Best ice cream makers 2024 in the UK - our tried and tested picks to make fresh gelato from home

If you're a frozen dessert fan, investing in one of the best ice cream makers means you'll have access to a dessert bar at home that never closes.

Ice cream makers all work a little differently but most of these appliances require you to freeze a specially-made bowl overnight before adding your chilled cream, yoghurt or juice and churning. However, many of the best ice cream makers also come with electric cooling that requires less prep (and freezer space!). Some also require you to freeze your ingredients before churning everything up, so there's plenty of variation here.

Although they're great for summer treats, buying the best ice cream maker will allow you to experiment in the kitchen all year long. They're also perfect for making dairy-free or vegan ice creams, and when testing some of our top picks below we tried a variety of recipes to make sure they're up to the task of making gelato, frozen yoghurt, and sorbet.

When testing the best ice cream makers we were looking for certain criteria to be met, inlcuding the creaminess of the resulting desserts, the number of settings available and whether there's any space for customisation. Here's how we got on when we tested out the most summery kitchen appliance out there, tied only with the best BBQs.

Best ice cream maker - the quick list

Want to get to the sweet stuff fast? This quick list has a need-to-know breakdown of all our favourite ice-cream makers.

Best ice cream maker overall

The Ninja Creami Deluxe is the new and improved version of the ever-viral TikTok favourite the Ninja Creami, which we also took for a spin in our Ninja Creami review. And while we love the OG Creami too, the Deluxe takes things to new heights, with twice the capacity and a handful of new settings allowing you to craft frozen drinks at home too.

This appliance requires you to pre-freeze your ingredients, a fact that some might find inconvenient compared to machines with compressors. During testing, we found it required preparedness, but for the return on investment you get with this machine, we think it's worth it.

As with the best Ninja air fryers, one of the best things about the Creami Deluxe is how user-friendly it is. Simply freeze your ingredients, slot your tub into the machine and press one button, and step back. The results are incredible, with creamy ice cream and the option to make lighter desserts. During testing, we made generous amounts of sorbet, gelato, ice cream and lite ice cream with no trouble, and found mixing in ingredients (like chocolate or cookie dough) to be seamless. The other thing we really loved during testing was the drinks settings, which allow you to make slushies and frozen cocktails with such ease when hosting. If there's one product to believe the hype about, it's this one!

Our Ninja Creami Deluxe review has the full details.

Best ice cream maker for gelato

Our expert reviewer struggled to find anything negative to say about this Cuisinart ice cream maker, which allowed her to make 'perfect bespoke homemade frozen treats' at home. With a built-in cooling mechanism, this product allows you to go from (non frozen) ingredients to ice cream in as little as 40 minutes, with results that are as creamy and silky as shop-bought desserts.

During tests, our reviewer whipped up ice cream, gelato and a frozen peach yoghurt with astounding high-quality results. The capacity of this machine also means the batches you can whip up are very generous, and you'll be able to cater to a crowd with ease.

Our reviewer found that skipping the pre-freezing stage was a real gamechanger, and loved how simple this machine was to use, especially when following along with the included recipes. This is a fairly expensive buy, and it lacks the drinks settings we enjoyed so much with the Ninja Creami Deluxe, but if you want to impress your family and friends with the quality of your sweet treats, this Cuisinart ice cream maker won't disappoint.

Our Cuisinart Ice Cream and Gelato Maker review has the full details.

Best budget ice cream maker

This is our ice cream maker of choice for anyone who wants to give making their own frozen desserts a go, but doesn't know where to start. At just £50, it's also the perfect budget pick, and has everything a novice would need to get started with ice cream making, including simple controls, and a straightforward process.

As this is a more affordable buy, it doesn't have a built-in cooling mechanism, and you're required to freeze the included bowl 24 hours before, instead. From there, you pop your ingredients in and set everything to churn, which takes a minimum of 40 minutes.

Our expert reviewer found that all of the recipes she tried with this ice cream maker turned out deliciously, but more freezing time afterwards was often required. She was able to experiment with different flavours and consistencies with success, including making frozen yoghurt and gelato with ease. The biggest drawback she found was having to find space for the pre-freeze bowl in her freezer, but if you're on a budget, this might be a small thing to overlook.

Our Lakeland Digital Ice Cream Maker review has full details.

