Best Small and Lightweight Chainsaws UK

Last updated November 2026

Most people looking for a small chainsaw are not really shopping for a short bar. They are shopping for a saw they can hold up, control and still be steady with after twenty minutes. That is a weight and balance question, and bar length is only part of it.

So this page is sorted by what the saw actually weighs. Everything here has a bar of roughly 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inches), which is the sweet spot for pruning, storm clearing, sawing down a hedge that got away from you, and cutting kindling. The list is generated from our review database and reorders itself as stock and specifications change.

The weight on the box is not the weight in your hands

This is the single biggest trap when buying a light chainsaw, and it catches almost everyone.

Cordless saws are very often listed at their bare tool weight: no battery. The battery is not a rounding error. A compact 2.0Ah 18V pack is around 0.4 kg, and a 5.0Ah pack is closer to 0.7 kg. So a saw advertised at 2.5 kg is about 3.2 kg by the time it will actually cut something, which is a 28% increase on the number that sold it to you.

Petrol saws are usually listed dry, without fuel or bar oil. That is a smaller gap, but it is still half a kilo or so on a small saw.

The figures in our table are as published by the manufacturer or the retailer listing, so treat them as a comparison between saws rather than as what you will feel. Where a listing gave a weight that is not physically possible for that bar length, we have removed it rather than repeat it, which is why a few saws show no weight at all.

Chainsaws for shorter users and smaller hands

There is no such thing as a chainsaw built for short people, and anyone selling you one is guessing. But some things genuinely matter more if you are smaller framed, and they are rarely in the spec sheet:

• Total weight, not bar length. A 25 cm saw at 4.5 kg is harder work than a 30 cm saw at 3 kg. Reach for the lightest saw that will do your job, not the shortest one.
• Where the weight sits. A saw that balances near the rear handle feels lighter than its figure. One that is nose heavy fights you on every cut, and that gets worse the shorter your arms are, because you have less leverage against it.
• Front handle diameter. You grip the front bar with your whole hand, thumb wrapped underneath. If the tube is thick, a smaller hand cannot close properly around it, and a grip you cannot close is a grip that can be knocked off. Handle thickness is almost never published, so this is one to try in a shop if you can.
• Trigger reach and lock-off. Most saws need you to press a lock-off with the heel of your hand while pulling the trigger with a finger. On a big-handled saw with a small hand, that can mean stretching, which costs you grip strength exactly when you need it.
• Tool-free chain tensioning. Tensioning with a scrench means holding the nose up with one hand and turning a screw with the other. A tool-free dial is easier for anyone, and markedly easier if your hands are small or not very strong.
• Starting effort on petrol. Pull starting a petrol saw uses your back and shoulder as much as your arm. If that is a concern, cordless removes the problem entirely; this is the main reason small battery saws have taken over the garden market.

What “thinnest”, “ultra light” and “minimalist” actually mean

These are shopping words rather than specifications, and they point at three different things.

Thinnest usually means the narrowest body, so the saw fits between branches and into a hedge without the motor housing fouling everything around the cut. Narrow bodies tend to come with compact battery saws and top-handle saws.

Ultra light is the honest one: it means weight, and in this class it means somewhere between about 2.5 kg and 3.5 kg with a battery fitted. Below roughly 2.5 kg with a battery you are no longer looking at a chainsaw but at a mini saw with a 10 to 15 cm bar, which is a different tool.

Minimalist normally means no clutter: one battery platform you already own, a bar you can tension by hand, and no features to learn. In practice that points at the same compact cordless saws as the other two words.

A warning about top-handle saws

Some of the lightest and narrowest saws you will find are top-handle models, where the rear handle sits on top of the body instead of behind it. They look ideal for anyone wanting something small and easy to hold. They are not.

Top-handle saws are designed to be operated one-handed by a trained climbing arborist who is roped into a tree, with their other hand on the rope. That design makes them far more dangerous at ground level: there is much less saw behind your hand to resist kickback, and the handle layout invites exactly the one-handed use that causes the worst injuries. UK guidance from the HSE is that they are for trained, certificated operators doing off-ground work, and many suppliers will ask for certification before selling one.

If you want a small saw for the garden, buy a rear-handle one and keep both hands on it. No chainsaw of any size should be used one-handed.

Small chainsaw or mini chainsaw?

They are sold alongside each other and they are not the same thing. A mini chainsaw has a 10 to 15 cm bar, weighs about a kilo, and is genuinely a one-handed pruning tool for finger-thick to wrist-thick branches. It is excellent at that and hopeless at anything else: the chains are narrow, the oiling is often manual or absent, and they overheat if you push them.

A small chainsaw in the 20 to 25 cm class is a real chainsaw with a real chain brake, a real oiler and a proper two-handed grip. It will cut logs up to about 20 cm all day. If you are deciding between them, the question is whether you ever need to cut something thicker than your wrist. If yes, the small chainsaw is the one that will not disappoint you in six months.

Petrol, corded or battery in this size

At this bar length the answer is nearly always battery, and the weight table shows why: the lightest saws in the class are cordless. Petrol makes sense on a small bar only for top-handle arborist work or where there is no power and no charging. Corded gives you the most cutting power per pound, and the flex and weight of the lead cancels out a lot of the saw’s lightness once you are moving around a garden.

If you already own cordless tools, check the battery platform before anything else. Buying into the system you already have is usually worth more than a small difference in the saw itself, because the pack is often the expensive half.

Common questions

What is the lightest chainsaw that is still useful?

For a proper two-handed chainsaw, around 2.5 kg bare and roughly 3.2 kg with a battery is about as light as the class gets. Anything lighter is a mini saw with a 10 to 15 cm bar, which is a pruning tool rather than a chainsaw.

Is a lighter chainsaw safer?

Lighter is easier to control for longer, and fatigue causes a lot of accidents, so there is a real safety benefit. But light also means less mass resisting kickback, and the lightest saws are often top-handle models that are considerably more dangerous at ground level. Light helps. Light alone is not safety.

What size chainsaw should I get if I am not very tall?

Pick by weight and balance, not by height. The usual advice is to keep the bar about 5 cm longer than the wood you normally cut, then choose the lightest saw that comes in that bar length. A 25 cm bar handles anything up to about 20 cm thick.

Do small chainsaws still need chainsaw trousers?

Yes. A short bar does not make a slower chain, and most chainsaw injuries are to the left leg and the left hand. Small saws are more likely to be used in shorts on a Saturday, which is part of why they hurt people. Trousers, boots, gloves and eye protection apply whatever the bar length.

Can I use a small chainsaw one-handed?

No. Not a small one, not a mini one, not any of them. One-handed use is how people lose control of a saw during kickback. If a job seems to need one hand free, it needs a pole saw or a ladder and a second person instead.

How long will the battery last on a small cordless chainsaw?

For light pruning, expect roughly 30 to 60 cuts in wrist-thick wood from a 4.0 or 5.0Ah pack, less in hardwood and much less if the chain is blunt. A second battery is the usual answer, and it is nearly always cheaper than a bigger saw.

We may earn a commission if you buy through the links above, at no extra cost to you. Specifications are as published by the manufacturer or retailer rather than measured by us, so check the figures on the product page before buying.