One of the best budget robot vacuums can take a lot of time and effort out of keeping your house clean, without taking a huge chunk out of your bank balance. While you can easily end up paying a small fortune for one of best robot vacuums with all the most advanced features, it's not hard to find a cheaper model that'll do good job without too many compromises.
What do we mean by budget, though? We count any robot vacuum cleaner priced under $500/£400 as a budget model, and anything between that and $800/£650 as mid-range, and everything above that as premium. Most of our best budget robot vacuum cleaner picks fall within the budget bracket, with one that's in the lower mid-range.
Just because they're affordable, don't think these robovacs fall short in terms of features. All but one of these robot vacs can mop your floors as well as vacuuming, and among our picks you'll find options with self-emptying docking stations, good suction and reliable mapping and navigation. We've tested most of these models extensively and can tell you just what's so good about each of them, as well as alerting you to their weaknesses. So without further ado, read on to discover the best budget robot vacuums available now.
The quick list
Best in the UK
This hybrid robot vac delivers impressive suction for its low price, and packs in loads of high-end features, too. It's incredible value for money.
Best in the US
This budget robot vac is easy to set up, and delivers good cleaning on hard floors in particular. However, it doesn't always do exactly as it's told.
Best for pet hair
With good suction and ultra-effective rubber rollers, this bot had no trouble handling the copious pet hair in our tester's home. The mop is underwhelming though.
Best mopping
This combo robovac vacuums and mops well, self-empties, and packs some pretty smart features, all for a nicely affordable price.
Best for larger homes
If you have a lot of house to clean, this robot vac is up to the job thanks to a long battery life and mapping that can cope with multiple floors, and it doesn't slack when it comes to vacuuming and mopping.
The best budget robot vacuum 2025 - as chosen by experts
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
The best budget robot vacuum in the UK
The best cheap robot vacuum you can buy right now is the Xiaomi X20+. This combination robovac packs an incredible amount of suction power for its equally incredible low price. Our reviewer was frankly amazed at how good the Xiaomi X20+ is, considering how cheaply you can buy it for. It has features you'd expect to pay a lot more for, including automatic mop pad washing, rotational mopping, automatic mop lifting and excellent navigation.
It's UK / Europe-only (or, more accurately, can be purchased in the US via Amazon, but at a far higher price), so US shoppers should check out the Narwal model at #2 instead.
Most budget robot vacuums fall down when it comes to navigation, but on test the X20 did an excellent job of finding its way around, and delivered decent obstacle avoidance too. It offers four suction settings (silent, standard, strong and turbo) and on the 'strong' setting delivered a clean on par with far pricier models we've tried. Mopping is also decent, but better suited to light cleans than anything more challenging – as tends to be the case with all but the most expensive robot vacuums. Our reviewer's only real complaint was that the Xiaomi X20+'s docking and cleaning station is huge and not especially pretty, so you'll want to tuck it away out of sight if at all possible.
Alternatives
While we're here, we also highly rate the Xiaomi X20 Pro – a very similar model from the same brand. It's a little pricier than the Plus model, and for the extra money offers more suction and a bigger battery, and the ability to detect and lift mop pads on carpet.
Read our full Xiaomi X20+ review
The best budget robot vacuum in the US
The Narwal Freo X Plus is the best budget robot vacuum and mop we've tested in the US, although be aware you'll need to make a few compromises for that price point. Let's start with the positivies. We tested it in a home with two French Bulldogs and four adult humans (including two with long hair) and it did an excellent job of keeping the floors clean, picking up everything from fine dust to larger debris and handing hair without issue (we have a dedicated guide to the best robot vacuums for pet hair if this your priority).
Mopping is also fine, but – as we'd expect for a budget robot vac – better for light cleans than challenging spillages and dried-on mess. There's a decent companion app, and if you want, you can also pair and instruct it through a voice assistant like Alexa.
The main issue is with navigation, which was consistently unreliable during our review period. This bot can't handle specific cleaning tasks; it's far better if you just set it to clean your whole space in the most thorough way possible. That might be perfectly acceptable to some people, though.
There's no self-emptying of dust, which does mean you'll need to manually empty the small onboard bin regularly. However, it has the benefit that the base station is far more compact than usual – a benefit for those with smaller homes.
Read our full Narwal Freo X Plus review
The best budget robot vacuum for pet hair
Hair is one of the trickiest things for a robovac to handle well, so if you're looking for the best robot vacuum for pet hair, generally you won't be shopping in the budget bracket. A notable exception is the Roborock Q5 Pro+, which was more than a match for the sheddings of two dogs and multiple cats in our reviewer's home. At full price it's a mid-range bot, but because it's slightly older now, it's generally discounted into the budget bracket.
On test, we found the dual rubber rollers (borrowed from Roborock's higher-end models) dealt extremely well with dirt, dust and pet hair, and more than made up for the good-not-great 5,00Pa of suction power. The navigation is reliable, the mapping precise and the app intuitive and straightforward to use.
