There’s nothing worse than dishing out money for a kitchen appliance, only to learn it doesn’t do the job it promises. Even if you don’t whip up a fruit smoothie every morning, you want to make sure you have the best blender for whatever tasks you have on hand—and that it’ll stand the test of time.

My wedding registry blender didn’t do either. When the time came to replace it, I was overwhelmed with the number of seemingly highly rated options available. So after narrowing down the best blenders I could find online, I decided to test them out in my kitchen across a variety of tasks (scroll to the bottom of the page for more on my testing methodology).

We narrowed down the best blenders online and put them to the test.

After several hours of rigorous testing (and a bit of a mess), one blender stood above the rest: the Hurom Hexa, a higher-end blender that almost measures up to a food processor, pulverized ice, frozen fruit and veggies and nuts to an ultra-smooth consistency.

The best blender for smoothies, the Wolf Gourmet Blender, blended frozen ice and fruit to a smooth, drinkable consistency. If you’re looking for a solid budget-friendly pick, Oster’s Master Series Blender is a formidable choice at just $70, and if versatility is your top priority, consider a model with a personal blender attachment, like the Ninja SS201 Foodi Power Pitcher. Overall, I was pleased with the performance of every model tested here, and I think each has its place depending on the tasks. You can also check out our list of the best blenders on Amazon for additional choices.

I had never heard of the brand Hurom before I tested it, but I was impressed with this blender as soon as I unboxed it. The Hurom Hexa Power High Speed Blender looks modern and sleek—the two-liter pitcher is tall and narrow, which I noticed is more conducive to good results when making smaller batches than it is with wider pitchers. While the pitcher is high-capacity, the base isn’t too bulky, so it’s easy to tuck away in a cabinet or display on the counter.

The Hurom doesn’t come with any special bells and whistles—it operates with two knobs, a turn dial for adjusting speed and three pre-set buttons—but for the price, it performed the best. The 1600-watt motor blended everything I tried at lightning fast speed without getting obnoxiously loud. What it lacks in special features it makes up for in precision: I appreciated the ability to adjust the speed on the ice and smoothie settings or add pulse for extra power.

The smoothie, which I made using the smoothie preset on high speed, was the perfect texture—airy, smooth and thin. The ice crush button produced snow-like consistency after two rounds. Worth noting: I used large cubes from my freezer the first time, then switched to smaller, round cubes from a bag at the grocery store—and as expected, the smaller cubes got smoother faster. Since there wasn’t a spread setting, I used the Hurom’s soup preset to make the almond butter. I was surprised by the results: After 20 minutes, it was close to spreadable.

I’d recommend the Hurom to anyone searching for a reliable, versatile blender that would look great on a countertop. It was the highest performer across all my tests, and it performed consistently each time I tested various items. 

In many ways, the Wolf was neck and neck with the Hurom, but I didn’t choose it for my overall top pick for a couple of reasons. First, while the pitcher is sleek, the base is bulkier and takes up precious countertop real estate. (Note: The product description says it’s sized to fit under standard-size cabinets.) And while the LCD screen adds some ease to the blending process, the knob and dial are a bit clunky and difficult to use. 

That said, the Wolf consistently performed well across all tasks. It wasn’t the best blender for crushing ice: After 45 seconds on the pulsing ice crush setting, it was still fairly chunky. However, the smoothie was flawless. After about 45 seconds on the smoothie pre-set, it was perfectly smooth with no visible berry seeds, kale or ice chunks. The smoothie’s texture was even better than that of the one made by the Hurom: thin enough to drink with a straw without being runny.

The Wolf easily and quickly pulverized the nuts, too. It took about 30 minutes to achieve a noticeable butter texture, which I suspect is due to the pitcher’s wider shape. I’d add more nuts next time to see if the wider pitcher would pulverize faster.

The best thing about the BlendTec is how quiet it is, thanks to the sealed sound enclosure. But it comes at a price: The enclosure increases the blender’s already-big footprint, which will make storage tricky in the average kitchen. 

When it comes to performance, the BlendTec performed beautifully with ice: Within five seconds, my standard-sized ice cubes turned into pure snow—the smoothest of any of the blenders I tested. 

It also includes LCD presets and a timer function, but the modern features didn’t make up for the mediocre performance in other areas. The smoothie was undrinkable on the first attempt using the 60-second smoothie preset. After waiting five minutes for the frozen berries to soften and adding a bit more apple juice, the smoothie texture improved, but it still didn’t come close to the texture of the smoothies produced by the Hurom or Wolf blenders. 

