Every Major Framing Nailer Brand Ranked Worst To Best

Oct 25, 2024

A framing nailer can be a tough sell for folks on a budget, but the tool is absolutely crucial in saving time and effort in construction. Replacing the timeless hammer-and-nail system by using technology that evolved from WWII machine guns, framing nailers allow for structures to be framed in days rather than weeks. Fencing, building a deck, and installing sub-flooring are all jobs made easier with a framing nailer, along with any other projects that require lots of fasteners.

In this list, we aim to give a little guidance to folks looking into which brand of framing nailer is the best. We'll also highlight a nailer that we feel represents what the brand is about, whether that's value, performance, or some blend of the two. Online reviews, direct consultation with pros, and my own experience were all considered in this ranking.

As always, with this type of list it's important to mention that even the "worst" nailer is still pretty good — after all, we're listing 10 brands out of dozens. It's also vital to know what kind of features are important to you, and the job at hand, before just buying the nailer in the top spot. Differences to look for in a nail gun include offset, power sources, and nail type, and it's important to know the differences between a framing nailer and a brad nailer or a finishing nailer. Knowing how those features affect the performance of the tool should help lead you to a good purchase that helps get the job done.

As one of The Home Depot's exclusive brands, Ridgid often ends up on our rankings as a low-cost alternative to the bigger names. Its framing nailers are no exception, with buyers mentioning Ridgid's entry-level pricing and good performance as reasons to buy one for DIY use, smaller builds, or less frequent framing jobs.

Ridgid's best-selling framing nailer on The Home Depot's website is the Ridgid Pneumatic 21 Degree 3½-inch Round Head Framing Nailer. It's a feature-rich tool that's well reviewed while maintaining a price point on the low end of the list of nailers we'll be presenting here, and Ridgid's Lifetime Service Agreement means free parts and service for the life of the tool, provided you register your Ridgid tools.

The Ridgid nailer is constructed out of magnesium metal and plastic, keeping its weight at a light 7½ pounds. It's designed for convenience, with tool-free operation of both its firing mode selection and jam clearing door. Reloading is quick, and Ridgid claims that the nailer can drive eight nails per second. It is pneumatically powered, so you'll need a compressor to get this particular party started — if you're in the market for one of those, SlashGear has you covered with a list of top compressor brands.

The Ridgid Pneumatic 21 Degree 3½-inch Round Head Framing Nailer is available from The Home Depot for $209.

This Rockford, Illinois-based toolmaker recently celebrated its hundredth year in business. Perhaps best known for its leather-handled hammers and geologists' tools — one of which was even used on the moon — the company makes a ton of specialty hand tools, mostly here in the U.S. However, it also has a line of "officially licensed" compressors, hoses, and nailers that are made in China.

The Estwing 21-Degree Full Head Framing Nailer has a magnesium body, making it durable, but also lightweight at just under 8 pounds. Its 34-degree offset allows for the tool to fit into tighter spots than some of its less aggressively angled competition. Unfortunately, the tool suffers from little things like being slightly underpowered, looking a little cheap, and coming from a brand that isn't as well known as others.

Despite its looks, this Estwing framing nailer has many of the features one might expect in a high-end model, like tool-free depth adjustment, a swivel connection for easier maneuvering when hooked to a compressor, and easy switching from single fire to bump firing. It's also got a no-mar tip to keep surface damage to a minimum, although that can be removed to allow the tool's teeth to bite into wood for a more secure hold before nailing.

The Estwing 21-Degree Full Head Framing Nailer comes with a padded bag, and can be purchased from Amazon for around $175.

All of the framing nailers we've discussed to this point are powered by a compressor. With Dewalt's entry, we felt it was important to focus on what that company is best known for — battery powered tools. Like nearly all new DeWalt tools, the company's cordless framing nailers are popular and well-regarded, but most contractors still prefer air-powered nailers for the majority of framing work. One reason for that preference is the excess weight a battery brings to the table. Another factor is the limited power of batteries, although recent advances in technology have brought it a little closer to pneumatics in that regard.

