2025 Subaru Forester vs. 2024 Nissan Rogue

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt

In the hot compact crossover class, everyone has to bring their “A” game. And success can be fleeting. Even a successful crossover needs updates to remain competitive. 

Two newly updated compact crossovers are the redesigned 2025 Subaru Forester and the facelifted 2024 Nissan Rogue. The Rogue gets freshened styling and a bigger new infotainment system, and the Forester gets a brand-new look, its own infotainment overhaul, and a series of mechanical upgrades. For this review, we spent a week testing both the updated Rogue and the new Forester. We’ll show how they stack up in each of eight categories, then name an overall winner. Keep reading to learn which one we chose and see which one sounds like the better fit for you. 

Pricing and Features

The 2024 Nissan Rogue starts at $28,850 with front-wheel drive or $30,350 with all-wheel drive. The 2025 Subaru Forester, which costs nearly $3,000 more than last year’s model, splits the difference to start at $29,695 with AWD standard. 

In addition to AWD, Subaru provides the cheapest way to get adaptive cruise control, automatic climate control, a sunroof, and heated front seats. But the Rogue is more cheaply available with leatherette upholstery (or genuine leather if you upgrade further), blind-spot monitoring with a rear cross-traffic alert, a surround-view parking camera, and GPS navigation. The Forester is the only one of the two SUVs with ventilated front seats, and only the Rogue has rear sunshades or rear climate controls. For this review, we’ll break the stalemate with Subaru’s historically stronger resale value. But your own value winner could depend on which features you prioritize. 

Winner: Subaru Forester

2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Exterior Design

Though it’s all-new this year, the 2025 Subaru Forester isn’t designed to grab attention. Bigger, rounder headlights and a rear lightbar are new to the model, but they won’t turn heads in a parking lot full of crossovers. As a functional box with rounded-off edges, the new Forester is quietly classier though less distinctive than its more aggressive-looking predecessor. 

The Rogue was last fully redesigned for the 2021 model year, and 2024 brought a more conventional grille with thin chrome bars instead of a black area outlined in thicker chrome. Overall, Nissan worked hard to give the Rogue some design presence: Vertically split headlights sit astride the grille, while the Rogue’s sides and back are smartly chunky. It looks purposeful yet still upscale, and it’s neither completely anonymous nor overly in-your-face. Our tested top-tier Platinum model has elaborate new wheels this year, too. Overall, the Rogue is your winner if you want a fancier, showier crossover and the Forester is your choice if you want to avoid any frippery. 

Winner: Tie 

2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Interior Design

Inside, the trend continues with a fancier Rogue and a simpler Forester. But the Nissan wins for superior functionality.

The 2025 Forester adds Subaru’s ubiquitous 11.6-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen infotainment system on all but its base model, and it’s not our favorite. The system has cluttered graphics and incorporates simple climate functions that would be easier to use with buttons and knobs. Base Rogues use an easy-to-use 8-inch touchscreen, while upper-level models like our test vehicle add a new 12.3-inch landscape-oriented unit. Whichever you choose, the Rogue doesn’t send you into the screen to adjust its climate control. The Nissan also has richer interior materials than the hardy, rugged Forester, and its moving parts operate with more polished precision. That might be a matter of taste, but we think everyone will prefer the Rogue’s control layout. 

Winner: Nissan Rogue 

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Passenger Accommodations

The Forester might not be fancy, but it’s easy to get comfortable inside. Huge windows and thin roof pillars give an easy view out (useful, since unlike the Rogue, the base Forester models don’t include blind-spot monitoring). The seats are well-shaped and comfortable, and headroom abounds. Heated front seats and a heated steering wheel are widely available, and the Touring model now has ventilated front seats. 

The Rogue is another spacious, comfortable SUV. We have no complaints about its accommodations, though we wish the luxe Platinum included ventilated seats like the Subaru. Overall, we found the Forester even more comfortable, particularly the top Touring model. 

Winner: Subaru Forester 

2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Cargo and Utility

The boxy Forester looks like a utility vehicle, but it’s the Rogue that has more cargo space inside. The Nissan has 36 cubic feet behind the rear seat, which folds easily to open up 74 cubic feet. The optional reconfigurable Divide N Hide cargo system lets you drop the floor to maximize volume, raise it to sit flush with the folded seatbacks with hidden storage underneath, or even separate the cargo hold into sections so smaller items won’t slide around. 

