Best toaster 2026: for bread, crumpets, buns, bagels and muffins
This lavish spread of the best toasters for all budgets will make you the toast of the town
When it comes to the best toaster, we're here to help. Toast is the bread and butter of breakfast cuisine and if you want to have perfect toast every time, you'll need the best toaster in your kitchen. Toasters are available at a bewildering array of prices, from cheap plastic models to multi-functional bread crisping machines made with the same amount of metal as a small family car.
We have a hunch that you are here to peruse the wildest and most expensive toasters available to mankind and if that's the case, you'll find plenty of high-end toasting machines in this roundup. The Dualit Newgen is still our top choice, but that doesn't mean the other options here aren't worth your perusal.
The top three
For the best toaster overall, the award goes to the classic Dualit NewGen. It performs well and looks great – what more could you want?
If you want to upgrade your toaster without paying an obscene price, Russell Hobbs is the place to go, and the Groove Toaster is the one to pick.
Everyone loves a premium kettle, and it doesn't get much better than any of Sage's offerings, especially The Smart Toast!
Lizzie is T3's Senior Home Writer, with extensive expertise in the world of kitchen appliances. She's tested most of the options in this list and beyond, making her your go-to guide when it comes to the best toasters.
We’ve refreshed our best toaster guide with the newest models tested in 2025 and 2026.
Best toaster ranking 2026
The best toaster overall
The Dualit NewGen toaster is a true kitchen classic – built with the brand’s commercial heritage and refined into a premium, long-lasting design. It delivers excellent browning and consistency, and one of its biggest selling points is that almost every part is replaceable and serviceable, meaning it’s designed to last for years, if not decades.
In use, it feels very different from most modern toasters. The manual, old-school controls and mechanical timer take a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it’s fast and impressively consistent. The slots are wide and deep, the eject system works well even with smaller slices, and you can lift toast mid-cycle and lower it again without cancelling the heat. Features like defrost and bagel modes are also effective, and the slot selector is a clever touch, especially on the 4-slice model.
That said, it’s not without quirks. The exterior does get quite hot, and there are very clear safety warnings around clearance and placement, which can feel a bit intense but are there for good reason. It’s also more expensive than many alternatives that achieve similar results. Still, the build quality, performance and longevity make it feel more like a “buy once, keep forever” product.
The best affordable toaster
The Russell Hobbs Groove toaster is a great everyday option if you’re tired of burning your fingers trying to fish out smaller slices of toast from a stubborn appliance. It’s designed with extra-wide slots and a high-lift function, which makes retrieving toast a lot easier than you'd initially think.
There’s a six-setting browning dial so you can fine-tune how golden you want your toast, along with dedicated buttons for frozen and reheat functions. There’s also a cancel button if you change your mind mid-cycle, which is always handy for avoiding overdone toast.
It has a clean, modern look with subtle styling that fits easily into most kitchens without standing out too much. Best of all, it’s very affordable – often available for under £30 at a range of retailers – making it a strong budget-friendly choice if you just want something reliable, straightforward and easy to live with day to day.
The best premium toaster
Available in both two and four-slot versions, this toaster produces consistently excellent toast at speed. The design is more compact and refined, but still feels well thought out, with motorised slots and a good range of settings for a toaster in this category.
The controls are also refreshingly simple without feeling basic. Everything is clearly labelled, including Quick Look so you can check on your toast without interrupting the cycle, and A Bit More for those moments when it just needs an extra minute. There are also dedicated frozen and crumpet settings, with the latter intelligently only toasting one side. It’s all very intuitive, which makes it easy to get consistent results straight away.
The slots themselves are wide and deep enough for most types of bread, and a neatly integrated illuminated countdown timer under the browning slider gives you a clear sense of how long is left. It’s worth noting this sits at the more expensive end of the market for a toaster, but the combination of speed and consistency does go some way to justifying the price.
The best touchscreen toaster
Not everyone will want a touchscreen toaster, but the Cuisinart SimpliTouch is one of those appliances that makes you rethink what a toaster can actually do. The full-colour touchscreen is bright, responsive and packed with options, giving you far more control over your toast than a traditional dial ever could.
What surprised our reviewer the most is how useful that extra control actually is. Being able to see a colour-coded indication of how your slice will come out makes the whole process feel more precise and, oddly enough, more consistent too. Despite all the tech, it’s still straightforward to use, with clearly labelled settings that help you get repeatable results.
