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Many DIYers think they’re only as good as the tools and gear that they have, but it’s surprising how much you can actually get for the money these days. While enthusiast DIY gadgets can be found at Costco and other retailers, Amazon is still one of the best places to fill out your collection of tools without completely emptying your bank account. Of course, it depends on the types of projects you want to tackle — be it light remodeling, fixing old electronics, setting up a smart home, or something else entirely.

No matter your focus, there are a lot of baseline devices that every DIY-focused person should have, and we’re rounding them up here for no more than $75 a pop. You’ll find tools, camera accessories, smart home tech, and more. So roll up your sleeves, fire up your Amazon account, and get ready to build the DIYer’s budget-friendly starter kit.

If you’re looking for a screwdriver that’s a bit easier on your wrist, the Fanttik E2 Ultra is a lightweight option that makes for quick and easy work. This pen-shaped electric screwdriver takes the twisting and turning out of traditional precision screwdrivers, offering a powerful torque range in a sleek, thin little package. It costs $69.99 and has a 4.4-star rating with more than 750 satisfied users on Amazon.

The bundle comes with 50 magnetic bits, making it great for electronics tinkerers looking to dip their toes into repairing newer phones, like the iPhone 17 Pro, or computer enthusiasts who don’t want to risk losing tiny screws inside a PC chassis. Those bits include many of the common formats you’ll find inside electronics, so it’ll likely have you covered for nearly every job you throw at it. There’s a powerful 270-RPM motor that delivers an impressive amount of oomph to back up stubborn screws, and thanks to a sizable rechargeable battery, there’ll be many jobs’ worth of juice. It comes in a nifty little case and makes a great gift for any electronics lover.

If you’re a DIYer who wants your projects to go viral and keep all your followers in the loop, then a solid tripod is a must. Manfrotto is one of the industry’s top camera accessory brands, with a pedigree of camera expertise dating back to 1960. The Manfrotto Pixi is an elegant mini desk tripod that packs a ton of features in its small form factor. To start, it’s made in Italy with a combination of technopolymer and aluminum to deliver a lightweight build that’s resistant to wear.

The three flap-style legs flip out to deliver a table-mounted tripod experience, so it’s perfect for holding a camera steady on a flat surface while you mount a shelf or clean up some drywall, or whatever your DIY passion is. If you flip the legs closed, it’ll also serve as a solid grip for your trusty used DSLR camera, in case you want to take your vlog on the move. The quarter-inch threaded screw is standard and will accommodate most cameras and phone clamps, and the rotating ball head locks and unlocks with a nifty little button press. With a stellar 4.7-star Amazon rating from more than 22,000 reviewers, the $24.45 Manfrotto Pixi is really a no-brainer.

When Wyze entered the smart home scene several years ago, it did so with a focus on affordability. The original Wyze Wi-Fi camera wasn’t all that special, but it offered reliable footage of your home for a reasonable price. Now, Wyze constitutes a veritable empire of smart tech, and the camera lineup has come a long way. The Wyze Duo Cam Pan is the perfect option for a DIYer looking to outfit their home security setup themselves without spending an arm and a leg — and so do more than 300 Amazon customers, who gave it a 4.3-star rating.

The $69.98 Duo Cam Pan is a clever combination of Wyze’s standard V3 cam and its latest Pan camera, all in one device. The camera focuses on panning, actually moving mechanically around the room, allowing you to scan across the area you’re covering remotely from the Wyze app. The nifty part about this product is that even while panning, another camera is pointed at one stationary area. This means you can track the movement of something while keeping your primary field in view with a separate camera. 

It also offers many of the features that have made Wyze cams so popular, including IP65 water and dust-resistance, 2K resolution, reliable color night vision, and smart assistant compatibility. It’s the perfect way to DIY a security setup or keep an eye on your DIY shop while you’re away.

A DIY tool you may not have heard of is a USB cable tester. While an outlet tester or multimeter is a great choice for anyone working with electronics, many DIYers may already have one of these in their arsenal. However, if you work with mobile and smart devices, a USB cable tester is a must. This $49.99 Treedix USB Cable Tester features a beautiful 2.4-inch color screen that reads out a ton of information about the cables or chargers you’re plugging in.

This 4.5-star-rated device will note the USB-PD (Power Delivery) version, the peak wattage a cable can deliver, and more key stats. It will also offer a continuity check and data transmission reading to ensure your cable is delivering the transfer speeds you’d expect. It supports all the major connector types, including USB-C, Lightning, USB-A, and even USB Mini-B. It’s a great option to make sure that the cable, brick, or hub you’re using is actually delivering the required power to your device or gadget.

A rotary tool is sort of a Swiss Army Knife for a craft DIYer, just based on the sheer number of functions you can complete with this little tool in your hand. While there are a ton of different models and power levels, the budget-friendly choice is the $59.99 Dremel 3100 for its balance of power, affordability, and features. The kit comes with several popular bits for cutting, grinding, and smoothing, and a carrying case for those accessories. It’s also well-loved with 663 Amazon reviews and a 4.6-star rating.

So what can this little thing do? Thanks to its 1.2-amp variable-speed motor that delivers up to 35,000 RPMs, this rotary tool can tackle delicate finishing work on one project and high-speed cutting or molding on another one. Though this tool comes with a limited selection of bits and attachments, Dremel has a line of compatible accessories that’ll do everything from grinding down burs on hard materials, cutting pieces out of sheet metal, routing edges on wooden pieces, and more. It’s a DIYer’s dream for a surprisingly reasonable price.

As you may imagine, there’s no shortage of options for affordable gadgets to order from Amazon. So how exactly did we arrive at these options? First, we wanted to take a holistic approach, offering an arsenal of both tools and gadgets to outfit a variety of needs. In essence, this list should help everyone, from those who need a tech tool to do a simple job to people looking for a go-to workhorse that can run a whole project start to finish.

The quality of the gadgets we selected was also paramount. We started by ensuring that no option on this list costs more than $75, but each had to maintain an aggregate rating of at least 4 stars. We also culled reviews for keywords that focused on key use cases for the average DIYer — ensuring that real people consider these gadgets handy and easy to use, without a learning curve.