Best luxury ice cream maker

As if making your own ice cream wasn’t fun enough, the Smart Scoop comes packed with features to make it more joyful. It comes with 12 presets, which translate to three hardness settings for sorbet, gelato, ice cream and frozen yogurt. It includes a one-litre bowl, and a pre-cool that helps to create the dense texture of gelato.

There’s even a three-hour 'keep cool' setting – perfect for not having to dash away from guests. Then there's a manual option with a timer from five minutes to three hours. While the bowl isn’t dishwasher safe, the paddle and lid are. The parts are simple to wash by hand, with an included brush. Considering that it’s a model with its own freezer, The Smart Scoop’s worktop footprint isn’t as big as some equivalent machines.

In our tests, it was used to make strawberry ice cream, a custard-based recipe that required pre-prep before pouring in the bowl. The hardest ice cream setting was chosen. It was left to count up as it churned (it’s not a countdown as it monitors the hardness as it goes). It cooled the mixture quickly, reducing it from 18C to -5C in the first seven minutes.

By 15 minutes, it had started to clump around the paddle and by 17 minutes, had reached -22C. The ice cream was ready in 26 minutes and was easily removed using the included spatula. Its consistency was just hard enough to scoop into balls but needed more time in the freezer to become properly firm. All in all, one of the easiest, mess-free ice cream-makers we tested.

Best ice cream for soft serve

One look at the Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker might be enough to convince you to splash your cash on it, with topping dispensers and cone holds galore. This is certainly the most fun ice cream maker on this list, with a design to rival the ice cream stations you usually find in your nearest Pizza Hut.

And while there were some elements of the design that our reviewer found to be lacking (more on that later), the ice cream she made with this machine was very impressive. From gelato to Mr Whippy style ice cream, this machine is pretty capable, requiring you remember to pre-freeze everything you need to.

All of that means that soft serve lovers will be in a good spot with this machine, but there are downsides that mean we couldn't rank it any higher. Our reviewer found that she had to rush to dispense her portions while using it, and that the dispensers worked quite chaotically, with a fair bit of mess ensuing. However, with perserevance, our reviewer found her results improved, though there was still a fair bit of rushing around. So, if you've got patience, this soft serve maker could still make the kitchen addition of you (and your children's) dreams.

Our Cuisinart Soft Serve Ice Cream Maker review has the full details.

How we tested the best ice cream makers

In line with our testing protocol here at Ideal Home, all of this ice cream makers have been tried at home, by the team. That's so that we can wholeheartedly recommend you our favourite products, based off of our strict testing protocol. As you'll see from our list above, we task all of our reviewers with trying out every function on an ice cream maker, which sees them make standard ice cream, gelato, sorbet and froze yoghurt, if the machine allows. This means that we can look at the creaminess across the results, and judge which product has created the best texture.

We're also looking for settings that go the extra mile (including keep cool settings), and judging how much work needs to go into preparing to make ice cream. Here's a look at our team testing ice cream makers at home.

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FAQs

Why do I need an ice cream maker?

It’s no secret that if you have a freezer, you can make ice cream by hand without a dedicated machine. However, it’s fraught with pitfalls and is a pretty boring process. Even if you follow a cycle of taking it out, stirring it and putting it back, it doesn’t guarantee it’ll be free from large ice crystals. These result in a gritty texture that’ll have you running back to the freezer aisle.

Ice cream makers, on the other hand, freeze while churning the mix, incorporating air. They scrape down the sides to prevent ice crystals from becoming too big. The result is soft and creamy, not crunchy. Just don’t forget to eat it while it’s fresh (it’ll store for up to a month). Homemade ice cream won’t have the longevity that shop-bought ice cream does.

How much should I spend on an ice cream maker?

Prices vary hugely, from around the £50 mark for a basic model to large all-in-one appliances that cost several hundred. Deciding which to plump for often comes down to how much you’ll use it. Consider whether you’re happy to plan ahead or keep a bowl in your freezer. Also think about how much space you have available.

Compact kitchens will struggle to accommodate the bigger ice cream makers for one major reason. Like a fridge or freezer, they need to be kept level for 12 hours or so in order for their compressor to work properly. However, you can’t beat them for convenience. A second bowl for making different flavours or types, and useful features, such as digital controls or a timer, will hike up the price.

What are the different types of ice cream maker?

