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Six cordless drills from brands like Ryobi, Makita, and others sitting on a table Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi
Home & Garden

The Best Cordless Drills of 2026

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Six cordless drills from brands like Ryobi, Makita, and others sitting on a table Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

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Editor's Choice Product image of Makita Cordless Drill (XFD131)
Best Cordless Drill

Makita Cordless Drill (XFD131)

Check Price at Amazon

The Makita 18V cordless drill is a powerhouse machine that can handle any task you throw at it. Read More

Pros

  • Speed and power
  • Ergonomics and balance
  • LED light position

Cons

  • None that we could find
Editor's Choice Product image of Ryobi One+ PCL206K1
Best Value Cordless Drill

Ryobi One+ PCL206K1

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The Ryobi One+ cordless drill is a low-cost option that doesn’t require sacrificing power or ergonomics, making it a great occasional-use choice. Read More

Pros

  • Ergonomic and balanced handle
  • Overall value

Cons

  • Some awkward controls
Editor's Choice Product image of Milwaukee M18 3601-21P

Milwaukee M18 3601-21P

Check Price at Walmart

A top performer from a top brand, the Milwaukee M18 drill is a reliable workhorse of a tool. Read More

Pros

  • Power and speed
  • Balance

Cons

  • None we could find
Editor's Choice Product image of DeWalt DCD794D1

DeWalt DCD794D1

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A powerful and speedy drill from a top brand, the Dewalt drill falls short in the balance category. Read More

Pros

  • Power and speed
  • Brushless motor

Cons

  • Balance
Product image of Porter Cable PCCK607LB

Porter Cable PCCK607LB

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This Porter Cable cordless drill is a middle-of-the-road option with decent power but some trouble holding onto bits. Read More

Pros

  • Well-balanced
  • Power

Cons

  • Bit slipped in chuck

  • Makita Cordless Drill

  • Ryobi Cordless Drill

  • Other Cordless Drills We Tested

  • How We Tested The Best Cordless Drills

  • What You Should Know About The Best Cordless Drills

  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

  • Best Cordless Drill Makita Cordless Drill
  • Best Value Cordless Drill Ryobi Cordless Drill
  • Other Cordless Drills We Tested
  • How We Tested The Best Cordless Drills
  • What You Should Know About The Best Cordless Drills
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy
Jean Levasseur
Written by Jean Levasseur, a stay-at-home parent, woodworker and DIY enthusiast.

Updated December 3, 2024

The Rundown

  • Our favorite cordless drills are the Makita Cordless Drill and the Ryobi Cordless Drill.
  • The Makita offers powerful, balanced performance for effortless drilling and driving, making it ideal for heavy use.
  • The Ryobi provides great value and ergonomics for everyday household projects, featuring an LED light and battery indicator.

A quality cordless drill is a must-have addition to any toolkit. These tools are versatile and indispensable for all kinds of projects around the house. Whether you’re drilling holes in the drywall to hang up art or building your custom furniture, a drill will make most jobs easier and faster.

We tested drills at various price points to find the best cordless drills. The Makita XFD131 18V LXT Cordless Drill (available at Amazon) is our pick for the best overall cordless drill because it’s powerful and well-balanced. However, not everyone needs the power, durability, and overall cost of the best tools. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly option that can still help you insert those mollies into the drywall, then the Ryob iOne+ 18V Cordless Drill is fantastic. But, no matter what your budget and projects require, a drill on this list probably fits your needs.

A hand holding the Makita Cordless Drill that is being used to drill into wood
Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

This Makita Cordless Drill is the best one we've tested.

Best Cordless Drill
Makita Cordless Drill

The Makita XFD131 18V is the best cordless drill we've tested. It’s powerful, relatively lightweight, and perfectly balanced in your hand, making it easy to control even in awkward positions. In all of our timed tests, it was either fastest or tied for fastest.

Moreover, the Makita has an effortless quality that most other drills don't have. When driving screws into either wood or metal, the screws almost seem to pull the drill down, as opposed to having to push it into the material. Likewise with drilling holes—on the first hole through the 2x4, we were shocked at how quickly the drill just pulled itself through, with essentially no effort from me other than pulling the trigger.

The Makita has all the features you would expect. An LED light activates whenever you pull the trigger, illuminating the work area. Depending on your task, there are numerous speed settings, including a switch between low speed/high torque and medium speed/torque. The batteries have a charge level indicator, so you know when to swap.

Aside from the power, the real benefit of this drill is how it feels in the hand. At less than four pounds, it’s easy to hold. And more important than the weight is the balance. Resting the drill trigger on your index finger stays upright rather than falling forward or backward, as many other drills we tested do. This means that when you grab it, you spend less energy keeping it in position and can focus on the task.

