Padel rackets

Which padel racket should I buy?

To start, look for a racket you can move effortlessly: round, under 360 grams, and with the weight close to the handle.

What really tires the arm is not the weight, but hitting off-center: an off-center impact triples the acceleration that reaches the hand, and the lower your skill level, the worse you center it. That's why at first it's important to reach the ball in time.

If you already have plenty of control and want more ball output, switch to a teardrop. And if your game lives on the smash, look at the diamond rackets: they weigh more and carry the weight towards the head, so they require more arm. The short rule: when in doubt, manageable before powerful.

A racket called "control" does not hit the ball better when you defend. In the lab there is no measurable difference between control and power rackets on that point. It hits less because it costs less to move it, not because it returns it worse. If you already know which one you are looking for, go for the control padel rackets or the power padel rackets.

Padel racket or padel racquet?

It is called a racket: the tennis racquet has strings and a long handle, and the padel racket is a rigid and perforated surface, without strings, with which you play with the hand much closer to the hit.

Many people search for "padel racquet" and refer exactly to this, so if you have arrived looking for that, you are in the right place. It is also searched for as padel paddle, and it is the same.

How to choose your padel racket?

Choose in this order: if you can move it, what you want from it and how it feels in your hand. It is the order proposed by Testea Sport Lab, the laboratory of the Universitat Politècnica de València that tests rackets, and it does not start with the shape or the level: it starts with your physical build.

First, the effort it takes to move it: there the weight and where that weight is rule. Second, what you are looking for: precision, versatility or attack. And third, the feel: if you feel it hard or soft, how much it vibrates and how wide the zone is in which the hit comes out clean.

Effort and feel are two independent things. Effort is decided by the weight and the distribution of the weight. Feel is decided by the rubber, and the rubber, measured in the lab, does not change whether a racket hits more or less: it changes how much it vibrates and how wide the clean zone is. A racket can be hard to move and feel soft, or just the opposite.

What are the best padel rackets?

There is no best racket, there is a best racket for your game, and even the lab that measures them says so: "there is no better or worse racket, but we want you to choose the racket that best suits you". The one that wins the comparisons is signed by a professional, and that same racket in the hands of a club player subtracts more than it adds.

If you want an honest shortcut, look at the best-selling models and keep the one that fits your level.

Types of padel rackets: round, teardrop and diamond

The three shapes usually come with a different weight and distribution of that weight, and that is what you feel in your hand.

Each shape has its collection: round padel rackets, teardrop and diamond.

The lab that measures these rackets writes it in its own guide: "a round racket does not automatically guarantee greater precision, in the same way that a diamond-shaped one is not always aimed at an offensive game". What matters is the combination of weight, materials, grip, bridge, holes and frame hardness.

So why does the table above serve you just as well? Because the shape does not come alone. In the 60 rackets that the same lab tested in 2026, the easiest to move weigh an average of 359 grams and the most demanding 372; and in the demanding group, twelve are diamond, without a single round one. The shape does not cause the behavior: it announces it. Look at the weight and where that weight is, not at the silhouette.

And it is measured on those same 60 models: where the weight is explains more than half of the power of a racket, and the shape only four out of ten. Among the diamond rackets, the one that carries the weight higher hits more than the one that carries it lower, so the silhouette tells you less than the scale.

About the sweet spot, the honest thing is this: a study of 225 rackets made with a robot at the Polytechnic of Valencia concludes that its position does not depend on the shape, nor on the balance, nor on the weight. And its surface in square centimeters is not published by any manufacturer or any lab.

There is a fourth shape, the hybrid, between teardrop and diamond. It does not have a common definition among brands, so its name tells you less than its weight.

On the court there is a trend, which is a trend and not a rule: who plays the backhand leans more towards diamond, because it is the position from which you smash, and who plays the forehand, towards round, because they build the point. If it works better for you the other way around, it doesn't matter.

How does weight affect a padel racket?

