With the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal-dash in the past and holiday deals still lingering, we’re in the thick of holiday shopping season, and while you may have purchased your big-ticket tech items, stocking stuffers in particular are pretty tough gifts to brainstorm and find. You don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on something super expensive, but you also don’t want to gift something that’ll break in two months or that the other person won’t like.
Well, we’re here to help. Here are a collection of stocking stuffers that cost $30 or less.
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These also make great gifts for secret Santa or less expensive gifts for acquaintances or extended family members. We’ve even included a fun ‘gag gift’ that’s sure to make the party laugh.
Best tech gifts under $30
Tile Mate (2022)
1. Best overall gift under $30
A small gift that goes a long way
$18 $25 Save $7
The Tile Mate is a unviersally helpful an inexpensive gift that can help you find anything from your wallet to your car keys.
- Works with iOS and Android, making it good for anyone
- Connect it to keys, bags, wallets, or whatever else you want
- Range of up to 250 feet
- Ecosystem-specific items, like Apple AirTags, have more features
- Crowd sourced device finding isn’t great in rural areas
The Tile Mate is an excellent gift for under $30, and one of our top pucks for the best Bluetooth trackers you can buy. They run for $24.99 even when they’re not on sale and are some of the most universally useful pieces of tech you can buy. You attach it to essentially anything, including a luggage bag, keychain, or you can even stuff it in a purse. From there, you can use your phone to find the item if you lose it. It also works in reverse, and you can use a Tile Mate to find your smartphone if you lose it too.
Pocket-lint
It works with both Android and iOS devices as well. In addition, it has smart home support for Google, Apple, and Amazon. That means you can get one of these for basically anyone, and they can make use of it. There is also a network for Tile users where your item can be found by a nearby Tile user, even if it’s outside its 250-foot range from your smartphone.
Anker Portable Charger
2. Best gift under $30 for charging phones
A charge for anyone and everyone
The Anker 10K Portable Charger includes a 10,000mAh cell that can charge almost any smartphone up to two times. It also comes in white or black.
- It includes a 10,000mAh cell that can charge most phones twice
- Includes both USB-A and USB-C ports for good compatibility
- Works with iPhone, Android, and other devices like Kindle
- Maximum of 12W charging power, which is a little slow
- Best for purses and backpacks.
Anker’s 10K Portable Charger is another low cost gift that is useful for just about anyone. Portable batteries are excellent for when you need power in a pinch and don’t have a nearby outlet. This one from Anker includes both USB-C and USB-A ports, so it’s compatible with most charging cables out of the box. It comes with a 10,000mAh cell, which is capable of charging an iPhone 15 Pro Max from 0 to 100% twice on a full charge.
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It’s not the most incredible charger in the world. If you spend over the $30 allotment, you can find stuff like MagSafe chargers for iOS devices and chargers with much larger cells. However, we’re not shopping for super expensive stuff. This battery pack is from a good brand and is good enough to carry in a backpack or purse for those emergency top-offs.
iFixit Moray Driver Kit
3. Best gift under $30 for DIYers
iFixit kits are high quality at a low price
The iFixit Moray Driver Kit is a great, cheap gift for DIYers. You can use this to build a PC, fix a controller, or tinker with any number of other things.
- Comes with enough drivers to assemble and disassemble many items
- Screwdriver comes with a rotating bottom for easy screwing in a tight space
- Magnetic connections decrease wear over time
- iFitix sells larger kits for just over $30 with way more bits
- We wish the bits were also magnetized
The iFixit Moray Driver Kit is a great gift for DIYers. It comes with 32-bits, including almost all the ones you need to fix electronics and build a PC. You get the typical stuff like Phillips and flathead screwdriver bits, which is expected. However, we appreciate the inclusion of many specialized bits, like a Torx Security bit, which is needed for disassembling console controllers. In essence, you have what you need to fix most things.
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The difficult part with this as a gift is that there are plenty of options. The slightly larger Mahi Driver Kit is $40 while the Mako Driver Kit is $50. The step-up is almost always worth it. In terms of overall quality, these are pretty good. I own the Mako kit personally that I used to build my PC just a few months ago. The only real gripe I had is that I wish the bits were also magnetic. However, they do grip rather well, so it’s not the worst thing. Every iFixit kit comes with a limited lifetime warranty as well.