The brand's best-selling nailer on Amazon, the Dewalt 20V Max XR Framing Nailer, has good reviews on the online retailer's site, but less so elsewhere. Common problems with the popular nailer include a heavy tool weight of over 9 pounds (without a battery) and frequent reloading owing to a relatively small 55 nail capacity. However, it's not all doom and gloom. I rented one of these for some framing repairs in my basement. The maneuverability provided by a tool that doesn't rely on an air hose can't be overstated, and the ergonomic design makes it comfortable to hold, even if it is a little heavy.

The battery-powered Dewalt 20V Max XR Framing Nailer can be bought from Ace Hardware for $369 as a bare tool. While it's offered on Amazon and elsewhere, SlashGear has written about the importance of verifying that you're dealing with an official Dewalt retailer before buying.

A lightweight build and adjustable exhaust are two of the reasons this lesser-known company is on our rankings, though Freeman also makes several of the top-rated framing nailers on The Home Depot's website. Users of the company's tools, which include trim cutters, compressors, and oscillating multi-tools, gush about Freeman's warranty, wallet-friendly pricing, and visually pleasing designs. However, due to the brand's lower profile it can be difficult to find much background information about online.

The Freeman Pneumatic 21-Degree 3½-inch Full Round Head Framing Nailer is consistently recommended by both pros and DIYers for its power, decent feature list, and entry-level price. Unfortunately, with that lower price comes a lot of plastic in the tool's build, making it feel like more of a tool for DIYers or occasional users rather than construction professionals. That being said, online reviews claim that the tool rarely jams, performs as expected, and that the included tool case is really nice. For a budget framing nailer, you can do a lot worse.

The Freeman Pneumatic 21-Degree 3½-inch Full Round Head Framing Nailer is available on Amazon for just over $100.

Senco is a company dedicated to fasteners — nailers, staplers, and the compressors to power them are some of its best selling products. Started in Ohio in the 1930s, the company created the world's first pneumatic staplers for industrial packaging and upholstery. Now owned by Japanese corporation Kyocera, Senco continues to innovate with creative fasteners like auto-feed screwdrivers and cordless finish nailers.

The Senco 3½-inch Coil Nailer is a best-seller at the Nail Gun Depot (an actual retailer, I swear) and it's a decent tool, although it does have a higher price tag than most. But Senco also has a reputation among pros for its well-balanced and well built-nailers, and at only 8 pounds it's a tool that won't wear your arm out too quickly. I have some experience with this nailer, and I will agree that the feel of the tool is great. It's powerful and only produces a fraction of the recoil I've felt in some other nailers. An adjustable exhaust port, debris shield, and tool free adjustments make the tool a more premium choice, and a thoughtful clear magazine design makes it easy for users to see how many nails remain — although with a capacity of 275, it does take a good long while between reloads.

The Senco 3½-inch Coil Nailer can be purchased from the Nail Gun Depot for $448.

This American toolmaker seems to make an appearance on all of our tools list, and with good reason. Milwaukee's top rated tools tend to be a bit pricey, but they're also reliable, durable, high-performance products built for professionals, and thousands of testimonials vouch for the brand.

The Milwaukee M18 Fuel 30-Degree Framing Nailer is the result of the company's dedication to engineering. The company claims that this nailer can fire three nails per second, and Milwaukee's unique engineering uses battery power paired with a sealed compressed nitrogen system to drive nails, rather than disposable fuel cells. Features include dry fire lockout to prevent damage to the tool, both belt and rafter hooks, an LED light, and easy tool-free adjustments.

Weight, however, is a very real concern with the Milwaukee framing nailer. The nailer alone is one of the heaviest on our list at over 9 pounds, and adding an M18 or M18 Fuel battery pack brings this beefy tool up to almost 13 pounds. While sticking with one brand can save you money in the long run, it might be worth simply opting for a pneumatic tool if you're doing a bigger job, as arm fatigue will definitely become noticeable with a nailer this substantial. However, for many Milwaukee die-hards, that weight will be a minor concern when put against the maneuverability and feature list this framing nailer offers.

The Milwaukee M18 Fuel 30-Degree Framing Nailer can be bought from The Home Depot as a bare tool for $379.

Paslode is legendary among contractors for its fasteners, and with good reason — that's all the company makes. The toolmaker's specialized nailers for siding, fencing, flooring and more are all recommended by pros in those fields. Paslode's use of a combination of gas and battery power makes for a lightweight and powerful framing nailer that doesn't rely on a compressor and hose, and its fuel cells can drive up to 1200 framing nails before needing to be replaced.