The dock has an comparatively large dust cup, which means you won't have to worry about emptying it too regularly. If you're really after a bargain, you'll be able to save even more by opting for the Pro version (no '+'), which has a basic charge-only dock rather than a self-empty one. Beware, though, the onboard bins can fill up quickly when faced with a hairy home.
So why the lower overall score? The mopping is rather substandard. It'll be okay for a very light clean, but there are options (including the Proscenic bot at #4) that do a far better mopping job if that's your priority.
Read our full Roborock Q5 Pro+ review
The best budget robot vacuum for mopping
The Proscenic Floobot X1 ticks most of the boxes for what you'd expect from a budget robot vacuum, but it impressed us most with its mopping. On test, we found this consistently good on test, and a reliable way of keeping on top of hard floor cleaning. Bear in mind that you'll have to attach the mopping pad yourself when you want the Floobot X1 to mop your floor, as well as filling its water tank, so it's not entirely hands-free. This is not unexpected for a budget robovac.
Other features you wouldn't necessarily expect at this price point include automatic room mapping, ability to detect hard flooring or carpet and apply the right cleaning tools, and a self-emptying dustbox with a UV light to kill off germs.
This bot will keep your floors clean with minimal intervention from you, albeit with a few annoying quirks that you can probably learn to live with. We found the mapping was chaotic and the fact that it's impossible to initiate mopping remotely if the Floobot X1 is docked (because it identifies the dock as 'carpet') frustrating. However, overall it's a solid all-rounder at a good price.
Read more our full Proscenic Floobot X1 robot vacuum cleaner review
The best budget robot vacuum for larger homes
If you have a large home it can be tricky to find a budget robot vacuum that's up to the task of keeping dirt at bay. That's partly because you can't always rely the battery to keep on going through an entire clean without having to return to base for a recharge, but also because not all robot vacs can save multiple maps, making it harder to keep the whole house clean without constant remapping.
The Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus is a winner in both these scenarios, as it can run for up to 300 minutes in one go, and its app can cope with multiple floors. In our review we were generally impressed with how well it performed for its price; it vacuums well thanks to a pair of side brushes and an effective brushroll (maybe too effective as it has a tendency to get tangled with hair), and it's just as good as mopping, although as with the Proscenic Floobot X1 you'll have to attach the vibrating mop pad yourself as well as filling the water reservoir.
If you don't have a lot of space you may run into problems with the base station, which needs quite a lot of clearance if you don't want the robot getting stuck when exiting; we also found that the Deebot N10 Plus can be a little on the loud side. Nevertheless, this is a lot of robot vacuum for what you'll pay.
Read our full Ecovacs Deebot N10 Plus review
Frequently asked questions
What should you look for in a budget robot vacuum?
Inevitably when you shop for the best cheap robot vacuum you're going to have to compromise on features and performance. However by thinking about what you need from a robot vacuum, you should be able to identify a model that'll work well for you without costing the earth.
One key spec to look for is maximum suction power, particularly if you have a lot of carpet. Cheap robot vacuums are sometimes lacking in suction, but you'll see that our listed options average around 3,000Pa, with the Xiaomi X20+ topping out at an impressive 6,000Pa. Bear in mind, however, that increased power means a bigger drain on the battery, and you'll want to ensure that your robot vac has a decent battery life.
Another thing to consider if you have mostly carpet is whether you actually need a robot vacuum that can mop. Mopping is a useful extra if you have a lot of hard floors, but with cheap robot vacuums it often means manually swapping in mop pads and water tanks. If you can live without mopping you can save money and instead focus on better vacuuming performance.
The best robot vacuums come with base stations that not only serve as a charging point but which can also empty and even clean your robot vac, saving you a lot of effort. With cheap robot vacuums you're more likely to get a simple charging point, which means you'll spend more time emptying your robot's bin, however three of our top choices come with more fully-featured base stations.
In terms of navigation, you might find cheaper robot vacuums use vSLAM rather than LiDAR (here's an explainer on the different robot vacuum navigation technologies), although that's not a given.
Finally, think about what smart features you need. The Eufy Robovac 11S is a good choice if you want something simple that'll just do the job, but if you want features such as automatic mapping, app control, smart scheduling and object detection, you'll probably have to up your budget a little.
How much should you spend on a robot vacuum?
This one's very subjective; basically you should spend enough money to get the performance you want from a robot vacuum, and that can depend on the size of your home, what types of flooring you have and whether you need smart features such as voice control, automatic scheduling and object detection.
Our price bands for robot vacuums are as follows:
Budget: less than $500 / £400
Mid-range: $400-$800 / £400-£650
Premium: $800+ / £650+
A good robot vacuum in the premium price bracket will pack plenty of power and should simply get on with the job, and only really require your attention when bins need emptying and water tanks refilling (notwithstanding the occasional instance when a robovac gets stuck and needs rescuing). Mid-range models will be less powerful and may need more in the way of manual intervention, while budget models are generally the least powerful and the most likely to require hands-on attention. The models we've listed in this guide are within the budget price band and the lower end of the mid-range price band.