I also wouldn’t use the BlendTec for pulverizing nuts. After a full hour on the soup settings, the blender came nowhere close to achieving a spread-like consistency. 

The verdict: If a quiet, easy-to-use blender is your top priority, then the BlendTec may be worth the hefty price tag. But if you’re a frequent smoothie drinker or you want a more compact blender for easy storage, the Wolf or Hurom would be better picks.

The Vitamix 5200 Blender is on the cheaper, simpler end of Vitamix models—and it’s less techy, with knobs instead of an LCD screen—but in my experience, it performed better than some of the more expensive Vitamix options.

For starters, the Vitamix 5200 has a smaller footprint which makes it easier to store. It’s also faster and more powerful than competitors on several of the functions I tried. The ice function impressed me as much as it did with the BlendTec blender, achieving pure snow in five or ten seconds. But the smoothie was a fail each time I attempted it—chunky, icy, way too thick and, in my opinion, not drinkable. It seems the 5200 performs better when there’s more in the pitcher (two servings of a smoothie instead of one), and when the contents aren’t frozen.

But the nut butter was a totally different (and very impressive) story. Within 15 minutes, the Vitamix 5200 had transformed roasted almonds into spreadable butter. The only real drawback is that the blender is loud when it’s in action. If you’re OK with the sound, the 5200 is the way to go for food processing.

For the number of accessories it includes, the consistent performance across various functions and the price, the versatile Ninja Foodi is by far the best value of all the blenders I tested. 

The first thing I noticed: The Foodi is a great way to reduce clutter in the kitchen since it can replace both your blender and food processor. Not only does it have six preset functions for various foods, it also comes with multiple stacked blades for crushing, chopping and kneading. 

For the number of functions it comes with, the Foodi is also easy to use and take care of. The LCD display makes selecting a preset (or upping the speed) easy, and the pitcher and blades can be cleaned in the dishwasher. The only flaw I noticed was the lid was a bit harder to “lock in” than any of the other blenders. 

As for performance, the Foodi delivers solid results. While it made ice cubes completely snow-like and smooth in five seconds, it also achieved a silky, spreadable consistency with nuts on the 75-second spread setting. The only area where it fell short was the smoothie setting, which pulses the ingredients for a minute, but the end result was chunky rather than smooth.

If food processing is more important to you than smoothie making, the Foodi is a reliable choice. And while it can help you cut down on the number of small appliances, don’t expect compact storage: The pitcher is quite large and there are several accessories to keep track of.

If you’re looking for a straightforward, reliable and inexpensive blender that won’t take up too much storage space in your kitchen, the Oster Master Series is a great pick. The first thing I noticed during testing was that the Oster wasn’t as loud as the professional-grade models I tested. That’s probably because it has an 800-watt motor, which is about half the power of the others’, but I didn’t notice that much compromise in performance.

The Oster Master Series produced the snowiest ice of all the budget models I tried, and the smoothie was actually a thinner, smoother puree than that of the Vitamix and BlendTec. While the smoothie contained some traces of berry seeds, the kale and ice were totally smooth.

It also achieved nut butter faster than some of the more expensive blenders, though I’d only recommend it if you’re making a smaller batch, because it has a less powerful motor and lower-capacity pitcher. Within about a minute, the nuts were totally ground; within 15 minutes, the roasted almonds turned into a semblance of spread.

This blender is lower capacity, so this may not be the best option for you if you want to make multiple servings in one go. That said, the pitcher is glass and easy to clean: I just threw it in the dishwasher after giving it a quick rinse.

The NutriBullet is also a great pick for anyone with more countertop space, simply because the blender has a bulkier design. Keep in mind that at this price point, it’s also lacking features like an LCD screen and preset programs. While it was powerful enough to pulverize roasted almonds within 15 minutes, the smoothie was a little chunky. I’d recommend leaving out the kale or going with fresh fruit for a smoother puree. Finally, it’s worth noting that it can double as a personal blender, thanks to its single-serve cup attachments.

I liked the Super Q for its performance. It produced a perfectly blended smoothie and crushed ice within thirty seconds. One caveat: The 68-ounce pitcher is quite large, so if you’re making a single-serving smoothie or a small batch of nut butter, I would switch to the smaller accompanying pitcher. After almost thirty minutes of pulverizing roasted almonds in the normal pitcher, I switched to the 24-ounce cup and had nut butter within five minutes.

