The best electric toothbrushes range from simple, cheap, disposable battery-operated sonic brushes to advanced models powered by AI and smartphone companion apps. It's incredible how the category has changed, but the research is clear: using one of the best electric toothbrushes is miles better than a manual one.
For example, one 2013 study from the SGT Dental College and Research Institute confirms that electric toothbrushes "demonstrated clinical and statistical improvement in overall plaque scores" compared to manual brushes. They might cost a little more than manual alternatives, but they most definitely deliver superior results.
Oral-B and Philips are two of the main players in the toothbrush market, but we've also included entries from Ordo, Suri, and Oclean. We've tested every single toothbrush in this guide, which means one of our team members has had hands-on experience with the product. Getting up close and personal with these products means we're well placed to provide all the pros and cons, as well as which features stand out.
Black Friday electric toothbrush deals: What to look for
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday upon us, you can pick up an electric toothbrush for a fraction of the price that you'd normally pay. It's worth checking out the official company websites, but also make sure you keep an eye on wholesale websites, including Amazon.
Start your search by having a rough idea of your budget. Even though this might change throughout your search, it gives you a helpful marker for filtering out specific models. Then look at features: do you want a built-in timer? A wall mount? A charging stand? AI brushing guidance?
Once you've found the toothbrush you like (the list below is a great place to start) check the websites of retailers like Amazon. In the US, Walmart and Best Buy are also good places to start, while in the UK, Boots, Currys and Argos are worth shopping.
Matt is TechRadar's Fitness and Wearables Editor, which means he's an expert on all things wellness tech. Matt's spent years covering the health technology beat, and the toothbrushes below have either been tested by him or other experienced health writers.
The quick list
If you don’t have time to read our full list of the best electric toothbrushes, you can read the round-up below for a shortcut to the top options for your needs and budget. If you find one that takes your fancy, use the links to jump to our full write-up.
Best overall
The Oral-B iO Series 10 is the smartest, and best, toothbrush we've ever tried. It comes with comprehensive mouth-tracking software via the companion app, thoroughly cleaning each "zone", a WiFi connected dock, and it's quiet to boot.
Best value
Not a true "smart brush" but a fantastic budget offering, the Ordo Sonic Lite is USB-C rechargeable and is pressure-sensitive: the handset will flash red if you're pressing too hard. It's reliable, easy to use, and a good value sonic brush, if a little lacking in features
Best premium
The Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige is a powerhouse of a brushing system. It's very quiet, sleekly designed and packed with smarts, offering real-time guidance to improve your technique. It ain't cheap though.
Best eco-friendly
This incredible toothbrush boasts an eco-friendly design with excellent performance. We love the UV-C cleaning light, magnetic wall mount, and amazing battery life. Fast charging is also a big win. This toothbrush is proof that sustainability doesn't need to mean sacrificing performance or features.
Best mid-range brush
For those who want the Oral-B iO Series but don't want to pay through the nose for it, this is the model to get. Very quiet, very powerful, a wide variety of modes, but a less luxe carry case and fewer AI smarts.
Best minimalist toothbrush
The simple, elegant Mode electric toothbrush is a slender, one-setting toothbrush that looks slick when attached via the wireless charger-slash-wall hook with the built-in light. Although it's only got one setting, it's seriously stylish.
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Best for quiet brushing
Can't fire up your electric toothbrush without rousing your partner or housemates? The Oclean X Pro, with whisper-quiet brushing technology, might be the one for you. It's reasonably priced too.
The best electric toothbrush overall
The Oral-B iO Series 10 takes our award for the best electric toothbrush, thanks to its valuable smart tech and real-time feedback that encourages you to improve your brushing technique. This is done with a neat chipset that calculates the position of the brush in your mouth, allowing it to read your technique and nudge you to thoroughly clean each "zone" of your mouth.
We found the brush to be very quiet (much more so than a typical oscillating brush) and felt smooth as you work your way around your mouth. The in-built pressure sensor not only warns you if you're pressing too hard but also if you're not applying enough pressure to get a good clean, helping you achieve an optimum result. The dock itself will connect to WiFi to display the time and date.
Once done, the Series 10's bright color display will rate your brushing, and show the battery life remaining on the brush. It's a quick way to get feedback on your technique, and surprisingly motivating, but for more in-depth guidance you can turn to the Oral-B app, which has heat maps of your mouth to show how thorough your clean was. This is updated in real time.
