Best vacuum cleaners of 2024: 4 best stick and robot vacuums

The best vacuum cleaner setup is subjective, heavily hinging on how badly (or not) you want to do the vacuuming yourself, or if you'd rather a robot do it for you. But there's one universal factor that can make or break any type of vacuum's usefulness in your home, and that's how likely you are to use it. Actual cleaning performance plays a huge role in how clean your floors will be, of course. But if that vacuum's a pain to use, you won't feel like using it -- whether that's an upright vacuum that's too clunky to get out of the closet or a robot vacuum that gets stuck more often than not. I've tested a ton of automatic vacuums and upright cordless vacuums, assessing from all of those angles along the way.