Small appliances like toasters seem like such simple little gadgets, especially compared to all those multi-use toaster ovens. But here's my problem with toaster ovens: They take up a lot of space. Many are so big they can roast an entire chicken, which is great and all—until you need to try to find room for said toaster oven on your countertop. As someone who lives in a small New York City apartment and already has too many appliances for her own kitchen’s good (which is what happens when you test kitchen gear for a living), I’m well familiar with this conundrum.
That’s okay, though. While good toaster ovens can do a lot of different things, not everyone needs a countertop device that also broils and air-fries and reheats a whole pizza while doing your son’s math homework. Sometimes you just need toast, and for that, a simple slice toaster is the best tool for the job.
Our top picks
- Best toaster for your money: Professional Series 2-Slice Toaster
- The one that makes the best toast: Breville ‘A Bit More’
- Best 4-slice toaster for families who actually need one: Breville Die-Cast
- A toaster that looks as good as it works: Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 2-Slice Toaster
Over the years, I’ve tested 31 toasters, from cheap plastic toasters to techy toasters to aesthetically pleasing toasters. My favorites keep things simple, the way a good toaster should, while also offering extra features here and there that enhance the toasting experience (yes, you can enhance the toasting experience). They’re relatively compact, sturdy, and easy to use. Most important, they deliver all the crispy, evenly browned carbs you want in the morning: pieces of toast, English muffins, frozen waffles, and bagels.
- Best toaster for your money: Professional Series 2-Slice Toaster
- The one that makes the best toast: Breville ‘A Bit More’
- Best 4-slice toaster for families who actually need one: Breville Die-Cast
- A toaster that looks as good as it works: Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 2-Slice Toaster
- How I tested toasters
- What makes a good toaster
- Other toasters we liked
- Toasters we don’t recommend
New in this update: I tested four new toasters: the GE 2-Slice Toaster, the Cuisinart CPT-122 2-Slice Toaster, the Cuisinart CPT-180P1 4-Slice Compact Toaster, and the Martha Stewart 2-Slice Toaster. The Martha toaster impressed me enough to earn a spot in the “Others We Tested and Liked” section. I also removed a discontinued model, the Cuisinart CPT-520 2-Slice Motorized Toaster, from our “Others toasters we liked” section.
Best toaster for your money: Professional Series 2-Slice Toaster
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Great value for stainless-steel construction
- Works with thicker slices of bread
Cons:
- Very powerful toast ejection
Specs
Size: 11.5" x 8.25" x 7.5"
Weight: 4 lb.
Warranty: One year
Settings: Browning levels 1–5, Bagel, Frozen, “A Bit More,” Cancel
What I love: Not everyone has the budget for a $100 toaster (or wants to spend $100 on a toaster even if they do). For high performance at a low price, I’d point you to this budget model from Continental Electric. It doesn’t include some of the Breville’s luxury features, like a light-up interface, but it’s still a high-quality kitchen appliance that, at the time of writing, costs a cool $30. At this price point, you’re often left with a plastic toaster as opposed to a stainless-steel one like this, so the Professional Series is a real value. It browns both thin and thick slices of bread to golden brown beauty in under two minutes, chirping a poppy little “ding” when it’s done. It has settings for bagels and frozen foods that work well, as well as a handy reheat setting for warming already toasted bread. The removable crumb tray makes cleanup a breeze, and at only nine inches across, it fits nicely on smaller countertops.
What I’d leave: The Professional Series will really pop your toast or bagel out like a slingshot once it’s done. It spat finished slices of toast out with such ferocity that lighter pieces of bread were sometimes flung onto the counter—though they sometimes landed squarely on top of the machine, which felt very Wallace and Gromit. I’ll leave it to you whether you find this preferable to the machines that make you really fish out your toast. Otherwise, this is a great toaster.
The one that makes the best toast: Breville ‘A Bit More’
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Even browning on all settings
- Good browning range between settings
- Countdown timer
- Luxe look and feel
Cons:
- Horizontal orientation takes means it takes up more counter space
- Takes longer to toast than most other models
Specs
Size: 11.5" x 8.25" x 7.5"
Weight: 4 lb.
