What Does $500 Buy You From DeWalt Vs. Ryobi?

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Walk into a branch of any home improvement retailer and you'll be met with an array of brightly colored tools from different brands, with most major brands offering their own cordless tool ecosystems alongside a range of corded tools and hand tools. If the home improvement retailer in question is Home Depot, two of the most common tool brands you'll see are Ryobi and DeWalt. Both have a great reputation among DIYers, and although DeWalt makes a few tools that Ryobi doesn't, both offer a broad mix of both DIY essentials and more niche tools.

However, if you're on a budget, buying tools from Ryobi will see your money stretch much further than buying from DeWalt. To illustrate the price gulf between them, let's assume that we're a Home Depot shopper with a budget of $500, and that we're entirely new to both brands. For comparative purposes, we're only using retail prices here, and not accounting for any state-specific sales taxes.

If we're looking to purchase our first tool from Ryobi's cordless 18V One+ ecosystem, the brand's ½ inch drill/driver kit is a solid starting point. It retails for $79, and for that price, we get the tool itself plus a 1.5 Ah 18V battery and a charger. To build a tool kit of DIY essentials, we could then buy a circular saw such as Ryobi's 18V One+ 7-¼ inch circular saw. This will add another $139 to our total bill.

Next on the shopping list of Ryobi cordless tools is another 18V One+ battery. The brand recommends using a 4Ah high performance battery with the circular saw for optimal performance, so we'll add that to the basket for $129. Since we still have some budget spare, we could also pick up two more useful tools, such as the Ryobi 18V One+ oscillating multi-tool and the brand's cordless jig saw. These cost $79 and $69, respectively, and bring our total up to $495, just shy of our $500 budget.

Now, we'll try and purchase the equivalent cordless DIY essentials from DeWalt. The first thing on the shopping list is DeWalt's 20V Max ½ inch drill/driver kit, which features a 2.0 Ah battery and a charger and retails for $179. Adding the brand's 7 ¼ inch 20V circular saw to the pile pushes the total up by $279, leaving us with a $458 bill already. At that price, we can't buy the equivalent 4 Ah 20V Max battery, oscillating multi-tool, or jigsaw without going over budget, never mind all three of them.

That quick comparison focused on common DIY tools, but both brands also offer a range of highly rated cordless yard tools. Again, Ryobi often emerges as the cheaper brand. To take just one example, Ryobi's 450 CFM 18V One+ cordless blower retails for $159, while a 450 CFM DeWalt 20V Max cordless blower costs $179.

With corded tools, a familiar story emerges. Starting with Ryobi's 12 amp reciprocating saw and its 10 amp 7.0-inch angle grinder gives us an initial basket subtotal of $178. Adding in a 14 amp 7-¼ circular saw and a 2.6 amp 5.0-inch orbital sander pushes the total up to $336.

That leaves us with $164 spare from our original $500, but if we buy the equivalent corded tools from DeWalt, we'll have already gone over budget. The brand's 12 amp reciprocating saw retails for $149, while its 11 amp 4.5-inch angle grinder will set us back $118. Once we've thrown in a 15 amp 7-¼ inch circular saw and a 3.0 amp 5.0-inch orbital sander, we'll be looking at a final bill of $545 before any additional taxes.

Fans of the DeWalt brand will point out that although price is one of the important things to consider before buying, having a higher-quality tool that's trusted by many professionals can be worth paying an additional price premium. However, for the DIYer looking to make their budget go as far as possible, Ryobi consistently wins when the two brands are put head-to-head.