Buy the Best Serger for Your Money in 2025

Let me help you find the best serger machine no matter what your budget. I’m sure you want a serger (also known as an overlock machine) that will last you a long time and give you professional results with very little trouble. Let me help!

If you have already asked yourself the question ‘do I need a serger?‘ and the answer is yes, let’s find the right one for you.

Common and important features of serger machines include differential feed, color-coded thread guides, and small knives to trim excess fabric as it sews. Other features you may want to look for are bright LED lighting, cover stitch sewing, and automatic thread tension. A serger makes chain stitches and cannot sew backwards. It will not replace your traditional sewing machine, but it can perform other tasks to enhance and speed up your sewing projects – especially home decor and garment sewing!

You have many different serger brands to choose from, but in this post I have narrowed it down to my three favorite: Brother, Juki, and Baby Lock. All three of these companies offer great features like color coded threading, easy to use tension controls, fast seam finishing and rolled hems! You can’t go wrong with any one of these sergers so I suggest you consider your budget and which features are most important to you.

Brother offers the most affordable options for a new serger, while Juki has great options in the mid price range. Top of the line Babylock sergers are at the high end of most sewists’ budgets because they offer some really amazing features.

Brother Sergers

Brother Serger Models

Brother makes very good entry level sergers that are great for sewing professional-looking garments and finished seams. You can even find them on Amazon, which means you won’t have to go anywhere to have one delivered to your doorstep.

The most common stitch you will use your serger for is the overcast stitch that only requires 4 threads, or a rolled hem that requires 3. My sister has been using a Brother 1034D with four-thread capacity to sew clothes for her family for many years now. I’ve tried it out at her house and it easily sews knit fabrics, finishes curtain seams, and more!

You’ll need to expend some effort threading this machine, but there are color-coded guides to help you.

Pro tip: you don’t have to re-thread completely every time you want to change colors.  Just cut the old thread spool off at the top, leaving about 18-20” of extra thread. Then tie on the new color and pull the thread through from the front of the machine until the new color comes out. Make sure to tie the new thread securely so the knot doesn’t come undone. And speaking of the knot – it may not go through the eye of the needles, but you can cut off the old thread at that point and thread the needles manually.

Juki Sergers

Juki MO-1000

Juki sewing machine company is based in Japan and has been around since 1953. Their industrial and home sewing machines are known for their durability, reliability, and long service life. I love my Juki TL2010Q straight stitch sewing machine!

Before I bought my Baby Lock serger, I owned a Juki MO-1000. This machine is a gem. Looking back, I didn’t need to buy a Baby Lock serger. The Juki could already do everything I needed and wanted! This machine has amazing features at a reasonable price point.

I used my Juki serger to sew on lots of different fabrics, from fine knits to thick upholstery weight woven fabric. It sewed through them all without skipping a stitch.

My favorite feature by far is the air threading for the loopers. Air threading is a fancy way to say, “super fast and fun way to watch your thread shoot through the serger’s bottom and top loopers.” Once you have a serger with air threading, you won’t want to go back! There is also semi-automatic threading for the needles

One thing I really liked about my Juki serger is the fact that I could thread the needles and loopers in any order. Just like most sergers, it has color-coded guides for threading.

This machine has a beautiful stitch and very solid feel. It will stand up to heavy-duty use. Here’s my Juki serger review.

Baby Lock Sergers

Most people consider Baby Lock brand sergers to be the gold standard. If you have money to spend and you want the very best, you will want to try one out. Baby Lock was the first company to come out with Jet Air Threading, which is their trademarked name for the same air threading that the Juki machine above can also do. Baby Lock sergers can come with a semi-automatic threader for the needles.

Top of the line Baby Lock sergers have an amazing (and unique) selection of stitch types, letting your easily adjust stitch length and stitch width. They also have more advanced features such as fully automatic tension adjustment, up to 8 different threads at one time for lots of stitch options including coverstitching, and up to 5” to the right of the needles (at least that’s the biggest one as I write this!).

Some great Babylock sergers are available to buy online, while the most expensive ones are only available from a dealer. Some people love buying sewing machines from a dealer because of the classes and personal support. If you are interested, I suggest you visit your local Baby Lock dealer and ask for a demonstration. I purchased a used older model that was quite expensive when it first came out (the Evolution). It is a joy to sew with.

Just a note about overstitching: my Baby Lock Evolution is a combination machine that can be set up to do the same job as a coverstitch machine in addition to 3 and 4 thread serging. I bought a separate Janome coverstitch machine anyway because some clothing patterns (especially for knit fabrics) require switching back and forth between the two types of stitches and I didn’t like having to re-thread my serger to do cover stitching and then back to serging just to make a pair of leggings.

I hope this post has been informative and helped you find the perfect serger for your needs and budget.

Don’t miss my post about my 7 favorite sewing machines for all budgets too!

Happy Sewing,