Quick verdict: These two cost exactly the same — $149.95 each — which makes this a pure question of what you put in the machine, not what you can afford. Buy the Ninja JC151 if kale, spinach or celery are a regular part of your juice. Buy the Breville JE98XL if it is mostly apples, carrots and oranges and you want it done in two minutes. They are close to mirror images of each other, and picking wrong is the most common way to end up with a juicer in a cupboard.
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Ninja JC151 vs Breville JE98XL at a glance
| Product | Best For | Price | Rating | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ninja NeverClog JC151 Masticating, 150W, 80 RPM |
Leafy greens and celery | $149.95 | 4.5★ (3,628) | Check Price |
| Breville JE98XL Juice Fountain Plus Centrifugal, 850W, two speeds |
Hard fruit and root vegetables, fast | $149.95 | 4.5★ (16,757) | Check Price |
Most pages ranking for this question compare the Ninja against a different, dearer Breville — the Juice Fountain Cold or the Cold XL, at $199.95 and $399.95 — and several never print a price at all. The JE98XL is the interesting one precisely because it costs the same as the Ninja to the cent.
The independent test that settles it
TechGearLab buys the juicers it tests and put both of these through the same 13-machine pool on the same rubric. That is what makes the numbers comparable — not two separate reviews with two different methods, but one test containing both machines. The full citation and links sit on the individual reviews of the Ninja JC151 and the Breville JE98XL.
| Category | Ninja JC151 | Breville JE98XL |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 76 (ranked #1 of 13) | 68 (ranked #2 of 13) |
| Juice quality | 8.8 | 8.3 |
| Soft produce | 7.5 | 5.8 |
| Hard produce | 5.3 | 8.3 |
| Leafy greens | 8.7 | 3.7 |
| Cleaning | 7.0 | 8.0 |
Read the two bold rows together. On hard produce the Breville scores three points higher; on leafy greens the Ninja scores five points higher. Same price, same test, opposite strengths. Almost nothing else in the category gives you a decision this clean.
The Ninja does take the higher overall score. It is worth being clear about why that can mislead: the overall score weights leafy greens at 20% and hard produce at 20%, so a machine that is superb at greens and poor at roots comes out ahead of one that is the reverse. If your shopping list is the reverse, so is the ranking.
What the difference actually feels like
Speed. The Breville is dramatically faster. An 850-watt motor spinning a shredding disc gets through a bag of apples in the time the Ninja takes to work through two. The 3-inch chute swallows whole fruit, so prep is quicker too. If juicing has to fit into a weekday morning, this is the machine that survives contact with reality.
Greens. The Ninja is not slightly better here, it is in a different category. A spinning disc needs structure to shred and kale offers none, so it comes out of the Breville as damp pulp. The Ninja’s slow auger crushes it against the screen instead. A 3.7 out of 10 is not a machine you can coax into doing this job with better technique.
Noise. The Breville sounds like a blender. The Ninja does not — an 80 RPM auger physically cannot make that noise. If you juice early in a shared house, that is a real difference rather than a spec-sheet one.
Juice that keeps. Slow-pressed juice separates and oxidises more slowly, so the Ninja’s output survives a few hours in the fridge better. Centrifugal juice is best drunk soon after making it. Neither is a health claim — it is a texture and shelf-life difference you can see in the glass.
Cleaning, honestly
The Breville cleans up better, which surprises people who assume the fast messy machine must be worse. It has fewer parts and they are larger. The Ninja has more components and a finer screen.
Both share the same failure mode: rinse the filter while the pulp is still wet and it takes two minutes; leave it to dry and the mesh sets hard. That single habit matters more than the difference between the two machines. If yours is already jamming or slowing, the juicer clog diagnostic covers which cause you actually have.
Which one should you buy?
Three questions. Answer them honestly about what you will actually juice, not what you intend to juice.
- Will greens be in more than a third of your juices? If yes, buy the Ninja and stop reading. Nothing else outweighs a 3.7 on the machine that cannot do the job you bought it for.
- Do you need it done in under three minutes on a weekday? If yes and greens are occasional, buy the Breville. Speed is the thing that decides whether a juicer stays on the counter.
- Are you juicing for more than two people at once? The Breville’s 35.2 oz jug and 2.6 quart pulp bin handle batch work; the Ninja’s 24 oz jug means stopping to empty partway through.
