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Release date: March 26

6. "Far Cry 6"

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Release date: After March 2021

7. "Deathloop"

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Release date: May 21

8. "Back 4 Blood"

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Release date: June 22

9. "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart"

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Release date: First half of 2021

10. "Grand Theft Auto V: Enhanced Edition"

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Release date: Second half of 2021

11. "Horizon Forbidden West"

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Release date: Second half of 2021

12. "Gran Turismo 7"

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Release date: 2021

13. "Ghostwire Tokyo"

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Release date: 2021

14. Untitled "God of War" sequel

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Release date: 2021

15. "Gotham Knights"

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Release date: 2021

16. "Hogwarts Legacy"

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Release date: 2021

17. "Resident Evil Village"

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Release date: 2021

18. "Rainbow Six: Quarantine"

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Release date: 2021

Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email (bgilbert@businessinsider.com), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

It's been a tumultuous few months for Jack Ma.

The billionaire Alibaba and Ant Group founder is facing a crackdown from Chinese regulators that has resulted in an antitrust investigation, a suspended IPO, and Ma losing $12 billion of his fortune in just a few months.

Now, Ma hasn't been seen in two months, leading to reports that he's either missing or simply laying low amid all the scrutiny.

This isn't the first time Ma has faced adversity, however: He grew up poor in communist China, failed his university entrance exam twice, and was rejected from dozens of jobs, including one at KFC, before finding success with his third internet company, Alibaba.

Here's how Ma got his start and made his fortune.

Jillian D'Onfro, Charles Clark, and Taylor Nicole Rogers contributed to an earlier version of this post.

Jack Ma — born Ma Yun — was born on September 10, 1964, in Hangzhou, southeastern China. He has an older brother and a younger sister.

 Source: 60 Minutes, USA Today

He and his siblings grew up at a time when communist China was increasingly isolated from the West, and his family didn't have much money when they were young.

 Source: 60 Minutes, USA Today

Ma was scrawny and often got into fights with classmates. "I was never afraid of opponents who were bigger than I," he recalls in "Alibaba," a book by Liu Shiying and Martha Avery.

Source: USA Today, Business Insider

As a kid, Ma liked collecting crickets and making them fight, and was able to distinguish the size and type of cricket just by the sound it made.

Source: USA Today, Business Insider

After President Nixon visited Hangzhou in 1972, Ma's hometown became a tourist destination. As a teenager, Ma started waking up early to visit the city's main hotel, offering visitors tours of the city in exchange for English lessons. The nickname "Jack" was given to him by a tourist he befriended.

Source: 60 Minutes

After high school, he applied to go to college — but failed the entrance exam twice. He finally passed on the third try, going on to attend Hangzhou Teachers Institute. He graduated in 1988 and started applying to as many jobs as he could.

Source: 60 Minutes

He received more than a dozen rejections — including from KFC — before being hired as an English teacher. Ma was a natural with his students and loved his job — though he only made $12 a month at a local university.

Source: Business Insider

At the World Economic Forum in 2016, Ma revealed he has been rejected from Harvard — 10 times.

Source: Business Insider

Ma had no experience with computers or coding, but he was captivated by the internet when he used it for the first time during a trip to the US in 1995. He had recently started a translation business and made the trip to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. Ma's first online search was "beer," but he was surprised to find that no Chinese beers turned up in the results. It was then that he decided to found an internet company for China.

Source: Business Insider, USA Today

Though his first two ventures failed, four years later, he gathered 17 of his friends in his apartment and convinced them to invest in his vision for an online marketplace he called "Alibaba." The site allowed exporters to post product listings that customers could buy directly.

Source: Business Insider, 60 Minutes

Soon, the service started to attract members from all over the world. By October 1999, the company had raised $5 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company that also invests in technology companies. The team remained close-knit and scrappy. "We will make it because we are young and we never, never give up," Ma said to a gathering of employees.

Source: Business Insider

He was known for maintaining a sense of fun at Alibaba. In the early 2000s, when the company decided to start Taobao, its eBay competitor, he had his team do handstands during breaks to keep their energy levels up.

Source: Business Insider

When the company first became profitable, Ma gave each employee a can of Silly String to go wild with.

Source: Business Insider

In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba in exchange for about a 40% stake in the company. This was huge for Alibaba — at the time it was trying to beat eBay in China — and it would eventually be an enormous win for Yahoo too, netting it $10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone.

Source: TechCrunch

In 2014, Ma told Bloomberg he knew Alibaba had made it big when another customer offered to pay his restaurant bill. The customer, Ma said in the interview, had left Ma a note that read: "I'm your customer of Alibaba group, I made a lot of money and I know you don't make any money. I'll pay the bill for you."

Source: Business Insider

Ma stepped down from his post as CEO in 2013, staying on as executive chairman.

Source: Tech Crunch

Alibaba went public on September 19, 2014. "Today what we got is not money. What we got is the trust from the people," Ma told CNBC at the time.

Source: CNBC, NYSE

The company's $150 billion IPO was the largest offering for a US-listed company in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. It also made Ma the richest person in China, with an estimated worth of $25 billion at the time.

Source: Bloomberg

Ma's fortune comes from his 4.2% stake in Alibaba and a 10% stake in payment-processing service Alipay, which rebranded to Ant Group in 2014.

Source: Bloomberg

Alibaba employees threw a big party at the company's Hangzhou headquarters to celebrate the IPO. One employee even took the party as the perfect opportunity to propose. Ma told employees at a press conference that he hopes they use their newfound wealth to become "a batch of genuinely noble people, a batch of people who are able to help others, and who are kind and happy."

Source: QQ.com, USA Today

The biggest day in the calendar for Alibaba is China's "Singles' Day"— a retaliation to Valentine's Day — which supposedly celebrates the country's singletons. In 2016, the site recorded nearly $20 billion in sales in 24 hours.

Source: CNBC

In 2020, the total value of Alibaba orders placed on Singles' Day topped $56 billion.

Source: CNBC

Alibaba's success may have made Ma an extremely wealthy man, but he has made very few flashy purchases, and he still has some pretty modest hobbies. "I don't think he has changed much, he is still that old style," Xiao-Ping Chen, a friend of Ma, told USA Today. He likes reading and writing kung fu fiction, playing poker, meditating, and practicing​ tai chi.

Source: USA Today

His big splurge was a vineyard and a chateau in Bordeaux, France, in 2016.

Source: Forbes, CNBC

In March 2013, Alibaba spent a reported $49.7 million on a Gulfstream G550, mostly for Ma's use.

Source: China Daily

One of his greatest passions is the environment. According to Fortune, Ma developed an interest in environmentalism when a member of his wife's family became sick with an illness that Ma suspected was caused by pollution. He sits on the global board of The Nature Conservancy and spoke during a session of the Clinton Global Initiative in 2015. He has also, according to Fortune, been instrumental in funding a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.

Source: Fortune

Ma has largely kept his family life out of the spotlight. He married Zhang Ying, a teacher he met at school, after they graduated in the late 1980s. They have two children — a daughter and a son.

Source: Bloomberg

In 2017, Ma made headlines after meeting President Donald Trump. Despite Trump's protectionist attitude towards trade, Ma said China and the United States were not about to be drawn into a trade war. "Give Trump some time. He's open-minded," Ma told a panel at the World Economic Forum in January 2017.

Source: Business Insider

Ma is something of a celebrity in China, and crowds of people show up to listen to him speak. The company also hosts annual talent shows, and Ma is a natural entertainer. At a company anniversary event, he dressed up as a punk rocker for a performance in front of 20,000 Alibaba employees.

Source: 60 Minutes

Company lore has it that Ma came up with the name "Alibaba" while sitting in a San Francisco coffee shop. In "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," a secret password unlocks a trove filled with unbelievable riches. Ma's company has, in a way, revealed the potential of small and mid-sized businesses across the globe.

Source: Entrepreneur

Ma stepped down as Alibaba's chairman on September 10, 2019, his 55th birthday. The company threw him a farewell party in an 80,000-seat stadium in Hangzhou, and Ma performed with other Alibaba executives.

Source: Business Insider

Ma picked Daniel Zhang, who has been the CEO of Alibaba since 2015, to replace him as chairman. According to CNN Business, Ma decided to pivot to full-time philanthropy.

Source: Business Insider, CNN Business

When the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a halt in March 2020, Ma sourced and shipped N95 face masks and COVID-19 testing kits to over 100 countries dealing with shortages, including the US.

Source: Business Insider

In May, SoftBank announced that Ma would resign from the troubled investment fund's board of directors.

"Stepping down from SoftBank Group's Board, I believe, and he said to me actually, was something that he decided on his own," SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said during the firm's earnings announcement. "That's sad, but we still keep in contact directly and right before the COVID-19, we met face-to-face every month to have dinner, to talk about businesses, to talk about lives. And we will remain friends for the rest of our life, I believe."

Source: Business Insider

In October, Ma made headlines again in relation to Ant Group's highly anticipated IPO. Ant Group was expected to raise $37 billion with a valuation reportedly surpassing $300 billion. But then, Ma publicly snubbed China's financial regulatory system, calling it 'an old people's club.'

Source: Business Insider

Soon after, regulators introduced new online lending rules that directly impacted Ant's business. Officials then said there were "major issues" with Ant's listing, and by November, the IPO was suspended.

Source: Business Insider

In the months since, Ma, China's richest person, has seen his net worth tumble $12 billion, from approximately $62 billion to $50.1 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. He is now the fourth-richest person in China and the 25th-richest person in the world.

Source: Markets Insider, Bloomberg

Chinese regulators opened an antitrust investigation into Alibaba in December, yet another crackdown on Ma's empire.

Source: Business Insider

In January, Yahoo Finance reported that Ma hadn't been seen publicly in more than two months and had been replaced as a judge on the TV talent show he founded, which raised the question of whether Ma had gone missing.

Source: Business Insider, Yahoo Finance

Ma's absence mirrored similar situations where Chinese businessmen had disappeared after battling with regulators, but multiple sources now say that Ma is not missing — he's simply "laying low" amid the government scrutiny and new regulations.

Source: Business Insider, Business Insider

When the pandemic hit, Versatile, like many other startups, took a hiring freeze.

CEO and cofounder Meirav Oren told Insider that the hiring freeze was her "biggest regret" of this year, as the company, and construction tech as a whole, saw a major boost in business. Contractors that may have been hesitant to adopt digital tools before now had to rely on them to get work done. 

"The people we serve have accelerated their interest in tech because of the sheer notion that change is needed just to assist with the new challenges," Oren said. 

The company uses a crane-mounted camera to surveil a whole worksite, capturing and analyzing data about how long each process takes. the numbers and locations of on-site materials, and overall progress on the job site. That data can then be used to streamline processes, prevent redundant work, and improve job site safety.

