11 Cheap Car Phone Holders Under $25 (Ranked Best to Worst)

Secure Your Phone While Driving

The goal of any good car phone holder or mount is simple: keeping your phone safe — and your eyes on the road — while you drive. But which one of these accessories is worth buying? To find out, we used an iPhone X and Galaxy S9 to evaluate the most popular universal car phone holders on Amazon.

In some cases, companies offer car vent holders that connect to your vents and offer a clamp of sorts that keeps your smartphone secure. In other cases, you'll find the option to magnetically mount the phone holder to your dash. The latter type is especially handy if vents aren't available or if you feel your vents are too flimsy to hold a heavy handset.

To evaluate these car phone holders, we considered their construction and build quality, installation processes, and other features. Those included how easy it is to route a charging cable through the holder to a smartphone. Here are our results.

Credit: Auto Tech

iOttie Easy One Touch 4

Instead of requiring you to put sticky adhesives on your dash, the iOttie Easy One Touch 4 uses a high-quality suction cup that keeps the smartphone steady regardless of how you're driving. You can also stick it to your windshield. Better yet, you can rotate your phone to view content in landscape or portrait mode.

Inserting your phone and keeping it safe in the iOttie Easy One Touch is a cinch. You simply squeeze both sides of a component that opens the pinchers, and once your phone is safely inside, you let let go. The phone holder automatically clamps on to your handset to ensure a snug fit.

Although I would've preferred a sturdier construction, the device makes up for that weakness with several perks that make it one of the better car phone holders on the market.

Credit: iOttie

Beam Electronics Universal Smartphone Car Air Vent Mount

The Beam Electronics Universal Smartphone Car Air Vent Mount Holder is exceedingly simple to set up. Within a minute, I had the car mount installed and I was ready to go about my day.

Beam's device consists of two components: the holder itself and a part that connects to your car vent. The car vent connector is sturdy and has a clamp on the side to ensure it doesn't fall out when you move. It's easy to install, but it's plastic, which means it could break.

Beam's phone holder has a soft fabric that's designed to reduce the chances of scratching your phone and clamps on the sides; the fabric can be adjusted to be tighter around your phone. A release button on the back of the holder makes popping your phone out easy. While the iPhone X and Galaxy S9 felt safe in the phone holder, the device could use more support at the top. When driving, I noticed slight wobbling due to an imperfect fit with my iPhone X.

Credit: Beam Electronics

Magnetic Mount WizGear

WizGear's Magnetic Mount is pretty easy to set up, but it could be more reliable. It comes with stick-on magnets that attach to the back of your phone and another one that you stick anywhere on the dash. The magnetic connection between the two components keeps your handset safe on the dash.

I was a little disappointed by the magnet quality. It was fine in most cases, but if I stopped suddenly, my phone would sometimes come loose, making me feel it wasn't as secure in the holder as it could have been. It's also a stick-on magnet, and not everyone will like using a hefty sticker on their dash.

That said, I liked that the magnetic mount uses a ball joint that allows you to adjust where the smartphone is facing. And because it uses stickers and magnets, the WizGear will work with any phone.

Credit: WizGear

VAVA Magnetic Phone Holder

VAVA's Magnetic Phone Holder has an interesting design. On the phone side, it's simple: Attach one of the magnets to the back of your smartphone or case, and you're good to go. However, on the mount side, you'll need to connect a big ball magnet to your dash that then connects to another magnet that will ultimately link up with your phone's magnet.

That system means you can easily move your phone on that ball while you're driving, ensuring that you have the perfect view at any time. The feature also means you can use the phone holder in both portrait and landscape modes.

Overall, the magnet worked well, and I was generally impressed with its strength. However, I didn't like that I had to use adhesive to attach the phone holder to my dash. And for those who are worried about residue, that might be a nonstarter.

Credit: VAVA

Torras Magnetic Car Mount Holder

Torras' Magnetic Car Mount Holder is another simple option if you want to use magnets to keep your handset secure while you're driving.

The car mount comes with an adhesive area at the bottom that you attach to your dash. Once you attach the other adhesive to your phone or car charger, you simply connect the two magnets, and you'll be good to go. I found the magnets to be strong, and even when I hit the brakes hard, the iPhone X and Galaxy S9 stayed put.

The mount comes with a swivel feature that allows you to adjust where your phone is pointed. It's a nice add-on, but I found it hard to move. When I was driving, it was impossible to move the mount anywhere without using both hands. So, if you're planning to get this holder, be sure to have it in the spot you want before you start driving.

