Our method

How we rank, which prices we read and how often, when we say "wait", and how we make money. What is not built yet says so, as planned.

As of 5 October 2026. The figures on this page come from the same data as the ranking and the prices, and change with them. The text was last updated on 3 October 2026.

• 76 models in our ranking tested by Vacuum Wars, results read on 29 September 2026
• 5 test sources whose picks we show beside the score: RTINGS (list as of 25 September 2026), TechRadar (list as of 25 September 2026), Tom's Guide (list as of 25 September 2026), Vacuum Wars (lists as of 17 September 2026, 25 September 2026 and 26 September 2026), Wirecutter (list as of 4 August 2026)
• 27 lists from those sources: overall rankings and picks for one use
• 76 models in our ranking, 342 models with a price today
• 20 shops that deliver to the Netherlands

1. The ranking: our own score

We rank with a score of our own, out of 10. It rests for 60 percent on lab tests: measurements made the same way for every robot. For 25 percent it rests on owners’ ratings at the shops that deliver to the Netherlands, and for 15 percent on the facts the maker states. Price does not count: it says nothing about how a robot cleans, and a score that follows the price shifts with every discount. The price comes after that, on the budget pages, in the sort by score per euro and in the alternatives.

The lab tests now come from Vacuum Wars: for each robot, how much dirt it lifts deep out of carpet, how it picks up pet hair, how well it mops, avoids obstacles and navigates. We take those measurements ability by ability, never a lab’s overall verdict, which often weighs in owners’ ratings and features that we weigh ourselves already. Every figure is on the product page, with a link to the test and the day we read it.

Only robots a lab has tested are ranked. We still follow the robots no lab has tested yet: they are listed under "Other models", with their price but without a place, so a model without a test is never our best pick. Only models sold in the Netherlands count.

Beside the score we show the picks of 5 testers: RTINGS, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, Vacuum Wars and Wirecutter. For example "best for pet hair" or a place in their top list, with a link and the date of the list: the day that version of the list was theirs. Those picks do not count in the score, since most are one line without a measurement. The advisor does use their picks for pets and carpet to order robots that fit your answers equally well. We copy no text.

A US name for a European model

Most tests are done in North America, so on the US version of a robot, sometimes under another name. Their measurements and picks count for the model sold here when it is the same robot: Tom's Guide and Vacuum Wars test the Dreame X60 Max Ultra Complete, which is called the X60 Pro Ultra Complete in Europe. Where the maker does not link the two names itself, we lay the specifications side by side. The product page gives such a second name under "Also sold or tested as". Where the US version is a different bundle, such as the Roborock Q7 M5+ (the Q7 M5 with an auto-empty station), a pick counts per market: in the Netherlands, where only the Q7 M5 is sold, for the Q7 M5, and in the United States for the M5+ itself. A pick for a model not sold in the Netherlands does not count here.

2. The score: how the parts come about

Lab tests (60 percent). We put every measurement on 0 to 10 with fixed anchors: in the carpet test, 50 percent of the dirt picked up is a 0 and 100 percent a 10, and in a verdict in stars 0 stars is a 0 and 5 stars a 10. The five abilities weigh as follows: deep clean on carpet 25, pet hair 20, mopping 20, obstacle avoidance 15 and navigation 20 percent. A robot counts as tested when abilities worth at least 70 percent of that weight are measured. The fewer labs stand behind a result, the more we pull it toward the average of its station type: with one lab it keeps 85 percent of its distance from that average, with two 92 and with three or more 95 percent. So one lucky result does not lift a model to the top. When more labs test the same robots, we put them on one scale through the robots they both tested, so a strict tester does not sink its robots.

Owners’ ratings (25 percent). One figure per platform: at Amazon, which spreads ratings unevenly over its European stores, the middle of the stores that sell the model. A model sold in several colours counts once, with the version that has the most ratings. The maker’s own web shop does not count. We work with an average in which 150 ratings at the market’s mean count first, so a handful of five-star ratings does not beat thousands of good ones. Three stars is a 0, five stars a 10. Ratings a shop has not shown for two weeks no longer count.

Features (15 percent). Points for what the maker states: a station that empties the bin (10), washes the mop (10) and dries it warm (6), a roller mop (12) or spinning pads (10), lidar (10), a camera that recognises obstacles (12), lower than 9 centimetres or a 3-centimetre threshold (4 each), and a few smaller ones. We count only the facts we know, so a missing figure is no penalty, and only from 60 points of known facts.

When a part is missing, it is left out and the others count for more: the score is the weighted mean of the parts there are. On an equal score, the higher lab part comes first, then more ratings. The score is worked out again after every price run, since the ratings change every day. Beside the score we say how sure it is: high with two or more labs, or with one lab and at least 300 ratings, otherwise medium. What never counts: the price, our commission, payment for a place, a shop’s best-seller list, the suction the maker states and a lab’s overall verdict.

Example: today’s number 1

The Narwal Freo 20 leads our ranking today. This is how its score comes about:

1. Lab tests, what the lab measured: Deep clean on carpet 8.6 (25%), Pet hair 9.3 (20%), Mopping 6.3 (20%), Obstacle avoidance 7.0 (15%), Navigation 8.9 (20%). The weighted mean: 8.10.
2. One lab tested it, so the lab part keeps 85% of its distance from its station type’s average of 6.48: 6.48 + 0.85 × (8.10 − 6.48) = 7.86.
3. Owners: 97 ratings averaging 4.8 stars, counted with 150 ratings at the market’s mean, on a scale where 3 stars is 0 and 5 stars is 10: 6.92.
4. Features: 82 of the 86 points for the facts the maker states: 9.54.
5. The score: 0.60 × 7.86 + 0.25 × 6.92 + 0.15 × 9.54 = 7.87, printed as 7.9.