Oren said the idea is to treat construction like manufacturing and break each process down into its constituent parts to make it more efficient and safe.

"Construction is truly manufacturing, and job sites are factories but haven't undergone the same change as other manufacturing industries," Oren said.

The pandemic was a major boost for Versatile, as the company's ability to track work progress remotely became more important than ever during lockdown. Oren said the company decided to raise a $12 million to $15 million round to meet demand, but ended up closing on a $20 million Series A because investor demand was so high. 

The $20 million round was led by Insight Partners, Silicon Valley giants who've invested in Workforce, Twitter, and Shopify, among others. It also included funding from Leigh Jasper and Robert Phillpot, the founders of Aconex, a construction tech company that was bought by Oracle in 2017 for $1.19 billion, Entree Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, Root Ventures, and Conductive Ventures. 

The company had previously raised $8.5 million in funding since being founded in 2016. It is the second construction tech company Oren has founded, after a short run with a company called Valorisys. Oren started her career at Intel, and told Insider that she was the "black sheep" of her family, because of her family's extensive construction background. 

Versatile was founded after a conversation Oren had with her brother, a contractor, following the death of a worker at one of his worksites from a fall off scaffolding. This is common in the industry, which accounted for about 20% of worker fatalities in private industry in 2019, according to OSHA. 

By extracting data from a worksite, and analyzing it as if it were a manufacturing floor, Oren said that eventually, processes can be completed much more quickly and much more safely. 

"When you have an extra minute, it changes the sequence of events," Oren said. "That's where technology plays a role."

Oren walked us through the pitch deck the company used to raise its most recent round, which includes an addendum specifically about the company's response to the coronavirus.

The deck begins with a clear statement of purpose: the company plans to change construction into manufacturing, with all of the added benefits of a manufacturing model.

Construction has actually seen losses of productivity since the mid-'70s, making the industry ripe for tech transformation.

The main thesis behind Versatile is that by gathering data about the worksite, the company can make small improvements that pay big dividends. This slide shows three results the company has seen from its clients.

Oren said the company's success comes from its ability to integrate into a contractor's workflow. They chose the crane because it's "a center of productivity," Oren said. "Customers say you live and die by the hook."

This slide explains how Versatile's service works. Oren said it takes longer to explain than to deploy.

This slide has been updated to omit actual numbers but shows the company has seen a big uptick in customer acquisition in the pandemic.

This slide highlights positive feedback from customers and the press, including a 2020 designation as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum.

This slide was edited to remove some future product plans, but notes that at many job sites, Versatile is replacing manual use of a stopwatch.

This page highlights the leadership team at the company and the successes of some key advisors.

The company's plan with this round is to focus on the US, but it sees a huge potential market for the product around the world.

This slide shows the camera in action, attached to a crane.

As a result of the pandemic, the company began to make all of its deployments totally touchless and remote.

This slide, and the video it linked to, highlighted how quickly Versatile's crane-mounted camera can start working and providing feedback.

The coronavirus pandemic upended American life this past spring and summer, driving millions to move in search of more comfortable work-from-home locales and greener pastures.

Analyzing US Postal Service data, MyMove found that almost 16 million Americans moved between February and July. Mail-forwarding requests to USPS made in that time frame show that moving Americans mostly fled urban cores and relocated to more suburban areas.

Some moves were short-term. Temporary change-of-address requests to the US Post Office were up 27%  in 2020 versus 2019. Permanent change-of-address requests were up 2% from last year. 

Requests from the height of the pandemic largely show that Americans were moving away from cities and toward less densely populated suburbs. New York City lost over 110,000 residents from February to July, according to USPS. Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles lost thousands, too.

Texas, however, gained thousands of residents amid the pandemic.

Of the top 10 places that gained residents per USPS, six were located in Texas. All were suburbs of the state's largest cities: Houston, Dallas, and Austin.

While it seems like everyone is moving to the Lone Star State, other locations in Florida and Idaho made the list, along with a tony Hamptons neighborhood in New York state.

Keep reading for a look at the most popular locales Americans decamped to this year:

SEE ALSO: Are Texas and Florida the new California and New York?

10. Meridian, Idaho

Number of residents: 2,088

Population in 2019: 114,161

Metro area: Boise

Read more: The great migration of 2020: People from New York and California moved in droves this year — here are the states that benefited from the mass exodus, from Idaho to Texas

9. Riverview, Florida

Number of residents gained: 2,093

Population in 2019: 91,190

Metro area: Tampa

Read more: Hedge funds tour Florida office space 'one to three times a day' amid 'torrential' interest from out of state, broker says

8. Cumming, Georgia

Number of residents gained: 2,128

Population in 2019: 6,547

Metro area: Atlanta

7. Cypress, Texas

Number of residents gained: 2,147

Population in 2019: 82,257

Metro area: Houston

6. Leander, Texas

Number of residents gained: 2,294

Population in 2019: 62,608

Metro area: Austin

5. Georgetown, Texas

Number of residents gained: 2,337

Population in 2019: 79,604

Metro area: Austin

Read more: Elon Musk and other tech powerhouses are flocking to Texas, pushing an already bonkers real-estate market to new heights. Take a look inside Austin, which is quickly becoming the next Silicon Valley.

4. East Hampton, New York

Number of residents gained: 2,476

Population in 2019: 12,960

Metro area: New York City

Read more: The Post Office says 300,000 New Yorkers have fled the city — for places like the Hamptons and even Honolulu

3. Frisco, Texas

Number of residents gained: 2,604

Population in 2019: 200,490

Metro area: Dallas

Read more: Frisco, Texas, is one of America's fastest-growing cities. Here's why so many people are moving there 

2. Richmond, Texas

Number of residents gained: 3,000

Population in 2019: 12,578

Metro area: Houston

1. Katy, Texas

Number of residents gained: 4,414

Population in 2019: 21,729

Metro area: Houston

Read more: Elon Musk, like everyone else, is moving to Texas. Here are 12 Lone Star State cities America is in love with.

• Fleas can pose serious risks to your cat's health, but with the right flea treatment for cats, you can keep your cat or kitten safe from fleas.
• Effective flea control products are available in the form of topical preventives, oral preventives, and collars.
• The best prescription topical flea control product for cats is Revolution Plus Topical Solution for Cats, a monthly preventive that guards against fleas in all life stages, is highly effective, easy to apply, and completely waterproof.
• Before starting your cat on any flea treatment or prevention, you should consult your veterinarian.
• This article was medically reviewed by Dr. Karie Johnson, veterinarian and co-founder of VIP Vet Visit, a mobile vet service in the south suburbs of Chicago.

If your cat has fleas, you want them gone and fast. Decades ago, options for killing fleas were limited — and toxic. Today, many different safe and effective flea control products are available, both prescription and over the counter. Not all flea control products are created equal though.

Choosing safe and effective products for cats can be tricky. Thanks to my background, I'm very familiar with the various flea control products available today. I spent eight years working as a veterinary assistant in animal hospitals followed by two more decades as an editor for magazines in the pet and veterinary fields. I've helped treat countless cats for fleas, including my own cats.

For this guide, I conducted research using the quick product reference guide published by the independent, nonprofit Companion Animal Parasite Council. I selected products based on safety, the number of parasites targeted, and products' ease of use. Jump to the end of this guide to read more about selection criteria.

For additional expertise on treating and preventing fleas in cats, I consulted with three veterinarians: Dr. Herman Jeffer, a veterinarian with Cornwallis Animal Hospital in Durham, North Carolina; Dr. Ashley Bourgeois, a board-certified veterinary dermatologist with the Animal Dermatology Clinic in Portland, Oregon; and Dr. Colleen Sawyer, a veterinarian with Rolesville Veterinary Hospital in Rolesville, North Carolina.

Before choosing a flea preventive for your cat, talk to your veterinarian, who can advise you on what might be best depending on your cat's temperament and lifestyle, and what parasites your cat is most at risk for contracting in your area.

A word of caution: Read labels very carefully before using any flea control product on your cat. No matter what product you choose for your cat, never use one that is labeled for dogs. Flea control products made for dogs and cats are not interchangeable, and a product made for dogs can make cats extremely sick. In some cases, it can even be deadly.

Here are the best flea prevention products and treatments for cats:

• Best topical flea preventive for cats: Revolution Plus Topical Solution
• Best OTC topical flea product for cats: Frontline Plus
• Best fast-acting flea control product for cats: Comfortis Chewable Tablets for Cats and Dogs
• Best flea control product for young kittens: Capstar Flea Control Tablets
• Best flea collar for cats: Seresto Flea and Tick Collar

Prices and links are current as of 1/5/20.

The best topical flea preventive overall

With just one simple monthly application, Revolution Plus Topical Solution not only kills fleas and ticks, it also prevents heartworms and treats and controls roundworms, hookworms, and ear mites. 

Pros: Kills and prevents six types of parasites, including deadly heartworm; once-monthly treatment; easy to administer; safe for use in kittens 8 weeks or older and weighing at least 2.8 pounds

Cons: Does not kill tapeworms; caution required in cats with a history of neurologic disorders; not labeled for use in kittens younger than 8 weeks or breeding, pregnant, or nursing cats

Revolution Plus Topical Solution is hands down the most complete parasite preventive available for cats. Revolution Plus not only treats and prevents flea infestations by killing adult fleas before they can lay eggs, it also prevents heartworms and treats and controls ear mites, roundworms, hookworms, and infestations of three different tick species (black-legged or deer tick, Gulf Coast tick, and American dog tick).

"The really exciting thing about flea control is there are always new developments in how we can make them better and safer and more effective," Bourgeois said. "My preference is Revolution Plus."

According to Bourgeois, the active ingredients in Revolution Plus — selamectin and sarolaner — are newer flea controls that are very effective and well-tolerated by cats. Another preventive, Bravecto, contains fluralaner, which is in the same drug class as selamectin and sarolaner, and is also very effective and well-tolerated by cats. However, Bravecto doesn't control as many parasites as Revolution Plus, and it can't be used in kittens under 6 months of age.                                                                                                                   

Revolution Plus Topical Solution for Cats is easily applied every 30 days in one spot to the cat's skin at the base of the neck between the shoulder blades. The liquid medication is a small volume that is absorbed and dries quickly, leaving no residue behind. Unlike with some of the other topical preventives, you do not need to wear gloves to apply Revolution Plus, and you don't have to avoid touching your cat after application. If you get the product on your hands, simply wash them with soap and water.

You must obtain a prescription from your veterinarian to purchase Revolution Plus. As with all medications that prevent heartworm, your cat will need a heartworm test prior starting this medication and every year afterward. Revolution Plus should be used with caution in cats with a history of neurologic disorders such as seizures.

