The 5 Best Budget Blenders - Fall 2024

The best budget blender we've tested is the Calphalon ActiveSense. This blender is a good option if you want a multi-purpose blender for around $100. It comes with a 64oz main jar with a 2-part lid and has a very versatile performance for its price. It makes a mostly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale and fruit and has no problem crushing big batches of ice in its main jar. It can hot blend, so you can use it for recipes like soups and sauces. It also comes with a personal jar with a travel lid, which helps it make smooth blends with smaller batches of ingredients for recipes like single-serve smoothies.

However, using it for thicker mixtures requires a long blending time and quite a bit of effort on your part, so it's not ideal for recipes like nut butter and hummus. It's decently well-built, but its motor base doesn't have a very premium feel. That said, it's easy to clean by hand, and all of its components are dishwasher-safe.

If you want a blender with a glass jar, consider the Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar. This blender has a smaller 48oz capacity compared to the Calphalon ActiveSense's 64oz, but its pitcher is made of glass, which is more scratch and odor-resistant than plastic. While it doesn't perform quite as well overall, it's inexpensive and still offers a good performance with a variety of recipes. It makes well-blended smoothies and soups with fibrous ingredients, like leafy greens, hot blends, and comes with a personal jar for single-serve drinks.

It doesn't crush ice as well as the Calphalon but can make decently uniform crushed ice if you use a smaller batch of about six ice cubes. It can make very smooth nut butter, but, like the Calphalon, it requires quite a bit of effort. On the plus side, it's very quiet and its removable blade assembly makes it very easy to clean by hand.

If you plan to use your blender for smoothies, consider the NutriBullet Blender Combo. The Calphalon ActiveSense and the Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar each come with a personal jar for single-serves, but the NutriBullet comes with a pair of 34oz jars as well as a 64oz pitcher. It makes a smoother blend with small batches of fibrous ingredients, making it a better choice for well-blended smoothies with stubborn ingredients like fruit and kale. It also makes a similarly smooth blend when you use the main jar for a big batch.

While it has the best performance for blending fibrous ingredients, it's not the most versatile blender listed here. It's not meant for ice crushing without liquid and isn't easy to use for recipes like nut butter and hummus. That said, it's decently sturdy, quiet, and easy to clean by hand. Most of its components are dishwasher-safe, except for the personal jar blade assembly.

If you like to blend frozen drinks like margaritas and need a big pitcher to serve a crowd, consider the Ninja Professional Blender 1000. This blender pulverizes ice cubes into snow-like ice in no time. Its 72-ounce pitcher can handle big batches of blended cocktails and frozen drinks. The lid has a pouring spout to help with serving drinks from the pitcher without spilling. It has a better build quality than the other blenders on this list, which is especially important if you regularly use it for tough tasks like crushing ice. The sharp blades make cleaning by hand hard, but the jar and lid are dishwasher-safe.

However, it's less versatile than the previous picks since it isn't safe to use for hot blending. It makes a grainy puree with fibrous ingredients, which might be disappointing if you want to make drinks with fruit like pineapple. It has no blending programs, so you must start and stop the blender manually. You might prefer the Ninja Professional Plus Blender with Auto-iQ if you like to multi-task while blending. It's slightly more expensive but has a few programs, including 'Smoothie' and 'Ice Crushing.' Otherwise, it has a similar design and performance.

If you usually blend for one and want the best cheap blender for smoothies, this compact blender takes up less space than the full-size options listed here, so you can store it in a cupboard or on a shelf when it's not in use. It does a fantastic job of blending fibrous ingredients like kale and blueberries in its 15oz and 13oz jars, so it can make a well-blended single-serve smoothie with most recipes. It's also quiet for a blender, which is nice if you like to blend a drink in the morning.

However, it's not meant for crushing ice without liquid in the jar, so it's not suitable if you want to make ice for cocktails. Its plasticky, cheap-feeling build reflects its price point, and of course, you can't use it for blending big batches. Still, it's worth considering if you want something inexpensive for quick blends like smoothies and protein shakes.