The 7 best electric toothbrushes 2024, according to our testing
Looking to upgrade to the best electric toothbrush or replace your old brush? We’ve tested 30 options to help you get a cleaner smile
The best electric toothbrushes are clinically proven to do a better job at reducing plaque and preventing gum disease than manual brushes and should be part of everyone’s daily dental routine. However, finding the right electric toothbrush can be a minefield; most brands, including Oral-B and Philips, have several similar-looking brush ranges.
Thankfully, we’ve tested 30 rotary and sonic toothbrushes to help you pick the right model, no matter your budget. Read on to find out which electric toothbrushes beat the competition in our detailed tests. If you need some extra guidance, the buying guide below will help you decide which toothbrush is best for you.
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Best electric toothbrushes: At a glance
| Best for most people | Oral-B Pro 3 (~£40) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best budget electric toothbrush | Bitvae D2 Ultrasonic (~£14) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best high-end rotary toothbrush | Oral-B iO Series 6 (~£130) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best battery life | Philips One (~£23) | Check price at Amazon |
How we test electric toothbrushes
While lab-based tests have their place, we test electric toothbrushes by using them daily. After all, that’s how the average person uses them. Put simply, our tests involve:
- Trying all brushing modes
- Monitoring comfort levels
- Using plaque-disclosing tablets
- Running battery life tests
- Evaluating smart features’ usefulness
These tests help to ensure all our electric toothbrush recommendations clean teeth and gums effectively, are long-lasting and are worth the money. Spoiler alert – we like brushes with long-lasting batteries, but we don’t think it’s worth splashing the cash on smart features.
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Curious about our tests?
Read our full testing methodology
The best electric toothbrushes in 2024, according to our tests
1. Oral-B Pro 3: Best for most people
Price when reviewed: £43 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… affordability, with every useful feature
- Not so great for… no bells and whistles
The Pro 3 3000 is Oral-B’s best-value brush, and it is a winner. Its sleek plastic design is durable, easy to rinse clean and the 360-degree pressure sensor ring is highly visible when brushing. Oral-B’s timer works as well as ever, with a short pause every 30 seconds to indicate it’s time to move to a new quadrant of the mouth.
What’s more, it delivered an excellent clean in our tests. Its three modes – Sensitive, Daily Clean and Whitening – take you all the way from a softer brush that’s easy on the gums to a more intense polish to help get rid of staining. Battery life, meanwhile, was exceptional; according to our tests, you will easily get through two weeks of brushing and probably three without a recharge. That’s almost the best battery life of any rotary brush on the market, second only to the pricier Oral-B iO3.
If you don’t need Bluetooth or smart features (which we don’t recommend for most people) this brush covers all the fundamentals in style. It’s the new king of sensibly priced brushes and is easily the best electric toothbrush you can buy for under £50.
Read our full Oral-B Pro 3 3000 review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 3; Pressure sensor: Yes; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: One brush head, charger; Cost of replacement heads: £18 for 8; Battery type: Li-ion; Battery life: 1hr 27mins; Warranty: Two years
2. BitVae D2 Ultrasonic: Best budget electric toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £19 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… no extra costs – includes 2 years’ of replacement heads
- Not so great for… no pressure sensor
If you want to kit out the whole family without breaking the bank, the Bitvae D2 is a solid choice. With a battery life of over 90 minutes, a brush head that vibrates at 40,000 strokes per minute and a convenient USB charger, its technical specs are impressive given its affordable price.
While its brush heads aren’t stiff enough to beat out the more expensive Sonicare models, we still think it’s a good step up from manual brushes. The strongest of its five cleaning modes cleaned our teeth well and we thought the softer modes were ideal for first-time electric toothbrush users.
Bitvae also throws in eight brush heads to keep you covered for up to two years of brushing. No other brushes on this roundup come with replacement brush heads. Sonicare heads ordinarily set you back around £5 each, making the Bitvae D2 Ultrasonic’s value pretty unbeatable.
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 5; Pressure sensor: No; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: Eight brush heads, USB charging cable, holder; Cost of replacement heads: £10 for 4; Battery type: Li-ion; Battery life: 1hr 33mins; Warranty: One year
3. Philips One: Best battery life
Price when reviewed: £27 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… travel
- Not so great for… battery operated
The Philips One is a great entry-level toothbrush that doubles as a brilliant travel brush. Philips has effectively built its Sonicare tech into a brush just 20cm long, weighing only 34g. The grippy, moulded handle packs neatly into a minimalist travel case. It’s basic, with just one brush setting, but you do get a timer which pulsates every 30 seconds and switches itself off after two minutes.
The One doesn’t have the brushing power of a larger Sonicare brush, but it’s ahead of other battery-powered electric toothbrushes and does a great job of leaving your teeth feeling shiny and clean. The relatively gentle movement is also brilliant for massaging along the gumline.
The single AAA battery version we tested keeps it going for up to 90 days, though Philips also sells a £30 rechargeable version that boosts the cleaning power and has a 30-day battery life. We suggest the latter if this is your only toothbrush, but the battery-powered model is perfect for packing in your suitcase or weekend bag.
