Not Just Snap-On: 7 Tool Brands That Can Cost A Fortune

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Snap-On has a reputation for two things, primarily. The first is for making some of the best tools for mechanics in the business, which it delivers directly to you on tool trucks that visit various establishments along its route. The second thing is being very expensive, at least in comparison to most major hand tool and power tool brands. Of course, there are reasons for that, like the delivery service of the tool trucks, having one of the best lifetime warranties in all of hand tools, and the general high quality of the tools. Loads of professional mechanics use Snap-On for these reasons.

However, if you look across the Internet, you'll often see Snap-On often compared to less expensive brands like Harbor Freight's Icon, and other big hand tool brands like Gearwrench, Wera, Craftsman, and many others. After all, for the cost, Snap-On doesn't deliver to residences. Many folks dedicate a lot of effort to looking for cheaper alternatives that they can get at regular stores or online. 

Fewer people look for tools that are as expensive or more expensive than Snap-On, but there are plenty of tool companies that exist which sell tools with similar sticker shock. Spoiler warning, virtually all of the other tool truck brands sit in that category, but a few others also sell some shockingly expensive tools. 

The first company that sells tools on par with Snap-On in terms of price is arguably the brand's biggest competitor. Mac Tools is also a tool truck brand where people drive around to shops, sell tools, and perform warranty replacements. It's a lot like Snap-On in its business model, where franchisees control the trucks and establish their own routes. Mac Tools also has a lifetime warranty to go with its expensive tools and on paper, at least, it's almost identical to the one Snap-On offers, although real-world experiences tend to lean toward Snap-On when it comes to warranty replacements. 

In any case, Mac Tools is right up there with Snap-On in terms of price, including $400 for a micro-adjustable torque wrench, $215 for an 8-piece combination screwdriver set, and $400 for a 12-piece ratcheting wrench set, just to name a few. This is right in line with similar products from Snap-On, give or take a few dollars here and there. We looked at roughly a dozen products and Mac Tools is cheaper on average, but only by about 15% or so. The sticker shock is still definitely there and it's close enough that it's fair to say that Mac Tools also costs a small fortune. 

The competition between the two is similar. Many people gravitate toward Snap-On in general, but when reviewed professionally, they're often comparable in terms of overall quality. Thus, the sticker shock is equally warranted for Mac Tools as it is for Snap-On. 

Matco is another tool truck brand, albeit a significantly smaller one than Snap-On. However, the company's drivers still pull in some decent money with the proper routes and networking, and Matco is known to make some pretty good tools. The brand has the same pros and cons as Snap-On and Mac Tools in that the tools are expensive and high quality, but you have to know a tool truck driver to get all of the benefits. It even carries a similar lifetime warranty against defects. 

Like Mac Tools and Snap-On, Matco tools come with a hefty price premium. A good example of this is its ⅜-inch flex head electronic torque wrench, which retails for $715. A similar Snap-On electronic torque wrench retails for $795. So, much like Mac Tools, Matco is typically in the same ballpark but generally less expensive, whether it's their $290 10-piece screwdriver set or the brand's $300 13-piece wrench set. Its power tools are more expensive, as a 20V cordless drill from Matco is $620 versus $505 for Snap-On's model. 

Matco has a similar reputation to its larger competitors, with some people even championing Matco over Snap-On based on quality. However, ultimately, pro reviewers often state that Matco is in the same neighborhood as Mac Tools and Snap-On, so with the similar price comes similar quality overall.

Festool is a pro-level power tool maker that makes most of its stuff in Germany. It's known for high-end power tools that can perform a range of tasks, and reviewers often praise its power and ergonomics. The brand's tools are priced outside of the usual budget window for DIYers, but carpenters, woodworkers, and similar professionals see them a lot more frequently. And this is not a tool truck brand, which means you can buy its tools online and get the same treatment the pros do. 

Snap-On's power tool selection isn't that big, so comparing one-to-one isn't that easy. Festool's basic power drill is $300, and Snap-On's is a little over $500, so Snap-On is clearly more expensive. However, $300 is still a lot more than you'd spend on bigger cordless drill brands at your local big-box retailer like Ryobi or Kobalt. Specialty tools can bring some serious sticker shock, like the $1,799 Festool Sliding Compound Miter Saw and the brand's $899 corded dust extractor. Even a simple circular saw goes for $599. In short, getting an all-Festool power tool lineup hurts as much as getting a full Snap-On hand tool lineup, if not more. 

The good news is that the Festool products really are quite good. They are made for pro-level work so if you're a DIYer and you get your hands on one, chances are that it'll last a good, long time. 

Cornwell is known to be one of a handful of tool brands popular with mechanics, but you may not have heard of it. It's a tool truck brand like Snap-On, Mac Tools, and Matco, but unlike those brands, Cornwell doesn't sell any of its tools online, which limits supply strictly people on its truck routes. You won't find the brand on Amazon or hanging up at your local hardware store. Its tools do pop up on third-party retailers like eBay or Mercari, but they're often used or the stock is unpredictable.

