—A base for the seat

Every other answer here starts with a hole saw.

Name: The Pontoon Cup Holder
Brand: Steadi Labs

The cheap flush holder is $14.16 and a 3.64-inch cutout. The rail clamp needs you to measure your rail first, and it is rated for two pounds. A replacement seat arm with holders in it is $109.99 and still gets drilled.

This is a 5.2-inch base you set on the seat. Nothing is cut, drilled or measured.

4.9 average · 120 reviews

See the packs

from $14.95 · free shipping on every order

Ships from Orange, California. 90 days to change your mind, used is fine.

A can standing in a black Steadi on a boat bench cushion, water behind it. — Charcoal, on a bench cushion. Twelve colours in all.

—Read this before anything else

There are four ways to put a cup holder on a pontoon.

Three of them change the boat. Prices and specifications below are the sellers’ own, looked up on 2 September 2026.

Cut a hole

$14.16

+ a 3.64″ cutout

A 4.25″ flush stainless holder, 3.625″ deep, draining to a 5/8″ hose sold separately. The cheapest option in the aisle, and the most permanent.

Clamp to the rail

Varies

+ measure your rail

1‑1/4″ is stated as about 90% of pontoons. Some Barletta and Alera rails are 1‑1/2″ and are not compatible. One rail holder is rated 2 lb standard use, 1 lb heavy-duty.

Replace the arm

$109.99

+ drilling, two places

A premium seat arm with two holders moulded in. It installs by drilling from the seat base into the arm and bolting through. No upholstery is cut, but the arm is.

Set one down

$14.95

+ nothing

A 5.2″ moulded base, 3.6 ounces, that the drink stands in. It is not attached to the boat, and that is the whole of what it asks.

Sources: boatoutfitters.com · captainhookz.com · docktailbar.com · deepblueoutdoors.com · rammount.com · pontoonstuff.com. All fetched 2 September 2026.

—What a hole in a pontoon seat does over time

The cut does not stay the size you cut it.

The vinyl moves
One owner, writing about three cup holders in his own pontoon seats: the cuts “have continued to tear as the vinyl has shrunk a bit over the years.” His upholsterer’s answer was to re-upholster the seat, or at least the arm.
Water goes where the hole goes
Boating magazine, on installing holder drains: spray and wash-water “can pour into the rod tubes and accumulate inside the gunwales, soaking the foam, adding weight and promoting mold and mildew.” And: “cup holders can drain into wiring, causing shorts and corrosion.”
Foam is not waterproof
Marine Fabricator, on cushion failures: “Stagnant water grew mold and the seams allowed the water and mold to seep into the polyfoam.”
And it is not a cheap thing to undo
One marine upholstery service quotes $100 to $300 to re-upholster a cushion, up to $500 for a captain’s chair, at $80 an hour.

iboats.com forum · boatingmag.com · marinefabricatormag.com · wecanfixthat.com. Fetched 2 September 2026. Quoted as published; we have not tested any of it ourselves.

A cracked white plastic clamp-style drink holder lying on weathered dock boards. — IllustrationA broken clamp holder on a dock. One holder, not a verdict on the category — the sourced problems above are about cutting, not clamping.

—How it holds

Width, and nothing else.

The base

5.2 inches across and fixed. It moves the edge the drink would have to tip over much farther out, so the whole thing has to lean much farther before it goes.

The fins

Six of them, holding the bottom inch. Cans and bottles slide on from the top; tumblers and glasses drop in. Drink and base then rock as one piece.

The surface

The rubber plants the base on the seat and lifts away clean. It marks nothing, and there is nothing to adjust.

Water beading on the matte terracotta surface of a Steadi, across the moulded STEADI mark. — Shore 85A TPU. Water sits on it and wipes off.

See the packs — from $14.95

—What seats and what does not

Bases between two and three inches. Yours probably is.

A standard 12 oz can is 2.6 inches across the bottom. A Stanley Quencher 40 oz is 3.1. Both seat. A mug with a handle does not — the handle lands exactly where the fins grip.

Search by container

Every width below comes from a published specification, not from us. Where a spec is uncertain, the answer says so.

Container

Or the width across the bottom

Width in inches

A width across the bottom of the cup, in inches.

A tumbler standing on a yellow sticky note on a cooler lid. — IllustrationThe three-inch test, on the cooler lid it will probably live on.

Without a tape measure

A standard sticky note is three inches square. A cup standing on one with its base inside the paper will seat.

Anything that overhangs, or anything borderline — hello@steadilabs.com reaches a person, and the answer will be honest either way, including a no.

—What the aisle costs

The whole aisle, with what each one asks of the boat.

