I write about kitchen gadgets for a living, so it should come as no surprise that my kitchen is covered in countertop appliances. But the one I use the most? My personal blender.

I drink a smoothie at least twice a week, and a small bullet-style blender is what gets the job done. Sure, I love my Vitamix, which is also on my counter. But even the best full-size blenders are less effective at single-serving smoothies and small-batch soups and sauces. And it never feels worth pulling mine out and cleaning it when I’m only cooking for myself.

• Best personal blender overall: Nutribullet Ultra
• Our budget pick: Nutribullet Personal Blender
• Best blender for smoothies: Ninja BlendBoss
• The most versatile smoothie system: Beast Mighty 850
• Best choice for people without a full-size blender: Vitamix Nano

Here’s the thing, though: There are a lot of bad personal blenders out there. That’s why I set out to find one that could deliver silky smooth sauces and grit-free green smoothies, all while being compact and easy to clean. After testing 16 models, I’ve found five that have earned my seal of approval.

New in this update: Nutribullet’s revamped base model impressed me so much that it replaced our former budget pick. I also tested the new Vitamix Nano, which earned my seal of approval as an incredibly powerful personal-size substitute for a full-size blender, and the Nutribullet Turbo, but it failed to produce a smooth result in both tests.

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Nutribullet

Ultra Personal Blender

$130

Amazon

$165

Nutribullet

The Ultra has been our top pick for years, and in this round of testing, it faced its stiffest competition from inside its own lineup. Nutribullet's revamped base model costs half as much, runs on 700 watts to the Ultra's 1,200, and still matched it on smoothies and edged it out on pesto. The Ultra keeps the top spot anyway, because blending is only part of what makes a personal blender worth owning.

What I love: At 1,200 watts, the Ultra is tied for the most powerful personal blender we've ever used. It turned a pile of fibrous kale (with stems!), frozen fruit, and almond milk into a creamy smoothie with ease, and it produced beautifully emulsified pesto. For reference, our favorite Vitamix, the VX1, has a not-actually-that-much-more-powerful 1,640-watt motor.

That performance is also partially due to the titanium-coated stainless-steel blade, which has six prongs, as opposed to the four I've seen in most comparable models.

The Ultra comes with three blending jars, including a 32-ounce one, the largest capacity of anything we tested. That's what makes it the more versatile pick: you can run multiple smoothies or a batch of soup without stopping to refill. It also comes with two to-go lids, and I've been using it to take smoothies on my morning commute.

The controls are the other thing that sets it apart. Lock the cup into place and press a touchscreen button to start a 30-second cycle, or press and hold to blend or pulse. Pulsing matters more than it sounds like it should, and it's the one thing the base model can't do. Beyond that, there are very strong suction cup feet that keep the unit stable while it's running, and a thick-rimmed lid that doesn't leak.

The Ultra is also the only Nutribullet in this roundup that anchors a larger system. The mini food processor attachment is the piece senior shopping editor Noah Kaufman reaches for multiple times a week.

What I’d leave: At $130 at the time of writing, the Ultra is a great value for the horsepower, especially compared with a Vitamix, which will run you anywhere from $380 to $750. But it's also about twice the base model, which blended marginally better. If all you want is a blender that makes an excellent smoothie, save your money and buy the Personal Blender below. You're paying the difference for the bigger cup, the button, and the attachments.

In the long run: "Having this blender at home actually turned me into a smoothie person. I’ve begun using it to make them for myself and my kids for breakfast a couple of days a week. The Nutribullet’s performance is as good now as it was when I first got it over a year ago, zipping up well-blended mixtures of kale, frozen berries, and coconut water.

The real benefit of the Ultra, though, has turned out to be the mini food processor that comes as an optional add-on. If you are considering getting this blender and you do any cooking at all, do yourself a favor and get the processor attachment. I use it to mince garlic and ginger or chop onions every week, often on multiple nights. They’re tasks I find particularly tedious, and, especially in the case of just a couple cloves of garlic, impractical in my regular food processor (who wants to take that thing down and clean it up for two cloves of garlic?). In the mini-processor, the work is done in 10 seconds with the mess quite contained." —Noah Kaufman, senior shopping editor

Good to know: For an additional $80, you can upgrade to the Nutribullet Ultra Plus+ Compact Kitchen System, which includes the motor base, two blending cups with to-go lids, as well as a coffee/spice grinder (keep it for spices, use a burr grinder for coffee) and mini food processor attachments.

