11 Best Vacuum Cleaners for Every Home, Tested by Experts

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When shopping for a new vacuum, decision paralysis can hit when you’re given so many options with seemingly endless brands, styles and models to choose from, not to mention prices ranging from budget-friendly vacuums under $100 to well over $1,000 from online retailers like Amazon. While most vacuum cleaners should work well on low- to medium-pile carpets and bare floors, choosing the best vacuum cleaner for you and your home means also thinking about the surface(s) you’ll be vacuuming.

Since experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab test each vaccum three times for cleaning performance and suction, our latest test of 20 models quickly multiplied into 320 separate tests. From all of our testing and data tabulation, we chose these models as the best vacuum cleaners of 2023.

Our top picks:

Over the years, we have tested hundreds of different types of vacuum cleaners, putting together lists of the the best robot vacuums, top-performing HEPA vacuums, best-in-class handheld vacuums and more. We consider bagged and bagless, corded and cordless models and test how easy each one is to maneuver, what tools it comes with and its overall performance.

You can read more about how we evaluate vacuums in our Lab, plus everything you need to know to find the best vacuum cleaner for your home, at the end of this guide. Didn’t find the right one for your needs here? Check out our guides to the best vacuums for hardwood floors, best vacuums for pet hair and best canister vacuums for more options. As Amazon Prime Day 2023 rolls around, make sure keep tabs on any Prime Day vacuum deals so you can snag products from more expensive brands, like a Dyson vacuum, at a discounted price.

Upright Vacuum

If you prefer bagless vacuums, but still want a model that filters out tiny particles, this sealed vacuum with a HEPA filter is a great option. While we haven't tested this model in our Lab, it has similar features to our previous pick for best overall, the APEX Upright Vacuum Cleaner, which has since been discontinued by Shark.

Its two brush roll system is able to dig deep into carpets as well as pick up dirt, debris and hair from hard floors. The vacuum also has a self-cleaning brush roll that prevents hair clogging. Odor Neutralizer Technology limits odors inside the vacuum, according to the manufacturer, and you can even turn the upright vacuum into a stick vacuum. This is ideal for cleaning furniture, windowsills and more — plus makes transporting the vacuum up and down flights of stairs less of a hassle.

Online reviews appreciate the vacuum's powerful suction, clean smell thanks to the odor technology and flexibility when it comes to the amount of surfaces it can tackle. Some customers do note that the vacuum can be heavy.

APEX Upright Vacuum Cleaner

If you prefer bagless vacuums, but still want a model that filters out tiny particles, this sealed vacuum with a HEPA filter is a great option. In our most recent Cleaning Lab tests, it earned top scores for its powerful suction and debris pick up on both bare floor and carpet.

Its two carpet modes are designed to increase the brush roll’s speed to better remove debris from your carpet fibers, an ideal feature for homes with carpet heights that range from low to high pile, though it did not perform as well as other models when we used it to clean deeply embedded dirt in our test carpets.

This upright vacuum is heavier than other models on our list and a few of our testers commented that because of its weight, it was difficult to turn. It's helpful that it easily converts from an upright to a canister with the press of a button and has a brush roll that’s designed to minimize messy hair tangles though the brush roll cannot be turned off, even on hard floor cleaning mode. Both the pre-motor filters and HEPA filter are washable and emptying and reattaching the dust cup wasn’t too difficult.

READ OUR FULL REVIEW: Why the Shark APEX Is Our Top-Tested Vacuum

CleanView Bagless Vacuum

This affordable upright vacuum from Bissell is a fan favorite on Amazon with a 4.6-rating. We haven’t tested this exact model, but we’ve tested many others from Bissell, including older models with the same OnePass technology and included it in our list of the best vacuums from Bissell thanks to its powerful suction and features that make it great for cleaning hard floors and carpets.

While it doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles more modern vacuums have like different suction options or a brush roll that can be turned off, it does have five height options ranging from bare floors to high pile carpets, a 6-foot hose for cleaning stairs and high places and an easy to empty, bottom-opening, large dust cup. This vacuum does not have a HEPA filter, but has a pre and post motor filter that must be replaced every three to six months.

A few of our other favorite features are a on/off button you can press with your foot, a TurboBrush tool similar to the motorized pet tools in many other models, a rewindable cord and on-board storage for all of the tools included.

CleanView Bagless Vacuum

This affordable upright vacuum from Bissell is a fan favorite on Amazon with a 4.6-rating. We haven’t tested this exact model, but we’ve tested many others from Bissell, including older models with the same OnePass technology and included it in our list of the best vacuums from Bissell thanks to its powerful suction and features that make it great for cleaning hard floors and carpets.

While it doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles more modern vacuums have like different suction options or a brush roll that can be turned off, it does have five height options ranging from bare floors to high pile carpets, a 6-foot hose for cleaning stairs and high places and an easy to empty, bottom-opening, large dust cup. This vacuum does not have a HEPA filter, but has a pre and post motor filter that must be replaced every three to six months.

