How this site works
ChainsawRanker is a comparison database for chainsaws: 52 saws across 13 brands, 30 gas and 18 battery, from $79 big-box electrics to $2,680 professional felling saws. It exists because buying a saw is a spec problem disguised as a brand argument. Displacement, bar length, and dry weight decide what a saw can actually do, and those three numbers are scattered across manufacturer PDFs, retailer listings that pad the weight by leaving off the bar, and forum threads where the same question gets asked every spring.
Where the numbers come from
Engine displacement, rated power, bar lengths and ranges, chain pitch and gauge, and warranty terms come from manufacturer spec sheets and product documentation. Weights are the trickiest field on the site: manufacturers publish powerhead-only dry weight, retailers often publish shipping weight, and neither is what you lift. Each saw records which basis its weight uses, and the detail page prints it next to the number. Prices are typical list prices — saws go on promotion constantly and dealers set their own, so read a price here as a tier, not a quote.
Where the ratings come from
Star ratings and review counts are aggregated from major retail and dealer listings — Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowe's, and manufacturer storefronts. Where the count came from a single identifiable listing, the detail page names it. Nobody reviews anything on this site, so those ratings are not marked up as site-collected reviews in our structured data; they are somebody else's numbers and they are labeled that way.
Where the opinions come from
There is no test lab here, no fleet of saws, and no staff sawyer, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The pros and cons on each model page are distilled from public owner discussion: chainsaw and arborist forums, r/Chainsaw and the firewood and homesteading subreddits, long-term owner writeups, and dated retail reviews. When enough owners report that a saw is cold-blooded on the first pull, that a clamshell engine is not worth rebuilding, or that a tensioner wheel keeps loosening, it goes in the cons. Summarizing is editorial work, and we try to keep the wording as blunt as the owners wrote it. Every saw carries a list of the sources its entry was built from.
How the lists are ordered
Brand, type, and guide pages sort by owner rating, then by spec. There are no sponsored placements, no paid inclusions, and no way to buy a higher position. If a saw sits at the top of a list, it is because owners rated it there. The brand face-off pages take a position and say so — that is an opinion, formed from the same public material, not a purchased verdict.
One thing that is not negotiable
Every guide on this site nags about chaps, and it is deliberate. Chainsaw injuries run to roughly a hundred stitches and land mostly on the left thigh, which is exactly the area a $70 pair of chaps protects. If a page here ever reads like it is downplaying kickback, protective gear, or top-handle saws being for climbers only, that is a bug — tell us.
Keeping it current
The catalog was last refreshed on August 11, 2026. Models get added, prices get corrected, and discontinued saws get pulled as we notice them — Stihl and Husqvarna both roll their homeowner lineups regularly, so a saw listed here may already have a successor at your dealer. If something looks wrong, it is a data bug, not an ad.