Less weight gives handling and more weight gives inertia: with a light racket you reach the ball sooner, and with a heavy one the smash comes out stronger without hitting more. If you come from a light racquet or feel the arm, stay under 360 grams.

There is no regulatory weight. The international regulations set measurements, 45.5 cm long, 26 wide, 38 mm thick, but do not set a maximum or minimum weight. What there is is a narrow market: a lab at the Polytechnic of Valencia weighed 137 commercial rackets and they came out from 316 to 387 grams, with an average of 363. Almost everything you are going to see fits there. The junior ones are lighter: ours start at about 295 grams.

Two warnings about the sheet. The weight declared by the brand usually comes as a band of about 15 grams, because two units of the same model do not weigh the same. And no brand clarifies if that weight includes the protector and the overgrip, which also do not weigh in the same place. The protector goes on the head and raises the balance; the overgrip goes on the handle and lowers it. Adding grams is easy; removing them, impossible.

For children we have junior rackets. The difference with an adult one is real and is double: they weigh less, ours go from 295 to 330 grams, and they are thinner, from 30 to 35 millimeters thick compared to the 38 of an adult one.

Don't look at it by age. No manufacturer publishes a correspondence between age and weight: Nox does not write the word "age" even once in the 37 pages of its catalog. The useful criterion is if they can move it: if the child arrives late to the hit, the racket is too much for them. Nox itself directs its lightest model to who needs handling "for physical reasons such as epicondylitis or arm injuries" or to junior players, never by year of birth.

Are there women's padel rackets?

There is no rule that separates men's and women's rackets, and the manufacturers themselves say it bluntly. Nox writes it on its website: its women's rackets "differ mainly in their weight range". Same mold, same materials, same thickness. In its 2025 catalog, 37 pages, the word "woman" does not appear even once. Bullpadel does the same: its W models weigh about 15 grams less and sometimes they change the fiber of the face.

So the label tells you less than it seems. Filter by weight, under 360 grams if you are looking for handling, and by how it feels in your hand, which is what you are going to play. And it works the same the other way around: if you have arm and are looking for power, no label prevents it.

Padel racket brands

The ones that have the most depth in our catalog are adidas padel rackets, Head rackets, Bullpadel rackets and Wilson rackets. We also work with Dunlop, StarVie, Softee, Drop Shot, Nox and Siux, and player models, like the Ari Sánchez line at adidas. Who is behind each one and who plays with it is in padel racket brands.

Does the brand matter? Less than the weight and the shape: within the same brand you are going to find very different rackets from each other. Decide first your specifications and then the shield.

How much does a padel racket cost?

An adult padel racket costs between about 80 and about 400 €, according to the recommended price published by the manufacturers themselves; the junior ones start at about 60 €. The Wilson and Bullpadel starter ones come out for 80 to 90 €, and the Head, adidas and Wilson signature ones, the ones that carry the name of a professional player, move between 340 and 400 €. Only the limited editions go past there: the Pro Edt of adidas, 450 €, and the tournament ones of Bullpadel, up to about 500 €.

Is a cheap padel racket worth it? To start, yes: the level must choose shape and tolerance to error, not price range, and what makes a racket expensive is the face material. The entry ranges of all brands mount fiberglass: more elastic, soft feel, more ball output and more absorption, in exchange for lasting less. The expensive rackets mount carbon: more rigid, more resistant and lighter, and the more rigid, the more it punishes the off-center hit.

And the off-center hit is the most frequent when you start. That's why for who starts a round and light entry range racket is more useful than one of rigid carbon: the first one forgives the mistake, the second one returns it to the arm. One more warning with the manufacturer's price in front: the Bullpadel tournament editions cost from 30 to 100 € more than the same mold without license and do not change anything technical. The price of each racket you have in its sheet and in the collection above, which you can order by price.

Complete your equipment

A new racket is protected and gripped well from the first day: look at the protectors and the padel overgrips. And if you are missing something else, you have padel shoes, balls and padel bags.

Doubts between two rackets? Write to us and we will tell you which one fits your game, and which one does not.

Guide updated in September 2026.