Dyson is a global leader in vacuum cleaner technology, with their signature, patented cyclone engineering delivering unrivaled suction power.
So if you're looking for strong, consistent cleaning performance on different floor types, great pet hair pickup, expert filtration, easy maneuverability, useful attachments, and smart features that actually help, Dyson is our top recommendation.
In our extensive tests, Dyson vacuums come out on top almost every time. Their reputation may sound overstated, but from the 1,000+ hours my team of product testers and I have spent reviewing 74 vacuums from 23 brands, Dyson takes the world's best vacuum top spot for good reason.
The one-minute verdict
The Dyson Gen5detect is the best vacuum cleaner you can buy. It can handle any mess swiftly, and it's packed with smart features to make cleaning actually enjoyable.
It's only marginally better than the Dyson V15 Detect, yet costs $200 more, so the V15 Detect is the Dyson I recommend above all others. They share the same features except for the Gen5detect's suction being a little higher.
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim is the lighter, smaller version of these two flagship vacuums, making it the perfect cleaner for homes with hard floors. For carpets, you'll need the larger, upright Dyson Ball Animal 3 as its relentless suction and rollers can dig deep into carpet fibers.
The Dyson V8 is the best if you're on a budget – it's usually on offer for $349.99. And if you're looking for a small handheld cleaner, the Dyson Car+Boat is essentially the same as the V8 but without a wand, and it's around $65 cheaper.
The quick list
Here's the list of the best Dyson vacuums at a glance. For more information on each one's features, scroll further or click the navigation links to take you to each product.
At the bottom of the page, you'll also find our helpful guides on how to choose a Dyson, how we test them, a Dyson vacuum 'jargon' glossary, and a list of FAQs.
The best Dyson vacuum in the world
Our reviewer has tested more than 100 vacuums and the Dyson Gen5detect is better than all of them, thanks to its best-in-class (and responsive) suction power, an impressive 70-minute runtime, and the green laser that reveals invisible dust.
The best cordless Dyson vacuum for pet hair
The Dyson V15 Detect excels on all floor types, and uses a laser sensor to dig up dirt invisible to the naked eye. It effortlessly vacuumed every visible strand of hair on test while even reviving a dog bed to its original color.
The best value Dyson vacuum
It's surprising to see a Dyson vacuum selling for less than $400 but that's around the average price for a Dyson V8. It doesn't have the smart features of the more expensive vacuums in this guide, but it still has the incredible suction power you'd expect.
The best upright Dyson vacuum for carpet
This upright vacuum is bigger and bulkier than a cordless stick, but that's what you need in a home full of carpets. Offering the highest suction power of any Dyson vacuum and a wide floorhead, the Ball Animal 3 is perfect for busy, messy households with kids or pets.
The best Dyson vacuum for hard floors
With the same core features as the Gen5detect and V15 Detect, just in a smaller design, the V12 Detect Slim is the ideal cleaning companion for a home full of hard floors. The Fluffy Optic floorhead is designed for hard floors, picking up every bit of debris and dust while revealing hidden particles.
The best handheld Dyson vacuum for quick cleans
If you already have a full-sized or robot vacuum that can tackle your floors, the Dyson Car+Boat is great for cleaning everything else. It's the most powerful handheld vacuum we've tested, and it will swiftly clean furniture, cars and tight spaces.
The best Dyson vacuums in 2025
The best Dyson vacuum cleaner
One of our expert reviewers, Helen McCue, has sampled well over 100 vacuums in her time as a product tester, and this latest model from Dyson is better than all of them.
The Dyson Gen5detect works tirelessly to dig up deep dirt from carpet, wood, and linoleum floors. This is the best cordless vacuum on the market, and with an extended runtime of 70 minutes, this is one of the only cordless vacuums that you could use to clean the whole house in a single session.
This vacuum incorporates all the latest Dyson technology: the dust-revealing green laser, the Piezo particle sensor, the anti-tangle hair screw, and the floor-responsive suction. It comes with two main floorheads, the Fluffy Optic and the Motorbar, designed for hard floors and carpets, respectively.
