The best cordless, upright, and robot vacuum cleaners for every home
This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for the UK audience.
A clean house. Sounds nice, doesn't it? But it's the chore that never ends. So, a great vacuum that can handle it all is essential. Especially if you have pets or kids. You can de-clutter, tidy, and wipe down as much as you like, but until those carpets and rugs are properly vacuumed to shift dirt and debris, it just doesn’t feel like a clean home.
If you haven't bought a new vacuum in a while, you'll be impressed at the sheer amount of tech and features on offer. From robot vacuums to handheld mini vacuums that fold down to store away more easily, there’s a huge range available right now.
In fact, there’s almost too much choice. What you need is someone to do the hard work of researching modern vacuum cleaners to present you with all the information. That’s where we come in. Here’s everything to know about buying a vacuum.
Corded vs. cordless vacuums — which is the best?It’s rarely a case of which is better, more a case of what suits you best. Corded vacuums — a classic vacuum that plugs into the wall — provide more suction power, which means a more powerful clean, and have a larger capacity. That means they’re better for larger homes. They are, however, heavier and harder to lug around.
Cordless vacuums are lighter, more portable, and easier to carry around. They can also reach overhead spots and tricky areas under the furniture more easily. The other thing to note about cordless vacs is that they have smaller capacity — usually somewhere between 0.5 and 1 litre — so they're usually best suited to smaller homes and spaces, or homes with less carpet and more hard floors.
Do vacuums still use a bag?Corded vacuums tend to use a bag, which needs changing. Cordless vacuums usually use a bin which can be unclipped and emptied much more easily. If you're an allergy sufferer, be warned: Bagless vacuums can sometimes let dust re-enter the air, both while vacuuming or while emptying the bin's contents. Bin vacuums sometimes use an advanced filtration system to combat this problem.
Is Dyson the best vacuum brand?When it comes to the latest, most tech-savvy vacuums, Dyson is the standard to match or beat. But Dyson isn’t the only impressive brand. The likes of Shark and Samsung offer excellent vacuums — not to mention old favourites such as Hoover and Vax. We’ve included examples from various brands in the list below.
What is the best type of vacuum cleaner for you and your home?There are plenty of vacuum types out there, with something for everyone:
Upright vacuums — A longtime favourite and for good reason. Aside from being cheaper on average, uprights are great for covering large carpet areas and can clean deep using motorised brushes. On the other hand, they generally aren't as easy to store in small homes, and they require a bit more elbow grease.
Canister vacuums — If you don't have any carpet in your home and need a versatile vacuum that is good at cleaning bare floors and then some, you may need a canister vacuum. These are known to be less noisy than their upright counterparts, but can also be even harder to store since they're bulkier and have long attachments. But if you want something versatile enough to clean curtains, blinds, and other spaces that aren't just the floor — or something you can roll out to your car — a canister is a good choice.
Handheld vacuums — If you want a lightweight, easy-to-store defence against messes, we strongly suggest keeping a handheld vacuum around. Though they have less power due to their compact size, handheld vacuums are great for quick pick-ups.
Robot vacuums — These vacuums clean for you, all while you kickback on the couch or go about your business. Robot vacuums use sensors and lasers to move around. You may not have to control the vacuum once it's going manually, but you will have to pick up things like socks and other small household items that can get stuck.
The best type of vacuum will really depend on your lifestyle and home. Consider all of these options and think about how they would match with your circumstances.
What is the best vacuum cleaner?We've read reviews, looked at customer ratings, and compiled a list of the best vacuums based on what users have to say. We'll tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly to help you pick out a machine that really sucks — but in a good way.
These are the best vacuum cleaners in 2025.
- For carpet and hard floors
- Best-in-class power
- Swappable batteries
- Lots of bonus tools
- Converts to handheld
- Gets loud at full power
- Long recharge times
Who doesn’t want a vacuum cleaner that looks and works like a ray gun? Do you really need one though? Yes, absolutely. Because the Dyson Absolute V15 is probably the best cordless stick vacuum available at the moment.
It beats most models from Dyson’s own range (though not all of them), with plenty of power and battery life — a whopping 230 airwatts and 60 minutes at full charge. You can swap the battery mid-clean to save the need to keep charging, but you’ll need to buy the other battery separately.
There are three power settings though it’s smart enough to save power, too — Dynamic Load Sensor technology adjusts the suction to suit the type of floor you’re cleaning. The High Torque cleaner head is also impressively versatile.
It comes equipped with extra tools, including a Laser Fluffy Head that uses a laser pointer to show up dust and dirt the human eye won’t normally see. An LCD timer keeps you up to date with blockages and battery, and even tells you how much dirt you’ve sucked up so far.
