If you're looking for a cheap vacuum, you may be surprised by how well budget-friendly options can perform. Though you might have to sacrifice premium features or materials compared to more expensive models, the current vacuum landscape is chock-full of affordable options that are still more than capable of handling the basics, namely sucking up dirt and debris in your home.
We've bought and tested over 110 vacuum cleaners in our lab, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best cheap and the best budget vacuum cleaners. These recommendations are based on price, design, and performance. For more buying recommendations, look at our list of the best vacuums under $100, the best handheld vacuums, and the best lightweight vacuums.
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Best Budget Vacuum
House8.6Small Apartment8.6Pet Hair Pickup7.9Stairs7.1Cars7.1Hard Floor Pickup8.0Build Quality6.5User Maintenance6.5Recurring Cost6.5See all our test resultsPortability6.8The Kenmore Intuition Bagged is the best budget vacuum we've tested. It's a very strong performer for the price, offering great debris pickup on hard floors and on carpets, as well as good pet-hair pickup. It also comes with some handy quality-of-life features you'd normally find on more expensive vacuums, including a HEPA-grade filtration system that's highly effective in locking in allergens. If you have dust bunnies under couches and in corners, there's an LED headlight to brighten those dark areas. You'll also find a brushroll off switch to prevent scattering of debris on bare floors. Its lift-away design allows you to unmount its main motor and dirtbag compartment unit from the floorhead, and clean hard-to-reach spots with the hose.
There's no shortage of accessories, too. This vacuum comes with tools for cleaning furniture, stairs, and cars, though there's no mini turbo brush for cleaning furniture or small rugs. There's a compromise in build quality to deliver everything at this price; this vacuum has some fragile internal components that feel like they could break over time. Also, its upright design is heavy and bulky, making it hard to maneuver.
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Best Budget Cordless Vacuum
House6.7Small Apartment7.6Pet Hair Pickup6.7Stairs7.8Cars7.0Hard Floor Pickup5.0Build Quality6.5User Maintenance7.5Recurring Cost8.0See all our test resultsPortability8.5If you want the freedom and range of a cordless vacuum to clean everywhere in your house, on your stairs, or in your car, check out the Wyze Cordless Vacuum S. This vacuum doesn't have a height-adjustable floorhead, so it isn't as well-suited to cleaning thicker carpets compared to the Kenmore Intuition Bagged. However, its lightweight cordless design makes it much better suited to cleaning faraway areas than corded models. There's a HEPA filter that does a fantastic job of trapping particles like fine dust and pet dander, which is surprising at this price, making this vacuum a great choice for allergy sufferers. It's also worth noting that it's still a bargain relative to other cordless stick models.
It performs very well for a cordless stick vacuum in this price range, easily clearing most debris on hard floors and carpets. The Wyze also does a decent job handling pet hair, and its removable brushroll makes it easy to clear away any tangled strands of hair. It can run for almost 45 minutes in its most power-efficient setting, which is good for a lower-end cordless model. The battery pack is removable, so you can replace it if it can no longer hold a charge due to degradation. Unfortunately, its build quality is nothing special, with its plastic chassis feeling a little cheap and almost toy-like in places.
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Best Budget Handheld Vacuum
Stairs8.6Cars8.2Hard Floor Pickup9.0Build Quality7.5User Maintenance7.0Recurring Cost9.5See all our test resultsPortability8.8You wouldn't buy a handheld vacuum to clean an entire house, but these vacuums are great to quickly grab for spot-cleaning furniture or picking up small messes. The Black+Decker 16V MAX dustbuster Cordless Hand Vacuum is the best budget handheld vacuum we've tested. Though it's a little big for a handheld vacuum, it has a larger dirt compartment that won't need emptying too often compared to some of the competition. It's especially well-suited to tackling messes on bare surfaces like countertops, shelves, or hard floors, though it'll struggle with debris embedded deep within carpet fibers.
Unfortunately, battery performance isn't especially impressive, as it can only run for about 10 minutes on a full charge. Worse yet, the battery isn't user-replaceable. It doesn't come with many attachments, only a built-in crevice tool with a flip-out brush, though that isn't too surprising for a handheld vacuum.
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Best Cheap Vacuum
House7.6Small Apartment6.5Pet Hair Pickup5.4Stairs6.8Cars7.7Hard Floor Pickup7.0Build Quality6.0User Maintenance9.5Recurring Cost7.0See all our test resultsPortability8.4The Eureka Mighty Mite is the best cheap vacuum we've tested. It's fairly compact and delivers strong performance across various surfaces, thanks to its relatively potent 12-amp motor. It performs very well on bare floors with its basic straight suction floorhead, and you can retract the head's bristles to clean low- and medium-pile carpets. Unsurprisingly, given its simple floorhead, it does have a harder time with pet hair trapped within carpet fibers, so it isn't the best choice for pet owners.