Inside the vacuum, you'll find a HEPA filtration system to protect yourself from allergies and prevent particles from recirculating back into your home. It also has some serious suction power at 260 air watts (compared to the V15 Detect's 240 air watts and the V12 Detect Slim's 150). It's the most accurate measurement for a vacuum's suction power there is, and it's higher than we've ever seen in a cordless vacuum.
This excellent performance comes at a cost, and the Dyson Gen5detect is one of the most expensive vacuums on the market. Outside of sales seasons, it retails for almost $1,000. That's a significant amount of money to spend on an appliance, but if you have the money, it's a fair price to pay for the next best thing in floor care.
Read more in our full Dyson Gen5detect review.
The best Dyson vacuum for pet hair
Not only is the Dyson V15 Detect one of the most powerful vacuums we've ever tested, but it's also our best vacuum for pet hair. Whether you're vacuuming pet hair, dust, dirt or large debris, the cordless vacuum cleans it all with minimal effort, pretty much always in a single pass.
It may not be quite as powerful as the Gen5detect, but I use the V15 Detect as the primary vacuum in my home – and it never fails to clean whatever mess I throw it at in one or two passes.
As well as effortlessly vacuuming pet hair, the V15 Detect comes with an anti-tangle hair screw tool to remove fur from furniture, upholstery, mattresses and other non-floor surfaces. When our tester Jaclyn Turner tested it on her dog's bed, she noted: 'It is one of the only vacuum tools I've tried that not only revived the faux-sherpa bottom that is an absolute magnet for dirt but brightened the fleece top from a dusty blue back to its original turquoise.'
To add to this cleaning performance, the V15 Detect is part of the same lineup of Dyson laser vacuums as the Gen5detect and V12 Detect Slim. This is Dyson's flagship series, with a green laser to illuminate hidden dust, a Piezo sensor that counts particle sizes, and automatically responsive suction power when the floors are extra dirty or when you're vacuuming rugs and carpet.
These features are genuinely useful, and it's almost unsettling how much the green laser reveals what the naked eye can't normally see. It's the perfect smart appliance for any clean freaks out there, as you'll know exactly how clean your floors are with all of this info.
The V15 Detect is the mid-range option out of Dyson's Detect vacuums, retailing for around $650 at full price, which is pretty steep, even if it is often discounted. It's $100s cheaper than the Gen5detect, and around $100 more expensive than the smaller V12 Detect Slim.
If you'd rather save a bit of money, the V12 Detect Slim does everything the V15 Detect can, it just has a smaller dustbin so can't tackle a whole home in one go. But if you're happy to empty mid-clean, that's an easy way to save money on this market-leading cleaning tech.
Read more in our full Dyson V15 Detect review.
The best value Dyson vacuum
Retailing for around $400, the V8 Animal isn't cheap for a cordless cleaner, but it's one of the most affordable Dyson vacuums on the market. It's also a little bit older and is often discounted to around $299.
The Dyson V8 doesn't have the fancy features found in the Detect vacuums (like the green laser or responsive suction). While these do make a big difference to your cleaning, they're luxuries rather than essentials, and the Dyson V8 is the perfect back-to-basics model that still offers Dyson's famous cleaning performance without the extras.
I wrote an article on why the Dyson V8 is still worth it in 2025 for this exact reason. If you don't want to invest in the wildly expensive Dysons, this is the one to go for.
Like Dyson's best, it still has a Fluffy floorhead for hard floors and a Motorbar floorhead for carpets and rugs, as well as tight HEPA vacuum filtration inside the machine and the various cleaning tools/attachments.
You get around 30 minutes of cleaning time with the Dyson V8: more when you use attachments, such as the crevice tool, and less when you use the floorheads on MAX mode. You might struggle to clean the whole house in one go, but you could easily suck up dust and dirt between deep cleans.
The Dyson V8 isn't as quick as the V15 Detect, nor as capacious as the Ball Animal 3. But if all you want is a competent cleaning companion that won't break the bank, it will serve you well.
Read more in our full Dyson V8 review.
