When my husband first saw me vacuuming with the Shark stick vacuum, he asked me dubiously, “Is that a Dyson?” The British company has become so synonymous with cordless stick vacuums that it just didn’t seem possible that we wouldn’t have one. It’s like buying the generic brand Q-Tips. Who does that? Even the Shark’s color scheme deliberately echoes Dyson’s.

I’ve been testing Shark’s latest cordless stick vacuum for a month in order to answer my husband’s, and also your, question: No, the Shark isn’t a Dyson. Overall, the engineering and attention to detail that makes the Dyson the best premium vacuum isn’t quite there. The display isn’t as nice. The build quality isn’t as solid. I do have to regularly unclog one section of the vacuum tube with a chopstick.

But does it keep my house sparkling clean? Does it have a bunch of things that most Dyson vacuums don’t? And does it have all the functionality that you need, and more, for a quarter of the price? Also yes. This vacuum is absolutely worth it—”it” being not very many dollars.

A Place to Land

As you can see, the Shark vacuum is comparable in dimensions to the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, which is the Dyson I currently have. The Shark is just a few inches shorter, but overall it takes up more space because it comes with a freestanding cleaning station. I loved this cleaning station. While every Dyson does come with a mount that you can easily screw into a wall, I’ve had a hard time finding just the right place in my house that’s also near a working electrical outlet.

If you’re not inclined to rewire your laundry room, a freestanding docking station makes it much easier to plug and go. It’s also a convenient place to store the extra vacuum accessories, like the different cleaning heads—the Shark comes with a crevice tool and a small pet multi-tool head for getting into hard-to-reach places.

I also particularly like that it has a 2-liter self-emptying bin in the base. One of the most inconvenient parts of the Dyson design is how you have to unlatch the tube to empty the bagless bin from the bottom. You have to stick your beautiful, premium vacuum in your filthy, possibly damp garbage bin and knock it around, getting it dirty and knocking dust and dog hair everywhere.