Overall, we can see why the Makita line is popular among contractors. If you’re looking for a drill with great performance, this Makita cordless drill is tough to beat.

Pros

  • Speed and power

  • Ergonomics and balance

  • LED light position

Cons

  • None that we could find

Buy now at Amazon


$208.08 from Walmart


$179.00 from Home Depot

A hand holding a green Ryobi cordless drill and using it in a workshop
Credit: Reviewed / Tim Renzi

The Ryobi cordless drill has a great spread of features for the right price.

Best Value Cordless Drill
Ryobi Cordless Drill

Ryobi has always been a brand that makes good, not great, quality tools at an affordable entry price. The One+ 18V cordless drill is no different. While by no means the most powerful drill we looked at, it did well in all the tests we ran. Driving screws into both wood and metal was easy and fast, as was drilling through both materials.

The most surprising part of the Ryobi drill was the ergonomics. It’s a physically bigger drill than the top performers like Makita and Milwaukee, and as such, feels bulkier in hand, but this one isn’t uncomfortable or blocky to hold.

We aren’t in love with some of the controls—the forward and back buttons are a bit stiff and awkward to activate in our hand—but it has all the controls you’d expect, and all of the creature comforts like LED light and battery charge indicator.We aren’t in love with some of the controls—the forward and back buttons are a bit stiff and awkward to activate in our hand—but it has all the controls you’d expect, and all of the creature comforts like LED light and battery charge indicator.

The brushed motor also likely won’t last quite as long as the brushless competitors. This isn't a drill we'd want to use to install a deck—but for regular projects around the house, this is plenty of tool for most people at half the price of our top performers.

Pros

  • Ergonomic and balanced handle

  • Overall value

Cons

  • Some awkward controls

Buy now at Amazon


$89.00 from Home Depot

Other Cordless Drills We Tested

Product image of Milwaukee M18 3601-21P
Editors' Choice
Milwaukee M18 3601-21P

Milwaukee is a perpetual top performer in most of our tool testing, and this time was no different. The M18 drill was the only one to give the Makita a run for the money.

The Milwaukee is powerful and fast, driving screws and drilling holes into both metal and wood effortlessly. The speeds were negligibly slower than the Makita but still blazing fast. It’s also extraordinarily well-balanced and lightweight, so it’s easy to use in awkward positions.

This drill will likely last long with the brushless motor, even under heavy use.

While we gave Makita the slight edge in this specific test, the reality is that the choice between Makita and Milwaukee should come down to which battery system you’ve already invested in. Whether you’re a power user or an occasional DIYer, the Milwaukee cordless drill is one of the best you can buy.

Pros

  • Power and speed

  • Balance

Cons

  • None we could find

$174.07 from Walmart


$199.00 from Home Depot

Product image of DeWalt DCD794D1
Recommended
DeWalt DCD794D1

The Dewalt Atomic 20V is one of the best cordless drills, with powerful performance and speed that kept up with other top performers we tested. It wasn’t quite as effortless as the Makita and Milwaukee, which is a subjective opinion, but it drove everything well.

It has all the features a good drill should have—an LED light, an easy-to-use speed adjustment, and a battery charge level indicator.

The only real knock against this Dewalt drill is the balance. It’s weighted backward in your hand, which is a little uncomfortable, making it more challenging to control. That said, like with the other top performers, the Dewalt drill is a real option for anyone, particularly if you’re already invested in the Dewalt 20V line.

Pros

  • Power and speed

  • Brushless motor

Cons

  • Balance

Buy now at Amazon


$99.00 from Home Depot

Product image of Porter Cable PCCK607LB
Porter Cable PCCK607LB

This is another mid-tier drill that will be geared much more toward the occasional user homeowner than a heavy-duty DIYer. It’s fast and powerful enough to drill through drywall and sink the occasional screw, but we doubt it will stand up to heavy use. It’s also one of only two drills that failed an element of our testing. The chuck came loose several times, and the drill bit slipped while drilling metal and wood.

Once we cranked it down far harder than I’m used to, it stayed put through the entire round of testing, but if that’s a common occurrence, that will get old quickly.

It’s reasonably well-balanced and has a nice handle. We aren’t fans of the position of the forward and back buttons because we had to move the drill in our hand to reach one rather than the other rather than being able to get both from a single comfortable grip.

In addition to the standard speed controls, it does have different settings for drilling and driving screws. We didn’t notice a significant performance difference between them, but it is a feature most drills in this category don’t have.

