Sure, you can mix up your bread dough and whip your cream by hand or with a hand mixer. But if you frequently find yourself kneading loaves of bread, making big batches of whipped cream, or whisking egg whites into swirly meringue, a stand mixer will make your life infinitely easier.
The term stand mixer is practically synonymous with the brand name KitchenAid at this point, but we’ve got news for you: KitchenAid’s candy-colored appliances aren’t the only quality stand mixers anymore.
Our top picks
- Best overall: Breville Bakery Chef
- Another great stand mixer: KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-qt. Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
- Best budget option: Beautiful by Drew Barrymore Tilt-Head Stand Mixer
After putting 13 models through their paces by making countless batches of cake batter, challah dough, and whipped cream, we’ve found the three best stand mixers for every kind of baker. Whether you’re looking for a budget-friendly option to get you started on your stand mixer journey or you’re a serious baker who delights in advanced features like a built-in timer, there’s a model here for you.
Best overall: Breville Bakery Chef Stand Mixer
Pros
- Advanced features
- Powerful motor
- Comes with lots of useful accessories
Cons
- No attachment port
Style: Tilt-head
Bowl capacity: 4-qt. stainless-steel bowl, 5-qt. glass bowl
Speed settings: 12 speeds
Motor power: 550 watts
Dimensions: 11.4″D x 14.8″W x 14.3″H
Weight: 21 lb.
Included: glass mixing bowl, stainless-steel mixing bowl, double-sided scraper beater, standard flat beater, dough hook, wire whisk, pouring shield/splash guard, spatula
Accessory port: No
Warranty: 1-year warranty and 5-year motor
When our team of product testers tested over a dozen stand mixers ranging from $40–$1,000, the Breville Bakery Chef came out on top. If you’re a home cook looking to use your stand mixer primarily for baking projects, there’s no better mixer on the market than this one right here.
What we love: The Bakery Chef stands out for a few reasons: It has an extremely powerful, 550-watt motor that makes light work of kneading tough bread dough, creaming butter and sugar, and whipping cream to fluffy peaks in record time. It rings in at a lower price point than the 5-qt. model of the beloved KitchenAid (our previous top pick). And it comes with several highly useful accessories, like two different mixing bowls: a 4-qt. stainless-steel bowl with two small helper handles, and a 5-qt. clear glass bowl with one handle, a pour spout, measurement markings, and a plastic lid.
Additionally, it comes with both a standard beater blade and a scraper beater blade, which allows the Breville Bakery Chef to cream a stick of butter and a cup of sugar in 2.5 minutes flat—faster and more effectively than any other mixer, including the KitchenAid Professional series.