The best Dyson vacuum for carpet
Of all the types of flooring, carpet is one of the hardest to clean. Dirt is easily embedded deep down between the fibers and won't come up without a fight. If your home features a lot of carpeted floors or area rugs, you need an upright vacuum with powerful, variable suction, such as the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
This vacuum comes with a spacious dustbin and a 35-foot cord for whole-home cleaning sessions. It rests on a ball, which makes it easier to maneuver around obstacles and into tight corners. There's a still, dense nylon brush to dig up dirt from carpets and hard floors, with angled bristles to navigate nooks and crannies.
Now, the Dyson Ball Animal 3 isn't perfect. Like a lot of the best upright vacuums, it's heavy, and it might prove burdensome to lift and carry from space to space. But with this extra size comes extra cleaning power, and it's certainly better suited to deep cleans rather than quick pick-ups.
Homes with kids and pets would definitely benefit from this powerful vacuum, and the unrelenting brushroll makes light work of hair and all debris sizes, with exceptional performance on carpet.
Or, another great option is the Shark POWERDETECT, which often retails for around a similar price. Its suction isn't as powerful as the Dyson, but it has other features like a fresh odor cartridge and a 'Lift-Away' pod for more mobility when cleaning.
Read more in our full Dyson Ball Animal 3 review.
The best Dyson vacuum for hard floors
From all the testing I've done at H&G, the V12 Detect Slim is the vacuum I use in my own home. In most ways – and I've done a deep dive comparing the Dyson V15 Detect vs Dyson V12 Detect Slim – it's just as good as the V15 Detect and Gen5detect, only a little smaller. This smaller dustbin and slight sacrifice in cleaning power makes it the most affordable out of the three while still keeping all the best features (it retails for around $650 but is often discounted to as low as $450).
The Fluffy Optic cleaner head is specially designed for hard floors, with a green laser that does an incredible job of revealing dust that the naked eye can't see. It uses a soft brushroll that's safe on all floors, even precious hardwood, and it automatically ups the suction power when reaching a dust-heavy area. It's why it's the best vacuum for hardwood floors that we've tested.
The suction power is still just as impressive, too, picking up all dust, dirt, debris and hair in one or two passes every time. In boost mode, you can even see dust being pulled in from further away where the brushroll isn't touching.
If your home is mostly hard floors, chances are you don't need a large vacuum anyway. Hard floors aren't dirt magnets the way carpets are, so having a small, lightweight vacuum like the V12 Detect Slim is perfect for whenever you need a quick clean.
Read more in our full Dyson V12 Detect Slim review.
The best handheld Dyson vacuum
The Car+Boat is the only handheld vacuum from Dyson. It doesn't have a wand or floorhead, so it's exclusively designed to clean furniture, cars, or any tight spots around the house.
In terms of suction power, this is the best handheld vacuum we've tested. It's essentially a repurposed Dyson V8, so it has the same 115 air watts of suction, which isn't too far off what most full-sized cordless vacuums offer.
I tested the Car+Boat in a local pet shelter, and it passed many of the tests that larger vacuums have failed. On carpets, rugs, sofas, and chairs, it cleared most visible strands of pet hair without tangling its brushroll.
I also tested it at our dedicated test center, where it vacuumed everything from small powder to large debris, and only struggled a little when it flung large pieces around (they were easy to clean up using the crevice tool).
A handheld vacuum is one of the best everyday investments you can make, especially if you live in a household with pets or kids who can make a mess at a moment's notice.
Because it's the smallest Dyson, it's also the cheapest. For around $65 less than the V8, you can enjoy the same high suction power when cleaning your furniture or your car. But for even less, our other favorite handheld vacuum is the Black+Decker dustbuster furbuster, which achieves similar results while costing around half the price.
Read more in our full Dyson Car+Boat review.
How to choose a Dyson vacuum
For the most part, choosing a Dyson is just like choosing any vacuum, which I've covered in detail in our guide on how to choose the right vacuum cleaner for your home.
But a big factor to consider with Dysons is the cost. These are expensive appliances that can range from $300 to $1,000, so it's important to first understand what it is that you need.
