The picks
A plier tool is a different object from a pocket knife with extras bolted on. The pliers are the point, and everything else, the drivers, the wire cutters, the saw, the file, rides along because the handles have to be there anyway. If you have ever needed to grip, twist, or cut wire away from a toolbox, you already know why this category exists.
Every plier-based multi-tool on our shelves is a Gerber. That is not curation, it is the shelf: twenty-seven SKUs, all one brand, which collapse into a handful of genuinely distinct platforms. These six picks are those platforms, from $46.64 to $139.95. If your question is which multi-tool to buy under $100 rather than which platform, our multi-tool under $100 guide answers that directly and this page is the wider view.
Plier tools split into two mechanical families and the difference changes how you use them every single time. Butterfly designs fold open in the middle, so you spread both handles apart and the pliers arrive between them. It is the classic layout, it is strong, and it needs two hands.
Sliding designs, which is Gerber's signature, keep the pliers in the head and push them out with a flick. One hand, one motion, pliers ready. Up a ladder, or with your free hand already committed, that difference stops being a convenience and starts being the reason you own the tool. Should you want those pieces identified, look in the parts of a multi-tool.
Neither is better in the abstract. The butterfly gives you a simpler mechanism with fewer things to gum up; the slide gives you speed. Gerber built its reputation on the slide, and most of this page uses it.
The Gerber Suspension NXT at $46.64 costs the least here and is where most people should start. Closed it measures 4.25 inches and it opens to 6.25, the handles are stainless, and the tool list runs to needlenose pliers, wire cutter, serrated blade, scissors, and flathead drivers in two sizes.
What makes it the right first plier tool is that it is a full-size butterfly tool at a price where most competitors are keychain-scale. Scissors in particular are a tool people underestimate until they own a multi-tool without them.
Its limits are honest ones: the drivers are on the handles rather than a bit system, so you get the sizes Gerber chose and no others, and the pliers are adequate rather than strong. For occasional use in a car or a drawer, it is plenty.
The Gerber Multi-Plier 600 at $99.99 is the tool this whole category is built around. At 5 1/8 inches closed it carries the sliding needlenose head plus a crimper, wire cutter, Phillips driver, serrated blade, bottle and can openers, and scales in both standard and metric. It has been in service with people who work outdoors for decades, and the reason is that the slide-out head works reliably when your hands are cold and full.
Two variants exist for specific reasons. The Blunt Nose Pliers with Tool Kit at $109.95 swaps the needlenose head for blunt jaws, which grip broader objects more securely and cannot poke into things you did not intend, and adds a bit kit. The MP600 Bladeless at $119.95 removes the knife blade entirely and is finished in black oxide coated 420HC stainless throughout.
The Bladeless deserves an explanation, because it looks like a worse tool for more money. It exists for workplaces where blades are not permitted: secure facilities, some airside and industrial sites, certain schools and hospitals. If you work somewhere with a no-blades rule, this is the plier tool you are allowed to carry, and that is worth more than a knife you have to leave at home.
The Gerber Dual Force at $124.99 is 4.65 inches closed and carries a wire cutter, wire stripper, saw blade, file, flathead driver, ruler, lanyard loop and pliers. Its name refers to the plier mechanism, which is built to put more clamping force at the jaws than a standard design manages from the same hand pressure. If you actually squeeze hard with a multi-tool rather than using it for light fiddling, that is the one on this page aimed at you.
The Gerber Center Drive at $139.95 is the priciest tool here and, to our eyes, the cleverest. Its name describes its whole argument: the screwdriver sits on the tool's center axis rather than off to one side. On every conventional multi-tool the driver is offset, which means it approaches a screw at an angle and you fight it. A centered driver goes straight in, and it turns like a real screwdriver rather than a compromise.
It also takes standard hex bits, so unlike every other tool here you are not limited to the driver shapes the maker chose. If you use a multi-tool mainly for screws, this is the one worth the money, and the difference is large enough to be obvious within a day.
Worth being straight about the limits, because plier tools get oversold. The pliers on any multi-tool are shorter and weaker than real pliers, and the drivers are shorter and less comfortable than real screwdrivers. If a job is planned and you own a toolbox, use the toolbox. These tools are for jobs that find you.
The blades are similarly compromised. A multi-tool blade is short, awkward to grip, and difficult to sharpen well, which is why many people carry a plier tool and a pocket knife together rather than expecting either to do both. Our under $100 knife guide covers the other half of that pairing.
The saws and files are the most compromised of all and are best thought of as emergency capability rather than tools you would choose. What plier tools genuinely excel at is being present. The best tool for the job is the one in your pocket when the job appears, and that is the entire argument for the category.
The six picks span nearly a hundred dollars and a real difference in mass, and matching that to your use is most of the buying decision.
Light duty means a tool that lives in a car, a desk drawer, or a bag you rarely open, and gets used a handful of times a year for something unexpected. The Suspension NXT at $46.64 is that tool, and spending more on a tool you will use six times is money in the wrong place.
Regular carry means the tool is on your belt or in your bag most days and gets used weekly. That is the MP600's territory at $99.99, where the one-hand slide out earns its cost through repetition and the build survives being handled constantly. This is also where the Center Drive at $139.95 makes its case, because someone using drivers weekly notices a centered one every single time.
Hard use means the tool is doing work rather than favors: gripping, twisting, and cutting as part of a job. That is the Dual Force at $124.99, built for clamping force, and the specialist Blunt Nose and Bladeless versions for people whose work has particular requirements. If you are not sure which of the three you are, you are in the middle one, and the MP600 is the safe answer.
Most of these ship with a sheath, and how you carry a plier tool decides whether you have it when you need it. On a belt is traditional and by far the most likely to actually be with you. In a pack is the compromise most people settle for. In a glovebox is where multi-tools go to be forgotten, which is fine if it is a spare and a waste if it is your only one.
Maintenance is minimal but not zero. The plier pivot and the tool pivots collect grit and dry out, and a stiff multi-tool is a multi-tool that stays folded. A drop of light oil at the plier joint and along the tool pivots once or twice a year keeps everything moving. Rinse and dry it after wet or dirty work rather than letting the residue set.
What actually fails over years is the wire cutter, which is the most abused part on any of these. Cutting hardened wire, nails, or screws will chip the cutting edges, and once chipped they do not recover. Use the cutter for what it is rated for and this becomes a tool that lasts decades. The knife blade, meanwhile, sharpens like any other on a stone from our sharpener guide.
Buy the Center Drive at $139.95 if you drive screws with a multi-tool, because a centered, bit-taking driver is a real functional difference rather than a feature list entry. Take the Multi-Plier 600 at $99.99 for the slide-out head that has been proving itself in working hands for decades.
Buy the Suspension NXT at $46.64 if this is your first plier tool or a spare for a vehicle, the Dual Force at $124.99 if you grip hard and want the clamping force, the Blunt Nose with Tool Kit at $109.95 if broad, secure jaws suit your work better than a fine point, and the Bladeless at $119.95 if your workplace does not allow blades.
None of these six clears our $149 free-shipping threshold for the contiguous US on its own. Everything comes off our own shelves in Woodlawn, Virginia and typically goes out within 24 hours on business days. For the smaller end of this category, our keychain multi-tool guide covers the tools that live on a key ring instead of a belt.
