These are the two hand mixers most value shoppers actually cross-shop: the Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed and the Hamilton Beach 6-Speed. Both are inexpensive, both cover the everyday jobs a hand mixer exists for — whipping cream, beating eggs, mixing cake batter — and the honest gap between them is narrower than the spec sheet makes it look. What separates them is speed count, controls and, most of all, what comes in the box.
Start with power, because it's the spec people fixate on and the one that misleads here. Hamilton Beach lists a slightly higher rated wattage (250 W) than the Cuisinart (220 W), which sounds like a win for the cheaper mixer — but rated watts describe electrical input, not the torque that reaches the beaters, and on hand mixers the number is a weak predictor of how a mixer actually behaves in a stiff bowl. In practice the Cuisinart feels the more capable of the two on heavier work, largely because it pairs its motor with nine speeds and a set of dough hooks, where the Hamilton Beach has six speeds and no hooks at all. Treat the wattage figures as manufacturer claims that roughly tie, and let the rest of the sheet decide.
Speeds and controls are the first real difference. The Cuisinart's nine speeds give you finer steps between a gentle fold and a full whip, which matters more than it sounds when you're trying to bring flour in without a cloud. Its only real control quirk is that speed 1 is a touch fast for the very gentlest folding. The Hamilton Beach answers with six speeds plus a QuickBurst button for a momentary kick and a bowl-rest feature that parks the mixer mid-recipe — genuinely handy, but six speeds simply give you less fine control than nine. Read the full Cuisinart review and the full Hamilton Beach review for the complete picture on each.
The biggest difference is what you unbox. The Cuisinart ships with dough hooks and a whisk on top of the standard beaters, plus a snap-in storage case that keeps the lot together — rare at this price, and the reason it can knead a small, soft loaf in a pinch. The Hamilton Beach includes a whisk and a snap-on case but no dough hooks, so it's a batter-and-cream tool, not a bread one. If you value the widest range for the least money, that accessory bundle is what earns the Cuisinart its best-value spot.
The rule:buy the Cuisinart if you want the most range for the money — nine speeds, dough hooks and a whisk in one box. Buy the Hamilton Beach if you want the lowest price for a capable mixer and you only ever whip cream and mix batter a few times a month. Neither is a mistake; they're sized for slightly different amounts of baking.
The short answer
Quick picks
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|
| 01 | | Best value hand mixer | | $75.94·Amazon |
| 02 | Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Hand Mixer (62682RZ)The honest budget option. Six speeds, a QuickBurst button and snap-on storage for the beaters and whisk. It won't knead bread, but for whipping cream and mixing cake batter a few times a month it's all most kitchens need. | Cheapest capable option | | $27.85·Amazon |
#ad · Live prices from the Amazon Product API, as of Aug 5, 2026. Where we have no verified live price we show none — a gap beats a number that has rotted.
In detail
The picks, in full
Best value hand mixer
Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 9-Speed (HM-90S)
220 W rated9 speedsDough hooks incl.Whisk incl.Storage case
The value pick. A 220 W-rated motor, nine speeds and a snap-in storage case for the beaters, dough hooks and whisk it ships with. Most home bakers won't out-grow it.
- Power
- 8
- Control
- 8
- Comfort
- 8
- Attachments
- 8.5
- Value
- 9
Pros
- +Comes with dough hooks and a whisk — rare at the price
- +220 W rated motor has real headroom for the money
- +Storage case keeps the attachments together
Cons
- −Speed 1 is a touch fast for the gentlest folding
- −Case is bulky in a shallow drawer
Don't buy this if…
…you knead bread dough weekly — hand-mixer dough hooks are a stopgap, and a stand mixer will pay off.
Cheapest capable option
Hamilton Beach 6-Speed Hand Mixer (62682RZ)
250 W rated6 speedsQuickBurstWhisk incl.Snap-on case
The honest budget option. Six speeds, a QuickBurst button and snap-on storage for the beaters and whisk. It won't knead bread, but for whipping cream and mixing cake batter a few times a month it's all most kitchens need.