Of the three budget options I tested, the Hamilton Beach Power Elite was my least favorite pick. It couldn’t handle standard-sized ice cubes, and it produced an icy, seedy smoothie that wasn’t enjoyable to drink. It might perform better without tough greens, and I’d recommend swapping frozen berries for fresh fruit. The Hamilton Beach Blender also falls short as a food processor. I attempted to grind the almonds for 15 minutes and huge chunks remained.

The Vitamix Ascent series is a newer launch from the blender brand, but it falls short compared to the 5200. While it features upgrades like an LCD timer and several presets and the ice was snow-like, the smoothie preset resulted in a chunky drink. I used the spread setting for nut butter, but the pitcher was too wide to pulverize the almonds—it crushed them within a few minutes, but for the remainder of the 20 minutes I tried, the almond dust just blew around in the pitcher without turning into a spread. The upside here is the modern design that will look great on any countertop.

My goal was to test highly rated blenders across a variety of price points. To choose the blenders, I first parsed through online reviews: ratings and customer comments on Amazon as well as testing and reviews by other reputable publications. I ended up with a list of 10 blenders to test.

I attempted three things in each blender so I could try similar functions on each one. First, I crushed two cups of ice in each blender. Then, I pulverized almonds (which I had first roasted in the oven for ten minutes) to see how close each blender could get to nut butter. Finally, I blended a smoothie with 2/3 cup of frozen mixed berries, 2/3 cup of apple juice, a handful of chopped fresh kale and three large ice cubes. I made smoothies twice in each blender to test consistency.

I narrowed down to my final six picks according to my testing process and the following criteria:

If you’re on the hunt for a blender on your own, you may feel overwhelmed by all the choices like I did. Start by identifying exactly what you’ll use your blender for. Are you primarily planning to make daily morning smoothies, or are you hoping to use your blender more like a food processor and make nut butter, soup and other recipes? Ensure the blenders you search for have the features you’re looking for.

You should also think about how often you’ll use your blender. If your plan is to blend the occasional frozen drink, it might not make sense to invest in a high-end blender. But if your blender will be a crucial part of your kitchen and you want it to withstand daily use, then pick a blender you feel will stand the test of time.

You can use product reviews and customer ratings, like I did, to narrow down your picks once you decide how and when you’ll use your blender. After that, compare each of your top picks based on the following criteria to determine the blender you want to invest in.

No matter what you’re making, a reliable blender typically has more than one speed setting to allow for customization. Carla Contreras, a professionally trained chef, food stylist and health coach, says the speed options you choose will ultimately depend on the recipes you’re making. “Personally, I love a high speed blender because I know on busy mornings that I can toss in frozen chunks of banana and or cauliflower rice into my smoothie and have a smooth and creamy beverage, ready in under two minutes, without having to add ice,” she says.

If versatility is your priority, aim for a blender with between three and 10 speed settings to ensure you have proper control of whatever you’re blending, and ideally choose an option that has a pulse button. Some higher-end blenders have speed settings you can use to make specific items, like a milkshake, smoothie, soup-style puree or sauce, which could come in handy if you plan to incorporate your blender into your daily kitchen routine.

If your blender doesn’t have enough power, you’ll feel frustrated every time you go to make something. Basic blenders start out at around 600 to 800 watts of power, which should be enough to make a milkshake or blend a smoothie with fresh fruit. Higher-powered blenders are generally more expensive, but they’re more capable of pulverizing ice and can blend nuts to make nut butter. “You will definitely want more power if you want silky smoothies and soups and especially if you are using frozen or fibrous fruit and veggies,” Contreras says.

Lastly, you’ll want to consider price—and Contreras this boils down to how often you’ll use your blender (and what you want to use it for). A more basic blender can cost under $100, but keep in mind affordable options won’t be as powerful or fast as higher-end ones. If you expect to get daily or weekly use out of your blender, then you may consider spending more money. More powerful blenders with bells and whistles can cost more than $500, but in exchange, you’ll likely end up with an appliance you enjoy using for a variety of kitchen tasks—and one that lasts for years to come.

“If your blender is a fixture in your kitchen that you plan to use daily, like mine, then it's definitely something to invest in,” says Contreras. “I have had my professional Vitamix for over 10 years and it never leaves my countertop.”