The best budget-friendly robot vacuums

This robot vacuum has good suction (4,000Pa), carpet detection, and if you have a mix of flooring, chunky rugs or raised thresholds, it can cope well with a bit of climbing.

It has some features you won’t find on every model either, such as voice notifications: the D10 Plus will let you know what it’s doing as it’s doing it.

The mapping is detailed and accurate and will allow you to vac, mop, or simultaneously vac and mop individual rooms, rooms in a particular sequence, the entire area, or a specific zone in a room.  You can also customise suction and mopping settings for different rooms.

You’ll get 45 days of cleaning before you need to empty the charging base, but the base is larger than many featured in this round-up, so you’ll need to find room for it.

This is a newer model, with good navigation and decent suction. It can distinguish between hard flooring and carpets, and when it reaches a carpet it’ll ramp up the suction for a more thorough clean.

We found its mapping to be accurate, and you’ll be able to make maps for different floors or areas of your home and customise cleaning.

It comes with an auto-empty dock, which means you can set a cleaning schedule and forget about it – for up to 3 months.

It mops as well, but you’ll need to fill the onboard tank and fit the mop pad by hand, as well as wash the mop pad afterwards.

This is an older model that’s come down in price and it’s a good option for pet owners, with good (4,000Pa) twin-turbine suction and an anti-tangle roller brush – although we think you’ll still need to remove some hair by hand.

We found its laser navigation to be solid, except that it struggled to spot low objects and, while it would carefully stop short of taller obstacles, it ploughed into low pet bowls.

Mapping was accurate: you can merge and section off rooms, and set custom cleaning settings for each room, choosing the water level (when mopping), suction power, and whether it cleans the room once or twice.

The auto-empty base is compact but holds a 2.5l antibacterial dust bag, which will allow you up to a month and a half of cleaning before you need to change it.

Mopping isn’t quite as hands-off. You’ll need to fill the onboard tank and fit the mop, but you can then specify mopping levels for each room. One thing to note is that it will leave a slightly damp trail behind after mopping, so you might want to specify carpeted areas as no-go zones.

This entry-level model from Roborock is well priced and has some top-flight features, including the same well designed and easy to use app as its pricier siblings. It also has a large onboard bin (770ml), which means you won’t need to empty it as often.

If you have mainly hard flooring and are looking for a robot vacuum for regular, light vacuuming, we’d recommend this model. It maps well and you’ll be able to set a cleaning schedule, leave it for a week or two without even needing to empty its bin, and come home every day to shiny floors.

However, it doesn’t have the power to properly clean mid-pile carpets, and its mopping system will only give your floor a wet dusting, rather than cleaning up sticky messes or spills.

The Proscenic X1 vacuums, mops and has an auto-empty dock. The X1 also has carpet detection and will boost power to the vacuum when needed.

You can make and store up to five maps and set room-by-room cleaning schedules. It has a shorter battery life than many models, however, at around 30 minutes.

It’s not the best climbing robot, and got stuck a few times during our testing.

We also found the app connection to be a little buggy at times, and the app features some poor translation, but the X1 comes with a remote which you can use in place of the app if you prefer.