The 5 Best Blenders Under $100 - Summer 2024 Reviews

The best blender for under $100 is the Calphalon ActiveSense. This full-size blender has unusual controls that don't offer the most versatility, but otherwise, it offers a great performance for the price. It comes with a 64oz main jar as well as a 24oz personal jar. In either jar, it makes a very smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like leafy greens and fruit, which is important for well-blended smoothies and soups. The main jar can blend hot ingredients and make snow-like crushed ice. It's also decent for making nut butter, although you'll have to use a spatula to keep the ingredients moving.

It has a wide range of speed settings, but you can only access three manual speed settings. However, there are also blending programs, including 'Smoothie' and 'Salsa,' and you can select whether you want the result to be 'Thick,' ' Thin,' 'Chunky,' or 'Smooth.' It's decently well-built, but some parts feel cheap, like the buttons, and the motor base can move around a bit while it's running. It's easy to clean by hand, and all its parts are dishwasher-safe.

If you're looking to spend well under $100, the Black+Decker Quiet Blender with Cyclone Glass Jar is the best cheap blender we've tested. It comes with a smaller 48-oz glass jar and a 24-oz personal jar for single-serves. The blades are removable, which helps make it very easy to clean. It's also quiet when it's running. It has a few automatic blending programs, so you don't have to stop the blender manually.

Using either jar, the Black+Decker makes a mostly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients like kale, although it leaves behind more unprocessed bits than the Calphalon ActiveSense. Unfortunately, it struggles to make uniform crushed ice, even if you only use six ice cubes in the jar. It's also not the easiest to use for thick recipes since it takes a while, and you have to stop the blender to stir. It's fairly well-built overall, but the personal and main jar lids feel flimsy. Unlike the Calphalon, the manufacturer says you can use it to blend hot food, like cooked vegetables, but not hot liquids.

If you like to make frozen treats like slushies or big batches of blended drinks like margaritas, you might need a blender that can handle more ice than the previous pick. The Ninja Professional Blender 1000 includes a 72-ounce pitcher and has no problem pulverizing a big batch of ice cubes. Its sturdy design is particularly important if you use your blender often for tough jobs like crushing ice. It doesn't have a 2-part lid, so you can't add ingredients mid-blend, but it has a pouring spout to help serve drinks from the pitcher.

However, it can't hot blend and only comes with one jar, so there's no personal jar for single-serve smoothies. It doesn't completely blend fibrous ingredients like kale, so recipes with fruit like blueberries or pineapple will have some unprocessed bits left over. The Ninja also lacks automatic blending programs besides a 'Pulse' button, so you have to manually switch off the blender when your recipe is done.

If you need bigger jars, you might prefer the NutriBullet Blender Combo. This blender sometimes costs slightly over $100, but it's a good, cheaper option if you need a bigger jar capacity. It comes with a 64oz main jar and a pair of 32oz personal jars. NutriBullet also sells a wider variety of extra accessories for its blenders, so you can purchase more personal jars if a few people in your household like smoothies in the morning.

It's a good choice for soups and smoothies since it makes an incredibly smooth blend with fibrous ingredients in any of its jars. It can also be used for hot blending, making silky-smooth recipes like pureed broccoli soup. However, its lowest blending speed is quite fast, and the blender doesn't have a tamper, so it's not easy to use for something like nut butter. Still, the NutriBullet is worth considering if you're looking for a relatively inexpensive blender for bigger batches of smoothies or soup.

If you have a small kitchen or usually prepare food for just one or two people, you may prefer a personal blender like the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO. Personal blenders are generally cheaper than full-size ones, so you don't have to sacrifice much to get one for a budget-friendly price. This model's price sometimes fluctuates above $100, but it's usually available for less, and it's the best personal blender we've tested. Using its 24-ounce personal jars, it makes a nearly perfectly smooth puree with fibrous veggies like kale and fruit like blueberries. Thanks to its 14-ounce 'Smoothie Βowl Maker' jar, it's easy to make thick blends, so it's also ideal for small batches of nut butter, hummus, or dip. Its relatively short motor base makes storing it under a cabinet or in a cupboard easy.

However, since it's a personal blender, it's less versatile than the Calphalon ActiveSense since it can't hot blend and has only one speed setting. Despite its small size, it's also louder than that blender. Then again, there are a few automatic blending programs, so you don't need to stand next to it the whole time it's running. Overall, if you don't need a blender with a large capacity, the Ninja is a great choice for smoothies, frozen drinks, and small batches of spreads and dips like hummus or nut butter.