There is not significant difference between a blender and a smoothie maker. The smoothie maker comes in many styles, brands and a huge price range, with professional ones costing over $1,000 US Dollars (USD). It has a few features that blenders tend to lack. On the other hand, blenders have greater functionality in the kitchen and are designed for use in many more things than smoothies. Also, you can make a smoothie in most blenders.

The main features a smoothie maker has are ability to crush ice, and liquefy fruit instead of just breaking it down into small pieces. If you buy a blender with ice crushing ability, you’ll be able to produce fairly smooth drinks. However, the ability of the smoothie to juice the drink may make smoothies, depending on ingredients, just a little clearer in color and potentially smoother. If you like smoothies to be completely free of the occasional piece of whole fruit, a smoothie maker may be a better choice.

Smoothie makers usually have a spigot on the front of the canister, which means you can pour out drinks via the tap, instead of by lifting the lid off the blender and pouring drinks in regular fashion. There are many comments from websites devoted to blending and smoothie making from customers who are not in favor of this spigot. Most people note it’s hard to keep these taps clean and they tend to get stuck easily. Any fruit with seeds like strawberries may make the tap cease to function.

Lastly, a smoothie maker may have a stirrer stick, which allows you to mash down fruit as it’s being blended. You can accomplish something similar with most blenders. If you turn off the blender for a second, you can use the end of a wooden spoon, a spatula or another handy tool to redistribute food that isn’t blended adequately.

A very expensive smoothie maker may also have the capacity to keep frozen drinks cold. Some even come with two canisters. This may be valuable if you want to set up shop making smoothies or if you have parties and serve smoothies or drinks like strawberry daiquiris frequently. For home use, the cost and amount of space these would take up makes them impractical for many people.

As mentioned before, you can make smoothies with most blenders. Speed of the blender and its power may exceed that of a smoothie maker, and price of both items will vary. You can buy some of the best blenders on the market, such as the Blendtec®, which are usually between $500-800 USD. This will easily be able to blend anything you want. Even with a low priced blender in the range of about $40-100 USD, you’ll be able to make smoothies that will satisfy all but those who are fussy about extremely smooth consistency.