Prices were looked up on 2 September 2026, not estimated. Every figure is the seller’s own.

The product	Price	What it asks of the boat
Flush stainless holder, 4.25″	$14.16	A 3.64″ hole, 3.625″ of depth behind it, and a 5/8″ drain hose sold separately.
Rail-mount holder	Varies	That your rail is the diameter it was built for. Rated 2 lb standard, 1 lb heavy-duty on one model.
Replacement seat arm, 2 holders	$109.99	Drilling from the seat base into the arm in two places.
The Pontoon Cup Holder	$14.95 · four for $39.95, $9.99 each	Nothing. It sits on the seat and lifts off.

The cheapest thing in this aisle is a hole in your seat. Ours costs seventy-nine cents more than that hole and leaves the seat alone.

If what you want is a holder that stays with the boat all season and never moves, the flush one is the right buy and it is genuinely cheap. This is for people who would rather not cut.

—From people who bought one

Two of these are from boats.

Neither is from a pontoon, and we are not going to imply otherwise. They are here because they describe the surface and the wind, which is what this page claims. Verbatim, unedited, not filtered by rating.

A white paper coffee cup with a lid seated in a terracotta STEADI base on the navy cushion of an outdoor patio sofa, with a linen throw pillow and palm fronds behind in bright sun — Photograph sent in by carlo vescovi with this review.

★★★★★

Love my Steadis! This is one of those products that you don’t know you’re missing in your life until you use it. I’ve been using these to stabilize our drinks on the couch. This way I can put it right by me rather than a few feet away on the coffee table. It’s like a cupholder that goes with your drink. Highly recommend, great value for what it does!

carlo vescovi · 2026-05-10Photo from the buyerPhoto from the buyerPhoto from the buyerPhoto from the buyerPhoto from the buyerPhoto from the buyerPhoto from the buyer

★★★★★

Brilliant idea. These are great on the boat!! Hold up nicely in the wind when my can is almost empty.

Wendy Corlett · May 2026

★★★★★

We have a couple of these and we absolutely love them! They have prevented many spills and saved many drinks from being spilled over from a very active toddler knocking into them. It's so nice to use them on our boat and not have to worry about spills and can leave drinks out worry free!

Peter Henderson · May 2026

★★★★★

OMG!!!!! YOU HAVE TO BUY THESE!!!!!! i tested it out today on an old tv tray (wood and very slippery) and put a soda in it and played like “oops i bumped my tray” (and really hard) and NADA, NOPE, NOT AN INCH OF MOVEMENT from the STEADI. everything else went flying!!! cuz dummy me didn’t remove those other items first 🙃 duh!!! and no it was not suctioned to my tray cuz it doesn’t do that. but WOW!!!!! what a great invention. wish i was thinking up this GREAT IDEA, instead of binge watching TRAITORS tv shows and SPILLING my soda as i jump with excitement/anger over the show. the plus side, while flipping thru FB (while the commercial is on) or i’m cleaning up my spilt soda 🤪….. i saw this ad and it was like angels were singing “BUY ME AND UR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED”. so glad i did. they work great!!! i bought the 4ct from actual website and it shipped quick and packaging was perfect. all 4 colors are great!! black, white, deep terracotta (plant holder) color. very very nice color. especially during the fall. and a muted warm sage color. very nice also. FYI:: i forgot to mention, i even tested this out with a 8oz dinner cup and it worked perfectly. but put the cup in FIRST then add beverage…..LOL learn from my dumb remark of “i can get it around the cup filled to the brim and not drop a lick of this drink. well WRONG!!!! 😑 LOL!!! user error not the STEADI. buy this and trust me u won’t want to return it. oh and it is comfortable to hold. and actually, now i can set my can of soda down with a mighty slap on the table and a huff and puff in disgust, if my tv show is calling for my dark side to come out in anger, of their decision of who to banish on TRAITORS (US/UK/NZ/ and now CANDA)!! ENJOY!!!! and THANK YOU TO THE INVENTOR!!!!! i hear it’s a father of 3. 🤷‍♀️

rebekah quinteros · June 2026

18 more, photographed by the people who bought them

Sent in with their reviews. Tap any one to read it. Different rooms, different drinks, different colours — none of them staged by us.

A slice of one product-wide corpus — reviews of the Steadi, not of this page. The full corpus is published live.

—The limits, in one place

What it does not do.