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Nutribullet

Personal Blender

$70

Nutribullet

We originally tested Nutribullet's revamped base model against the Thyme & Table model for our budget category. It turned out to perform marginally better than the Ultra, our best overall pick. A few missing features kept it from taking the top spot, but we recommend it wholeheartedly, and it makes an incredible budget pick.

What I love: This little machine punches above its weight. Its green smoothie came out just as silky as the Ultra's, in a single blend cycle rather than two (which is understandable considering the base model's cycle is 55 seconds compared to the Ultra's 30). And when we examined the two pestos closely, the Ultra's still had a few visible bits of pine nut, each about the size of a grain of sand. The base model's had fewer, and a more homogeneous texture overall. All of that from a 700-watt motor against the Ultra's 1,200.

My theory is that its slightly wider-mouthed cup lets ingredients reach the blade more easily without getting stuck. That means faster blending and less need to stop and shake the cup between cycles.

Design-wise, the base model is sleek and straightforward. To start a blend cycle, just press the cup down into the base and twist. Suction cup feet keep the machine from bouncing around on the counter. The cup's wider mouth makes it easy to hand-wash, though the cups, to-go lids, and blade are also top-rack dishwasher-safe.

What I’d leave: There's no pulse or on/off button. The single 55-second blend mode starts automatically when you push and twist the cup into place, so pulsing means locking and unlocking the cup over and over. We never needed to with the smoothie, since one cycle was enough, but it's not ideal to go without.

That push-and-twist motion is easy, but it takes a bit of pressure to lock into place. If you have mobility issues, we recommend the Ultra.

The base model also tops out at 24 ounces, against the Ultra's 32, and there's no food processor or grinder attachment to add later. And unlike more premium models, it's only available in one color.

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Ninja

BlendBoss Personal Blender

$130

Amazon

$130

Shark Ninja

What we love: Ninja’s latest personal blender lives up to its name: It’s a powerful yet compact machine with a 1,200-watt motor that rivals that of our top pick. It has four different modes: Smoothie, Ice Crush, Blend, and Pulse. The Smoothie, Ice Crush, and Blend modes all use Ninja’s Auto iQ technology, which uses a combination of blending, pulsing, and pausing to achieve the desired result.

In testing, the BlendBoss whizzed through smoothie ingredients (including those pesky fibrous kale stems) with no trouble at all, producing the silkiest smoothie out of any of the models I tested in just one 55-second Smoothie iQ cycle. It performed well in the pesto test too; its powerful blade was more than up to the task of breaking down whole garlic cloves and leafy basil.

The base of the BlendBoss is unlike that of any other personal blender I’ve seen—bulbous and sort of donut-shaped, rather than the vertical cylinder that's become industry standard. This didn’t have any real effect on the user experience or the model’s performance, but I found the cute colors and shape to be somewhat charming. The BlendBoss comes with a single-handled blending vessel, a flip-top lid, and a straw, all of which make it more suitable for smoothies than sauces or soups.

What we’d leave: At the time of writing, the only blending vessel that’s compatible with the BlendBoss is the 26-ounce handled tumbler that’s included. While the handle is nice if you’re drinking a smoothie, it feels unnecessary when using the blender for other tasks, such as puréeing soups or blitzing sauces. What’s more, that handle is actually the BlendBoss’s biggest flaw: There’s a gap in the plastic construction that allows water to get inside the handle, and because there’s no way to detach it from the body of the cup, there’s no real way to dry any droplets that get caught.

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Beast

Mighty 850 Plus

$149 $127 (15% off)

Beast

$149 $127 (15% off)

Crate & Barrel

$149 $127 (15% off)

Amazon

$149

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What we love: This model from Beast is certainly a looker, with its pretty ribbed cups and range of color options. I also appreciated that it came with three different-size cups and a range of useful lids (including one with a straw), and that it has a comparably compact base. I ended up taking this model home and have found that it’s been perfectly effective for blending my own morning smoothies, which consist of frozen fruit, almond milk, protein powder—and importantly, no fibrous kale stems. And I do really love the straw lid, which enables me to take my smoothie on the go or easily carry it around the house while I go about my morning. If you don’t intend to be as hard on your blender as we are in our Test Kitchen, you may actually love this model.

