The 8 Best Down Jackets of 2025
If you’re looking for a long-lasting jacket with similar warmth and features to our top pick, but in a different fit or style, we have a few options for you.
If you want more color options than our top pick, but a similar fit: Consider the Patagonia Down Sweater (in men’s and women’s sizes). The recycled nylon felt smooth, and we liked the Down Sweater’s elastic cuffs that we could easily roll up. It also comes with more color options (including some patterns) than our top pick, but it still has well-made zipper pulls and a waist cinch. You can buy it in a hooded model (men’s and women’s), too. It’s pricier than our top pick, though.
If you want more color options and a boxier fit: The Cotopaxi Fuego Hooded Down Jacket (men’s and women’s) is similar to the Patagonia Down Sweater, with a comparable price, a slightly heavier weight (14 ounces to the Down Sweater’s 12 ounces), and 800-fill-power down. But it’s boxier in fit and the down moved between the baffles slightly more than in our top pick, the Montbell Alpine Light Down Jacket. Still, Cotopaxi is known for its bold color schemes.
If you’re looking for a more flattering fit: Look at the Outdoor Research Helium Down Jacket (which comes in men’s and women’s styles, men’s and women’s hoodies, and plus sizes). It’s stylish and well fitted with a flared waist and enough room for layering. It’s attractive enough to wear in town, but it also performed well during a whole season of icy-cold mountain adventures. The quality of the jacket is similar to that of the Patagonia Down Sweater, with a comparable price and durability level. The main difference is the fitted style, which was polarizing among our testers.
If you’re looking for extended sizing for wet, active adventures: Consider the L.L.Bean PrimaLoft Packaway Jacket (available in both men’s and women’s sizes), a synthetic option that packs down beautifully and comes in women’s petite and plus-size ranges. Compared with our also-great synthetic choice, though, the Packaway jacket didn’t provide as much warmth, and it was tough to layer under or over, given its boxy shape.
If you’re looking for a cheap down jacket that’s more fitted than our budget pick: Consider the men’s Eddie Bauer CirrusLite Down Jacket, which comes in regular and tall sizes and was another favorite budget option among our testers. In most ways, it was comparable to our budget pick, though slightly more expensive: It has simple, wide baffles, large inner and outer pockets, and a narrower profile, which makes it more stylish but still easy to layer under. The 650-fill-power down is warm, but as with our budget pick, feathers quickly started emerging from the seams, indicating a lack of long-term durability. The women’s version didn’t perform as well as the men’s.
If you want an incredibly warm, puffy jacket with all kinds of perks for the coldest temperatures: Try the Rab Neutrino Pro Down Jacket (men’s and women’s). It comes with a visor, cinched hood, and 800-fill-power down, with a waterproof shell, lined cuffs, a visor that keeps the snow out of your eyes, and solid zippers—and it’s super cozy, to boot. That said, it doesn’t pack down small, it’s more expensive than our upgrade pick from Stio (which is nearly as warm), and it’s nearly double the weight of many of the other jackets we tested. Still, we’ve found that the extra warmth really is worth the price and weight during major snowstorms, the coldest ski days, and mountain adventures where you want intensive protection.
If you’re headed out on a long, cold, ultra-light backpacking trip, consider the Arc’teryx Cerium Jacket (men’s, women’s, men’s hoodie, women’s hoodie) has always been a model we want to love. In 2023, they redesigned the women’s style to allow for a roomier fit in the chest. The men’s and women’s models got new zippers and pulls, too, for “improved durability.” But despite it being one of the most expensive jackets we tested, it lacked many of the features we liked in our upgrade pick, including no lined cuffs, only basic pockets, a not-great zipper, and a simple drawstring hood. But, the 850-fill-power down was, indeed, warm. And the 7.6-ounce weight for the women’s small jacket (which was slightly heavier than the weight listed on the Arc’teryx website) made it the lightest option in the bunch. During an overnight in 40 °F, this was the jacket we liked best.
