We compared food processors on the things that decide whether one earns its cabinet space: usable bowl size, how close the blade sits to the bottom, which slicing and shredding discs come in the box, the feed tube, cleanup, noise and warranty.
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Best overall
Suits Most kitchens: weekly prep, dough, slaw and pesto
Best budget
Suits Occasional hummus, salsa and chopping on a budget
Best premium
Suits Big-batch cooks who want adjustable slicing
Best for small households
Suits Households of one to three who make sauces
From spec sheets and independent tests. The best result in a row is tagged.
| Feature | Cuisinart CustomBest overall | Hamilton Beach Bowl ScraperBest budget | Breville Sous Chef 16Best premium | Cuisinart Pro CustomBest for small households |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work bowlmanufacturer | 14 cups | 10 cups | 16 cups + 2.5-cup mini Best | 11 cups |
| Liquid maximumAmerica's Test Kitchen | 3 cups | Partly: Not stated; leaked at 2.5 cups (TGL) | 5 cups Best | 2.25 cups |
| Motormanufacturer | 720 W | 450 W | 1,450 W induction Best | 625 W |
| Slicingdiscs in the box | Partly: One 4 mm disc | Partly: Reversible slice/shred disc | Yes: 24 settings, 0.3-8 mm Best | Yes: 2 mm and 4 mm discs |
| Mini bowl | No: No | No: No | Yes: 2.5 cups, own blade Best | No: No |
| Single-batch mayonnaiseAmerica's Test Kitchen | Partly: Failed; double batch worked | Not published | Not reported | Yes: Emulsified Best |
| Feed tube | Largest in TGL's group | Large chute | Yes: 3-in-1, 1.7 to 5.5 in Best | Extra-large tube |
| Noise at 3 ftTechGearLab | 61.5 dB Best | 96 dB | 67.5 dB (earlier 16 Pro) | Not tested |
| WarrantyConsumer Reports, manuals | 5 yr motor, 3 yr parts | 1 yr limited | 30 yr motor, 2 yr parts Best | 5 yr motor, 3 yr parts |
| On Amazon | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor (DFP-14BCNY) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Hamilton Beach Bowl Scraper Food Processor, 10 Cup, White (70733) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Breville Sous Chef 16 Food Processor (BFP810) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Cuisinart Pro Custom 11-Cup Food Processor (DLC-8SY) (opens in a new tab) |
Who each one is for, and what to know before you buy.
01Best overall
Buy it if you want one food processor that chops, shreds, slices and kneads big batches with almost nothing to learn. Skip it if you need adjustable slicing, a mini bowl or single-batch mayonnaise.
Pick it ifHome cooks who want a large, simple, quiet machine for slaw, pesto, pie and pizza dough and weekly prep
Skip it ifCooks who want adjustable slice thickness, a mini bowl for tiny jobs or a box full of included discs
Why it made the list. A 14-cup bowl, a 720 W motor, three blades that store inside the bowl and two levers. ATK's winner again in August 2026 and one of the quietest machines Consumer Reports and TechGearLab have measured; the redesigned blade needs a double batch for mayonnaise.
02Best budget
Buy it if you want a food processor for occasional hummus, salsa, pesto and chopped vegetables and the budget matters most. Skip it if you slice a lot, process liquids, or will run it several times a week.
Pick it ifOccasional cooks and first kitchens that want chopping and pureeing on a tight budget
Skip it ifAnyone who slices tomatoes or potatoes often, purees soups, or wants a quiet machine with a long warranty
Why it made the list. The same 10-cup, 450 W design as the archived 70730, with a scraper built into the lid. TechGearLab's Best on a Tight Budget and Tom's Guide's budget pick (May 2026); it purees well but is loud, leaks with liquids and slices tomatoes poorly.
03Best premium
Buy it if you slice and shred a lot, want to choose the thickness, and have the cabinet space for a large base and an accessory box. Skip it if you mostly chop and puree, or if lid crevices and multi-part blades would keep the machine in the cupboard.
Pick it ifBig-batch cooks who slice and shred often and want adjustable thickness, a mini bowl and a timer in one machine
Skip it ifSmall kitchens, occasional users and anyone who wants a processor they can rinse and put away in two minutes
Why it made the list. A 1,450 W induction motor, a 16-cup bowl with a 2.5-cup mini bowl, a 24-setting slicer and a 5.5-inch chute. ATK's upgrade pick; the costs are cabinet space, lid crevices and multi-part blades.