3. Prices: read, checked and kept

At every shop we follow we read the price and whether the model is in stock, and where the source gives them the seller and the delivery time too. That comes from the shop's product feed, from the product data of a brand's own web shop, or for Amazon from Keepa, a service that tracks prices at Amazon, and from Rainforest API, which reads the product page at Amazon. We read 19 of the 20 shops every day, the others less often. The table says it per shop. Every price shows when we last saw it.

A price that deviates strongly from what we saw last week, less than half or more than double the middle price of seven days, is marked suspect and not shown. A silent read error is how comparison sites lose their credibility. We keep every observation, so the price history and the 90-day low come from our own data.

4. The real price: delivered, and compared like for like

• Delivery cost to the Netherlands counts, also at foreign shops and brand stores.
• At a shop outside the Netherlands we convert the price to Dutch VAT and add an estimated delivery cost. Such a price is an estimate and carries a * on the site.
• Delivery time is part of the deal: tomorrow or in four days makes a difference.
• Planned: showing sales by the shop itself and sales by a marketplace seller apart.
• Planned: showing refurbished offers (Coolblue Tweedekans, Amazon Warehouse) as a separate category, never mixed with new.

5. Fake discounts

Since 1 January 2023 a "was" price in the Netherlands must be the lowest price the shop charged in the 30 days before (the Besluit prijsaanduiding producten, supervised by the ACM). Because we keep the list price next to every observed price, we can check and show this: claimed "was € 1,299". The lowest price we saw in the last 30 days was € 1,099. Amazon's reference is a manufacturer's recommended price and is labelled as such rather than judged.

6. Buy now or wait

On every product page we set today's price against the prices of the last 90 days. For each day the lowest delivered price at the shops the page shows counts. A price holds until we see a new one, and a day on which the shop gave no price, sold out or not readable, ends it. From 14 days with a price we give a verdict, and the rules apply in this order:

1. Lowest price: no day of the period was cheaper than today.
2. Good price: on at most 10 percent of the days with a price it was cheaper than today. We name those days and the lowest price.
3. Waiting may pay off: it was cheaper on more days, and the lowest daily price of the period was at least 5 percent below today's. We name the day and that price, so you can check it.
4. Usual price: it was cheaper on more days, but always by less than 5 percent.

The verdict and the label beside the price come from the same rule, and the price chart draws the same lowest daily price, so you can read it off. When the prices do not yet span 90 days, the verdict says "since we started measuring" with the first day instead of "90 days". Next to the verdict are the lowest and highest price of the period, how often the price dropped and when it last did. Sometimes the honest answer is "wait". That costs us a commission today and earns a reader who comes back.

7. Alternatives

Under the price on a product page are at most 4 alternatives, worked out again every day from the ranking and today's prices, with prices from the same choice of shops. Only models a shop sells today count, and each shows how much more or less it costs than this model:

• Better for about the same price: the best-ranked model of the same station type that stands higher and costs at most 10 percent more today.
• Better for a bit more: the best-ranked model of the same station type that stands higher and costs more than this model today, by at most 30 percent, as a second choice beside the first.
• Nearly as good for much less: a model from the 3 places below that is at least 15 percent cheaper today, the highest placed first.
• One station type up or down: the best-ranked model with more station (from no station to auto-empty station to all-in-one station) for at most 10 percent more, and the best-ranked one with less station that is cheaper.
• When that makes fewer than two, the best-ranked lower model of the same station type that is cheaper today is added.
• When the model is on sale nowhere today, we show the best-ranked models of the same station type that are, at most 10 percent above this model's last price, and the station types above and below it.

Which shop pays a commission plays no part: the rules are the same for every shop.

8. How we make money

Best at Best is free. We earn from shops' partner programmes: buy through a partner link on this site and we receive a commission from the shop. The price you pay does not change. The commission never influences the ranking, the alternatives or the advice. Those come from the same data for every shop. We sell nothing ourselves and take no money for a place in the ranking or for a review. A product page says so next to the buttons to the shops as well.

Today we earn only from links to Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.fr, Amazon.nl, bol.com, Coolblue, eufy (brand store) and Xiaomi (brand store): 8 of the 20 shops we follow. Buy through such a partner link and we receive a commission from the shop or from its affiliate network. The other shops pay us nothing, and the ranking, the lowest price and the advice come from the same data for every shop.

A brand’s own web shop can have a partner link too (eufy (brand store) and Xiaomi (brand store)). That maker then pays a commission on a sale, as any other shop does, and never for a place in the ranking or for a review.

9. What we do not do

• No paid tests (Consumentenbond, Which?) as a source: they are licensed and cannot be checked freely.
• No average of other sites' final scores: from a lab we use its measurements per ability, never its overall verdict, and owners' ratings count by how many there are. No aggregators of aggregators.
• No copied review text. From testers only their measurements, positions and labels, with attribution.
• No reselling of products. We are a guide, not a shop.