It holds through ordinary movement. Not through everything.
The maker has watched an empty can — the lightest, worst case there is — stay put in over forty miles an hour of wind, and a customer on a boat reports the same thing unprompted in the reviews below. Ordinary running and ordinary wake it handles well. A hard turn it does not, and neither does anything else on the deck that is not bolted down. That is his account of it, not a test we can show you.
It does not attach to the boat.
No clamp, no bracket, no bolt, no suction. There is no accessory that would add one. If you want the drink to stay with the boat all season, the flush holder or a rail mount is the right product and this is not.
Wind is not something it resists.
An empty can goes over in wind whatever it is standing in. This widens the base; it does not add weight.
A handled mug does not seat.
The handle lands where the fins grip.
It is not spill-proof — nothing is.
It resists tipping. A hard enough knock moves anything.

—Who makes it

Steadi Labs. One person, in Orange, California.

The steel injection mould open in the machine, the cavity that forms the base visible. — The mould, in the machine.

Scott Rodriguez at a workbench, holding a terracotta Steadi and looking at it, with shipping boxes behind him. — Scott, who makes them.

Scott Rodriguez made the first one after a full drink went over on a soft cushion with three kids under three in the house. It was built for spills.

It was not designed for boats, and nobody with a pontoon asked for this page. It exists because a wide base does the same thing on a bench cushion as it does on a couch, and because everything it does not do on the water is written above.

We make one thing and we make all of it here — the moulds, the material, the colour runs, everything within about three and a half miles of the shop.

Steadi Labs — veteran founded and veteran owned
Designed, injection moulded, picked, packed and shipped in Orange, California
Patent pending
100% BPA free
5.2 inches across the foot, about 3.6 ounces

— Scott, Steadi Labs

—Questions

Straight answers.

Will it stay put while we’re running?

Better than you would expect. The maker has seen an empty can hold in over forty miles an hour of wind, and ordinary running is easier than that. What it will not take is a hard turn — nothing loose does. If you want the drink secured no matter what you do with the wheel, a rail mount or a flush holder is the product for that.

Does it clamp to the fence rail?

No. There is no clamp and no bracket, and nothing sold separately would add one. That also means there is no rail diameter to measure and nothing that will not fit your boat.

Will it hold a 40 oz Stanley?

Yes. The Quencher H2.0 40 oz measures 3.1 inches at the base, which is inside the range the fins flex to. It is a snug fit rather than a drop-in — it seats with a push.

Will it blow away when it’s empty?

An empty holder is 3.6 ounces and will move in enough wind. So will an empty can in a $14 stainless holder. Nothing here is weighted.

Can I leave them on the boat?

They are Shore 85A TPU and water does not hurt them. Long-term UV exposure is not something we have tested, so we do not make a claim about it. Rinse and wipe, or run them through the dishwasher.

Do they mark the vinyl?

They mark nothing and lift clean. There is no adhesive, no suction and no hardware touching the seat.

Why not just fit the cheap stainless one?

Because it is $14.16 and a 3.64-inch hole in a seat that costs $100 to $300 to re-upholster. If you are happy to cut, it is a good product and it stays with the boat. This page is for people who are not.

Why does this site only sell one thing?

Because it is one thing. It is a Steadi, made by Steadi Labs in Orange, California, and checkout finishes at steadilabs.com where the company lives.

—Still deciding

I want it to survive anything I do with the throttle.

Then bolt something down. This holds well through ordinary running and gives up in a hard turn, like everything else that is not fixed to the boat.

$14.95 for a piece of rubber.

It is. The flush stainless one is $14.16 and a hole saw, so you are paying seventy-nine cents to keep the seat intact. Ninety days covers being wrong about it.

My boat already has cup holders.

Most do. The question is whether they are where people are actually sitting — which on a boat with couches down both sides is a lot of places.

Will it look like a gadget on the deck?

It is a matte rubber base in twelve colours with no branding anybody can read across a boat. The drink on top is your own.

Every other answer here starts with a hole saw.

There are four ways to put a cup holder on a pontoon.

Cut a hole

Clamp to the rail

Replace the arm

Set one down

The cut does not stay the size you cut it.

It wobbles. Then it settles.

Width, and nothing else.

One piece of rubber. No hardware at all.

Bases between two and three inches. Yours probably is.

Search by container

Or the width across the bottom

Without a tape measure

Wherever somebody is actually sitting.

The whole aisle, with what each one asks of the boat.

How many seats, and what colour goes where.

Two of these are from boats.

18 more, photographed by the people who bought them

What it does not do.

Ninety days. Used is fine. Nothing goes back in a box.

Steadi Labs. One person, in Orange, California.

Straight answers.

I want it to survive anything I do with the throttle.

$14.95 for a piece of rubber.

My boat already has cup holders.

Will it look like a gadget on the deck?

Nothing on the boat has to change.