The best OTC topical flea preventive

Available without a prescription,Frontline Pluskills adult fleas, flea eggs, flea larvae, ticks, and chewing lice.

Pros: Kills adult fleas, flea eggs, flea larvae, ticks, and chewing lice for one month; safe for use in cats and kittens at least 8 weeks of age that weigh at least 1.5 pounds; safe for use in breeding, pregnant, and nursing cats; fleas don't have to bite for it to work

Cons: Not recommended for kittens younger than 8 weeks of age; does not prevent any parasites other than fleas, ticks, and chewing lice

We recommend Frontline Plus because it not only kills fleas and controls flea infestations, but it also kills ticks and chewing lice. Used and trusted by pet owners for more than 20 years, Frontline Plus protects for 30 days with one application. Fleas do not have to bite your cat for Frontline Plus to work — they die on contact.

Frontline Plus has active two ingredients, fipronil and S-methoprene, which work together to kill parasites and break the flea life cycle. Fipronil kills adult fleas and ticks, while S-methoprene is an insect growth regulator that prevents the development of immature flea stages (eggs, larvae, and pupae). However, it can sometimes take a little time of consistent use before all fleas are completely gone, especially if your cat was heavily infested, since flea eggs can be present in your home but not on your cat.

"In flea-infested environments, when they do studies looking at the efficacy of these products, sometimes it takes a few months of consistent, high-quality flea prevention to even see that population completely eradicate because there's four different stages to the flea life cycle," said Bourgeois.

Frontline Plus is easy to use. Squeeze the entire contents of the tube onto one spot on the cat's skin between the shoulder blades. The liquid medication spreads across your cat's skin and is stored in the oil glands. It self-distributes continuously through the hair follicles for one month. Frontline Plus for Cats may be used on cats and kittens 8 weeks or older, weighing 1.5 pounds or more. It is labeled as safe for use in breeding, pregnant, and nursing cats.

The best oral flea control product

Comfortis Chewable Tablets start killing fleas within 30 minutes and offer a full month of protection with one easy-to-give flavored pill. 

Pros: Fast-acting treatment starts killing adult fleas within 30 minutes, safe for cats and kittens 14 weeks of age or older weighing at least 4.1 pounds, easy to give alone or in food

Cons: Does not kill flea eggs or larvae, does not prevent any parasites other than fleas, not labeled for use in kittens younger than 14 weeks or breeding, pregnant, or nursing cats

Our top choice for an oral flea control product for cats, Comfortis Chewable Tablets, is fast-acting and good for cats that can't tolerate topical flea preventives. Its active ingredient, spinosad, starts to work within 30 minutes and kills 98% of adult fleas on cats within four hours.

Although topical flea control products are typically easier to use (no need to convince your cat to swallow a pill), there are some cases when an oral preventive is a better choice. For instance, some cats with sensitive skin can't tolerate a spot-on treatment. "An oral flea preventive product is better if a cat has had focal hair loss related to the application of a topical product or if it has a severe flea-related allergy," said Sawyer.

Comfortis is one of two oral flea control products available for cats; the other is Capstar Flea Control Tablets. Unlike Capstar, which kills fleas for only 24 hours, Comfortis protects cats against fleas for a full month. However, Comfortis is not safe for kittens younger than 14 weeks old. Capstar is safe for kittens as young as 4 weeks, so it's our choice for best flea control product for kittens (read more about Capstar in our slide for the best flea control product for young kittens). In order to purchase Comfortis, you will need a prescription from your veterinarian.

The beef-flavored flavored tablets should be given with food once a month. You can offer them alone just before or after feeding your cat, or hide them in a small amount of food. Kittens must be at least 14 weeks of age and weigh at least 4.1 pounds.

The best flea control for young kittens

Capstar Flea Control Tablets are safe for kittens as young as 4 weeks old and start killing fleas within 30 minutes.

Pros: Safe for kittens 4 weeks of age or older weighing at least 2 pounds, safe for pregnant and nursing cats, fast-acting treatment starts killing adult fleas within 30 minutes, easy to give alone or in food, can be used with other flea control products, available without a prescription

Cons: Does not offer long-term protection, does not kill flea eggs or larvae, does not prevent any parasites other than fleas

Available without a prescription, Capstar is the only flea control product safe for kittens as young as 4 weeks and weighing at least 2 pounds. With other flea control products, whether topical or oral, kittens must be at least 8 weeks old, and sometimes older.

Fleas should be eliminated as quickly as possible for heavily infested cats, especially young kittens. The active ingredient in Capstar, nitenpyram, works within 30 minutes and kills greater than 90% of adult fleas in as little as six hours.

Capstar only protects against fleas for 24 hours, but it is safe to give daily if necessary. Since giving a cat a pill every day can be inconvenient, pet owners should follow up with a long-term flea control product (a spot-on or oral preventive that lasts a month or longer) once the kitten is old enough.

The best flea collar

The Seresto Flea and Tick Collar offers eight months of protection against fleas and ticks in all life stages.

Pros: Eight months of protection against adult fleas, flea larvae, and ticks; sustained release technology for continuous protection; lightweight and easy to wear; adjustable for cats of all sizes; fleas don't have to bite for it to work

Cons: Not recommended for kittens younger than 10 weeks of age, children should not play with the collar or put it in their mouth, adjusting size can be tricky

Although flea collars were once a standard option for flea control, these days they take a back seat to topical and oral preventives. However, one standout in the flea collar category is the Seresto Flea and Tick Collar, which uses patented sustained-release technology to provide eight months of continuous protection against adult fleas, flea larvae, and ticks.

In general, topical spot-on preventives and oral preventives are the easiest and most effective form of flea control for cats, but there are instances when the Seresto collar might be a good option. "It would be a better choice if compliance is an issue, as you do not need to remember to apply it monthly," Sawyer said. "Additionally, it is a better choice if the cat does not tolerate topical flea products and/or it is difficult to administer pills."

Bourgeois said that the Seresto collar might also be a good choice for cats that roam outside a lot. "We have some people who have truly outdoor cats," she said. "They might not see them reliably all the time to give them a monthly product. [The Seresto collar] would be the only collar that I would be trusting of."

The collar is nongreasy, odor-free, lightweight, and adjustable for cats of all sizes. It can be worn alongside your cat's existing collar and is designed with a two-step safety system to ensure your cat will not be harmed if the collar becomes snagged on something.

The Seresto Flea and Tick Collar contains imidacloprid and flumethrin, which are released in low concentrations over your cat's skin and coat to kill fleas on contact before they even have the chance to bite. It kills 100% of fleas within 24 hours of placing the collar on your cat. The collar is water-resistant and can remain on the cat even when bathing.

What else we considered

• Advantage II: Advantage II is a topical spot-on product that uses imidacloprid and pyripoxyfen to kill fleas, eggs, and larvae for one month. Available without a prescription, it's safe for adult cats and kittens 8 weeks or older weighing at least 2 pounds. It is also labeled safe for use in pregnant and nursing cats. Advantage II lost out to Frontline Plus because it does not kill ticks, and unlike Frontline Plus, its product label states that severe infestation may require more frequent applications, as often as every 14 days for kittens and every seven days for adult cats.
• Bravecto Plus Topical Solution for Cats: Bravecto Plus is a topical product that uses fluralaner and moxidectin to kill fleas and ticks, prevent heartworm, and treat roundworms and hookworms. One application of Bravecto Plus kills fleas and other parasites for two months, unlike most topical preventives, which must be applied monthly. One downside to Bravetco is it cannot be used in kittens younger than 6 months old. Our best overall pick, Revolution Plus, is safe for kittens 8 weeks or older, and also treats and controls ear mites, which Bravecto Plus does not. Additionally, Bravecto Plus's label states that children should not touch the application site for two hours after application; Revolution Plus has no such warning. Bravecto Plus requires a prescription from your veterinarian as well as a current negative heartworm test. It should be used with caution in cats with a history of neurologic disorders such as seizures.
• Advantage Multi Topical Solution for Cats: Advantage Multi uses imidacloprid and moxidectin to prevent heartworm; kill fleas; and treat and control roundworms, hookworms and ear mites. Unlike Revolution Plus Topical Solution, Advantage Multi does not kill ticks. Its label states that children should not touch the application site for 30 minutes after it's applied, and treated cats should be kept separated from other pets that might lick it; Revolution Plus has no such warning. Advantage Multi requires a prescription from your veterinarian as well as a current negative heartworm test. It is safe for use in kittens 8 weeks or older and weighing at least 2 pounds.

How we selected products

Types of flea control products

Here are the most common flea control products for cats and how they work:

• Topical preventives: Also called "spot-on" products, topical preventives are great for both killing fleas and preventing flea infestations. As they dry, they spread across the entire body, leaving no residue behind. They are usually applied to the skin in one spot on the back of the neck once a month.
• Oral flea control: Oral flea control products, or "flea pills," are given to your cat by mouth to kill fleas. Some oral flea control products kill fleas for up to a month; others must be given more frequently to continue killing fleas, as often as once a day.
• Flea collars: Flea collars are worn around the neck, where they deliver flea preventive medication to a cat's skin and coat. Some flea collars deliver preventive medication for a longer period than topical applications, making them a good choice for cat owners who don't want to have to apply something every 30 days.
• Flea shampoos: Flea shampoos kill fleas that are currently on your cat. We do not recommend them since topical spot-ons and oral products are easier to use and more effective. Read more about this in our slide on "What to consider when shopping for flea control products."
• Flea spray: Flea sprays are applied to the skin and coat. Like shampoos, we do not recommend them since topical spot-ons and oral products are easier to use and more effective. Read more in our slide on "What to consider when purchasing flea control products."

What you should know about fleas in cats

If your cat has fleas, you want to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Cats that go outside are more likely to pick up fleas, but even indoor cats can get them, either from the family dog or when they go to the veterinarian or a boarding facility. Fleas can even hitchhike indoors on your clothes or shoes.

What are the health risks to a cat?

Fleas are more than just a nuisance. These parasites can pose a threat to your cat's health. A severe flea infestation can seriously damage a cat's skin, induce an allergic reaction, or cause them to become anemic from blood loss. Fleas are also responsible for cats contracting parasites like tapeworms and may transmit diseases.

"Fleas can pass on diseases to cats, which can then be passed on to people," Jeffer said. "The most common one that we see is cat scratch fever (Bartonella henselae bacteria), which can cause all kinds of issues in people, but in cats, it can make them very sick."

