Shout out to TTI for keeping Ryobi cheap, cheerful, and a good value. Not my cup of tea, but their stuff is reasonably fine for the price.
Anyway, I'm glad to see an article claiming that Makita has still resisted enshittification.
I started with Ryobi and burned out a drill using it to hog out a 3" mortise with a 2.5" forstner bit (far beyond any reasonable use case for a drill), and upgraded to DeWalt. All of my other Ryobi pieces (circular saw, reciprocating, jigsaw, lights, non-orbital sander) work great, and I've never said to my tool "You'd be able to do this if you were a DeWalt, ya piece of shit!"
The more important thing to do once you start on one brand, and have a bunch of their batteries, is simply wait until the big sales come. All the brands have ridiculous, stock-dumping deals to move volume at least once or twice a year, and that's when it almost becomes buy-one-get-one-free.
Where I avoid the Ryobi brand is in consumables: bits, blades, and such. That's where the cheapness is most obvious. Bits wear more quickly, blades go dull faster. Milwaukee and DeWalt stuff lasts longer, but this is where you go for specialty names like Diablo that are even better. My Ryobi circular saw with Diablo blade is a tank.
- hasn’t enshitifed
- makes quality tools that last
- much more repairable (saving you even more in the long term)
- single company, not a conglomerate, no weird vc influence.
For most tools you won’t need upgrades, just build out your collection as you go.
I got the drill back a little while later entirely repaired, the bent drill bit included in the return package, and I was charged absolutely nothing for any of it because I guess I was still under warranty and I didn't realize it. It was a fantastic customer service interaction and absolutely increased my loyalty to the company.
...and that's leaving aside the quality of their tools. In my experience they are incredibly rugged--among other things, for a week-long landscaping project I used that same drill with a gigantic bit to dig holes in frozen dirt, and it powered through it without issues. Great tools and a solid company.
- Makita 9.6V drill which I've had 4 of (first I stupidly sold in an estate sale, second my son claimed, third I gifted to my daughter, current is an NOS from eBay which I'm planning on keeping/using for forever) --- my son later bought into the newer Makita 18V line and uses them extensively for his backstage theater work, as well as a stick vacuum w/ a cyclone which he uses to clean his apartment. (Finally broke down and bought some Dremel battery powered tools (apparently they use the same 12V batteries as Bosch tools) --- debating on expanding on that....)
- Festool CT Midi vacuum --- purchased in a noise-induced migraine-fueled rage, this is quiet and works perfectly as dust collection for my CNC machines
- Mafell FM 1000 WS --- a quick change spindle/milling motor, the engineering on this brings a smile to my face whenever I use it
Buy once, cry once --- the quality will remain long after the sting of the initial high price is forgotten.
For hand tools, consider Bridge City Tool Works and Blue Spruce Tools, or Mitutoyo, or Starrett, or buying vintage.
I use one of these for household floors: quiet, powerful, rolls easily.
Woodpecker are a better choice. Expensive but high quality.
Mafell and Festool get a ton of hate from people angry at the prices but they are totally worth it if you know. Feel and precision matter. Balance matters. “Design is how it works” applies here. You can’t tell how a tool is to use off a spec sheet, and numbers for things like torque are very easy to manipulate (what’s the load!)
Good power tools are a joy. They change what you think is possible.