14 best blenders to buy in 2026 for all your smoothies, soups and sauces

Score: 97/100

This powerful appliance scored almost full marks on test, thanks to capabilities that far exceed a traditional smoothie maker’s simple stop/start design. Its four pre-programmed settings – blend, crush, mix and powermix – let you tailor its pulsating pattern to suit your ingredients, while its Nutri Bowl attachment is ideal for mixing up thicker smoothie bowls or nut butters.

It delivered consistently well-blended drinks, cutting through even the roughest of apple skins. It blitzed ice cubes, leaving no large chunks, but struggled to pulverise raspberry seeds. Its strong, non-slip feet also helped keep it stable on our worktop but required some muscle to dislodge after use.

Browse more smoothie blenders in our dedicated best smoothie makers roundup.

Score: 97/100

Our best hand blender came close to scoring full marks for its all-round outstanding performance. Our tester enjoyed a smooth milkshake, creamy mayo and perfectly whipped cream. It pureed chickpeas evenly with ease – hummus fans, take note – and produced a glossy, if slightly thin, batter. It whisked egg whites to stiff peaks and the included grinder blitzed hazelnuts in a flash.

Intuitive and comfortable to use, it comes with a generous array of attachments, including an ice blade for chopping large cubes down to slushy-sized shards. They all proved easy to fit, but you'll need to think about where to store them if you’re short on cupboard space.

Browse more stick blenders in our dedicated best hand blenders roundup.

Score: 93/100

Our runner-up model from Vitamix is designed to get the job done and offers plenty of settings to give the user ample control. This includes a whopping 10 blending speeds, as well as a pulse button for fast chopping. We found it blended well in the majority of our tests, chopping nuts evenly and dicing bread into breadcrumbs in an instant.

All results were consistently even, from puréed chickpeas and glossy mayonnaise to smooth batter, with zero leakage out of the lid no matter which speed setting we used. In terms of design, it's quite a bulky piece of machinery, but it’s straightforward to operate and has dishwasher-safe components for easy cleaning. Ultimately, it's an all-round top performer that's worth the investment.

Score: 92/100

This blender has a sturdy glass jug, 400ml and 700ml blending cups for enjoying your drinks on the go, and a grinding mill attachment that can be used for finely chopping coffee, nuts, herbs and spices.

The glass jug can be used for cold and hot ingredients up to 60C. The lid is also a good snug fit — although, while there was no leakage, when filled to its maximum capacity of 1.8 litres, we did get a small amount of foam escaping out of the feed hole in the lid while blitzing ingredients for a smoothie.

Aside from that, this blender makes smooth purées and batters, crushes ice with ease, and the blades cope well with a variety of different foods. Overall, it's a useful multi-purpose machine, and if you think you'll make use of all the attachments, it's a worthwhile investment.

Score: 89/100

Vitamix’s “self-detect” technology is handy for preventing blending disasters. It stops the machine from operating if the lid or container is not attached securely, keeping ingredients from spraying all over the counter. That’s just as well as, at 1400w, it’s one of the more powerful blenders we tested.

On test, crushing ice proved no problem and batter was quickly blended to a smooth consistency. However, if homemade hummous is top of your culinary wishlist, note that it struggled to completely purée chickpeas. Also, despite having non-slip feet, we found it didn’t stay securely in place on the counter while in use.

Score: 88/100

This high-tech Tefal does a lot more than your standard blender; as well as blitzing whatever you throw its way, it can cook food such as soups and sauces, and even steam fish.

On test, our experts were blown away by its blending prowess, noting that even the toughest of ingredients – think hazelnuts and ice – were efficiently chopped and crushed. Surprisingly, batter proved a tad trickier, with some lumps and air bubbles sneaking past the blades.

It scored full marks for its sleek and stable design, and it has ten speed settings as well as dishwasher-safe accessories. It only lost points for its hard-to-remove blade and cover when it came to ease of use. Though not a compact blender, given the skills it will bring to your kitchen, we'd say it’s worth making room for.

