Northern Tool vs Harbor Freight- Which Store Is Better?

If you are someone who wants to repair some equipment at home, which you know how to do but confused between a few tools, then this article is for you. This review will also help you if you want to buy some professional tools for your workshop. So, if you are looking for any mechanical tools to serve various purposes, then you will need some fantastic stores to buy them. 

You might have heard about these two popular retailers of this field – Northern Tool & Harbor Freight. This article will guide you to get the best store to fulfill all your requirements in the minimum budget. By the end of it, you will definitely know which of these stores is best for you to buy the equipment for your work station. Let’s start.

Northern Tool vs Harbor Freight

Northern Tool (actually its Northern Tool + Equipment) and Harbor Freight are two US-based companies. They are in the sales & manufacturing of small industrial equipment that can be used in small scale industries, projects building, and repairing household stuff. By providing services in the offline & online sector, they cover almost every part of the US in networking & delivering their products.

Having a lot of similarities between them in the services provided by them, there are few things that every consumer should know before purchasing products from them. So let’s start with some differences between them in detail.

1. Products

Both stores sell those products that might not be available at any local store around you. The variety of tools available at both of these stores are mostly similar, but there are few products that are individually available in only one of them. Products such as lawn mowers are available only at Northern Tools & products such as metal welding tools are only available at Harbour Freight. Harbor freight lawn mowers are very popular in its category.

2. Quality 

One more difference between Northern Tools and Harbor Freight is that the products available at Northern Tools are of high quality, while the quality of the tools & equipment at Harbor Freight stores are of a bit lower quality when compared with the Northern Tools. Hence, before buying any appliance, you need to decide the use of that product in your day to day life.

3. Branding

You can observe that most of the products of Harbor Freight are having their brand name on it. Hence, the products available at Harbor Freight are exclusively available at their stores. These products are often Chinese, which are then branded under them. On the flip side, the products available at Northern Tool are not branded by themselves. The products of Northern Tools are from high-quality brands. Few products of Northern Tool such as power washers & generators are from Honda company.

4. Cost

Hence the cost of the products available at the stores of Northern Tool are more expensive than the products available at Harbor Freight. Here, one thing to consider is that the price of the product at both stores justifies the quality of the product. But, when we compare products less than $10, then Northern Tool beats Harbor Freight products at a price to quality ratio.

5. Marketing Strategy 

The marketing strategies of both these companies also differ from each other. You will get a 20% discount coupon at Harbor Freight store if you exceed a certain number of products in your cart at a single purchase. Northern Tool keeps sales on every occasion such as Christmas Sale and many more.

6. Advertisements

I prefer Harbor Freight more than Northern Tool. Every time I visited the Harbor Freight store, I always got one or two discount coupons, which I have used on my next purchase. Also, in advertisements, Harbor Freight beats Northern Tool. Many of the sales at Northern Tool are not recognized by the people due to the lack of ads done by them.

7. Online Platforms

One more thing that I like about Harbor Freight is that its website has the perfect user interface. Everything looks systematic and arranged correctly, similar to Amazon & Alibaba. Also, while buying any product from the site, it shows the price of that product as well as comparison with a similar product of different brands. The website of the Northern Tool does not have an attractive user interface that makes it look a little bit odd. 

So, these are some basic differences between Harbor Freight vs Northern Tool. If you are there with me till now, then let me conclude by giving my suggestion to make this comparison a little bit easier for you.

The Bottom Line

First, know the usage of that product by yourself. If you are going to use that product on a daily basis, then buy it from Northern Tool. According to my research and experience, it offers a higher brand & quality. However, as I said earlier, the Harbor Freight is also perfect in many ways. So, if you are going to use that product once in a while, then buy it from Harbor Freight, as it will not cost you much and will be a ‘value for money’ purchase for you. I think now it’s been more clear for you to choose the right store for buying the product. Happy shopping. 🙂