The downside of the Oral-B iO Series is that it's one of the most expensive electric toothbrushes around, though its price has dropped significantly in the months since its release and you can now pick it up far more cheaply. Additional brush heads are also pricey. If your budget can stand it, though, this is an extremely well-designed electric toothbrush that will have a real impact on how you clean your teeth and will help set you up with better habits that can have a long-term effect on your oral health.
Read our full Oral-B iO Series 10 review
The best value electric toothbrush
The Ordo Sonic Lite is the cheapest brush on our guide, and a great way to pick up an electric toothbrush for not very much money. It's replacing the Colgate Hum in this list, as Ordo is a great manufacturer of no-fuss, no-frills brushes of high quality.
It's not a true smart brush like the above Oral-B, as it has no sensor to detect mouth position, but it will flash if you put too much pressure on your gums and has both regular and sensitive modes. For thirty dollars, or the equivalent? It's excellent.
The brush comes with two modes, regular and soft, and a built-in timer, but no dock or travel case. Instead, it charges via USB-C, but lasts for ages: our test unit hung on for around five weeks, even being used twice a day. It's sonic, not oscillating, which may put some people off, but the Ordo Sonic Lite is well-worth a buy if you're just after a cheap electric toothbrush.
Read our full Ordo Sonic Lite review
The best premium electric toothbrush
The Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige is another impressive electric toothbrush designed to improve your technique long-term by monitoring your brushing and giving real-time feedback. If you make too much of a scrubbing action, the app will display an alert advising you to reduce your movements, and the handle will buzz gently. Press too hard, and the handle will pause, then resume with lower intensity in reaction to your technique.
The Sonicare app monitors the brush's position in your mouth, helping ensure you clean every surface thoroughly, with on-screen graphics and timers to ensure you don't miss a spot. The app is less kid-friendly than the Oral-B equivalent and won't shower you with emojis and awards for a job well done, but it will give you personalized tips, track your brushing technique, and allow you to monitor it over time.
It's a seriously stylish electric toothbrush, too, with a sleek, minimalist design and chic carry case to keep it charged on the go. It's also the quietest electric toothbrush we've tested to date, emitting only a subtle hum.
The only downside is that there are no controls for adjusting modes or choosing an intensity setting on the brush itself. Instead, all the customization is done through the mobile app. That's not an issue once you've set it to your exact preferences, though; provided you don't like to switch modes on the fly, it's a superb brush.
Read our full Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige review
The best eco-friendly electric toothbrush
The name makes it clear what the Suri Sustainable Sonic Toothbrush is all about and its eco-friendly credentials are there for all to see. The toothbrush heads and bristles are made from plant-based materials and it lasts a long time between charges, which matches its relatively sustainable claims. The frame is made of aluminum and designed to be fixed if it breaks, rather than discarded, reducing e-waste.
This powerful yet relatively affordable brush oscillates rather than vibrates. Alongside excellent cleaning, you'll also get a carry case that includes a UV-C light designed to give your brush head a bacteria-killing clean.
We also love the sticky back magnet to attach to your bathroom mirror or wall, so the metal toothbrush can sit up and out of the way, keeping your sides clear and clean.
Read our full Suri Sustainable Sonic Toothbrush review
The best mid-range electric toothbrush
If the Oral-B iO Series 9 is a little beyond your budget, this is an excellent alternative. The Oral-B iO Series 6 is essentially the same as the top-end brush but with a lower price tag, thanks to fewer fancy accessories.
The iO Series 6 has the same near-frictionless magnetic motor as the Series 9, resulting in a quiet and effective cleaning action. The toothbrush also has the same intelligent pressure sensor, plus an accelerometer to detect its position as you brush. Install the Oral-B app on your phone, and you can get real-time feedback as you make your way around your mouth.
The main difference between the two is the travel case. While the Series 9 has a luxurious case that'll keep your brush charged while you're on the road, the Series 6 has a much more basic plastic holder. The charger is also different; rather than a stylish magnetic puck, it's a standard charger that holds the brush in place using a prong that fits into a recess in the handle. We found it easy to use and very secure, even though the case and charger don't look as good as their premium sibling.
It's not quite as chic. However, if you want a brilliant toothbrush and aren't a frequent traveler, it's one of the best options around.
