For a list of every single prime day deal, go here. These are not the cheapest robots in each band, these are my recommendations based on the final Prime Day prices. I will be incredibly busy during Prime Week, so may not be able to answer comments. I haven’t tested every vacuum on the market, but I’ve tested a lot of them. Not offended if you have a differing opinion and voice that, my opinions are based on real world testing in my home, which I write about on Lifehacker. Won’t respond to comments, “what about the _____ robot?” These are the ones I recommend. The links below will be affiliate links, you don’t have to use them, but it is appreciated.

Best vacuum under $100

Controversial opinion, but I don’t believe there is a best under $100. Infact, robots worth the investment under $700 are rare, as I explain in this post. So these robots should be viewed as tech toys you’re playing around with, rather than cleaning tools that will make your life easier. Buy whatever strikes your fancy, it’s unlikely to be useful as a robovac, but might be a worthy cat toy.

Best vacuum under $300

People just don’t talk about the Switchbots enough in here, and I wish I knew why. Aside from having a kick ass brand identity (chonky robots that bridge a technology gap for people), they are affordable and work better than most tech products out there. I’m a huge fan of their smart home sensors and the SwitchBot button. When I got the K10+ to test about 18 months ago, I was just tickled. First, it’s tiny. It’s like an M&M roaming your floor. At 8 inches, it cuts a tight radius around your chair legs, and can get into tiny spaces. There’s no advanced tech on here, it just does a bangup job vacuuming, and then returning to its humbly small self emptying dock. Sure, there is a “mop”, kinda sorta… but its just a swiffer situation, and it sucks. Ignore it (easy to do). This is a vacuum, and can more confidently manage carpet (under your bed, too!) better than most I’ve tried. Sure, you’ll have to unclog it occasionally, but that’s what you get at this price. The pro took the suction from 2500Pa to 3000Pa, which doesn’t seem like much, but I can go on for hours on a nerdy rant about how much suction doesn’t really matter. Whichever you get, this is the bot to beat at this price. Sale is effective 7/8.

SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+ Pro	$459.99	$299.99	35%	https://amzn.to/4lkV06z
SwitchBot Mini Robot Vacuum K10+	$499.99	175.99	65%	https://amzn.to/4eCVAdy

Best vacuum under $500

I want to be clear: at this price point, asking a machine to be a great vacuum, and mop, and smart tool is lot. Set your expectations appropriately. You’ll be doing prep work, by ‘pre cleaning” big debris away, tidying cords, making sure rugs are well anchored to the floor, etc. That said, Prime Day offers the opportunity for a number of more expensive robovacs to drop into this band. My top recommendation is the Eureka J15 Ultra. Eureka has been around for a long time, and yet, I hadn’t tested their robots, and was so pleasantly surprised. While not a gorgeous robot to look at, it competently gets micro and medium sized (think Cheerios) debris up without clogging. The razor on the roller cuts hair, including human and long dog/cat hair, reducing the risk of it getting trapped or wrapped around the roller (you’ll still have to unwrap it from the sweep). It’s got 19000Pa, but don’t get obsessed w that number, suction doesn’t matter as much as you think. The reason the J15 works is the sweep, roller and suction working in concert well. If you can stretch, the Pro Ultra is also great. 

Eureka J15 Ultra	$699.99	$489.99	30%	https://amzn.to/46gB3JF

Best vacuum under $700

Not, technically, a Prime Day deal (it’s a close out deal), people have been raving about the L40 for the last year. I took a more measured assessment of it in my review, noting I found it a better vacuum than mop, but this is such a substantial savings that any reservations are overcome. This is a flagship, premium vacuum at a budget price and you should grab it. Any criticisms I had were in comparison to other premium models, not budget models. While I’d like to note that I don’t love Dreame support (they’re a little tough to get ahold of), overall there’s a reason people trust Dreame. 

Dreame L40 Ultra	$1499.99	$599.99	60%	https://amzn.to/3GxnVFm

Best vacuum under $1000

These recommendations come with some caveats. First, I really liked the Freo Z when I reviewed it… my main complaint, and it was a real dealbreaker, was that the Freo needed to be refilled ALL THE TIME. like, after every mop run. That’s refilling the clean water and dumping the dirty water. Hard pass. But… Narwal sells a kit so you can pipe the robot into your water line. Oh, and that kit is $200, so technically this is just over $1000, but still worth it, IMO, since it’s $500 off. If that extra $50 is the straw that broke the camel’s back, I’d go with the QRevo Edge. I like the QRevo line a lot, and the Edge is the same model as the Curv, which I reviewed and loved, with a boxier tower. A Roborock is what I call “a safe bet”. 

