The best plug-in air fresheners offer a way to fill your home with fragrance, with minimal hassle. There’s no messy wax or risk of forgetting to blow out a candle when you choose an electric option, which either plugs directly into the socket or uses a charging cable to recharge.
When it comes to picking the right one for your home, it’s worth shopping around. From simple plug-ins that use scented gel beads to eliminate household odours to sophisticated diffusers that let you alternate between essential oils to set the tone in your home, there are lots of variations to pick from.
Plus, while some are designed purely to freshen the air, others come with additional benefits, including soft lighting and stress relief.
We’ve tested a wide range of electric air freshening products – from supermarket offerings to luxury wireless options – across a range of budgets, to make sure you don’t end up paying through the nose. Keep scrolling for our pick of the bunch.
How we tested
We compared plug-in air fresheners by testing each one in the same room of our home for an hour. We looked at how well each one filled the room with scent during that time, as well as how easy they were to set up. To whittle down our shortlist further, we compared portability, charging, setup times and ease of operation. We then gave extra points for flexibility – being able to use different types of fragrance, or switch fragrances around – and factored in value for money, both for the air freshener itself and for refills.
The best plug-in air fresheners for 2025 are:
Scandiscents halo home diffuser
This sleek, waterless machine from Scandiscents packs quite a punch for its compact size. Despite being one of the smallest diffusers we tested, it promises up to 80 square metres of coverage and we found it quickly filled the room with a decent throw of scent.
The halo can be used with both pure essential oils and synthetic fragrance oils, and Scandiscents sells its own range of oils and blends. We loved the spring-like waft of fresh linen and the easy setup – you just remove the nozzle and screw in an oil bottle, without needing to decant.
The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 72 hours on one charge, the price is reasonable, and the simple design – which looks great and takes up minimal space – makes this one our favourite all-rounder.
Buy now £46.99, Scandiscents.com
Febreze 3volution air freshener plug
You don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune when it comes to making your house smell gorgeous, and this £3.50 Febreze air freshener plug is proof of that. It’s designed so that it diffuses three different but complementary fragrances alternately – for 45 minutes at a time – so you don’t get nose-blind to the smell (or just bored of it).
You need to buy the three-bottle refills separately, then just slot one into the holder, plug it into an electrical socket and – if you leave it on for 12 hours a day on the lowest setting – you’ll get three months’ worth of fragrance out of each refill.
We tried several scents and, while we found some a little too sweet, we really liked ‘spring awakening’ – walking into the room was like getting a fresh waft of fabric conditioner. The plug-in has three levels of intensity and the lights flash when you’re due a refill, which is pretty impressive at this price.
Buy now £3.50, Tesco.com
Diptyque electric diffuser
This chic plug-in diffuser from Diptyque was really easy to set up. Just attach the right socket fitting (it comes with a few), pull the metal vent off the front of the unit, slide in a scented insert of your choice and replace the vent before plugging it into an electrical socket.
The insert contains lots of scented beads, which are activated by air passing through the vent. Touch anywhere on the vent once to turn it on, then again to turn it off – or leave it on and it will switch off automatically after three hours. We did find it wasn’t always easy to know if we’d switched it on or off – there’s only a slight puff of air to signal it’s on, which is easy to miss – so, we ended up switching off the plug socket, to be sure.
Having said that, we found even half an hour of use the insert filled the room with sophisticated fragrance, and each refill lasts for around 40 hours of use. Just bear in mind the insert should be kept in the resealable package it came in when you’re not using it, to retain the fragrance, which is a little bit of a faff.
Buy now £100.00, Spacenk.com
The White Company waterless rechargeable electronic diffuser
We were really impressed with the battery life of this compact electronic diffuser from The White Company. It plugs into the mains via USB to charge, then you can put it wherever you want to – and ours didn’t need a recharge over several weeks of on-and-off use.
It’s waterless, so you just need to decant one of The White Company’s fragrance oils (£10) into the diffuser bottle to get started. There’s a handy little bottle opener and miniature funnel supplied, although, a spare bottle would allow you to swap one fragrance for another when you fancy a change of scent, without having to decant it all back again.
Operation is as easy as pressing a button on the top to start an instant stream of scent. We used the default one-hour setting on a low mist and found we didn’t need to leave it on for the full hour to fill the room with fragrance – although, you can switch to two or five hours, and high mist if you want a more powerful smell. Plus, the range of fragrances is as luxurious as you’d expect from The White Company – a well-timed waft of fireside just before guests arrived led to lots of admiring comments.
Buy now £70.00, Thewhitecompany.com
Salter aroma vase essential oil diffuser
If you’re looking for a diffuser on a tight budget, Salter’s aroma vase essential oil diffuser does the basics well. Add water and a few drops of essential oils to the 320ml tank and you can choose between one-, three- and six-hour settings, using the buttons on the front.
Although it’s plastic, the diffuser is designed to look more like a ceramic vase, and the neutral colourways mean it’s unlikely to clash with your décor. The wide base means it’s nice and sturdy, too, while the colour-changing LED light strip is a nice touch.
Buy now £26.00, Argos.co.uk
Aromatherapy Associates atomiser connect
If you’re planning to splurge, this sleek machine is worth the investment. The Atomiser Connect charges via USB, so, you’ll need to plug it in to get it going, and it takes about eight hours to reach 100 per cent battery. From that point, though, it’s fully portable, rechargeable, and can either be operated via buttons on the atomiser, or wirelessly via a free app.
This allows you to control diffusion intensity, light colour and personalised schedules to switch it on and off. So, you can walk into your house after work to find it filled with scent or set a time in the evening to wind down ready for bed.
The diffuser is easy to set up – there’s no decanting needed, as the pure essential oil blend bottles slot into the machine itself, and there’s no need to add water, either. Plus, because it has two chambers, you can load it up with two fragrances and easily switch between them, or use two of the same if you want to fill a particularly large space with scent. While we initially baulked at the price tag, we realised it’s worth the extra spend – particularly if you’re serious about aromatherapy.
Buy now £185.00, Aromatherapyassociates.com
My Stress Remedy plug-in diffuser
This plug-in diffuser has been developed by the people behind Pet Remedy – which, if you have a dog or cat, you’ve probably already heard of. The calming diffuser for animals is sold worldwide and widely recommended by vets for its ability to calm the most anxious and nervous pets.
My Stress Remedy was developed much more recently, with a re-balanced formula for humans, using a patented blend of essential oils derived from valerian, vetiver, basil, and clary sage. The aim is still the same – to promote feelings of calm and relieve stress – and it certainly smells better than the pet version, which is a bit of an acquired taste.
The unit itself is easy to use – attach the fragrance bottle, plug it in, and, if you leave it on, it’ll last up to 60 days. It’s recommended for use in whichever part of the home you use the most, and its all-natural formula is also safe to use in the bedroom.
Buy now £28.00, Stressremedy.co.uk
The verdict: Plug-in air fresheners
Scandiscents’s halo home diffuser took the crown as the best plug-in air freshener in our book – it delivers a powerful scent at a reasonable price, with flexible fragrance options. The White Company’s waterless rechargeable electronic diffuser was a hit, too – we particularly liked the range of fragrances available. If you’re splurging, it’s got to be Aromatherapy Associates’s atomiser connect – a luxurious bit of kit that really does do everything well.
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