The best budget robot vacuums

Editor’s note: Amazon’s fall Prime Day event kicks off on October 7th; however, if you want to shop ahead of the two-day sale, we’ve rounded up the best early Prime Day deals you can already get.

Today’s robot vacuums are becoming a bit like cars: with all the features, upgrades, and fancy trimmings available these days, it’s easy to forget that they can just be simple machines that get us from point A to point B. Yes, some bots blow hot air on their bums (mop pads), deftly navigate dog poop, and have arms to pick up your socks, but there are plenty of basic budget robot vacuums that just do a decent job of cleaning your floor autonomously — as long as you tidy up first.

Fancier models have obstacle recognition, and some even use AI-powered cameras to tell popcorn from poop and avoid the latter. If you want one of those, check out my best robot vacuum buying guide. But if you think you can manage the task of picking up after yourself (and your puppy), a budget bot will save you a lot of money and still do a good job cleaning your floor.

Suction power: 5,300Pa / Dustbin capacity: 300ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Mopping option: Yes / Mapping: Yes, lidar / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Runtime: 100 mins, 2,600mAh battery/ Brush style: Single rubber bristle hybrid / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

For around $300, the Tapo RV30 Max Plus is a very capable robot vacuum and mop with some key features typically found only on vacuums that are more than twice its price. These include room-specific cleaning, multiple suction and water levels, smart lidar-based navigation, and an auto-empty dock. With brands like Roomba and Roborock, you’re often paying double for the privilege of not having to empty the bot’s bin.

Thanks to lidar navigation, the RV30 did an excellent job of navigating my house, cleaning the perimeters of the rooms, and then using a mesh grid to clean inside the rooms. I did have to tidy up before it ran, though, as there’s no camera on board or AI-powered obstacle detection — so cables and socks will trip it up.

Its 5,200Pa suction power is impressive on a bot at this price, and ably sucked up Cheerios and dry oatmeal on hard flooring. It left some of the finer dust and debris, as its single bristle / rubber brush isn’t super effective. It fared less well on carpet. However, in the app, I could set it to clean a room three times for each job, after which it generally picked up all visible debris.

Mopping was better than average for a mop with no pressure or oscillation. It has a wide mop pad, and the bot has a big 300ml tank (which also incorporates a 300ml dustbin), so it applies enough water for a good surface clean.

Another unique feature for a budget robot is the ability to set customized cleaning for each room, choosing from five suction levels and three water levels as well as three rotations.

The Tapo app is very simple to use, with an easy-to-edit map that lets you add virtual walls and no-go zones, add furniture, and designate carpet areas. There’s no carpet sensing, so you need to tell it where carpets are if you don’t want it to mop them. You can also set the cleaning direction and build up to four maps — again, features usually only found on higher-end robots.

It’s also easy to start a clean from the app, and I really like that you can tap on the map to send the robot to that spot.

The biggest downside of the Tapo is its tiny battery, which is just 2,600mAh. That is half the size of most vacs, and it couldn’t clean my entire 800-square-foot downstairs without needing to go back and recharge. It also takes a while to charge and occasionally has trouble repositioning itself on its dock.

You can get the RV30 without the auto-empty dock for around $80 less if you prefer an even simpler robot vacuum setup. This way, it will fit under a couch or bed, but you’ll have to manually empty its bin.

Best budget robot vacuum and mop

Suction power: 6,000Pa / Dustbin capacity: 400ml / Runtime: 180 mins, 5,200mAh battery / Brush style: dual rubber / Auto-empty dock option: yes / Mapping: yes, lidar navigation / Keep-out zones: yes, virtual / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Roborock S8 is a great vacuum that mops well and has AI-powered obstacle detection—a rarity at this price point. Its dual rubber roller brushes and 6,000Pa of suction do an excellent job on hard floors and carpets, and its flat mop that vibrates is effective at scrubbing your floors.

There’s the option of pairing the S8 with a fairly sleek auto-empty dock, but unlike Roborock’s QRevo line (which starts at around $600), the dock won’t automatically fill the water tank or wash the mop; you’ll have to do that work manually.

Formerly a flagship robot vacuum for Roborock, this once $750 bot can now be found for well under $500, even with its auto-empty dock. Its flat mop pad vibrates 3,000 times a second to simulate some good old-fashioned scrubbing, and the bot comes with an extra-large on-board water tank, which means it actually gets wet enough to be effective.

The S8 can be set to mop only — something few budget bots offer, and its mop-only mode does an excellent job, moving in a tighter “Z” pattern and going over the floors twice. It also has a slow option for a more thorough cleaning. I liked to send it out to vacuum everywhere first, then recharge and go out again to mop, which resulted in sparklingly clean floors. It does take a long time, though.