How to check a cat for fleas

Signs of fleas in cats include scratching, skin irritation, and the presence of dark red or black specks on your cat's skin, fur, bedding, or furniture. These specks, about the size of grains of black pepper, are called "flea dirt" and are flea feces (or digested blood). Back when I worked in the veterinary hospital, I learned a handy trick to help find out if those little specks are regular dirt or flea dirt. Scoop some onto a damp paper towel. If the paper towel turns red, it's flea dirt.

To check your cat for fleas or flea dirt, run a flea comb (a small, very fine-toothed comb) through your cat's coat or part the hair with your fingers to examine the skin. If you find any live or dead fleas or flea dirt, your cat has a flea infestation.

What to consider when shopping for flea control products

Shonda Rhimes' first Netflix original series is a smash hit.

Netflix is projecting "Bridgerton" to be watched by 63 million households in its first 28 days (it debuted on Christmas), the streaming giant said on Monday. Netflix counts a view if an account watches at least two minutes of a show or movie, so while the metric doesn't account for how many users watched the entire series, it does provide a good idea of how many were interested in it.

That 63 million would make "Bridgerton" Netflix's fifth biggest original series ever. (That's assuming we count "Stranger Things" season three, which was watched by 64 million households based on Netflix's former, stricter metric that required an account to watch at least 70% of a movie or TV episode. Netflix changed the metric in late 2019.)

"Bridgerton" marks a win for Netflix and Rhimes' mega deal. The "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scandal" creator struck the deal in 2018 worth $150 million, according to The New York Times.

Netflix made a similar deal with superstar producer Ryan Murphy, but his original Netflix output so far has been hit or (mostly) miss. "The Politician" and "Hollywood" received poor critics reviews and didn't spark the kind of enthusiasm with viewers that "Bridgerton" has, though Murphy's "Ratched" is Netflix's ninth biggest series.

But even "Ratched" still received lackluster reviews and has a 62% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, while "Bridgerton" has a 92%.

Other recent Netflix hits include "The Witcher,""The Umbrella Academy," and "Tiger King."

Below are Netflix's top 10 biggest original series yet based on its two-minute metric, including "Bridgerton":

SEE ALSO: The top 20 streaming TV shows of the year from services like Netflix, Disney Plus, and HBO Max

10. "The Umbrella Academy" season two — 43 million

Description: "Reunited by their father's death, estranged siblings with extraordinary powers uncover shocking family secrets — and a looming threat to humanity."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 90%

What critics said: "The Umbrella Academy is what you get when you mix Wes Anderson with Matthew Vaughn, stuff them full of Red Bull and Adderall, and give them a Spotify Premium subscription. Yes, that's a compliment."— Observer 

9. "Ratched" season one — 48 million

Description: "In 1947, Mildred Ratched begins working as a nurse at a leading psychiatric hospital. But beneath her stylish exterior lurks a growing darkness."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 62%

What critics said: "The name Ratched calls to mind words like 'ratchet' and 'wretched,' but in this slick, inconsistent series she's more a jumble of qualities whose truths are coyly withheld from us."— Boston Globe

8. "Too Hot to Handle" season one — 51 million

Description: "On the shores of paradise, gorgeous singles meet and mingle. But there's a twist. To win a $100,000 grand prize, they'll have to give up sex."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 37%

What critics said: "For those viewers who aren't already primed to suspend their disbelief in the face of manufactured drama, Too Hot to Handle gives them no reason to care."— Polygon

7. "You" season two — 54 million

Description: "A dangerously charming, intensely obsessive young man goes to extreme measures to insert himself into the lives of those he is transfixed by."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 88%

What critics said: "A self-aware work of melodrama, You combines the best elements of murder-mystery series, Millennial sitcoms, and revenge fantasies."— The Atlantic 

6. "The Queen's Gambit"— 62 million

Description: "In a 1950s orphanage, a young girl reveals an astonishing talent for chess and begins an unlikely journey to stardom while grappling with addiction."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 97%

What critics said: "Raise your hand if you anticipated a coming-of-age, period-piece drama about a female chess prodigy in the 1950s and 1960s becoming perhaps the most addictive and binge-worthy series of 2020."— Chicago Sun-Times

5. "Bridgerton" season one — 63 million

Description: "The eight close-knit siblings of the Bridgerton family look for love and happiness in London high society. Inspired by Julia Quinn's bestselling novels."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 92%

What critics said: "There are eight episodes of Bridgerton, and they all have endings that are like chapters in a good book: They leave you in a spot where you just want to read one more chapter before you turn off the light for the night."— NPR

4. (tie) "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness"— 64 million

Description: "A zoo owner spirals out of control amid a cast of eccentric characters in this true murder-for-hire story from the underworld of big cat breeding."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 86%

What critics said: "A compelling series in fits and starts that doesn't amount to much more than a trip through an extremely strange world filled with extremely strange people."— Newsday

4. (tie) "Stranger Things" season three — 64 million*

Description: "When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one strange little girl."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 89%

What critics said: "It's a real and joyful return to form for the show that has been taken fiercely to the hearts of people who weren't there the first time round and, perhaps even more fiercely, by those who were."— Guardian

*based on Netflix's former viewership metric, in which an account had to watch at least 70% of a TV episode

2. "La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)" season four — 65 million

Description: "Eight thieves take hostages and lock themselves in the Royal Mint of Spain as a criminal mastermind manipulates the police to carry out his plan."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 75%

What critics said: "All the joy in the heist format is wondering how the robbers will escape. With Money Heist, I'm starting to dread the new ways the producers will find to keep me locked in."— Independent

1. "The Witcher" season one — 76 million

Description: "Geralt of Rivia, a mutated monster-hunter for hire, journeys toward his destiny in a turbulent world where people often prove more wicked than beasts."

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 67%

What critics said: "And although The Witcher is more fantasy balderdash, it's also somewhat addictive fantasy balderdash. Bring on the blood-spilling, the orgies, the haunted forests and wizards: It seems we can't get enough."— Detroit News

• Due to the ongoing pandemic, many people continue to seek domestic driving getaways and standalone accommodations. 
• Tiny homes offer cozy and quaint stays, and are also more easily tucked into off-the-grid locales.
• We found top-rated options across the US, ranging from $69 to $232 per night to start.
• Read more: Are Airbnbs safe? We spoke to experts, a company representative, and an Airbnb host to share everything you should know before booking someone's home.

The tiny house movement has been booming for years now, and people booking these wee-sized private homes are reaping the rewards — and joys — they bring. Not only does it feel good to know you're supporting a venture that has a smaller ecological footprint compared to McMansions or even normal homes, but each boasts an undeniably cozy and quaint quality. Even better, they're usually less expensive than "traditional" private rentals.

To sweeten the pot, you'll find that many private, tiny home Airbnb rentals are also beautifully appointed. And because of their compact size, many are found in areas with stunning natural surroundings. Think forest hideaways, miniature ranch homesteads, and small abodes perched on mountain vistas.

For those who are eager to travel but understandably cautious about venturing out, it might bring some peace of mind to know that experts and the CDC consider private vacation homes — including listings on Airbnb— one of the safer options right now, especially compared to a hotel.

Additionally, Airbnb has new procedures to keep listings safe and sanitary. Previously, the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol was optional, but now all hosts must follow the cleaning guidelines. Some hosts have also opted into additional procedures, such as Booking Buffer, which enforces a vacancy period between stays.

With that said, venturing outside of your home during the coronavirus pandemic still brings risks. If you do choose to travel, be sure to follow recommendations from organizations such as the CDC and WHO, wash your hands frequently, wear a face mask in public spaces, and practice social distancing.

Keeping all that in mind, we combed through hundreds of listings on Airbnb to find tiny homes with big appeal.

We based our selections on the following criteria:

1. 1. Each tiny home is for the entire listing. They're small enough to begin with so no need to share space!
   2. All are highly reviewed and have an average rating of 4.6 or higher.
   3. One of the best reasons to book a tiny home is to cut costs. Keeping that in mind, all of these listings are affordably priced under $250, with starting prices currently ranging from $69 to $232 per night.
   4. All properties feature notable characteristics that make them stand out in a sea of listings. This might mean scenic spots, thoughtful decor and touches, hot tubs, fire pits, and more.

Here are 11 of the best Airbnb tiny homes in the US, sorted by price from low to high.

Eclectic tiny home with a sleeping loft in Portland, Oregon, $69

Book this hip Woodlawn home starting at $69 per night

It's not every day you can tuck yourself into bed in what was once a 1926 Model T Garage, but this eclectic tiny home found in the hip neighborhood of Woodlawn in Portland, Oregon makes it a possibility. Before it served that purpose, it was a 1915 bungalow.

This freestanding studio unit has since had a facelift and is now filled with eclectic and colorful decor including a lofted bed, and a seating area with a blue futon that doubles as a sleeping space. It's also equipped with a petit cooking area with an electric two-burner stove, mini-fridge, and microwave. While this is an entirely separate unit, be aware it's on the same property as a traditional house, and that the bathroom is in the main house, which is 20 feet away.

Woodlawn is known for its funky, urban, artsy vibe. The neighborhood is home to urban farms (clucking chickens included), mature fruit trees, and is walking distance to an ample supply of yoga studios, coffee spots, drinking, dining, and dispensing.

This listing has plenty of availability now through the spring.

Rating: 4.66

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Historic log cabin in Bellemont, Arizona, $99

Book this historic log cabin starting at $99 per night

Little log cabins are far and few between, which makes a stay at this historic tiny home in Kaibab National Forest particularly special. The 200-square-foot space boasts an authentic cabin vibe thanks to its all-wood interiors, but has a distinctly southwestern flair from cowboy curtains to a cactus-patterned bedside lamp that also has a mini saddle for a base.

The home has one bedroom, one bathroom, a kitchenette (no cooking), and a small seating area. For food, you can use the barbecue grill and enjoy your meal on the large porch. The surrounding national forest also gives you plenty of space to roam outside. 

The location really couldn't be better for exploring some of Arizona's most popular hotspots. It's about 20 minutes west of Flagstaff and just an hour south from Grand Canyon National Park. It's also only 45 minutes from the red rocks of Sedona and about an hour from the mountainside-town of Jerome.

While close enough to city life, it's distanced enough to give you that true, adventurous Arizona cowboy/cowgirl experience. Don't be surprised to see elk grazing through the area, and there are plenty of nearby fishing spots, water holes, and hunting grounds.

This listing has wide availability now through the remainder of 2021 and beyond.

Rating: 4.63

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Tiny forest house in Charlevouix, Michigan, $124

Book this simple forest house starting at $124 per night

At the very top of Michigan — mere minutes from the lakeside town of Charlevoix  —you'll find this simple, 200-square-foot tiny home. It's tucked so neatly and deeply into the woods that you might even feel like you're staying in a tree house. There's even a little porch off the front entry where you can enjoy the wildlife.

