Milwaukee vs Makita cordless drill

Most Milwaukee-versus-Makita pages are brand essays: ecosystem counts, warranty years, loyalty. This one is a model pair. The Milwaukee M18 Fuel 2904 against the Makita XPH14Z, both 18V brushless hammer flagships, every figure pulled from our 34-model sourced dataset and traceable to the page that published it. And this pairing hides a treat the other brand pairs do not get: both makers rate torque in in-lbs, so the headline numbers finally rank against each other.

The head-to-head table

Rows render from the dataset as recorded on 2026-09-07, never retyped. Both torque ratings carry the same unit, so the first row ranks; the weight row carries source attribution in the section that follows, because both weights have a sourcing story a bare number would hide. Unit discipline throughout is the one on specs explained.

Both are bare-tool prices, battery and charger extra. Speed ranges are each maker's own published pair and land on the same two numbers, which is why no speed winner is called below. Source links per cell sit in the model sections, where the weight and price sourcing stories get told properly rather than compressed into a footnote.

The torque row that actually ranks

Every other flagship pair on this site comes with a unit warning. Milwaukee publishes in-lbs and DeWalt publishes UWO, so the DeWalt vs Milwaukee pair and the Makita vs DeWalt pair both refuse to rank their headline numbers. Here, no such problem: Milwaukee prints 1,400 in-lbs of maximum torque for the 2904 on its product page, Makita prints 1,250 in.lbs. for the XPH14Z on its product page, and pound-inches against pound-inches is a fair fight. The Milwaukee carries 150 more. Treat it as a real edge at the top of the range, not a verdict: both figures are maker-published maximums, and neither maker dyno-certifies them.

One caution about the numbers floating in the wild. A specialist brand guide currently ranking for this query prints a 530 in-lbs screwdriving figure and a 21,200 bpm hammer rate for the XPH14Z. Both disagree with Makita's own page, which publishes the 1,250 in.lbs. maximum and 0-31,500 BPM our dataset records. When a third-party table and the manufacturer disagree, this site follows the manufacturer and says so, which is exactly the discipline our specs explained reference documents model by model.

Weights, with the cards face up

Both weights in the table are recorded figures with a sourcing story, and hiding either story would be the dishonest move. The 2904's 3.2 lb is the figure recorded in our dataset from the specialist sources it cites, the Pro Tool Reviews class; Milwaukee's own product page publishes 3.3 lb for the bare tool, and Pro Tool Reviews' live hammer-drill table also carries 3.3. A 0.1 lb spread inside the same sourcing family is a rounding stance, not a contradiction, so the dataset figure stands as recorded and the 3.3 goes on the record beside it. The XPH14Z's 4.3 lb is specialist-sourced too, because Makita's product page publishes no bare-tool weight at all: it lists 6.0 lbs. with battery and leaves bare weight to the testing press. Nothing gets converted and nothing gets averaged here. On every reading, weight belongs to the Milwaukee, by roughly a pound bare and by about the same with batteries mounted.

The Milwaukee 2904 side

1400 in-lbs, 0-2100 RPM, 33,000 bpm hammer, 3.2 lb recorded bare, brushless, AutoStop kickback control. Sources: Milwaukee 2904-20 product page, Pro Tool Reviews 2904 test, recorded price per Construction Tool Warehouse

The 2904 is the fourth-generation M18 Fuel hammer drill, and its card leads the dataset on hammer rate at 33,000 bpm. AutoStop is the feature that matters over a long day: when the bit binds, the drill shuts itself down instead of spinning your wrist, and the XPH14Z has no equivalent on this model. The M18 platform behind it is the deepest single-voltage ecosystem in the dataset, and the five-year warranty Milwaukee attaches is the longest of the three brands in this triangle, against Makita's three years on LXT tools. The trade is at the register and in the aisle: Milwaukee sells M18 through Home Depot in the US, per the specialist guides tracking retail exclusivity, so Amazon price pressure does not exist for the 2904 the way it does for the Makita.

The price story is a recorded-versus-live split, shown rather than smoothed. The dataset recorded $259 on 2026-09-07 at the cited source. On this page's 2026-10-15 pull, Home Depot listed the 2904-20 bare at $199.00, and Pro Tool Reviews' current pricing table carries the same $199, sixty dollars under the September record. Prices move; that is the whole reason this site stamps dates on them. Verify before deciding anything: current Home Depot price.

The Makita XPH14Z side

1250 in-lbs, 0-2100 RPM, 31,500 bpm hammer, 4.3 lb specialist-recorded bare, brushless. Sources: Makita XPH14Z product page (torque, speeds, bpm, with-battery 6.0 lb), bare weight per the specialist press the dataset cites, live band read at Acme Tools and Home Depot, 2026-10-15

The XPH14Z is the top of Makita's 18V LXT hammer line, and 1250 in-lbs with 31,500 bpm is a genuine flagship card, 150 in-lbs and 1,500 bpm behind the Milwaukee on paper and level on top speed. The LXT platform is the largest 18V slide-pack ecosystem anywhere, so the first battery buys entry to the widest tool catalog in the dataset, and Makita moves through every major retailer including Amazon, which is where the street-price advantage comes from. Its hammer rating is two-source verified in the dataset, the same standard every row here has to meet.

