The all-black licorice XYLsports Jump Rope is simple to use, with its bearing-assisted rotation and squishy foam-padded handles. It’s harder to shorten than our top pick, but it proved durable on pavement and pretty easy to maneuver. Several Amazon reviews mention the rope tangling too much.

The Amazon Basics Jump Rope looks similar to the XYLsports Jump Rope and may be an impulse buy due to its availability on Amazon and its price. We found it to be a decent beginner rope, but it tangled more often than our top pick. The foam cushioning on the handles showed minor fraying after only a few weeks of use.

The Buddy Lee Aero Speed Jump Rope, with a T-grade aluminum handle, looks like it should last you close to a lifetime. It performed decently, but we saw too many reviews complaining about the cables snapping or the handles breaking off.

The Dope Ropes Singature Beaded Jump Rope comes in a variety of appealing bright colors. We liked that it didn’t tangle or cause us any nicks, but the handles were a bit slipperier than those of our beaded pick, and the beads felt a tad heavier.

The Elite Jumps Beaded Jump Rope is a solid beginner rope, as it didn’t really tangle or cause a lot of nicks. But we thought the handles felt a bit flimsy, almost brittle, and Tania Islam said she noticed that they felt slippery after only 10 minutes of use. We also found that the beads garnered scrapes much more than those of other beaded models we tested—they are sort of loosely aligned, like a macaroni craft necklace.

The Everlast Fit Speed Jump Rope has handles designed like those of our top pick, with a wide base, and comes in a basic all-black color. Available in 9-foot and 11-foot options, the Everlast rope didn’t tangle much, but it showed more wear than our pick when we used it outdoors.

The Loocio Cordforce Jump Rope has a nice, thick handle with smooth cushioning. It was fairly easy to adjust and didn’t tangle a lot, but several buyers have claimed that the rope doesn’t last more than six months.

The licorice-type PVC Buddy Lee Rope Master Jump Rope arrived kinked up, and the instructions required us to cook it (no, really, in a pot of water at a soft boil for a couple of minutes) to straighten it out. And even after you take that step, it retains any loops from storage, making it hard to straighten out for jumping.

Crossrope offers two sets of interchangeable weighted ropes and jump-centric workouts via a companion app. We tried the Crossrope Get Lean, which includes a 0.25-pound rope, a 0.5-pound rope, and a pair of slim, grippy handles. Solidly built and versatile, the ropes swap in and out of the handles easily and swing comfortably. A $99 companion-app membership includes hundreds of workouts and related content. Considering that a good jump rope can be had for $10 to $20, a Crossrope set is a commitment: The Get Lean set costs about $90, and to take full advantage of the app, you need to pay the monthly membership fee. If you’re a beginner looking for guidance or a more experienced jumper out for a challenge, this one might be worth the investment. Note, though, that there is no shortage of free jump rope workouts on YouTube.

The licorice-style Degol Tangle-Free Jump Rope had a decent heft and jumped and skipped nicely, but it tended to stick to itself and tangle when not in use. The 6-inch handles have intermittently placed strips of smooth padding, but they felt a little cheap.

The PVC DynaPro Jump Rope has a rubbery, almost gummy texture (it reminded us of a jelly bracelet) and non-padded aluminum handles that are dimpled for grip but feel rough. It lagged while skipping and was too responsive during bouts of jumping, feeling like it was stretching upward at the top of the swing and messing with our timing.

The licorice-style Elite Jumps Boxer Training Rope 3.0 jumps and skips similarly to the XYLsports Jump Rope, but adjusting the rope is much easier. This 5 mm PVC rope is 10 feet long, which gives those who might need a bit of extra length something to work with.

The Elite Jumps Elite Surge 3.0 has slick-looking aluminum handles that have a nice weight, turn smoothly, and could work with speed cables and licorice ropes alike (sold separately on the Elite Jumps site). At slower skipping speed, however, it had one of the most pronounced loping feels of any rope we tested.

The Sunny Health & Fitness Adult Leather Jump Rope With Foam Handles (currently unavailable) arrived dry, cracked, and hopelessly kinked up. The specs list its length at 116 inches, but we measured it at just 105 inches.

The WOD Nation Speed Jump Rope comes with an extra rope and hardware and pivots on a bearing, which swung smoothly but didn’t feel quite as sturdy over the long term as the bearing system on the Rogue SR-1 Bearing Speed Rope.

Caira Blackwell, Amy Roberts, and Ingrid Skjong contributed reporting. This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.