Xbox Gift Card
4. Best gift under $30 for gamers
Great for games, in-game purchases, and DLC
$18 $20 Save $2
New games are super expensive, so they don’t make for great stocking stuffers. Gift cards, on the other hand, can be used for a variety of things and are, in fact, great stocking stuffers.
- Gives the recipient plenty of options to choose what they want
- Gift cards are available everywhere and for all platforms
- You can usually choose how much you want to add
- A bit impersonal
- Might be challenging to figure out which gift card to buy
Gift cards are indeed rather impersonal. However, they’re universally useful, and you can find a gift card for anything. If you give someone a $20 gift card for Xbox, they can spend it on games, in-game purchases, DLC, media, or even purchase Xbox Gold or Xbox GamePass. You can find gift cards for any gaming platform fairly easily on sites like Amazon. Additionally, there are game-specific gift cards, like V-Bucks gift cards for Fortnite. A game-specific gift card may be a tad more personal.
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The only real downside to a gift card is that, for this budget, it’s almost impossible to get one that’ll buy a recently released AAA game. Fortunately, a lot of gamers are into indie stuff which goes for far less. Last Christmas, my brother gave me a $20 gift card to Steam and I used it to buy Phasmophobia, a horror game that I’ve since dumped a couple of hundred hours into with my wife. Not a bad end experience for a gift card.
Kafri RGB Headphone Stand
5. Best accessory gift for exactly $30
As useful as it is good-looking
Headphone stands are a dime a dozen. However, the Kafri RGB Headphone Stand adds two outlets, three USB charging ports, and an RGB strip along the base.
- Two outlets and three USB ports give you plenty of extra functionality
- RGB strip along the base is nice without being too much
- It does, in fact, hold headphones
- There are sleeker headphone stands out there
- RGB isn’t very customizable
This is another nice gift idea, especially for the gamers or work from home people in your life. The Kafri RGB headphone stand indeed holds headphones as its name suggests. However, it also includes two electrical outlets, two USB-A ports, and a USB-C port that you can use to charge devices. This alleviates your power strip, PC, or other power management from having to do it. We also like that the RGB strip adds some ambiance without being too loud.
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The only real downside to these is that you can’t control the RGB that much. There is a button on the front that cycles through colors and a generic RGB rainbow option. However, that also works in its favor since it’s there to add a bit of decoration and not there to be a focal point of a desk setup. While exactly the $30 price limit, we think this is a steal and worth every penny.
Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite
6. Best gift under $30 for streaming
Watch whatever you want for the most part
$18 $30 Save $12
An inexpensive streaming stick that grants you access to your favorite streaming services along with a few extras.
- Not a bad price for a streaming stick and a remote to go with it
- Comes with access to a number of free, ad-supported streaming services
- Watch the premium streaming services like Netflix
- More expensive streaming sticks may perform better
- Doesn’t include high-end Amazon features like picture-in-picture
The Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite is just what the doctor ordered for inexpensive streaming sticks. It comes with the basics of any Amazon Fire TV Stick, including access to free, ad-supported TV streaming like Tubi, Freevee, Pluto TV, and others. Of course, you can get the big names like Netflix, Hulu, and others here as well. It works great as an introduction to streaming sticks, especially for gift recipients who don’t want to make the leap without a little nudge.
This is Amazon’s least expensive option, which means there are some things you won’t get. That includes Amazon’s picture-in-picture mode, Fire TV Ambient Experience, and the option to connect and control your other HDMI devices like game consoles. That’s okay, though, because this is designed for folks who would want to keep it simple anyway.
Ocoopa 2in1 Magnetic Rechargeable Hand Warmers
7. Best $30 gadget to keep you warm
Keep your hands warm in a modern way
If you experience cold weather, hand warmers are a delight – so a modern take on the hand warmer is a decent gift idea. The Ocoopa Magnetic Hand Warmers recharge for multiple uses, come in a pair to warm both hands, and come in five colors.
- Three heat settings
- Can be stored together since they can attach to each other via magnets
- Rechargeable, so they should last a few winters at least
- Only warms on one side
- Adds yet another thing to the growing list of devices to recharge
Hand warmers have grown a lot in the last decade or so. The Ocoopa Magnetic Hand Warmers is a good example. It’s a fairly simple rechargeable hand warmer that should last several hours between charges. The warmers come with three heat settings, and the highest setting does get quite warm. There are also magnets to affix these to each other for each storage and transport, or if you just want a larger hand warmer.
