Set up in an hour, not a weekend
Walk the mower round your edges with the app, drop the charging station by a socket, and you are more or less done. Redrawing a flower bed no longer means re-laying cable.
Wire-free robot mowers, compared calmly
A tidy lawn,
without the
boundary wire
Most robot mower advice assumes a big, flat, rectangular lawn in full sun. Real gardens are small, sloping, shady and full of corners. We compare the wire-free mowers built for gardens like yours — satellite, LiDAR and camera models side by side, from the manufacturers' own figures.
Honest from the off: we compare specifications and published data, not hands-on tests. Here's exactly how we do it.
Not sure where to start?
Let the garden choose the mower
Six questions about your plot — its size, its slopes, its shady corners — and the Mower Finder matches you to the wire-free model whose specifications fit it best, with the reasoning shown and any shortcoming named. A minute, no email address, nothing leaves your browser.
Try the Mower Finder →Why go wire-free?
The boundary wire was always the worst part of owning a robot mower: an afternoon on your knees pegging out cable, and a repair job every time a spade found it. Wire-free models find their way by satellite, laser or camera instead. Three things follow from that.
Neater edges, tidier patterns
Because these mowers know where they are — rather than bumping about at random — many mow in orderly stripes and cope far better with narrow passages and odd corners.
The garden can change
New patio, new raised bed, a trampoline that migrates with the sun: adjust the map on your phone. Try doing that with 150 metres of buried wire.
Three to start with
See the full wire-free guide →If you read nothing else: the sensible all-rounder for small lawns, the climber for banks, and the clever one for shady gardens where satellites struggle.
Best for most small yards
Navimow i Series (i105N / i110N)
Segway
- Finds its way by
- Satellite (RTK) positioning with a camera to help it see
- Typical price
- $999–$1,299
Small, fairly open gardens up to about a quarter of an acre.
Check price
Best for slopes
LUBA 2 AWD
Mammotion
- Finds its way by
- Satellite (RTK) positioning plus cameras, with all-wheel drive
- Typical price
- $2,599–$4,499
Slopes, bumps and bigger or rougher ground.
Check price
Best under trees
Neomow X
Hookii
- Finds its way by
- 3D LiDAR and cameras — it maps with lasers, not satellites
- Typical price
- $1,999–$2,799
Gardens where satellite signals are patchy — shade, trees, tall fences.
Check priceSmall garden? Awkward garden? Good.
A small lawn is not a lesser lawn — it is simply the size most of us actually have. The trick is matching the mower to the plot: satellite models want open sky, LiDAR models shrug off shade, and camera models ask for the least installation of all. Our small-yards guide works through the sums garden by garden.
Slopes deserve respect, too. A mower rated for gentle inclines will sulk on a proper bank, and no specification yet written can repeal gravity. We flag the honest slope rating of every model we list — including the one machine here that climbs like a goat.
Best robot lawn mowers for small yards
The US flagship guide: five wire-free mowers compared for lawns under half an acre, with a full spec table.
Read the guide →
Best wire-free robot lawn mowers
Satellite, LiDAR or camera? The three ways of ditching the wire, explained in plain English, with picks for each.
Read the guide →
Best for small gardens — UK edition
The same careful comparison for British gardens: £ prices, UK models and the realities of shade and damp.
Read the guide →