Pretty easy to open and close with one hand while carrying a baby. Looks better than traditional baby gates.I have been using this gate for over a year now in a daycare setting. It gets a lot of use. A LOT. It has been great. I can tell the retract mechanism is starting to wear but it is still retracting. I use this daily about 20 to 30 times. The material is strong. I have kids that hang on it (not while I'm looking) and it is barely stretched but not torn and it is still attached to the edges with no tears. I have had to replace the hard plastic piece that the gate hooks into on the wall twice because someone has bumped into the gate hard and it snapped. The first time I had to replace I called the company and they sent a piece out to me free of charge and quick. The 2nd time...calling today. It's a good gate.Revision.....this gate is still working and everything works. I wanted to revise because the customer service has been awesome. Like I said this gate gets heavier than normal use and because I am using it like I am, it should void the lifetime warranty on these brackets. It is not meant to be used as a bouncy horse by 5 year olds, but that happens and Ive broken a few brackets now. They have sent me several extra brackets to replace them even though they don't agree with the way I am using/abusing the gate. They respond very quickly and kindly.This is so much better than the stupid baby gate we've had up for the puppy. Everyone tripped over the baby gate and it was a pain to move it. This is better, you can unlatch it with one hand and relatch it in one swoop. My 8 year old hates it--she's too short to step over it, and it's a little strong of a pull for her to unlatch it. She CAN do it, but it's harder for her than the rest of us, and it's into the kitchen, so she has to do it a lot. The rest of us just step over it--and as a result, there is a slight sag in the top from the shorter ones of us pressing it down to step over. I'm not recommending stepping over this by any means. I think it's a terrible idea, and we all try to take the time to just unhook it most of the times, but sometimes we forget something real quick and just step over. Needless to say, it has taken a lot of abuse. Not sure how well it will do after a year, but if we get more than a year out of it for as much as we use it, I will be a very happy customer--I am so far. Btw, we have a 60 pound bernedoodle puppy--she can't figure it out, so doesn't challenge it at all. Our adult pyreneese however, learned the first day to pound into the latch area and it comes undone. He's the smart one, but we didn't get it for him--he has a bigger metal gate. Just want buyers to know their limitations on this and know the expectation--but for our purpose and type of dog, it's working awesome!!! A little expensive, but it looks so nice, and hides away neatly for if guests come over and you need to 'hide' it. We had a 73 inch opening, and added 3 inch little wood pieces between the hardware and the wall, and it works fine for that. Btw, I tried the screws it came with with an electric drill (I'm pretty sure it said not to use an electric drill, but did anyway), and I broke 2 screws it came with. I just used some other ones I found in the garage, and it was fine. I'm not that handy, or strong and I did it myself.I have two dogs, one is a 30 lb dachshund/doberman mix and a 12 lb chihuahua/poodle mix. I have purchased about 4 baby gates overall. Overall review of the 4 gates I have including this one:Baby metal games that has a door that swings open.2 of them were the metal gates where you open the door. I had the gates at the bottom of our stairs to prevent the dogs from coming up. However, my 30 lb dog gets really anxious and figured out how to jump the gate. If he can't jump the gate, he will inflict self harm until he can get past it. So we decided to put the baby gates on top of the stairs. The dogs won't dare to jump it at the top of the stairs. We had to buy a taller one to prevent him from jumping. The metal gates are not safe on top of the stairs because the walk through entry is narrow and it has a bar at the bottom that's a hazard for someone to trip over and have a horrible accident down the stairs.Fencing gate that stands upright on its own.This one we had "hoped" that the dog wouldn't just push over. But it's easy to knudge to the side and walk through.Mesh retractable baby gate (this one for purchase).I don't like drilling holes on the walls or the stair banisters. Instead, I used tons of 16 lb command strips to hold up the hooks on the wall (Make sure the command strips is placed on the wall and unused for at least 24-48 hours before attempting to attach the gate on it). I used velcro ties to hold up the baby gate on the stair banister. So far, it has worked great!- It's been over 6 months now. The dogs haven't attempted to go under or over the gate.- It retracts easily so that you don't lose any walkway space while going up or down that stairs.- The white mesh sort of camouflages with the white stair banister so you barely notice it's there.- Doesn't easily get dirty (actually haven't had any issues with dirt or dust on it)- The only small issue I have is when we first started using it, it's a bit tricky to align the baby gate to the bars, but once you get the hang of it, it's easy to use.- When putting the baby gate up, make sure you lock it so that the mesh doesn't auto retract. It's also good to prevent the dogs from pushing it (if they do) because it doesn't give any slack to allow them to crawl underneath.I haven't tried it on any kids yet, but that will be soon!I love the concept of this baby gate. I can block off the play room when I want to and open it back up when I want it open! When we first installed it, we only could use one screw to mount it in the door frame (we have taken the doors down). I was ok with it until my toddler ran full force at it and almost broke it. So we moved the mounts to the wall, either side of the trim so now we have an issue with the base boards. I’m not much for nickel and diming so we fixed the issue with our own tools.I bought this mostly for my infant. But My two year old can easily unlock this although he hasn’t been able to open it. He can also crawl underneath it.