Replacing your kitchen faucet is hands down the fastest, easiest, and least expensive way to dramatically improve the appearance and functionality of your kitchen. It’s a project that even novice DIYers can pull off in anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so, and with so many kitchen faucets out there, a simple swap can mean a big change in style. Maybe more importantly, replacing an older or corroded faucet goes a long way towards cleaning up and even updating the look and feel of your kitchen. The best part? How much you want to spend depends entirely on you: what functionality you want, what style you want, and how important it is for you to shop a major brand name.

Cascada Kitchen Faucet From Ruvati

Bare bones, pure functionality, no-frills kitchen faucets can cost less than fifty bucks, and if your existing faucet is in particularly bad shape, even a very plain-jane fixture can dramatically improve the appearance of your kitchen. This simple, sleek Cascada faucet from Ruvati is a great choice, because it’s inexpensive (only $90!) and minimal, but also stylish. It’s no out of date, old fashioned faucet, it’s lovely and unobtrusive, perfectly suited for a modern kitchen, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t look out of place in most kitchens.

Valence Couture Kitchen Faucet From Herbeau

When kitchen faucets start getting expensive is when you either want one that has more design to it, or one that has more integrated functionality, though oddly enough it’s the former that will often cost you more. Herbeau is famous for their authentic artisan faucets, made from the same casts and using traditional methods and materials used for more than a hundred years in the Provence region of France. For a French country kitchen, you can’t get much more authentic than this Valence faucet, but it’ll also put the project in a much bigger budget bracket.

Artisan Satin Nickel Kitchen Faucet

That said, there are a lot of people out there making kitchen faucets, and almost any design you fall in love with you can probably find something similar (if not necessarily exactly the same)  from another brand for a very different price. This Satin Nickel Faucet from Artisan has a similar French countryside inspirations and design, but will set you back about a third what the one from Herbeau would.

Delta Touch2o Single Handle Faucet

Where things start to get a little tricky is when you’re looking for the most technologically up to date faucets out there. Take the Touch2o faucets from Delta. You can turn them on and off with just a touch of any bit of bare skin, reducing the potential for cross contamination (or just mucking up your faucet), no matter how dirty your hands happen to be. No other brand has anything like it yet, so if you want the tech, there isn’t always a whole lot of room to shop around. Thankfully, though, at least the Touch2o faucets, like this Diamond Valve, are usually pretty reasonably priced, and often also come with integrated pull-down spray nozzles for added functionality.

Double Faucet With Pull Down Spray From Vigo Industries

That said, most add-ons – like the aforementioned pull down sprayer, or a flexible Iron Chef style neck that can be easily grabbed or moved to rinse a sink or cool down a pressure cooker, are available from at least a few different manufacturers in a variety of styles (and for different prices). Vigo alone carries several variations on flexible-neck pull-down kitchen faucets like this Double Faucet version, ranging from the mid $100s to no more than about $300, all with a sleek chrome finish and a professional culinary style design.

Single Handle Pull Out Kitchen Faucet From AmeriSink

Standard pull-out kitchen faucets, too, are starting to become ubiquitous in the market, and when you shop less well known brands like AmeriSink, they can be a whole lot less expensive. This Single Handle Faucet is simple, stylish, and with a slightly modern bent, but it’ll cost you about half what you’d pay for a similar faucet from a bigger designer brand.

Modern Pull Out Kitchen Sink Faucet From Dawn

Same goes for this geometric, modern Pull Out Faucet from Dawn – it’s a minimal, ultramodern design that will work perfectly with a modern kitchen update, but that’s ultimately pretty no-frills (except for the pull down capability) and won’t set you back too bad.

Karbon Articulated Kitchen Faucet From Kohler

Ultimately, though, what you’re going to pay the most for are kitchen faucets that don’t look like your neighbor’s. If you want a faucet that’s unique, you’re going to be looking at high end designer pieces like this industrial-inspired fully-articulated Karbon faucet from Kohler. It doesn’t add any functionality that some of the simpler flexible neck or pull down faucets above would, but it’ll certainly help you pass up the Joneses. It’s designer fixture made for a high-end modern kitchen, you really are paying more to stand out.

So with so many faucets to choose from, how do you pick the right one for your needs?

• Set a Budget. Decide how much you want to spend on a faucet and try to stick to it.
• Shop Discount brands like Price Pfister or Moen, whose faucets are reliable but almost always less expensive.
• Shop Around. Don’t stop when you’ve found a faucet you like in your budget – see if you can beat the price!
• Shop Online (but be aware of size). You’ll almost always get a better deal on kitchen faucets online than anywhere else, especially on newer models. Just be aware that it can be a little tough to know scale from a picture, so don’t accidentally buy a too-small faucet because it’s priced lower because it’s smaller.

What are you looking for in your ideal kitchen faucet? Having trouble finding your dream faucet? Your dream price? Let me know in the comments!