The Forester’s higher cargo floor limits its capacity to 27.5 cubic feet behind the rear seat and 69.1 cubic feet with the rear seat folded down on most trim levels (the base model, without a sunroof lowering the roof, has a couple of extra cubes). That’s still a useful amount of room, but it’s less total volume and a less-configurable space than the Rogue. Nissan also provides more areas to store your small items around the cabin. Both crossovers can tow up to 1,500 pounds. 

Winner: Nissan Rogue 

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Fuel Economy

The 2024 Nissan Rogue has a sophisticated 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine with unique variable compression ratios. The result is class-leading EPA fuel economy estimates of 30 mpg in the city, 37 mpg on the highway, and 33 mpg combined on base models with front-wheel drive. All-wheel drive and upper trims’ bigger wheels burn a bit more fuel, but even the least economical combination – the AWD Platinum, like our test vehicle – gets an excellent 28 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, and 31 mpg combined. We matched that estimate during a weeklong test. 

The 2025 Subaru Forester gets good gas mileage in a simpler way: its 2.5-liter non-turbo four-cylinder engine just doesn’t make a lot of power. Most models get an EPA-estimated 26 mpg in the city, 33 mpg on the highway, and 29 mpg combined with their standard AWD, while trim levels with bigger wheels (including our Sport test vehicle) drop by 1 mpg. We edged out the EPA rating to average 29 mpg in a week of mixed driving. 

Winner: Nissan Rogue 

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt

On-Road Driving

The Rogue’s fuel economy is all the more impressive when you consider the little three-cylinder’s speed. The engine makes 201 horsepower and 225 pound-feet of torque, and while it won’t win a drag race with the most powerful compact crossovers, it zips effortlessly around in routine driving. The engine even sounds great. Subaru improved the Forester’s noise, vibration, and harshness for 2025, but the engine – making 180 hp and 178 lb-ft of torque – is buzzier and less vigorous than the Nissan’s. 

Other characteristics are a matter of taste. The Forester has a softer ride that takes the edge off bumps more easily, while the tautly tuned Nissan feels steadier and more composed. The Forester’s steering is light and easy, but it hits its handling limits sooner than the Rogue. Still, the Rogue easily wins this category for its peppier, better-sounding engine. 

Winner: Nissan Rogue 

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Off-Road Driving

Many compact crossovers are family cars on stilts more than hardworking SUVs. That’s the case with the Nissan Rogue. It has optional all-wheel drive and a decent 8.2-inch ground clearance, and you can optimize its AWD system for either snow or off-road conditions. It’ll handle messy weather or a muddy dirt road. But that’s not a main focus of its engineering. 

The Forester is the one that’s optimized for harsher conditions. It’s still no Jeep Wrangler, but its more compliant suspension takes the edge off bumps on an unpaved road; its ground clearance is even higher at 8.7 inches; and it has more off-roading technological tools. These include X-Mode, found on all but the base Forester, which includes hill-descent control along with specialized settings for snow and dirt versus deep snow and mud. 

Winner: Subaru Forester 

2025 Subaru Forester Sport ・ Photo by Brady Holt

Final Thoughts

From their styling to their interiors to their driving manners, the 2025 Subaru Forester and 2024 Nissan Rogue are different flavors of small SUV. The Rogue is the luxury car of the duo, while the Forester is purposefully unpretentious and functional. 

But our overall winner is the Rogue. While your flavor is a matter of taste, the Nissan also comes out on top for everyday qualities like fuel efficiency, cargo room, and easy-to-use controls. Then recall its nimbler handling, punchier and better-sounding acceleration, and better-finished interior – all at a similar price to the Subaru. The result is an excellent everyday family SUV with an extra dose of premium qualities. The Forester’s smoother ride, superior visibility, and some extra features are also tempting advantages, and it’s the better choice if you venture off paved roads. But we think the Rogue checks the right boxes for a wider variety of owners. 

Winner: Nissan Rogue 

2024 Nissan Rogue Platinum ・ Photo by Brady Holt