Another great feature at this price is that the S8 has carpet sensing and can raise its mops a few millimeters to avoid dampening your carpets. Most other budget mopping bots require you to remove the mop pads when vacuuming carpet or set keep-out zones around your rugs. This bot can also raise its wheels when it cleans messes like ketchup to prevent its brushes from getting sticky.

However, the mop-raising feature can only clear low-pile rugs, so I had to set no-mopping zones around my plush floor coverings. The S8 requires a fair amount of hands-on time since you have to refill its reservoir manually and wash the mopping pads (you can throw them in the washing machine). If you want to avoid those chores, you’ll need to bump up to about $600 and get whichever Roborock QRevo vac and mop is on sale. This adds spinning mopping pads and an auto wash/dry/refill dock.

Best budget robot vacuum for pet hair

Suction Power: 5,000Pa / Dustbin capacity: 770ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Mopping option: Yes / Mapping: Yes, lidar / Suction power: 5,500Pa / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Runtime: 240 mins, 5,200mAh battery / Brush style: dual, rubber / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

My recommendation for families with pets who don’t want to spend a small fortune on an auto-empty robot vacuum is to buy a good bot with a big bin. These are getting harder to find now that every bot wants to be a multitasker and also mop (the water reservoir takes up valuable dustbin room). So, I’m very pleased with Roborock’s Q5 Pro with its 770ml dustbin.

This huge bin pairs with dual rubber roller brushes that are better at getting pet hair out of rugs than single brushes. The rubber is also less prone than bristles to getting tangled with hair, and combined with 5,500Pa suction power, this vacuum does a good job on very dirty floors. It does have a removable mopping pad with a small water tank built into it, too, which is useful for cleaning up the fine dust left behind by the vacuum, but it isn’t going to scrub your floors. It will, however, keep the pet hair at bay.

Don’t confuse this with the cheaper Roborock Q5. That bot has a smaller bin, lower suction, shorter runtime, and only one roller brush. It’s worth spending the extra for the Pro.

The Q5 Pro Plus pairs the bot with the redesigned Roborock auto-empty dock if you really don’t like emptying the robot’s onboard bin, normally a hefty price bump, it’s often on sale at Amazon. The dock is relatively compact and lightweight compared to previous versions. However, considering the size of the Q5 Pro’s bin, you’d only have to empty it three times before the dock’s 2.5-liter bag is also full.

The Q5 Pro doesn’t have AI-powered obstacle avoidance, although it will dodge shoes and larger objects. It does have a huge 5,200mAh battery that will run for about four hours. It uses the excellent Roborock app and has all the same software features of the higher-end Roborock’s family, including lidar mapping and navigation, digital keep-out zones, room-specific cleaning, zone cleaning, and voice control.

Best basic bump-and-roll bot

Suction power: unknown / Dustbin capacity: 425ml / Runtime: 120 mins / Brush style: single bristle / rubber hybrid / Auto-empty dock option: no / Mapping: no / Keep-out zones: no / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home

The Shark Ion’s big bin, simple app experience, decent battery life, repairability, and bullish nature make this an excellent bump-and-roll bot. It doesn’t map or have any special navigation features other than colliding with things and changing direction. It’s not fancy, but it gets the job done.

It’s a good one to stick under a bed or desk and set to run when you’re not home, as it’s loud and rattly and will bang into everything in its path. But its big wheels and 120-minute runtime mean it’s less prone to getting stuck or running out of juice than simpler $200 bots.

Unlike many budget bots, it uses a hybrid roller brush that’s both bristle and plastic and doesn’t get as tangled as standard bristle brushes. Its short, squat side brushes are surprisingly effective at getting debris into the robot’s path, and because they’re short, they’re less prone to getting tangled in stray cords.

But the best thing ‘bout this bot is its tank-like wheels that will roll right over anything in its path, including high transitions between rooms, obstacles like lounger chair legs, and other furniture traps that regularly stump other bots. That’s a good thing, as there’s no mapping, obstacle detection, or any way to set keep-out zones here. This bot just goes.

Another bonus: replacement parts are easily available, making it simple to repair and just keep going.

Shark doesn’t share suction power specs, but it ably handled all my tests, including the toughest: raw oatmeal. Those little flakes are hard to pick up; side brushes will spin them all over the floor. It did a good job on pet hair, too, although, like most robots I tested, it required at least two runs to get everything up effectively.