I’ve also taken to using the blending vessels as storage containers, which is made easy thanks to the included screw-on lid. The small container is great for packing yogurt parfaits for work, and I frequently use the larger one to stash batches of soup in my fridge.

Beast now offers stainless-steel blending containers and blades, which you can purchase with the base or separately. Performance is identical to the plastic version in our testing. The trade-off is that you can’t see what’s happening inside, so you can’t check your texture as you blend. The upside is insulation: In our testing, a smoothie held its temperature with only minor change over a 40-minute commute. Buying the stainless vessel with the base also gets you a metal motor base instead of a plastic one, which makes Beast a strong option if you’re looking to reduce plastic in your kitchen.

What we’d leave: I’ll be up front with you. The Beast did not perform well in my in-office testing. I had to run it countless times to get the tough kale stems in the green smoothie to blend properly, and it took several cycles to successfully blend a batch of pesto. That said, this is a well-designed appliance that I genuinely enjoy using, and given that I use my full-size blender for tougher tasks, I don’t mind that the Beast’s capabilities are somewhat limited.

In the long run: I reach for my Beast Mighty 850 far more frequently than my Vitamix. Its footprint is tiny enough to live on my counter at all times without looking bulky or out of place. I use it almost exclusively for smoothies with just frozen fruit and protein powder, so nothing that requires the wattage of a high-powered blender to get through tough kale stems or ginger. The smaller vessels get a lot of use too. When I make a salad dressing and have leftovers, I pop a lid on the vessel and stick it straight in the fridge, and I still have two more vessels free for smoothies or soups in the meantime. I’m also loving the new stainless-steel container, which keeps my smoothies cold all the way through my morning commute. —Olivia Tarantino, senior shopping editor

The biggest name in blenders just launched its first entry into the personal blender category, and I’m pleased to report it lives up to the brand’s sterling reputation.

What we love: The Nano’s 1,000-watt motor powered through smoothie and pesto ingredients with no issues in my testing. Shopping writer Olivia Tarantino put it to a tougher test with corn chowder. She owns (and loves) a Beast Mighty 850 but reserves her Vitamix Ascent X2 for heavy-duty jobs like this one. “The 850-watt Beast just doesn’t have the power to get through corn,” she says. “It comes out more like creamed corn than a silky smooth purée.” The 1,000-watt Nano matched the texture of her roughly 1,600-watt Vitamix.

She was just as impressed by its smoothies. “I’ve never seen a smoothie get as smooth as the one I made in the Nano,” she says. “If you like hearty kale, stems and all, or knobs of fibrous ginger in your smoothie, there’s no better bet.”

What really sets the Nano apart is variable speed, a feature most other personal blenders lack. As with a full-size Vitamix, that helps it blend more thoroughly than a single-speed model running a standard one-minute cycle. It also has a dedicated smoothie setting that, according to Vitamix, senses what’s in the cup and adjusts speed and timing automatically. After several smoothies, Tarantino could tell it was adjusting to the ingredients and their thickness, and she found it did a pretty good job of being hands-off. The smoothie lid is secure, too. She threw the cup in her work bag, and it didn’t leak.

Variable speed also makes the Nano far more versatile than the average bullet blender. It can mix ingredients at a low speed without whipping air into them, so it handles things like salsa, baba ganoush, or a delicate herby salad dressing. “If you don’t have the kitchen space for a personal smoothie blender and a large Vitamix, the Nano is the solution you’ve been looking for,” Tarantino says.

What we’d leave: “Do not, I repeat, do not put hot liquids in the Nano,” Tarantino says. Vitamix clearly warns against it, but she’d blended hot liquids in personal blenders before, so she gave it a shot. When she set a cup of freshly simmered soup on the base, it spilled everywhere before she even turned the machine on. If you want to blend soup in the Nano, let it cool first.

Even then, the small cup means blending a big pot of soup in batches, and that gets messy. The lid has to be screwed on completely tight for the cup to click into the base. And because the cup’s walls extend slightly past where the lid screws on, things can get drippy every time you unscrew the lid to refill or empty the cup. Tarantino ended up with soup everywhere, including on the base’s landing pad, which is recessed and almost impossible to wipe clean without a brush. Vitamix doesn’t include one. She had her own on hand, which helped. The fluted exterior of the base is cute, but it catches every drip of soup and smoothie and is tricky to wipe down.