Warranty: One year
Settings: Browning levels 1–5, Bagel, Frozen, ‘A Bit More,’ Cancel
What I love: The ‘A Bit More’ is a sleek appliance with luxe touches that’ll get you excited to make your morning toast every day. It has easy-to-use digital controls, including a slider with five browning levels. It also has Toast, Bagel, and Cancel buttons along with the eponymous feature, which allows you to extend your toasting time just slightly if your bread looks a little underdone when it pops out.
Another nice feature: The lights that indicate the doneness setting black out one by one, serving as a countdown to let you know your toast is almost ready. After using this model on white bread, sourdough, frozen waffles, and bagels, I can attest that it performed consistently well across all of them. It did take longer (over four minutes on the highest toast setting) than other toasters in the test, but my patience was rewarded with evenly browned toast and a healthy range of browning on each heat setting.
What I’d leave: This two-slice model is oriented horizontally, meaning the buttons and sliders are on the long side of the toaster. So if you have a small kitchen with counters that are already crowded with coffee makers and knife blocks, it might be a tight fit. I also found that the side of the toast facing outward tended to be slightly paler, but this was a common fault among most of the toasters I tested.
Best 4-slice toaster for families who actually need one: Breville Die-Cast
Pros and cons
Pros:
- 4 toast slots allow for total customization
- Motorized lift
- Extra-wide slots
Cons:
- Inner toast slots get hotter than outer toast slots
Specs
Size: 11.5" x 10.25" x 7.5"
Weight: 13 lb.
Warranty: One year
Settings: Browning levels 1–5, Bagel, Frozen, ‘A Bit More,’ ‘Lift and Look,’ Cancel
What I love: While the Breville ‘A Bit More’ above does come in a four-slice version, I liked the brand’s other 4-slice toaster, the Die-Cast, more. Both toasters have a four-slice capacity, but the Die-Cast has four individual slots, while the Bit More just has two super-long slots that can fit four slices of bread at a time or two extra-long slices of bread. That means the Die-Cast model is more flexible for different toasting preferences, allowing one person to toast their bagel the way they want it and another person to defrost a waffle to their specification at the same time. Instead of a regular manual lever, the Die-Cast also has a luxurious motorized Lift and Look function that slowly raises your toast like baby Simba from The Lion King. This might seem ostentatious, even wholly unnecessary, but it’s a thoughtful addition that helps prevent you from digging your finished toast out of the slot with a fork (don’t ever stick a fork in the toaster, people).
What I’d leave: I did notice the middle slots of the Die-Cast would brown bread more intensely than the ones on the outside, most likely just from the position of the heating elements. This is also a pretty expensive toaster, but I still think the smartly designed interface makes it a top pick.
A toaster that looks as good as it works: Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 2-Slice Toaster
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Intuitive touchscreen interface
- 7 different browning levels with good variation
- Comes in 11 colors
Cons:
- Touchscreen buttons beep when pressed
- Beeps loudly when toast is done
Specs
Size: 11.06" x 8.11" x 6.57"
Weight: 2.97 lb.
Warranty: Limited 2-year
Settings: Browning levels 1–7, Bagel, Frozen, Gluten-Free, Cancel
What I love: Whoever’s designing the appliances over at Drew Barrymore’s Beautiful line seems to know what they’re doing. I was pleasantly surprised by this $40 toaster for its even browning, great variation in browning levels between each of its seven settings, and touchscreen interface that feels luxe for the price.
The Beautiful’s primarily stainless-steel construction feels sturdy and well-made, and it comes in 11 colors at the time of writing, making it a great choice for anyone looking to add a pop of pastel to their kitchen. The touchscreen interface (which is typically the kind of thing I’d only expect to see in a high-end toaster) lights up when you need it and turns off when you don’t. And, because the buttons are digital, the whole thing is easy to wipe down—no chance of pesky crumbs sneaking into crevices here.