Though small, this studio with a sleeping loft (accessed via ladder) affords you everything required for a comfortable stay, including a kitchenette equipped with an oven and stove, and a bathroom right inside the home. The decor is rustic-meets-modern minimalist with several window-side seating areas. A small front porch and two bright green Adirondack chairs provide a nice spot to relax and enjoy the natural setting.

There's currently wide availability in February, and then again in April onward.

Rating: 4.99

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Tiny mountainside house in Towns County, Georgia, $134

Book this mountainside tiny house starting at $134 per night

At 276 square feet, this glass-laden nirvana offers a dreamy slice of Georgia mountain heaven. Every direction you look you can catch a glimpse of stunning nature views, and the soft, muted tones inside make it feel particularly harmonious with the great outdoors.

It features a small kitchenette with a mini-fridge, cooktop, and microwave, a bathroom, a lofted bedroom with both a queen bed and a twin bed, a dining/working nook, and a cozy seating area. In the living space downstairs, the sofa folds out to offer an additional place to sleep.   

Outside, guests have access to a firepit and chairs, a hammock, and the great expanse around them. During the day, you can rent out a boat at nearby Lake Chatuge or take a hike at Bell Mountain or High Shoals Falls. If you're looking for more bustle, Helen is only a half hour away.

Availability is wide open throughout 2021.

Rating: 4.81

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Crow's Nest tiny house on the ranch in Durham, Maine, $150

Book this ranch getaway starting at $150 per night

If you're craving a genuine ranch experience, this tiny home located on a 70-acre working livestock farm ought to be a top pick. Old Crow Ranch offers guests an inside glimpse of what a thriving Maine farmland looks like — cattle, chickens, fields, pines, and stars included. The porch looks out over it all, so be sure to take your morning coffee outside.

The interior is modern, airy, and bright, with touches of vintage charm and rustic details like a turquoise table and Victorian-esque sitting chair. True to tiny house form, it's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom accommodation, and is equipped with a kitchenette (including a two-burner electric stove), mini fridge/freezer, and toaster oven. Speaking of dinner, you can buy your meat straight from Old Crow Ranch farm. The queen bed is located in the loft, and if you need another sleeping space the daybed converts into a double bed.

Crow's Nest is located about 30 minutes from Portland, which means guests can have their urban sprawl and farm life, too.

Availability is sparse in January and February, but it opens up after that.

Rating: 4.98

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Tiny perch at Persimmon Hill in Wellsville, Pennsylvania, $151

Book this tiny perch starting at $151 per night

The Tiny Perch on Persimmon Hill gets its name from its location; it's plopped atop an outcrop overlooking the gorgeous Conewago mountains. This light-filled, one-bedroom home boasts a thoughtfully appointed modern farmhouse aesthetic and is equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, and office nook.

It's on a 10-acre property, which allows for quiet seclusion and the potential to catch a glimpse of wildlife. The deck, picnic area, hammock, and firepit make it especially easy to enjoy the great outdoors. Even from the bed, you can catch views of the mountains.

The home is about 45 minutes from Hershey Park, Gettysburg, York, and Harrisburg. It's also within walking distance of Pinchot State Park and lake, and only five miles from Ski Roundtop. In other words, you've got your pick of both urban and nature.

Availability is wide open from March onward.

Rating: 4.95

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Tiny home with mountain views in Southern Utah, $170

Book this Southern Utah tiny home starting at $170 per night

This newly erected, custom-built tiny home is planted squarely on the border of Utah and Arizona with a stunning view of El Capitan mountain. It's also surrounded by raised vegetable and flower beds, which creates a nice juxtaposition against the desert scenery. Guests have access to the on-site firepit, outdoor seating, and a hot tub. All the above make for splendid sunset and stargazing opportunities.

Inside, this chic and modern home is equipped with a comfortable king bed, a fully stocked kitchen, and a bathroom with a large walk-in shower. Guests can also use the outdoor grill for cooking and enjoy their meals at the picnic tables. If you need more sleeping space, you can break out the twin bed pullout couch, and the host also provides the option of breakout tents for a glamping experience. Zion National Park is about one hour north.

There's wide availability now and throughout the rest of the year.

Rating: 4.72

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

ShangriLaLa mountaintop getaway in Topanga, California, $204

Book this mountaintop getaway starting at $204 per night

Staying in this one-bedroom, one-bathroom tiny house is akin to sleeping and relaxing in a luxurious, sophisticated treehouse. It affords you all the comforts you could ever need — and some you didn't even know you needed — while allowing you to bask in nature.

The outside is equipped with a large porch, complete with a private outdoor shower and luxurious oakwood bathtub. There's also a tranquil garden sanctuary, stunning canyon views, and nearby hiking. In addition to the outdoor features, the ShangriLaLa house is equipped with a kitchenette, bathroom, dining area, lofted bed bedroom, small workspace, and a sitting area.

You'll feel especially one with nature thanks to the wash of soothing earth tones throughout, and the tall glass windows help bring the outdoors in, too.

The ShangriLaLa is about an hour outside of Los Angeles, making it a great escape from the city for those who live there.

This listing still has plenty of open days now and throughout the rest of the year. 

Rating: 4.94

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

The little dipper off-grid tiny home in Joshua Tree, California, $206

Book the little dipper starting at $206 per night

You'll be hard pressed to find an Airbnb listing in Joshua Tree that isn't impeccably done. But this off-grid tiny home— nicknamed "The Little Dipper" by the host — is especially darling. Equal parts retro and modern with a thoughtfully manicured yard, it's a true sanctuary in the desert.

Like many tiny homes, it has a lofted queen bed accessed via steps. From this second story, you'll have great views of the nearby landscape speckled with Joshua Trees. A charming seating area is found underneath the loft, and the futon conveniently folds out to offer another bed. There's also a sizable kitchen, complete with fridge, stove, oven, and eating nook, as well as a full bathroom with a standing shower.

While cheerful inside, the private lawn will draw you out. Patio chairs, a fire pit, picnic bench, and hand-crafted hammocks make it especially easy to lounge outside. You'll feel like you have the place to yourself in this secluded lot, though the center of town is only a 10-minute drive away. It's also 15 minutes away from the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. 

There's wide availability now through March.

Rating: 4.99

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Reclaimed timber carriage house in Bozeman, Montana, $231

Book this carriage house starting at $231 per night

Solace is easy to find at this impeccably appointed reclaimed timber carriage house in Bozeman, Montana. It's set against the backdrop of rolling hills, mountain ranges, bubbling creeks, and grazing wildlife. The French doors right off the bedroom allow you to soak it all up from the comfort of your bed. You might also find yourself enjoying the views from the front patio.

The rustic exterior juxtaposes perfectly with the contemporary interior, which offers plenty of seating, a bathroom with shower, a fireplace, and a kitchen that's remarkably large considering the overall size. It even has a washer and dryer built into the wall. It's clear that a lot of thought went into the layout in order to make use of every square inch of this tiny home.

Exploring the outdoors from here is easy. The property boasts its own 2.5 miles of trail —complete with mountain vistas — and other trailheads are close, as well. Nearby Cottonwood Creek makes for wading and trout fishing, and the Gallatin River and Madison River are also within 30 minutes. Yellowstone is only an hour away and come winter you can take advantage of Big Sky or Bridger Bowl — both about 40 minutes away.

There's wide availability throughout 2021.

Rating: 5.0

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

Container cabin in the Catskills, New York, $232

Book this Catskill container cabin starting at $232 per night

A growing trend among the "tiny home" movement is repurposing shipping containers. And why not? They're really the perfect size for all you need, and this 20-foot container tucked into the Catskills is proof of that. It's been converted to include a queen-size sofa bed, kitchenette, writing desk, and wood stove.

The bathroom is equipped with a compost toilet and gravity-feed water. In that sense, you can consider this off-grid abode a step or two above glamping. Do note that you'll need to feel comfortable operating a wood stove for heat in the winter.

While the perfectly cozy, rustic interior is a draw, what really makes this a special stay is the outdoor amenities. Guests can enjoy a fire ring and patio, yoga platform, hammock, and 30-foot waterfall that lulls you to sleep.

There's currently decent availability March through May.

Rating: 4.85

Covid-19 cleaning procedures: This home participates in Airbnb's Enhanced Clean program. The host is committed to a rigorous cleaning protocol developed with leading health and hospitality experts.

By now, most people are accustomed to using video and chat tools at work. However, not many companies have tried out asynchronous audio for communication and collaboration.

Former Googler JP Gooderham wants to change.

He raised $4.5 million in seed funding in December for his enterprise podcasting startup Storyboard, in a round led by venture firm CRV.

"We want people at all levels of the company to be able to use audio to be more collaborative, more engaged," Gooderham told Business Insider in a December interview.  

Harry Stebbings of popular venture capital podcast 20MinuteVC, Operator Partners, Slack's corporate VC arm the Slack Fund, and private investors Dave Ambrose and Matt Ziskie, also participated in the round. 

Before founding Storyboard, Gooderham worked at Google for roughly seven years until late 2019, holding various roles in its ads division, including product leader and account strategist. He says he can pinpoint the "light bulb moment" he realized that companies could use audio and podcasting as an enterprise tool the same way they use Google Docs or Zoom. 

While working in a product lab near the end of his time at Google, he needed a way to quickly get new information about tools his team was creating to other colleagues that needed to be up-to-date when talking to customers that were testing them. He decided to start recording his weekly meeting with customer -facing teams so people could listen to it on their own time and soon realized there were many more ways to use the podcasting format in an enterprise setting. 

After officially launching in November 2019, Storyboard now has over 1,700 companies using it to record and launch internal, on-demand audio content. The content ranges from training for sales teams, to a CEO's all-hands meeting, to podcasts about career development.

Gooderham sees the future of work as less desktop-focused and increasingly done using smartphones on-the-go, and thinks podcasting can help make that transition more seamless. While video conferencing requires people to be focused on something at a specific time while stationary, asynchronous podcasting lets people easily get or give information from wherever they are and on their own schedule.

It also opens up new opportunities to collaborate asynchronously. Events that would have once required everyone to be available at the same time, like a town hall meeting, can be recorded and distributed and the following discussion that would normally happen in person can take place virtually. 

"These companies are trying to answer the question of, 'How do you build those communities in a space where people are more spread out geographically than they've ever been before?'" Gooderham said. "Our vision for Storyboard is really one where those moments that maybe we used to have at the micro kitchen or the water cooler, it becomes virtual, it becomes collaborative."

CRV investor Anna Khan, who led Storyboard's seed round, said she has rarely sees products that get so much virality so quickly. 