Read our full Oral-B iO Series 6 review
The best minimalist electric toothbrush
The Mode Electric Toothbrush is simple to use and easy to navigate. A wall-mounted charger with in-built sensor-based nightlight, only one mode and no companion app, it's a back-to-basics approach to smart toothbrushes that is intuitive rather than frustratingly simple.
It looks slick with its sleek, matte black design and performs well with great battery life, over 30 days, and deep-cleaning, powerful sonic vibrations. It's not going to be the best option for users with sensitive teeth, but for people who are bored of frills, don't want an app telling them how to brush, and just want to get on with it in the morning, the Mode is the perfect "basic" toothbrush.
It would be outclassed by the others with lots of different features, if it wasn't so damn good.
Read our full Mode Electric Toothbrush review
The best electric toothbrush for quiet brushing
The Oclean X Pro Elite is the quietest electric toothbrush we've tested. In fact, when you close your mouth, it's barely audible – but don't let that fool you. This is still a powerful sonic toothbrush that delivers thorough cleaning on par with much more expensive brushes.
It's well-designed, too. A bright touchscreen display built into the brush handle allows you to choose from various modes and intensity settings, with a timer that counts down as you brush. It works surprisingly well with wet hands and is more intuitive than pushing a series of physical buttons.
The Oclean X Pro Elite might not come with a charging case (the simple carry case supplied with our review unit is sold separately), but at an extremely reasonable price of $99.99 / £75 / AU$141 for the handle and one head, it's hard to complain.
Unfortunately, the brush doesn't come with a charging cable or adapter for a regular shaver socket – only a USB connector – and the mobile app is excessively confusing. Whereas Philips and Oral-B have created apps that are as simple as possible, Oclean overwhelms the user with a barrage of options that should have been pared back.
The X Pro Elite is an excellent brush by itself (it really is astonishingly quiet). But, in our opinion, it's best when used without its 'smart' functionality.
Read our full Oclean X Pro Elite review
Electric toothbrush FAQs
How to choose the best electric toothbrush for you
One of the biggest choices to make when choosing the best electric toothbrush for you is the option of an oscillating or a sonic toothbrush. While both are more effective than a manual option, a 2013 clinical trial revealed that oscillating-rotating electric toothbrushes "provided statistically significantly superior reductions compared to the sonic brush" after both four weeks and 12 weeks of brushing.
It's not all about power, though. If you have sensitive gums, you might want to consider a choice with more settings to ensure you can brush without causing too much discomfort or irritation.
Otherwise, it's important to think about what kind of features and extras you want from your toothbrush. Some more premium options will come with handy extras like a travel case. Perhaps more importantly, heftier options like the Oral-B iO Series 9 or the Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige feature impressive tools to help you get your brushing right, such as sensors and Bluetooth, as well as companion smartphone apps that can provide real-time feedback as you brush.
Another big thing to consider is travel, if you need a toothbrush that can survive a holiday or frequent work trips, definitely consider a higher-end model that comes with a rechargeable battery built into its case.
If you want an environmentally friendly option consider our sustainable pick, or if you need a quiet option that won't wake a sleeping partner or children, think about our best quiet option.
Is a sonic or oscillating toothbrush better?
There are two different kinds of motion in most modern electric toothbrushes; sonic and oscillating.
Sonic toothbrushes are engineered to vibrate the brush filaments from side to side and often resemble manual brushes with oval or diamond-shaped heads. These brushes are capable of vibrating up to ~40,000 per minute, depending on the model – meaning they move more rapidly than oscillating toothbrushes. Powerful vibrations force toothpaste and fluid between the teeth, granting a more comprehensive clean.
Oscillating toothbrushes feature rotating and pulsating round brush heads that can rotate up to ~8,000 times per minute, depending on the model. While they're slower in this department, oscillating toothbrushes benefit from the rotating head, which is fantastic for fighting plaque.
According to this 12-week clinical study, an oscillating toothbrush can provide "substantial, statistically superior reductions in plaque and gingivitis" compared to a sonic brush. With their gentler per-minute rotation/vibration, they can also be a better choice for people with sensitive teeth and gums.
How we test
We test each electric toothbrush by using it twice a day for two weeks, brushing for two minutes morning and night, then using a disclosing tablet at the end of weeks one and two. Disclosing tablets help to reveal how much plaque remains on our teeth after our final brushing session by coating your teeth with a harmless dye. If the toothbrush has a smartphone app, then we use that to guide our brushing.
We compare the results against a benchmark set by using a disclosing tablet after cleaning with a manual toothbrush for two weeks.