With a reasonable price tag and a two year warranty, the Paslode XP 30-Degree Cordless Framing Nailer is a good tool for newcomers and professionals alike. At just over 7 pounds, arm fatigue is less of an issue than with a standard battery powered nailer. The power that is produced by the Paslode's gas canister is impressive, but the odor from the gas cartridge can be offensive to sensitive users. Up to 9000 nails can be driven with a single battery charge, so having a few extra fuel cells on hand isn't a bad idea.

The Paslode XP 30-Degree Cordless Framing Nailer comes with a case, battery, charger, and a pair of safety glasses. It can be purchased from Lowes for $359, and a couple fuel cells can be picked up at the same time for an additional $14 each.

A Japanese company that has been around for over 80 years, Max oddly specializes in both industrial tools like nailers, compressors, and rebar-tying tools, and office equipment like signmakers and cute little animal staplers. Max's nailers are very impressive, getting mentioned often among construction pros as some of the best — and the company prides itself on having invented the world's first roofing nailer back in 1982. Three of the top-rated framing nailers on The Home Depot's website are from Max.

A popular tool from Max is the SuperFramer 15-Degree Coil Framing Nailer. It's capable of driving nails 2-3½ inches long, and has an anti-double-fire trigger to keep those scary second-shot incidents to a minimum. The tool is designed to be a bit shorter than other nailers, allowing it to fit between studs, and a 300-nail coil can be quickly and easily replaced with its drum-style magazine. Depth adjustment is as easy as turning a dial, and this nailer even has a self-cleaning end cap filter to keep debris from getting into the tool.

The Max SuperFramer 15-Degree Coil Framing Nailer can be purchased from The Home Depot for around $360.

Founded in 1896 as the Boston Wire Stitch Company, Bostitch has grown from an operator of machines for binding books, calendars, and hat boxes to a major manufacturer of fasteners like nailers, staplers, and tackers. Its success comes from knowing what it's about — it's a company that makes tools to attach stuff to other stuff, and it doesn't waver from that focus. Browse Bostich's website and you'll see specialized nailers for roofing, flooring, and framing, air compressors to power those tools, and the fasteners to feed those tools, but that's it.

The versatile Bostitch 21-Degree Pneumatic Framing Nailer is a great framing nailer, and one I've used building a little greenhouse/shed for a friend. It's a bit heavier than some other nailers at nearly 9 pounds, but it's incredibly powerful. It also has little quality-of-life extras like a rafter hook for mid-job breaks, and an adjustable exhaust port to keep blowback from shooting directly into your face during use. And the nailer's grippy nose teeth, powerful firing, and minimal recoil make it great for toenailing as well as framing applications.

The Bostitch 21-Degree Pneumatic Framing Nailer is available at Lowes for $219.

Known as Hitachi globally (the HPT stands for Hitachi Power Tools), Metabo was the overwhelming favorite among both online reviews and the contractors we spoke to. In fact, among the dozen or so sources we used for this ranking, Metabo's framing nailers were mentioned a whopping 36 times — two other brands were mentioned 10 times each.

Metabo HPT makes dozens of framing nailers, and all of them are well reviewed and well regarded among professionals.

The Metabo HPT 21-Degree Framing Nailer is one of the company's best-selling offerings. It's a great showcase of the features that draw users to Metabo HPT's tools. Weighing just over 7 pounds, it's well balanced and lightweight, but not at the sacrifice of quality materials — a metal back cap and magazine replace the plastic that many other framing nailers use for those vulnerable parts. Switching from single-shot to bump firing is as easy as flipping a switch. Depth adjustment is similarly simple with a tool-free adjuster. It's a durable, straightforward, well-built tool that should serve the user for years, and it's got a five year warranty in case any issues do arise.

The pneumatic Metabo HPT 21-Degree Framing Nailer is available on Amazon for $169.

Best-seller lists and reviews from retailers like Amazon, The Home Depot, Lowes, and Nail Gun Depot were consulted for this article, as were individual product reviews and recommendations from local contractors. I have also used some of these brands while helping with restoration projects, and rented a few others for sheds and similar smaller builds, and so took those experiences into account as well.