This is a review of the best cheap electric toothbrush. We looked at dozens of affordable electric toothbrush options, and chose the top candidates based on cost, features, cleaning efficacy, and customer reviews.
Our top picks are the Oral-B Vitality, the Oclean Flow, the Oral-B Smart 2500 and the Philips One — each offering great value for the price.
Keep reading to find the best cheap electric toothbrush for your budget.
Table of contents
Best cheap electric toothbrush 2024
Best overall
Oral-B Vitality — $24.99
Best runner-up
Oclean Flow Sonic Electric Toothbrush — $34.99
Best cheap smart brush:
Oral-B Smart 1500 — $79.99
Best for travel:
Philips One Battery — $19.96
Best overall: Oral-B Vitality — $24.99
Product details
- Rechargeable electric toothbrush
- FlossAction brush head
- MicrPulse, floss-action bristles
- 2-minute timer
Why we like it
The Oral-B Vitality is the cheapest Oral-B toothbrush, and removes more plaque than a manual toothbrush, thanks to MicroPulse bristles on the FlossAction head. The 2-minute timer ensures that you brush for the recommended amount of time. It also has a 2-year limited warranty in case it needs replacement.
Also, as with most Oral-B brushes, this brush is compatible with all Oral-B brush heads (except those designed for the iO series). Finally, the price at just $24.99 and free shipping, makes it one of the best affordable electric toothbrushes around.
Areas for improvement
This cheap electric brush offers basic features — a pro or con, depending on what you want. The battery lasts for 5 days with 2 minutes of brushing twice per day — we found this to be a relatively short battery life when compared with other electric brushes. There is also no battery indicator light to let you know when you need to charge, and many users miss having a pressure sensor that lets you know if you are applying too much, or not enough pressure while brushing.
Best runner-up: Oclean Flow — $34.99
Product details
- 76,000 (38,000 rpm) movements/minute
- Dupont Diamond & W-shaped bristles
- IPX7 waterproof
- 2-minute timer
- 30-second reminder
- 180-day battery life
- 5 brush modes: Morning, night, standard cleaning, whitening, gentle
Why we like it
The Oclean Flow sonic toothbrush has w-shaped bristles that fit along the contours of your teeth, for fuller coverage, and DuPont Tynex bristles remove plaque without harming enamel. The battery lasts for 180 days on just a five-hour charge, which is of the longer battery lives available.
And the five brushing modes let you customize the intensity based on your needs, with a gentle setting for sensitive teeth and gums, or a night setting that works hard to scrub off all of the day's food and drink, making it another of our top picks for the best inexpensive electric toothbrush.
Areas for improvement
This isn't the most affordable electric toothbrush in the best budget-friendly electric toothbrush range. It also doesn't have any of the features specific to Smart brushes. When you turn it on, you have to go through all of the modes until you find the one you want — causing you to lose some of your brushing time.
Best cheap smart brush: Oral-B Smart 1500 — $79.99
Product details
- Brush head rotates, oscillates and pulsates
- 2 modes: daily clean and sensitive
- Smart pressure sensor
- 30-second quadrant timer
- 3D cleaning
Why we like it
The Smart 1500 is our top choice for the best cheap Oral-B electric toothbrush, if you don't mind paying a bit more to get some of the features of a smart brush. The main benefit of a smart toothbrush is that it has a pressure sensor that stops the brushing action when you are pressing too hard, ensuring that your gums aren't harmed. This brush also has 3D cleaning action means it comes oscillating rotating and pulsating to get rid of plaque — notable because studies have shown that 3D brushes significantly reduce more plaque than 2D brushes – with 87% plaque reduction vs 68% plaque reduction.
Areas for improvement
Despite being called a smart toothbrush, it doesn't have Bluetooth like most other smart brushes. Also, as it only has an on and off button on the handle, it may be difficult to know which brushing mode you are on.
Best for travel: Philips One Battery — $19.96
Product details
- AAA battery-powered (included)
- Cleans with microvibrations
- 2-minute timer
- Compact travel case storage
Why we like it
The Philips One Battery is a good cheap electric toothbrush if you are looking for something to take with you on the go, thanks to its small size and long-lasting life with a single AAA battery. The smart timer lets you know how long to brush and four bright colors — ‘Miami' (coral), ‘midnight blue' (navy), ‘mint blue', and ‘mango' (yellow) add a joyful touch to this, our top choice for best cheap sonic toothbrush.
Areas for improvement
Customers note that the cleaning power doesn't feel very strong compared to other electric toothbrushes. It also has no way to indicate when the battery is too low, and there's no pressure sensor to let you know if you are brushing too hard.
Budget electric toothbrush comparison
 Oral-B Vitality |  Oclean Flow |  Smart 1500 |  Philips One | |
Price | $24.99 | $34.99 | $79.99 | $19.96 |
Cleaning method | Oscillating | Sonic | 3D Oscillating/rotating | Sonic |
Battery/USB | USB | USB | USB | AAA battery |
Pressure sensor | ||||
2-minute timer | ||||
Conclusion
The best cheap electric toothbrushes offer basic features, for an affordable price, while still doing a stellar job cleaning your teeth. On the lowest end of the price range, you can get the Philips One Battery — perfect for taking with you on the go.
And if you're willing to pay a bit more for a good affordable electric toothbrush, but with some of the features of a smart toothbrush, then the Oral-B Smart 1500 may be the brush for you.
NIH: A comparison of two electric toothbrushes with respect to plaque removal and subject preference. Consulted 1st June 2024.