The Best Cheap Blenders at Every Price Point. Seriously

There’s no denying that Vitamix makes the best blenders money can buy. They’re heavy, they’re powerful, they can handle dinner service at a busy restaurant. But not everyone needs a professional blender. And while a Vitamix is worth every penny, you don’t actually need to drop $500 to get a powerful blender for soups, smoothies, nut butters and whatever else you want to pulverize or purée at home.

Compare the best cheap blenders

Over the years, we’ve tested dozens of full-size, personal, and immersion blenders (and even a few combo and portable blenders) ranging in price from around $35 to more than $500. That means we’ve tried all of those brands that get lumped into the “cheap blender” category, like Hamilton Beach, Cleanblend, and Magic Bullet. Some pleasantly surprised us, like the old-school Oster we recommend below. Others, like one from Ninja, didn’t quite live up to the hype and aren’t included on this list of the best cheap blenders.

What counts as a “cheap” blender?

Professional, high-powered blenders cost more than $400, normally close $500, and occasionally more than $700. For our purposes we set a hard cap at $300. We know that may seem on the high side of “cheap” but the Zwilling blender we mention here is so powerful that we thought it represented a tremendous value.

Nutribullet Full-Size Blender

The Nutribullet Full-Size Blender is a countertop blender with a powerful 1,200-watt motor that did a nice job breaking down even tough ingredients like almonds and kale stems in our testing and it was decent at crushing ice too. The 64-ounce pitcher is generous, so this is a good option if you like to make big batches of frozen drinks like margaritas. The control panel has three speeds as well as a pulse button and extract function (it’s the smoothie setting, not a juicer function). Overall, this is a powerful, versatile, and very affordable blender. The tradeoff is that the materials feel pretty flimsy—especially the blending pitcher, which is made of pretty thin BPA-free plastic. You won’t have to worry about it wobbling around too much though because the motorbase has little suction cup feet to keep it in place. This blender is also available as a combo blender, which means it comes with the full-size pitcher and a personal blending cup. But buyer beware: that model comes with a handful of other parts to keep track of too, including a tamper and a lidded travel mug.

Oster Original 3-Speed Chrome Blender

The Oster Original 3-Speed Chrome Blender is modeled on Oster’s early single-speed beehive blender, but some modern updates made it our top pick for best budget blender overall in our blender review this year. The 700-watt motor and stainless-steel blades crush ice as well as pricier blenders, thanks in part to strong stainless steel blades, all-metal drive, and a four-sided pitcher which helps to bounce ingredients into the blade’s vortex during blending. In our testing, it made a super-smooth green smoothie, efficiently incorporating kale and raw almonds. Just keep in mind that if you overblend, you might end up with a warm smoothie. The sturdy glass pitcher is on the smaller end for a full-size blender (40 ounces) but the blade can be removed for easy cleaning and you can put the glass jar in the dishwasher without the risk of dulling the blade. Overall, this affordable Oster looks and functions better than many comparably priced plastic blenders and it’s super easy to use with three speed settings on a simple dial. It’s hard to find this exact model (4655) at brick-and-morter retailers and it does go out of stock on Amazon from time to time, so if you want this powerful retro blender, we recommend snagging it while you can.

KitchenAid 3-Speed Ice Crushing Blender

With three speeds plus a pulse setting, KitchenAid 3-Speed Ice Crushing Blender is simple and easy to use. At its high speed, this blender lives up to its name, and in our testing beautifully crushed ice cubes into fluffy ice dust. It was great for blending basic smoothies too. It did struggle a bit with really tough ingredients like nuts and raw kale, so if those are part of your everyday smoothie recipe, this might not be the blender for you. But if you’re planning to spend the summer blending frozen drinks like margaritas or daiquiris, you won’t be disappointed with this affordable KitchenAid blender.

Breville Fresh and Furious Blender

We love so many of Breville’s kitchen appliances including the food processor, stand mixer, and immersion blender (the air fryer oven and espresso machine offerings are top notch too), so it’s no surprise we were impressed with the Breville Fresh and Furious Blender. In our testing, the 1,100-watt motor powerfully and efficiently blended frozen fruit and ice into a smooth smoothie (though not as silky smooth as what we got from our favorite Vitamix blender), and the control panel is intuitive and easy to use with nine one-touch presets and a built-in timer. This is also a pretty compact blender, especially for one with a 50-ounce pitcher. Speaking of the pitcher, it’s made from durable Tritan plastic. We didn’t encounter any issues in our testing, but some long-term users have complained of durability issues. Luckily, Breville offers a three-year limited warranty on this blender.

Zwilling Enfinigy Power Blender

After testing the sleek Zwilling Enfinigy Power Blender in 2025, we began recommending it as a more affordable alternative to our all-time favorite blender, the Vitamix 5200. We were pleased with its performance across the board, especially when it came to making smoothies. The Zwilling’s 1,400-watt motor is comparable to the 5200’s 1,380-watt motor and when we blended the exact same smoothie ingredients in both (including raw almonds and kale) for the exact same amount of time, the smoothies were nearly identical in texture. The only difference? The smoothie we blended in the Zwilling was noticeably colder than what we blended in the Vitamix. The base (which is on the heavy and bulky side) has a hidden display that only lights up when the blender is turned on and (somewhat annoyingly) the lid can only be in one position on the pitcher, otherwise the blender won’t do anything when you try to select one of the four presets or six variable blending speeds. It comes with a tamper, which we ended up not needing in any of our tests—likely because the four distinct sides of the square-ish pitcher do a pretty good job of ricocheting ingredients back into the blade’s vortex during the blending process. But overall this is a high-end, high-performance blender that’s relatively affordable—especially when it goes on sale, which it often does.

Affordable alternatives to full-size blenders

Before you settle on a “cheap” full-size blender, it’s worth considering two other types of blenders—especially if you’re short on space or only want to blend small batches and single servings. Both of these alt blender options are smaller and a little bit limited compared to a full-size blender, but that also means you get a higher quality product for your money.