Kenwood kMix (KMX750)

The kMix is the value sweet spot in Kenwood's range and the mixer we would point most budget-conscious regular bakers to. It runs a 1,000W direct-drive motor and a 5L bowl, and reviewers describe it as heavy, stable and powerful enough to knead stiff bread doughs without the motor labouring, which is more than most sub-£300 machines manage. You give up some refinements versus the picks above: six speeds rather than ten, no built-in scales, and a smaller first-party accessory range than the Chef line. But for creaming, whisking, cake batter and everyday bread it covers the core jobs, and at roughly £260 it undercuts the KitchenAid by a wide margin. The trade-off versus the Titanium Chef Baker XL is capacity and features; the trade-off versus a sub-£150 budget machine is that it genuinely handles heavy dough. Build quality is solid die-cast metal rather than plastic.