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They also come in five colors, so you can match your gift recipient with a color they like.
There aren’t a lot of downsides for a product like this. The magnetic side doesn’t get hot at all, which is by design. That means if you want something to grip with your whole hand, this won’t necessarily do the trick. Also, it’s yet another thing to plug into the wall socket and some folks may not like that. Otherwise, it’s a good budget gift idea.
OnefunTech Big USB Enter Key
8. Best gag gift under $30
No, really, you’re supposed to punch it
Why does every gift have to be pure function? This stress relief half-pillow half-stress relief enter key always there if you need to punch something.
- It does exactly what it promises
- This is a second generation product to make it more punchable
- Functions as a pillow if you need to nap in the office
- Not everybody likes punching things
Long gone are the days when we would slam phones down to hang up on people. However, screaming angrily into a pillow is still totally en vogue, so here’s a tech pillow for your next caterwaul. That’s where a gift like this one comes in. It’s essentially a pillow that sits on your desktop that you can punch at your leisure. Doing so while it’s connected to your PC is the same as pressing the Enter key, so it’s a stress-relieving way to end a very angry message. It’s also soft enough to be a pillow, although only just so, so it’s useful for short naps.
Perhaps the best part of this product comes from the Amazon description. The company actually made a prior version of this where the chip inside that registered button presses was too thin and would break when punched. This newer version comes with a thicker chip that is more impact-resistant. That’s some good customer service, right there. It’s not indestructible, though, so take that into consideration.
Best gifts for $30 or under: Which is the best gift to buy this holiday season?
There are so many gift ideas for under $30 that it boggles the mind. That said, a lot of them are not quality items that you can use every day or even once in a while. Thus, we wanted to populate this list with tech that someone might actually want and use. A Tile tracker finds your keys when you lose them, which is universally helpful.
Tile Mate (2022)
Editor’s Choice
How many people put their wireless headsets on their desk when they’re done gaming? Boom, headphone stand. Even the hand warmers are rechargeable and easy to store, so they can be pulled out next winter. The big USB enter key that you punch could be fun for the right person. These ideas are, we feel, a step above the usual budget-oriented stuff that doesn’t show much imagination and should have your friends and family grinning come unwrapping season – no matter the holiday you celebrate.
How did we choose the best tech gifts under $30?
By browsing similar lists, Amazon, and other websites for hours and hours until we came up with a list of gifts that might actually get used by their recipient. It’s not always a great choice to brute force something like this, but in this case, it was kind of warranted. There are simply too many products out there in this price range, and we wanted to find the best ones.
Once a list had been established, it’s mostly a matter of picking the ones that we’ve either used or had solid reviews all around. For example, I’ve personally used the headphone stand and the larger version of the iFixit kit, so I can vouch for their quality. There are tons of even less expensive gifts, like a good braided USB cable isn’t a bad stocking stuffer by any stretch, but you can find those for under $10, and we wanted to explore the stuff closer to $30.
What tech gifts under $30 should you avoid getting?
This varies from person to person as we all have different tastes. For example, my wife has a friend who absolutely loves thick, itchy, hideous Christmas sweaters. I, on the other hand, have a very short list of things I truly despise and thick, itchy, hideous Christmas sweaters is on it. That said, there are some things that you can probably avoid for the sake of any gift recipient.
For starters, avoid very inexpensive products that do like five different things. If you’re looking at a Bluetooth alarm clock phone stand with integrated night light and wireless charger for $15, there’s a very high chance that some or all of those functions aren’t that great. We would also recommend against things like that $9 USB desktop vacuum that probably has less suction than a human inhale.
Most tech products have a price tag where going higher doesn’t net you much noticeable improvement in quality. The inverse is also true. There is a price floor where, once you hit it, the product is almost guaranteed to be subpar. A good example of this is Bluetooth speakers. The $40 Anker Soundcore 2 is going to sound vastly better than any $10 Bluetooth speaker unless it’s a $40 speaker on sale for $10. Sometimes it’s worth it to spend the extra few bucks.
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