04Best for small households
Buy it if you cook for one to three people, make sauces and dressings in small amounts, and want the Custom 14's simple levers in a smaller body. Skip it if you prep big batches of slaw or soup, or want adjustable slicing and a mini bowl.
Pick it ifSmall households that want a compact full-size processor for pesto, dressings, pie dough and weeknight slicing
Skip it ifBig families and batch cooks who fill a 14-cup bowl, or anyone who wants a mini bowl or adjustable slice thickness
Why it made the list. The Custom 14's design in an 11-cup size, with a thin and a medium slicing disc and a flat cover. ATK's Best Buy, and its lower blade handled the single batch of mayonnaise the 14 could not.
America's Test Kitchen's advice is that most home cooks should buy at least 11 cups, and the reasoning holds up: a 7- or 9-cup bowl fills fast with a head of cabbage or a double batch of pie dough, while a larger bowl costs little in counter space if the machine is compact. Three of our four picks meet that bar, and the fourth, the Hamilton Beach 70733, misses it by one cup.
The number on the box is dry capacity. For soups, sauces and batters, the liquid maximum matters more, and it is much lower. ATK lists 3 cups for the Cuisinart Custom 14, 2.25 cups for the Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 and 5 cups for the Breville Sous Chef 16. Hamilton Beach does not publish one, and its bowl leaked in TechGearLab's containment test. If you want to puree soup in quantity, a blender is the better tool; see our best blenders list.
As a rule of thumb, cook for one to three and the 11-cup Pro Custom 11 covers almost everything. Cook for a family, or prep a week of vegetables on Sunday, and the 14- or 16-cup machines save rounds.
Motor ratings range from 450 W on the Hamilton Beach to 1,450 W on the Breville, and they say less than you would think. The Custom 14's 720 W motor mixed pizza dough faster than any rival in TechGearLab's group, and ATK's double batch of heavy dough went through without strain. What watts do not tell you is how close the S-blade sits to the floor and walls of the bowl.
That gap decides whether small amounts get processed or just ride around. ATK found that the current Custom 14 blade sits slightly higher than the version it tested before, and a single batch of mayonnaise would not emulsify; a double batch did. The Pro Custom 11's blade sits lower and handled the single batch. ATK also saw Ninja's 12-cup Professional XL fail the same test because its blades sit too high. If you make small sauces, dressings or baby food, look for reports on small-batch performance, not wattage.
Dough is the other place people over-buy. ATK's view is that a good S-blade does the job and a separate dough blade is unnecessary, and its results for the Custom 14 back that up. Only the Breville includes a dough blade, and its manual caps dough at 2 pounds of flour per batch. For bread every week, a stand mixer may suit you better; see our best stand mixers.
Slicing and shredding are where the machines differ most. The Custom 14 comes with one 4 mm slicing disc and one medium shredder, and other sizes are sold separately. The Pro Custom 11 adds a 2 mm thin slicer, which is the one you want for potato gratin and cucumber salad. The Hamilton Beach has a single reversible disc that slices on one side and shreds on the other, and TechGearLab found that it mangled tomatoes.
The Breville replaces the stack of discs with one adjustable slicer that has 24 settings from 0.3 to 8.0 mm, plus a reversible fine and coarse shredder and a French fry disc. If you slice every week and care about thickness, this is the feature worth paying for. If you slice a few times a month, two fixed discs are enough.
A wide feed tube saves pre-cutting. TechGearLab found the Custom 14's tube the largest in its test group, big enough for its whole test tomatoes. The Breville's chute nests three pushers, giving openings from 1.7 to 5.5 inches, and its manual recommends the narrow chutes for carrots and cucumbers so they stand upright and slice evenly. The Pro Custom 11 adds a flat cover with no feed tube, which ATK singled out as easy to clean, for jobs like pie dough or salsa where nothing goes in mid-run.
A processor you dread washing stays in the cupboard. The two Cuisinarts are the simplest: few parts and levers instead of buttons, and the Custom 14 stores all three of its blades and discs inside the bowl. ATK found the Breville's lid full of crevices and its blades multi-part, and Breville's manual recommends hand-washing the bowl and lid. The Hamilton Beach's scraper saves stops during use but adds parts in the lid to clean.