- Vacuum Type: Stick
- Bin Type: Bagless
- Battery Life: Up to 60 mins
- Capacity: 0.77 litres
- Bendable flexi neck
- For long & short haired pets
- Auto power adjusting
- Solid tool selection
- Gets under furniture
- Anti- hair wrap roller
- A bit heavier than Dyson
- Clunky dust bin
- Not quite as powerful
Shark has been chasing down the likes of Dyson and Vax for a while now, looking to fight its way into being one of the premier brand names. With innovations like the Shark Stratos, it’s little wonder the American-made brand (the same company behind Ninja air fryers) is increasingly popular.
The Stratos is one of the few a legitimate contenders to Dyson's stick vacuums, and even trumps the mighty Dyson with its Flexology neck, a bending neck that allows you to get into awkward areas and under furniture. It has a light for illuminating hair and dirt and Clean Sense IQ, which recognises dirt and automatically cranks up the power wherever you need some extra oomph.
This Pet Pro variation (there are cheaper versions available) is made specifically for cat and dog owners. It has a dedicated pet tool for shifting the most stubborn hairs, while the main brush roll has Anti Hair Wrap Plus technology, which effectively means it untangles hair as your clean, saving you the mucky job of cleaning all the hair out yourself. There's also a replaceable cartridge in the head that helps kill pet odours.
The floor head also uses a DuoClean design, with two motorised rolls — one for carpet, one for hardwood floors — that helps you glide effortlessly between surfaces. It also converts into a handheld vac, which is great for getting pet hair off the stairs or out of the nooks and crannies of your furniture.
- Vacuum Type: Stick
- Bin Type: Bagless
- Battery Life: Up to 60 mins
- Capacity: 0.70 litres
- Push & Lift portable mode
- Stretchy hose for stairs
- Anti-Twist brush design
- Pet hair turbo brush
- Good for bigger homes
- On the louder side
- Slightly cumbersome in portable mode
- Cord can be limiting
You get plenty of suck for your buck with the Hoover HL5, a bagless corded upright vacuum that costs significantly less than some high-powered options.
While upright vacuums usually suggest less manoeuvrability, this one converts into a portable vacuum with a “Push & Lift” action, which disconnects the main body from the floor head. You can carry the body of vacuum wherever and use its flexible hose to clean those hard-to-reach areas or under the furniture. In portable vacuum terms, it’s a bit clunkier than a basic handheld, but very handy nonetheless. There’s also a motorised pet tool for the hose.
The regular brush head uses Anti-Twist technology, a series of combs that prevent hair from tangling and wrapping around the brush bar. These features would ordinarily belong to a far more expensive vacuum, so you’re getting plenty of value for what is essentially a budget-level price.
Sure, there are drawbacks. The cord can be restricting, but that's true of any corded vacuum cleaner. Corded also means more power, so if you’re after heavy duty suction this will serve you better than similarly priced cordless vacs.
- Vacuum Type: Upright
- Bag Type: Bagless
- Battery Life: N/A
- Capacity: 2.5 lites
- Lights up invisible dirt
- Displays dust data
- Packs serious power
- Advanced HEPA filter
- Converts with one click
- Sucks up 0.1 microns
- Most expensive on this list
- Slightly heavier handling
There’s a whole range of Dyson vacuums, and pretty much all of them – if you’re willing to fork out for the big price tags – promise to outperform most of models on the market. The Dyson Gen5detect is yet another level above, boasting Dyson’s most advanced cordless vac technology ever.
The real benefits of this (expensive) cordless stick vacuum are in the nitty gritty of its cleaning performance. It has advanced suction power, courtesy of a Hyperdymium motor, which collects microns as small as 0.1 (0.3 is standard) while an LCD display tells you how many particles you’ve sucked up, how big they are (if that’s something you feel you need to know) and when your floor is clean. An advanced HEPA filtration system keeps 99.9% of particles locked in.
The Dyson Gen5detect shines a light on your cleaning. Quite literally, in fact, thanks to a Fluffy Optic brush head that beams a blade of light to illuminate any dirt that would usually be invisible to the human eye. It also has anti-tangle technology, a hair screw tool for pet hair, and three power modes, which means there’s a setting for every cleaning job.
You’ll find that this one’s a tad heavier than other stick vacuums but it converts to handheld with one click of a button if you want a more lightweight operation. It’s also easy to get going with a simple on-off button, rather than the trigger system used on most other Dysons.
- Vacuum Type: Stick
- Bin Type: Bagless
- Battery Life: Up to 70 mins
- Capacity: 0.77 litres
- AI-powered navigation
- 2-in-1 vacuum & mop
- Voice & app control
- All-in-one docking station
- Self-empties & cleans
- Might struggle with higher rugs
- Robo-vacs are expensive
The robot vacuum is a gamer changer. More than that, it’s a lifestyle choice. Just throw out the daily chores, put your feet up, and let the technology do the hard work for you. Indeed, one clean sweep with the Eufy X10 Pro and you’ll be wondering how you ever managed without a robot vacuum.
