Garden Last updated · owner ratings verified July 2026
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Side by side
| Our pick Ninja Ninja Mega Kitchen System BL770 Better overall $170–220 Check price | Ninja Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System BN801 with Auto-iQ Best rated here $150–200 Check price | Cuisinart Cuisinart Velocity Ultra Trio BFP-650P1 Blender / Food Processor The only Cuisinart combo $110–150 Check price | Cuisinart Cuisinart Smart Stick CSB-75BC Hand Blender Not a combo — the honest alternative $30–45 Check price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What owners rate it | ||||
| Owner rating | 4.7 / 5 (42,720) | 4.8 / 5 (14,662) | 4.2 / 5 (659) | 4.1 / 5 (7,950) |
| Specifications | ||||
| Motor power | 1500 W | 1400 W peak | 1 HP | 200 W |
| Blender jar | 72 oz pitcher | 72 oz pitcher | Full-size blender jar | None — blends in your own pot |
| Food processor bowl | 8-cup food processor bowl | Large food processor bowl | Compact chopper-style bowl | None |
| Programs | Manual speeds and pulse only | Auto-iQ programs for smoothies, chopping and dough | Manual speeds and pulse only | Two speeds |
| Single-serve cups | Two 16 oz single-serve cups | Two single-serve to-go cups | Two travel cups | Mixing and measuring beaker |
| Blades included | Stacked blades, dough blade, chopping blade | Stacked blades, dough blade, chopping blade | Blender blade, chopping blade | Fixed immersion blade |
| Cleaning | Dishwasher-safe parts, awkward blade stack | Dishwasher-safe parts, awkward blade stack | Removable parts, simple blade layout | Detachable shaft, rinses in seconds |
| Warranty | 1-year limited | 1-year limited | 3-year limited (Cuisinart standard) | 3-year limited (Cuisinart standard) |
| Who it suits | ||||
| Best for | One machine that genuinely replaces a blender, a processor and a personal cup | People who want the machine to run the program rather than stand over it | A smaller kitchen where the blender does most of the work | Soups, sauces and smoothies where nothing needs chopping |
Ratings are aggregated Amazon owner ratings, not our own testing. Figures verified July 2026.
Pros and cons
Ninja Mega Kitchen System BL770
- The strongest motor here by a wide margin, and it is the reason frozen fruit and ice behave
- Large processor bowl handles a real batch of dough or a chopped mirepoix, not a token cup of salsa
- Includes the dough blade, which is the attachment people are surprised to find they use most
- One of the largest and steadiest owner-rating pools of any appliance in this category
- Tall — measure your cabinet clearance before buying, this is a recurring complaint
- The stacked blade assembly is awkward and genuinely sharp to wash by hand
- No presets: everything is manual pulse and speed, so results depend on you watching it
- Storing the pitcher, bowl, cups and three blade sets takes real cupboard space
Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System BN801 with Auto-iQ
- Auto-iQ presets run timed pulse-and-pause patterns that beat most people's manual technique
- The highest owner rating on this page, and it has held there since launch
- Larger processor bowl than the Mega System for chopping and dough
- Same 72 oz pitcher, so it does not give up capacity for the convenience
- Slightly less motor power than the Mega System, which shows on solid frozen blocks
- Presets are fixed — you cannot adjust the time, only stop it
- Same height problem and the same stacked-blade washing chore
- To-go cups are a different size from the Mega System's, so lids are not interchangeable
Cuisinart Velocity Ultra Trio BFP-650P1 Blender / Food Processor
- Die-cast metal base is heavier and better damped than Ninja's plastic housings, and it stays put
- Cheapest route into a combined machine here, with travel cups included
- Cuisinart's standard three-year limited warranty is longer than Ninja's one year
- Noticeably shorter than either Ninja, so it fits under a standard upper cabinet
- The processor bowl is chopper-sized, not a true food processor — this is the machine's real limitation
- One horsepower is well short of the Ninjas and it labors on hard frozen fruit
- By far the smallest rating pool on this page, so the long-term record is thin
- Lowest owner rating of the four, with motor complaints the recurring theme
Cuisinart Smart Stick CSB-75BC Hand Blender
- Blends in the pot, so there is no hot liquid transfer and no jar to wash
- Costs a quarter of any combo here and stores in a drawer
- Large, long-established rating pool for a product this simple
- Stainless shaft detaches for washing, and the beaker doubles as a mixing cup
- No food processor bowl at all — it cannot chop, slice, shred or make dough
- 200 watts is fine for soup and hopeless on ice or frozen fruit
- Two speeds only, with no fine control at the low end
- Splashes if you lift the head above the liquid, which every new owner does once
Decision factors
What you actually pay
The two Ninja systems sit at $150–220 and the Cuisinart combo at $110–150, so the combo argument costs you roughly $50 either way. The Smart Stick is in a different bracket entirely at $30–45, and that gap is the most interesting number on the page.
