The best robot lawn mower under £500: budget-friendly buys for 2024

The L10 from LawnMaster requires a little initial set-up time with the need to establish the boundary wire and choose the right spot for the charging station, but once you've aced that, thanks to the timer functionality, this mini mower will regularly and reliably keep your lawn in order.

This has three cutting blades that can be set to heights between 20mm and 60mm and with its mulching ability, will leave cuttings on your lawn to act as a nutrient-rich, natural fertiliser. The L10 is IPX5-rated so it can be trusted to operate in wet conditions.

This little mower is robust when it comes to safety - there's a large "Stop" button on its back, it has lift sensors that automatically stop the blades, and it boasts PIN code protection to ensure it doesn't get activated by accident.

Currently enjoying a 4.4-star rating on Amazon, reviewers are pleased with how quiet this mower is, and impressed by the battery life, as it works for up to 40 minutes before needing to return to its charging station.

Designed for smaller gardens, Flymo's EasiLife 150 GO is a compact robotic lawn mower that can automatically cut up to a 150-square-metre area of grass. Once set up, you can use the companion smartphone app to control this mower, giving you a completely hands-free way to manage your lawn.

Flymo promises this mower offers "Push & GO" functionality. If you don't want to control this with the app, the simple push-button controls and LED indicators on the machine mean you can quickly and simply set it off to get mowing.

This machine automatically returns to its charging base when it needs a refresh and boasts Flymo's "LawnSense" and "FrostSense" technologies, the first of which tells the mower when grass growth levels mean it's time to cut the grass, the second avoids the mower working when it's too cold.

Multiple sensors prevent this mower from damaging itself, or anything else in your garden, and its three pivoting blades will stop working if the mower is tilted. Reviewers advise experimenting with the grass-cutting height as you may want to begin at a taller height and work down to something more neat.

The LawnMaster L12 is basically the big brother of our best overall robot lawn mower choice, the LawnMaster L10. While we love the L10 for the average-sized lawn, the L12 can cope with larger spaces, capable of mowing lawns of up to 800 square metres.

The set-up is still the same with a boundary wire you need to establish and a charging station you need to find the best spot for. Once you've managed the initial stages, this mower operates automatically with your choice to set it to mow every day, or every other day depending on your lawn size.

This durable robo-mower is IPX5-rated so can withstand a spot of rain, can cut at different heights from 20mm to 60mm, and has a mulching function to spread the grass cuttings evenly around your lawn to save you from having to dispose of them.

This Yard Force option is a great budget-friendly choice that's ideal for people with uncomplicated gardens who can just let this mower roam around keeping the grass at a respectable level. While this does offer more basic functionality compared to other choices, it should be noted that it can tackle slopes up to a 30 per cent incline.

This can be completely controlled by the Yard Force companion app, although reviews are varied on how well this works. In theory, you can control the variable cutting heights ranging from 20mm to 55mm.

Safety features include built-in sensors to stop the blades working for lift risks, any garden obstacles, just in case it turns over, and in case it gets tilted for any reason. Reviewers suggest this is a reliable robo-mower that even works well in the rain.

Perfect for complex and irregularly shaped gardens, this multi-area mowing Einhell Power X-Change FREELEXO 500 BT can be programmed in a way that you can set mowing schedules with personalised time slots.

Ideal for anyone who has bought into Einhell's Power X-Change battery system, this mower uses the same battery as your other Einhell garden tools. This mower can cope with gradients of up to 35% and offers cutting height settings from 20mm to 60mm.

We rate this mower for "complex" gardens thanks to its "Multi-Area" function. This means that this lawn mower can not only start from the charging station but can also start regularly at specially defined points of the boundary wire in the garden.

This mower has a sensitive rain sensor that detects changes in the weather and automatically returns to its docking station when it senses precipitation. This helps to ensure a clean cut as mowing in the rain can damage grass.

This robotic lawn mower is designed for what Yard Force describes as "city gardens" - lawns of up to 300 square metres. Once set up, this mower can be controlled completely hands-free thanks to the built-in Bluetooth tech that works with the Yard Force companion app.

We're highlighting this mower for its iRadar functionality. This is made up of two "Active Safety Ultrasonic Sensors" found on the top of the mower which means this is particularly adept at avoiding obstacles on your lawn - worth noting if you have cats, or kids that are likely to abandon toys in the grass. Sensors will also kick in if this mower is lifted or tilted in any way.

From a grass-cutting perspective, this has a 16cm cutting width, the ability to cut from 20mm to 55, mulching capabilities, and a handy rain sensor to send it back to base when the heavens open.

This is another choice suited to smaller gardens. Unlike many other robotic mowers, this is a particularly convenient option as it needs no boundary wire set-up. This is because it uses a grass recognition camera and ultrasonic sensors to mow your lawn, but it will only work successfully on lawns with hard borders such as gravel, paving, decking, or raised edges such as sleepers and fences.

This comes with a fast, one-hour charger. On full charge, this will mow a lawn of up to 100 square metres in a random pattern for up to four hours. As it mows, this drops the grass clippings on the lawn to help feed the grass. You can choose from cutting heights of between 20mm and 60mm.

Reviewers praise this for being a simple "drop and go" robotic lawn mower that needs minimal set-up, very little ongoing maintenance, and app-free operation to keep their smaller lawns looked after.