The KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus and the Artisan stand mixers serve different bakers, primarily distinguished by their design, power, and capacity. The Artisan features a user-friendly tilt-head design and comes in dozens of colors, making it perfect for most home cooks, while the Professional 5 Plus uses a more stable bowl-lift design and a more powerful motor geared for handling heavy, dense doughs with ease.
Here’s everything you need to know to choose the right KitchenAid mixer for your culinary needs.
KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer
The Artisan is KitchenAid's most popular and iconic stand mixer, revered as a kitchen staple that perfectly balances form and function. It's designed for the passionate home baker who requires a reliable, powerful machine for everyday tasks like mixing cookie dough, whipping cream, or kneading occasional bread dough, all while being a stunning countertop display piece.
- What it is: A versatile and stylish tilt-head stand mixer designed for a wide range of everyday baking and cooking tasks.
- Key features: 5-quart capacity (with glass or stainless steel bowl options), 325-watt motor, convenient tilt-head design for easy bowl access, 10 mixing speeds, and an attachment hub that fits over a dozen optional accessories.
- Price: $400 - $500, depending on the chosen color and finish.
- Style: Features a classic, retro-modern aesthetic available in over 20 colors, from Aqua Sky to Empire Red, making it a kitchen decor centerpiece.
- Materials/Construction: Built with a durable die-cast metal body, ensuring stability and longevity for common household use.
- Pros: Enormous selection of colors and finishes to match any kitchen style. The tilt-head design is very convenient for adding ingredients and scraping the bowl. Compact enough for most kitchen counters. Powerful enough for the vast majority of home recipes.
- Cons: The tilt-head can sometimes struggle or bounce when kneading very heavy or large batches of dough. Not designed for continuous, heavy-duty commercial-style use. Slightly less powerful motor gearing compared to the Professional series.
The Artisan is ideal for the home cook who values aesthetics just as much as performance and needs a dependable mixer for cakes, cookies, and weekly baking projects.
Shop this product: kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/stand-mixers/artisan-ksm150.html
KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus Stand Mixer
The Professional 5 Plus is a significant step up in power and stability, designed for serious home bakers, small businesses, or anyone who frequently tackles large or dense recipes. Its signature bowl-lift design provides the sturdiness needed to churn through double batches of stiff cookie dough or multiple loaves of bread without straining.
- What it is: A high-performance, commercial-style stand mixer with a bowl-lift design built for heavy-duty mixing tasks.
- Key features: 5-quart stainless steel bowl, a robust motor designed for higher torque, 10 speeds, stationary head with an arm that raises and lowers the bowl, and a Power Hub for attachments.
- Price: $450 - $550, reflecting its more powerful build and capabilities.
- Style: A more industrial and utilitarian aesthetic with a focus on function over form. Available in a smaller selection of classic colors like black, silver, and red.
- Materials/Construction: Features a heavy-duty, all-metal construction and commercial-grade components designed to withstand rigorous, frequent use.
- Pros: Bowl-lift design provides superior stability for heavy mixing jobs. More powerful motor and gearing can handle tough doughs without bogging down. Ideal for large-batch baking. Extremely durable and built to last.
- Cons: Larger and heavier, taking up more counter space. The bowl-lift mechanism can be less convenient for adding ingredients mid-mix compared to a tilt-head model. Fewer color choices.
This mixer is perfect for the avid bread maker, the ambitious home baker making large quantities, or anyone who prioritizes raw power and stability for challenging recipes.
Shop this product: kitchenaid.com/countertop-appliances/professional-5-plus-stand-mixer
KitchenAid Artisan vs. Professional 5 Plus Comparison
Design: Tilt-Head vs. Bowl-Lift
The most significant functional difference lies in their core design. The Artisan's tilt-head allows the motor head to be unlocked and lifted back, providing clear and easy access to the bowl for adding ingredients or scraping down the sides. This is incredibly user-friendly for most everyday baking tasks.
In contrast, the Professional 5 Plus features a bowl-lift design where the head remains stationary. A crank lever raises and lowers the bowl into place. This architecture minimizes vibration and provides a much more stable platform for mixing heavy loads, as there's no hinge point that could lead to head-bobbing.
Power & Performance
While both models might list similar wattage, the real performance difference comes from the motor's gearing. The Professional 5 Plus is engineered for greater torque, which is the rotational force needed to churn through dense materials like cold butter or stiff bread dough. It can handle double batches and tougher recipes without sputtering or overheating.
