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 good at the basics: sucking up dirt and debris in your home.
We've bought and tested over 105 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 does almost everything right, offering great performance on hard floors, excellent performance on high-pile carpets, and good performance on low-pile carpets, as well as good pet-hair pickup. Despite its budget price point, it still comes with some great quality-of-life features you'd normally find on more expensive vacuums. 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, and a HEPA filter that does a nearly perfect job of keeping dust out of the air.
There's no shortage of accessories, too. This vacuum comes with tools for cleaning furniture, stairs, and cars, and you can lift the canister from the floorhead to clean hard-to-reach areas with the hose. That being said, it isn't perfect. 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. While the lift-away feature offers convenience, its usefulness is let down by its very short hose, which will make this vacuum difficult to use on stairs.
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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. It'll have a harder time with pet hair trapped within carpet fibers, though, 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 if you suffer from serious allergies, you shouldn't consider this vacuum since its filter blows out a high concentration of fine dust while you clean.
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Best Budget Upright Vacuum
Stairs5.4Cars5.9Hard Floor Pickup6.5Build Quality6.0User Maintenance5.5Recurring Cost7.5See all our test resultsPortability8.0You should consider an upright vacuum if you want a larger dirt capacity and an all-in-one configuration. The best budget vacuum cleaner with an upright design we've tested is the BISSELL PowerForce Helix. 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. True to its upright design, it has a large dirt compartment that doesn't need frequent emptying; it's much larger than the BISSELL Featherweight Stick.
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.
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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 like the BISSELL PowerForce Helix, so it isn't as well-suited to cleaning thicker carpets. 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.
Recent Updates
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.
Sep 18, 2024: Verified that all picks are still valid and available. No change in recommendations.
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.