The Best Cheap & Budget Friendly Electric Toothbrushes

Why do we make these recommendations?

The answer is really quite simple. These are the products we would buy ourselves or recommend to our closest family and friends if we or they had a budget of approximately $30 or less.

These are the products we know will do a good job of cleaning the teeth (when used correctly). The cleaning actions are backed with scientific evidence and we have seen firsthand how well they remove plaque from the teeth.

Sonicare and Oral-B are major players within the oral care industry and you can pretty much be assured that their brushes will give you many years of trouble free use. And should the worst happen, you will be able to access repair or replacement relatively quickly and easily.

You will also be able to source replacement brush heads with little stress. Most major grocers and pharmacies stock them.

Given a choice, we would advocate that you choose our top recommended electric toothbrush, the Oral-B Smart 1500, rather than our top choice for a budget toothbrush.

By spending just a bit extra, you will gain considerably more.

Notably, our recommendations for the best budget electric toothbrush do not include a pressure sensor.

The cleaning action will likely be more intense and invigorating and slightly more effective in removing plaque.

Battery life and charge feedback tends to be better too.

And there are often additional useful accessories like travel cases included in the box. You just don’t normally get these with cheap brushes.

When specifically looking at budget electric toothbrushes, there are and will always be other brushes from other companies that could well be deserving of our recommendation.

However, as we document in the following sections, sometimes what might appear better doesn’t always deliver.

Alas, there is no one perfect brush for everyone and we do always advise making a decision on the right oral care products for you in conjunction with your dental professional.

But, when taking everything into consideration for the vast majority of users, we can confidently stand by our recommendations knowing they will serve you well.

Other brushes we considered

Whilst the hundreds of brushes we have tested don’t all fall into the budget category, they certainly help guide us into understanding what makes a good toothbrush.

As a consequence, we can much more confidently recommend the products we do.

There are a fair few brushes that cost less than $30 and the vast majority are not at all bad.

The Oral-B Vitality is essentially identical to the Pro 500, but lacks the 30 second pacer. It is somewhere in the region of $5 less than the Pro 500 as a consequence.

You might still find some stocking the Sonicare Essence.  This is an older model, essentially replaced by the 1100 featured above. It is bulky and a little dated in its design, but it still does the job.

The Pursonic Rechargeable S330 rotary toothbrush certainly presents itself as a very affordable option with no less than 12 brush heads included.

It uses a rotating cleaning action a little like Oral-B and does too have the 2 minute timer and 30 second pacer. That is in addition to the 3 different cleaning modes and charging stand that includes space to store up to 4 of those 12 heads.

It isn’t widely sold and sourcing replacement brush heads once the 12 supplied have been used isn’t as simple as it is with the major brands.

Target’s up&up rechargeable toothbrush has a similar design and feature set to older generations of the Oral-B Vitality.  

It has 2 round brush heads included in the box, as is a charging stand complete with a place to store that spare head.

Because the head is small and round, it is easy to access tighter spaces in the mouth.

This is a no nonsense toothbrush with 1 cleaning mode that you can rely on.  

A 2 minute timer is present and the handle is grippy too, thanks to textured surfaces.

Walmart offers the Equate Infinity rechargeable electric toothbrush. Identical to the up&up brush, is uses a nickel metal hydride battery that is sealed inside the handle and is claimed to offer 5x better cleaning at the gum line than a manual toothbrush.

Replacement brush heads for the Equate Infinity and up&up rechargeable brushes are comparably priced to those heads from Oral-B.  This means they are quite a bit cheaper than Sonicare equivalents. But, they don’t bring the cost saving you might expect, unless you buy larger packs of heads.

One thing to consider is that the best affordable and cheap toothbrushes might actually cost more than our suggested $30 budget to buy initially.

We pointed out that the Sonicare 1100 was cheap to buy, but replacement heads were expensive. Therefore over 3 years, it wasn’t as affordable as you might think.

But this principle applies the other way too. There are brushes or packages where the initial purchase price is higher than our suggested $30 budget.

But, because the package includes multiple brush heads and accessories when priced over 3 years, for example, they become much more affordable.

Take the Aquasonic Vibe Series and Black Series. The Vibe sells for around $37, but you get 8 brush heads included in the box. Therefore the total ownership cost over 3 years is $48.  The Oral-B Pro 500 is in the region of $85. Plus you get a travel case with the Aquasonic.

Arguably the Aquasonic is a better cheap toothbrush, particularly when you consider both have been awarded the American Dental Associations Seal of Acceptance. But issues around warranty support and replacement brush head availability play a part in the decision process.