In testing, the Beautiful toaster did an impressive job of toasting white bread to a distinctly different shade at each of its seven browning levels. It also handled bagels, sourdough, and frozen waffles with ease.
What I’d leave: While this toaster comes in more neutral colors like white and black, the look of the gold lever might not be for everyone. It also beeps quite audibly when you turn it on or press the buttons and when your toast is done. This is helpful for knowing that your bread is toasted when you’re across the kitchen scrambling some eggs, but it could be disruptive if you live with others in tight quarters.
How I tested toasters
- White bread test: I toasted slices at every browning setting to gauge the range of browning each toaster could deliver, looking for a clear gradient with distinct differences between each level and the ability to achieve deeply browned toast at the highest setting. I also noted any unevenness between the two sides.
- Bagel test: I was looking for toasters with wide enough slots to accommodate a halved NYC bagel that did a good job toasting the cut side without burning the outside or drying the whole thing out. If the toaster had a bagel setting, I used it.
- Sourdough test: I toasted thick slices of sourdough to see how each toaster handled crustier breads and how wide, deep, and long the slots were, noting how long it took to achieve a desirable level of browning.
- Frozen waffle test: I assessed the defrosting feature on each toaster by toasting frozen waffles, looking for results that were golden brown and crisp on the outside while remaining fluffy on the inside. If a toaster had no frozen setting, I still tested it to see if it could adequately handle frozen carbs.
What makes a good toaster
- Build quality: A toaster should feel sturdy, with no wobbling, flimsy levers, or loose buttons. Beyond the body itself, I paid attention to the lift lever and any knobs or dials. Thoughtful construction shows up in the details.
- Large item capacity: A good toaster should handle more than standard sandwich bread. The best ones can accommodate a variety of sizes and shapes, lowering each piece fully and toasting it evenly all the way through.
- Browning range: There should be a clear, consistent gradient from barely toasted to deeply browned, with a noticeable difference between each setting. If the lightest and darkest settings look the same, that's a problem.
- Defrost without over-toasting: A defrost function is only useful if it works. Too many toasters spit out frozen waffles that are burnt on the outside, cold in the middle, or just soggy. The best ones thaw and toast in a single cycle, producing results that are warm, crisp, and cooked through.
- Intuitive settings: Toasters don’t need to be complicated. The best models keep controls straightforward with clear knobs, simple buttons, and no unnecessary features getting in the way of good toast.
Other toasters we liked
Martha Stewart 2-Slice Toaster
This toaster from Martha Stewart’s brand-new line of countertop appliances performed well in my most recent round of testing. The sleek touchscreen interface includes a whopping 10 different browning settings, which is impressive (if perhaps a tad excessive) and means this toaster is a good option for anyone who wants ultra-precise control over exactly how golden their carbs are. I ultimately felt that the Beautiful toaster accomplished a similar look, feel, and performance quality at a lower price point, but I’d still recommend the Martha toaster if it appeals to you.
Smeg 2-Slice Toaster
Not only does the Smeg look nice, it’s also a dream to use—glossy cherry red exterior, chrome lever, and intuitive control knob that satisfyingly clicks into place as you select your toasting preferences. While it toasts evenly on all temperature settings, we did notice it runs a little hot and slices could come out darker than expected or even burnt. But we did like the generously sized slots, which could fit hunks of sourdough, and the slide-out crumb tray that makes cleanup a breeze. Overall it’s a great toaster, but an expensive one. We found other models to be better values. Still, we’d recommend this in a heartbeat to anyone who prioritizes style in their kitchen appliances.
Breville Die-Cast Toaster
The two-slice version of our favorite four-slice toaster, the Breville Die-Cast, looks sleek, works like a dream, and has the hefty price tag to go with it. Unlike some models, the Die-Cast has no lever, only buttons. You adjust your setting, press a button, and watch your slice get magically lowered away and pushed back up for your enjoyment when it’s done. The design is also friendly for small spaces—all the controls are on the short side of the toaster instead of the wide side. This makes it easier to nestle in a small spot in your kitchen. Still, the Die-Cast’s a good $60 more than the ‘A Bit More,’ which might push it out of your price range.