Score: 88/100

The K400 is a great option for adventurous chefs. It makes blending effortless, impressing our experts with speedy results in every test we put it through. This was partly down to the intuitive control dial that allows you to flick between five speeds, the three pre-set programmes and the pulse option — suiting a wide range of ingredients.

The jug and die-cast metal base are sturdy and durable, though this does mean they're rather heavy if you’re not planning on keeping it in situ. And, though we were initially worried the lack of removable blades might make it difficult to get rid of any remaining residues, the effective self-cleaning function soon quelled our concerns.

Score: 86/100

At 2000W, this blender is the most powerful we’ve tested, and it showed, making light work of all our tasks. Only 20 seconds of a low power setting (there are 10!) was needed to purée chickpeas, while it crushed ice in a mere five seconds. It successfully chopped nuts and breadcrumbs into small, even pieces too.

If anything, our testers sometimes found the blender too powerful – our mayonnaise became too runny and there was some splash back even on the lowest power settings. It was fairly loud throughout testing, too. Most blenders are though, and this sleek design felt durable and was also intuitive and efficient to use.

Score: 85/100

This blender was a good all-rounder, nailing everything from crushing ice and chopping nuts, to blending a smooth batter. Our testers appreciated the responsive power dial, which allows you to gradually increase the speed as needed.

The lid has a vent which allows steam to escape from hot food – a great safety precaution to prevent a blender-splosion – but this did cause a little leakage when used at maximum capacity on the highest setting. And although the self-cleaning function worked well, the non-removable blade makes deep cleaning this blender tricky. Overall though, it’s a strong performer from a reliable brand.

Score: 85/100

This astonishingly quiet two-in-one blender and soup maker comes with a click-on cover to suppress noise – brilliant for making warm baby food or morning smoothies without waking the whole house. It has a sturdy and stable build, and we liked the clear, responsive digital controls. The heated self-cleaning mode is a huge plus, too.

The short blade and lack of pulse action mean it’s not the best for dry chopping – our nuts were a little uneven and the blender needed a shake to process breadcrumbs. That said, all our wet blends were excellent, so if you’re mainly making things like sauces, soups, drinks or purees, this is a great buy.

We also reviewed this model as a soup maker, where it scored 84/100 in our best soup makers test.

Score: 84/100

You’ll want this sleek Sage blender out on display to show it off. And it wasn’t a case of style over substance as it performed really well in most of our tests.

There was minimal spitting from the lid while making sloppy sauces, and measurement markings on the side of the jug are helpfully printed in red to make them easy to read. It also automatically switches itself off when it reaches its maximum use time, stopping the motor from burning out extending its lifespan.

It dropped a few points when chopping nuts, with some chunks trapped under the blades. This, twinned with the fact that the blades can’t be removed, made it quite hard to clean. Also, the non-slip feet weren’t completely effective at stopping the machine sliding when in pulse mode.

Score: 83/100

This affordable jug blender is an excellent buy for those on a budget. At 600W, it has the lowest wattage of any model on our list, but this didn’t prevent it from acing most of our tests. It made excellent breadcrumbs and batter with us only needing to scrape down the sides once, and whizzed up a silky mayonnaise (albeit with a lot of splashing up the sides of the jug).

It managed hard ingredients like nuts and ice competently, with just a few pieces left behind. Chickpeas were where the lower wattage became more apparent, with the blender struggling to achieve a smooth consistency and chunks getting stuck under the blade. On the whole, it’s a straightforward model that handles most tasks well and feels much more premium than the price tag.

Score: 72/100

This budget-friendly blender is very simple to operate, with just two speeds and a pulse button to get to grips with. Performance was strongest when making breadcrumbs, batter and puréed chickpeas, with the blender handling larger quantities surprisingly well for the price.

But at 600 watts, it’s less powerful than other models on this list, which did start to show during the tougher tests – ice cubes were pushed away from the blades rather than crushed, and smoothies were left a little gritty even after longer blending times.

Our testers noted that despite the somewhat plasticky build and lack of premium touches, this blender was sturdy and remained cool and stable during testing. Cleaning it is straightforward too, thanks to dishwasher-safe parts and a removable blade. Overall, a good value model for occasional cooks and students.