Every Major Electric Pruner, Ranked Worst To Best

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Tending a garden with manual pruning shears always looks calming from the outside. In gardening media, you'll often see a nice elderly person in a hat, gently choosing which thin stems and branches need to be removed, and after a simple snip, they move on. In reality, between branches, vines, and stems of variable thicknesses and hardnesses, pruning can quickly become tedious, stressful, and even painful, since pruners require repetitive motion over a long period of time.

In 1984, French inventor Daniel Delmas invented the world's first electric pruning shears, primarily to benefit local farmers working in nearby vineyards. Since the introduction of the electric pruner, several companies have improved upon the idea, making lighter, stronger, and cordless models. And while it can feel silly to buy a power tool for a task like pruning, think about how your hands feel after using manual loppers or pruners for extensive jobs like snipping a vine from a chain-link fence.

When you're looking for an electric pruner, features like powerful blades, long battery life, and light overall weight are important. In assembling this ranking, we looked at those factors along with sales data and opinions from YouTube pros, gardening blogs, product reviews, and my own experience as a user of several of the tools in this article.

If you have ever started a grass lawn from seed, applied a weed-and-feed product to an existing lawn, or just walked around the garden center at your local hardware store, you're probably familiar with the Scotts brand. Established in 1868, Scotts is one of America's leaders in lawn, garden, and hydroponics products.

Like countless other brands including DeWalt, Scotts licenses its brand name out to third parties for products related to the business that it focuses on. The Scotts Power Pruner is one of those products, made by American Lawn Mower as part of a larger line of Scotts outdoor tools and equipment. The pruner is reasonably priced, and overall it is viewed as a fine, if not great, tool. Common complaints about this tool include premature blade dulling, short battery life, and ragged or uneven cuts, especially with thin stems, occasionally resulting in jammed blades.

Even with those issues, this tool is definitely an upgrade from a manual pruner if you've got a lot of work in front of you. At $75 on Amazon with a battery and charger, it's one of the more affordable electric pruners on our list, and for $15 more you can get a 5.5 foot telescoping pole attachment to take care of out of reach branches and stems.

From its humble roots as a Baltimore machine shop, to its power tool beginnings as the creator of the first portable electric drill, Black + Decker has been an American tool mainstay since 1927. While the intended market for Black + Decker tools has shifted from professionals to a more DIY/homeowner focus, the brand's weathered several ownership changes and continued to sell well in hardware stores across the country.

The black and orange outdoor tools from Black and Decker are surprisingly robust — I bought one of its string trimmers when I moved into my home 13 years ago, and aside from a new battery and string reloads, the thing still works great. However, Black + Decker's batteries get some criticism, with reviews — including in a recent SlashGear article on cordless yard tool brands — noting that battery life often doesn't last long enough to finish a job with those tools.

Black + Decker says that the shears in its 20V Max Cordless Pruner Kit can make a cut a second and 900 cuts per charge, with a maximum cut capacity of an inch. The large 20V Max battery is compatible with Black + Decker's dozens of other outdoor products, although it does also add a significant amount of weight to the tool.

The Black + Decker 20V Max Cordless Pruner Kit includes an electric pruner, a charger, and 1.5Ah battery, and is available from Home Depot for around $130.

By now, you know how Amazon search results go: Search for what you want, and find a deluge of products from manufacturers both familiar and obscure. Many sellers don't even bother to put the brand name in the listing's description, instead counting on a low price or a photo to get you to click through. Dragro falls into that category, using a long product listing and significantly lower price than its competition as click bait. However, after reading a few reviews and hearing from a friend who has this tool, I think Dragro is worth a look.

Dragro's Electric Pruning Shears come in 11th on Amazon's sales rankings of electric pruners, with mostly positive reviews. More importantly, reviews outside of Amazon also praise the Dragro pruner's pistol-style design, large blades, and ergonomic feel — especially for those users with larger hands. Users note that the safety shutoff for this tool isn't immediate, and the blades will operate with a single trigger pull during that period. If you've got kids or are forgetful, it's something to take note of.

The kit is affordable, gets through branches up to around 1.2 inches thick, and handles well. The value is in the extras with this pick — adjustment tools, two batteries, a charger, and a storage case are all included in its $80 price tag on Amazon.

