Best Paper Shredders for Home Use Under $100 (for 2019)
Secure shredders for shredding confidential documents at home
For home use it is recommended to get a cross-cut or micro-cut paper shredder for secure shredding of your confidential documents, such as personal tax documents, bank statements and paycheck stubs. Don’t just buy the cheapest home shredder you can find, because chances are high that this is an unreliable strip-cut shredder. These type of paper shredders produce long strips from your documents which are pretty easy to read, which is not recommended for sensitive documents with personal and privacy information.
Top 10 Paper Shredders for Home Use
Our Top Pick:
We recommend the AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High-Security. This silent and compact micro-cut shredder is a feature-packed device that does it all. It is secure, it can shred CDs and credit cards and has a high sheet capacity.
Top 10 Best Paper Shredders Around 100 Dollars
Updated for 2019
- High Security Micro-Cut – AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High-Security
- Heavy-Duty – AmazonBasics 15-Sheet Cross-Cut
- Basic & Budget-Friendly – AmazonBasics 6-Sheet Cross-Cut
- Basic & Affordable – AmazonBasics 6-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut
- High Security – Aurora AU870MA High-Security Shredder
- Basic Budget – AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut
- Compact and Easy To Use Shredder – Bonsaii C209-D 10-Sheets Cross-Cut
- Safe to Use – Fellowes Powershred 60Cs
- Shred Up To 12 Sheets – Bonsaii DocShred C156-D
- Safe & Security Level P-4 – Aurora AU820MA
So what is the best inexpensive paper shredder for home use? We have selected and reviewed ten shredders to use in your home or even your home office. With these shredding machines you can shred your documents into tiny (unreadable) particles. The selected home shredders are priced under or around 100 dollars and are recommended for one user. These paper shredders aren’t meant to be used by multiple users, because of the average run-time.
The shredders meet the following requirements:
- Users: 1-2 users (home / personal)
- Price range: $25 – $100
- Sheet capacity: 5 Sheets or more
- Bin capacity: 3 Gallons or more
- Security level: Cross-cut or Micro-cut (tiny particles)
More info? Read our Paper Shredder Buying Guide.
#1 | AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High-Security
Superb Micro-Cut Shredder with Lots of Features
Our #1 Best Seller
This shredder is quiet, solid and it runs smoothly
The compact AmazonBasics 12-Sheet High-Security is a micro-cut shredder that does it all. If you want a great shredder for personal use at home, then this is it. The paper shredder shreds your confidential documents silently into tiny DIN P-4 paper particles. Besides personal documents it also shreds your CDs, DVD disks and credit cards. The shredder shreds up to 12 pages per pass and it will run for 8 minutes continuously. The pullout bin has a capacity of 6.7 gallons.
- Security level: Cross-Cut
- Run time: 8 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 12 pages
- Bin capacity: 6.7 gallons
#2 | AmazonBasics 15-Sheet Cross-Cut
Heavy-Duty Shredder with Long Run-Time
Large bin and feed capacity, runs very smoothly and for a long time
The AmazonBasics 15-Sheet Cross-Cut is a shredder that is ready for some intensive shredding work. Fill this machine with up to 15 sheets per pass and it will run for a tremendous 20 minutes in one go, which is really impressive for its price. Most home shredders only last 5 minutes until the device needs to cool down. The shredder comes with extra protection for overheating and overloading, so you won’t experience a paper-jam with this device. Besides your personal documents you can also shred DVDs, CDs, credit cards, staples and small paper clips.
- Security level: Cross-cut
- Run time: 20 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 15 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#3 | AmazonBasics 6-Sheet Cross-Cut
Basic And Budget-Friendly Home Shredder
For occasional shredding this machine is perfect
The AmazonBasics 6-Sheet Cross-Cut is a basic paper shredder for home use. The cross-cut shredder can shred a maximum of 6 sheets of A4 paper per pass and it also shreds credit cards. It is important to know that this shredder isn’t meant for shredding lots of documents in one sitting, because the run-time is only 2 minutes. The cool down time is 30 minutes. The wastebasket for the paper particles is fairly small with 3.8 gallons. So overall this budget-friendly shredder is compact, easy to use and perfect for shredding just a few documents per day.
- Security level: Cross-Cut
- Run time: 2 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 6 pages
- Bin capacity: 3.8 gallons
#4 | AmazonBasics 6-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut
Basic & Affordable Micro-Cut Shredder
No-nonsense Shredder & Best Seller on Amazon.com
The AmazonBasics 6-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut is a basic micro-cut shredder from AmazonBasics. This budget-friendly shredder shreds up to 6 sheets of confidential documents per pass into small P-4 pieces. You can use this shredder continuously for 3 minutes, then the machine needs to cool down for 30 minutes. You can clear paper jams with the manual reverse functionality. This shredder is perfect for light-duty use with high security standards.
