Best Ice Cream Maker 2026: The Compressor Is the Weight

The most-reviewed ice cream maker in this ranking that anyone would call affordable: 2,135 ratings at 4.2 stars with 59 per cent five-star and 8 per cent one-star, for £28.89. It makes 1.5 litres of ice cream, gelato, sorbet or frozen yoghurt in about 30 minutes, weighs 2.4kg and measures just 17 x 17 x 24cm — small enough to live in a cupboard.

The specification that decides the purchase is not on the box: this is a freeze-bowl machine, so the inner bowl has to spend the night in the freezer before you can churn anything. The listing mentions a detachable freezer bowl and a built-in timer, and the reviews describe the routine — keep the bowl in the freezer so it is always ready. A compressor machine costing eight times as much does the same job without that step and weighs four times as much.

What £28.89 buys is the whole category's value proposition: 1.5 litres of ice cream for the price of two tubs of the good stuff, from a machine with more reviews than any rival here. The 8 per cent of one-star ratings are about consistency on warm days, which is what a freezer bowl does as it starts to thaw — the honest limit of a cheap machine.

The first machine in Amazon's ice cream maker category, with 1,352 ratings at 4.3 stars, 66 per cent five-star and 6 per cent one-star, for £89.99. It makes 2 litres — the largest freeze-bowl capacity here — in about 25 minutes, weighs 4.7kg and comes with a recipe book.

Two numbers set it apart. The first is the five-year guarantee, which no other domestic machine in this ranking offers: a compressor machine can cost £231 and the cheapest here £28.89, and neither comes with five years of cover. The second is 2 litres, the point where home ice cream becomes worth the effort — four tubs' worth in a batch rather than a dessert for two.

The technique is the same as every freeze-bowl machine: the bowl lives in the freezer and takes hours to freeze solid, so the reviews advise keeping it there permanently, with one buyer noting two extra hours in the freezer before churning. That is the price of not spending £230 on a compressor, and with a five-year guarantee and a 25-minute churn it is the best compromise in this ranking.

Second in Amazon's ice cream maker category with 4.4 stars from 1,156 ratings, for £179.99. It is a different kind of machine from the rest: you fill one of the two tubs with a base, freeze it for 24 hours, then process it in minutes into ice cream, gelato, sorbet, milkshake or a smoothie bowl, choosing one of seven programs.

That routine — fill, freeze, process — is what the 1.4-litre capacity actually means, and it is why the reviews read differently from the paddle machines: people describe preparing protein ice cream and frozen yoghurt bases in advance, a tub at a time, rather than churning 2 litres for a dinner party. The tubs are the capacity, and having two means one can be freezing while the other is eaten.

At £179.99 it costs twice the Cuisinart Deluxe and six times the cheapest machine here, and what it buys is texture and convenience rather than volume: the processing step turns a solid block into a scoopable result, which no paddle machine does. The one-year warranty is the shortest among the domestic machines, which at this price is worth noting.

The best-rated machine here: 4.6 stars from 1,545 ratings with 80 per cent five-star and 4 per cent one-star, for £231.39. It makes 1.5 litres of ice cream, gelato, sorbet or frozen yoghurt in about 40 minutes and — the sentence that justifies the price — no need to pre-freeze the bowl.

That is what a built-in compressor buys, and you can see it in the weight: 10.2kg against 2.4kg for the cheapest machine here, because a compressor and its refrigerant fill the difference. Every freeze-bowl machine in this ranking asks you to plan a day ahead; this one starts when you decide to make ice cream. Two specialist paddles are included, one for ice cream and one for gelato and sorbet, which is the sort of detail that separates a machine designed for both from one with a single paddle.

The reviews are unusually content: easy to use and clean, no pre-freezing, and the scope of what it can do. At £231.39 it is the second-dearest domestic machine here, and the compromise it offers — the best rating, the best evidence and no planning — is the one most people eventually pay for.

A 1.8-litre digital machine for £44.99 with 4.2 stars from 227 ratings, 65 per cent five-star and 8 per cent one-star. It makes ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt, weighs 3.62kg and measures 21 x 21 x 23.5cm, with a transparent lid, an anti-slip base and a digital display.

Its position is the awkward middle of this ranking. It costs £16 more than the Duronic, which makes 1.5 litres with 2,135 ratings, and £45 less than the Cuisinart Deluxe, which makes 2 litres with a five-year guarantee. What it adds is the digital display and 0.3 litres of capacity; what it gives up is speed — 40 minutes against 25 to 30 for the machines on either side of it.

