Best TV wall mounts 2020: the best mounting brackets, from flush mount to full motion

The best TV wall mounts make it a trivial DIY task to get your TV up and out of the way, whether you're opting for a flush-mount TV mounting bracket or a full motion TV mounting bracket that can help you angle your TV and position it away from the paint. 

But making the right choice is as critical as doing the mounting job right: the last thing you want is one of the best TVs leaving the wall of its own volition and hitting the deck. Gravity is no joke.

Some TVs now come with their own wall mounting brackets, particularly ultra-thin TVs such as the best OLED TVs. For these, we'd absolutely opt for the included bracket over any that we've recommended here. If it's specifically made for the TV in question, you can guarantee a mount that's custom designed to be solid and secure for that TVs structure. 

But for the TVs that don't require special engineering, here's our pick of the best TV mounting brackets you can buy today.

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How to choose a TV wall mount

Think of the mounting bracket as the bridge between two things: your TV, and your wall. Both are critical factors in selecting the best TV mounting bracket for your particular situation. 

Let's think about the wall. if you're looking to mount your TV to drywall, for example, you'll need a wall plate wide enough to distribute the weight of your TV over a large area, and you'll also need to find your studs to make sure you're placing that bracket in a suitable position. In brick, you'll have a little more flexibility, but you'll still need something secure enough to not bend or sag when the TV is dangling off the other end.

Realistically, today's TVs are rarely outrageously heavy, but if you have a particularly weighty screen you'll absolutely want to factor that into your mount selection. The real consideration will be your TV's mounting points. Thankfully these follow a uniform standard, known as VESA, which ensures that the same four-point brackets will fit all TVs which conform to that VESA size. 

But not all brackets include the hardware to connect to every VESA size, which is issue number one, and issue number two is port access. If your TV runs its main source connectors along the bottom, you may find that some VESA brackets make accessing these next to impossible. Most new TVs have their ports on the side for this reason, but check first with older TVs.

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The best TV wall mounts: listed

Proper's arm has a simple design to it that doesn't look like much, and we wouldn't place it in the uppermost reaches of the sturdiness bracket, but it's plenty strong nonetheless. It's suitable for everything from 100x100 VESA mounts all the way up to 600x400, with all the hardware you need for any of them included in the box. Rather than using a VESA plate, it makes use of a pair of vertical brackets which should (all being well) mean it doesn't block any vital inputs.

Over half a metre of extension from the wall makes this a great bracket if you're planning to re-angle your TV regularly, and it has an adjustable tilt to make sure you get the best viewing angles possible. Basic, sure, but not a bad price. 

One For All employs a dual-arm scissor design here, which offers a bit more peace of mind than single-arm brackets. It also means the Ultra Slim XL Bracket can fold pretty flat against the wall without a protracted fight to orient the bracket in exactly the right configuration to get your TV where you want it. There's an angling handle, too, so you won't smear your TV's bezels with sticky fingers.

It's pretty discrete, with white-painted hardware and a cable management system which actually looks to have had some thought put into it, unlike those brackets which include flimsy plastic shrouds that pop off as soon as a wire is waved in their vague vicinity. And the Ultra Slim XL Bracket doesn't just look sturdy. One For All is so confident in its abilities it rates this for 90-inch TVs up to 70kg. If you can find a modern TV weighing over 70kg we wish you luck: this is a good level of built-in redundancy.

How complex does a TV bracket really need to be? If you're only interested in hanging your TV flush against the wall, One For All's ingenious mounting system might be all you need. There's not really a bracket here, as such. You mount four components to the VESA mounting holes on the back of your TV, the top two of which slot into corresponding brackets mounted on the wall, with the bottom two providing equal spacing. One of those has a little wire leg, which can give the TV a little upward tilt away from the wall, and the two wall-mounted brackets are hinged to allow you to pivot up the TV to hook up cables.

Dead simple, then, and very flush to the wall, though there are of course a few drawbacks. There's no downward tilt, so this won't necessarily suit if you're mounting your TV high up on a wall. It's also unlikely to work with any TV with a curved back, though it will fit basically any VESA mount from 75x75 to 800x600.

Full motion doesn't always mean full motion; you'll frequently find brackets which swivel, tilt and enable you to pull a mounted TV away from the wall, but up-and-down movement isn't nearly as common. Sandstrom's high-end mount, more expensive on its own than some TVs, includes a gas lift which enables you to reposition your TV on the vertical axis, making it great for multi-use bedrooms or just those situations where you might sometimes want that TV a little lower.

That extra flexibility does come at a cost, with a far lower maximum TV weight than many other brackets, and support only for TVs up to 55 inches. But if you really need that up/down option, this is one of few choices out there.

Invision's budget bracket lands right in the bargain bucket, particularly because the company also throws in a dinky spirit level and a 1.8m HDMI cable with your penny-pinching purchase, but don't discount it because of its price or gimmicks. It's absolutely strong enough, and its double-arm design gives it a fair amount of rigidity. Credit, also, for Invision's use of an adjustable, smaller mounting plate for the TV portion, which can be tweaked to fit just about any TV without clashing with its ports.

It won't suit TVs on the heavier end, and you don't get quite as much forward travel as some brackets offer, but this will do the job. Frankly, so will most of the other brackets out there with precisely the same design – and possibly even the same hardware – as this; we'd probably opt for the reassurance of more expensive TV wall mounts, but for a cheaper TV this seems more than suitable for the cost.

Very basic it may be, with only one axis of articulation on its arm and a rather short extension with it, but Logik's smaller bracket is a good shout for mounting smaller TVs in more confined spaces. It maxes out at TVs of 32 inches, but it's solid for smaller screens – we've used one to wall mount an office monitor. If you don't quite get the wall screws plumb, there's even a small degree of rotation in the bracket to ensure your screen is straight.

At full price it's perhaps a little more expensive than we'd like for something so simple, but it's one of those products that sees frequent discounts so it's worth keeping one eye on the price. 

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