Here's the pitchdeck Storyboard used to convince CRV and other investors to fund its seed round:

• High-quality pizza peels can transfer your raw doughs from the counter to the oven without mishaps, whether it's pizza or another delicious baked good.
• The New Star Foodservice 50295 Wooden Pizza Peel is our top pick because it's lightweight, durable, and inexpensive, and its raw wood surface helps prevent pizza and bread doughs from sticking.

Whether you are working in a corner pizza joint or a home kitchen, you'll need a peel to make great pizza. Also known as "baking peels" or "pizza peels," these paddle-like devices are indispensable tools for moving pizzas easily from the counter to the oven and back again. 

I've been making pizza at home for more than 30 years, and have created more than a dozenpizzarecipes for home bakers, in magazines such as Cook's Illustrated or my own bread- and pizza-instruction newsletter, Wordloaf. Which means I've literally made thousands of pizzas in my day, so I know what works (and doesn't work) when it comes to pizza-making tools. And I have strong opinions about pizza peels, all the more so now that I've tested the current crop available. 

For this guide, I tested five peels, focusing mainly on pizza, using each to load and unload multiple thin-crust pies from my oven. I also used them to load and unload loaves of bread, since peels are supremely useful for baking breads and even pastries. While ergonomics and durability were always on my mind, the main question I had to answer was: Could I get the pizzas in and out of the oven without disaster? You can learn more about my testing methodology below, along with information on wood versus metal pizza peels.

Here are the best pizza peels

• Best pizza peel overall: New Star Foodservice 50295 Restaurant-Grade Wooden Pizza Peel
• Best innovative pizza peel: EXO Non-Stick Super Peel Pro Composite
• Best metal pizza peel: American Metalcraft 3016 Extra Large Blade Pizza Peel, 30 Inch

Prices and links are current as of 1/5/21. We rewrote this guide after comprehensive testing, and added information on the differences between wood and metal pizza peels. 

The best pizza peel overall

If you only have the funds and/or space to have one inexpensive peel, then the New Star Foodservice 50295 Restaurant-Grade Wooden Pizza Peel is the one you want, because it's lightweight, wide enough to accommodate the average pizza, and has a raw wood surface to help prevent the uncooked pizza from sticking. 

Pros: Lightweight, so it's easy to move around; raw (but not rough) wooden surface helps prevent sticking; spacious enough to fit the average 12-inch pizza; short, but more than adequate handle keeps its overall size compact

Cons: Thicker than aluminum peels, so it can be a challenge to slide underneath the cooked pie; raw wood stains easily

This pizza peel is lightweight (weighing just 1 pound, 7 ounces) and made from raw uncoated wood. At 12 inches by 13.5 inches, it's just large enough to fit a standard size pizza without being too unwieldy to handle. I used it to make half a dozen pies and two loaves of bread, and every time the pizza and bread dough slid off easily. While it may seem counterintuitive that a raw wood peel with a rough surface would be less sticky than a metal or coated wood peel, the porous surface of the wood actually wicks away moisture from the pizza, preventing sticking. While its handle is compact at just 8 inches, it was more than adequate enough to keep my hands away from the hot oven as I slid the pizza in.

Though pizzas slid off of this peel effortlessly, it takes some finesse to retrieve pizzas from the oven with it, since the paddle is relatively thick. It does have a sharp beveled edge to help with this, but it takes some practice to get the motion down. Fortunately, the potential for creating a mess is much less with cooked pies than raw dough, and you can always use a pair of tongs (or even your fingers if you are swift!) to help guide the finished pie back on the peel. The porous wood surface is prone to staining, but the peel can still be kept sanitary with some soap and water. Overall, this is a solid peel that is compact, efficient, and easy to use no matter your skill level.

The best innovative pizza peel

The EXO Non-Stick Super Peel Pro Composite is the ultimate "pizza-lovers" pizza peel, at least when it comes to loading pizza (and bread) into the oven, since its unique design works like a conveyor belt to move the product from the counter to the baking stone without sticking.

Pros: No risk of the dough sticking to the peel, no matter how wet it might be or how long may have sat on the cloth belt; lightweight; plenty wide enough to accommodate the average 12-inch pizza 

Cons: Not really designed for removing pizzas from the oven, so a second peel is necessary; proper use requires practice to nail down; canvas belt can pick up stains

This innovative peel consists of a canvas "belt" attached to a wooden board. It is identical in function to the belted loaders that professional bakers use to load bread into a deck oven, except scaled way down in size. Instead of sliding the pie off of the peel, you pull the belt out from underneath it, and the pizza or bread simply drops straight down onto the baking surface, not unlike a magician's "tablecloth" trick. Which means you can take all the time you need getting the pie topped and loaded into the oven, even when working with the wettest, stickiest of doughs. I used this model to make half a dozen pies and two loaves of bread, and not one stuck to the Super Peel. 

At 13.25 inches by 12.5 inches and weighing just under two pounds, I found it roomy enough to hold the average home-sized pie while still remaining lightweight enough to handle. And its 7-inch handle was more than adequate in length to keep my hands away from the hot oven as I slid the pizza in.

While the Super Peel can't be beat for loading pizza and bread into the oven, it's pretty much useless for taking them out of the oven, so you'll still want an aluminum peel as well. And using a Super Peel isn't intuitive — it'll take a few practice tries before you get the correct motion down (hot tip: practice using it outside of the oven, using something other than an actual pizza, until you get the hang of it). The canvas belt can pick up stains from use, but it is washable (don't put it in the dryer though, it could shrink) and replacements are available. Overall, the Super Peel is an excellent choice for the fanatic who wants to take their pizza game to the next level.

The best metal pizza peel

The American Metalcraft 3016 Extra Large Blade Pizza Peel, 30 Inch is an inexpensive, durable, and lightweight aluminum peel — the best option when it comes to removing pizza and bread from the oven. 

Pros: Super thin, flexible blade gets under baked pies and breads with ease; very durable; lightweight, at just under 2 pounds; wide enough to accommodate the average 12-inch pizza

Cons: Slick, entirely non-porous surface can cause raw pizza and bread doughs to stick; best used primarily as a tool to remove finished products from the oven

This pizza peel is lightweight and made from aluminum, with a wooden handle. At 14 inches by 13.5 inches, it's roomy enough to fit a standard size pizza without being too unwieldy to handle. I used it to move half a dozen pies and two loaves of bread in and out of the oven. Raw pizza dough had a tendency to stick to the peel, particularly when the dough was wet, or if I took too long getting the pies ready to bake (breads were less prone to sticking, since they spent so little time on the paddle). 

But the peel worked wonderfully once the products were in the oven. The thin, lightweight blade slides easily beneath pizzas or bread, and the 12-inch handle provides plenty of distance between your hand and the hot oven. The aluminum surface of the peel is easily cleaned with soap and water. Overall, this is a solid peel that is compact, efficient, and easy to use no matter your skill level, especially when used in tandem with another style of peel for loading. It's also very durable; I've used one for more than 10 years, and it continues to work as good as new.

What else we considered

We tested five peels in total; here are a few of the other peels I tested that didn't make the cut:

• SPLENDR Aluminum Metal Pizza Peel with Foldable Wood Handle ($28.99): The handle on this aluminum peel does fold up to make storage in small spaces easier. It performed much like the other aluminum peels I tested, and the handle was comfortable to use. But the handle doesn't sit entirely flush with the peel when folded, making it awkwardly shaped for storage. That said, it might be a good option if space is at a premium.
• Heritage Acacia Wood Pizza Peel ($27.99): This attractive, lightweight, and roomy wooden peel didn't make the cut because its slick, finished surface made pizza doughs prone to sticking on it. You'll get best results with an uncoated wood peel, which is porous enough to absorb moisture from the dough and prevent sticking.

Our testing methodology

I've been making pizza regularly for more than 30 years, including developing recipes for publications like Cook's Illustrated and my own newsletter. I relied heavily on my own experience when testing for this guide and incorporated each peel into my regular pizza and bread making routine over the course of three weeks. Here's what I considered:

Pizza: I used the peels to load thin-crust pizza in and out of the oven. I worked with a fairly wet dough recipe, one that tends to stick to a peel unless I coat the peel with a lot of flour and/or I get the pie ready to bake very quickly. 

Bread: I also used the peels to load and unload bread, both with and without the use of parchment paper beneath the loaf. 

Ease of Use: I considered how easy the peels were to move around and to insert beneath baked pizzas and doughs easily. After each use, I cleaned the peel according to manufacturer instructions, evaluating how easily they cleaned up and noting their appearance after use and cleaning. 

Durability: I considered the durability of the materials from which each peel was constructed and looked for any wear and tear over the three weeks I used them. I also factored in my many years of personal experience using several of the products in this guide.

What we're looking forward to testing

Here are some pizza peels we're currently considering for future updates:

American Metalcraft 14" x 16" Large Blade Peel, 54 inches ($27.75): A long-handled version of our best metal pizza peel like this should be very useful for loading bread and pizza in and out of my wood-fired oven. I'm looking forward to testing it out when the weather gets warmer.

Wood versus metal pizza peels

Though one of my top picks — the EXO Non-Stick Super Peel Pro Composite— is in a category by itself, there are two main types of baking peels: wooden and metal. Wooden peels are typically made of wood or bamboo, while most metal peels are made of aluminum. 

My personal take after 30 years of making pizzas and using peels is that if you only have the money and/or space to own one inexpensive peel, you should get a raw, wooden peel since it's the most "nonstick" choice among the inexpensive baking peels. Though they are a challenge to slide beneath finished pies, it can be done with practice, and baked pies are not nearly as risky to move around as raw ones, anyway. But if you can afford — and have the room for — more than one peel, you might consider a wooden peel for loading the pizzas into the oven, and a metal one for taking them out. (Having two peels also means you can get busy saucing and topping the next pie while the first one bakes.) Here are the key differences between the styles:

Wooden peels: Many wooden peels are coated with a slick finish, while others are unfinished. Coated peels are easy to clean and are "slippery," which can let the dough slide off the peel more easily. But with wet doughs — or even just doughs that have been left on the peel for too long before baking — that slick texture can actually cause the pizza to stick when moisture collects between the dough and the peel. "Raw," unfinished wood peels have a rough, porous texture and hence more grip, but because they can wick moisture away from the dough, they actually tend to be more nonstick than coated peels. Another downside to wooden peels, coated or not, is that they are generally thicker than metal peels, which can make it hard to slide under the pizza once it has finished baking.

Metal peels: Metal peels usually have an aluminum paddle or blade that is flexible and thin enough to easily slide between the pizza and baking stone for quick removal. Even with their wooden handles, they are lightweight compared to all-wood peels. But just like coated wooden peels, a metal peel's non-porous surface can cause raw dough to stick, spelling potential pizza-night disaster.