- Security level: Micro-Cut
- Run time: 3 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 6 pages
- Bin capacity: 4.1 gallons
#5 | Aurora AU870MA High-Security Shredder
High Security Thanks To Micro-Cut Cutting Blades
This is a good shredder for home-office use
The Aurora AU870MA High-Security Shredder is a micro-cut shredder which can shred 8 documents in one single pass. Besides shredding your sensitive home documents with personal information on it you can also shred old credit cards or other confidential plastic cards. The Aurora shredder has a 5 minute continuous run-time, this means you can shred for 5 minutes and then you need to let the paper shredding machine cool down. When a paper-jam occurs you can manually reverse the micro-cut blades to solve the jammed paper.
- Security level: P-4
- Run time: 5 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 8 pages
- Bin capacity: 3.9 gallons
- Official product page
#6 | AmazonBasics 8-Sheet Cross-Cut
Basic & Affordable Cross-Cut Shredder
No-nonsense Shredder & Best Seller on Amazon.com
The AmazonBasics 8 Sheet Cross-Cut is the perfect shredder if you just want to shred a document occasionally at home. This shredder can’t shred CDs, it only runs for 3 minutes continuously and it doesn’t come with all kinds of nifty features and sensors. But it does one thing great and that is shredding your documents in unreadable particles. And it does it for a very affordable price. Besides documents it also takes care of your credit cards. This shredder is the best basic budget shredder under $50.
- Security level: P-3
- Run time: 3 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 8 pages
- Bin capacity: 4.1 gallons
#7 | Bonsaii C209-D 10-Sheets Cross-Cut
Compact and Easy To Use Shredder
Quiet Shredder That Stands On Wheels
The Bonsaii C209-D 10-Sheets Cross-Cut is a quiet and compact desk-side paper shredder that shreds your personal documents, junk mail and credit cards. The bin has a relatively large capacity of 5.5 gallons and can hold the shreds of around 300 sheets of A4 paper. This shredder is great for home (office) use to shred financial documents and personal information. Empty the wastebasket conveniently with the handle design to remove the shredder part from the bin.
- Security level:P-3
- Run time: 4 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 10 pages
- Bin capacity: 5.5 gallons
#8 | Fellowes Powershred 60Cs
Safe to Use Paper Shredder for Home
Compact & Powerful Shredder that is Safe for the Fingers
The Fellowes Powershred 60Cs is a cross-cut shredder that is perfect for medium-duty shredding in your home office. The paper shredder with lift-off head can shred up to 10 sheets of paper per pass and can run for 6 minutes. Thanks to the SafeSense technology this shredder is safe to use because it stops shredding when hands or fingers touch the paper feed opening. Fellowes claims therefore that this shredder is ‘child and pet safe’. The Fellowes shredder is faster than most micro-cut shredders because it has a strong motor.
- Security level: P-3
- Run time: 6 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 10 pages
- Bin capacity: 6 gallons
#9 | Bonsaii DocShred C156-D 12-Sheet
Shred Up To 12 Sheets of Sensitive Documents
The wastebasket can hold 350 sheets of paper (A4)
The Bonsaii DocShred C156-D is a compact paper shredder for home use. This shredder shreds maximally 12 pages per pass into cross-cut paper particles. Besides your confidential documents it can also shred CDs, DVDs and credit cards. The handle at the top makes it easy to empty the wastebasket, which has a capacity of 5.5 gallons. Thanks to the window in the front you can see when the bin is full with shredded documents. You can shred up to 3-5 minutes, when overheated you need to let the shredder cool down for 40 minutes.
- Security level: P-3
- Run time: 3-5 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 12 pages
- Bin capacity: 5.5 gallons
#10 | Aurora AU820MA
Safe Home Office Shredder With Security Level P-4
Shred Personal Information, CDs and Credit Cards
The Aurora AU820MA offers high security and great safety features for the operator. With the ‘ShredSafe technology’ the shredder turns off automatically when the feed opening is forced. The small but powerful paper shredder shreds up to 8 sheets per pass and it can also shred small staples, CD’s and your old credit cards. The wastebasket has a window so you can see when the 4.8 gallons bin is full with micro-cut paper particles.
- Security level: P-4
- Run time: 5 minutes
- Sheet capacity: 8 pages
- Bin capacity: 4.8 gallons
Top 10 Paper Shredders for Home Use
Shred confidential documents with a Cross-Cut or Micro-Cut Shredder
Didn’t find the right shredder for home?
The top 10 list with paper shredders above contain reliable and secure shredders that we recommend for home or personal use. But there are a lot more types of paper shredders to choose from that are also great to use at your home, home office or in a larger office or other commercial environment. On Recycling.com you find multiple pages with recommend shredding machines that really suits your need.
Some recommended pages
- Small office shredders – Cross-cut and micro-cut shredders for commercial and professional use. These secure high-end shredders destroy confidential business documents into small particles.