Where the Ninja premium goes. Into the motor and into the bowl. The Mega System's 1500 watts is what lets it take solid frozen fruit without stalling, and the full-size processor bowl is what makes the food-processor half of the machine worth having rather than a novelty. On the Professional Plus you are paying for Auto-iQ instead of raw watts, which is a fair trade if you would rather press a button than watch a pitcher.
Where the Cuisinart money goes. Into the base and the warranty. The die-cast housing is genuinely nicer and it does not walk across the counter, and Cuisinart's standard three-year limited warranty is three times Ninja's cover. What you do not get is bowl capacity.
Running costs are almost nil, and that is the point of the format. No filters, no pods, no consumables. The real ongoing costs are storage space and replacement parts: pitchers, gaskets and blade assemblies all crack or wear eventually, and both brands sell them. Check availability before buying, because a $200 machine that cannot get a $20 gasket is landfill. The other hidden cost is dishwasher wear — running blade assemblies through a hot cycle repeatedly dulls them faster than hand washing, and dull blades are the usual reason a two-year-old blender seems to have lost power.
Which one fits you
- You want one machine to replace two appliances Ninja Mega Kitchen System BL770 The only machine here with both a genuinely full-size processor bowl and enough motor to crush ice without complaint.
- You would rather press a button than judge it Ninja Professional Plus BN801 Auto-iQ runs timed pulse-and-pause programs that produce more consistent smoothies and doughs than manual pulsing.
- Small kitchen, low cabinets, mostly blending Cuisinart Velocity Ultra Trio Shorter than either Ninja with a heavier base, and the chopper bowl covers salsa and herbs even if it will not do a batch of dough.
- Soups and sauces, no chopping Cuisinart Smart Stick CSB-75 Blends straight in the pot for a quarter of the price and stores in a drawer, which is the right answer more often than people admit.
If neither is right
- Oster Pro 1200 Blender with Food Processor Attachment A glass jar rather than plastic, which resists scratching and odor, plus a processor attachment and a smoothie cup. The pick if a plastic pitcher going cloudy is what bothers you about this whole category.
- Hamilton Beach Blender and Food Processor Combo The budget entry, with a glass jar and a 3-cup chopper attachment for well under the Cuisinart. Less motor and lighter build, but honestly rated by a large pool of owners for what it is.
- Ninja Professional Blender BN701-class If you are honest that you will never use the processor bowl, this is the blender half on its own, with a very large owner-rating pool and a much smaller footprint and price.
Which should you buy?
Buy the Ninja. In this specific category the brands are not evenly matched: Ninja builds several blender-and-processor systems and they sit at the top of the field on owner ratings, while Cuisinart lists a single combined machine with a fraction of the feedback and the least motor power here. The Mega System BL770 is the pick if you want the combo to genuinely replace a food processor; the Professional Plus BN801 is the pick if you would rather hit a preset. Buy Cuisinart in this space only if counter height is your constraint — or, more usefully, buy the Smart Stick and skip the format entirely if blending is all you actually do.
Why does Cuisinart, of all brands, lose a food processor argument?
