Best Stand Mixers: What the Testers Found, From a Head Chef’s Kitchen

From the kitchen: Gerzsi once turned the mixer straight to top speed with the flour already in the bowl. The whole station went white, and so did Gerzsi.

A stand mixer does the slow, tiring jobs: creaming butter and sugar, whipping egg whites and kneading dough. A good one keeps going through a stiff bread dough without walking across the counter. It also frees your hands while it works. The trade-offs are weight, counter space and price.

We didn’t test these ourselves, and Chef Tamás hasn’t reviewed these models, so the rankings below are the testers’. America’s Test Kitchen whipped egg whites and cream, made meringue with hot sugar syrup, creamed cookie dough, mixed cake batter, and kneaded a double batch of sticky pizza dough and a stiff bread dough. Tom’s Guide and Taste of Home ran their own tests with bread dough, cake batter and whipped cream.

ATK’s overall winner was the Ankarsrum Assistent Original. It is sold through Sur La Table rather than Amazon, so it has no button here. The picks below are the best-rated mixers you can buy on Amazon.

Quick picks

The seven mixers, side by side

Stand mixer	Price at review	Who it’s for	Tester verdict
KitchenAid Classic 4.5 qt (K45SS) · See today’s price	About $323 on sale ($400 list)	Most home bakers	ATK Best Mid-Priced: beat bigger, pricier mixers. No bowl handle; coated attachments.
KitchenAid Artisan 5 qt (KSM150) · See today’s price	About $380	Bakers who want a bowl handle and attachments	Tom’s Guide Best Overall, Taste of Home Most Versatile, ATK Recommended. Bowl sometimes stuck to the base.
KitchenAid 7 qt Bowl-Lift (KSM70) · See today’s price	About $639	Big batches and bread	ATK Highly Recommended: strong on creaming and bread dough. Heavy and large.
KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5 qt · See today’s price	Not listed by ATK	Small kitchens, small batches	ATK Best Small Mixer: aced nearly every test. Struggled with sticky pizza dough.
NutriMill Artiste · See today’s price	About $299	Anyone who wants a lighter machine	ATK Best Lighter-Weight: excellent with cream and egg whites. Plastic bowl.
Breville the Bakery Chef · See today’s price	About $400 to $470	Bakers who like a timer and a bowl light	ATK Recommended, Taste of Home Best Features. Controls sit at the back.
Hamilton Beach 63393 (4 qt) · See today’s price	About $120	Occasional bakers on a budget	ATK Recommended with Reservations: good results, doubts about durability.

1. KitchenAid Classic 4.5-Quart: the one for most people

ATK named it Best Mid-Priced. Its “across-the-board performance” beat bigger and more expensive competitors. It was about $323 on sale, down from $400, at the time of their review. The weak points they found: the tilt head broke during an extreme abuse test, the bowl has no handle, and the attachments are coated in white epoxy rather than stainless steel (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: cookies, cakes, whipped cream and the occasional loaf. Not for: anyone who regularly kneads double batches of dough, or who wants stainless attachments.

2. KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart: the one most testers agree on

This is the only mixer here that all three testers rated well. Tom’s Guide named it Best Overall. It kneaded a soft bread dough in 10 minutes and whipped cream in under a minute and a half, and the testers found it quiet (about $380 at the time of their review, Tom’s Guide). Taste of Home called it the most versatile stand mixer, because of its many attachments (Taste of Home). ATK rated it Recommended. They liked the adjustable tool height and the bowl handle, but the bowl sometimes stuck to the base, and it costs about $150 more than the Classic (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: bakers who want a bowl handle, a slightly bigger bowl and a wide choice of attachments. Not for: anyone on a budget. ATK found the cheaper Classic performed better in its tests.

3. KitchenAid 7-Quart Bowl-Lift: the splurge for bread bakers

ATK rated it Highly Recommended, and “wow” kept appearing in their notes. It was strong at creaming, at kneading bread dough and in the abuse tests. It was about $639 at the time of their review. The downsides: it is heavy, it takes up a lot of room, and like other KitchenAid models it should only run at speed 2 with the dough hook (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: regular bread baking, double batches and big family bakes. Not for: small kitchens, or anyone who has to lift the mixer out of a cupboard each time.

