The 9 best vacuums to buy on a budget

Score: 94/100

This intuitively designed and simple to use Vax boasts well-placed controls and LED lights on its floorhead, helping to highlight every speck of dust as you go.

Its impressive boost mode picked up dirt excellently, no matter the surface, and you can turn the motorised brush off if you're tackling more delicate flooring.

It moves well as a stick vacuum, but if you want to use it as a handheld, testers found the bulky design isn’t well suited to tight spaces. Otherwise, its dust canister empties easily, making it a pleasure to use from start to finish.

Score: 92/100

This vacuum’s RRP is over £200, but you’ll often find it on offer, and it’s well worth a spot here as it has a score to rival some of the best stick vacuums in our roundup. Our testers found it lightweight and easy to set up, use and empty. The battery life lasted for 30 minutes on average, and 15 on turbo mode – but it will warn you when it's close to needing recharging.

It excelled at cleaning our carpets and hard floors, whatever dust or debris was put in its path. Even pet hair was lifted in two sweeps. There’s no room for storing accessories on board, and while it’s not freestanding, you can mount it on the wall to make storage easier.

Score: 89/100

Despite its modest price tag, this stick vacuum fared well in our tests. Admittedly, it’s not the jazziest when it comes to its capabilities (it has just one power mode, for example), and isn’t cordless, so unlike most stick vacuums, you will have to navigate plug sockets. However, its cable stretches six metres, which our experts found helpful for car cleaning, and it also doubles as a handheld, which is where it performed best on test.

It had great suction on hard flooring and did a quick job at lifting pet hair. But without a power boost mode, it struggled to fully lift all the dust we laid on carpet. Bigger crumbs and food spillages are best tackled in handheld mode too. It's compact and easy to empty and you can also mount it on the wall if storage space is tight.

Score: 77/100

With a compact design and weighing in at under 5kg, this upright moves around the home more easily than most. It still holds a lot of dirt in its 1.5-litre canister, though, and it lifted dust reliably across both carpet and hard flooring.

While it struggled to get fully into crevices, it cleaned floor edges effectively and only needed a couple of sweeps to lift pet hair. With just one power mode, this is a neat vacuum for light day-to-day cleaning.

Score: 74/100

This well-priced machine is one of the lightest we've tested and doesn’t compromise on performance. It lifted most dust from carpet and hard floors, even cleaning crevices well, but the small amount it failed to pick up was pushed around a bit. It cleaned up pet hair quickly (some detangling of the brush was required) and its hose could clean eight stairs up from the base.

Note that the rotating brush can’t be turned off, so choose another model if you have delicate flooring or rugs, as this could cause damage.

Score: 84/100

A star performer on hard floors, this is another reliable buy from Hoover. It cleaned short pile carpets well too, but struggled a little with long pile. If you have pets, be sure to use the turbo brush, which should lift hair in a couple of sweeps.

A standout feature of this vacuum is its wide reach, making it suited to bigger homes; its hose can extend up to four metres (meaning less unplugging), and it's good on stairs, with our testers able to vacuum ten steps before needing to move the body. It’s also easy to use, even when it comes to emptying the dust canister.

Score: 94/100

Bringing considerable power for just over £50, this tied for performance with the Shark model below. On test, it was a stellar cleaner across all flooring and easily gobbled up everything from dust to crumbs to pet hair. Cleaning our test car was easy and effective, too.

Testers found it simple to set up and use throughout (apart from its 'on' switch, which must be held down continuously during use). With only one power setting, it’s not the most advanced model, but it can quickly clean up liquid spills, too, making it a versatile buy.

Score: 94/100

Our joint winning handheld vacuum has a lot to shout about. Its motorised tool banished pet hair in one speedy sweep and it lifted food crumbs and dust from all surfaces with aplomb.

While its battery lasts for only 10 minutes, that was long enough for us to clean a small car. It could be lighter to hold and you’ll need to make room for its extra tools, but for quick clean-ups, it's a star.

Score: 85/100

Unlike the heavier Shark above, this weighs less than one kilogram, and our testers found it comfortable to hold. It reliably cleaned up dust and crumbs from any flooring, but it struggled lifting pet hair.

We also noticed some wear around the nozzle after a few uses. However, it’s compact, and with room on the charging dock to store tools, it’s a smart buy for tucking away if storage is limited.