Best Multitools of 2026

Seven tools is the entire argument. There's no saw, no file, no can opener, and no awl on the Skeletool — just a blade, pliers, wire cutters, a bit driver, and a bottle opener worked into the tail of the handle. If you already carry a pocket knife and want the extras you'll actually touch, that short list is the point.

At 5.6 ounces it's the tool here that disappears, and the open frame is why: there's no slab of steel sitting against your thigh, and the carabiner clip hangs it off a belt loop or a pack strap where you can find it without digging. The blade opens one-handed like a dedicated folder rather than something you negotiate with.

The pliers have no spring return, so every squeeze is open-close by hand — fine for a couple of hooks, tedious across a run of small pinches. This is the one we clipped on and stopped thinking about, which is the highest compliment a daily carry tool gets. Whether seven tools are worth premium money depends on how often the alternative is leaving it at home.

This is the least expensive full-size tool in our group, and the first thing we noticed is that it doesn't feel like one: 6.4 ounces of stainless, a solid snap as each implement locks open, and a shape that fills your hand.

Fifteen tools, and the useful ones are all present — needle-nose pliers with a spring that lets you work one-handed, wire strippers, three flatheads, two cross drivers, an awl, a nail file, scissors, can and bottle openers, and a partially serrated blade. The pocket clip means it rides a jeans pocket without a sheath, and there's a lanyard point if you'd rather tie it to a pack.

What you give up is refinement. The lock releases need a deliberate, firm push — easy bare-handed, fiddly with gloves or wet hands, which is exactly when a fishing tool gets used. Give the pivots a rinse and a drop of oil after a wet day and the action stays crisp.

None of that stopped us reaching for it. For a first multitool, a spare for the boat bag, or a gift for someone who won't spend premium money, it does most of what the expensive tools do for a lot less.

We left the Truss in the truck, which is where a sheath tool belongs. Seventeen tools in a slim butterfly frame, a nylon sheath on the belt, and a lanyard point if you'd rather hang it — it's the one we stopped thinking about until something needed fixing.

Seventeen tools is more than the Suspension NXT carries and fewer than the Wave+, and the mix is sensible: needle-nose and standard pliers, wire cutters and a stripper, a saw, a full serrated blade, scissors, a file, a ruler, and the usual drivers. At 8 ounces the handles are long enough that the pliers feel like pliers rather than a token pair, and the saw is the reason this one goes outdoors with us.

The pliers are where this tool has the least margin. Hooks, light wire, and a stuck knot are fine; a properly seized bolt is not, and that's the same story with most folding tools at this weight. Everything else about it feels like more tool than the price suggests.

If your multitool lives in a vehicle or a tackle bag rather than a pocket, the Truss is the better buy over the Suspension NXT: same butterfly format, more implements, and a sheath that keeps it where you left it.

Two and a quarter inches and seven-tenths of an ounce — the Classic SD is less a multitool than a habit. It lives on a keyring, and after a while you stop noticing it until a tag end needs cutting.

The scissors do most of the work. They go through braid, monofilament, and packaging, and they're faster than opening a blade for a two-second job — we used them far more than the knife. Around them sit a small blade, a nail file with a screwdriver tip, tweezers, and a toothpick, all in a body that vanishes in a coin pocket.

We treat it as a second tool, not a first one, and on that basis it has never let us down. The lifetime guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship is real comfort for something that rides with your keys, and the price makes it the easiest gift on this list — the sort of thing you buy two of and keep one.

It's the tool we hand someone who has never carried one, and the one we replace without much thought when it disappears into a couch.

Twenty-one functions for very little money is the promise, and the Mossy Oak mostly keeps it: needle-nose and standard pliers, wire cutters, a magnetic hex sleeve with standard bits, a saw, a wood-and-metal file, plain and serrated blades, a ruler, a punch, and the usual openers.

The layout is the good part. Every tool opens from the outside of the handle, so you aren't unfolding the whole thing to reach the saw, and each one self-locks with a tab you press to release. The nylon pouch has an elastic front pocket for the extra bits, which is the kind of detail that keeps an inexpensive tool usable.

It's also a pound of steel, and that decides where it belongs. On a belt it swings; in a jacket pocket it drags the coat sideways. Ours went into a boat bag and stayed there — reachable, not carried — which is the right home for a 21-tool import.

Give the pivots a drop of oil after a wet weekend and it keeps working. For a truck kit or a first tool, it's a lot of capability for the money.

Of the tools on this list, only the DR.LILIANG has a hammer, and that one head changes what it's for: tent stakes, a lid that won't budge, a peg that needs seating — jobs you'd otherwise do with a rock.

Around the hammer sit 13 functions: a hex wrench, wire cutters, a nail claw, a bottle opener, a nail file, Phillips and flathead drivers, a blade, a saw, and scissors. It comes in a nylon belt pouch, and at 10.88 ounces and 5.9 inches closed it's a pouch tool rather than a pocket one.

The bits are the soft spot. They ride in the pouch rather than in the tool, and they don't seat as firmly as a dedicated driver — press one home, turn slowly, and a Phillips will do the job. The hammer, meanwhile, is genuinely useful; it's the tool we handed to whoever was setting up camp.

For the money, it's the best answer here for a car kit or a gift for someone who camps a few weekends a year. It won't take the place of a Leatherman for daily carry, but it doesn't need to.