Fairywill’s range of toothbrushes is another example of this. The E11 is one model in particular that stands out. Though as our next section explains, there are potential complications to consider. We don’t recommend Fairywill products because of high rates of the product failing, and the company’s abuse of reviews leading to a ban from selling on Amazon (we talk about that more here).

Technically, electric toothbrushes include those powered by built-in rechargeable and removable batteries such as AA or AAA. However, we tend to separate those with removable batteries into their own category. 

In most instances, those with removable batteries don’t compete quite as well as those with rechargeable batteries sealed in the handle.

Our best battery toothbrush article gives our top recommendations if a removable power source is important to you. 

The Philips One is one of the best options. Compact, lightweight and simple to use it is a very likeable toothbrush. Unfortunately, the cleaning power of the motor is weak and it relies on using a brushing technique the same as a manual toothbrush, rather than the easier techniques required with most other electric brushes.

It is the same story for the GLEEM battery toothbrush.

There is no denying it is super slim as to is the travel case, but the motor is weak, the battery cover a bit fiddly and there appears to be no warranty, despite being made by Procter & Gamble, the owners of Braun Oral-B.

The biggest benefit of using removable batteries for most is you are not reliant on a power outlet. This is particularly appealing to travelers. Then again, there are some other criteria travelers have and subsequently we have an article with a number of travel friendly electric toothbrushes, if this is what you are after.

Going too cheap — too good to be true?

It might come as a surprise to some, but there is such a thing as going too cheap. 

In the years we have been testing brushes, we have yet to test an electric toothbrush that is less than $15 that really captures our attention in any serious way.

Yes, inevitably there are some that are impressive options for the price, but there is always a compromise. What that compromise is depends on the brand and the particular model in question.

The big question that needs to be asked is how can something be produced this cheap?

Are cheap labor sources being exploited? What quality of materials are being used? Are the appropriate taxes being paid to sell such a product?

It does vary from one product to another, but our experience is that quality and reliability are often the biggest compromises. The product looks and feels cheap and rarely lasts longer than the 1 year warranty, if that long.

And because it is so cheap, it is easier and more convenient to throw away the faulty one and replace it with a new one, rather than repair it.

Manufacturers know this and it can work in their favor.

Some sellers and brands, particularly those from China, exploit this opportunity. Many work on the basis of making a profit by selling much higher volumes than their more expensive counterparts. The saying ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’ comes to mind.

We are not saying this is a dishonorable tactic, but it is one that doesn’t sit particularly well with us considering the environmental impact electric toothbrushes have.

Selling a product really cheap isn’t typically sustainable long term. Keeping a high sales volume is particularly challenging and given the levels of competition in the market today it is far from easy.

This is something that the Chinese brand Fairywill has experienced.

They did and still do make some exceptionally cheap products. But where they were once selling thousands through the likes of Amazon, they are now selling very few.

This is because they had to constantly fight to become the top seller and be recommended by the algorithm. In order to achieve this, the company broke Amazon’s terms of service to gain high star ratings and sales on the platform. It ultimately led to them being kicked off Amazon and doing significant harm to their business overnight.

Ignoring the shady tactics and what it takes to sell on Amazon, the biggest losers are the existing owners of Fairywill products.

With their main sales outlet now closed, Fairywill has been unable to sustain support for customers. It has gotten a bit better since, but for many months after being kicked off the platform Fairywill brush owners couldn’t get replacement brush heads or spare parts.

We have had many complaints of poor or no response to warranty claims. We can comment from first-hand experience on how communications with representatives from the company went unanswered.

There is a cost to offering something cheap and that cost often is more impactful long term than paying a few extra pounds initially to get a better quality product.

Smaller companies and new brands don’t have the overhead costs of the major players like Oral-B, Philips and Colgate. 

They can bring better value products to market more rapidly. But the vast majority don’t have the same reputation, reliability and infrastructure in place.

You may well get an absolutely fantastic deal on a brush from a relatively unknown brand online, but when you need replacement brush heads where are you going to go?  How can you be assured the replacement heads will be there in the future? And what if the brush goes wrong?

Buyers guide

In our best electric toothbrush article we include an extensive buyer’s guide.

The whole point of our recommendations is that we have done all the hard work in picking the best models within a particular price range.

We have done the research, we have bought the brushes, and we have extensively tested and learned what makes one brush better than another.

You might well have specific needs and wants and it may well be possible to find specifically what you want and still ensure the toothbrush is cheap. 

But more often than not, where you gain or benefit from one thing, you lose out on another.

This article focuses on the most affordable electric toothbrushes and doesn’t include all the things that you could potentially consider when buying one, such as cleaning modes and the various features available.

We do however cover that information in our buyer’s guide, so check that out should you wish to delve deeper.