Deciding between an Ankarsrum and a KitchenAid stand mixer comes down to your primary baking needs and design preferences. Ankarsrum is a Swedish-engineered powerhouse built for heavy-duty tasks like large batches of bread dough, prioritizing performance and longevity over everything else, while KitchenAid is the iconic, versatile American classic that excels at all-around baking and comes in a huge range of colors to fit any kitchen style.
Let's compare everything you need to know to choose the right stand mixer for your countertop.
Ankarsrum: The Swedish Heavy-Duty Dynamo
Ankarsrum is a premium Swedish brand known for one thing: making an incredibly powerful and durable stand mixer. The Ankarsrum Assistent is coveted by serious home bakers and professional chefs for its unique design where the bowl rotates instead of the attachments. This approach, combined with a robust direct-drive motor, allows it to knead heavy, dense doughs for extended periods without straining, making it the top choice for artisanal bread makers.
- Product mix: The brand is focused on its flagship stand mixer, the Assistent, which comes with a comprehensive set of accessories. Additional attachments are available, including a meat grinder, pasta rollers, and a citrus juicer.
- Style/vibe: Minimalist Scandinavian design. It has a clean, functional, and slightly retro aesthetic that looks professional and fits well in modern kitchens. Colors are typically sleek and understated, like creams, blacks, and metallics.
- Price point: Premium. Expect to pay between $700 and $900 for the base unit with standard accessories. It's a significant investment aimed at users who want a "buy it for life" appliance.
- Quality: Exceptional. The motor is famously robust, and the construction uses high-quality stainless steel and durable components. These mixers are engineered to last for decades of heavy use.
- Capacity & Dimensions: It features a large standard 7-liter (approximately 7.4-quart) open-top bowl, making it easy to add ingredients. Its larger footprint is designed for stability when handling intense mixing tasks.
- Performance: Unmatched for bread dough. The unique roller and scraper system flawlessly mimics hand-kneading, developing gluten without overheating the dough. It also handles massive batches of cookies or whipped creams with ease.
- Sales: Sales are rare. Ankarsrum is usually sold at full price through specialty kitchen stores and select online retailers.
- Warranty: Comes with a long 7-year warranty on the motor and a 1-year warranty on attachments, reflecting the brand's confidence in its durability.
Ankarsrum mixers are for passionate bakers who need uncompromising power and capacity, especially for bread making.
Shop Ankarsrum: ankarsrum.com
KitchenAid: The Iconic American Kitchen Staple
KitchenAid is arguably the most recognized name in stand mixers. For a century, its timeless design and reliable performance have made it a fixture on wedding registries and in kitchens across America. Known for its planetary mixing action and huge ecosystem of attachments, KitchenAid offers a versatile and stylish solution for the everyday home baker who does everything from whipping egg whites to making pasta.
- Product mix: Offers a wide range of stand mixers in various sizes and power levels, from the compact Artisan Mini to the professional-grade Bowl-Lift models. They also offer a vast selection of other kitchen appliances.
- Style/vibe: Classic, retro-inspired design that doubles as a piece of kitchen decor. The brand is famous for its extensive and constantly updated color-of-the-year palette, from "Empire Red" to "Pistachio".
- Price point: Mid-range to upper-mid-range. Models typically start around $300 for an entry-level size and go up to $600+ for larger, more powerful versions, making them much more accessible than Ankarsrum.
- Quality: Durable and reliable die-cast metal construction. While they are built to last, they can struggle with consistently large batches of very stiff dough, and some plastic components may show wear over many years of use.
- Customization: The defining feature is personalization. With dozens of colors, multiple bowl styles (glass, ceramic, stainless), and a huge library of attachments, you can tailor a KitchenAid perfectly to your kitchen's aesthetic.
- Capacity & Dimensions: Varies greatly by model, from 3.5-quart tilt-head mixers perfect for small spaces to 7-quart bowl-lift versions for larger households.
- Sales: Very frequent. You can almost always find deals during major holidays like Black Friday, Mother's Day, and Prime Day, often at big-box retailers.
- Return policy: Standard return policies corresponding to the retailer where it was purchased (e.g., Target, Williams Sonoma).
KitchenAid is the perfect all-rounder for hobbyist bakers who want a stylish, versatile, and dependable machine for a wide range of kitchen tasks.
Shop KitchenAid: kitchenaid.com
Ankarsrum vs. KitchenAid Comparison
Price Comparison
The price difference is one of the most significant factors separating these two brands. A KitchenAid mixer can be purchased for as little as $300, with popular models like the Artisan 5-Quart typically running around $450. Even their high-end professional models top out around $600-$700.
Ankarsrum operates in a completely different price bracket. The Assistent mixer starts at approximately $700 and can go up to $900 depending on the package. Sales are rare, so you will likely pay the full retail price. While the initial cost is high, its longevity can make it a better long-term value for very serious bakers. For most home cooks, KitchenAid offers a much better and more accessible value.
Style & Aesthetic
Your choice here depends entirely on your personal style. KitchenAid is a design icon. It offers an enormous spectrum of colors and finishes, allowing it to become a statement piece on your counter that coordinates with your decor. Its silhouette is instantly recognizable and celebrated for its vintage-meets-modern charm.