Read our full Philips One review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 1; Pressure sensor: No; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: One brush head, travel case; Cost of replacement heads: £10 for 2; Battery type: 1 x AAA; Battery life: 6hr; Warranty: One year
4. Oral-B iO6: Best high-end rotary toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £130 | Check price at Boots
- Great for… app that tracks brushing and gives feedback
- Not so great for… expensive, slow charging
If you want a smart toothbrush that can analyse your brushing habits and provide data through an app, the Oral-B iO6 is our top pick. That’s because it has nearly all the same core technology as the top-range iO10, but at a much more approachable price point.
More expensive Oral-B brushes claim to offer more sensors, but we found the differences in tracking abilities to be marginal in our tests. Since the tracking is exclusively available through the app, we rarely used tracking and other smart features day-to-day, the novelty didn’t take long to wear off. That’s why we wouldn’t recommend investing in a smart electric toothbrush if you’re not actually going to use the smart features every day.
However, if you’re dead set on buying an electric toothbrush that can track its way around your mouth, this one’s our favourite. Like the more expensive iO brushes, its pressure-sensing indicators and built-in OLED screen give you instant feedback on your brushing. It uses Oral-B’s magnetic motor technology, making the clean as quiet as it is extensive, with five different brush modes to cover gum care, whitening and sensitive teeth as well as intense and daily cleans. As long as you can live without fast charging, it’s the best-value smart brush out there.
Read our full Oral-B io Series 6 review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 5; Pressure sensor: Yes; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: One brush head, charger, spare head holder, travel case; Cost of replacement heads: £24 for 4; Battery type: Li-ion; Battery life: 56mins; Warranty: Two years
5. Suri Sustainable Toothbrush: Best eco-friendly electric toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £95 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… recyclable heads, great build quality
- Not so great for… no pressure sensor
If you’re concerned about the environmental impact of your toothbrush, Suri might have the answer. The Suri Sonic Toothbrush has an aluminium handle that feels far more robust than plastic electric toothbrushes and its brush heads are made from castor oil and cornstarch. After three months, you can return the brush heads to Suri for recycling through the post, to save them from landfill.
While you can buy the brush heads alone, you can also purchase a subscription package, with two heads arriving every six months and a lifetime warranty on the brush while you subscribe. The slimline charging case charges the brush within four hours and can provide around 96 minutes of brushing before the battery goes flat. It’s currently available to buy in five different colours: winter fern, morning waves, midnight black, sea mist and the latest colour, sunset bloom.
Eco-consciousness aside, the toothbrush is light and very easy to handle. It has a default cleaning mode for everyday use as well as a more intense mode that we thought was great at cleaning the spaces in between your teeth. Unless you’re worried about whitening or stain removal, it does a fantastic job.
Read our full Suri Sonic Toothbrush review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 2; Pressure sensor: No; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: One brush head, magnetic mount, charger, USB charging case; Cost of replacement heads: £14 for 3; Battery type: Li-ion; Battery life: 1hr 36mins; Warranty: Two years
6. Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9000: Best high-end sonic toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £180 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… insightful app, powerful cleaning
- Not so great for… no brush tracking, expensive brush heads
The DiamondClean 9000 gets you the best of Philips’ Sonicare toothbrushes without gimmicky extras that add to the cost. We thought its slim handle, clear indicators and tactile buttons made it an easy brush to use. While you don’t get the position-sensing features of Philips’ more expensive Prestige brushes, you can still track your brushing habits through the companion smartphone app and get tips on how to improve them.
The main reason to get the DiamondClean 9000 is that you’ll get the best clean available in the Sonicare range. The Deep Clean+ mode might even be too intense for some people, but you can turn down the intensity or switch to regular Clean or White+. These modes provided a clean that left our teeth feeling polished, and could even get rid of much of the plaque and debris that can accumulate between our teeth. Meanwhile, the Gum Health mode was brilliant for treating and toughening up soft gums.
Throw in epic battery life (almost two hours) and a neat charging cradle, and you’ve got a fantastic package. If you’re looking for a quiet, comfortable but powerful toothbrush, this is the high-end model to buy.
Read our full Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9000 review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 4; Pressure sensor: Yes; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: 1 x brush heads, travel case, charger; Cost of replacement heads: £34 for 4; Battery type: Li-ion; Battery life: 1hr 52mins; Warranty: Two years
7. Oral-B Vitality Pro: Best cheap rotary brush
Price when reviewed: £25 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… low price, clear timer
- Not so great for… no pressure sensor
The Vitality Pro, formally known as the Vitality Plus, is as basic as electric toothbrushes get, but it’s still better than your average manual or battery brush. It features three brushing modes and a 30-second pulse timer to help you brush comfortably and for the correct amount of time.
This one just uses a simple, back-and-forth oscillation to clean the surface, which is still far better than your average manual or battery brush. While we thought the action felt a little rattly in comparison to more expensive models in our tests, it still gave our gnashers a thorough clean. You can tailor this by switching out the standard brush head for a Sensitive or Precision Clean head if need be.