It is still a freeze-bowl machine, so the bowl goes in the freezer before use. The reviews are thin but positive — every aspect worked as described — with one buyer who had not used it yet, which is the honest state of a product with a few hundred reviews. Buy it if digital controls matter to you; otherwise the Duronic at £16 less is the better-reasoned purchase.

The cheapest way into a compressor machine by capacity: 2 litres for £197.99, which is £99 a litre against £154 for the best-rated Cuisinart above it. It carries 4.5 stars from 214 ratings with 77 per cent five-star and 5 per cent one-star, and it makes ice cream, yoghurt, sorbet and more in under 60 minutes thanks to a 180-watt built-in compressor that removes the need to pre-freeze the bowl.

Two figures frame the trade. The first is the weight: 11.8kg, the heaviest machine in this ranking, because a compressor and refrigerant have to live somewhere. The second is the time: under 60 minutes, against 40 for the Cuisinart and 25 for a freezer-bowl machine — the practical cost of a compressor at this price. It also carries a two-year warranty, twice the Ninja's one year.

What the reviews describe is the freedom of the format: adding cream, yoghurt and a flavour by eye rather than following a recipe, and the 5-in-1 functions covering yoghurt alongside frozen desserts. At £197.99 with 2 litres and no planning required, it is the value pick among machines that do not need your freezer.

The cheapest compressor machine here: £119.99 for a self-freezing bowl with no pre-freezing required, ice cream in 40 minutes, a transparent lid with a mix-in opening and a 7kg body. It carries 4.1 stars from 76 ratings with 63 per cent five-star and 13 per cent one-star — the highest complaint rate among the machines with a compressor.

The arithmetic of that price is interesting. It costs £80 less than the CASO with 2 litres and £111 less than the Cuisinart, and it makes 950ml against their 1.5 and 2 litres. Per litre of capacity it is therefore dearer than either: £126 a litre against £99 for the CASO. What it buys is a compressor in a small, cheap package — the only machine here that removes the pre-freezing step for under £150.

Its specification contains one quirk worth noting: the brand is listed as Cuisinart, while the model is sold as Freeze Ease. The reviews are positive about the format — easy to use, delicious results, and one buyer chilling the container first to be safe. Buy it if counter space and price matter more than capacity.

A machine that measures its capacity in millilitres rather than litres, and that is the whole story: it comes with three 240ml dessert pots, so 720ml in total against the 1.5 and 2-litre bowls of everything else here. It costs £69.99 with 3.9 stars from 127 ratings, 55 per cent five-star and 12 per cent one-star, weighs 1.95kg and has five presets covering ice cream, sorbet, milkshake, slushie and mix-ins.

The 240ml figure is a serving size, not a batch size, and the listing leans into it: three flavours at once is the pitch, one pot at a time for three people who want different desserts. That is a genuinely different product from a churning machine — it is closer to a frozen-drink maker that also freezes a base — and it is why the price sits between the budget churners and the compressor machines while the capacity is a third of theirs.

The reviews describe exactly that use: lemon sorbet and a cola slushie the day after it arrived, and one buyer who says that for the price point it cannot really be beaten. Buy it for single servings and frozen drinks; buy the Duronic at £29 less if you want 1.5 litres of one flavour.

The smallest machine in this ranking and the cheapest at £24.99: a 500ml bowl in a 14.5 x 7.3 x 17cm body weighing 1.24kg, making ice cream in about 25 minutes. It carries 3.7 stars from 286 ratings with 49 per cent five-star and 18 per cent one-star — the lowest average and the highest complaint rate of any machine here with a meaningful number of reviews.

Half a litre is the specification that defines it, and one review describes exactly who it suits: as I live on my own this little ice cream maker is ideal, it just makes enough for two or three. That is the honest case for it. Half a litre is two generous servings — a dessert rather than a stock of ice cream — and at 7.3cm wide the bowl fits in a freezer drawer, so pre-freezing costs no shelf space.

Why it is ninth is the record: 18 per cent of 286 buyers rated it one star, which for a machine this simple suggests the consistency of the result rather than the build. The five-star reviews are about size and convenience, not about the ice cream. Buy it for a small batch in a small kitchen; the Duronic costs £4 more, makes three times as much and has eight times the reviews.