It’s mostly stainless steel, including the slots and lever, which gives it a premium feel on the counter. The touchscreen sits at the front and acts as the main control hub, with quick options like defrost, single-slice mode and a +15 seconds boost.
The best looking toaster
The Smeg TSF01 toaster delivers a retro-inspired design that feels stylish without being too loud, and unlike some more statement Smeg appliances, it’s actually easy to imagine it fitting into a wide range of kitchens.
Non-slip feet keep it stable on the worktop, whilst the removable crumb tray makes cleaning quick and easy. There’s even integrated cable storage to help keep things tidy when it’s not in use.
When it comes to performance, the toaster produces consistently even toast thanks to its automatic centring racks, which help ensure uniform browning on both sides. The slots are wide enough to handle a variety of bread types, and it includes the usual premium extras like Defrost and Bagel settings for more controlled toasting.
Available in a range of playful pastel colours alongside a classic black option, it’s very much a design-led appliance, but one that still focuses on doing the basics properly.
The best toaster for settings
The KitchenAid Artisan toaster sits firmly at the premium end of the market, and it shows in both its build and price. The 2-slice version comes in a range of seven colours, including more subtle tones like pistachio, alongside darker finishes such as cast iron black.
In use, it’s a noticeably substantial appliance with a weighty feel. The motorised lowering and lifting mechanism works smoothly, and there are useful extras like a +30 seconds function if your toast needs a bit more time, plus the usual Defrost and Bagel modes. It consistently produces very well-browned toast, and in terms of performance, there’s very little to fault.
The main question is really one of value. It’s an excellent toaster, but it’s also significantly more expensive than strong alternatives like Russell Hobbs or even premium competitors such as Dualit or Sage. Whether it’s worth that jump in price depends on how much you value design, finish and motorised features over purely functional toasting.
The best innovative toaster
The Haier I-Master Series 7 toaster stands out as one of the most innovative toasters on the market thanks to its unusual combination of smart functionality and visual design. It features a glass viewing window that lets you watch your toast gradually brown, which helps reduce the risk of over-toasting and gives you far more control than some of the other options in this list.
Beyond the viewing window, it’s also one of the most versatile models available. It comes with 12 preset functions covering everything from standard bread and bagels to waffles and even pizza slices, each paired with seven browning levels. That level of customisation is well beyond what you typically get in a toaster, making it far more adaptable to different foods and preferences.
It does a strong job of combining practicality with innovation, and it's worth mentioning the glass panels are removable and dishwasher-safe, which makes cleaning much easier than you’d expect from a design this advanced.
The best toaster for sourdough
The Breville Edge 4-Slice Toaster is a strong choice if you regularly make toast for more than one person, or simply prefer a toaster that can handle different bread styles. One of its biggest strengths is how well it deals with thicker (and longer) breads like sourdough and ciabatta. The wider slots give these denser slices enough room to toast evenly without getting stuck or unevenly browned.
The even heat distribution and adjustable browning control help you find that balance properly, rather than ending up with a burnt edge and underdone centre. It also lifts slices higher than many standard toasters, which is useful when you’re dealing with crusty loaves.
The stainless steel design feels high-quality and is easy to keep clean, which helps it hold up well in a busy kitchen. Crumbs and fingerprints wipe away easily, and it doesn’t tend to look tired after repeated use. Despite its size, the controls are well placed along the long edge, making it simple to adjust settings like browning level or crumpet mode without having to awkwardly reach around the unit.
The best toaster for large families
The Sage A Bit More toaster is particularly well suited to large families because it’s built around speed and ease of use when you’re making multiple rounds of toast in quick succession. With its rapid heating and reliable browning control, it can handle back-to-back batches without drifting in performance, which is exactly what you need when you’ve got several people waiting for breakfast at the same time.
The front-facing controls are clearly laid out, with dedicated settings for frozen bread and more delicate items like crumpets or fruit loaf, so different family members can get what they want. The quick look function is also very useful, letting you check progress mid-cycle without cancelling the toast.
The “A Bit More” button is another small but very useful touch, allowing you to immediately run another short cycle without resetting everything. Combined with the clear sliding timer and quick response time, it keeps things moving without slowing down the routine.
It’s not the cheapest option at just under £100, but for households where the toaster is constantly in use, it's a practical choice rather than just a premium one.