The app is super basic: just on / off, scheduling, and a choice of three power levels (all loud). Disappointingly, you can only schedule it once a day. Most robots can be programmed to do two to three passes, but in place of that, I like the option to schedule it to go out twice to make sure it gets the job done. I couldn’t do that with the Shark. Still, you can press its button or use the app to send it out again if needed.

Best budget Roomba robot vacuum

Suction power: unknown / Dustbin capacity: 419ml / Runtime: 90 minutes / Brush style: dual rubber / Auto-empty dock option: yes / Mopping option: yes / Mapping: yes / Keep-out zones: physical only / Works with: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts

The Roomba i5 is the follow-up to my previous top pick for a budget robot, the Roomba i3. It’s not the cheapest bot on the block, but its cleaning chops, attractive design, good software, and robust, easily-repairable hardware make it a good choice for spending a smaller budget.

The i5 brings mopping capability to the lower end of iRobot’s line via a swappable mopping bin that adds a flat mopping pad and a sizable 210ml reservoir. There’s no carpet avoidance, though, so I had to roll up the ends of my carpets to block it from going on them.

But this bot is best as a vacuum, and it cleans almost as well as iRobot’s higher-end j7, but for a lot less money. It has slightly lower suction power, but it boasts Roomba’s signature dual roller rubber brushes, which do an excellent job of removing pet hair from hardwood floors and sucking up oatmeal from plush carpets. These are slightly different from the Roborock dual brushes, and I find the nubs make them more effective at digging out the dirt, especially from carpet.

The i5 has mapping and room-specific cleaning, so you can send it to clean the kitchen if you want. However, unlike my top pick, the Tapo RV30, there’s no option to set virtual keep-out zones. If you have somewhere you don’t want the bot to roam, you’ll need to buy iRobot’s virtual wall towers. It also has a relatively small bin, but you can pair it with an auto-empty base (although that doubles the cost).

The i5 is a solid vacuum with big wheels and a big bumper that can easily tackle any floor surface you throw at it. It can manage most transitions and is one of the only vacs I’ve tested that doesn’t get stuck on the uneven wooden floors in my screened-in porch. It does tend to bump into things, but it gets almost everywhere you want it to and won’t be put off by a bed skirt. But if you have delicate items on rickety tables, watch out.

As with all Roombas, the i5 is easy to self-repair, and you can buy (not inexpensive) replacements for all its parts. I’ve actually rebuilt an i3 (the previous model) after it rolled over some dog poop. There’s no obstacle avoidance here; you have to bump up to the Roomba j7 for that (which, if you can get it on sale anywhere, is a great robot vacuum.)

iRobot also offers the Combo j5 for $529.99 (currently on sale for $225.29 249.99 at Amazon), adding more advanced mapping, including virtual keep-out zones and better obstacle and carpet detection. It also has a shinier finish, whereas the i5 retains the fabric-covered body of the i3. If you can find the j5 on sale for close to or less than the i3 (it’s $280 379 with the auto-empty dock on Amazon at the time of writing), go for it. Otherwise, the i3 is your best bet for a budget Roomba.

Note: iRobot recently released a number of new robots that start at $319. They have a completely different design and use a different app from the Roombas discussed here. We have begun testing them, but don’t have any to recommend yet.

Best budget robot vacuum without Wi-Fi

Suction power: 2,000Pa / Dustbin capacity: 600ml / Runtime: 100 mins / Brush style: single bristle / rubber hybrid / Auto-empty dock option: no / Mapping: no / Keep-out zones: no / Works with: n/a

The Eufy 11S Max is a rarity — a robot vacuum that doesn’t use Wi-Fi at all. There’s not even an app. Instead, you just press the button, and off it trundles. It also comes with a remote if you’d rather not get up off the couch, and you can use that to program it to clean at a specific time.

The 11S is super slim, 72.5 mm high, with no lidar tower, so it will get under most couches and very quiet. It has a big 600ml bin, and I was very impressed with how much it got up off my hardwood floors, even with its relatively small 2,000Pa of suction. There are three cleaning levels, and at the lowest, it registers around 55db, quiet enough to run in a home office.

It does have a smallish battery — only 100 minutes of runtime — but it will go back and recharge. For $200, this is the perfect budget bot for those wary of or who don’t want to deal with an app and Wi-Fi. It’s a bump-and-roll bot, meaning there are no real navigation skills. But it has plenty of replaceable parts, including the battery and wheels, so you can keep it going for a long time.

What we’re currently testing and what’s coming next

Update, September 23rd: Adjusted pricing and availability. Sheena Vasani also contributed to this post.