Ankarsrum has a distinctly European, functionalist aesthetic. Its sleek, minimalist lines and more reserved color palette give it a professional look. It doesn't shout for attention but rather conveys quiet competence and quality. If your style leans modern, minimalist, or Scandinavian, the Ankarsrum will fit right in.
Quality & Construction
Both brands produce quality mixers, but they are built for different levels of stress. The Ankarsrum is a workhorse, designed from the ground up to handle demanding tasks without fuss. Its motor is powerful and mounted in the base, and its all-metal construction is meant to last a lifetime. Many owners report using their Ankarsrum mixers for 20, 30, or even 40 years.
KitchenAid mixers are also solid, with their die-cast metal bodies. They are perfectly durable for the average home baker's needs - whipping, creaming, mixing cake batters, and kneading occasional bread dough. However, repeatedly pushing a standard tilt-head model with dense, low-hydration dough can cause the motor to strain and the gears to wear down over time.
Performance & Capacity
This is where Ankarsrum truly stands out. Its 7-liter open bowl can handle up to 11 pounds (5 kg) of dough. The unique roller and scraper system kneads dough gently and effectively, without creating much heat from friction, which is ideal for creating perfect bread structures. The direct-drive motor provides consistent torque, meaning it won't slow down or struggle under a heavy load.
KitchenAid uses a traditional planetary mixing action, which is fantastic for most applications like beating butter and sugar or whipping meringue. Its performance with bread dough is good, but not on Ankarsrum's level. The C-shaped dough hook can sometimes struggle to effectively knead the entire mass of dough, and the motor on smaller models may get warm and noisy with heavy loads. The larger bowl-lift models from KitchenAid do a much better job with bread but still fall short of the Ankarsrum's sheer power.
Ease of Use & Design
The traditional design of a KitchenAid is intuitive for most users. Whether you choose a tilt-head or bowl-lift model, it works as you'd expect. Attachments click on effortlessly, and bowls lock securely into place. It's user-friendly right out of the box.
The Ankarsrum has a steeper learning curve. Understanding how to position the roller and scraper correctly takes some practice. However, its open-bowl design is a major advantage for adding ingredients while mixing - there's no planetary head in the way. Once mastered, many owners find it to be a more efficient and pleasant machine to work with.
Which One Should You Choose?
The right choice depends entirely on how you bake and what you value in a kitchen appliance.
Choose Ankarsrum if:
- You are a serious bread baker and frequently make large or heavy doughs.
- You want a "buy it for life" machine and are willing to invest in superior durability and power.
- You need a massive bowl capacity for big-batch baking.
- You prefer a minimalist, functional design aesthetic.
Choose KitchenAid if:
- You are an all-around baker who makes cakes, cookies, frosting, and occasional bread.
- Style and color customization are major priorities for you.
- You have a smaller budget and appreciate the value offered by its frequent sales.
- You want an intuitive mixer that's easy to use from day one with a familiar design.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Ankarsrum or KitchenAid cheaper?
KitchenAid is significantly cheaper. Its mixers range from around $300 to $600, while the Ankarsrum Assistent starts at $700 and goes up from there. You can often find a KitchenAid on sale, but discounts on Ankarsrum are rare.
Who has better quality construction?
For sheer durability and heavy-duty use, Ankarsrum is considered to have superior build quality. Its components are engineered for decades of rigorous use. KitchenAid mixers have good quality for home use but may not stand up to the same level of stress over the long term, especially entry-level models.
Which is better for bread dough?
Ankarsrum is unquestionably better for bread dough. Its unique design and powerful motor are specifically engineered to handle large, heavy, and dense doughs more effectively and gently than any KitchenAid model.
Which is easier to use?
KitchenAid is easier to use for beginners due to its traditional and intuitive design. The Ankarsrum has a learning curve associated with its unconventional roller and scraper mixing system.
Is an Ankarsrum mixer worth the money?
For avid bread makers and those who bake in very large quantities, the Ankarsrum is often considered a worthwhile long-term investment due to its power, capacity, and incredible longevity.
What is the main difference in how they mix?
The main difference is what moves. In a KitchenAid, the bowl is stationary and the mixing attachment (e.g., beater, whisk) rotates around the bowl. In an Ankarsrum, the attachments are largely stationary and the bowl itself rotates to mix the ingredients.
Which brand has more attachments?
Both brands offer an extensive ecosystem of attachments, from meat grinders to pasta makers. KitchenAid's attachments are more widely known and available, but Ankarsrum also has a comprehensive lineup of high-quality accessories.
Which mixer is better for a small kitchen?
KitchenAid is the better choice for a small kitchen. They offer more compact models, like the Artisan Mini 3.5-Quart, that have a smaller countertop footprint. The Ankarsrum is a large machine with a wider base designed for stability.
At Interior Insider, we're dedicated to curating the best in home decor, interior design, and home essentials to help you discover brands we think you'll love. Every brand we feature is independently selected by our editorial team based on quality, design, and craftsmanship. When you make a purchase through our links, Interior Insider may earn a commission - which helps support our small team and allows us to continue bringing you inspiration and expert advice for creating your perfect space.
Looking for more inspiration? Explore our curated design guides to find your next favorite piece.