Since prices aren't listed online from the manufacturer and they can vary from tool truck to tool truck, we're left with guessing based on context. A ⅜-inch digital torque wrench from Cornwell runs for $250 used on eBay and a 12-piece combination wrench set also sells for around $250 used. That's a lot more than you'd find a torque wrench or combination wrench set brand new from Harbor Freight's Icon brand for sure, and more than most other hand tool brands too, so we can assume they're much more expensive when brand new. 

Some people on YouTube have reported that a set of torque wrenches costs "almost $2,000" and that one wrench costs around $630, so this is definitely a premium brand when bought brand new off the truck. They hold up pretty well in reviews, but there are understandably fewer of them online than there are for the bigger tool truck brands. 

Milwaukee is one of the biggest power tool brands in the world, and often recommended for DIYers and pros alike. Of all the brands on the list, this is arguably the most accessible, sold at retailers across the U.S. and online. You can stock up on a ton of its tools in pretty short order. Milwaukee also makes hand tools, and while they aren't typically held in the same regard as pro brands like Knipex or Klein Tools in their respective industries, they're still more than good enough for DIY and pro use. 

When comparing one-to-one, Snap-On power tools are about twice as expensive as Milwaukee's tools, but that doesn't mean Milwaukee is cheap. Its brushless power drill goes for $219, which is still quite a lot compared to budget DIY brands. Milwaukee also sells a lot of specialized power tools you really can't buy anywhere else. The best example of that is the M12 Force Logic Press Tool Kit, which costs $2,449. Even its ½-inch torque wrench is $280. So, while Snap-On is more expensive on a part-by-part basis, Milwaukee can still surprise you with high prices. 

It is not unusual to see people swap out their power tools from other brands for Milwaukee ones. One of the reasons for that is because Milwaukee tools often test better than more expensive counterparts, and so if you have to get some power tools, you might as well get stronger ones at half the price. 

Tekton is an excellent overall tool company with some neat practices. For starters, the company tells you where each tool is made on its product webpages. For example, the screwdrivers in this massive set are made in Germany, the nut driver bits were made in Taiwan, the organizer case was made in the U.S., and the labels were made in Sweden. Few other tool companies offer that kind of transparency. Plus, the brand has the best lifetime warranty. It's one sentence long and basically says there are no time limits, no receipts necessary, and shipping is on Tekton. 

If you're expecting a company like that to be super expensive, you'd be half right. Individual tools are in the middle tier of pricing — for instance, the brand's $110 90-tool torque wrench is way cheaper Snap-On's equivalent product. Where Tekton gets you is its enormous tool kits, which can sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. The aforementioned screwdriver kit includes 54 screwdrivers and costs $465. Tekton also has a 122-piece combination wrench set that'll set you back $2,035. One more example is a two-piece flex head electronic torque wrench set that costs $695. 

The mixture of inexpensive individual tools and massive (and massively priced) toolsets make Tekton a pretty good brand if you're just starting out. That's especially true since the brand offers a 15% discount for students and educators learning skilled trades.

All of the tool brands on this list are designed for DIYers or professionals in pretty typical industries like carpentry or automotive. However, there is a whole tier of tools above that, aimed at industrial work. These include brands like Hazet, Stahlwille, and the subject of this section, CS Unitec. These brands make specialized hand tools meant for super tough work in sectors like aerospace, nuclear power plants, and petrochemical plants. Basically, the kinds of places where normal tools just won't cut it. As such, these tools are almost universally more expensive than Snap-On and its competitors. 

A Hazet torque wrench costs nearly $900, and a Stahwille version costs almost $950, but we think CS Unitec takes the cake. The brand makes non-sparking and non-magnetic tools for extremely specialized use cases and those tools have price tags to match. A simple adjustable wrench goes for up to $400 for an 18-inch variant. The brand's non-sparking railroad pick costs $200 and its non-sparking, non-magnetic electrician's pliers costs roughly $250. If you're ready for some real sticker shock, CS Unitec's non-sparking ½-inch torque wrench costs $2,945. 

The big reason for these high prices is because the CS Unitec's tools are made for working on things like MRI machines, special machinery, and areas that may have explosive materials floating around in the air, so they're made with special allows that aren't magnetic and don't spark, so as not to harm its operator. The price is probably worth it.

This article does not contain any recommendations and is purely for information purposes. As such, figuring out tool brands that are nearly as expensive (or more expensive) than Snap-On was pretty simple and required browsing around the Internet checking known brands and prices. Since this list directly compares to Snap-On prices, we wanted to make sure that one-to-one comparisons could be made, so every tool brand on the list had to sell at least some of the same tools as Snap-On. This helps with perspective in showing just how much a torque wrench can possibly go for, and to show that Snap-On isn't the only expensive tool brand in the game.