How Much Does a Drum Set Cost? (2025 Kit Prices)

Drums have a bit of a reputation for being expensive instruments. It makes sense because there are a few components that make up a set and each one has the potential to get really expensive.

So, how much does a drum set cost in general? There isn’t a final average price of a drum set for people to know. Instead, you have to think about how drum kits are priced depending on how much work has gone into making them.

While you can get beginner kits for around $500, they are nowhere near the best in terms of the quality. To get a decent drum set that can handle studio recording duties as well, you need to spend around $700-800 on a shell pack and another $300-400 on cymbals, making the total cost around $1,000 to $1,200 for the full kit.

Not familiar with terms like shell pack? Just keep reading and by the end of the article, you’ll have a clear idea about the different tiers of drum, as well as the bare minimum terminology that you must know before buying your first set.

I’m going to do my best in giving you the most elaborate breakdown of drum kit prices I possibly can. Let’s dive in!

Drum Kit Tiers

Firstly, you should know that most music gear is broken down into tiers. Drum sets, in particular, are sold as entry-level, intermediate, and pro sets. The prices of the drums increase as the tier gets higher.

There are also a few outliers to think of such as the inexplicably cheap sets, compact sets, and electronic drum kits.

Cheap Drum Sets

Before we get onto the real deal, I first need to talk about the drum kits that are unreasonably cheap. The names Gammon and Mendini come to mind straight away when I think about this. Those two brands, as well as a few more, sell drum sets that you can pick up for under $200.

The reason they’re so cheap is that they don’t have good build qualities and the resources used are all low-cost materials. You end up with drum kits that don’t sound very good and also have no potential to sound good no matter how well you tune them.

While I think a Mendini drum set is a great option for children who are beginner drummers, I don’t think getting a kit like this is a viable solution for anyone wanting to pursue drumming for long term.

The hardware and cymbals that come with these cheap kits are also fairly low-quality. I’ve had a few students who have bought the cheapest drum sets possible and ended up needing to upgrade in just a few months due to the sound limitations.

Entry-Level Drum Sets

Every major drum brand offers an entry-level drum kit. These drum sets are the cheapest kits to buy in their product line, and they usually include everything you need to start playing the drums.

Entry-level kits can range anywhere from $300 to $700. While $700 may seem a little steep for someone who is first getting into drumming, the value that entry-level kits provide is often massive.

One of my favorite entry-level kits is the Pearl Roadshow. It’s a full 5-piece drum set that comes with hardware and cymbals. A kit like this is the blueprint that most other drum brands follow when selling an entry-level kit.

The great thing about these kits is that the toms often sound fantastic when you put good drum heads on them and tune them nicely. Drummers will typically upgrade the other components like the cymbals or the snare drum once they outgrow the original parts.

Some other popular entry-level kits that I can recommend are the Tama Imperialstar, Yamaha Rydeen, and the Ludwig Accent.

Intermediate Drum Sets

Intermediate kits are where things start to get a bit interesting in terms of what they offer. Drum brands will sell intermediate kits with different features and wood types on offer.

The price varies heavily with these kits. You could get an intermediate set from anywhere between $600 and $1500. You may be thinking how that could be as some of the entry-level kits cost $700. The thing is that some intermediate kits only come as shell packs, meaning they don’t include any hardware or cymbals.

One of my favorite intermediate kits on the market is the Yamaha Stage Custom. I teach drums on this kit, and it has such a great tone that it could easily be used in professional situations. Surprisingly, you can buy one of these kits for less than $800.

My top picks for an intermediate kit that come with hardware and cymbals would be the Ludwig Element Evolution. I don’t think this set has much competition in the amount of value it offers.

Some other great intermediate kits that are just shell packs are the PDP Concept Maple, Tama Superstar Classic, Mapex Armory, and Gretsch Catalina Maple. All these sets range from $800 to around $1200.

Professional Drum Sets

The range of pricing varies the most when it comes to pro kits. The cheapest pro kit I can think of would be the DW Design Series. The most expensive pro kit I can think of would be the DW Collectors Series Exotic.

There’s almost a $7000 difference between those two kits, showing you exactly how wide the scope is with the pricing of pro kits.

I’ve been a professional drummer for about 10 years, and I’ve never needed a drum set that cost more than $2000. The more expensive kits aren’t necessary for pro drummers to use, they’re just highly luxurious drum kits for people that can afford them.

If you’re thinking of getting the highest quality drum set possible that you can get, I’d suggest getting a lower-priced professional kit and investing the rest of your money in pro cymbals. We’ll talk about those later, though.

Compact Drum Sets

The final type of acoustic kit to mention would be compact kits. I’ve put these types of kits as their own thing since you can get cheap ones as well as expensive ones. Typically, drummers will buy compact kits as secondary kits to use when they’re limited for space.