- Heavy duty shredders – For high volume shredding it is recommended to use a shredder that is able to shred multiple documents per pass continuously.
- Cross-cut shredders – These type of shredders are able to destroy documents into small paper particles according to security level P-3 and P-4.
- Micro-cut shredders – These type of shredders are able to destroy documents in very small paper particles according to security level P-5 or higher.
- Compact sized shredders – Small and portable sized paper shredders that don’t require a lot of space and have a small footprint. These shredders are light and small so you can transport them easily.
- Paper shredding service -You can also hire a paper shredding company which can shred large volumes of documents for you.
For secure shredding we recommend a cross-cut or micro-cut shredding machine.
What type of shredder are you looking for?
Please note that some recommended paper shredders in our top 10 might be priced slightly over $100.00 because prices can change over time at Amazon. When you are looking for a shredder with a longer run-time, higher sheet capacity and or higher bin capacity we recommend to look for an office shredder or and heavy-duty shredder. These type of shredders will cost more but offer faster shredding speeds and overall better performance. So when you want to shred more documents than the average home shredder can handle, it is recommended to invest a bit more than $100.00 for your shredder. You can find more professional shredders for office use here.
Click on one of the paper shredder categories below to find more recommended shredders. Micro-cut paper shredders offer the highest security which results in very small paper particles after shredding.
Paper shredders with high security levels
The recommended shredders above all shred according to security levels DIN P-3, DIN P-4 or DIN P-5 (more about security levels). So these shredders are perfect to use for shredding confidential documents. The shredders are also small and compact so they won’t take up lots of floor space and thanks to their size you can fit them under your desk in your home office.
The shredding machines are meant for personal use at home. They are not recommended to use intensively in an office environment, because the run-time on these machines is fairly low. Besides that, the waste buckets have a relatively small capacity. They work best for incidental paper shredding.
Can’t you just get the most cheap paper shredder? Even if you use the shredder only a few times a month? We recommend to invest a little bit of money in your home shredder. Most cheap shredders are very slow, jam-up quickly, can only shred one or two sheets at a time and they ‘shred’ your paper in long strips instead of small particles. These long strips can still contain a lot of readable text, especially when you shred a document that is printed in landscape-mode. These so called ‘strip-cut’ shredders aren’t recommended for the destruction of confidential documents. But you can use a strip-cut paper shredder for non-confidential documents, such as junk mail.
A cross-cut or micro-cut shredder is a better option for home use to be sure that your documents will be shredded properly in small particles. The difference between these is that a micro-cut shredder will shred your documents in smaller particles than a cross-cut shredding machine. It is up to you how much security you prefer. But for home use a cross-cut shredder fulfills most peoples’ needs.
What to look out for when buying a shredder?
Sheet capacity, bin capacity, run time, security levels. It can be quite overwhelming when you’re browsing for paper shredders online. What to look for? How do you find the best shredder. To help you on your journey we’ve made a paper shredder buying guide. This guide explains every important detail of a paper shredder so you can decide which features are most important to you or your business.
Why should you shred?
It is important to shred documents with personal or sensitive information before you recycle it. This prevents the possibility of identity theft. So don’t just throw away your un-shredded sensitive paperwork into the recycling bin, because is a one of the places where identity thieves look for to obtain personal information.
Alway Shred before you Recycle
Pro tip: Maintain your shredder with oil
It is recommended to lubricate your shredder often with special paper shredder oil. This oil comes in a liquid form or in oil-sheets. The shredder oil makes sure the cutting blades of the shredder will run as smoothly as possible. Due to paper shredding a lot of dust gets stuck in between the blades, the oil will take care of it. We advise to oil your shredder every time you need to empty the bin of the shredder or after intensive usage of the shredder.
How to oil your paper shredder?
Step Up: Recycle, Reuse & Reduce
The three arrows of the recycling symbol represent the three main stages of the recycling process: recycling, reusing and reducing. Together the arrows form a closed loop. Step up and implement eco-friendly replacements in your daily life.
Join the movement! Step Up the waste hierarchy together to a goal of Zero Waste.
By Recycling.com/ 2 July 2019
Very Informative Article. Add one more name in the list of best paper shredders i.e. Goyum Shredder. We have gained valuable experience in our field; today, we are a Specialist Manufacturer and Exporter of industrial shredder, twin shaft industrial shredder, paper shredder, metal shredder, tire shredder, etc.
why do the shredders you suggested above have “run times”? I worked in an office and our shredder did not have “run times”. We would have garbage bags full of shredded records.
Dear Diane. Thank you for your comment. This list contains shredders for home or ‘home office’ use around 100 dollars. For this amount of money it isn’t possible to buy a paper shredder with continuous run-time. For these type of paper shredders you can look at our heavy-duty paper shredder page: https://www.recycling.com/heavy-duty-paper-shredder/