Roborock QRevo Edge S5A	$999.99	$699.99	30%	https://amzn.to/4ezq53N
Narwal Freo Z Ultra	$1499.99	1849.99	44%	https://amzn.to/4lbPjrH

Best vacuum under $1200

People try to send me vacuums all the time, and because there are a giant wall of boxes in my house of robots to be tested, giving me anxiety, I need a reason to say yes. The only interesting nugget about the 3i when I agreed to test it was that it promised to never need a water refill. i’d just finished testing the narwal Freo Z, which has to be topped up a few times a day and an autonomous robot sounded fantastic. You shouldn’t like the 3i. It looks like an exhibit in a kids science museum. It weighs like 50lbs, and there is nothing notable about the robot itself. it looks like a generic robovac. I was so blown away by the performance, I haven’t shut up about it since. In the history of my testing, i have kept 3 robovacs, and this is one of them. I just place new robots I’m testing in front of it, because I’m not moving that Gdamn tower for anything, it lives there now. Theres the design: these 2 forward sweeps rotate inward, and have constant downward pressure on the floor. They’re huge, and very effective. The roller doesn’t get clogged. Let me repeat. I let it vacuum up dog toy floof. Mulch. Receipts. NOTHING deterred this robot. And the mop was very effective, too. Was it the best mop I’ve tested? No. But it ranks up there. And the water cleaning actually works, I know because for a week, we had it mop up anything we could think of. Vinegar. Black dye water. Maple syrup. Tomato juice. And not only was the resulting clean water tank crystal clear, I used PH strips to test it, and it remained stable. It just metabolized anything we ran it over. It’s been a few months and I’ve never had to refill the water, not once. It’s finally an autonomous robot, and for that, it’d be worth it at $1899. But for $1139, I don’t need to think about whether its better to spend less on a high end Roborock, the 3i is cheaper.

3i S10 Ultra	$1899.99	1139.99 w code: S10USAVE5	40%	https://amzn.to/3GsRZlm

Best vacuum if you have no budget

I can only go off of what I’ve experienced, testing models in my home, which is, according to one robot company, “an interesting challenge”. Lol. I don’t keep most vacuums around longer than a month. But, I have kept the 3i S10 around. The pros are that I’ve never seen anything vacuum as effectively, and vacuum as much without getting stuck. The roller mop extends to the wall, and I love how hands off the tower is. Cons: there are reports on Amazon of the tower emitting a mildew smell, and of problems after a longer period of time. Again, I haven’t experienced either of those issues, and my dog literally tracks in mud and actual crap, but every has different experiences. Still…. if I had no budget, this is the one I’d recommend because of how happy it makes me, personally- I have no association w the company (or any of these companies) I’m not incentivized to recommend one over the other. If you are fearful of a new company, which is reasonable because 3i IS new, I’d go with one of the Saros models, either the 10 or 10r. At this price point, they’re reasonable (I’m not sure they’re worth the regular price).

3i S10 Ultra	$1899.99	1139.99 w code: S10USAVE5	40%	https://amzn.to/3GsRZlm
Roborock Saros 10	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lAa2Fe
Roborock Saros 10R	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lFxi4W

Best vacuum if you have thresholds

UPDATE: Roborock put the the Saros 10 on sale after all. This shifts my recommendation, and I am now recommending the Saros 10. But fear not… the X50 is still great, and you’d be happy with either, genuinely, honestly, cross my heart.

The good news, since many of you are trying to decide between the Saros 10/10r and the Dreame X50 Ultra, is that I can make it easy. Get the Dreame X50. You won’t like the reason I recommend it, though. It’s simple: the Roborock Saros 10 is not, for reasons I don’t get, on Prime Day special, only the 10R is. While the 10 and 10r are supposed to have very similar builds with a lifting chassis, they don’t act like it. The 10 is a better robot than the X50, so if you can afford it, buy it. If not, the X50 is a fine robot. Genuinely. And I never got tired of watching it yeet itself over thresholds and steps. The AI onboard helped the robot get better over time at navigation, and if anything, my only complaint is that it had to return to dock all the time to top up or recharge, so cleaning a whole house took a long time to get done. Worth mentioning: I recently tested the Mova P50 Ultra, and while I thought the robot wasn’t worth the price (by a lot), it did delight me in how it sailed over thresholds but also turned sideways to actively clean the threshold itself (but don’t buy it, the build sucks).