If you're after the best features, like the green laser and dust detection, then look at the Detect series (Gen5detect, V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim) and see which one you can afford. The V12 Detect Slim is the cheapest but it's also the smallest, so it might not be the best choice for a large home.
If you're not particularly precious about the smart features, then the V8 is a perfectly capable cordless vacuum that shows off Dyson's excellent cleaning power. It's lightweight, easy to use and can tackle all debris on all floor types – and it costs a fraction of the price of the price of the Detect vacs.
But if you're looking for something more rugged, perhaps if you have lots of pets or a large family, an upright vacuum will likely be a better choice, like the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
Finally, make sure you compare prices across different sites like Dyson, Amazon, Walmart and QVC. These vacuums are almost always discounted to some extent, so see where you can make your money go the furthest.
How we tested the best Dyson vacuums
We put a lot of thought into how we test vacuums. We test each vacuum on carpet, hardwood, and linoleum floors. The best vacuum will excel in all areas, while other cleaners might shine on certain floor types. Carpet is hard to clean, as the long fibers cling to dirt. Linoleum, or vinyl flooring, is much easier, but it shows all sorts of stains and smudges. Wood would be easy to clean if it weren't for the cracks between the floorboards where dirt and debris get stuck.
In our test center, we test vacuums on flour and sugar, as they make a good substitute for dust and dead skin, and they're also common kitchen spills. Next, we test cereal and lentils to see how the vacuum handles larger debris. A premium vacuum will suck it straight up, instead of flinging it across the.
We also test vacuums in a local cat and dog shelter to see how they fare against high volumes of pet hair and general day-to-day mess. We test on hard floors, low-pile carpets, thick carpets and rugs, as well as sofas, chairs, and entrance mats.
We also test the vacuums for weeks in our own homes. This is where we can find out how well they perform in real-world conditions, like vacuuming the stairs or the floor edges. This grants us a more complete picture of how the vacuum actually works, what maintenance is involved, and how much space they take up.
Dyson has long been the leading brand in the vacuum cleaner market, and, from our tests, we can confirm this is generally the case. Their vacuums excel on all floor types and offer greater suction power than competitors. But they also happen to be the most expensive, so when testing, we weigh up their cleaning performance against whether they're worth the steep cost.
Meet the team
As Homes & Gardens' home tech editor, I cover vacuum cleaners on a daily basis. In the past year alone I've spent 250+ hours testing 24 vacuums of all types, including three of the Dysons in this guide. I also use the V15 Detect as the primary vacuum in my own home.
Helen is a seasoned product tester who's reviewed more than 100 vacuums since she began in 2007. She reviewed the best vacuum we've ever got our hands on, the Dyson Gen5detect.
Jaclyn has been testing vacuums for four years, spanning 300 hours, and she's reviewed more than 16 vacuums including the Dyson V8 and V15 Detect.
Camryn is a freelance writer and product reviewer who has tested more than 50 vacuums in her time. She's tested many vacuums for Homes & Gardens, including the Dyson Ball Animal 3.
Best Dyson vacuum – Glossary
Delve into our full vacuum jargon buster guide for more vacuum terminology explained by our pros in language that is understandable. It will make it easier to understand what all the vacuum technology available to us really does and how it can help you pick one best suited to your needs. In the mean time, here are the essentials when considering one of the best Dyson vacuums.
- Floorhead: The main vacuum cleaner attachment for floor cleaning (i.e. not the crevice tool, dusting brush etc). Some vacuums have separate floorheads for hard floors and carpets.
- Brushroll: Rotating cylinders within the floorhead (and occasionally in smaller, motorized attachments). They can be soft, fluffy rollers for hard floors or bristled to dig deep into carpets. Many vacuums from brands like Shark and Dyson will have two brushrolls in their main floorhead.
- Wand/hose: Long tube connecting the vacuum cleaner to the floorhead or any attachments (see here for what all the vacuum cleaner attachments do, like the crevice tool or dusting brush).
