Kreg recently launched their own line of cordless power tools, and there’s no way to put it nicely – I felt the pricing was bad.
The new Kreg 20V cordless tools feature brushless motors, and the power and performance specs seem competitive. However, the pricing was relatively high, leading me to see the “Ionic Drive” platform as just another line of cordless power tools that was overpriced and unappealing.
Good news – this new tool deal fixes the pricing, at least temporarily. For a limited time and while supplies last, buy a Kreg 20V tool and get a FREE starter kit with Li-ion battery and charger!
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Let’s talk a little more about the pricing.
As an example, Kreg priced their cordless impact driver kit at $200. They can cross out $250 and say $200 reflects $50 savings, but that’s still not going to sell many tools.
If you do even a little bit of shopping around, you’d see that $200 isn’t a great buy for a DIY brand impact driver kit.
At the time of this posting, you can get Metabo HPT’s latest 18V brushless Triple Hammer impact driver kit with (2) batteries, charger, and hard case, for $149. That’s a very good premium offering by a pro-grade brand. So why buy the DIY-grade Kreg kit for $50 more? On top of that, the Kreg kit offers less value since it only has 1 battery.
Amazon also has a Dewalt 20V Max XR series brushless impact driver kit for just under $200 right now. What would you buy at the same price, Dewalt or Kreg?
While not as featured, Home Depot has a Milwaukee M18 brushless impact driver kit for $99. Yes, that’s a full kit with 2Ah battery, charger, and tool bag. What are you picking, a Milwaukee kit for $99, or Kreg for $200?
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Well, it looks like Kreg realized that they weren’t going to be able to sell their tools that were, at least in some cases, priced higher than you can buy Dewalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, Metabo HPT, or Flex brushless tools for.
It seems they learned this and made a very quick course correction.
Kreg cordless pocket hole machine? $299. And now it’s bundled with a free battery and charger.
Barrel-grip jig saw? $149. With battery and charger? Still just $149, for a limited time or while supplies last.
Kreg 20V Ionic Drive router? $149, and $0 extra for a battery and charger right now.
My mindset shifted. Kreg and their paid influencers kept hyping up what I see as average-looking cordless power tools at uncompetitive prices. I just didn’t see any appeal, except maybe in the pocket hole machine.
But now with this promo? It’s worth a serious look, as the value proposition has dramatically changed.
We don’t know how long this promo will last. We also don’t know how many battery and charger starter kits they’re willing to give away for free with every eligible bare tool purchase.
We also don’t know if the tools are any good. Kreg never sent us any press info and seemed to throw their full media and marketing efforts behind social media influencers and a viral advertising campaign.
But I can tell you that this deal changes how I see the Kreg 20V cordless system right now.
Maybe this was always in their plans, but I don’t think so. If this was always in their launch plans, they would have started off with an introductory offer that their paid influencers could have hyped with a sense of urgency.
Thus, I’m guessing that the first few weeks were a flop and this is the course correction they chose, at least temporarily.
I lost a lot of respect for Kreg, ever since they started selling what I saw as a cheap imported copy of another brand’s USA-made cabinetry jig. Their marketing hype and viral campaign surrounding the Kreg 20V Ionic Drive cordless system didn’t make me feel any better about the brand.
If I’m right about this deal being a reactive course correction, that’s pretty smart of Kreg and it raises my opinion of them just a little bit. If this was always in their plans, early adopters who bought into the system in its first few weeks are going to be feeling burned, and that would knock my sentiments about the brand down a couple more notches. But I don’t think that’s the case.
I think this is a temporary attempt to drive up sales and gain market share among woodworkers, and I also think it’ll work.
Hopefully it’s not temporary. I think this kind of deal pricing will be necessary if Kreg has any chance of long-term success with the new cordless line.
Tool Nut is the only Kreg retailer that I can find that is offering this deal, and I don’t know what the implication of that is.
Is Tool Nut a trustworthy retailer? I have been a Tool Nut customer for a very long time, and continue to trust them with my business.
There’s no end date to the promo, and it’s only at one the online retailer. Maybe it’s a limited experiment. All of that uncertainty creates a sense of urgency in my opinion.
I’m not going to advise you on what to do. But if I were looking to buy an eligible Kreg cordless power tool – such as the cordless pocket hole machine – I would try to make a quick decision or take my chance waiting,
Regarding the pocket hole machine, Acme Tools has the kit, with higher capacity battery, for $50 more at $349. It’s a lot of money either way, but I think I’d rather have the 2Ah battery starter kit and save the $50 for a second battery should I ever want one.
fred
Re Toolnut
Their bricks and mortar store was a place that we often shopped when we were working in the general area.
Since that time, I’ve bought from them online with no issues. They do have a loyalty points system (accumulate points to be used at threshold levels on future purchases) – but I find that rather modest and gimmicky.
Analyst
Agree with everything you say… I’ll add that the also promptly answer emails too.
While modest, the points do beat a sharp stick in the eye… They give you 5,000 points on you birthday each year which is a free $10 add-on bit or accessory when you order.
The weekly Friday specials sometimes contain some of the best pricing you can find too!
Nathan
What’s the other USA made pocket hole jig? Curious as I only really see kreg or castle. Thecastle being a completely different thing
Stuart
Wasn’t a pocket hole jig.
