9 Best Cherry Pitters of 2026

If your hands set the pace rather than your patience, start here. The Ordekcity is a long-handled push pitter with a spring that returns the plunger on its own, so a cherry costs you a squeeze and a release instead of a squeeze and a pull.

That rebound did more for a long session than any handle shape we tried, and the 8-inch body reaches the bottom of a mixing bowl without you tipping it. It is inexpensive enough to hand a child at the counter and simple enough that they get it right on the first few tries.

It locks closed for storage and goes in the dishwasher, and the silicone-wrapped body stays grippy when your hands are wet and sticky. Seating matters — line the cherry up where the stem was and the punch goes through cleanly; drop it in sideways and you will be fishing it out and starting again.

Two things earn this OXO its spot, and we noticed both within the first few cherries: a cup wide enough for a big Bing, and a clear shield that clips over the fruit to catch the spray before it reaches your shirt.

The cup is stepped, with a recessed centre, so smaller cherries sit down into it instead of skating around under the punch. It is also built to pit olives, and we used it on both — jarred olives release their stones easily, which makes it the one tool here that covers a martini and a cherry pie.

What it is really for is a kitchen that wants both jobs covered without another drawer of gadgets, and there the shield is the useful part: it takes most of the spray, holds the fruit steady, and rinses clean. The zinc body feels substantial in the hand, the handles lock shut for storage, and it goes in the dishwasher.

The Quick Release does not sit in your hand — it sits on your bowl. A base that slides to fit the rim carries a frame over the opening, and six cherries drop into the cups at once.

Press the handle and six pitted cherries fall straight into the bowl while the stones collect in a tray underneath, which holds the pits from about a pound of fruit before you empty it.

For a picking basket, a pie, or a freezer bag, that turns the job from an evening into a few minutes, and your hands never get into the juice. It is the only pick here that pits a batch rather than a cherry.

Pit removal is where it asks for attention: a stone occasionally stays attached or rides up with the punch, so you glance over the bowl before the fruit goes into a pie. The 13-inch frame is a lot of drawer, too — both fair trades if you work in pounds, and both reasons a household pitting a dozen cherries for breakfast should stay with a handheld.

What we keep coming back to is the tray. Pits end up in one place instead of under the bowl, on the floor, and in the sink, and that alone makes a four-pound session tolerable.

Most pitters are gadgets you hold. This one stands on the counter: a stainless plunger on a freestanding frame about ten and a half inches tall, with the pitted cherry dropping forward and the stone falling into a removable cup below.

The cup is the detail we appreciate most — pits land in one place instead of bouncing across the counter, and both hands stay on the fruit instead of one holding a bowl. Leifheit rates it at 25 pounds an hour, and the one-cherry-at-a-time action keeps a steady rhythm once you have settled into it.

It costs more than the handhelds here, and a replacement spring and gaiter are both available, so a worn mechanism does not retire the whole tool. It is dishwasher safe, and it wants a spot near the sink rather than a slot in the cutlery drawer.

Twenty-eight millimetres is the number that earned this one its place. That is the clearance between the working panel and the splash guard, and it is what lets a very large cherry sit all the way down in the cup so the punch crosses the whole fruit instead of splitting the shoulder.

The punch is cross-shaped, which pierces rather than punching a round plug, and the zinc alloy pin is sturdier than the plastic punches on the inexpensive pitters here. The TPE handle stays grippy when your hands are wet, the tool locks shut for storage, and it is dishwasher safe.

The hinge is the part to watch, since it takes the load on every press and it is where this design gives out first under heavy use. If you pit a few pounds a season rather than a few hundred, that is not a concern you will meet — and it is the one reservation we carry.

No plastic anywhere. The ProTensils is a zinc alloy body with a hidden spring, and it feels like a small pair of pliers that happens to have a cherry cup in it.

The handles are shaped to spread pressure across the palm rather than concentrate it on one spot, and the hinge is tight — no rattle, no wobble, nothing that suggests the pivot is the weak link. A 120-day replacement policy covers it if the mechanism does give out.

It is a plain tool by design — no shield, no tray, no lock — which makes it the easiest of these to rinse and the least fussy to store. What we did not expect was how much the plainness would grow on us; five inches of metal in a drawer beats a gadget with parts to lose.

Seven cherries per press is the pitch, and this is the least expensive way to get there. For a jam pot or a dehydrator tray, that arithmetic is the whole argument.

The design is simple and comes apart into three pieces: a lid carrying the ABS prongs, a cherry tray, and a base that doubles as the pit container. A non-slip foot keeps it planted, the transparent body shows the pits collecting, which we found more useful than expected, and all three pieces go in the dishwasher.

It is built for volume on a budget: a pound of cherries moves through quickly, the tray holds the stones out of the way, and cleanup is three pieces into the dishwasher. Set it on a flat, dry counter and it stays put through a long session.

For jam makers and dehydrator owners the trade works, because the fruit is going to be broken down anyway. Anyone pitting a handful for breakfast is better served by a metal handheld that costs about the same.

Two pitting sides in one freestanding body: one for cherries, one for plums, damsons, mirabelles and apricots. In a preserving kitchen that runs from cherry week into plum week, that is one tool instead of two, and we like the trade.

The cherry side is a proper pitter: a stainless cross blade behind a smooth pressure arm, in a cast aluminum body that sits still on the counter while you work. Cherries go through cleanly and come out whole enough for syrup.

The plum side is the fussier half — plums come in more sizes than cherries do, and the blade narrows inside the plastic push lever that carries it, so fruit sized to the cup goes through and an oversized one stalls. Get the sizing right and it is quick; force it and you will be sorry.

For a household that puts up both fruits, the second side is what makes this worth the shelf space. If cherries are the only thing you pit, the Kernex does the same job in a smaller, simpler tool.