Ryobi's neon green and grey tools are known for being affordable and reliable for weekend warriors and homeowners. While they're typically not the most powerful or feature-rich products on the market, they have earned a spot in thousands of garages and sheds because of their low price tags, widespread availability, and compatibility with hundreds of other tools in Ryobi's ONE+ battery system.

The Ryobi 18V One+ HP Pruner is the more heavy-duty of Ryobi's two electric pruners. This HP model features a brushless motor and a cut diameter of 1 inch, both upgrades over the standard model's brushed motor and ¾-inch maximum cut diameter. Users like the power of this tool, and it seems to have no problem getting through branches that are 1 inch or even a little larger.

Ryobi's pruner is a good pick — there's a reason SlashGear included it on our list of tools every home landscaper will want – but there are some flaws to this tool. While the grip is squishy and comfortable, I've personally noticed that the pruner stresses the wrist after a while, and the safety trigger can dig into your hand. The price is also a little high for this tool, especially when more affordable models have wider cut diameters and additional features.

The Ryobi 18V One+ HP Pruner can be purchased as a bare tool at Home Depot for $150, or as part of a kit with a battery and charger for $200.

Stihl, the maker of the first two-person electric chainsaw, now makes some of the most trusted tools for arborists. Currently' it's the number one selling brand of gas-powered outdoor power equipment in America, and has been since 2009. The brand tops SlashGear's list of major chainsaw brands because of its low maintenance requirements, high power, and great design, and Stihl maintains its earned reputation by only selling through authorized local dealers.

However, while it's legendary for its chainsaws, but Stihl makes a lot of other outdoor power equipment, too. The Stihl ASA 20 Cordless Secateurs, for example, are some of the best-reviewed Stihl tools in the U.K. They're rumored for American release in mid-2025, and preview users gush about the tool's adjustable blade, unique safety lock, and battery life — a single charge is reportedly able to get up to 2000 cuts. The tool also has a small screen that tracks battery life, blade position, and cut count.

While I felt like they were worth adding to our rankings, the Stihl ASA 20 Cordless Secateurs have yet to receive a proper release date in the United States, and therefore their rating took a hit. I reached out to Stihl via email for a release date, but was told Stihl does not provide advance information about planned products.

SlashGear puts Milwaukee at or near the top of many of our brand rankings, whether for the best cordless ratchets or best impact wrenches. The red brand's tools are made for professionals, and those same pros are willing to spend more for a product that they trust to be well built and well designed.

Milwaukee's Brushless Pruning Shears are an excellent addition to the brand's M12 battery system, which also features compact circular saws, drills, and hedge trimmers. The pruner made by Milwaukee is versatile and powerful, capable of squeezing up to 1,000 ½-inch cuts per battery charge. While it is able to get through branches as thick as 1¼ inches, power can be halved in order to increase cut speed by 40%, so whether you're working through tree limbs or grapevines, the Milwaukee pruner is up to the challenge. At 3.3 pounds, it's not so heavy it would cause discomfort with extended use, and the tool fit comfortably in my hand when I tried it out at my local Home Depot.

The Milwaukee M12 Brushless Pruning Shears are available as a bare tool from Home Depot for around $200, or as part of a kit that includes a battery and charger for $250.

When reading about the foundations of Swiss company Felco's business, two things become clear: This is a company that is dedicated to making the best pruning shears on the planet, and those shears are not going to be cheap. From the company's roots in an old watch dial factory in Switzerland in 1945, to the introduction of the beloved Felco 2 pruning shears just three years later, the brand has become legendary among gardening enthusiasts and professionals alike. In fact, several of the professional landscapers I spoke to for this list showed me their own Felco pruners, and all of the tools looked well-maintained but weathered from years of use.

Felco's pruners come in cordless, corded, and manual configurations, and while they are easy to recommend for their quality, their high prices limit widespread adoption among casual gardeners. For those willing to pay, the Felco 834W Electric Pruning Shear has a large cutting diameter of 1.34 inches and a comfortable grip. The tool weighs just over 2 pounds — light enough for extended use — and its long feature list includes a progressive trigger, gold-coated blade for reduced risk of disease transfer, a built-in light, and a safety feature that uses the conductivity of the user's body to lock the tool if it senses a person's finger making contact with either blade.