While we feared the worst from the NiMH battery, it actually lasted a reasonable 43 minutes in our tests. We’d love to see a pressure sensor or vibrating 3D action to help break down plaque, but these are only available further up the Oral-B range. if you only have around £25 to spend on an Oral-B toothbrush, this is as good as it gets.
Read our full Oral-B Vitality Pro review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 3; Pressure sensor: No; Timer: Yes; Accessories included: One brush head, charger; Cost of replacement heads: £18 for 8; Battery type: NiMH; Battery life: 43mins; Warranty: Two years
How we test electric toothbrushes: In-depth methodology
To test electric toothbrushes, we use them twice a day over a period of at least one week, making sure we get a feel for how they handle and perform when cleaning.
The most important attribute of a toothbrush is its cleaning power. To test this, we use plaque-disclosing tablets to check that all areas of the teeth are getting a proper clean. This allows us to see if the brush is able to thoroughly clean the teeth in all their nooks and crannies. If any problem areas are flagged, we’ll repeat the test to ensure this wasn’t user error.
Battery life is also a key component of electric toothbrushes, especially if you travel regularly. To check battery life, we leave the toothbrush running and time how long it takes for the battery to run down from a full charge. We then divide this figure by four minutes to get an accurate idea of how many days a single charge should last.
We also test all specific brush modes, attachments and install any apps required to get the most out of built-in smart features. This allows us to evaluate how comfortable the brush is to use as well as how intuitive and useful the smart features are – does the app actually give detailed, personalised brushing advice, or is it just a souped-up timer?
This data is then aggregated into a spreadsheet that allows us to easily compare the performance of each brush with its competition, while taking into account the all-important price.
How to choose the best electric toothbrush for you
What types of electric toothbrushes are there?
Generally speaking, electric toothbrushes are available in two basic types: Rotary and Sonic
- Rotary brushes, as manufactured by Oral-B, have a small, round head that oscillates at high speed to scrub your teeth and gums. These toothbrushes combine this with a pulsating action, designed to break up plaque along the gum line, making it easier to brush away.
- Sonic brushes have heads that vibrate very quickly, at frequencies that buff the tooth surface, break up plaque and force toothpaste through the gaps between your teeth and around the gum line. Ultrasonic toothbrushes vibrate even faster, helping to clean and protect them with even greater efficiency.
What should I look for in an electric toothbrush?
These are the key features you’ll want to consider when purchasing an electric toothbrush.
Battery life
The battery life of an electric toothbrush is impacted by battery type and cleaning power. An old-school NiMH battery runs out faster than a modern lithium-ion battery, which can last up to four weeks and re-charges faster.
That being said, some powerful toothbrushes drain their batteries faster than others. That’s especially true for rotary brushes, according to our battery life tests.
So, if you haven’t got a convenient power socket in the bathroom, or you travel often, look at a model that can handle a few weeks without a refuel. You can find our battery life test results listed in the mini reviews above.
Brushing modes
Most electric toothbrushes come with a range of brushing modes. These give you different speeds and patterns optimised for whitening, deep cleaning or sensitive teeth and gums.
It’s not clear that all of these make a huge amount of difference, but having a slower, gentler mode can be useful when you’re getting used to a new brush, before you’re comfortable switching to a faster mode.
Pressure sensors and timers
It’s worth looking out for pressure sensors that can warn you when you’re pressing too hard while brushing. This can prevent you from irritating your gums over time.
A brushing timer that sends a pulse through the brush when it’s time to stop brushing, or move to another quadrant of your mouth is always useful to ensure you’re brushing for the correct amount of time every day.
What about the cost of replacement heads?
Dentists recommend changing brush heads every three months, which means you should get through four brush heads every year.
Replacement brush heads generally come in packs of two, four or six. These are linked in the mini reviews above, and typically cost around £15 for two or £25 for four, depending on the brand.
To complicate things, brush heads come in different types designed for different dental requirements, so you’ll find Sonicare heads for gum care, deeper cleaning or plaque defence, and Oral-B heads with slightly different brushing actions.
Any Sonicare head can be used with any Sonicare brush, but Oral-B’s standard heads can only be used with its Pro-series brushes, while its iO heads only work with iO series brushes.
What extra features are available?
You might be able to get some extra features with your electric toothbrush, such as:
- A travel case, some of which allow the brush to charge in situ via a USB cable.
- Bluetooth-enabled “smart” features, which work with companion apps to time your brushes, keep a diary of your activity and provide oral hygiene tips.
- Sophisticated motion sensors in more advanced brushes to allow them to track your brush’s progress around the mouth and make sure you’re reaching every corner. However, in our experience, these tracking sensors aren’t very accurate. On the top-of-the-range iO10, we were so distracted trying to get the brush to register where we were brushing that we forgot to actually brush properly. Not great, or anywhere near as useful as brush manufacturers would lead you to believe.
These features aren’t essential – they come at a price and not everyone is prepared to take their smartphone to the bathroom to monitor their brushing. If you can develop a good routine that covers all your teeth and around the gums, then you probably don’t need a smart brush.