Check out our other pizza-related buying guides

The best pizza ovens

The best pizza stones

The best pizza making tools

• You can skip the pricey coffee shop markups and make lattes and cappuccinos at home with a quality milk frother.
• After research and testing, we found that the HIC Milk Creamer Frother is the best option.

It's never been easier to make a perfect cup of coffee at home, but you need the right equipment to do it. If you're a big fan of cappuccinos and lattes with silky milk foam, you're going to need a high-quality milk frother in your arsenal of coffee-making tools. 

We researched dozens of milk frothers and tested a few of them ourselves to find the best milk frothers you can buy. 

We've included two great manual milk frothers as our top picks for most people, but if you're dead set on having an electric milk frother, we've included two great options. For more info on how to choose the right type of milk frother, jump to the bottom of this guide.

Here are the best milk frothers:

• Best overall: HIC Milk Creamer Frother
• Second-best manual: Bodum Latteo Milk Frother
• Best handheld: Zulay MilkBoss Milk Frother
• Best premium electric: Breville Milk Cafe Milk Frother
• Best versatile electric: Nespresso Aeroccino 4 Electric Milk Frother

Updated 1/5/2021. We updated prices, links, and formatting.

SEE ALSO: The best coffee makers you can buy whether you want drip coffee or espresso

The best overall

The stainless-steel HIC Milk Creamer Frother whips up your milk for a beautiful foamy cappuccino or iced drink.

Pros: Inexpensive, easy to use, simple to clean, consistently makes great foamy milk, works with any kind of milk, froths cold milk for iced drinks

Cons: You have to heat the milk after you froth it

You don't have to pay a fortune to enjoy a frothy, foamy cappuccino at home. The stainless-steel HIC Milk Creamer Frother is very affordable, but it produces the best milk foam of any milk frother we've tested.

The most well-loved feature of this simple manual milk frother is just how easy it is to clean. Many expensive electric milk frothers involve multiple parts that you have to wash and clean regularly. With the HIC frother, you just scrub out the stainless-steel jug with soap and water after every use and then wash the lid and mesh pump part.

Its stainless-steel design is also durable, so you don't have to worry about it breaking like you would with a glass manual milk frother. 

I've made cappuccinos at home every day for the past six years with a Bialetti Stovetop Espresso Maker and the HIC Milk Creamer Frother, and this milk frother has never failed me. 

It's all about the technique: I typically pour cold milk into the frother, froth it for 1-2 minutes, let it sit for a minute to thicken up, pour it into my ceramic milk pitcher, and heat it in the microwave for 45 seconds. The milk froth grows creamier and frothier as it heats until it's perfect for pouring over the espresso I have in my coffee mug. I've also used it to make frothy milk for iced drinks.

After much use (six years, to be exact), I revisited the product for another review. After all that time and trying other products, the HIC Milk Creamer Frother remains my favorite. It's affordable and, based on its longevity, quality is good.

Check out our review of the HIC Milk Creamer Frother

The second-best manual

The Bodum Latteo Milk Frother looks good on your kitchen counter and it makes excellent frothy milk.

Pros: Glass design helps you see frothing progress, easy to clean, simple to use, consistently makes great foamy milk, works with any kind of milk, froths cold milk for iced drinks

Cons: You have to heat the milk after you froth it, glass is breakable

If you want stylish manual milk frother, the Bodum Latteo is the one for you. It's made of borosilicate glass instead of stainless steel, so you can even pop the glass carafe into the microwave when you're done frothing the cold milk.

Bodum is a well-known brand that also makes French press coffee makers, so you know its products are trustworthy. 

Just like the HIC Milk Frother, the Bodum model is very easy to clean. You simply wash the glass carafe like you would any other glass and scrub the lid and mesh pump clean. In comparison, many expensive electric milk frothers involve multiple parts that you have to wash and clean, which is a real hassle. 

The only downside with Bodum's glass design is that you have to be more careful with it. The HIC milk frother is made of stainless steel so it won't break under most conditions, but this glass one could shatter.

To use Bodum's manual milk frother, you just have to follow the same technique we described for the HIC milk frother. Pour cold milk into the frother, froth it for 1-2 minutes, let it sit for a minute to thicken up, and heat it in the microwave for 45 seconds using the glass carafe the milk is in.

The milk froth grows creamier and frothier as it heats until it's perfect for pouring over the espresso in your coffee mug. You can also use it to make frothy milk for iced drinks.

Bodum's Latteo milk frother is a steal, especially when you compare it to the stationary electric milk frothers in this guide.

The best handheld

The Zulay MilkBoss Milk Frother is an affordable handheld model that froths milk quickly and easily with its stainless-steel motorized whisk.

Pros: Affordable, easy to use, easy to clean

Cons: Not as effective as other styles of frother, spits milk out of the cup if you're not careful

Handheld milk frothers often get a bad rap for being less effective than manual models or their higher-end electric cousins. But the Zulay MilkBoss has been a reliable little appliance for me ever since I got it four months ago. It's essentially no more than a battery-powered whisk that agitates milk to get it to froth and foam — and for a very budget-friendly price, it does exactly what is asked of it.

The simple stick model is powered by two AA batteries that insert into the handle. A push-button on top powers the whisk when it's depressed, so you'll have to keep the button pressed with your thumb while you're working. Because you constantly have to press the button for power, it'll automatically shut off if you drop it or lose your grip, preventing you from flinging milk everywhere.

The milk does have a tendency to spit up out of the cup you're frothing in if you're not careful, so be sure to use a mug or glass with high sides. I use the Zulay frother mostly on non-dairy milk, and I've found that milks with higher fat content froth up much more effectively. Soy creamer works the best, in my experience, and froths up in just about 30 seconds. Because there's no heating element in the frother, you'll want to pop your frothed milk in the microwave before adding it to your coffee.

The Zulay MilkBoss couldn't be easier to clean. Simply fill a cup with soapy water, submerge the whisk of the frother, and turn it on for a few seconds. The handle itself shouldn't be submerged in water, so avoid washing the whole unit.

The frother comes with a stainless-steel stand, so you can keep it right next to your coffee maker. — Jen Gushue

The best premium electric

The Breville Milk Cafe is the cream of the crop with its easy-to-clean design and thick milk foam production.

Pros: Easy to use, great milk foam production, heats the milk for you, simple to clean, make hot chocolate

Cons: Very expensive

If you're dead serious about the milk foam on your morning latte and you're not afraid of dropping serious cash on a fancy milk frother, the Breville Milk Cafe is the best one you can buy.

The most popular feature of the Breville Milk Cafe is that you can customize the exact temperature, type of foam, and amount of foam you want to create. Its circular dial lets you easily set the milk temperature from cold to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. A spinning magnetized disk creates the foam and induction heating warms the milk.

The stainless-steel jug is easy to clean because it separates from the heating base; you can even pop it in the dishwasher. Breville's Milk Cafe produces enough milk foam for three big cups of coffee, too, which is excellent if you have a family (or just like lots of foam).

You can also hack the milk frother to make hot chocolate. All you have to do is toss some chocolate into the milk as it heats and froths to make decadent hot chocolate. 

Unlike manual frothers, the Breville heats the milk as it froths it up into foam, so there's no extra step. 

The best versatile electric

The Nespresso Aeroccino 4 Milk Frother has many different settings so you can get your milk foam exactly the way you like it.

Pros: Multiple settings for different types of froth, hot or cold milk froth, nice design, stainless steel

Cons: A bit expensive, no adjustable temperature

Nespresso is famous for its fancy coffee and easy-to-use espresso machines that use special pods to make the ultimate latte, but the company also makes a number of other coffee products for those who don't want to buy the whole machine. The Nespresso Aeroccino 4 Electric Milk Frother is a great option for milk foam lovers.

It produces lovely thick, creamy foam for your latte. Nespresso improved the design on this new milk frother to include a handle for easy pouring, and now, the entire body is made of stainless steel. 

The design is slightly less easy to clean than Breville's nice jug style, but you just have to wash it by hand and gently scrub off any milk residue. Make sure to clean the Aeroccino4 every time you use it to keep the milk frother sanitary and in good working order.

The frother can make hot or cold milk foam and heat milk for lattes. The Aeroccino 4 uses induction heating to warm the milk and the magnetized spinning disk makes the foam. You can choose between two levels of foam density to make cappuccinos or lattes. Each setting has its own button, so it's easy to operate. On the downside, there's no temperature control like the Breville.

It's very easy to use, too. You simply pour the milk, press the button, and wait a few minutes for your foam. It automatically shuts off when you are done. I've tried a few lattes made with this milk frother at high-end kitchen stores, and I was impressed.

Choosing the right type of milk frother

There are many different kinds of milk frothers: manual, stationary electric, and handheld.

We first tried battery-powered handheld electric frothers because they were relatively cheap. Though they don't perform as well as manual frothers or electric ones, they're a great introduction to frothing milk. It won't cost you much to try one out to see if it's worth the effort. If you find yourself falling in love with your homemade lattes, you may want to upgrade later.

There are plenty of stationary, plug-in electric milk frothers that will produce excellent foamy milk, and we've put the best ones in this guide. However, the best electric milk frothers are significantly more expensive than handheld electronic ones and manual ones.

After much testing, our best experience has been with manual milk frothers that don't cost a lot. Since there's no electricity involved, you do have to froth the milk yourself by pumping the milk full of air inside the jug. You also have to heat the milk after you've frothed it, but you'll have more control over how hot it gets. Even though there is more work involved with manual milk frothers, you'll get the best results for the least amount of money.

Check out our other great coffee guides

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• Folding bikes offer riders the chance for recreation and exercise even if they have limited storage space around their home, place of work, or at school. 
• This style of bike does tend to be more expensive than standard frame bicycles but they can also be stored much more securely, thus minimizing loss via theft.
• Some brands offer electric versions of folding bikes capable of cruising at speeds around 20 MPH and that have ranges reaching nearly 50 miles between charges, making them ideal for urban commuting.
• Our top pick, the Tern Node D7i Folding Bike, feels like a standard framed bike, offers a smooth ride, and even has a built-in light that makes it great for night riding.

Over the years, folding bikes have grown from a small niche part of the greater bicycle market into an established, respected category. Though manufacturers have produced this type of bike for well over a century (and even issued them in limited numbers to troops during both World Wars), folding bicycles are only now gaining mass-market appeal as more health- and eco-conscious consumers turn to cycling as a better way to commute, run errands, and recreate.

