Skip to main content
An array of stud finders lined up on a wooden table, along with some other tools that form a border around them. Credit: Reviewed

The Best Stud Finders of 2024

Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

An array of stud finders lined up on a wooden table, along with some other tools that form a border around them. Credit: Reviewed

Why trust Reviewed?

Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

Learn more about our product testing
Editor's Choice Product image of Zircon StudSensor A150
Best Overall

Zircon StudSensor A150

Check Price at Amazon

The Zircon A150 is able to find studs quickly, accurately, and is easy to use. Read More

Pros

  • Makes finding studs easy
  • Lights up and beeps when you find a stud
  • Slides well across walls

Cons

  • Screen hard to read when it’s above your line of sight
Editor's Choice Product image of C.H. Hanson 03040 Magnetic Stud Finder
Best Value

C.H. Hanson 03040 Magnetic Stud Finder

Check Price at Amazon

Powerful magnets in a compact, sturdy case find metal in studs quickly, hanging in place while you mark the wall or hammer a nail. Read More

Pros

  • Very strong magnets
  • Sturdy construction
  • Built-in level

Cons

  • Sometimes inaccurate on thicker walls
Product image of Craftsman CMHT77623

Craftsman CMHT77623

Check Price at Amazon

Easy to read and use, the Craftsman is overly large but finds studs well. Read More

Pros

  • LED arrows are easy to read quickly
  • Performs nearly as well as our winner
  • Wall marker button makes marking stud locations easy

Cons

  • Flat, but large
Product image of Tavool TH510

Tavool TH510

Check Price at Amazon

Despite a rather cheap-looking design, the TH510 finds studs quite well, though not quite as well as its cheaper sibling. Read More

Pros

  • Elaborate LCD screen makes mode selection easy

Cons

  • Performs basically the same as the cheaper TH250
Product image of Tavool TH250

Tavool TH250

Check Price at Amazon

The TH250 found studs better than many name-brand options. We liked some others better, but it performed well throughout our testing. Read More

Pros

  • Easy-to-understand display
  • Passable performance

Cons

  • Questionable build quality
  • Brand is not well-known
  • Best Overall Zircon StudSensor A150
  • Best Value C.H. Hanson 03040 Magnetic Stud Finder
  • Craftsman CMHT77623
  • Tavool TH510
  • Tavool TH250
  • Stanley FMHT0-77407 FatMax S300
  • DeWalt DW0150
  • How to find a stud in the wall
  • How to find a stud without a stud finder
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

If you’re hanging pictures in your home or apartment that are heavy enough to require a wall stud, the easiest way to find one is with a stud finder. It will help you find wood and metal studs faster, and more accurately than tapping on the wall or hunting and guessing with a drill. Like a tape measure or level, it’s a core part of any new homeowner’s toolkit.

Which stud finder is best? Are electronic models worth the extra money? I spent over 30 hours researching and testing the best stud finders on different wall materials to find out. None were perfect, but some stud finders worked much better than others.

If you want a stud finder that’s accurate and easy to use, our favorite is the Zircon A150 (available at Amazon for $37.31) . If you’re looking for something simple and inexpensive, the C.H. Hanson Magnetic Stud Finder is small and virtually indestructible. It’s easy to use, hanging in place on the wall after you find a stud, so you can make a mark or use the built-in holder for driving screws or nails.

Editor's Note:

The recommendations in this guide are based on thorough product and market research by our team of expert product reviewers. The picks are based on examining user reviews, product specifications, and, in some limited cases, our experience with the specific products named.

The Best Stud Finders
Credit: Reviewed / Geoffrey Morrison

The Zircon A150 is our Best Overall pick.

Best Overall
Zircon StudSensor A150

The Zircon A150 consistently did well in most of my tests. This consistent performance is the main reason I liked it. I also liked its bright red laser-like arrow that activates when you find the center of a stud. This, along with a display that shows you how close you are to a stud, with indications which direction to move, and an audible alert, make the Zircon very easy to use.

Physically, the A150 is easier to hold in your hand than some of the other models I tested, with a fairly narrow grip. Its single button is placed right under your thumb if you’re right-handed, and under your index finger if you’re a lefty. To aid in smooth sliding across walls, the back is equipped with two soft, felt pads.

When used on drywall, the A150 consistently found the stud. This is a pretty basic requirement, but some of the other models I tested struggled to clear even this simplest of bars. On more challenging surfaces, the A150 did as good or better than the other finders I tested, though it wasn’t able to consistently handle deep scanning on some of thicker materials. This was the case with all the testers and is admittedly asking more than what they were designed for.

If you have an older house with thick, dense walls, a stud detector may simply not work. That said, on our wood-paneled wall test, the A150 was one of the few that was able to sense a stud fairly consistently. On the stucco test, it couldn’t find a stud, but neither could almost any of the other models I tested.