Ice cream makers come in two forms – ones where you freeze the bowl around 12-24 hours in advance, and those that include their own freezing unit.

Pre-freeze ice cream makers

The bowls of the pre-freeze machines contain a gel or liquid coolant that sits between its inner metal layer and its exterior. This freezes solid, so that when the ice cream is poured in, it’ll start to rapidly cool the mixture.

The bowl will also be insulated, to minimise thawing. It’ll either sit within another plastic bowl with a lid, or a lid will lock directly on top. The lid contains a motor unit that powers a paddle from above to churn the mixture as it begins to freeze. Most advise starting the paddles before pouring the mixture in so it doesn’t freeze before churning can begin.

The motor unit is often manual ie it simply runs until you switch it off, but you can also find digital models that allow you to set a timer. The advantage of these machines is that they’re affordable to buy and cheap to run. This is because you only need to power a paddle – your freezer will have done the hard work already. They are relatively easy to store.

If you keep your bowl in the freezer all the time, you’ll only need to find space to store the lid and the paddle. However, if permanent freezer space is in short supply, the downside is that you’ll need to plan ahead if you fancy ice cream the next day. You’ll also need to make sure that the bowl fits in your freezer. Those with drawer-style designs may find the bigger bowls a tight squeeze.

The other disadvantage is that once used, you’ll need to wait for your bowl to defrost before you can clean it. You then need to refreeze it straight away if you want ice cream or another frozen dessert the next day. An extra bowl, so you can rotate them, is particularly handy in summer. Stand mixer-compatible ice cream makers are similar in concept. They use a pre-freeze bowl combined with a paddle that fits your mixer. This replaces the need for a separate motor unit.

Self-cooling ice cream makers

Gelato and regular ice cream are very similar, but there are some key differences. Italian gelato contains more milk and less cream, and is whipped more slowly for a less aerated finished result. This will leave you with a creamier result, and some of the best ice cream makers will come with different modes to accommodate the differences, as well as different paddles. A more simple ice cream maker will only come with one paddle though, which will be a good catchall for the majority of frozen treats.

Models with a built-in cooling unit require no pre-freezing, meaning you can make ice cream whenever you like. Their bowls are made from metal with a paddle that fits in the centre and is rotated from below. They may have a fixed bowl with a removable second bowl or only a removable bowl, and sometimes different paddles for a variety of consistencies. Other useful features include hardness settings, such as for gelato or frozen yogurt, and a timer.

These machines are great for making batches or multiple flavours but they’re pricey, heavy and bulky with a need for plenty of worktop room when they’re in use. They’ll also require more power to run. Removable bowls can be washed soon after use but you’ll need to wait for fixed bowls to return to room temperature before cleaning.

What other key questions do I need to ask about ice cream makers?

Does your ice cream maker come with a recipe book? It’s the best way to ensure you get the most out of your new appliance. If it doesn’t, factor in buying one, or search online for tried-and-tested recipes. Remember to scale quantities up or down to suit the bowl size of your machine and prevent overflow.

Is there a good-sized spout in the lid? You’ll need to start the paddles of pre-freeze models turning before pouring in the mixture. This can get messy if the hole is small. Similarly, you may wish to add ingredients as it churns. This is less of a concern for freezer models as the lid can usually be completely removed to add mixture and extras.

Do you have enough storage space for your ice cream maker when you’re less likely to be using it regularly? Do you not have space in your kitchen cupboards or on the worktop? Then you may have to find another home for it out of season.

Give your maker a helping hand where you can – chill the ingredients or mixture beforehand. Make sure your pre-freeze bowl is frozen solid. Any sloshing around inside means you should pop it back in the freezer. Check in on your ice cream as it churns – it can take more or less time than recipes advise. Catch it at its best and before the machine struggles too much to turn the paddle. It also helps to get the ice cream out of the bowl quickly and into the freezer to ‘ripen’ and really solidify.

What capacity should I choose? The capacity of ice cream makers can range from 800ml to two litres, but most are 1 to 1.5 litres. However, it’s worth noting that bowl size doesn’t accurately represent how much ice cream will be made. This is partly because the paddle takes up space. But it's also because ice cream will increase in volume as it freezes and is churned. Check the instructions for an idea of how much ice cream you can make in one go, or use the recipes that come with it.