Best blender 2021 - our top 7 blenders for smoothies, ice and shakes

From your morning smoothie to your soup supper, the best blender will quickly become a part of your everyday life. We’ve rounded up the best blenders from brands like Ninja, Vitamix, KitchenAid and Breville to bring you the smartest blenders, that will also look great in your kitchen. Blenders come with dishwasher-safe parts and an increasing array of smart control modes to make life easier than other, but when it comes to which blender is best, our blender guide is here to answer all your questions. 

The best blenders are your kitchen assistant when it comes to making smoothies, crushing ice, and even blitzing vegetables to make healthy drinks and meals. Some are smarter than others, and the Thermomix TM6 is a top premium option that can sous vide and slow cook on top of its other blending capabilities. Our top pick is the Ninja Professional Plus, which has a food processor bowl as well as other useful accessories. 

If you want something that will tackle your morning smoothies, but aren’t interested in a food processor blender combo or something larger for serving the whole family, we also have a best portable blender guide that features the same top brands but takes an in-depth look at single-serve, personal blenders for the home or taking on the go. For the best blenders for the whole family though, keep reading to find our top picks.  

The best blender buys

Many blenders just come with a standard pitcher, with accessories costing extra. If you want to expand the repertoire of what you can do, then the Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ makes sense.

As well as the 72 oz. pitcher, you get a 64 oz. food processor bowl (this has chopping and dough) and two 24 oz. blending cups for single-serve drinks to take away.

That’s a big arsenal at your disposal and makes this blender an all-round friend for your kitchen. Of course, the downside is that you have to find space to store all of the extra bits, so of which you may not even use.

There are five Auto-IQ programs smoothie, ice crush, extract, chop and dough), but which ones are available depends on the accessory attached: you can’t crush ice, for example, when the food processor is connected, but you can with the single-serve cup and the pitcher.

Outside of the Auto-IQ programs, there are just Low, Medium, High and Pulse settings. With a powerful motor, the Ninja Professional can easily crush ice and blend smooth smoothies. It is quite loud, though.

Safety features are neat, and the accessories and lids have to be in place for the blender to operate. Every part is dishwasher safe, for easy cleaning.

Other blenders on this list may give better individual results, but if you need multiple tools at a great price, this is a great choice.

Available in a smart range of colors to match the company’s popular mixers, the KitchenAid K400 Variable Speed Blender makes a statement.

It comes with a large 56 oz. jar, made out of robust and extremely thick glass. It may be a touch on the heavy side, but gives you an impression of how long this blender will last.

A single dial on the front lets you choose from the five-speed settings and pulse, plus the special modes: smoothie, ice crush, frozen drink, and clean.

The weight of the pitcher means that there’s no need for a locking mechanism: drop the pitcher and integrated blades onto the base and you’re ready to go.

Nothing is a problem for this blender: ice is crushed into fine snow, hard fruits and vegetables are blended into smooth drinks, and you can whizz through dry ingredients thanks to the powerful 1200W motor.

The automated cleaning mode gets the pitcher ready for the dishwasher, and the base can be wiped clean. 

If you need the absolute best, then this is the blender for you, but it’s expensive, especially given that you only get a pitcher and no other accessories (extras are available at a charge). 

There’s something charming about the Vitamix 5200. With its rugged and simple controls, it looks like the kind of blender that belongs in an industrial kitchen. 

The quality and power would certainly back this up, making the 5200 a good investment for those that use a blender every day.

This machine has 10-speed settings in the Variable mode and a switch for High speed. There’s no pulse option on this model.

Still, the 10 variable speeds are generally enough for managing anything you do, moving between leaving chunky bits at low speed, and fully blended at the higher speeds. 

With the High setting, you can even make hot soup, with the friction caused by the blades heating the food.

Thanks to the powerful 1380W motor, the Vitamix 5200 can handle anything you need, including dealing with hard fruits (pineapple, carrots, seeds) and even ice. 

The pitcher has to be in place for the blender to operate, and the rubber-sealed lid keeps liquids from spilling out during use.

You can run the blender on high speed with a bit of water to clean it out, but you’ll need to finish the job with soapy water, as this blender is not dishwasher safe.

If you’re looking for a tough, simple blender, that you can use day after day, this is a great choice.

It might look like a blender with an oversized base and touchscreen, but the Thermomix TM6 is far more than this. As well as blending, it can grind, chop, whisk and even mix dough.

It can also heat, with options for searing, slow cooking and sous vide. Oh, and did we mentioned that you can mix frozen ingredients in the bowl? Or that you can steam or use it as a rice cooker?

The downside is that the machine is bulky and there are a lot of accessories to store.

As a blender, the TM6 is incredible. It will handle everything from hard ice down to frozen vegetables, powering through everything without thought. It can even take caster sugar and give you powdered sugar, which is super impressive. 

However, the stainless steel pitcher means that you can’t see what’s going on, making manual adjustments a touch tricky.

With access to Thermomix’s Cookidoo subscription platform, you can follow guided recipes to make thousand of impressive dishes. Or, you can go for manual mode and take the hassle out of making labour-intensive sauces, such as hollandaise. 

The TM6 will only operate with the lid on, for safety. With a cleaning mode and dishwasher-friendly parts, it’s easy to clean up after use.

A touch overkill and expensive if you only want to make smoothies or blend the odd sauce, but the Thermomix TM6 is the single-best kitchen gadget for those that take their cooking really seriously.

Described as an industrial blender for home use, the Breville Super Q is a chunky and heavy beast. Having such a heavy base should mean that it’s more stable in use.