Oster Jelly Bean
Don’t let the silhouette and your assumptions about the flimsiness of the plastic body fool you—the Oster Jelly Bean is actually a quality toaster. While the curvy, charcoal silhouette of the Oster sets it apart from some of its sleek stainless-steel contemporaries, the matte look actually makes it resistant to fingerprints or smudges. It also performed pretty well. It evenly toasted everything I put it up against, even on the higher settings—though the curved design does mean the bread doesn’t get fully submerged for toasting, leaving the tops of your bread bare.
Haden Dorset 2-Slice Toaster
I was charmed by the retro design of this toaster from Haden. Its simple interface is intuitive to use but has everything you need to get the job done: a dial for switching between the six browning levels, and Defrost, Bagel, and Cancel buttons. I didn’t feel it was able to achieve quite as evenly browned results as our top pick, and I thought the different shade settings lacked a bit of variety from each other (especially the middle ones). This toaster also struggled with thicker bread options—its slots were barely wide enough to fit a halved bagel, and the bagel got stuck instead of popping out after toasting. That said, if you’re drawn to this Haden aesthetically, it’s not a bad option.
Toasters we don’t recommend
For one reason or another, these toasters didn’t earn our seal of approval.
The KitchenAid toasts bread pretty evenly, but it doesn’t include a defrost option. We would’ve overlooked this—especially considering it seemed to make frozen waffles just fine using the regular toaster function—except that the one other setting it had for bagels didn’t work well at all.
The four-slice version of our favorite two-slice toaster, the Breville Long Slot toaster is designed to fit slices from much wider loaves of bread. Nice idea, right? Well, the longer length meant there was a gap in the heating elements that left a pale strip in the middle of out bread.
The Cool Touch Toaster offers a lot of curb appeal. It’s a sleek black with nondescript buttons (they’re labeled with icons instead of words), but the high-quality look didn’t translate to high performance. Even on the highest setting, the Zwilling produced, at best, a mid-level of browning.
This toaster from Alessi garnered quite a few compliments from our officemates who spotted it perched on a desk before testing, which makes sense: It’s quite the looker. Unfortunately, it produced nearly identical pieces of toast at settings 3–6 and failed to produce anything browner than what we’d expect from a middle heat setting. It failed spectacularly at toasting bagels, unable to brown them in the slightest even at the highest setting.
This futuristic-looking toaster from All-Clad has a touchscreen display and shiny stainless-steel finish that are the definition of sleek, and we found it very fun to operate. However, we were ultimately let down by its performance. Despite its seven settings, it wasn’t able to produce the full toast gradient we were looking for, and it could only get bagels to a light-to-medium brown even on its highest setting.
We liked how the CPT-142 captured a range of browning with the different toasting levels—which is more than other models can say—but it performed weakly when defrosting waffles.
While this KitchenAid model certainly looks nice with its bulbous retro shape and vintage-inspired control panel, it weighed a ton. We disqualified it before testing because we could hardly lift it onto the counter.
In addition to the nice motorized lift and lower function we liked in the Breville, the Tineco adds some other techy features. Instead of buttons and a lever, you select all of your toasting preferences using a small touchscreen that juts out from the front of the machine. It toasted evenly, especially on the darker settings. It did a particularly good job toasting all the way to the edges of the bread. However, despite all its technology, the Tineco didn’t do well with frozen waffles. Even using the defrost mode on the highest setting only still yielded pale and soggy results. If you don’t have kids and aren’t plating up Eggos on the regular, that might be okay, but they’re common enough demands for toasters that we don’t feel the Tineco is versatile enough.
Everything about the Cuisinart felt flimsy—it wobbled on the counter, the lever squeaked, and we sometimes got worried the loose control knobs would pull right off. The toasting power was also one of the weakest of all the models.
Just unboxing this toaster and moving it to the counter caused plenty of loud rattles, so if you want a sturdy stainless-steel toaster, the plastic Hamilton Beach will probably disappoint. The heating elements also seemed weak. Other models offered more power and range in browning.
