The 3 Best Compact Wheel Stands: Buyers Guide 2025

When it comes to mounting a racing wheel, not all sim racers have the space to have a full sim rig. But this shouldn’t stop you from enjoying sim racing just as much as those with complete rigs. That’s where these compact wheel stands come into play.

If you are shopping for a compact wheel stand, you have a range of options from a variety of brands. Sim racing brands Next Level Racing and GT Omega both have a range of wheel stands that vary from lightweight cheap wheel stands, to sturdier stands that can support more powerful direct drive racing wheels.

In this buyer’s guide, I’ll recommend the three best folding racing wheel stands. I’ll share my thoughts and experience with each wheel stand to help you make an informed decision.

What features make a good racing wheel stand?

A wheel stand’s main job is to serve as a platform to mount your sim racing hardware. It needs to be compatible with a wide range of sim racing wheels and pedals to allow for easy mounting, and needs to be sturdy enough to act as a strong platform to race from. You should look for the following features when buying a foldable racing wheel stand.

• A sturdy frame: A sturdy frame is one of the main features to look for in a wheel stand. The last thing you want is for your wheel’s force feedback to cause your wheel stand to flex, vibrate, or become unstable. This could be dangerous and will affect how your racing wheel’s force feedback feels.
• Compatibility with different brands: There are a lot of different sim racing brands, and each one uses different methods of mounting their products. These include different mounting patterns or different clamps. Most wheel stands have pre-drilled plates to be compatible with a wide range of racing wheels and pedals.
• Foldable design: One of the biggest perks of a foldable wheel stand is to collapse it away after use. Most wheel stands can fold and be stored away, but some are easier to operate than others.
• Price: Wheel stands can be relatively affordable, especially compared to more premium sim rigs and cockpits. You won’t want to spend too much on a wheel stand; around £/$100-150 is the sweet spot for a good one.

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TL;DR: The best racing wheel stands overview

Below is an overview of the 3 very best racing wheel stands.

	Wheel stand	Price
	Best foldable wheel stand Next Level Racing Wheel Stand Lite 2.0	£129/$149
	Best budget wheel stand GT Omega APEX Wheel Stand	£129 / $149
	Best overall wheel stand Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0	£199 / $199

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Best foldable wheel stand: Next Level Racing Wheel Stand Lite 2.0

Product – Next Level Racing Wheel Stand Lite 2.0
Price – £129/$149
Where to buy – Buy from Next Level Racing

If your main criteria for a compact wheel stand is its ability to fold down and store away, then there is only one winner. The Next Level Racing Wheel Stand Lite 2.0 is the best foldable racing wheel stand.

This wheel stand is the lightest on this list, and one of the lightest available to buy. However, that lightness doesn’t come at the cost of sturdiness. This is a wheel stand that can certainly handle more powerful racing wheels.

Next Level Racing actually produce a variety of wheel stands giving you a lot of choice. My recommendation for the best foldable wheel stand though is the Wheel Stand Lite 2.0.

The new and upgraded Wheel Stand Lite 2.0 features a more adjustable pedal and wheel plate than the original. Adjusting the angle of your pedals is a must to get into a comfy position, so its good that you can do that with this stand.

This feature alone will help you get a comfortable racing position no matter your seat. The Lite 2.0 also features shifter mount support, allowing you mount a gear shifter to the frame.

The main frame is built using two steel struts, which helped it remain rigid during our testing. We tested this wheel stand with a Logitech G923 and a Fanatec CSL DD, which handled both relatively easily.

There was a small amount of frame flex when using the more powerful Fanatec CSL DD racing wheel. But nothing that detracted from the racing or force feedback.

The main bonus of this wheel stand is its ability to fold extremely well. This wheel stand really can fold down and be hidden away almost anywhere. With this upgraded version, you can fold it away without removing either your wheel or pedals, making it incredibly convenient.

This is the cheapest, lightest, and smallest wheel stand we tested. It performed extremely well and is the most compact when stored. It is worth buying if you are looking for the smallest wheel stand you can find.

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Best budget wheel stand: GT Omega APEX Steering Wheel Stand

GT Omega is exceptionally well respected across the sim racing community. And that is enough for us to have faith in almost any product they make. However, to make this a fair comparison, we still had to test out the GT Omega APEX Wheel Stand. And test it we did.