- Power
- 7
- Control
- 7
- Comfort
- 8
- Attachments
- 6.5
- Value
- 9.5
Pros
- +Consistently one of the lowest prices for a capable mixer
- +Light and easy to hold for occasional jobs
- +Bowl-rest feature parks it mid-recipe
Cons
- −No dough hooks — not a bread tool
- −Six speeds give less fine control than nine-speed rivals
Don't buy this if…
…you bake often or want dough hooks — step up to a nine-speed like the Cuisinart or KitchenAid.
Buy the Cuisinart if… / buy the Hamilton Beach if…
Buy the Cuisinart Power Advantage 9-Speed if…
You bake often enough to want fine control and the option of dough hooks. The nine speeds make gentle folding and controlled whipping easier, and the included hooks and whisk stretch it to jobs a beater-only mixer can't touch — a batch of soft roll dough, a meringue, a whipped frosting. The snap-in case keeps the extras from wandering to the back of a drawer. For most home bakers who want one hand mixer to cover everything short of a stand mixer, this is the smarter buy, and it's the value pick in our best-for-baking roundup.
Who it's notfor: someone who reaches for a hand mixer two or three times a year for the occasional bowl of whipped cream. You'll pay a little more and store a bigger case for range you'll never use — the cheaper Hamilton Beach is enough.
Buy the Hamilton Beach 6-Speed if…
You want the lowest price for a mixer that still does the core jobs well. Six speeds, a QuickBurst button and a bowl-rest feature cover cake batter, whipped cream and light cookie dough for a few dollars less, and it's light and easy to hold for a quick job. For an occasional baker who mostly beats eggs and whips cream, it's all the mixer the kitchen needs.
Who it's not for: anyone who wants to knead dough or who values fine low-speed control. There are no dough hooks in the box, and six speeds give coarser steps than nine. If bread or frequent baking is on the horizon, step up to the Cuisinart or a nine-speed like the others in our budget roundup.
How to weigh the wattage gap
Don't. The Hamilton Beach's higher rated wattage looks decisive on the box, but rated watts and real beating torque are not the same thing, and a handheld motor is limited as much by heat and gearing as by input power. We unpack exactly why the number misleads in our hand-mixer wattage guide; for this pair, treat the two figures as a wash and decide on speeds and accessories instead.
The deciding question
Ask whether you'll ever want dough hooks. If yes — even occasionally — the Cuisinart hands them to you for a small premium and adds three more speeds while it's at it. If no, and you only ever whip and beat, the Hamilton Beach does that honestly for less, and the money you save is real.
How we picked
We don't run a testing lab
We read the manuals, compiled the published specifications, did the wattage-to-dough math and weighed aggregated owner reviews, then scored each product against a published rubric. The scores are judgments from documented research — they are notmeasurements we took, because we do not have a lab and we're not going to pretend we do. Every spec is the manufacturer's published figure, cited in Sources.
Questions
Frequently asked
Is the Cuisinart or Hamilton Beach hand mixer better?+
For most bakers the Cuisinart Power Advantage 9-Speed, because it adds three speeds and includes dough hooks and a whisk the Hamilton Beach lacks. The Hamilton Beach 6-Speed is the better buy only if you want the lowest price and never plan to knead dough.
Does the Hamilton Beach's higher wattage make it more powerful?+
Not in any way you'll feel. Hamilton Beach lists 250 rated watts to the Cuisinart's 220, but rated watts describe electrical input, not the torque at the beaters. On hand mixers the number is a weak predictor, and the Cuisinart's speeds and dough hooks matter far more for real work.
Can either of these hand mixers knead bread dough?+
Only the Cuisinart, and only as a stopgap — it ships with dough hooks that can work a small, soft loaf, while the Hamilton Beach has no hooks at all. If you knead dough regularly, a hand mixer of either kind is the wrong tool; see our
best hand mixers for bread dough for how far they realistically stretch.
Receipts
Sources
We don't run a testing lab, and we don't pretend to. Specs are the manufacturer's published figures, cited above; scores are our judgments from that research. Where we couldn't verify something, we say so on the page rather than quietly leaving it out. Read our full method.