Then, of course, there’s the price. At $200, the Nano costs more than many full-size blenders, though it’s still $180 less than the most basic full-size Vitamix, the VX1 (which is also our recommendation for the best blender).

• Green smoothie: We blended fibrous kale (stems included), frozen fruit, and chewy whole dates to see how each blender handled tough, fibrous ingredients.
• Classic pesto: We tested each blender with a mix of leafy basil, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, and cheese to assess performance with a combination of textures.
• Long-term use: We continuously use our winners throughout the year to judge how they hold up over time.

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Thyme & Table

Single Serve Blender

$66

Walmart

This blender from Walmart-exclusive brand Thyme & Table was our former budget pick until it was unseated by the Nutribullet Personal Blender, which is the same price. The base itself is made of plastic, but it feels sturdily constructed and well-designed, and the suction feet on the bottom do a good job of stabilizing the blender as it runs.

Like many of the blenders on this list, this one has two modes: Blend and Pulse. We used the blend mode for both the smoothie and pesto test and achieved relatively smooth mixtures in just one 30-second blend cycle both times (though each needed a couple of extra seconds of blending to reach an optimal consistency). We also appreciated that the included blending cup is wide enough that you can fit your hand and sponge inside it, which makes for easier hand-washing, though the cup (and other accessories) is also dishwasher-safe.

Our main gripe with the Thyme & Table is that it only includes one blending cup—and from the looks of it, the brand does not currently sell additional cups or lids sans blender.

This model from Zwilling is one of the most stylish personal blenders we’ve come across, with a sleek, well-constructed base, intuitive knob-controlled interface, and chic fluted blending cup. It has two modes: Turn the control knob to the right to activate the automatic smoothie setting, or hold it down to the left to run the manual blend-pulse mode. In our tests, it broke down tough kale stems and left no garlic chunks or stray basil leaves in the pesto. Performance-wise, it was on par with the Thyme & Table model in our most recent round of testing, so it ultimately lost the top spot solely due to its higher price tag. That said, this is an excellent blender that would serve you well.

At 1200 watts, the Mega is the most powerful blender Beast makes. But power isn’t the only thing that sets it apart from the Mighty. It also has a larger base and bigger, wider blending cups. In testing, the Mega performed well: It produced a fully blended smoothie in about one and a half one-minute cycles and a smooth pesto in just one cycle.

That said, the Mega’s wider blending cups can be awkward to hold and drink from with one hand. Because of this, we wouldn’t recommend it if your main use is making smoothies to take on the go. However, if you’re primarily looking to make soups, sauces, or other larger-batch recipes, its powerful motor and spacious blending vessels could make it worth considering.

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Beautiful by Drew Barrymore Personal Blender

$35

Walmart

The appliances in Drew Barrymore’s Beautiful line have claimed the top budget pick spot in some of our other product tests (see stand mixers and toasters), so we were eager to try out the brand’s personal blender. It’s very cheap (just $35 at the time of writing), and the build quality feels as such. The plastic base and cups don't feel the most sturdy or durable. We also disliked that the largest blending cup has only a 16-ounce capacity. However, this blender performed decently for something of its price. While it took a little longer to achieve a smooth texture, it was able to get there in about 90 seconds in both of our tests. We also appreciated that it comes with a range of attachments, including (but not limited to) three blending cups, two blades (one for grinding and one for blending), and a straw lid. If you’re looking for the cheapest option that can get the job done, this model is worth considering.

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Our Place Splendor Blender

$135

Our Place

$65

Amazon

$243 $99 (59% off)

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The Our Place Splendor Blender looks a bit like a toy, but it has an impressive 1000-watt motor and was surprisingly effective in our most recent round of testing. It has three buttons: Pulse, Blend, and Off. The 45-second blend cycle was able to produce a fairly smooth smoothie (though it would’ve benefited from an extra 10 seconds to eliminate some grittiness), and I achieved a luscious pesto in one and a half cycles. We ultimately think our top pick outperformed the Splendor Blender by a hair, and we appreciate that $165 can get you the Nutribullet plus three blending cups and two lids—whereas that same $165 gets you just two cups and one lid with the Our Place.

• Read all about the best full-size blenders
• Curious which Vitamix blender is right for you? We’ve got you covered
• Read why we love immersion blenders for making soups, purées, and even smoothies