The vacuum itself feels reasonably sturdy, if a little cheap, and its remarkably simple design makes it easy to maintain. It's small enough to easily store in a closet or a nook between furniture. Its wand, made of two hollow plastic tubes, gives you a good amount of added reach, though they can fall apart if you don't wedge them together tightly enough. You'll also have to manually roll up its power cord at the end of every cleaning session, which is annoying. Emptying the vacuum's bag is clean and hygienic, but it doesn't have much of a filtration system, and finer dust can bypass both its pre-motor filter and dirtbag. Thicker third-party HEPA bags are available, which should do a better job of locking in allergens, but they're also pricier.
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Best Cheap Upright Vacuum
House7.5Small Apartment6.3Pet Hair Pickup6.7Stairs6.3Cars6.4Hard Floor Pickup6.5Build Quality6.0User Maintenance5.5Recurring Cost7.5See all our test resultsPortability8.0The best budget vacuum cleaner with an upright design we've tested is the BISSELL PowerForce Helix, a solid option if you want a larger dirt capacity and prefer an all-in-one configuration. This corded upright model isn't as compact or maneuverable as the Eureka Mighty Mite, but it's worth considering if you're looking for impressive carpet cleaning performance on the cheap. Unusual for a vacuum in this price bracket, you can adjust its powered floorhead to five heights, so you can easily adapt to a wide range of surfaces without the vacuum getting stuck. Its dustbin also has a very high capacity, and you won't have to empty it often. That's a good thing, as doing so can release a large cloud of dust and fine debris.
Despite the BISSELL's relatively lightweight plastic construction, maneuvering in cluttered areas can still be a hassle due to its bulky body and non-articulating floorhead. Although there's no handheld configuration like you find on more premium upright models, you can still thankfully clean hard-to-reach areas with its hose. It also comes with an extension wand to give you a bit of added reach, as well as a hard-bristle brush and a crevice tool for cleaning tight corners. Unfortunately, it doesn't feel very well-built, with a plastic structure that creaks and flexes while in use, though that isn't much of a surprise at this price point.
Notable Mentions
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Eureka Airspeed:
The Eureka Airspeed is a basic bagless upright vacuum. Compared to the BISSELL PowerForce Helix, it lacks a height-adjustable floorhead or a brushroll shutoff switch, and consequently performs worse on bare floors and carpets.
See our review -
BISSELL Featherweight Stick:
The BISSELL Featherweight Stick is a very simple corded vacuum. It's best used for small, quick clean-ups around your home, but its low-powered motor and simple floorhead result in poor overall performance when compared to marginally pricier models like the Eureka Mighty Mite.
See our review -
BISSELL AeroSlim/TurboSlim:
The BISSELL AeroSlim/Turbo Slim is a cheap cordless hand vacuum intended to deal with the smallest of messes. While it's smaller, lighter, and easier to stow away than the Black+Decker 16V MAX dustbuster Cordless Hand Vacuum, it's also less able to handle bigger and heavier debris.
See our review
Recent Updates
May 07, 2026:
We've updated the text in this article to more clearly convey the impact of a pick's design and performance in the real world. We've also added the Eureka Airspeed, BISSELL Featherweight Stick, and BISSELL AeroSlim to the Notable Mentions section.
Feb 06, 2026:
We edited recommendations for conciseness and readability. We added the Kenmore Intuition Bagged as the 'Best Budget' pick and moved the Eureka Mighty Mite to the 'Best Cheap Vacuum' spot. We added new usage scores. We also deleted all Notable Mentions.
Nov 10, 2025:
We removed the discontinued alternative recommendation Dirt Devil Endura Max and the eufy HomeVac H11 from the Notable Mentions. We verified all remaining recommendations for availability and accuracy.
Apr 11, 2025:
We replaced the discontinued Wyze Cordless Vacuum with the Wyze Cordless Vacuum S and changed the article's UI. We also added the Eureka Whirlwind Bagless Canister as a Notable Mention.
Jan 07, 2025:
We've verified that our recommendations are available and represent the best choices, and we've also made small edits for clarity.
All Reviews
Our recommendations are based on what we think are currently the best budget and cheap vacuum cleaners to buy. We factor in a fairly wide range of other factors, including availability, performance, and reader feedback.
If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our reviews for vacuums priced under $125. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While there is no single best cheap vacuum that's perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.