Despite the size, the blender is easy to assemble and comes with the main, large pitcher, plus a smaller 24 oz. personal cup. The front control panel is dominated by the programs: pulse/ice crush, smoothie, green smoothie, frozen dessert, and soup. The latter uses friction to heat ingredients. 

There are 12 more manual speed settings, moving from stir, through mix, chop, and blend to puree and mill. That makes this machine a touch more complicated to use, so you’ll need the well-written manual to help you find the best setting. 

Programs all work well, giving you ideal results with the push of one button, while the 12 speeds and powerful motor help you get your ideal own results with a bit of experimentation.

There’s a cleaning program to get the pitcher and blades dishwasher ready.

If you want excellent results at the touch of a button then this is the blender for you, but it’s expensive and a more traditional blender with manual controls can be bought for less.

The maker behind the infamous Instant Pot pressure cooker also makes a blender at a consumer friendly price. And bonus, it can cook too.

Like the Instant Pot, the Instant Ace Nova Cooking Blender is truly a multi-tasking tool, with nine programs that can conquer everything from smoothies to nut milks.

Unlike most blenders at this price point, the Instant Ace Nova has a sturdy glass pitcher, as plastic is not suitable for cooking foods at high temperatures. 

It has multiple settings including one touch presets for smoothies, soy milk, rice milk, nut/oat milk, soup, and frozen desserts, as well as standard puree, crushed ice,, blend and pulse functions. And you also have the choice of 10-speed customizable speeds up to 25,000 RPM for true control over your blended beverages and foods. 

After use, it features a self-cleaning mode to loosen and remove any residue, that can then be scrubbed away with the included cleaning brush.

Additionally, the blender comes with a  3-in-1 food tamper, neasuring cup, cleaning brush, and a food-safe strainer bag for filtering soy, rice, oats, nuts or seeds. 

Overall, the Instant Ace Nova Cooking Blender is an incredible value and cooking companion. It's really exciting to see all the capabilities in one device. 

Keen cooks looking for a powerful blender to improve their recipes could do worse than turn to the Wolf Gourmet High-Performance Blender. 

As you can tell from the plain stainless steel finish, this is a blender designed and built to look like the kind of tool that a professional would use.

This is largely held up by the controls. There’s a responsive dial that gives you fine (‘infinite’, says Wolf Gourmet) control over speeds, letting you adjust control on the fly. 

And, the pulse control works at any manual speed setting, rather than giving you a simple one-speed-fits-all option.

The result is that you’ve got complete control over how the blender blends, although these controls are more likely to suit the high-end cook that needs this level of control.

There are programs for smoothie, ice crush, puree, and soup (this one uses friction to heat), so everyday tasks are taken care of.

Quality matches the price, with this blender able to turn ice into fine snow and blend even the hardest ingredients into an excellent smoothie. It’s nice to see an emulsion lid for slowly adding ingredients for delicate sauces, dressings, and marinades.

At this price, the question is do you really need this level of manual control? Those into their cooking will say yes, but less frequent blender users may be better off looking elsewhere.

How do I choose a blender? Which is best for frozen drinks, or smoothies?

A blender is a great tool for cooking and making drinks, such as smoothies, keeping the pulp of fruit and vegetables as well as the juice.

The type of blender you buy really depends on how often you want to use it and what you mostly want to use it for. All blenders are capable of making smoothies, particularly blending softer fruits.

If you want to make frozen fruits or desserts or deal with harder fruits or vegetables, then you may need a machine with a more powerful motor, so that it can crush ice into fine snow. 

Look out for a blender that has automatic programs for the kinds of drink or action that you want, as this takes the guesswork out of using a blender.

That said, manual controls are important if you want finer control over the results, say blending a soup that still has some chunks in it.

A pulse function is a great way to get fine control: the blender runs while you press the button but stops the second that you release it. 

Move up the price scale and you’ll find that you get additional features. Some of the most powerful blenders, for example, can use friction to heat raw ingredients, delivering hot soup in just a few minutes.

Look out for the total capacity of the blender: go for a larger one if you’ve got a big family to feed. Accessories can also be important, either in the box or as additional extras: self-serve cups let you take a drink on the move, and grinding cups can be a handy way of dealing with herbs and spices in smaller volumes.

How much should I spend on a blender?

Budget really comes down to how much you’ll use the blender. If you’re only an occasional user, then a budget model ($100 to $150) makes sense. At this price, you’ll get decent controls but you may find that your results aren’t quite as smooth.

If you use a blender every day, then you need to move up the scale. Spend over $200 and you’re likely to get more accessories and programs. 

If you want the best results then you’re looking at spending $400 or more. At this price, you’ll get the fastest motors, more control, and, often, a wider range of automatic programs to make your job easier.

What's better Vitamix or Ninja?

Vitamix is well known for its high-end, powerful blenders. These machines are a great choice for those that blend daily and that want the absolute best results. Controls can be rather basic on some models, so these choices are ideal for experienced users.

Ninja products tend to be cheaper, and may not produce quite as smooth results. However, you’ll generally get more automatic programs and value is usually very good, with many sets coming with a lot of accessories to expand what the blender is capable of.

Are glass blenders better than plastic?

Most blenders come with a hardened plastic pitcher, but you’ll find the odd model that has a glass one. Strictly speaking, glass is harder wearing and won’t scratch as easily as plastic. This can make a difference if you regularly crush ice, as the sharp edges can scratch cheaper plastics. Plastic can also get tainted by ingredients, staining.

The downside of glass is that it’s much heavier and if you drop it, you’re likely to end up cracking or breaking thepitcher. 

Modern plastics are much better, particularly on the high-end machine, so you shouldn’t notice scratching. And, plastic is lighter and less likely to break if you drop it.