This growth in popularity means that there are more and better folding bike options available than ever before, making them worth more than just a passing consideration. Even Connor Swegle, co-founder of Priority Bicycles in Manhattan, NY, has long been a fan of folding bikes, despite Priority not offering any in its lineup.

"[Folding bikes are] a great solution for so many commuters," Swegle told Insider. "They're perfect for people storing a bike at work or who have limited storage space at home. If they don't have a bike room at work or a garage, a bike they're able to just carry or tuck away is ideal. As people look to cut down on the amount of other transportation they use, folding bikes are one of the best options."

To help those in the market for a folding bike, we tested models from brands like Tern, Brompton, and GoCycle to find the best currently available for a variety of use cases. At the end of this guide, we've also included some tips on how to shop for a folding bike and the other models that almost made the cut, as well as insight into our testing methodology.

Here are the best folding bikes:

• Best folding bike overall: Tern Node D7i Folding Bike
• Best folding bike for commuting: The Bike USA Ubike Metropolis Folding Bike
• The best ultra-compact folding bike: Brompton M6L Folding Bike
• The best affordable folding bike: Vilano Urbana Single Speed Folding Bike
• The best folding ebike: GoCycle GX

Updated on 1/5/2021 by Rick Stella: Updated the sections on how to shop for a folding bike and the testing methodology we used, checked the availability of each recommended bike, and updated the prices and links where necessary.

Best folding bike overall

The Tern Node D7i Folding bike rides almost like a standard fixed frame bike, easily handling mile after mile of varied terrain.

Pros: Stable ride on varied terrain, built-in lighting system, suitable for adult riders of all sizes

Cons: Expensive, large for the category

If you want a folding bike that feels like a regular bike, the Tern Node D71 folder is your best bet. With 24-inch wheels, a seat post that raises to accommodate an adult of above-average height, and adjustable handlebars, you might forget this bike actually folds down to half its size.

For that smooth, steady ride that approximates a standard bike, you'll be paying a good deal of cash given this folding bicycle's nearly $1,100 price tag. But there are myriad features that add value to add up to a fair price.

For instance, a built-in lighting system keeps you safer when riding at night and won't ever require a change of battery thanks to an internal power hub that siphons your kinetic energy to keep the lights on. Seven gears allow you to easily make your way uphill and make cruising along on level ground a breeze. 

At 33 pounds, it's also light enough to be easily carried up a few flights of stairs. It does still feature a rugged enough design that makes it suitable for occasional off-roading, too.

On-road, you might find yourself wishing for a few more gears, as any avid cyclist might find themselves easily pedaling along even in seventh gear. Of course, with the benefits of those larger-than-average wheels for a folder so too comes a folding bike that's still a bit clunky when folded down.

But for the person who wants both convenience and a solid, reliable bike, the Node D7i is a great choice.

Best folding bike for commuting

The Bike USA Ubike Metropolis Folding Bike is easy enough for riders of any experience level to enjoy and stable and responsive enough for urban cycling.

Pros: Ships 90% assembled and requires minimal maintenance, easy to adjust seat and handlebars, durable alloy frame

Cons: Maximum rider weight of 250 lbs, pedals not durable enough

If you need a bike that's reliable and nimble enough to get you across town, then the Ubike Metropolis is for you. While not the right choice for a cross-country tour, given its moderately-sized 22-inch wheels and its three-gear hub, this bike is perfect for the daily grind.

Those 22-inch wheels might not be great for open road cycling but they do allow for deft turns and plenty of control — they take up less space when the bike is folded, too. Though three gears isn't many, it's all you need for the city. Just use first gear when going uphill, second for most of the commute, and third on those rare open breakaways when you need some speed.

Twin hand brakes allow for quick stops while the durable frame and smooth, responsive gear system provide safe and comfortable riding on a variety of road surfaces. 

Rider weight is limited to 250 pounds, and watch out for occasional issues with loose pedals. Overall, this is a fine choice for the urban commuter who wants to travel to and fro under his or her own steam.

Best ultra-compact folding bike

You could ride your Brompton M6L Folding Bike for mile after mile and then fold it up and stick it anywhere from a car trunk, a closet shelf, or a mid-sized suitcase.

Pros: Packs down very small, responsive ride, weighs just 26 pounds

Cons: Expensive, folding mechanisms take a while to master

The Brompton M6L is one seriously compact folding bike. So compact, in fact, that you're able to fit it in a suitcase and check it onto a plane (no special bag required). Maybe you want to tuck it into the trunk of a Mazda Miata or carry one under each arm while your partner handles the grocery bags. At 26 pounds, and with wheels just 16 inches in diameter, this is the most compact folder we've seen. 

With that small size comes this guide's largest price tag (for a non-electric bike, at least) and to be honest, this bike is a bit frustrating initially.

The process of unfolding the M6L for use and for folding it down after a ride is a multi-step process that can be confusing and annoying the first few times you do it. But once you master its hinge and locking mechanism, you'll be able to get it set up or packed down in less than a minute. 

The M6L features six gears, twin hand brakes, and smooth pedaling action. Riding feels safe and natural despite its small tires, which allow for plenty of agility and are able to handle most urban and suburban terrain with ease.

Best affordable folding bike

If you want to cover a few city blocks a few minutes faster, then the Vilano Urbana Single Speed Folding Bike is a great choice at a great price.

Pros: Great low price point, very lightweight and compact, easy to ride

Cons: Maximum rider weight of 200 lbs, single-speed not ideal for hills

When you are paying well under $300 for a bike, you can't expect it to do very much. This is why you'll be pleasantly surprised by the fact Vilano's Urbana folding bike works fairly well within the context of those expectations. This bike isn't all that fast, it's far from rugged, and after a 15-mile ride, you'd probably be sore and ornery. But none of those define the purpose of this folding bike.

The Urbana is a perfect example of what Connor Swegle meant by a last-mile solution. This bike weighs just 21.5 pounds and folds down into dimensions of one by two by three feet, making it extremely easy to carry. This lets you finish your journey with ease and at speeds many times greater than you're able to walk.

As a single speed bike, the Urbana might not be great for a hilly city like San Francisco, but it's easy to ride and a good deal of fun given how light and responsive it is. And while rider weight is limited to 200 pounds, the bike's seat and handlebars can be raised or lowered to accommodate users of varying heights.

If you're watching your budget, concerned about storage space, and looking to make your short commute more efficient and enjoyable, you're looking in the right place with this one.

Best electric folding bike

The Gocycle GX folding e-bike zips along at 20 miles per hour and covers up to 40 miles on a single charge, so it might replace a car just as easily as it replaces a subway or bus commute.

Pros: Fast and long-range, quick and easy folding, daytime running lights for safety, easy and comfortable ride

Cons: Very expensive

Folded up, Gocycle's electric folding bike occupies roughly the same amount of square feet as a desk chair. Unfolded and underway, it cruises along with a top speed of about 20 mph and has a range of around 40 miles — or even more if you opt for the battery upgrade. You can also track your battery life (AKA range) and speed on the LED display set between the ergonomic handlebars of this capable e-bike.

For all the complexity you might expect from an electric folding bike that's fast and long-range, it's the simplicity that sets Gocycle's GX apart.

Take, for example, the fact all wiring and tubes are completely internal, without anything sticking off the hand brakes or snaking around the frame. Then there's the simple three-speed mechanical shifter for when you're pedaling yourself. And finally, not only are height adjustments quick and easy, but the bike folds down in less than 30 seconds.

There is one drawback, however, and you surely saw it coming: Its price. This ebike costs $3,299, or more than a perfectly decent used car. But you can't fold up a car and bring it on the elevator or tuck it in a closet. 

What else we considered

While the folding bikes above are some of the best out there to be sure, depending on your budget, your interests, or your aesthetic preferences, there are other units to consider, and these are a few more bikes that almost made the cut.

Vektron D7i: The Vektron D7i is a great ebike with almost the same range and speed as the Gocycle GX, and it costs a good deal less. And while that was almost enough to earn it the ebike slot on our list, the exposed tubing, chain, gears, and other components were what kept it as our also considered. In terms of design, this bike comes up just a bit short, though for performance and price, it's well worth you considering it, too.

SwinX Children's Folding Bike: For a kids' folding bike, the SwinX's model is a fine choice because it can be used by most kids anywhere from preschool to age 10 and can be fitted with training wheels.

Oyama CX8: If you want a folding bike that comes equipped to carry a bit of cargo, consider the Oyama CX8 Folding bike, which comes with a rear rack perfect for a backpack, briefcase, or well-secured bag of groceries.

How to shop for a folding bike

You have to consider first and foremost what cycling experts refer to as use case. This means considering how, when, and where you plan to use your folding bike. 

If your bike is purely for commuting, then an electric folding bike might be the best choice. Do keep in mind that an e-bike (outfit with a burly battery) might be too heavy if you have a third-floor walkup apartment.

Those looking for recreation and exercise may want to consider one of the larger folding bikes that approximates the feel of a standard bicycle. And if you're only concerned about what Swegle calls the last mile solution (i.e. getting from a subway stop to the door) then a smaller, more affordable folder is perfectly fine.

But folding bikes aren't cut out for everyone. If you have plenty of storage space, intend on logging a few century rides, or you're looking to spend less than $500, a folding bike likely isn't for you.

How we test folding bikes

Each bike featured in this guide went through several rounds of testing to see how well it performed across five different categories: Ease of use, portability, ride quality, build quality, and value. Here's what we looked for specifically across each category.

Ease of use: Perhaps the chief concern over whether a folding bike is worth the investment or not is how easy it is to actually fold when you're done riding and unfold when you're ready to take it out. Most have their own unique learning curves but the best should take only a matter of a minute or two to unfurl and a similar amount of time to stow.

Portability: When folded, these bikes should be easy to carry and stow, and shouldn't be as cumbersome as a normal bike. The way in which these bikes fold into themselves is an important consideration of its portability, as is its weight and whether it can slide into a closet, needs dedicated garage space, or can sit in a hallway without forcing you to climb over it each time you walk past.

Ride quality: With a non-traditional shape comes the likelihood of non-traditional ride quality — but it doesn't have to be that way. The ride experience will undoubtedly be different than a normal commuter bike but the best folding bikes (and those featured in this guide) don't feel so different that it's like learning an entirely new hobby. After all, it should be just like riding a bike. 

Build quality: Folding and unfolding a bike presents a new kind of wear and tear not typically associated with bicycles, so build quality is vital. Each bike's hinges and joints should be able to hold up to literally thousands of folds/unfolds without showing much degradation.

Value: Most folding bikes do carry with them a more expensive price tag than a standard commuter, though the price is often a reflection of the advanced engineering required to make it a quality bike that also happens to fold into itself. For value, we considered the previous four categories as a sum of their parts, and how that reflects the final sticker price.