Credit: Torras

WizGear Universal Air Vent Magnetic Phone Car Mount Holder

Another WizGear option, the Universal Air Vent Magnetic Phone Car Mount Holder is designed for those who might not want to stick the mount on their dash.

Instead, this WizGear is inserted in the air vents in your car on one side; on the other side is the magnet that connects to your phone. Like with the other WizGear holder, you attach a magnet to your handset or case, and the magnetic mount itself will keep your phone secure.

While the magnet was as powerful as the standard WizGear, I was disappointed by the vent connector, which doesn't come with a clamp. I often found myself checking to ensure my phone was safe. And when driving, it would sometimes bounce around and lose stability. The phone holder never came loose and fell to the floor of my car, but its motion was a distraction because I felt that I needed to keep an eye on it.

Credit: WizGear

Soaiy 3-in-1 Cigarette Lighter Car Mount

As a car mount, the Soaiy 3-in-1 Cigarette Lighter Car Mount is mediocre. The device has a small, plastic holder that comes with some, but not enough, foam to safeguard the smartphone. This mount requires you to cinch its two clamps around your phone, and because you might not do it as tightly as you should, it may not stay in place.

The real appeal to Soaiy's device is the car lighter attachment, which makes it possible to charge your devices. The component plugs into the rear of the holder and connects to your lighter port. On the back, you'll find two USB ports that allow you to charge two devices at the same time.

Unfortunately, the cable that connects the lighter connector and the port is rigid; it therefore limits how far away your phone holder can be from your lighter port. A flexible cable would have made this car phone holder far more appealing.

Credit: Soaiy

Lamicall Magnetic Phone Car Mount Holder

Lamicall's Car Phone Holder is about as simple as they come. The device ships in a nondescript, brown box and has a mount that connects to your air vent, along with a couple of magnets that you attach to the back of your phone or case.

My biggest problem with this mount is its car-vent mechanism. Because there's no clamp to keep the mount closed, this model didn't feel as sturdy as some of the others I tested. I often saw my phone shaking or wobbling when I went over bumpy roads.

I was also disappointed by the size of the magnets that attached to my phones. The circular magnets were too small for larger handsets like the iPhone X and Galaxy S8+ that I used in testing, making the connection feel flimsy at times. The magnetic power was solid, but still nothing that would make me want to buy this holder.

Credit: Lamicall

Mpow Car Phone Mount

The Mpow Car Phone Mount will be a nonstarter for many, because getting it up and running is too much of a hassle. A big reason is that the device is a CD slot car mount, which means that instead plugging in to an air vent or attaching to the dash, it has a wonky design that requires you to slip it into the CD slot in your car.

After a few minutes of trying to get it just right, I finally installed the mount. But by then, I found its location challenging. The positioning of the CD player slot in my car leaves little room for anything to actually jut out. I found the same problem when I tried this mount in my other cars. Only one vehicle, which had a CD player positioned toward the top of the dash, made for easy access.

In this case, in other words, your car's design will be really important.

The phone holder itself is a bit disappointing, with a small section of foam-like material on the back and sides to protect your phone. And because this mount is on the smaller side, bigger handsets might not feel as safe.

Credit: Mpow

Auto Tech Luxury Phone Holder for Car Air Vents

The Auto Tech Luxury Phone Holder for Car Air Vents is no way to keep your smartphone safe on a long drive.

The device is made from plastic and has little to safeguard your handset. To use it, you simply open the clamps, let them cinch around your smartphone with their springs and attach the mount to your air vents. The problem is that the air-vent attachment has no clamps to ensure it's properly mounted. And although the spring-loaded clamp around the phone generally kept the device safe, this connection felt a little flimsy compared to the other holders I tested.

Worse yet, if you don't properly place the phone inside the mount, its weight could be unevenly distributed, and your phone could fall out.

Credit: Auto Tech

Aonkey Cell Phone Holder for Car

There's not much to like about the Aonkey Cell Phone Holder for Car.

When I broke this device out of the box, I was shocked by the size of Aonkey's car mount. The big, square device is designed to attach to your dash via a rubber pad with an adhesive. From there, you open a clamp on the top that lets you insert your phone in landscape mode. There's nothing keeping your handset safe other than that clamp, and if you want to use your phone in portrait mode, you'll be out of luck.

The clamp itself was my biggest problem. It's flimsy and doesn't work well. All in all, I wouldn't recommend this holder.

Credit: Aonkey