4. KitchenAid Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart: for small kitchens

ATK named it Best Small Mixer. It aced nearly every test, and the controls are simple. It lacked the torque for a sticky, high-hydration pizza dough, it could not fit double batches, and the bowl has no handle. ATK did not list a price (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: small households, small counters and single batches of cookies or cake. Not for: pizza and bread bakers, or anyone who doubles recipes.

5. NutriMill Artiste: the lighter one

ATK named it Best Lighter-Weight Mixer. It excelled at whipped cream and egg whites, and the testers found it easy to use. It was about $299 at the time of their review. The catch: switching between the whisks and the dough hook within one recipe was awkward, and the plastic bowl may crack more easily than a metal one (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: cooks who find a KitchenAid too heavy to move. Not for: anyone who wants a metal bowl.

6. Breville the Bakery Chef: the most features

Taste of Home called it the stand mixer with the best features. Its testers liked the bowl light, the built-in timer and the intuitive controls, but found it loud at the highest speeds. It was about $400 to $470 at the time of their review (Taste of Home). ATK rated it Recommended for efficient mixing and excellent results. They noted that the controls sit at the back left, which limits where you can put it, and that the beater height can’t be adjusted (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: bakers who like timing each step and watching the bowl. Not for: tight corners where you can’t reach the back of the machine.

7. Hamilton Beach 63393: the budget pick, with reservations

ATK rated it Recommended with Reservations. It performed “remarkably well at a comparatively low price,” about $120 at the time of their review. But it doesn’t “seem overly durable.” The tilt-head button weakened, and the mixer walked during kneading once its suction feet got dusty (America’s Test Kitchen).

Good for: a few batches of cookies a year. Not for: regular bread baking or heavy use.

What to skip

ATK did not recommend the Dash Everyday Stand Mixer. It “failed at performing even the most basic of tasks.” They also rated the Smeg Retro-Style mixer Not Recommended: large gaps between the tools and the bowl left ingredients unmixed, and it walked and heated up during long kneading (America’s Test Kitchen).

The testers split on the Cuisinart Precision Master SM-50. Tom’s Guide named it Best Budget, though it noted the kneading was not its strongest skill (Tom’s Guide). ATK rated it Recommended with Reservations because it struggled to whip egg whites and to work in cookie and ciabatta dough (America’s Test Kitchen). For about the same money, the NutriMill did better in ATK’s tests.

Stand mixer FAQ

Tilt-head or bowl-lift?

On a tilt-head mixer, the top of the machine hinges back so you can reach the bowl. On a bowl-lift, the head stays fixed and a lever raises the bowl. Tilt-heads like the Classic and the Artisan are smaller and lighter. Bowl-lifts like the 7-quart are usually bigger, heavier and built for larger batches.

How big a bowl do I need?

A 4.5- to 5-quart bowl handles a standard batch of cookies, a cake or one loaf of bread. Go bigger if you often double recipes. The 3.5-quart Mini could not fit double batches in ATK’s tests.

When are stand mixers cheapest?

KitchenAid mixers are commonly discounted around Black Friday. If you can wait a few weeks, check our Black Friday kitchen deals before you buy.

The bottom line

Buy the KitchenAid Classic. ATK found it outperformed bigger and pricier machines, and it is often on sale. Choose the Artisan 5-quart if you want a bowl handle and the widest choice of attachments. Buy the 7-quart bowl-lift if you bake bread every week and have the counter space for it.

Tester-ranked. Beaver-approved.

Sources

• America’s Test Kitchen: The Best Stand Mixers (October 1, 2026)
• Tom’s Guide: The Best Stand Mixers (updated May 2026)
• Taste of Home: Searching for the Best Stand Mixer

Prices are the ones the testers listed at the time of their reviews, checked in October 2026; prices change often. Wirecutter, Serious Eats and Good Housekeeping also test stand mixers, but we couldn’t read them when this guide was written, so nothing here is attributed to them.