The only notable issue with the A150 is that the LCD display is very hard to see when it’s above your eye-line; if you’re trying to find a stud high up on a wall, the display won’t be visible. However, you can still hear its alert, and the red light shines to indicate that you’ve found a stud is still visible.

Pros

  • Makes finding studs easy

  • Lights up and beeps when you find a stud

  • Slides well across walls

Cons

  • Screen hard to read when it’s above your line of sight

$37.31 from Amazon
The Best Stud Finders
Credit: Reviewed / Geoffrey Morrison

The C.H. Hanson Magnetic Stud Finder is an inexpensive tool for DIY enthusiasts who only require a stud finder, occasionally.

Best Value
C.H. Hanson 03040 Magnetic Stud Finder

For most people, the C.H. Hanson is the only stud finder they’ll ever need. It’s compact, works great for most walls, and is very inexpensive. There’s even a built-in level, and the bottom has a holder for a nail. The magnets are very strong, which not only aids in detecting nails/hangers behind walls but also lets the Hanson stay in place on the wall by itself once you’ve found a stud.

Like all magnet-based stud sensors, it does benefit from a bit of educated guessing before you try to find a stud. After all, it’s looking for metal—a nail or a hanger—not the wood stud itself. As such, if you’re sliding it horizontally looking for a stud, you could swipe right past a stud if you’re above or below its nails.

Physically, it’s small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. The rubberized exterior could allow it to survive a fall that would shatter any of the electronic finders I tested. There's no need to worry about batteries either, as it doesn’t use any. It will always be ready to work.

During drywall testing, the C.H. Hanson easily found the stud, giving a fairly strong tug when it was near metal. When it does this, you can release the finder and it just stays in place on the wall, like an excited dog that’s found something fascinating in a hole in your yard. With stud finder rooted in place, you’re free to mark the stud with a pencil or use the small bracket at the bottom of the finder to drill a hole, hammer a nail, etc.

On less common surfaces, like wood paneling or stucco, the C.H. Hanson faltered. As strong as they are, magnets still have their limitations. On stucco, it was one of the few finders that work at all, but it was a very weak pull, making it easy to miss its mark. With the wood-paneled wall, it was about the same.

If I had an idea about where the stud would be (a good to know when using any stud finder), the magnet was just strong enough to offer some resistance to show where the stud was, under wood paneling or stucco, but it was very subtle. Even so, that was better than many of the stud finders I tested.

I like how small, simple, and battery-free the C.H. Hanson is. However, if you’re going into a DIY project without any experience, the Zircon is probably going to be easy for you to use, especially if you have non-standard walls.

Pros

  • Very strong magnets

  • Sturdy construction

  • Built-in level

Cons

  • Sometimes inaccurate on thicker walls

Buy now at Amazon

$10.27 from Home Depot

$13.24 from Walmart
Product image of Craftsman CMHT77623
Craftsman CMHT77623

I thought that the Craftsman might be our winner.

Its design is a bit on the larger side, but it was still flat enough to fit in my back pocket. Most notable are its multiple LED arrows, which offer a simple and accurate way to find a stud. The pushbutton center marker was also simple to use. It looks more rugged than it feels.

However, none of the electronic stud finders I tested were particularly rugged. The Craftsman was one of the few stud finders I tested that felt like it might survive a head-height fall onto concrete.

Like most of the electronic models I tested, the Craftsman didn’t handle wood-paneled walls well, but it did narrow down the area where the stud might be. The Craftsman is also the only electronic stud finder I tested that claimed to sense to a depth of three inches. If you suspect you have plaster walls, it could be a good option. However, walls of this thickness were beyond the scope of my testing.

Pros

  • LED arrows are easy to read quickly

  • Performs nearly as well as our winner

  • Wall marker button makes marking stud locations easy

Cons

  • Flat, but large

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Tavool TH510
Tavool TH510

The Tavool 510's performance was pretty much the same as that of its sibling, the Tavool TH250. Both were able to find studs quickly, with minimal false positives. Despite being more expensive than the TH250, the TH510 preformed worse on the wood panel test. Neither were of the Tavool stud finders were great in this area, but the TH250 was more on the side of usable than the TH510.

Pros

  • Elaborate LCD screen makes mode selection easy

Cons

  • Performs basically the same as the cheaper TH250

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Tavool TH250
Tavool TH250

The Tavool TH250 one of Amazon’s top sellers at the time that this guide was written—a bit suspect from a company that’s not exactly well-known. However, after using it, my suspicions were put to bed: its performance was excellent, locating studs quickly, accurately, and repeatedly. Our Best Overall pick, the Zircon A150, is available for around the same price as the TH250, and proved more reliable. That said, the TH250 did a great job overall.