- Filter: Responsible for trapping the debris and particles as air passes through. Vacuums can have pre-motor filters and post-motor filters, to trap debris of different sizes at different points along the airflow.
- HEPA filter: Filter type that's able to capture at least 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. It's a necessity in a pet hair vacuum as it's able to trap allergenic particles like pet dander (and household allergens like dust and pollen).
- Motor: The core component of a vacuum cleaner (it's also referred to as a suction motor). This is what converts the electrical power into mechanical power to create suction and airflow.
- Bagged/bagless: Some vacuums, typically older ones, use vacuum bags that you dispose of once full. Most vacuums are now bagless and have a dustbin that you conveniently empty when needed, without the need to buy additional bags. Bagged vacuums still have their advantages however, like dust-free emptying, complete odor and particle capture, and less filter maintenance.
- Detection: Some vacuums are able to 'detect' the type of flooring, how dusty/dirty the floor is, whether you're vacuuming edges, or which direction you're vacuuming. They can then automatically adjust suction power, as vacuuming carpet, edges and dust-heavy floors requires extra power, while vacuuming a fairly clean wooden floor doesn't require as much – saving energy or battery life.
- Power/air watts: A vacuum cleaner's power is best measured via air watts, reflecting the airflow and suction power in real terms. It's calculated by multiplying the airflow (in cubic metres per second) by the suction pressure (in pascals), accounting for variables like blockages or different-sized openings (from different vacuum attachments, for example).
- FluffyOptic (Dyson): The most advanced floorhead in Dyson's latest vacuums (the Gen5detect, V15 Detect and V12 Detect Slim) designed primarily for hard floors. It features a green laser that reveals hidden dust that the naked eye can't see.
- Digital Motorbar (Dyson): An anti-tangle floorhead that works wonders on carpets (but can also be used on hard floors), with automatic suction responding to dust volume/floor type.
- Hair screw tool (Dyson): A small cleaning attachment with a motorized roller, perfect for removing hair and fur from furniture, upholstery and curtains.
FAQs
Which Dyson is the best overall?
The Dyson Gen5detect is the best Dyson you can buy. Its suction power is akin to what you'd get in a huge upright vacuum, but it's a cordless stick, meaning more agile cleaning and easier vacuum storage.
But as the Gen5detect costs almost $1,000, the best Dyson we recommend is actually the Dyson V15 Detect. It shares all the features of the Gen5detect and only has a slight decrease in suction (250 compared to the Gen5detect's 260).
If you're looking for the most powerful Dyso,n however, it's the Dyson Ball Animal 3 (boasting a massive 290 air watts). This makes it perfect for busy homes with carpets, pets, and/or kids. But it's a large, heavy appliance that not everybody prefers to keep in their homes, and lug out whenever it's time to clean.
What are the differences between Dyson models?
When you look at Dyson listings online, you'll find all sorts of names and numbers attributed to the same sort of vacuums. This might feel confusing at first, but it's easy to understand once you know what you're looking at.
If it has 'Detect' in the name, it's one of the cordless vacuums with the green laser, dust detection and a particle counter. These are the flagship Dyson models with prices to reflect that: the Gen5detect, the V15 Detect, and the V12 Detect Slim.
Similarly, the 'Ball' vacuums all part of the same series of upright vacuums with the spherical ergonomic design. As older models have been discontinued, the only upright vacuum remaining is the Dyson Ball Animal 3 – which has the highest suction of any Dyson.
But most of the other words you'll see (like Plus, Absolute, Complete, Extra, Origin) only reflect the attachments that come with it, not the vacuum itself. They're essentially 'package' names that tell you what variation of attachments you'll get. They'll vary for each model, so it's worth comparing them side by side to see what you'll get.
For example: The V8 is the name of the vacuum, but you can find the Dyson V8 Absolute and the Dyson V8 Origin. The Origin comes with one floorhead and four accessories, and the Absolute comes with two floorheads and four accessories.
If you've made it all the way to the end of this article, and you still can't get on board with Dyson, then you should consider one of the best Dyson alternatives instead. Many of these vacuums incorporate smart technology and premium design for a fraction of the price.