12 best ice cream makers for creating your own sweet frozen treats

Score: 94/100

A round of applause please for the newest Ninja ice cream maker! Just like its viral older sibling below, it aced our tests, barely dropping a mark when making vanilla and chocolate chip ice cream, and gelato. Churning took between two and five minutes (after the 24 hours of pre-freezing), which is slightly quicker than the original Ninja CREAMi. Each scoop was smooth, creamy and well-mixed, rivalling shop-bought ice cream.

It has new functions including slushies (again requiring a 24-hour pre-frozen base), frozen yogurt and two-in-one ice cream flavours.

It did make a considerable amount of noise when switched on, and the storage tubs must be kept upright on a flat surface, which may prove tricky if you’re tight on freezer space. However, we doubt any ice cream or refreshing frozen margaritas will last long in storage, so this may not be an issue.

Score: 94/100

It turns out, there’s a reason this ice cream maker went viral; it aced our testing. Prep is simple, but some patience is required as you do need to freeze the liquid base for 24 hours. (That said, you can bulk freeze in advance if you have space). Once that was done, though, it took us just two minutes to add our favourite extra ingredients (from chocolate chips to fudge pieces) and churn the frozen mixture into delicious ice cream.

If you’re in a hurry, you can also chop and churn ingredients like fruit without any prior freezing, so you can enjoy fresh sorbet at much shorter notice.

When making vanilla ice cream, the CREAMi barely dropped a mark, easily churning the ingredients into an airy, smooth consistency that was also free of any large ice crystals. Our testers liked using it for milkshakes and smoothie bowls too. Just note, it was fairly loud and vibrated a little when churning. However, given that it doesn’t take long, we wouldn’t let that put you off. It’s a standout gadget for summer and is slightly cheaper and more compact than its newer sibling.

Score: 92/100

This little ice cream maker is a wonderful buy at an affordable price. Our testers found it effective and user-friendly, making a smooth, creamy and scoopable vanilla ice cream in just over an hour. Adding in chocolate chips was also simple, with the motor and paddle distributing the chocolate chips evenly throughout the ice cream. It was stable in use too with limited vibration, something other models have struggled with.

You’re limited to just two settings, and the technology isn’t innovative enough to stop the mixing process when the ice cream thickens (instead, it runs for the pre-programmed time). But it makes fantastic frozen treats at just a fraction of the cost of other ice cream makers.

Score: 92/100

Scoring full marks on our sorbet test, this gadget is a great pick for a refreshing palate cleanser. We managed to make an orange sorbet that was light, easy to scoop, and free from any large ice crystals.

You do have to freeze the mix first though, so you can’t have instant treats unless you keep a base mix in the freezer for desperate measures (highly recommended). From there, each setting took between three to four minutes to churn our chosen dessert. The vanilla ice cream was smooth and light, and it produced a great chocolate chip ice cream without blitzing up the chocolate, although they were less evenly distributed than we’d have liked.

It does vibrate a lot and was very noisy in testing, measuring 83dB (similar to the level of a noisy restaurant or alarm clock). Its ice cream-making abilities were difficult to fault though.

Score: 92/100

If you’re serious about churning top-quality ice cream and enjoy it regularly, this premium design is worth considering. Because of its self-freezing design, you don’t have to worry about popping the bowl or its ingredients in the freezer ahead of time. Instead, you can make one batch after the next, and a handy storage mode keeps the ice cream at the right consistency for up to two hours, so you can (inevitably) go back for seconds.

Our testers appreciated the creamy texture of the machine's vanilla ice cream but found the manufacturer’s recipe made too much for the bowl, so suggest halving the ingredients before churning.

They noticed that a thin film of the mixture froze to the walls of the bowl, but this didn’t impact the finished quality of our ice cream, gelato or sorbet and it still has a larger capacity than any other model on our list. The price is eye-watering, but it's a worthy investment for larger households and ice cream fanatics.

Score: 91/100

This compact ice cream maker is super affordable and perfect for one or two people, making it a fun and delicious gift for anyone who likes a sweet treat.

