Best stand mixer for home baking, according to Mumsnet users and MNHQ testing

When Mumsnet users are asked for stand mixer recommendations on the Mumsnet forums, the Kenwood kMix is mentioned time and time again and consistently praised for its powerful, durable and versatile design. Mumsnet users claim it's a great KitchenAid alternative and, as such, it confidently takes the top spot as the best stand mixer overall and the best stand mixer for cakes.

The Kenwood kMix comes with all the essentials for everyday baking, including a beater, whisk and dough hook. It can help you create flavoured breads, cakes and pavlovas with ease, while the fold function is handy if you’re preparing soufflés, mousses or meringues. While the attachments are high-quality, some users recommend upgrading to the rubber-sided beater for larger batches, which helps scrape every last ounce of mixture from the bowl.

We love how you can see the contents through the sides of the sturdy glass bowl, with graduations up the side to help measure your ingredients. Thanks to the variable-speed control and splash guard, you won’t have to wipe batter off your tiles and countertops.

Don’t be fooled by the relatively affordable price point. Despite costing a fraction of some premium stand mixers, Kenwood appliances are praised by Mumsnet users for their longevity. Some users report more than 10 years of use, making it a worthy investment for your kitchen.

Retailing at under £100, the Salter British Bakes Stand Mixer offers excellent value for money. Surprisingly powerful and equipped with a generous 5-litre mixing bowl, it’s a great choice for beginners or budget-conscious households.

While there are fewer speed and precision options than on some of the premium appliances on our list, there’s plenty of flexibility for everyday baking tasks. It comes with three essential attachments - a whisk, beater and dough hook - helping you get started straight out of the box. You’ll also find a removable splash guard, handy for protecting your countertops when you’re a little overzealous with the speed dial.

The finish may not be as stylish as the Kenwood or KitchenAid, but at less than 4kg, it's much lighter and more portable, making it far easier to move around your kitchen.

An icon among stand mixers, the stylish KitchenAid Artisan range has quite rightly earned its place on many Mumsnet users' wish lists. While the original Artisan mixer is an excellent choice, the Artisan Plus earns a place in our guide thanks to its unique bowl illumination feature, which gives you a clearer view of your mixture as you bake.

The Artisan Plus doesn’t just look stunning. This premium appliance comes with a wide range of attachments, making it equally suited to creating pizza dough with the kids, whipping up batches of cookie dough or tackling more ambitious baking projects from scratch. We particularly love the silicone edges on the beater attachment, which scrape the sides as it mixes, so you won’t need to reach for the spatula as often.

With 11 prebuilt speed settings and a precision dial, you can gradually increase the speed to prevent ingredients from splattering. There's also a handy half-speed setting, useful for gently incorporating delicate ingredients without overmixing.

Whether your passion is pastries, pancakes or pies, this versatile Bosch stand mixer has you covered. With a vast array of attachments included, it’s ideal for everyday baking while offering plenty of scope for more ambitious home cooks.

The powerful 1,000W motor can handle heavy dough as well as food-processing tasks. Home bakers will appreciate the combination of a professional patisserie set and seven speed settings, which offer plenty of control across different recipes.

While the bowl is smaller than those of some of our top picks, we like the 3D PlanetaryMixing action, which is designed to reach ingredients around the sides and base of the bowl.

The accessories are quick and easy to change and, as they’re dishwasher-safe, cleaning up is surprisingly simple too.

Tested by Mumsnet editor Rebecca Roberts: Read our full Kenwood MultiPro Go Review  

If you have a small kitchen or are already sharing your countertop space with essentials like a kettle and air fryer, the size and weight of a traditional stand mixer can be enough to put you off.  

Sitting at just 30cm tall, the Kenwood Go Stand Mixer is a great alternative. Our tester, Rebecca, loved its lightweight design and built-in handle, which make it easy to lift, store in a kitchen cupboard or pop away in a deep drawer between uses.

While its 4-litre capacity may not be the best fit for serious batch bakers, this compact stand mixer is an excellent choice for beginners and smaller households. Rebecca loved the simple, easy-to-access speed dial, while switching attachments was quick and fuss-free.

The smart rotating splash guard also impressed, preventing flour explosions and mixture splatters when making fairy cakes with the kids.

One of Rebecca’s few drawbacks was that the Kenwood Go Stand Mixer can be quite noisy at high speeds. There are six speed settings, but Rebecca found speed four to be the sweet spot for balancing noise and performance.

Designed for ambitious home bakers, you certainly get what you pay for with the Sage Bakery Boss. This premium, heavy-duty stand mixer combines a powerful 1,200W motor with 12 speed settings for precise control, whether you’re kneading dough, whipping fresh cream or gently folding your ingredients.

Supplied with a range of attachments, including a dough hook and wire whisk, you’ll find everything you need to make anything from light and fluffy cake mixtures to perfectly peaked meringues or aerated pizza bases.

The stainless-steel bowl is generously sized, making it ideal for batch bakers or keen cake makers. We love how the smart load sensors automatically adjust the power based on the contents, reducing the risk of spills or splatters. You’ll even find a handy timer that helps prevent overmixing for more accurate results.

The Sage Bakery Boss is a significant piece of kit in both size and weight, so it’s best suited to frequent bakers who are happy to leave it permanently on display.

The Kenwood Titanium Chef Baker is a heavy-duty stand mixer built for serious baking. With a powerful 1,200W motor, sturdy design and an extra-large 7-litre bowl, it makes light work of preparing everything from family-sized cake mixtures to big batches of bread dough.

Our favourite feature is the integrated easy-weigh scale, which allows you to weigh your ingredients directly in the mixer bowl, saving time and reducing the washing up.

You’ll find a K-beater, whisk and dough hook included in the box to get you started. The Titanium XL is also compatible with 25 additional attachments, sold separately, allowing you to expand its use as your confidence grows in the kitchen.

As the name suggests, this is a sizeable mixer that’ll take up significant space on your countertop. However, it's well suited to home bakers who regularly tackle larger quantities.

This KitchenAid Artisan mixer comes in the timeless colours we all know and love, but with one major difference. Unlike the original tilt-head design, the bowl-lift model is taller and larger. The bowl locks in place during mixing, helping the mixer remain stable when tackling thicker doughs and mixtures, so there's less risk of it gradually sliding across your countertop.

With 11 speeds to choose from, you can stay in control. We love the dedicated half-speed setting, which is ideal for gently folding delicate ingredients without knocking out too much air.

The bowl-lift mechanism can take some getting used to, and this heavy appliance isn't easy to move around. However, with a five-year guarantee and 15-year repair promise, you can be confident that this stand mixer is built to last.