The Best Stand Mixers of 2023

From the minute you unpack the Breville the Bakery Chef you know it’s a well-designed, high-quality product. Its streamlined shape, smooth surfaces, well-fitted parts, and LED readouts indicate that it’s a precision machine.

The speed dial works in conjunction with a lighted bar that’s marked to show you which mixing task to use at each speed level. On the base, there’s a timer that you can set to an exact time; forget to set it and it will count up so you can track how long you’ve been mixing.

In addition to the beater, whisk, dough hook, and splatter shield provided with most mixers, you get an extra beater with scraper edges and a lid to cover the bowl when you’re rising yeast dough or refrigerating sugar cookie dough.

Plus, the Breville comes with two bowls: a 4-quart stainless steel bowl and a 5-quart glass bowl with measurement markings on the side. A lamp shines down into the bowl so you can tell when your eggs and sugar have turned pale yellow or your cream is thickened.

But of course, we wouldn’t recommend it unless it also was a great mixer. When we used the scraper beater to whip up a cake mix, we didn’t have to stop and scrape the side of the bowl even once. It had no problem beating a sturdy cookie batter full of chips, oats, and raisins. The Breville easily kneaded our recipe for 2 loaves of bread but the manufacturer gives no indication if it can handle a heavier load.

You won’t find a hub on this mixer for attaching accessories like a grinder or pasta maker so you can’t justify the high price by thinking you’re getting more than one appliance for your money. However, its beautiful design, excellent mixing ability, and helpful extras do make it worth the splurge. The Breville is available in black, white, silver, champagne, and dark blue.

With its solid construction, brushed stainless steel finish and large red knob, the Wolf Gourmet Stand Mixer has the appeal of a commercial appliance designed for a serious cook. And Wolf claims that—thanks to its 7-quart bowl and powerful motor—it can make 14 dozen cookies or eight one-pound loaves. But just like other products from the brand, this mixer comes at a steep price that’s more than double what you’ll pay for a KitchenAid.

In addition, this is one large and heavy appliance that won’t fit under your cabinets; once you set it up on your countertop, you’re not going to want to move it. All of which means that if you’re considering investing in the Wolf Gourmet you should be a dedicated baker who bakes often and in large quantities.

Our tests show that this mixer rivals the KitchenAid for speedy and effective mixing. It whipped up a high volume of egg whites, easily handled cookie dough laden with add-ins and had no problem kneading yeast dough for a pair of loaves.

There’s neither a tilt head or a crank for raising and lowering the bowl. Instead, you turn the bowl in its base to change its height. A particularly effective soft start function helps prevent splatters on start-up and a pulse button helps prevent over-mixing.

Although there’s a hub for accessories on the front of the mixer head, none are available yet. If you’re not a fan of Wolf's signature red knob, you can instead get it with a black or stainless steel knob.

Out of the box, the Pro 600 is beautiful. There's a nice, solid handle for locking the bowl into place and an easy to use splatter shield. Plus, it comes with all the well-made attachments we expect from the leading stand mixer manufacturer and a more powerful motor than the Artisan.

Performance-wise, the KP26M1X we tested was—hands-down—the best at kneading bread dough, but it was slow to whip three egg whites due to its larger capacity.

It also didn't feel quite as user-friendly as our top choice. For example, the paddle attachment was harder to attach, and the speed adjusting lever felt less than professional-grade. The bowl-lift handle and speed knobs are on opposite sides of the machine, so we had to situate it in the middle of a counter to access both.

If you’ve been lusting after a KitchenAid mixer, but space on your countertop is at a premium, consider the KitchenAid Artisan Mini. It has the brand’s iconic styling, solid build and great performance in a small package. While it whips, mixes and kneads beautifully, it does take a few minutes longer and has a smaller bowl capacity as well as less power. You can mix up batter for 60 cookies and a single loaf of bread at a time.

Because the speed lever is smaller, the settings are close together and it takes vigilance to move it into place without overshooting your speed.

The Mini doesn’t come with a pouring shield to prevent splatters, but just like its bigger cousins, this little guy can be used with all the brand’s accessories with the exception of the ice cream bowl.

The retro 50’s styling of the Smeg Stand Mixer with a bullet-shaped head and a stainless-steel body is its distinguishing feature. But in addition to being eye candy for your countertop, this sturdy mixer offers impressive mixing prowess.

In all our tests it yielded top-notch results. While it is only recommended that you use enough flour for a single loaf of bread, we found it to be the most effective at moving the dough around as it kneaded, producing a ball that needed no hand shaping and a loaf of bread with an exceptionally high rise.

As it works, this mixer is noticeably quieter than others. Our only complaint is about the speed lever. While it moves smoothly, selecting your speed level is difficult. The lever is located on top of the head and has small and indistinct numbers.

As you would expect from this Italian brand, a pasta roller and cutters to attach to the hub are available as well as a grinder, slicer/shredder and ice cream maker accessories. You can choose from several glossy finishes as well as models with bases that are colored to match the head.

When it comes to ease of use, the Cuisinart Precision Master SM-50 trumps the KitchenAid. To tilt the head, there’s a simple switch and to select a speed setting, a smooth-turning dial, marked with large numbers. It tied with the Smeg for the quietest operation. And although the Cuisinart Precision Master isn’t cheap, it’s about half the price of the KitchenAid Artisan.

In our tests, this mixer excelled at whipping egg whites and mixing cake mix. But as soon as we added flour to creamed eggs and sugar for cookie dough, it slowed down. The manufacturer specifies that it should only be used to knead enough dough for two loaves of bread and it was able to produce a nice smooth, satiny ball. But overall, we would say this mixer is best for cake bakers.

The stand mixer is available in white, red, black, silver, and two different shades of blue. A variety of accessories are available to expand its usefulness, including a pasta roller and cutter, pasta extruder, meat grinder, frozen dessert maker, and spiralizer.

The innovative pour-in top design of the Kenmore Ovation allows users to add ingredients directly into the bowl without turning off the mixer or awkwardly tilting them in on the side. It’s beautiful, convenient, and unlike anything else on the market—yet it doesn’t outpace all the competition when it comes to actual performance.

Unlike that of every other mixer we’ve tested, the Ovation’s 5-quart bowl is made of solid glass, making it particularly beautiful but very, very heavy—over 6 pounds. While the casual user might not be bothered by the weight, my arms were sore from carrying it by its handle between multiple batches and hand-washing sessions.

The entire machine comes in at 30 pounds and is wider than most other stand mixers, meaning it takes up valuable counter space. Its size seems to work against it in other ways—it’s altogether slower and less nimble than its direct competitor, the KitchenAid Artisan.

Don’t get me wrong, the Ovation is a strong mixer. In our tests, it evenly mixed chunky cookie dough and kneaded bread without resisting or walking across the counter. When it came to final cleanup, there was little more to do than place the bowl and accessories in the dishwasher—the pour-in top and 360 degree splash guard prevented even a trace of flour from escaping during the mixing process.

Ultimately, Kenmore is onto something with this unique pour-top design, but the price tag and heavy design present some drawbacks with this model.