Double Your Screen Size with The Best Cheap Projectors

We updated this article in February 2023 to ensure all products tested and vetted by the Good Housekeeping Institute were in stock, available and reflected accurate pricing.

While we love the home cinema experience you can create with a new flat-screen TV or a 4K home projector, sometimes you don’t need much more than a projector under $500 that not only saves you money but doesn’t take up any precious wall space. Budget projectors can be useful for a number of occasions that require a larger screen, including outdoor movie nights, presentations at the office or events like weddings and karaoke parties. What’s unique about them is that most compact and portable projectors feature the flexibility to either plug in a cable to connect it to your laptop or use Wi-Fi to stream content from a myriad of devices, including phones, laptops and tablets.

At the Good Housekeeping Institute, our tech analysts and engineers test home theater and audio equipment ranging from outdoor projectors to outdoor speakers and universal remotes. Over the years we’ve evaluated and tested dozens of projectors in our Media & Tech Lab and homes. To choose the best budget projectors, our pros reviewed top sellers as well as innovative products from brands we’ve tested and recommended in the past. We also evaluated criteria such as ease of setup and use, portability, image quality, size and other key factors. According to our experts, these are the best budget projectors to purchase in 2023.

Our top picks:

After our selections, read further to learn how to choose the best budget projector for your space and how we selected our top picks.

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