Check height before you buy. Consumer Reports puts the Custom 14 at about 15 inches, Hamilton Beach lists the 70733 at 15.47 inches, and Breville lists the Sous Chef 16 at 17.7 by 11.3 by 9.2 inches with a separate accessory box.
TechGearLab measured 61.5 dB at 3 feet for the Custom 14 and 96 dB for the Hamilton Beach, a difference you will hear across the house. Warranty follows the same pattern: 5 years on the motor for both Cuisinarts and 30 years for the Breville's, against 1 year for the Hamilton Beach.
Models we considered, and why each one did not make the list.
Consumer Reports praises its chopping and shredding and notes it is light at 8.3 pounds. That lightness is the problem in ATK's test: the machine jumped around the counter while kneading, its pulse ran long and over-chopped food, and dough oozed between the parts of its multi-piece blade. It also carries a 1-year warranty, against 5 years on the Cuisinart motors.
ATK ranked it in its lower tier because the extra-narrow feed tube forced a lot of trimming before slicing, and 9 cups is below the 11-cup line.
ATK found the 12-cup XL could not emulsify mayonnaise because the blades sit too high, and its stacked blade needed twice as many pulses to mince parsley. The 9-cup Professional Plus tied the Hamilton Beach at 64 points in TechGearLab's ranking and is quieter, but it has a smaller bowl, no scraper and sells in a higher price class.
TechGearLab's Editors' Choice at 82 points, but ATK found its mixing inconsistent, and it sits in the same premium price class as the Breville, which ATK preferred as its upgrade pick.
TechGearLab's Top Pick at 68 points, but it only works on Vitamix Ascent and Venturist bases. Because of the recall of Vitamix's 8- and 20-ounce blending containers for those bases, we do not recommend Ascent-series container bundles. Our Vitamix lineup guide explains the bases.
ATK found the Hamilton Beach Professional fell short on chopping and mixing, and called the Black+Decker's motor extremely loud. TechGearLab's smaller Black+Decker 8-Cup scored 46 points, well below the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup's 64, which remains the stronger budget choice.
Our earlier budget pick. Hamilton Beach has moved it to the product archive on its site, and the black version now carries the model number 70730J, which the site showed as coming soon on September 28, 2026. The white 70733 is the same machine and was in stock, so it takes the budget slot.
For different jobs, yes. A blender, such as the Ninja BN701, is built for liquids: smoothies, soups and sauces. A food processor handles low-moisture work that a blender cannot: slicing, shredding, chopping onions without turning them to mush, cutting butter into pie dough and mixing pizza dough.
Not necessarily. The Custom 14 is about 15 inches tall and stores its blades in the bowl. What a big bowl does badly is tiny jobs, and the current Custom 14 blade needed a double batch of mayonnaise in ATK's test. If most of your work is small sauces, the Pro Custom 11 is the better fit.
Cuisinart's 2016 recall covered riveted chopping blades on processors sold from July 1996 through December 2015, including DFP-14 and DLC-8 models. Machines bought new today fall outside those dates. If you own an older one, check the blade and contact Cuisinart for a replacement.
Prime Big Deal Days run October 6 to 7 and Black Friday is November 27, 2026, and kitchen appliances are regulars in both. Choose the model first, then buy when the price drops. More kitchen picks are on our kitchen page.
We compared food processors on the things that decide whether one earns its cabinet space: usable bowl size, how close the blade sits to the bottom, which slicing and shredding discs come in the box, the feed tube, cleanup, noise and warranty. The Cuisinart Custom 14 is the best overall, the Hamilton Beach 70733 is the budget pick, the Breville Sous Chef 16 is the premium machine for adjustable slicing, and the Cuisinart Pro Custom 11 is the best fit for small households.
The shortlist started with America's Test Kitchen's food processor review (updated August 4, 2026), Consumer Reports' recommended models (March 20, 2026) and TechGearLab's food processor guide (updated June 11, 2025), and every spec was then checked against brand pages and manuals. We have not used these machines ourselves; every performance result is attributed to the source that measured it. We searched the CPSC recall database for all four brands; the only relevant recall is Cuisinart's 2016 blade recall, which covers units sold through 2015. Excluded were KitchenAid's 9- and 13-cup models, Ninja's Professional processors, the Magimix 4200XL and Vitamix's processor attachment, for the reasons below.