Pros

  • Easy-to-understand display

  • Passable performance

Cons

  • Questionable build quality

  • Brand is not well-known

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Stanley FMHT0-77407 FatMax S300
Stanley FMHT0-77407 FatMax S300

With its iconic rugged, yellow and black asthetic The Stanley FMHT77407 was the most professional-looking of the stud finders tested I tested for this guide. That it comes bearing Stanely's FatMax branding provides the FMHT77407 with the street cred that professional and amatuer putterers drool over. Unfortunately, looks and branding can be deceiving.

While the FMHT77407 might look tough, It's constructed using inexpensive plastic—felt it had the same chance of surviving a tumble to a contrete floor as the other stud finders I tested. Additionally, while its performance was acceptable, it wasn't quite as accurate as some of the other models I tested.

Pros

  • Rubber grips Bright display

Cons

  • Inconsistent stud finding results

Buy now at Amazon

$42.76 from Walmart
Product image of DeWalt DW0150
DeWalt DW0150

The DeWalt DW0150 looks similar to the Craftsman 7623, boasting the same flat-but-wide design. I liked that instead of a pushbutton to mark the wall when you find a stud, it comes with a hole in its center that allows you mark the stud with a pencil or hammer a nail into. Unfortunately, the DW0150 has far fewer LEDs than the aforementioned Craftsman, making it more difficult to get an accurate reading of exactly where the stud you’re looking for is located.

Pros

  • Hole in center to tap nails through or mark walls

Cons

  • Flat, hard-to-handle design

  • Low LEDs count makes it more difficult to use

Buy now at Amazon

$31.97 from Home Depot

$31.60 from Walmart

How to find a stud in the wall

Finding a stud can be difficult without the proper tools. Before writing this guide, the stud finder in my house was a magnet on a string that my dad made for me. I love the DIY aspect, the simplicity, and the price: almost free. You can use this magnet-on-a-string method to find the braces and nails in or around the stud and then extrapolate where the stud must be.

With magnetic finders especially, but really any type of stud finder, it’s best to start with a general idea where to look.

Electrical outlets and light switches are almost always found adjacent to studs, so measure 16-inches on either side and that’s generally where you’ll find the next stud. Trim pieces, like crown molding and baseboards, are often secured to studs.

If you’re starting from the edge of a wall, the first stud away from the edge might be only 15.25-inches, then 16 from the center of that one for the rest of the wall (or until a window, another wall, etc). Sometimes studs might be 24-inches, center to center.

If you do get a hit, check other points on the wall up or down from that point to make sure you’re on a stud, not something else inside the wall.

You should know that, despite being called two-by-fours, modern studs are slightly smaller: 1.5 by 3.5 inches in size. If your house was built before the 1960s, it might have studs closer in size to their two-by-four name.

Older houses (say, built in the 1940s) may have plaster-and-lath walls instead of drywall. Plaster and lath will be more difficult to sense studs through than drywall, not least because the plaster alone could be upwards of one-inch thick. In my tests, the deeper the wall, the worse all the stud finders I tested performed.

If you know, or suspect, that you have a plaster-and-lath wall, it’s worth considering a more expensive electronic tester that can sense deeper than the 1.5 inches deep maximum depth offered by the majority of the devices profiled in this guide.

Zircon, the maker of our favorite tester, makes by our count eleventy quadrillion models all with nearly identical features and prices. Several more expensive models claim to sense to a deeper depth than the A150 we tested. We didn’t test them, but they’re a place to start looking if you have particularly deep or otherwise non-standard walls.

Most important, the adage of “measure twice, cut once,” is vital here too. Just because your stud finder swears it has found the center of a stud, drilling a small test hole to make sure it’s there is a good idea before you start drilling. Especially if the location is in a place where a miss would be obvious, catastrophic, or, in the presence of live electrical wiring, shockingly bad.

How to find a stud without a stud finder

In theory, any magnet placed on the end of a string will work for this DIY hack. However, the stronger the magnet, the better. All magnet-based finders seek out the braces and nails your wall’s studs, not the studs themselves.

It’s possible, if you’re doing a quick sweep horizontally across a wall, to miss these pieces of metal. The weaker the magnet in use, the more likely you are to miss the metal and, as in turn, the stud you’re looking for.

In order for your magnet on a string to be most effective, start by seeking out an easy metal landmark, like an electrical outlet or window ledge. In 16-inch horizontal intervals (the amount of space between wall studs), sweep the magnet vertically in order to find the metal associated with the stud.

Meet the tester

Geoffrey Morrison

Geoffrey Morrison

Contributor

@techwritergeoff

Geoffrey Morrison is a freelance tech and travel writer.

See all of Geoffrey Morrison's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

Shoot us an email

Up next