True Position: https://www.amazon.com/Original-Cabinet-Hardware-Jig-Tool/dp/B003E46SVO/?tag=toolguyd-20
Kreg: https://www.amazon.com/Kreg-KHI-XLPULL-Cabinet-Hardware-Jig/dp/B0CPTHH4VF/?tag=toolguyd-20
fred
Our cabinet installers were big fans of the True Position jigs – including ones they made for puck lights:
https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Light-Forstner-Only-Case/dp/B016FKD2VM
They used to come in a fitted cardboard box – equipped with a carry handle. But now – befitting their price point – they’ve upgraded to a plastic case.
Nathan
Meanwhile like toolnut also but of the kreg stuff I wouldn’t buy any of their cordless stuff even the pocket hole thing. It has a corded counterpart and I’d probably get that but I don’t know
Robert
Kreg was at the Wood Working In America show at Des Moines 10-11 October. The only power tool company there. They had show discounts of $50 or $100 on most power tools, bringing them down to the “new” prices you highlight here. They asserted the Kreg power tools were construction site level, comparable to the big two. Got to handle some, and the tools felt solid, but some ergonomics seemed lightly inferior, for example the trim router, the depth adjustment was rough. Buying into another battery system just isn’t appealing unless their tool is revolutionary, and that was not my evaluation.
Stuart
There are only a handful of companies that can build power tools comparable to “the big two,” and there’s no sign any of them partnered with Kreg on this.
Mike
Even if their pricing is the same as Big Red or Big Yellow who would anybody buy any of this over Milwaukee or DeWalt. The pocket hole thing is the only tool there I see that’s unique to them. Seems to me they either have to make a bunch of stuff nobody else does or they need to undercut the big players for this to be appealing to anybody.
Jared
That’s where my mind was as well. The tools still don’t look like premium offerings – though I get the appeal of the pocket hole tool if that’s something you need. They look like adequate tools, but aside from the one example, perfectly ordinary.
Including a battery and charger as a course correction is a good move… but I also think consumer reaction was entirely predictable. Comments in previous Toolguyd threads were pretty telling.
MM
I agree with you both. Given that Kreg is the new guy with a tiny platform they need some compelling reason why someone would pick them over nearly anyone else. These aren’t premium tools. I’m sure they aren’t junk but they feel more like Skil or Ryobi tier and should be priced accordingly.
Stuart
Price-wise, they were up against Dewalt and Milwaukee. With this promo, just going by on-paper specs, they’re beating Craftsman, Skil, Ryobi. The problem is that Kreg is a DIY brand that priced themselves at Pro levels.
As far as consumer reaction being predictable, yes and no. Years ago Harbor Freight tried the a la carte approach with Hercules, and I knew this was a mistake. For large swaths of the year, brands like Dewalt, Milwaukee, Bosch, and Metabo HPT were beating their drill and impact driver on price. At some point HF relaunched drill and impact driver kits, and they priced them competitively.
Sometimes you just have to see how things go. Predictions aren’t guarantees.
I think that Kreg was mistakenly convinced that heavy investment in influencer marketing would drive sales. Influencer and social media hype can open the door, but nobody is going to walk through if the prices suck.
BobH
I am getting tired of “influencers” promoting new products in such a blatant way. They are no longer influencing me. The new SawStop fence is a good example.
Some of them have (had?) reasonable content, but this is now so blatant it is easy to avoid.
CMF
With any tool platform, for the company and even the consumer, is the first “gateway” item bought. That gives the customer incentive to get other items.
When your article months back showed this new platform, I thought it all hinged on the pocket hole machine. Otherwise, who would buy a Kreg cordless drill or jigsaw when the aren’t unique or great deals, or have more power, features…or any reason to buy them over all the competition.
When I was selling I.T., HP would sell 512 sticks of upgrade memory for their printers for $500, when you could by Kingston or any other for $25-$50. Corporate companies that have 1000+ users would bite because they had HP Service contracts and wanted HP branded memory.
In Kreg’s case, I see no compelling reason to pay as much or more than Dewalt and Milwaukee for impacts, drills and saws. Their whole lineup is limited.
The pocket hole machine is all they have to get people in. They shouldn’t be greedy. Just price where all the tools make people want to buy it because it appears as a value. Because even then, there are so many brands and so many deals out there.
Price accordingly and have the pocket hole jig be what gets people in. And do it fast as there will be a multitude of copies in the near future that will take whatever market they had a shot at.
Doresoom
They do have it patented, but all the independent claims include a “grip layer” in them. So eliminate that and anyone could rip off their design. The work around design would instead need a way of clamping to the workpiece though, so the Kreg version would be easier to use.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20250050430A1/en
Doresoom
Never mind, found the patent filing that doesn’t require the grip layer: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20230256522A1/en
fred
If some other manufactured could add features to make it more functional than the original they might lose their edge. Once the Lamello biscuit jointer went off patent – there were lots of copies – some like Porter Cable added for different size biscuits. Others were cheap – but perhaps less precise (sloppier slots). The same sort of thing happened with the OMT – when the Fein patents ran out. And now folks are waiting on Festool’s domino machine to eventually get copied once patents expire. Kreg may be able to keep up by adding features to newer models. Lamello’s Zeta P2 system adds connection possibilities not possible with ordinary biscuit joinery. So maybe a 2nd generation portable pocket hole machine might allow you to create the pocket and then drive the screw – like the top end Castle machine. Or – how about a machine that can create side-by-side pockets as well a single ones.