This is a familiar question that I see every week – “which power tool brand should I buy?”
In the last post I saw online, someone who likes to do their own car repairs and maintenance is looking to buy a modern cordless impact wrench and impact driver. They narrowed it down to Dewalt vs Ryobi after determining that Milwaukee tools were too expensive for their budget.
Most of the questions sound very similar. Which power tool brand should they buy? It’s a good question that should never be asked alone.
What do you need?
What’s your budget?
We’re now in mid-October. Holiday deals kick off in around 2-3 weeks. If following the patterns from earlier years, the tool deals will be live at Home Depot and Lowe’s stores, and usually elsewhere too, by the end of October, and the first week of November in stores.
WAIT, if you can.
Make shopping lists for each of the brands, and check again once the deals go live. Once you see the cost breakdown, buy accordingly.
The difficulty is that a lot of folks don’t know exactly what they want. And also, you’re not locked into a single brand.
You can buy the Ryobi 18V brushless heavy duty impact wrench for $159 at Home Depot right now, and that’s for the kit that includes a battery and charger.
If you want a quieter driving experience, there’s the Milwaukee M12 Fuel SURGE impact kit, and various versions of the M12 Fuel Stubby impact wrench (with battery but no charger).
You’re not committed to a single cordless power tool battery platform.
Sure, it can be more convenient, but an 18V ratchet or impact won’t be as compact as the premium 12V-class models. Meaning, you have to weigh priorities between pricing and capability, and pivot as your needs evolve over time.
A heavy duty impact is great for tight fasteners, but won’t easily fit in tight spaces.
Or, you might need a heavy duty drill for large holes in wood, only to wish for something smaller and lighter when installing cabinets or fixtures overhead.
If you don’t need to make the purchase right now, just wait until the holiday promos just a few weeks away. At that time, there’s bound to be discounts on “gateway” cordless power tool kits and combo kits.
There are always aggressive discounts on select cordless power tool combo kits, and “free tool with purchase” offers have been hugely popular in recent years. This means we’re expecting to see a return of various freebie tiers, where the more you spend the more you get.
Brands know that tool users are more likely to expand their collection within the same platform, and so they throw huge discounts and incentives into making these introductory purchases as high-valued and low-priced as possible. Competition is fierce.
So in the meantime, determine what you want or need, make rough shopping lists, and then compare all of that to the deals that are just about to go live.
What kind of tool deals might we expect to see this year? Here’s our index for last year: Best Black Friday Tool Deals for 2025, and the top separate sections:
Milwaukee Tool Deals for Black Friday 2025
Dewalt Tool Deals for Black Friday 2025
Home Depot Black Friday 2025 Tool Deals
Best Ryobi Black Friday Deals (2025)