That said, if you’re not already heavily invested in the Porter Cable battery line, nothing outstanding about this drill makes it worth picking up over our Best Value recommendation.

Pros

  • Well-balanced

  • Power

Cons

  • Bit slipped in chuck

Buy now at Amazon


$179.99 from Walmart

Product image of Skil DL6290A-10
Skil DL6290A-10

Despite the smallest battery power we tested in a drill, the Skil did a decent job and near the bottom in speed our speed tests.

It’s also the other drills that had the chuck slip while drilling, which is surprising in such relatively easy tests. The drill's ergonomics and balance are fine. It’s light but a bit tipped forward in the hand.

Overall, nothing outstanding about this Skil cordless drill would make me recommend it over one of the other options.

Pros

  • Ergonomics

Cons

  • Bit slipped in chuck

  • Low power

Buy now at Amazon


$69.98 from Lowe's

Avoid
Hart HPDD02B

Other options exist if power and speed are essential to you in a cordless drill. This Hart cordless drill was by far the slowest we tested, and you could feel its struggle to push through the tasks. The handle is boxy and uncomfortable, and the drill is not well-balanced.

And even price isn’t a consideration because it’s the exact cost as the Ryobi, which we think is the best affordable option. Steer clear of this Hart cordless drill.

Pros

  • None that we could find

Cons

  • Power

  • Uncomfortable handle

How We Tested The Best Cordless Drills

The Tests

Though there are exceptional use cases, cordless drills typically have two primary functions: Driving screws and drilling holes. As such, this is what we focused our testing on.

To start, we performed a series of timed tests. The first was to drive six 1.25-inch screws into a 2x4 as quickly as possible. Then, we drove four self-tapping metal screws into a sheet of 26-gauge aluminum sheet metal with a 2x4 backer board.

If there was some kind of user error, like dropping a screw, we restarted the test so that the transition between screws was smooth.

Next, we switched the drills to an eighth of an inch metal and wood drill bit.

Again, timing each material, we drilled six holes into the 2x4 and then the sheet metal to penetrate both.

Once the official timed tests were complete, we returned to each drill and used it a bit, playing with the different settings, examining the balance and weight, and considering the overall user experience rather than purely the power and speed output.

We elected not to test the batteries' longevity because they are interchangeable between tools in the brand family, and the drills all came with batteries of different capacities.

What You Should Know About The Best Cordless Drills

Batteries are king

With few exceptions, all major tool brands have one or two battery systems that work with all of their cordless tools. Those batteries are expensive, and tools can be bought with or without batteries. Typically, the best strategy is purchasing all cordless tools within the same brand family.

Our testers, for example, have switched to all Milwaukee and have three batteries we share between nine different tools. This reduces the number of batteries you have to buy and is easier to manage and store. If each of those nine tools were a different brand, we’d need to have room for nine chargers instead of the one we have set up.

So, once you start to buy one brand of cordless tool, stick with it for all of your tools unless you have a compelling reason to switch to a different company for a specific tool.

Brushless Vs. Brushed Motors

Two basic types of motors in battery-powered tools are brushed and brushless. The differences are complex electrically, but brushed motors have pieces of carbon that rub against a spinning part of the motor to generate power, and brushless motors don't have those rubbing pieces.

As a result, brushless motors have less friction in their operation and will theoretically last longer and produce more power more efficiently.

Brushless tools also cost more. Whether that cost increase is worth the improved longevity is a personal decision, but it is something to consider as you buy.

Ergonomics matter

Not all tools are built to fit perfectly in all hands. And when you’re working long days, driving screw after screw and drilling hole after hole, you want something that feels good to hold. Weight matters, as does balance.

You don’t want a tool over your head that keeps tipping side to side. The handle comfort is also essential. You want something that contours to your hand instead of feeling like a rectangular piece of wood and where you can easily reach all relevant controls.

It’s worth going into your big box store to get a hand on the tools you're considering.

Don’t just limit yourself to the tool you need today—see how the other tools in the lineup feel as well because it’s pretty rare to stop at only one tool. It’s a cordless drill today and a circular saw tomorrow.

Meet the writer

Jean Levasseur

Jean Levasseur

Contributor

Jean Levasseur became a professional writer over a decade-long career in marketing, public relations, and technical writing. After leaving that career to stay home to care for his twin boys, Jean has continued to write in a variety of freelance roles, as well as teaching academic writing at a local university. When he's not reviewing tools or chasing toddlers around the house, he's also an avid fiction writer and a growing woodworker.

See all of Jean Levasseur's reviews

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