The Eufy X10 Pro is a 2-in-1 robo-vac, which means it vacuums and mops. It can cover both carpets and hard floors and has auto-lifting mops that retract whenever it approaches carpet. It also comes equipped with an all-in-one docking station where charges as well as self-emptying its bin and self-drying its mop pads (the station holds 2.5 litres of dust and 3 litres of water). It also recognises what type of floor it’s cleaning at any one time and automatically adjusts the suction power or water useage.
In terms of navigating your home, it has multi-level mapping (which means it can remember the layouts of up to five floors) and has AI-assisted navigation and obstacle avoidance. Just put it on the floor and it can figure out the rest. Though you can also control it via Alexa or Google Assistant – just tell it what to do – or programme it via the EufyHome app.
Just because it’s small don’t assume it doesn’t have power. This one’s made for pet homes, so it has effective suction plus and hair tangling tech. It's also fairly quiet unless it’s on its most powerful setting, so it won’t interrupt your relaxation time. What’s the point of a robot vacuum if you can’t relax?
- Vacuum Type: Robot
- Bin Type: Bagless, self-empying
- Battery Life: Up to 180 mins
- Capacity: 2.5 litres
- Handy & convenient
- Made for pet homes
- Decent tool selection
- Good for the car
- Washable filter
- Affordable option
- Shorter battery life
- Best as a supplementary vac
- No charging dock
When it comes to a handheld vacuum, you want a model that's reliable and can get the job done — not to mention a vac that can get into every nook, cranny, and corner of your home and car interior. That's why we're recommending the Shark handheld cordless vacuum, a relatively straightforward handheld vac that ups its game by throwing in a few extras.
In terms of those extras, it comes with a crevice, dusting brush, and motorised pet tool. It’s as tough on pet hair as any handheld vacuum you’ll find on the market. It’s well rated for actual performance, which is the important thing.
Handheld vacuums usually come with a charging dock, where you rest the vac until you need to use it, but this one charges via a charging cable (which is included). We’ll leave it to you to decide if that’s more or less convenient, though we’d argue that it’s easier to forget to charge it between cleans. And with just ten minutes of battery power, you will need to keep it charged.
It has a one-touch emptying bin and a washable filter, which you can take out and rinse under the tap. If you want something sligtly higher spec, Shark has pricier handheld models too, including the Shark WandVac.
- Vacuum Type: Handheld
- Bin Type: Bagless
- Battery Life: Up to 15 mins
- Capacity: 0.50 litres
- Excellent price point
- Solid cleaning performance
- Power boost mode
- Quick-and-easy emptying
- Easy-to-clean roller brush
- Just one bonus tool
- No flashy features
- Wall mount is a bit basic
You can’t fail to notice that the other stick vacuums are pretty pricey. That’s the cost of advanced technology, unfortunately. But the Vax ONEPWR Pace Plus offers all the convenience of cordless stick vacuum for less than half the price of others listed here. Sure, you’ll have to sacrifice some of the more advanced features — there are no Dyson-like headlights on this model, for instance — but it’s very good for the price and well rated among vacuum reviewers.
The most important thing is that it cleans really well. It’s lightweight, so it's easy to handle around the home, and converts down to a handheld. There’s a crevice tool for getting into tight spaces, but it’s the only additional tool this vac offers. That’s one of the comprises of shopping at this price.
It does, however, have a removable brush bar for easy cleaning and a boost mode for when you need some extra suction power. Vax advertises a battery life of 40 minutes, but reviewers say it's lower in real world tests. That means the ONEPWR Pace is probably best bought for smaller homes. Overall though, it’s tremendous value if you’re after a low-cost cordless vacuum.
- Vacuum Type: Stick, cordless
- Bin Type: Bagless
- Weight: 3.1 kg
- Battery Life: 40 mins
- Excellent brand reliability
- Huge dust capacity
- Big but lightweight
- Easy to change the battery
- Not as dexterous as some vacs
- Long battery charge time
You know Henry’s name and face. And you know what Henry can do in your home. That’s because Henry’s reputation precedes him as one of the best vacuum cleaners around. But did you know there’s a Henry Cordless? That means all the reliable performance but with added convenience and portability — and no getting tangled up in a cord as you clean. The added portability means you can take this one outside to clean the car, too.
This Henry is especially good for larger homes due to its one obvious advantage over stick vacuums — a whopping 6 litre capacity. Its battery lasts for 30 minutes, which should be enough to get you around the whole home. If there’s any doubt you can pick up a spare battery so you’ve got two fully charged and ready to go. (Be warned though: These batteries take 3.5 hours to charge.)
It comes with a selection of attachment tools, including a crevice tool, combination nozzle, and upholstery nozzle for a broad range of cleaning.
If you like the Henry brand but this version isn’t quite right, there’s a whole selection, including the regular corded Henry and Henry Quick, which is the brand’s own version of a corded stick vacuum.
- Vacuum Type: Canister, cordless
- Bin Type: Bagged
- Battery Time: Up to 30 mins
- Capacity: 6 litres
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