Like the Next Level Lite, I used a Logitech G923 and a Fanatec CSL DD racing wheel to test the strength of this wheel stand. And boy, did it hold up well!

This is one heck of an extremely sturdy wheel stand for its size and form factor. The substantial metal frame removes almost any potential shake or flex. Allowing all of the force feedback to be felt in your hands rather than lost into the frame itself.

This is a wheel stand that prioritizes strength over everything. However, it is also very ergonomic, with adjustable wheel and pedal positions. It is hard not to find a comfortable racing position.

Unlike the other compact wheel stands on this list, the GT Omega APEX comes with a gear shifter mount. This allows for complete manual shifting without the need for extra accessories.

Finally, just because this wheel stand is built for strength doesn’t mean it isn’t compact. It is small enough to be stored out of sight or under a desk or bed when folded away.

Much like the Next Level Lite 2.0, you can fold this wheel stand down while keeping your racing wheel and pedals attached. This is great for those quick race sessions where you don’t want to spend 20 minutes re-mounting your peripherals.

Overall, if you are concerned that the other two compact wheel stands may be too flimsy, the GT Omega APEX Wheel Stand will put all of those concerns to rest. This is a wheel stand that does everything it needs to do very well: It is strong, sturdy, flexible, and compact. Tick, tick, tick, tick, and tick.

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Best overall wheel stand: Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0

Wheel Stand – Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0 Wheel Stand
Price – £199 / $199
Where to buy: Buy from Next Level Racing

If you are looking for the most complete sim racing experience, the Next Level Racing wheel stand 2.0 is the best all-around experience. It is the best wheel stand of the three in terms of adaptability, and with an additional seat attachment, it can also transform into a complete racing rig at a moment’s notice.

The Next Level Racing Wheel Stand 2.0 follows a similar form factor to the GT Omega APEX. When you view them both side by side, you will quickly notice some similarities.

Both feature a strong metal frame, both use a similar frame design, and both offer a tonne of customisation. But if you are buying a wheel stand intending to expand it into a full racing rig down the line. Then this wheel stand gives you the best tools to do this. When you’re ready, you can simply purchase the Next Level GT seat add-on. The two can be connected to produce a decent sim rig.

But going back to this wheel stand for now. Under testing, it held up extremely well in terms of limiting vibrations and flexing. Like the GT Omega APEX, there was almost no flexing whatsoever, even under aggressive movements.

Again, this is a lovely wheel stand for finding a comfy seating position. Both the racing wheel plate and pedal plate are fully adjustable. You can adjust their height and angle to find the ultimate driving position.

This wheel stand folds away with your pedals and wheel still attached, although it doesn’t collapse into an overall small form. Just like the APEX, this makes this a great stand for those quick races. It allows you to set up and store away in a matter of seconds.

Of the three racing wheel stands I’ve recommended, this Next Level wheel stand 2.0 is my favourite. It ticks the same boxes as the GT Omega APEX while offering much more adaptability when it comes to expanding into a full rig.

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How did we test these wheel stands to find the best ones?

To ensure we recommend the very best racing wheel stands, we tested a wide range of different options. Over the past few years, we’ve been lucky enough to have been sent multiple wheel stands for testing and review, and the three that I’ve recommended in this buyer’s guide are the best that we’ve used.

Finding the best wheel stand is a combination of a few elements. It needs to be strong enough to support good racing wheels. We tested each wheel stand with the budget-friendly Logitech G923 racing wheel, as well as the more powerful Fanatec GT DD Pro that can be tuned to 8Nm of peak torque.

Using the GT DD Pro is a great test for any wheel stand as it is a direct drive racing wheel that can produce powerful force feedback. If a wheel stand can survive using this wheel without too much flexing, we can confidently recommend it. During our testing, all three of the wheel stands that I’ve recommended held up well when tested with the powerful Fanatec racing wheel.

Another important test for a foldable wheel stand is to test how easy it is to fold and store away. Each of the wheel stands above can be collapsed and stored, with the Next Level Racing Wheel Stand Lite 2.0 being the most compact of the three.

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Frequently Asked Questions