for me "store brands" is something like parkside? a "fake" brand that is only sold inside one store.

ryobi europe/us is definitely consumer focused, but not a store brand

I was under the impression they are tied to Home Depot and not available at other stores.

The tool brand stuff gets highly confusing very quickly. In the USA Ryobi is a brand manufactured for Home Depot by TTI (the same company that owns Milwaukee but it is NOT Milwaukee manufacturing for Ryobi).

Outside of the USA it's completely different. Sometimes the same brand can be nearly identical even though manufactured differently, other times they have the same name and are completely different.

Another one is Rigid - their power tools are manufactured by TTI, except for the plumbing-specific ones (sometimes) which are made by Emerson.

It's quite like hard drives are (were?) where there's only a few manufacturers but many more brands.

https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/#tti

Regardless of the manufacturer, battery technology has increased so incredibly that even the "crappiest" cordless tools are better than those from the early 2000s.

----

Src: retired electrician that has used (and broken) a lot of tools

----

My primary tool of choice is Stanley's upscale brand, DeWalt.

Were I considering to "buy a cheaper tool," perhaps esoteric items intended for single use: instead of Ryobi, I'd settle on Harbor Freight.

Where I spent most of my wiring days [IBEW], the "top tool" was always a competition of Yellow -vs- Red.

Man I still have some pro cordless electric screwdriver that was pretty good 20-25y ago, we used those on construction sites. You can actually still get replacement batteries (off brand) but for around 70 bucks last I checked I'm really not sure if I wanna risk that :P

Then again I've never bought one for myself and still kept this one from my dad.

One of the reasons I was leaning toward DeWalt is they seem to have a shared battery system. I don't want to have 20 different battery standards when I could just keep buying the same ones and using them all on different tools.

I have several different electric drills I received as gifts with their own batteries.

Most manufacturers share batteries of the same voltage but even DeWalt and Milwaukee have been bending that rule (there are flex volt Dewalts, and High Output M18s that have different characteristics).

Here's my "pro tip" for purchasing less-expensive 20V DeWalt batteries, although it only works at the end of autumn: around the first annual winter freeze, all the outdoor tools go on sale.

Typically outdoor tools are paired with their largest AH battery available; sometimes the pair retail for less than just a single 4AH+ battery [sometimes "half off"].

Doesn't always work out, but I do this every other year (and have multiple weed whackers lol). My last 4AH 20V Dewalt battery cost me $49 this way.

Honestly I know many tradespeople who literally don’t care and are fine using what the local HD has to offer.