The Hamilton Beach Cool Wall felt flimsy. While light weight isn’t always an indicator of poor performance, we felt like each piece on this model was one toast away from falling apart.
The Black+Decker only worked on the highest heat settings, leaving pale, lightly golden waffles, bagels, and bread slices on any mid-range settings. While it did toast more evenly on those higher settings, we couldn’t get past the lack of range.
Krups Two- and Four-Slice Toasters
The highest heat setting on the Krups toasters yielded the type of browning you’d expect from one of the mid-heat settings—this was especially noticeable on the bagels. The defrost setting by comparison felt disproportionately powerful, burning waffles to a crisp on the highest setting.
We liked the idea of the Dash toaster, with its clear window that allows you to peek inside your toaster. That window seemed to fix one of the shortcomings of almost all pop-up toasters in that it lets you monitor the progress of your bread to make sure it never burns. Unfortunately that window revealed a toaster that produced incredibly inconsistent results.
Bella claims this toaster will fit anywhere, and it very well may be right. It’s incredibly thin, which would be ideal for kitchens that are tight on counter space. But while we liked its inoffensive modern design and simple interface, it toasted bread unevenly and there was not enough variation between browning levels, nor enough browning even on the highest setting. Its slim design also meant its slots were a touch too narrow to comfortably fit hefty bagels.
Each Dualit toaster is hand-assembled in England and fully repairable—which is why we were very disappointed when it practically disqualified itself by our second test. In the white bread test, we noticed very uneven browning on each slice. Then, when it came time for the bagel test, we couldn’t even fit the bagels in the slots. We also disliked the fact that you have to use a lever to manually lower and raise bread out of the toaster and that there’s no sound when your toast is done.
This 4-slice model from Haden failed to impress us for a few reasons. For one, its middle settings turned out quite pale, and it was unable to achieve a suitable level of browning on a bagel, even at the highest setting. But the main thing we disliked about this toaster was the interface: It’s got a mix of buttons, plus a small digital screen, that displays the browning level, but that screen is impossible to read unless you’re looking at it straight on (so if your toaster is at counter height, you have to stoop down).
This toaster performed okay in our testing, but we wished there was more variation in browning levels between some of the settings. Our biggest gripe was that it took longer to toast anything than most other models we’ve tested. For the price ($120 when we received it), we just don’t think it’s worth that.
White bread toasted using the first four browning settings of the CPT-122 looked practically identical—and by that I mean that they were all so pale, you could barely tell they’d been toasted. The slots on this toaster were also a bit too narrow to accommodate thick slices of sourdough without risk of it getting stuck. I was also unimpressed by the Bagel setting on this toaster: Bagel settings are meant to brown the cut side of the bagel while leaving the outside relatively soft, but this was not the case with this model. Instead, it seemed to toast both sides of the bagel somewhat evenly.
Like the CPT-122, the first several settings of the CPT-180P1 churned out white bread that was quite pale, and even the darkest setting failed to produce the deeply browned (nearly burnt) toast I was looking for on the highest setting. This model also faced similar issues with its Bagel setting as the CPT-122.
The GE toaster was inconsistent with its browning levels, producing browner bread on setting 3 than it did on setting 4. It also failed to display the wide range in browning capability I was looking for, and the bagel got stuck on its way out after its toast cycle.
What does the “bagel” function actually do?
Almost every toaster you can buy comes with a little button labeled “bagel,” but lots of people don’t know what happens if you push it. Because bagels are thicker than bread, they need to get toasted slightly differently than regular toast. Enter the bagel setting. This button will increase the temperature on the heating elements in the middle of the toaster—the ones working on the cut side of the bagel—while maintaining the constant temperature on the outside elements. This then gives you the perfectly toasted bagel with a firm but not burnt exterior and a nice crisp inside to spread your cream cheese across.
Your other everyday countertop needs
- The best microwaves, for all that vital defrost action
- The best air fryers stopped being gimmicks a long time ago
- A smoothie blender for all those quick pre-commute breakfasts
Additional reporting by Megan Wahn