Vitamix vs Blendtec blenders – which should you buy?

It often comes down to Vitamix vs Blendtec if you're in the market for a good blender. Both are great choices if you're serious about making tasty smoothies, crushing ice and making homemade dips. If you look out for the blender used in your favorite smoothie shop, you'll see that the professionals usually opt for a Vitamix or a Blendtec. 

Many of the best blenders are cheaper than Vitamix or Blendtec blenders, and it's also worth considering Nutribullet vs Ninja. However, plenty of home cooks should still consider Vitamix or Blendtec because of their high-quality, durable designs. It's worth investing in either brand if you use a blender every day, as both offer reliable appliances for cooking, puréeing, and crushing ice. 

Despite their similarities in looks and power, there are some key differences to consider when it comes to Vitamix vs Blendtec blenders. We get into the detail to help you find the best blender.  

Why we love it

Our pick of the two brands goes to the Vitamix A3500 Ascent Series Smart Blender. The best blender we've ever tested, this powerful appliance has four different cooking modes (smoothies, hot soups, dips and frozen desserts) as well as a self-cleaning mode, which more than makes up for the fact that this blender isn't dishwasher safe. 

There's also 10 different manual speeds if you want to get creative and select the speed yourself. Our resident testing wizard Millie Fender found that it made a velvety smoothie and a "restaurant-quality" hot soup with the best consistency of any she's ever made - high praise from someone who tests kitchen appliances for a living.

Thick smoothie bowls and dips also came out perfect thanks to a handy tamper which helps to move around heavy ingredients so everything is evenly processed, and the large capacity is great for catering to a crowd. 

Good to know

There's no heating element in this blender, so the hot soup function works by simply spinning the blades incredibly quickly. While this remarkable feature is superb for soup, it means that this blender can slightly melt frozen treats like açaí bowls, leaving the mix a little runny. These high speeds also mean that this blender gets very noisy. Millie clocked it reaching 87dB, which is raucous even by blender standards. Finally, there's no getting past the price. We only recommend appliances that are worth every penny, but that said, $500 and up is expensive for a blender.

Vitamix vs Blendtec: Design 

Considering the status of these brands, it’s no surprise that both excel in the quality of their design and components. The difference is the tampers included with Vitamix products. A tamper is a tool crucial for pushing down ingredients in order to accelerate the blending process. Blendtec, however,  claim that their blending cycles are so efficient that they don’t need a tamper in order to set off the crucial mixing motion, and prioritize total power instead.

These design differences play out in popular models; the Vitamix Ascent A3500’s tamper makes it the perfect tool for smoothies and hot soups, effortlessly crunching through ice and hard vegetables. While the Blendtec Professional 750 tries to get by without a tamper, there's a marked difference between the two when working with heavy ingredients. Despite 1560W of power, you still sometimes have to pause a blend cycle to push ingredients down. When it comes to design, the tamper is a crucial factor that sees Vitamix take the crown.

Vitamix vs Blendtec: Power

Blendtec not only prioritize high power, but almost every one of their blenders have both preprogramed settings and variable speeds in order to make the process nice and simple. For example, Blendtec's Professional 750 model has six preprogramed options at the touch of a button, so you can leave your blender to its own devices and come back to a perfectly blended batter, smoothie or soup. 

Vitamix certainly don’t struggle with power, but there are fewer preprogramed settings and speeds. While our beloved Ascent A3500 blender has a similar number of blending programs as the Blendtec Professional 750, as well as a programmable timer function, this handsfree blending option is harder to come by and appears a lot more frequently in the more affordable Blendtec range. 

Vitamix vs Blendtec: Versatility

As you might expect, both Blendtec and Vitamix can make a smoothie with ease, churning through ice and fruit in a way that low-end blenders could only dream of. The more complex foodstuffs are where the differences between the brands start to show. Vitamix’s tampers are the key for those who want to create more intricately textured foods, like nut butter and salad dressings, making it a winner for those who like to get inventive with their cooking. 

If you like to level up your appliances with accessories, you’ll find that Vitamix wins out again. With a series of containers and attachments on offer, you can turn your Vitamix blender into a food processor in a flash, saving you hours of time when it comes to meal preparation. Blendtec doesn’t have anything quite as versatile, so if making your blender more of a multi-appliance is crucial to you, then bear that in mind. 

Vitamix vs Blendtec: Price

Outdoing Blendtec when it comes to design and extras, it likely comes as no surprise that Vitamix are the most expensive of the two. Those blenders that range up to $600 in the Vitamix range are a blend of convenient automation with their many presets, alongside seriously impressive mixing due to their design; a worthwhile investment with a ten year warranty on many products. 

Blendtec prices aren’t quite as high as their rivals, with prices in the Classic Collection beginning at $229.95. For this price, though the blending power may not be as exact, you will have an appliance that’s perhaps more intuitive to use, with more preset options than similarly priced alternatives from Vitamix. 

The bottom line when it comes to price is that if you can afford to spend more on a Vitamix that also has a good level of automated programs, you’ll be securing the best of both worlds from these two brands.