The price band, honestly bounded. Recorded $189 on 2026-09-07. On the 2026-10-15 pull the reads ran $199.00 in Acme Tools' sale listing and Home Depot's structured data, with the Home Depot Makita shelf showing $179.00, so the verified live band is $179 to $199. One specialist brand guide prints a street figure near $137 for this model; our own retailer reads could not reproduce anything that low this week, so it stays attributed and unverified rather than absorbed into the band. The number to check is the live one: current Acme Tools price.

The mid tier: Milwaukee 3601 vs Makita XFD131

Flagship versus flagship is the fun version of this question. The mid tier is the profitable one, and the dataset holds a clean Milwaukee-versus-Makita fight one shelf down: the M18 compact 3601 against the LXT driver-drill XFD131.

The XPH14Z's stablemate is the model whose torque cell was empty the longest. Makita's own page publishes 440 in.lbs. of max torque for the XFD131; third-party tables publish 530; and for as long as those two disagreed the dataset carried none and printed the dispute, exactly as specs explained documents using this very model. The 2026-10-19 backfill settled it: a dealer spec table independently matched Makita's 440, so the dataset now records 440 in-lbs, and the 530 stays attributed, unverified copy rather than a rival claim. What is verified alongside it: 0-500 and 0-1,900 RPM from Makita's page, a brushless motor, and a US kit listing at $179 with a 3.0Ah battery where the with-battery weight reads 3.8 lbs.; no bare weight and no verified bare price exist to print.

The 3601's card is complete by comparison, and cheap: 550 in-lbs, 1700 RPM, 2.3 lb bare, $99 recorded, and on the 2026-10-15 pull Walmart listed it at exactly $99.00, the only anchor on this page where record and live agree to the cent: 3601-20 listing. It is a drill/driver without hammer mode, which is the honest reason it costs half of a 2904. The full write-up of the 3601 as the homeowner pick lives on our best drill for home use page, which is where that recommendation is argued.

The triangle this page completes

Three flagship hammers, three brand pairs, one rule about units. This page holds the Milwaukee-versus-Makita side: 1400 in-lbs against 1250 in-lbs, comparable, Milwaukee ahead. The Makita vs DeWalt page and the DeWalt vs Milwaukee page hold the other two sides, and both hit the same wall: DeWalt rates the DCD1007 at 1530 UWO, watts rather than pound-inches, and watts never convert to in-lbs honestly. So the triangle resolves asymmetrically: the Milwaukee tops Makita on published in-lbs here, and whether it tops DeWalt is a question no torque table can answer, only a test track can. If you are shopping all three brands at once, read the two DeWalt sides before trusting any single ranking, and keep the unit boundary in mind.

Which one should you buy

• If maximum torque is the job: the 2904. 1400 against 1250 published in-lbs is the one headline comparison in this triangle that ranks cleanly, and 33,000 bpm leads the dataset for masonry work. Our concrete drilling page works those hammer rows in depth.
• If the budget decides: the XPH14Z. It has been cheaper at every read this site has made, recorded and live, and the $179 shelf price on 2026-10-15 against the Milwaukee's $199 is a forty-dollar gap after both fell.
• If your wrist has met a bound-up bit: the 2904's AutoStop. Kickback control is fitted to the Milwaukee and absent on this Makita model, and it is the one safety feature that separates the cards.
• If overhead work fills the day: the 2904 again, by a recorded pound bare and with the same margin mounted. This is the rare pair where the lighter drill is also the stronger one.
• If this is a first drill for a household: step down a tier to the 3601 at $99, live-verified at Walmart on 2026-10-15. The home use page makes that case in full, and the under-$100 lane is covered by the budget tier list.
• If the garage already holds batteries: the brand you are locked into, either one. A $199 flagship plus a battery you do not need is a $300 drill, and both ecosystems are excellent; platform depth beats spec deltas once you own two or more tools.

Related pages

This site keeps one brand pairing to a page, and the remaining sides of the flagship triangle are the DeWalt vs Milwaukee comparison and the Makita vs DeWalt comparison, both carrying the UWO boundary this pair escapes. The full price comparison breaks the dataset into budget, mid and premium tiers, with torque per dollar computed for every priced row, the comparison chart lines every spec column up in one table, and the Makita lineup comparison chart covers the brand's six current US rows end to end. Specs explained is the reference for torque units and the disagreement rule the XFD131 row demonstrates, and best drill for home use is where the 3601 lives. The sortable comparison tool renders the whole dataset with a source attached to every cell.