A few of our other favorite features are a on/off button you can press with your foot, a TurboBrush tool similar to the motorized pet tools in many other models, a rewindable cord and on-board storage for all of the tools included.

Pet Hair Eraser Turbo Plus Vacuum

This vacuum cleaner comes fully loaded with features that'll suck up every last bit of unwanted pet hair. A tangle-free brush roll keeps pet hair from clogging the bristles, and a hair spooling system inside the canister contains the mess so emptying is easier and cleaner.

Like many other of the best vacuums from Bissell, it comes with a great deal of tools like a 2-in-1 pet dusting brush and Pet TurboEraser Tool that can be used to pick up pet hairs. It did well in our Lab tests for its ease of use and powerful suction, but we didn’t love its lack of a retractable cord for easier storage.

Cleaning hardwood floors with vacuums that have hard bristles on the brush roll can be damaging, causing small scratches that can ruin the finish on sealed hardwood floors. The Pet Hair Eraser Turbo makes cleaning hardwood floors safer with a brush roll that can be turned off with the click of a button. Auto-height adjustment and two suction options for low and plush carpets make switching across cleaning surfaces easier too, though it is heavier than some reviewers would like.

This vacuum does not have a HEPA filter, but its sealed allergen system traps fine particles, and the filter uses Febreze technology to eliminate those stale odors that vacuuming up pet hair can generate.

RELATED: 8 Best Vacuums for Pet Hair, Tested & Reviewed

Boost CX1 Parquet

This canister vacuum was one of the winners of our 2022 Cleaning & Organizing Awards thanks to its powerful suction and notably small size.

This version of the model comes with a parquet floor brush specifically designed for hardwood floors, but can also be purchased with a universal floor brush for bare floors and carpets or a TurboBrush for picking up pet hair. In our tests, it left no debris behind on carpets, hardwood floors or tiles, was easy to maneuver and reached far enough to clean a long length of our Institute hallways without having to switch power outlets.

Its dust cup can be removed and reinstalled seamlessly without the need to even press a button and though some dust may escape during emptying because of its bagless design, it is equipped with a HEPA filter minimizing the amount of allergens that can be released into the air.

Our Cleaning Lab Reviews Analyst loved the sleek design, calling it “cute enough to keep out of the closet.” It has a retractable cord and a place on board to clip the wand, but one of our testers wished that it also had room to wrap the hose around the canister for even neater storage.

V15 Detect Cordless Vacuum Cleaner

Consistently one of the best stick vacuums for its excellent performance and incredible features, the V15 Detect earned a Good Housekeeping Cleaning Award thanks to the bare floor brush that beamed a laser on the floor to spot and pick up even the tiniest bits of debris that were otherwise invisible to us.

It has a pretty high price tag and lacks a HEPA filter, but does automatically increase the suction and speed of the brush roll depending on the floor type and how much dust it senses during cleaning, plus includes an abundance of tools like a dusting brush, hair screw tool and digital motorbar.

It also has a clear LCD display that indicates battery life and real-time performance like the number and size of particles picked up and almost all of its reviews on Amazon are five stars with one reviewer notably saying, “This vacuum is the second thing I would grab if my house was on fire.” The V15 Detect can be easily turned into a hand vacuum, though at over six pounds, it might be a bit too heavy to use as one.

EASINE W100 Cordless Wet Dry Vacuum Cleaner

The Ilife Easine W100 is a 2-in-1 device that can vacuum and mop your floors at the same time, picking up wet and dry messes. In our Lab tests, we put 11 of these wet-dry vacuum mop devices through tests for dry debris like oats and wet messes like water and tested their scrubbing ability with a soy sauce stain on vinyl flooring.

This vacuum mop earned the highest overall score, performing well across all of our performance tests on wet and dry messes plus scrubbing. It has two tanks to separate the clean water used to clean your floors from the dirty water that is suctioned as you go, but was one of the only models we tested that did not have a catch in the dirty tank to separate the picked up debris from the dirty water. You can control how much water, or if any water is dispensed at all, with the click of a button and removing and reinstalling the water tanks is simple.

Like most of these appliances, after you’re done cleaning, the vacuum mop is then placed on its charging base to run through a self-clean cycle that gets rid of all the debris left behind in the brushroll. The self-cleaning cycles on these devices are far from perfect and this model was no different, but of the 11 models we tested, this was one of the most effective. The HEPA filter is washable and it can run for up to 30 minutes, though you’ll have to wait four hours for a full charge. While the W100 is lightweight, it does not automatically move forward when it's on so you’ll have to do a little pushing to get it moving.

CordZero Stick Vacuum Cleaner Wet Mop All-in-One Tower

Another winner from our 2022 Cleaning and Organizing Awards, this combo unit performed very well in our Lab tests, picking up dry oats across carpets, hard wood floors and tiles.