The Image Party/Shutterstock

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Anyone looking for good value tools that balance price with performance could do a lot worse than shopping at Ryobi. The brand’s distinctive bright green (or blue) tools have earned a reputation for being a top choice for DIYers, and its outdoor and lifestyle range is expanding too. As well as being useful for home improvement projects, plenty of Ryobi products might come in handy at other times, including on summer vacation.

However, when it comes to pure value for money, it’s tricky to beat Harbor Freight. A discount retailer with multiple in-house brands on its shelves, Harbor Freight’s prices are consistently among the lowest on the market, making it a great place for buyers on a budget. No matter whether you’re shopping for power tools, hand tools, or something else, you’ll almost always find that your money will go further at Harbor Freight.

Even $100 is enough to get a small set of power tools at the discount chain, although it won’t get you much from Ryobi. With a $100 budget, a shopper looking to buy their first Ryobi power tools could pick up the brand’s 18V One+ ⅜ inch drill/driver kit from Home Depot. It includes the tool itself plus a 1.5Ah battery and a charger, and it retails for $49.97. That leaves you with around $50 left to buy another 18V Ryobi tool. Few are available within that price bracket, but you could pick up an 18V One+ corner sander with a few cents to spare, excluding any taxes.

Anyone prioritizing price over performance will want to look towards Harbor Freight’s cheapest tool brands for the best value, and Warrior is the retailer’s entry-level choice. Much like Ryobi, Warrior offers an 18V cordless ⅜ inch drill/driver kit that includes the tool, a battery, and a charger. However, unlike Ryobi, it only costs $24.99. While Warrior doesn’t offer a cordless sander, it sells a corded 1.1 amp corner sander, which retails for $19.99. At Ryobi, buying similar tools would have meant you already reached the $100 budget, but with Warrior, you’d have only spent $44.98.

That would give you enough budget left to purchase the brand’s two-amp oscillating multi-tool, its 1500W heat gun, and its 4.8V cordless screwdriver. Even with those three additional tools in your basket, you’d still have only spent a total of $94.95, leaving you with around $5 leftover. While Warrior’s tools are much cheaper overall, the compromise is that you’d end up with a mix of corded and cordless tools. However, even buying all-cordless tools from a pricier Harbor Freight brand still works out better than buying from Ryobi.

Rather than buying from Warrior, you could instead choose to pick an entirely cordless range of tools from another affordable Harbor Freight tool brand, Bauer. Since Bauer doesn’t offer a ⅜ inch drill/driver kit, let’s use its 20V ½ inch drill/driver kit for comparison. It still comes with a battery and a charger, and it offers only a little less torque to Ryobi’s 18V One+ ½ inch drill/driver kit. However, the latter retails for $79 from Home Depot, which wouldn’t leave you with enough budget to buy any further standalone Ryobi tools. Meanwhile, the Bauer drill/driver kit is available for $54.99.

At that price, you’ll still have enough left in your $100 budget to buy the brand’s 20V corner sander and its 4V cordless screwdriver. All three Bauer cordless tools come to a total of $94.97. Much like Ryobi, Bauer offers a wide range of highly rated power tools that include both DIY essentials and more specialist tools, so you’ll have plenty of scope to add to your collection at a later date.

Budget-conscious DIYers will find that power tools are consistently cheaper to buy from Harbor Freight than they are from Ryobi, and things aren’t any different when comparing hand tools either. To take one example, Ryobi’s 12-piece cushion grip screwdriver set retails for $23.93, while Harbor Freight shoppers could purchase a Pittsburgh 12-piece cushion grip screwdriver set for $7.99. Additionally, the Ryobi 25-foot compact tape measure costs $12.32 at Home Depot, while Harbor Freight’s Bauer 25-foot self-locking tape measure is available for $9.99.

Not every Ryobi hand tool has a cheaper Harbor Freight equivalent. Ryobi’s 14-in-1 compact multi-tool retails for $14.56 and includes pipe grips, a knife, pliers, wire cutters, and slotted and Philips screwdrivers, among other tools. To get a similarly versatile tool from Harbor Freight, buyers will have to pick the Gordon 20-in-1 multi-tool. It offers even more functionality, but it’s significantly pricier at $39.99. However, in general, a $100 hand tool budget will stretch further at Harbor Freight, even if there are some exceptions to the rule.

Buyers simply looking to stock up on tools for minimal cost will find Harbor Freight to be a better option than Ryobi, but there are some things to keep in mind before dismissing the latter brand altogether. While many Harbor Freight hand tools such as its aforementioned Pittsburgh screwdriver set and Bauer tape measure come with lifetime warranties, its power tool warranties are not as generous.

Many cheaper Harbor Freight power tools from brands like Warrior and Bauer only come with 90 day warranties as standard, although buyers can purchase an extended warranty at an extra cost. Ryobi usually offers longer warranties than Harbor Freight, including a lifetime warranty on many of its hand tools and a standard three-year warranty on most of its 18V One+ power tools.

Ryobi also offers a very wide range of products within its 18V One+ line, spanning everything from cordless Bluetooth speakers to 25-foot drain augers. The brand’s range is so varied that even Ryobi enthusiasts will likely be able to uncover a few home improvement products they hadn’t realized existed. That could be a significant advantage if you’re looking to slowly add to your collection of Ryobi tools over time, since no Harbor Freight brand offers such a wide range of products on a single cordless battery line. Nonetheless, on price alone, Harbor Freight remains a consistently better bet than Ryobi.