Best Corded Jigsaws of 2026

The detail that settled this pick is a small lever at the front of the shoe. Push it and the blade drops out — no wrench, no touching hot steel, no fishing around with a screwdriver. We change blades constantly as a project moves between wood, laminate and a bit of trim, and the JS470E is the saw here that turns that into a two-second pause instead of a chore.

Seven amps and 3,100 strokes per minute put it at the top of this group for power, and the four orbital settings let you spend that power the way the cut needs it: a smooth stroke for a finish edge, an aggressive one for hogging out a rough opening. The die-cast foot with its steel insert is the most solid base here, and once you set a bevel it stays set.

Control is what we kept noticing. The top handle is soft where your palm lands, the dial sets a ceiling and the trigger feathers below it, and the saw tracks a pencil line through a curve without the sideways fight you get from lighter tools. Cutting a sink opening in 3/4-inch plywood, it needed one pass and very little cleanup.

It is not a small saw, and the mass is noticeable when you work above your shoulders — the trade for a base that sits flat and stays flat. The bevel wrench lives on board, the blade lever sits where your thumb expects it, and the whole thing feels designed rather than assembled.

Six amps, four orbital stages and a no-wrench blade clamp for less than most of the saws here ask — and the halo light and switchable dust blower make it the better buy. We did not expect a wrapping LED on a saw at this position in the group, and it turns out to be the feature you miss when you go back to one without it.

The light rings the blade rather than pointing at the front of the shoe, so it lights the line from both sides and your own shadow doesn't fall across it. The blower has its own switch, which is the right call: you want air clearing the line when you're freehanding a curve, and you want it off when you're following a scribed pencil line on finished stock. Four orbital stages cover the same range as the far more expensive saws here.

Speed control is the compromise. A wheel sets a maximum, but the trigger doesn't feather below it — the saw runs at the setting you dialed and that's that. Along a line it makes no difference; for plunging into the middle of a laminate plank, set the wheel slow before you start. Planning one step ahead is a small tax on a saw this capable.

Take the top-handle Bosch, move the grip down around the motor housing, and you get this. Same seven amps, same 3,100 strokes, same blade lever — the difference is entirely in where your hand sits and what that does to the saw.

The barrel grip is the reason to buy it. Your hand wraps the body in line with the blade, so the saw pivots around the cut instead of above it, and a tight radius becomes a steer rather than a shove. Working a curve in one-inch stock, we could feel the shoe staying flat and the blade staying on the line without leaning on the tool.

There is a trade: no handle to bear down on. A top handle lets you put your weight into a fast, aggressive cut, and the barrel grip makes you supply that from your arm and shoulder instead. With the work clamped on a bench, that is a fair exchange for the control. Cutting overhead or one-handed in a corner, reach for the top-handle version.

Halfway through a run of flooring cuts, most saws here have you gripping harder than you need to. The Makita doesn't. Its counterbalance system takes the shake out of the stroke, and the difference shows up in your hands before it shows up on the cut line.

6.5 amps and a 500-3,100 SPM dial give you plenty of room, and pinning a speed rather than holding a trigger makes a long repeated cut more consistent. Three orbital settings plus straight cutting, and a shoe that bevels to 45 degrees without a tool, cover what woodworking asks for.

The through-the-body dust port is the feature we expected to be filler and now rate highly. It takes a vacuum hose at the back, so the line stays visible and the dust leaves the bench instead of being blown into a pile two feet to the left. The saw also ships in a hard case with a blade and a wrench, which is more than most here give you.

Where it earns its place in this group is endurance work: window trim, shelving, a whole floor. A smooth-running saw is the one you keep picking up at hour three, and the case means the blades and the wrench are still with it when you do.

At 4.4 pounds, this is the saw you can hold steady with one hand while the other positions a board. That matters more for a first jigsaw than the amp rating on the box, because most beginner mistakes come from losing control of the tool rather than running out of power.

4.5 amps and up to 3,000 SPM will take 3/4-inch plywood, laminate planks, and the notching and trimming household repairs ask for. Blades change without a tool, the shoe bevels to 45 degrees, and a wire guard at the front lets you see the line without leaning over the blade.

The ceiling is real: feed it wet pressure-treated 2x6 or a long run of hardwood and the motor lets you know it's working. For trellises, shelving, trim and the occasional outlet cutout, that ceiling never comes up. It is also the saw in this group we hand to someone who has never used a jigsaw before, because nothing about it is intimidating.

A lock-on button doesn't sound like much until you've held a trigger through fifty feet of shelving. The PCE345 has one, paired with a seven-position speed dial built into the trigger, and together they make it the most comfortable saw here for doing the same cut over and over.

The numbers back it up: 6 amps, a 3,200 SPM top speed that is the highest in this group, four orbital settings, and a three-year limited warranty that is the longest any saw here carries. The housing is metal rather than plastic, and it feels like a saw that expects to be used rather than admired.

Check the shoe before your first cut. It doesn't always sit square to the blade out of the box, and on joinery or a countertop cutout where 90 degrees actually matters, that is the difference between a clean fit and a gap you have to fill. Square the blade against the shoe and adjust it before you start, and the rest of the saw behaves.

Buy a pack of U-shank blades for a T-shank-only saw and you've bought scrapers. The CMES610 takes both shank types, which is the kind of flexibility you appreciate most on the day the hardware store is out of one kind.

Five amps, 0-3,000 SPM on the trigger and four orbital settings put it mid-pack on paper. What you notice in use is the contoured over-molded handle and the tool-free blade change — no wrench to lose, no fiddling to get a blade seated square.

The 5-amp motor is the honest limit. It is enough for plywood, laminate and countertop stock at a sensible feed rate, and it tells you when you're pushing a thick hardwood cut faster than it wants to go. That isn't a fault so much as the difference between this and the seven-amp saws here.

Where it earns its spot is flexibility at a middle price: one saw that takes whatever blade is in the drawer, changes it without a tool, and has the orbital range to go from rough cut to finish cut. If your blade supply is a mixed drawer, that is worth more than a little extra amperage.

Long straight cuts are where the DW317K asks the most of you. The blade has room to drift in thick plywood, and the saw rewards a slow, deliberate feed — run it hard and the line goes where the blade wants rather than where you pointed it.

Everything around that is DEWALT workmanship: 5.5 amps, 0-3,100 SPM, four orbital positions, an all-metal gear case, and a keyless lever clamp that swaps blades without a wrench. It ships with a bag, which keeps the shoe from getting knocked about in a truck bed.

For notching studs, cutting outlet boxes into plywood and trimming shelves, it is an unglamorous tool that does exactly what a jigsaw is for, and the metal gear case suggests it will keep doing it.

What we take away is that this is a saw that asks for patience on the cuts that show. Short, curved and stopped cuts — most of what a jigsaw is bought for — suit it fine. On a long visible straight run, take your time or buy one of the saws above.