Dreame X50 Ultra	$1699.99	1199.99	29%	https://amzn.to/3GrCzhm
Roborock Saros 10	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lAa2Fe
Roborock Saros 10R	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lFxi4W

Best vacuum for pets

On behalf of myself and my doberman, Blueberry, I sympathize w pet owners. I have some very unfortunate news… the dream of a $300 vacuum that does a bang up job on pet hair? Lol.  So i’ve got recommendations, and they’re in order, and you choose the price band you’re comfortable with. You’re looking for 3 key features. First, a great sweep. That’s what grabs the hair to begin with, and moves it towards the rollers. The rollers have to be able to grab the hair, but not get it wrapped around the roller, which will get stuck, and affect how well the robot picks up other stuff. For that reason, look for robots with razors that cut the hair, or have another mechanism to get that hair off. The Roborock dual rollers that taper to the middle basically spin the hair off, and the Eureka J15 Ultra will cut it off with a razor. Still….. That hair is going to get wrapped around the sweep, so expect to clean your robot more often. It just is what it is. The Narwal Freo line, FWIW, has a nice feature where a big muff dusts the baseboards, so if you’ve got hair that climbs the baseboards, might be worth looking at IF you get the plumbing kit mentioned above AND your dog isn’t tall enough to bop the buttons on top of the tower w their nose, which mine figured out lightning fast and found hysterical. Otherwise, its a no go for me. 

Dreame X50 Ultra	$1699.99	1199.99	29%	https://amzn.to/3GrCzhm
Roborock Saros 10	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lAa2Fe
Roborock Saros 10R	$1599.99	1,279.99	20%	https://amzn.to/4lFxi4W
Narwal Freo Z Ultra	$1499.99	849.99	44%	https://amzn.to/4lbPjrH
Eureka J15 Ultra	$699.99	489.99	30%	https://amzn.to/46gB3JF

Best vacuum if you don’t want a mop

Look, I gotta be straight. I found the Eufy e20 to be endlessly dumb. Like, who designed this thing and were they high on the bad drugs at the time? None of the attempts by companies to make a combo stick/robot have been that successful, if you ask me (and you literally are). The Ecovacs T30 demanded you unassemble and reassemble the stick all the time and then figure out how to Lego it back into the drawer- not very handy. When I unboxed the e20, I actually laughed out loud at how stupid looking it was. The handvac is part of the robot, providing the battery. It is clunky looking and clunky to store. The pic in the review is accurate, you just prop the stick up near the robot, I guess. But… it was a vacuum without a mop, and as vac only’s go, it was fine. It vacuumed. People in this forum freaking love Eufy vacs, and I wish I shared their enthusiasm, but generally, I’d say get a combo vacuum/mop anyways. So if I have to recommend a vac only, at least it should be cheap and work decently, and the e20 did both. It just did so while being criminally ugly and hard to store:) 

It doesn’t appear to be on Prime Day special on Amazon, but is half off on eufy.com, so I’d buy it there for $399.99. Haters, line forms to the left. 

Eufy e20	$649.99	$399.99	38%	https://www.eufy.com/products/t2070111

Best vacuum if you don’t want an auto-emptying tower

This is absurd, you should want the tower, or there’s almost no point in getting a robovac to begin with. Autonomy is the point. But, if you absolutely, totally insist, (and the Switchbot K10+ tower isn’t small enough for you, because that sucker will fit anywhere), I very reluctantly offer the Roborock Q10 S5. I hated the Dyson 360Visnav, and the iRobot Roomba 205 was a total flop. Roborock’s budget line may not have the greatest quality build but atleast they work most of the time.

Roborock Q10 S5+	$549.99	$351.99	36%	https://amzn.to/44cLbS9

Best vacuum if you have small kids

Pro-tip: DON’T get a Narwal, which has bright, big buttons at toddler height, begging to be pressed. The unfortunate reality is that a good robovac experience is about best practices. If you want the robot to work, you’re goinBg to have to clear the space of small toys. A lego might not kill your robovac (and you’ll know, because the robot will start clacking incessantly, if it doesn’t get clogged), but the robot will get stuck on blankets, socks, and if it can run over it, will try to suck it up. Bigger toys will get treated like obstacles, which means the robot goes around them, and the carpet or floor underneath doesn’t get cleaned. You see what I’m saying. So, if you’re going to get a robot, commit to a time of day you’ll run it, like after the kids go to bed, and then do a sweep of the floor first. Grab anything bigger than a cheerio. 

Under those circumstances, now you’re just dealing with regular robot vacuum problems, which means you should use all the other recommendations to decide what to buy.

Best all around vacuum

This is a trick. There IS no best vacuum. There is just the vacuum that’s best for you, and that’s determined by these factors: 

1. Budget
2. Willingness to care for your robot
3. Willingness to change behavior for your robot
4. Setting good expectations