Because Cuisinart's food processor expertise lives in its standalone processors, not in a combined machine. The brand essentially introduced the food processor to American kitchens and its dedicated models remain the reference. It has simply never treated the blender-processor hybrid as a serious product line, and the single combo it does list reflects that: a chopper-sized bowl attached to a blender base.
Ninja went the other way. Its kitchen systems were designed from the start around one motor base driving a large pitcher, a large bowl and single-serve cups, and the scale of the owner record shows how well that landed. If you want a Cuisinart food processor, buy a Cuisinart food processor. If you want one machine that does both jobs, Ninja is the brand that actually builds it.
How big does the processor bowl need to be?
This is the specification that decides whether a combo gets used or shoved in a cupboard. A chopper-sized bowl handles herbs, nuts, a small salsa and not much else — the moment you try to shred a block of cheese or make a batch of pastry, you are working in three loads and losing patience. A full-size bowl takes a whole onion, carrot and celery mirepoix in one go, or a real dough.
Both Ninjas ship a large bowl; the Cuisinart does not, and that single fact is the practical difference between the brands here. If you have never owned a food processor and are unsure which jobs are which, blender versus food processor sets out what each tool is actually good at before you spend anything.
Do the Auto-iQ presets actually help?
More than they sound like they should. A good smoothie is not made by running a motor continuously — it is made by pulsing to drop the frozen mass onto the blade, then running, then pausing. Auto-iQ does that pattern on a timer. Owners who move from manual Ninja systems to Auto-iQ ones consistently report smoother results with less intervention, and the Professional Plus carries the highest rating on this page.
The trade-off is control. Presets are fixed lengths; you can stop one early but you cannot extend it or dial it back. If you like standing over the machine and judging texture by eye, the Mega System's raw manual power is the better tool, and it has more of it.
What actually breaks?
Very rarely the motor. On both brands the failures owners describe are pitchers cracking at the base, gaskets perishing, and blades going dull, and all three are replaceable parts rather than reasons to buy a new machine. Ninja's stacked blade assembly is the most-criticized design element in this whole category — it works extremely well and it is genuinely unpleasant to wash by hand.
Warranty is one place Cuisinart is straightforwardly ahead. Cuisinart's standard cover on these machines runs three years against Ninja's one, and on a $200 appliance that is worth weighing. Leaks are the other common complaint across brands and are usually a gasket seated wrong rather than a fault — why blenders leak from the bottom covers the fix, and how to deep clean a blender covers the smell that follows.
How much space does a combo actually take?
More than the box photograph implies, and this is the most common regret in the category. A kitchen system is not one appliance on the counter — it is a motor base plus a 72-ounce pitcher, a large processor bowl, two single-serve cups with lids, and three separate blade assemblies. The base alone stands tall enough that both Ninjas need checking against the underside of a standard upper cabinet before you buy, because a machine you have to lift out and re-site every time is a machine you stop using.
The Cuisinart is the shorter of the two designs and fits under most upper cabinets with the jar in place, which is a genuine practical advantage in a small kitchen even though it loses on capability. Whichever you buy, plan where the accessories live before the box arrives — a cupboard shelf that takes the bowl, the cups and the blades together, ideally near the outlet the base will use. Storage friction is the real reason expensive kitchen appliances end up unused.
The bottom line
Ninja wins the blender-food processor combo comfortably, on motor power, on bowl capacity and on the sheer weight of owner evidence behind its kitchen systems. Take the Mega System BL770 for maximum capability, or the Professional Plus BN801 for the presets and the best rating in the group. The Cuisinart combo is a reasonable machine in a small kitchen and it carries a longer warranty, but it is a blender with a chopper attached rather than a true two-in-one. If that description matches what you actually need, save $100 and buy the Smart Stick.
For the wider field, see our blender food processor combo roundup, or the blender picks if the processor half is optional. Are expensive blenders worth it is worth reading before you spend more than this, and our Vitamix vs Cuisinart comparison covers the tier above. Our rankings come from aggregated owner ratings and expert consensus, never first-hand testing — see how we rank.