The Best Blenders of Breville, Nutribullet and more 2024

The best blenders for spectacular smoothies and superb soups

The best blenders make it easy to create a whole range of healthy foods and tasty treats. You can use yours to whizz up great smoothies, blend soup, juice fruit, and even make things like hummus, mayonnaise and salsa. If you’re used to buying shop-bought smoothies or soups, making your own and blending it at home can save you a ton of money in the long-run, too.

There’s plenty of choice about, but this guide is here to simplify things and help you find the best blender for you. We’ve tested a wide range, including portable blenders for single-serve smoothies and jug blenders that are designed to sit on your kitchen counter, and you can get the low-down on our top picks below. In our tests, we assess not only how well each model blends different types of food, but also things like how noisy it is and how easy it is to clean.

Not sure if it’s a blender you need? There is some overlap with today’s best food processors – broadly speaking, if the result you’re aiming for is a liquid (smoothie, soup), a blender is the best tool for the job. A food processor will be better for chopped things like pesto or salsa. All clear? Read on for our pick of the best blenders for a range of budgets and food types…

THE BEST BLENDER 2024: THE QUICK LIST

Not sure quite what you want? This quick list runs through each of our top picks in brief. If you see something you like, click down for more information on each one.

Braun TriForce blender BEST OVERALL

1. Braun TriForce / PowerBlend 9

Best overall

This blender is powerful and ultra-efficient, with a wide range of settings and programs that give you complete control over the texture of your blended ingredients.

Breville the Fresh & the Furious blender MEDIUM JUG

2. Breville / Sage Fresh & Furious

Medium capacity

If our #1 pick is too big, this is another excellent all-rounder and a little more compact. It performed well in all our tests, tackling smoothies, ice and more with ease.

Ninja Blast smoothie maker PERSONAL BLENDER

3. Ninja Blast smoothie maker

Best personal blender

If you just need a compact, single-serve blender for your daily smoothie or protein shake, the Ninja Blast is a top choice. It’s simple, affordable and effective.

Nutribullet Pro 900 blender SMALL FOOTPRINT

4. Nutribullet Pro 900

Best for small kitchens

This blender has a small footprint that’s perfect for compact kitchens. There’s only one mode, but it packs a punch, and the design doubles up as a single-serve blender.

Smeg Professional Blender ICE MASTER

5. Smeg Professional Blender

Best for ice

As well as being a superb performer all round, this Smeg blender is especially excellent at crushing ice. The price tag is premium, but the design and performance are worth it.

KitchenAid K150 blender AFFORDABLE

6. KitchenAid K150 blender

Best value KitchenAid

This mid-range KitchenAid doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, but it’s brilliant at the basics, including chopping ice.

Breville the Super Q blender PREMIUM

7. Breville / Sage the Super Q

Best premium blender

This blender is pricier than most, but has the power to justify it. If you need something large and ultra-capable, it’s a top choice.

Vitamix A3500i blender PRO-LEVEL

8. Vitamix A3500

Best pro-grade blender

For serious home cooks only, this blender delivers pro-level performance at a premium price.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST BLENDER FOR YOU

When selecting the best blender for you, start by identifying the type of blender you need. Jug blenders have a blade inside the plastic or glass receptacle, which spins when connected to the motor in the base units. As a result, they can blend in large quantities but the downside is that they are also usually bulky.

Smoothie blenders, also known as personal blenders, come with a small plastic cup rather than a jug. Fill the cup with your ingredients, then attach the blade, flip the cup upside down and connect to the base. When the ingredients are blended to your liking, remove from the base, unscrew the blade, and screw on a to-go lid, then take your drink with you.

Finally, there are also immersion blenders to consider. These are really useful for soup, where you can blend your soup in the pot instead of having to pour it into a separate blending appliance. Often referred to as hand blenders or stick blenders, immersion blenders are designed to be inserted into a saucepan or container of ingredients you want to puree. These compact appliances should be swirled around in the liquid while the blade spins to ensure it’s blended uniformly – but you need to be careful if you don’t want soup shooting everywhere. For more advice on this, it would be worth taking a look at our jug blenders vs immersion blenders guide.

Things to look for in a blender

Auto shut-off for safety
BPA-free or glass jug
Measurements on the jug
Drip-free pouring spout
Capacity of jug (counter top) / tumbler (portable)
No. of speed and power settings
Non-slip feet
Available accessories

What can you use a blender for?

Blenders can be used to blend, smooth or pulse a variety of foods (and liquids) depending on the type of blender you need. For example, if you just want to make simple smoothies and soups then a straightforward blender with not too many features and functions will be suffice. If, however, you want to smooth-out hot soups or pulse small, hard ingredients such as nuts then you will need to look out for the blender spec (and our reviews) which talks about this capability.

Blenders can also be used for making a healthy drink on-the-go. Portable and one-cup blenders cater for this. You’ll often find that they are also much easier to clean than the larger countertop blenders, simply because there are fewer components to it.

If you’re short of countertop space then a blender can sometimes even be used as a food processor. When we investigated whether or not can a blender be used as a food processor we found that hybrid blenders that come with a food processor attachment can do many of the jobs food processors can do, and while we wouldn’t recommend them for serious processing they’re great for smaller jobs.

Which blender is best for smoothies?

If you’re looking for the best blender to make smoothies in, we’d recommend opting for a dedicated smoothie maker rather than a jug or immersion blender. As mentioned above, these feature a cup that the blade assembly screws onto before being attached to the base. Once blending is complete, the blade assembly can be switched for a to-go lid that includes a spout, letting you sip the drink without having to decant it first. Our pick is the Ninja Personal Blender and Smoothie Maker QB3001, as it strikes the right balance between price and the ability to blitz fresh produce into a smooth, grit-free drink.

However, there’s no way to add liquid during blending, so you can’t use it to emulsify ingredients, such as when making mayonnaise. In this case, we recommend the Breville the Super Q, as it comes with a pitcher so you can add liquid during blending. It’s also powerful enough to crush ice and pulverize nuts and come with a travel cup for smoothies – although you will need to decant the drink from the jug into the cup.

Blenders vs juicers

While juicers and blenders look similar, they perform slightly different tasks. Blenders use sharp blades to break down the contents of the blending jug. This means everything in the jug is turned into a smooth mixture. Juicers, however, extract liquid and leave behind the rest of the fruits or vegetables. As you might expect from the name, juicers are primarily used to make fresh juice, so they can be pretty limiting, whereas blenders give you the means to make everything from smoothies to dips.

For all the pros and cons of these appliances, head to our full feature on Blenders vs. juicers: what’s the difference?

How do I clean a blender?

Staying on top of cleaning your blender is vital if you want it to last as long as possible and if you want to avoid any nasty odors building up. You can place many blending jugs inside the dishwasher, but you can also clean them by adding warm water and dish soap to the blending jug, putting the lid on, and blending up the soapy solution.

If you’re struggling to get rid of any stubborn stains, create your cleaning paste using one tablespoon of baking soda and mix it with one teaspoon of white vinegar. You can add this solution to the stains using a clean scrubbing brush or a clean toothbrush.

For more handy hacks, read our how to clean a blender feature.