The Artisan has plenty of power for the overwhelming majority of cakes, batters, and even single loaves of bread. However, for the baker who consistently makes tough doughs, the Professional model's superior torque and stability make it the clear winner in pure performance.
Dimensions & Capacity
Both mixers feature a 5-quart bowl, which is generous enough to make up to 9 dozen cookies or 4.5 loaves of bread in a single batch. The main physical difference is their overall footprint. The Professional 5 Plus is taller, wider, and heavier than the Artisan, making it a more permanent fixture on the countertop. It may not fit under standard kitchen cabinets, so measuring your space is essential. The Artisan is more compact and easier to move if you need to store it away.
Style & Aesthetics
This category is an easy win for the Artisan series. It is famously available in dozens of colors and finishes, from matte pastels to glossy metallics, designed to be a prominent style element in the kitchen. It has an iconic, rounded silhouette that is often copied but never quite matched.
The Professional 5 Plus has a more commanding, industrial presence. Its color selection is much more limited, usually sticking to timeless classics. It's built for purpose, and its appearance reflects that - strong, sturdy, and no-nonsense.
Price & Value
The Artisan is generally less expensive, offering tremendous value for home cooks who want a reliable, beautiful, and long-lasting kitchen tool. For most people, it's more than enough mixer, and its lower price point makes it an accessible premium appliance.
The Professional 5 Plus costs more, and that extra investment goes directly into a more robust motor, durable all-metal gearing, and the stable bowl-lift design. For those who can utilize that extra power, the value is excellent, as it prevents the need for a true commercial machine and will last for decades even under heavy use.
Which One Should You Choose?
Both models are fantastic investments, but they are built for distinctly different users.
Choose the KitchenAid Artisan if:
- You want your mixer to be a decor statement with a wide choice of colors.
- You bake regularly (cakes, cookies, weekly bread) but rarely make extra-large or extremely dense batches.
- You appreciate the convenience of the tilt-head mechanism for adding ingredients.
- Your kitchen counter space or storage is limited.
Choose the KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus if:
- You frequently bake heavy bread doughs, dense gluten-free recipes, or extra-large batches of cookies.
- You prioritize raw power, stability, and long-term durability over aesthetics.
- You have ample counter space and plan to give your mixer a permanent home.
- You are a serious hobby baker or run a small home-based food business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the main difference between the KitchenAid Artisan and Professional 5 Plus?
The main differences are the design and power. The Artisan uses a convenient tilt-head design and is perfect for most home users, while the Professional 5 Plus has a more stable bowl-lift design and a motor with more torque for handling heavy, dense doughs.
Are the attachments interchangeable between the Artisan and Professional models?
Yes, all modern KitchenAid attachments that connect to the front power hub (like the pasta maker, meat grinder, or vegetable slicer) are designed to be universal and will fit both models.
Can the Artisan handle bread dough?
Absolutely. The Artisan can easily handle standard recipes for one or two loaves of bread. You may notice the motor working harder or the head bouncing slightly with very stiff doughs, which is where the Professional model excels.
Is the Professional 5 Plus too big for a normal kitchen?
It can be. The Professional 5 Plus is roughly 16.5 inches tall, making it a tight fit under standard 18-inch upper cabinets. The Artisan is closer to 14 inches tall when lowered, making it much more adaptable to standard kitchen layouts.
What's the benefit of the bowl-lift design on the Professional 5 Plus?
The bowl-lift design provides greater stability. Because the head is fixed, all the motor's energy is directed downward into the mixing action, and the machine doesn't rock or vibrate under heavy loads, ensuring a more efficient mix for tough recipes.
Is the Professional 5 Plus worth the extra money?
If you're an avid bread baker, make double batches frequently, or have burned out weaker mixers in the past, then yes, the step-up in power and durability is absolutely worth the extra cost. For the average home baker, the Artisan provides better overall value.
Where are KitchenAid mixers made?
KitchenAid's iconic stand mixers are proudly assembled in Greenville, Ohio, a tradition the company has maintained for decades.
Which model is best for a beginner baker?
The Artisan is generally the best choice for a beginner. Its friendly tilt-head design is intuitive to use, and it has more than enough power to grow with you as your baking skills advance from simple cookies to more complex breads and pastries.
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