It’s a freeze-first model, so you’ll need to put a base in the freezer overnight. But after that, set-up is quick and simple with just one basic dial acting as the on/off switch. It took twenty minutes to churn a vanilla soft serve, but testers found it started to melt quickly – a great excuse to dig in right away if you ask us.

You can also add extras like chocolate chips via the funnel but be sure to do it slowly to prevent any blockages. And if you’re not a fan of ice cream, you can also make a refreshing sorbet with ease.

Score: 89/100

Calling all Mr Whippy fans, this freeze-first model makes creamy soft serve ice cream you can customise with sauces and toppings for your perfect sunny day treat.

The machine is controlled with one dial and only makes ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt, so testers found it easy to use from the get-go. There’s no timer, so you’ll need to keep a keen eye on your mixture, but it churned without any issues. Our experts had to adjust the recipe to achieve the right texture for the dispenser though, as it was initially too thick to flow through easily. A few tweaks later, however, and it worked well, bringing the joy of an ice cream van to our test kitchen.

Our experts loved its topping dispenser too. The ‘keep warm’ function for sauces is smart (especially for chocolate), but adding sprinkles to our replica 99s was a little messy, so if you’re planning an ice cream party, be ready to wipe up some scattered hundreds and thousands. It’s also fairly bulky, and you need to pre-freeze the bowl for 12 hours (that’s quicker than the Ninja, though). But if you love soft-serve, this one’s for you.

Score: 89/100

With most ice cream makers, you need to freeze the base 24 hours prior to churning. But this great value machine can make creamy scoops in as little as 40 minutes thanks to its self-freezing system.

It performed best when making a chocolate chip ice cream, scoring full marks for the light, delicious base and even distribution of chocolate. We did notice some of the base mix didn’t fully freeze at the very bottom of the bowl, so it’s worth factoring in extra freezing time to avoid wasting it. The bowl didn’t fit in a standard freezer drawer either, so you’ll need to shuffle things around, decant it into a different container, or use a chest freezer to ensure it fits.

Score: 88/100

It’s all about the theatre with this ice cream machine. The soft serve paddle created beautifully light ice cream that swirled easily into cones, bowls and sundae cups from the dispenser. There was some slight dripping from the spout and the ice cream melted quite quickly – but it wouldn’t be a 99 without licking up the drips.

Standard scoops had a smooth consistency, too, but our chocolate chips weren’t evenly dispersed after we used the mix-ins programme. The sorbet and gelato programmes both worked a treat and the milkshake setting produced an evenly mixed drink that tasted delicious, although the texture was slightly off (more like melted ice cream than milkshake).

Overall, this machine is incredibly easy to use, and the detailed instructions include plenty of recipes to get you started.

Score: 87/100

Just like the Magimix, this is a self-freezing ice cream maker, meaning fresh scoops can be ready from scratch within 60 minutes. As a result, the machine is bigger and weightier (7.2kg) than most other ice cream makers we’ve tested, but it’s not too much of a compromise if you have the room and want something speedy.

Both the ProCook and Good Housekeeping recipes for vanilla ice cream worked brilliantly, producing soft, creamy, and easily scoopable ice cream in just an hour. It mixed our sorbet ingredients perfectly too, with no graininess and a light, smooth texture.

Adding chocolate chips was less straightforward – while the ice cream tasted great, the chips weren’t evenly mixed throughout. But, that’s not too much of a hardship and despite not being dishwasher-safe, the mixing bowl was easy to clean.

Score: 85/100

This large self-freezing machine is a great all-rounder that delivers dessert in under an hour. Using the manufacturer’s recipe, testers enjoyed well-churned, easy-to-scoop vanilla ice cream within 50 minutes. The sorbet was flavoursome and smooth too.

It comes with plenty of recipes to get you started, so we tried making choc chip, too. You add the chocolate via the ingredient hatch, and while the paddle didn’t quite reach the edges to fully distribute it, the ice cream was still delicious.

Testers also praised the machine’s stability, noting the lack of vibration and intuitive controls. Overall, it’s a great model for large families.