The 5 Best Electronic Drums of 2025: Funky Beginner Sets and Powerful Pro-Level Monster Kits
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The 5 Best Electronic Drums of 2025: Funky Beginner Sets and Powerful Pro-Level Monster Kits · Source: Alesis
Quite a few bands in genres such as rock and metal still find it difficult to include electronic drum kits on stage. But the growing success and popularity of electronic drums cannot be denied. The best electronic drums of 2025 offer the most advanced features and the highest level of realism, often at a great price. Let’s take a look at this year’s top five!
Out Picks
The Best Electronic Drums of 2025: A Look Back
Let’s be honest: in terms of sales figures, electronic drum kits have been ahead of acoustic drums for a few years now. Their advantages are obvious. For instance, practicing at home without upsetting the entire neighborhood is a real advantage. And the number of electronic drummers is also growing on social media drum channels.
The quality of the drum sounds and pad response has also achieved a level of realism that is now close to indistinguishable from fully recorded drums, given that many acoustic drum patterns are often programmed in large productions today. The extent to which the difference between acoustic and electronic drums matters also depends on whether you are starting out (i.e., electronic drums are your first drum set) or switching over.
Because when it comes to feel, with cymbal pads and drum pads, there are still many electronic drum kits where acoustic drummers, to put it mildly, need a while to get used to the rubber bounce. And a different feel ultimately means a different playing style. The best electronic drums manage to strike a balance between being as close as possible to acoustic drums while still offering the advantages of electronic drums.
Where to next?
While amplifiers have practically gone out of fashion in the guitar world and the great shrinking to compact pedal size is still happening, the drumming world is still catching up. The advantage of pedal amps and modelers like those Kemper or Neural DSP when touring is undisputed. No more giant bass cabs or amp towers, no more burnt-out tubes. Just plug in and rock on!
E-drums offer precisely that. And if you look a little beneath the surface of stadium rock, you’ll see more and more hybrid kits with e-drum pads and acoustic cymbals, or pure e-drum sets, especially in cover and gospel bands, for example. While in-ear monitors, modelers, wireless systems, and AutoTune pedals are almost standard for the rest of the band members, there is still resistance in many areas of hard guitar music. For now.
With touring becoming increasingly expensive, a greater focus on sustainability and train travel, and genres becoming increasingly mixed, it is only a matter of time before electronic drums will be nothing special on smaller stages as well. In any case, it’s not because of the realism of the sounds and the much shorter soundcheck that the best electronic drums allow that this hasn’t happened yet. Let’s take a look at the five best electronic drums of 2025!
Millenium MPS-350
“It couldn’t be more beginner-focused,” you might think when you see the price of this kit. And sure, the Millenium MPS-350 can’t quite keep up with the big flagships from Roland, Alesis, and Efnote. But it doesn’t have to. What you get here for this price, especially considering you also get mesh heads, is remarkable.
These provide a much more realistic playing feel than rubber pads. And usually, mesh heads are only available at much higher price points. Specifically, the MPS-350 comes with four drum pads, a kick drum pad, three cymbal pads, and a drum module with sounds. You can also tap into the MIDI signals and record them in your DAW via USB. Check out the drum set at Thomann*.
Yamaha DTX6K5-M
Looking at the reviews on Thomann, the Yamaha DTX6K5-M seems to be a real success. This makes it one of “The Best Electronic Drums of 2025!” Its value for money is often praised in particular. You get a lot of drum kit for your money.
Four pads with mesh heads, four cymbal pads, and the DTX-PRO module with a whopping 40 different drum sets provide a very solid foundation. In addition, Yamaha’s DTX Touch app allows for detailed settings for the pads. Check out the kit at Thomann*.
Alesis Strata Club
The Strata series from Alesis includes the manufacturer’s flagship models, especially the Prime E-Drum Kits. But flagship drums don’t necessarily mean monster-sized drum sets. With the Strata Club, the series’ professional quality has been reduced to a remarkably compact set.
With three mesh head pads, a kick pad, and three cymbal pads on a compact rack, it takes up considerably less space. The Core module contains over 25 gigabytes of sounds, many of them from sister company BFD, so they’re extremely realistic. And in the history of guitar music, there are countless drummers who sounded big, powerful, and groovy even with compact drum kits! Take a closer look at the kit at Thomann*.
Efnote Pro 500X
Over the past few years, Efnote has steadily gained ground on market leader Roland, release by release. The Japanese company has produced some of the best electronic drums on the market recently. The Pro 500X takes sound and quality to a whole new level.
Wood shells, three-zone mesh heads, Efnote’s popular cymbal pads, which are among the most realistic sounding on the market, complete hardware: premium quality and everything you could ask for.
Apart from the price (we’ll get to Roland in a moment), the sheer size of the kit could be used as a counterargument, because with full-size drums, you could just buy an acoustic set. On the other hand, the Efnotes sound and play so magnificently that once you’ve set them up at home and played through the included kits, you’ll never think twice about it. At Thomann*, you can find the Black Oak version.
The Best Electronic Drums of 2025: Roland TD716 and VQD106
Two Roland e-drums share the top spot on the podium. In 2025, the Japanese giant maintained its dominant position in electronic drum sets with a flood of new releases. There were new additions to the V-Drums Series 3 and 5, the TR-1000 showed what the ultimate drum machine could be, and the MN-10 Mood Pan proved that a handpan can also be very successfully released as an electronic drum.
The TD716*, on the other hand, has practically redefined what a flagship electronic drum set has to offer. In terms of both price and quality, Roland is simply in a league of its own here. My colleague Rob Puricelli couldn’t stop raving about it when he got to review the kit. The V71 drum module in particular seems to set completely new standards in terms of realism and configuration depth.
The VQD106*, on the other hand, is not quite as focused on maximum realism down to the smallest detail. Instead, Roland has addressed an issue that often comes as an unpleasant surprise to apartment drummers.
Because electronic drums are as quiet acoustically as they are, the beats on the kick drum pad in particular tend to be transmitted to the neighbors below as knocking bass sounds. Roland seems to have been successful in its endeavor to reduce the acoustic volume of an electronic drum kit by up to 75 percent.
The Best Electronic Drums: Conclusion
We are witnessing a revolution in the world of drums. In terms of sales figures, electronic drums have already overtaken acoustic drums. Sooner or later, it will become increasingly common to see more compact electronic drums on stage, even in more guitar-driven genres. That’s what 2025 has shown us.
What do you think? Which drums are the best electronic drums of 2025 for you? What surprised you? Let us know in the comments!
*Disclaimer: This post about the best electronic drums contains affiliate links and/or widgets. When you buy a product via our affiliate partner, we receive a small commission that helps support what we do. Don’t worry, you pay the same price. Thanks for your support!
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