If the answers pull in opposite directions — greens matter and speed matters — neither of these is your machine. That is the case for stepping up to the Omega Cold Press at $199.87, which handles greens properly without being as slow as the Ninja on everything else.
The case for buying both
Worth doing the arithmetic, because it is not obvious. The Ninja and the Breville together cost $299.90. The Nama J2, the premium hands-free machine, is $599.00.
So two machines that between them cover every job either one does badly — greens on the Ninja, hard produce and speed on the Breville — cost half what one machine at the top of the market costs. If you have the counter space and you genuinely juice both kinds of produce, that is a better use of $300 than compromising on one machine, and considerably better than $599.
The obvious objection is counter space and two lots of washing up, and it is a fair one. But nobody selling juicers has any reason to suggest it, which is why you will not read it anywhere else.
One thing to check before you buy the Ninja
Amazon prices the JC151 finishes separately. The Charcoal reviewed here is $149.95; the Silver JC151SL has been listed at $129.99 — identical machine, same motor, same filters, $20 less. The Charcoal simply has more accumulated ratings because it has been listed longer. Check the Silver first if the colour is not important to you.
How this comparison was made
Prices, availability and rating counts for both machines were verified on the live Amazon listings for ASIN B0BR8HZL9V and B003R28HWQ with a United States delivery address on the date shown below — both $149.95 and both in stock at the time of writing. The performance figures come from TechGearLab, which buys the units it tests and scored both machines in the same 13-juicer pool on the same rubric; the source is cited and linked in full on the individual review of each machine. I have not run a side-by-side yield test on these two juicers myself, and no number here is presented as if I had.
Verdict
There is no winner here, and any comparison that declares one is not paying attention. Two machines at $149.95 with the same star rating and opposite competences: the Ninja for greens, the Breville for speed and hard produce. Decide by looking in your fridge rather than at the overall scores, and if the honest answer is that you want both kinds of juice, buying both still costs half of what the category’s flagship does.
Check Ninja JC151 Price Check Breville JE98XL Price
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Ninja JC151 or the Breville JE98XL better?
Neither, and that is the honest answer. They cost the same $149.95 and hold the same 4.5-star average. In the same independent test the Ninja scored 8.7 on leafy greens against the Breville’s 3.7, while the Breville scored 8.3 on hard produce against the Ninja’s 5.3. Pick by what you juice, not by the overall ranking.
Why does the Ninja rank higher overall if the Breville beats it on hard produce?
Because the scoring weights leafy greens and hard produce equally at 20% each, and the Ninja is further ahead on greens than the Breville is on roots. If your juicing is mostly apples and carrots, the overall ranking is actively misleading for you.
Which is faster, the Ninja or the Breville?
The Breville, by a wide margin. Its 850-watt motor and 3-inch whole-fruit chute get through produce in a fraction of the time the Ninja’s 80 RPM auger needs, and there is less pre-cutting. Speed is the main reason a juicer stays on the counter rather than in a cupboard.
Can the Breville JE98XL juice kale and spinach?
Not well. It scored 3.7 out of 10 on leafy greens in independent testing. A centrifugal disc needs structured produce to shred and leaves give it almost nothing to grip, so greens come out as damp pulp. No technique fixes this — it is how the mechanism works.
Is it worth buying both instead of one better juicer?
It can be. Together they cost $299.90, against $599.00 for the Nama J2 at the top of the market. Two machines covering greens and hard produce respectively cost half what one flagship does. The trade is counter space and two sets of parts to wash.
Which is easier to clean?
The Breville, slightly — fewer and larger parts, and it scored 8.0 against the Ninja’s 7.0. Both depend far more on rinsing the filter screen while the pulp is still wet. Left to dry, the fine mesh sets hard on either machine.
Related guides
- Best Juicer 2026: Cold Press and Centrifugal Picks Tested
- Masticating vs Centrifugal Juicer: Which Should You Buy?
- Ninja NeverClog JC151 Review
- Breville JE98XL Review
- Best Juicer for Celery in 2026
Glenn is the founder of Kitchenware Compare and has spent years researching, testing, and reviewing kitchen appliances, cookware, and gadgets. A lifelong home cook raised in a family that treated every meal as an occasion, Glenn started this site to cut through the noise of conflicting product reviews and give readers honest, practical guidance. When he is not testing the latest air fryer or digging into the specs of a new espresso machine, he can usually be found experimenting with new recipes or hunting for the perfect cast iron skillet at a flea market.
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