All compact kits only come as shell packs, and the prices of them vary from $300 to about $1500. The cheapest compact kit that I can think of is the Ludwig Breakbeats. Even though it’s the cheapest, it’s one of the most popular compact sets on the market.

Another great compact kit that sits in a similar price range is the Pearl Midtown. I’ve played so many gigs with this kit that it’s become one of my most prized possessions.

If you want to know how expensive compact sets can get, look no further than the DW Frequent Flyer. It costs just under $1500.

Electronic Drum Sets

Electronic drum sets differ from acoustic kits mainly due to the fact that all electronic kits come as one product. You don’t need to buy hardware or cymbals separately. You can if you want to add more components, but you don’t need to in order to have a full set.

The tier system works mostly the same as it does with acoustic drum kits. You get entry-level e-kits that only cost a few hundred dollars, and then you get pro kits that cost a few thousand dollars.

The most popular affordable electronic kits are from the brand, Alesis. The Alesis Nitro and Alesis Surge are both fantastic kits that many drummers start out with.

Apart from Alesis, the other two popular electronic brands are Roland and Yamaha. While these brands also offer affordable kits, they’re more well-known for offering top-of-the-range electronic sets.

Roland recently released the VAD706 which is arguably the best electronic drum kit in existence. It costs the same amount of money that I would consider being a good deposit on a large house!

Different Aspects of Buying a Drum Kit

I mentioned a few of these aspects above, but I feel I should elaborate on them a bit more to show you how buying a drum set is often never a black and white thing when it comes to costs. There are always a few hidden costs that trip people up.

Shell Packs vs Full Packages

The biggest decision to make when you’re buying a drum set is whether to buy a shell pack or a fully equipped set. If you already have a drum kit, I’d suggest getting a shell pack. You could get a pretty good deal on some drums that sound much better than the ones you already have.

If you’re getting a drum kit for the first time, then you should get a fully stocked drum set. You’re going to need the hardware and cymbals so that you have everything you need to start playing.

The cymbals and hardware that come with these kits are typically quite decent to start off with. Most of my beginner students don’t hear the difference in cymbal quality when they first start playing the drums. So, an entry-level kit that has some cymbals will be the best option for you to go with.

Hardware

If you ever plan on adding some more drums or cymbals to your setup, you’ll need to get hardware that will allow you to set them up. I’m not the biggest fan of spending big money on hardware since I’m not directly playing on it. However, the higher the quality of your hardware, the more secure your drums and cymbals are going to feel.

If you buy cheaper hardware, your drum kit is going to feel cheap as the drums will wobble, or the stands will often come loose. So, I’d suggest investing in some heavy-duty hardware to make your drums feel more secure to play on. It always helps to have stands that have double-braced legs, instead of ones that have single-braced legs.

Another piece of hardware that many drummers love buying is a drum rack. A rack allows you to connect all your drum pieces to a single stand, creating a highly secure and easy to adjust setup. Drum racks can cost anywhere from $300 to $1000. One of my favorite ones is the Gibraltar GCS-450C.

Cymbals

Cymbals are where I’ve spent most of my money over the years. The same can be said for many drummers that I know. The great thing about cymbals is that they have the power to change the entire dynamic of your drum set, so drummers will buy different cymbals to cater to different playing scenarios.

Cymbal brands also sell their products in different tiers. The price of a cymbal will depend on what type of metal it’s made from as well as the production process it went through.

A single entry-level cymbal will cost less than $100. However, the value of entry-level cymbals really comes to life when you get them in cymbal packs. My favorite affordable cymbal pack is the Meinl HCS Ultimate Set. You get 9 cymbals in this pack for less than $500 which is wild! I’ve also reviewed it here.

Pro-level cymbals cost around $300 to $500 each. Most pro cymbal packs cost from $1000 to $1500. One of the best value-for-money pro packs, in my opinion, is the Meinl Mike Johnston Set. You get 4 incredibly high-quality cymbals here that cover a wide range of sounds.

Sticks and Accessories

The final component that often gets missed when talking about the price of drum kits is the accessories you use to actually play the drums. You can’t play drums if you don’t have a pair of sticks, and most drum kits don’t come with sticks, meaning you need to buy them separately.

Luckily, drum sticks aren’t very expensive. The most popular sticks in the world, the Vic Firth 5As, only cost about $10.

Depending on who you are, you may need to buy a few pairs of drum sticks every month. Sticks don’t last as long as we’d like them to when you’re playing frequently. I personally need to buy a new pair of drum sticks every two months.

Wrap Up

If you were wondering how much is a drum set, hopefully by now you’ve realized that drum set prices are largely dependent on your needs. If you’re looking to buy your first drum set, you don’t need to spend more than $800 on a fairly decent kit.

Make sure to get one that comes with hardware and cymbals so that you don’t need to buy any necessary components separately. You’ll just need to buy a few pairs of drum sticks to go with that.

If you’re planning on getting a luxurious drum set, you could spend up to $10,000. I haven’t seen any kit that costs more than that, thankfully!