For people who do the work themselves
The drill is the easy part. The day you want the saw that goes with it, the battery decides, not you. We explain what fits what, what changing your mind actually costs, and which tool does the job in front of you.
The decision that locks you in
9
platforms compared, with the maker's own figures
Switching platform costs you every battery you already own. It is the most expensive decision in your tool collection, and the one most people make without thinking.
The gap nobody fills
15
pairs people actually search for, both directions
Running a Makita tool off a Ryobi battery is possible, it is sold, and it carries real risk. We say which pairs exist, in which direction, and when not to do it.
One battery, many brands
3
brand alliances, incompatible with each other
AMPShare, CAS and Power for All run tools from dozens of makers off a single battery. It is the least known fact in the category, and it changes the maths.
8/10 The hardest hitter here, on the most open alliance
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8/10 The best power for the money in this panel
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7.5/10 The continuity choice for a workshop already on LXT
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7.5/10 Compact and well documented in use, thin on numbers
Read moreSeven 18V SDS-Plus rotary hammers, one per battery platform, scored on impact energy, capacity, hammer rate and price per joule.
See the comparisonIf you take one thing from this site: choose the battery platform before you choose the tool. An impact driver can be replaced; a platform is something you live with. Once you own three batteries from one maker, the cost of leaving is almost always larger than the price gap that would have changed your mind.
Three situations these machines really meet. The photographs come from the makers: we do not stage jobsites we have not worked on.
No cordless tools yet, a job coming up. The decision guide starts from how you actually work, not from a ranking.
Pick your first platformThe question is no longer which brand, but what your platform can do and what it will never do.
See all nine platformsThe same battery carries two different numbers depending on the market. It is the first confusion in the category, and it is deliberate.
Understand the differenceConcrete, mortar, quantities. The assumptions behind the number are written down, not hidden behind a result.
Open the calculatorWe do not bench test tools, and we do not pretend to. What we do is documentary: read what manufacturers publish, retrieve real prices, check what fits what, and say so plainly when the sources contradict each other. When Makita claims 380 products in one block of a page and 440 in another block of the same page, we quote both.
We are not a substitute for a licensed trade. On electrical work, gas, load bearing structure and work at height, the rules are not suggestions: an electrical installation has to meet the code that applies where you live and pass the inspections that go with it. A tool buying site authorises nothing.