The Felco 834W Electric Pruning Shear can be ordered directly from the manufacturer as part of a kit that includes two batteries, a charger, a variety of accessories, and a case. It costs $750.

Throughout Craftsman's long and convoluted history, the brand has been seen as a toolmaker for homeowners and professionals. While it's had its ups and downs, these days Craftsman seems to be experiencing a bit of a renaissance with its Overdrive line of mechanics tools, and its well-made yard tools to add to your outdoor power equipment collection. Craftsman's extensive outdoor lineup includes trimmers, mowers, leaf blowers, and garden tools.

Craftsman's outdoor tools have always been well-respected, whether you bought your lawn mower from Sears (as I did 15 years ago) or, more recently, from Lowes or Ace. The brand's battery system isn't as lauded as the ones from Milwaukee or DeWalt, but Craftsman's V20 Cordless Pruners get a lot out of those batteries — up to 900 cuts per charge, according to the manufacturer. The Craftsman pruners have a cut capacity of 1.25 inches, and the battery has a power meter to track how long you've got before a recharge is needed. Other features include a decent weight of 4.6 pounds, a comfortable grip, and tool-free blade changes.

The Craftsman V20 Cordless Pruner can be purchased with a battery and charger from Lowes for $129.

DeWalt's power tools are some of the best in the industry, and the brand's marketing approach to make tools for everyone has been rewarded with great sales and a reputation as one of the best toolmakers on the planet. While DeWalt's tools are great for pros and DIYers, its landscaping products are also impressive, and the brand's extensive outdoor power equipment lineup uses the same batteries as its counterparts in the construction industry.

The DeWalt 20V Max 1½-inch Cordless Pruner is dependable, rugged, and powerful. 1½-inch cutting capacity and up to 1,100 cuts per charge are nothing to sneeze at, and the tool's replaceable blades are coated with a nonstick material that keeps them from catching as you clip multiple branches quickly. Weight is an issue with this tool, but it's powerful enough to justify that if you only need to lop a few branches.

I have owned this particular model for over a year, after realizing that the grapevine that runs through the chain link fence on the back of my property was not about to be tended to by my neighbors. Once you get used to the rhythm, it's easy to lose hours snipping through thin vines with this. The pruner is also surprisingly powerful, getting through several low branches on our unruly tree with little resistance. Overall, it's a solid tool — it's a bit heavy, but I haven't any issues with it.

The DeWalt 20V Max 1½-inch Cordless Pruner can be picked up at your local Ace Hardware store for $129 as a bare tool.

Worx is a new-ish company, founded in 2007 with a single trimmer. Since then, it has expanded and innovated, introducing outdoor power equipment like the Trivac blower/mulcher/vacuum and the Landroid, one of SlashGear's favorite robot lawn mowers. Worx also makes a number of power tools, including the unique SwitchDriver that we mentioned in our ranking of cordless drill brands.

The Worx Nitro 20V pruning shear/lopper is almost universally beloved, getting high marks from several tool reviewers and coming in second on Amazon's bestseller list of electric pruners behind a DeWalt knockoff. The pruner's soft grip handle allows for extended use, and its power is comparable to a lopper, but in a single-handed package. The pruner can cut branches up to an inch in diameter, and the tool's brushless motor provides more power and efficiency than brushed models. Users praise the tool's balance, speed, light weight, and comfortable design.

The Worx Nitro 20V Cordless Pruning Shear/Lopper can be purchased from Amazon as a bare tool for $90, or with a battery and charger for a list price of $130. Worx batteries are compatible with its 20, 40, and 80V tools, meaning that if you've already invested in the brand's equipment, you can save some money investing in bare tools instead of kits.

SlashGear assembled this ranking of every major electric pruner using a variety of data and sources. Sales data and reviews on tool review and gardening blogs and YouTube were referenced. We also checked in with Reddit's arborist community, and I factored in my own experience using about half the tools on this list in my own yard or at my nearby Lowes and Home Depot stores.

Finally, I spoke with local professional landscapers and arborists in my suburban Colorado neighborhood during my morning walks with my pug puppy, Eddie Pugston. I asked if they used electric pruners, which they recommended, and which they had bad experiences with.