The best toaster for small families
On the other hand, we think the KitchenAid 2-Slice Toaster 5KMT2109BPT is a strong fit for small families. With just two slots, it’s compact enough not to dominate the kitchen counter, but still powerful enough to handle quick breakfasts for one or two people without slowing down.
The extra-wide slots handle everything from standard sliced bread to bagels and thicker artisan pieces, whilst the multiple browning levels mean different people can still get their toast exactly how they like it.
The high-lift lever makes smaller slices safer to remove, and the compact footprint means it fits comfortably into tighter kitchens without feeling cluttered. In short, it just does the essentials really well, which is exactly what you want for a smaller household.
How to buy the best toaster
Is it worth paying extra for a toaster? We reckon so, but then we love toast and we love cool-looking kitchen tech. Pay more and you get something that looks nicer, and should consistently make better toast, first time, thanks to greater controllability.
It should also last longer – Dualit's best toasters are made so that every part can be serviced or replaced, so theoretically, they'll last forever. Often, more premium toasters will make the toast quicker, although not always. In fact, because toasting is a process of both cooking and drying, sometimes it pays to wait a little longer if you want perfect crispiness.
The most important thing is that the best toasters should toast uniformly – both in terms of browning all of both sides of the bread to the same degree, and also in the sense that each batch of toast comes out the same as the last, without needing to fiddle with the timer setting. Cheaper toasters will usually produce a first batch that is less cooked than subsequent ones, as it's starting 'from cold'.
How we test the best toasters
When testing toasters, we don’t just look at how many browning settings they have or what they claim on the box – we actually live with them in a normal kitchen and use them the way most people realistically would.
A big part of the testing is how evenly each toaster handles different bread types. Standard sliced bread is only part of the picture, so we also use thicker sourdough, bagels, frozen bread and more delicate items like crumpets to see how well each model adapts. This is where things like slot width, heat distribution and lift mechanisms really start to show their strengths – or weaknesses that is.
We also pay attention to the small usability details that only become obvious after repeated use. Things like how easy it is to retrieve smaller slices without burning your fingers, whether the controls make sense without reading a manual, and how quickly you can tweak settings mid-cycle.
Finally, we look at consistency over time. A good toaster shouldn’t just make one perfect slice – it should make the tenth slice just as good as the first. We also consider cleaning and build quality, checking how easily crumbs are managed and whether the finish holds up after a few weeks of regular use.
Best toaster FAQs
1. What size toaster do I need?
It usually depends on household size and usage. A 2-slice toaster is ideal for individuals or small families with limited counter space, whilst a 4-slice model is better for larger households. If you regularly cook for several people, a 4-slice model will save time and reduce queueing at breakfast.
2. How do I clean my toaster properly?
Start by unplugging the toaster and letting it cool completely, then remove and empty the crumb tray.
For the exterior, use a soft damp cloth, and remember never to submerge the toaster in water. If crumbs are stuck inside, gently shake it upside down over a bin, and avoid inserting sharp objects into the slots.
3. Are expensive toasters actually worth it?
We know there are a lot of premium toasters in this guide, but it's not a secret that higher-priced toasters often offer better build quality and more consistent heating. Cheaper models can still make decent toast, but they may struggle with even browning or durability over time. If you use your toaster every day or want precise control over different bread types, spending more can be worthwhile.
Reviewer Panel
Lizzie is T3’s Senior Home Writer, and has reviewed more toasters than she probably cares to count. She knows exactly what separates decent toast from great toast – and more importantly, how to avoid the burnt stuff.
Derek specialises in home and outdoor tech, and has tested a wide range of kitchen appliances over the years, including more toasters than most people would think possible.
Rob has been reviewing tech for longer than he likes to admit, including a fair number of toasters and kettles along the way. His experience means he’s particularly good at spotting which features actually improve daily use, and which are just marketing extras.
Lee is usually tucked away reviewing the latest hair dryers or beard trimmers, but he’s also spent time testing kitchen appliances over the years, including the occasional toaster.
Duncan is the former Lifestyle Editor of T3 and has been writing about consumer tech for almost 15 years. Over that time he’s reviewed plenty of kitchen appliances, including toasters across all price ranges.
Beth is T3’s Home Editor and has put a wide range of toasters through their paces, from simple budget models to more advanced designs.
Alongside her work covering homes and interiors, Cynthia has tested her fair share of kitchen gadgets, including toasters.