We analysed the Amazon.co.uk subcategory Nutcrackers and kept only products with at least 200 reviews and 4.3 stars. Ranked by estimated monthly revenue, this is the smallest category we have measured — the leader earns about £1,000 a month, five of the ten are lobster and crab crackers, and three of those are the same cracker sold in packs of four, eight and twenty.
The most reviewed cracker here at 6,373 ratings and the only entry that clears £1,000 a month — a plier-style tool with wooden handles, aimed at pecans and walnuts.
Check the price on AmazonThe most reviewed cracker here at 6,373 ratings and the only entry that clears £1,000 a month — a plier-style tool with wooden handles, aimed at pecans and walnuts.
The cheapest cracker in this ranking at £5.57 and the one that sells the most units, 125 a month — the plain traditional shape most people picture.
The highest-rated entry here at 4.6 stars, and a dual-purpose tool by design — the same jaws are sold for crab legs and for nuts.
A cracker plus two picking forks for £10.98 — bought for lobster and crab evenings rather than for a bowl of nuts at Christmas.
The highest price in this comparison at £49.99, but it buys twenty crackers and forty picks — roughly £2.50 per cracker, and clearly meant for a catering table.
The middle pack size of the same volila cracker at £3 each — the household-sized option if a seafood night means eight people at the table.
The smallest volila pack at £9.99 — four crackers and eight picks, the same £2.50 per cracker as the 20-pack without twenty of them in a drawer.
The only splitter rather than cracker in the list: it drives a point into the seam of a walnut instead of crushing the whole shell.
3,879 ratings behind it but only 15 sales a month — a well-established listing whose momentum has clearly moved on.
Three sales a month at £28.39 and a bestseller rank past 800,000 — the premium option here, and honestly a dormant listing shipped from Germany.
| Product | Score | Stars | Reviews | Feature | Material | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01. Anwenk Heavy Duty Nutcracker Plier Best seller Anwenk · Anwenk |
8.9 | 4.3 ★ | 6,373 | plier · wood handle | Steel with wood handles | £9.99 | Amazon › |
| 02. Tala Traditional Steel Nutcracker Lowest price Tala · Tala |
8.7 | 4.5 ★ | 994 | steel · curved grip | Steel | £5.57 | Amazon › |
| 03. OXO Good Grips Seafood & Nut Cracker OXO · OXO |
8.7 | 4.6 ★ | 603 | seafood + nut · OXO | Stainless steel | £9.00 | Amazon › |
| 04. Cozyswan Seafood & Nut Cracker Set Cozyswan · Cozyswan |
8.3 | 4.4 ★ | 349 | set · 2 forks | Stainless steel | £10.98 | Amazon › |
| 05. volila Lobster Crackers, 20-Pack + Picks volila · volila |
8.1 | 4.3 ★ | 283 | 20-pack · 40 picks | Stainless steel | £49.99 | Amazon › |
| 06. volila Lobster Crackers, 8-Pack + Picks volila · volila |
8.1 | 4.3 ★ | 283 | 8-pack · 16 picks | Stainless steel | £23.99 | Amazon › |
| 07. volila Lobster Crackers, 4-Pack + Picks volila · volila |
8.1 | 4.3 ★ | 283 | 4-pack · 8 picks | Stainless steel | £9.99 | Amazon › |
| 08. Alessi JHT01 Nut Splitter, Stainless Steel Alessi · Alessi |
8.3 | 4.3 ★ | 607 | splitter · steel | Stainless steel | £15.33 | Amazon › |
| 09. Artcome 3-Piece Seafood & Nut Cracker Set Artcome · Artcome |
8.8 | 4.3 ★ | 3,879 | 3-piece set | Stainless steel | £9.99 | Amazon › |
| 10. RÖSLE Stainless Steel Nutcracker RÖSLE · RÖSLE |
8.5 | 4.5 ★ | 500 | 18/10 steel · classic | Stainless steel | £28.39 | Amazon › |
Most tools here are hinged crackers that squeeze the whole shell until it gives. The Alessi at rank 8 works differently: it drives a point into the natural seam of a walnut and levers it open, which keeps the kernel in one piece. Crushers are faster, splitters are tidier, and only one of the two suits a bowl on the table.
A hazelnut needs a small bite and very little force; a walnut needs a wide opening and quite a lot; almonds are long and slip sideways out of parallel jaws. Ribbed, tapered jaws hold different sizes at different points along the length — which is why the traditional shape at rank 2 lists four nut types and the seafood crackers list none.
Shell splinters travel. Enclosed or bowl-shaped crackers catch most of them; open plier designs spray them across the table, which matters if you crack nuts while people are eating rather than over the sink. None of the tools here contains the mess completely, so plan for a bowl underneath.
A cracker is a lever, and handle length is the multiplier. Long arms with a cushioned grip let you crack a stubborn walnut without hurting your palm; short, thin steel handles concentrate everything into one spot. If hands are weak or arthritic, this is the criterion to buy on before anything else.
Three listings in this top ten are multi-packs of the same lobster cracker: four, eight and twenty in a box, with picks. The per-unit price barely differs, so the only question is how many people crack shells at your table at once. Compare the per-cracker figure, not the headline price — one of these is £49.99 for one box.
Nut oils and shellfish both leave residue in the hinge. An 18/10 stainless tool goes in the dishwasher; anything with wooden handle scales, like the leader here, wants a wipe and a dry instead or the wood swells and the rivets loosen.
Because Amazon files them in this node, and on revenue they take five of the ten places. Mechanically they are the same tool — hinged jaws with a ribbed bite — and several listings are sold explicitly for both jobs. The practical difference is that shellfish crackers are sold in multipacks for a table, while nutcrackers are sold as one tool for a bowl.
That entry is a box of twenty crackers with forty picks, not a single tool. Per cracker it works out at around £2.50, the same unit price as the four-pack of the identical tool at £9.99. The same product also appears as an eight-pack at £23.99, and all three listings share one pool of 283 reviews.
Walnuts have a seam, so a splitter or a wide-jawed plier opens them without pulverising the kernel. Hazelnuts and almonds are small and hard and want a tool with a narrow, ribbed section near the hinge, where the force is greatest. The traditional two-arm design at rank 2 is the compromise that handles both reasonably rather than either perfectly.
The products are ordered by estimated monthly revenue per ASIN, not by star rating and not by bestseller rank. Only products with at least 200 reviews and an average of 4.3 stars were included, from 66 that passed the filter. This is a genuinely small and seasonal category: tenth place is three sales a month, so treat the lower half as what exists rather than as a recommendation.
The score is not our own hands-on test. It is calculated transparently from public Amazon data: 75% from the average star rating and 25% from the number of reviews, weighted logarithmically. The ranking order itself comes from estimated monthly revenue per ASIN. Prices, ratings and review counts were retrieved from Amazon.co.uk on 22 July 2026 and can change at any time.
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. All links are affiliate links. Prices are snapshots taken on 22 July 2026; the current price is shown live on Amazon. Product images and details come from Amazon or the manufacturers.