Here is the short answer, because it is the question everyone actually wants settled. If you do real projects around the house, buy a drill and an impact driver, almost always as a two-tool combo kit. If you genuinely only hang the odd picture, a single drill is all you need and an impact driver is overkill. Everything below is why, and how to pick.
This question comes up on r/Tools constantly. There is a thread titled, almost word for word, “drills vs impact drivers, what am I missing?” that drew over 230 replies on its own, and the same argument plays out across the more than 40,000 r/Tools comments in our dataset. The useful part: the answer barely changes. The two tools do different jobs. Once you see the split, the buying decision makes itself.
The difference, in one sentence
It is speed versus torque.
A drill is the all-rounder. It has an adjustable clutch, the numbered dial that lets it stop at a set torque, so you can sink a screw flush without stripping it or punching through. It bores clean holes, it handles delicate work, and it is the tool you reach for when control matters more than raw force.
An impact driver is the brute. As resistance climbs it hammers rotationally, delivering far more torque than a drill from a smaller, lighter body. That is what drives a long deck screw or a lag bolt that would stall a drill. The trade is finesse. Most impacts have no clutch, so it is easy to overdrive a small screw or strip a soft one.
The clearest explanation in the threads came from an r/Tools reply with the kind of detail you only get from someone who uses both:
“A drill will break your wrist when the torque suddenly gets too high. An impact driver won’t. Modern drills imho will often outperform an impact on static drive speed. Torque can compound over multiple hits to provide higher metrics when using an impact. So yes it’s speed vs torque.”
The flip side is control. Another owner, new to impacts, described the surprise of borrowing an M18 for the first time and snapping the head clean off a wood screw. That is the impact in a nutshell: more force than you expect, less restraint than you sometimes want.
So do you need both?
For most people who actually build, fix, and assemble things, yes. Both. The two tools cover opposite halves of the same job. You drill the pilot holes and set cabinet hardware with the drill, then drive the long structural screws with the impact. Owners who have both describe grabbing each one constantly, often swapping mid-task rather than changing bits.
Who can skip the impact: if your tool use is hanging art, assembling flat-pack furniture, and the occasional curtain rod, one good drill does all of it. The clutch keeps you from overdriving, and you will rarely hit a fastener a drill can’t handle. Buying an impact for that life is spending money on power you won’t use.
Who should not skip it: decks, framing, subfloor, fencing, anything with long screws or lag bolts, or any project where you are driving fasteners for more than a few minutes. The impact saves your wrist and your drill’s motor, and it is faster on every stubborn screw.
Can’t a drill just do everything?
This is the honest objection, and it is half right. A drill can drive screws, and a good brushless one drives them faster than people expect on easy material. For light work it really is enough.
What a drill cannot do is keep going on high-torque jobs without fighting you. Drive twenty three-inch screws with a drill and you will feel it in your wrist when one bites and the whole tool tries to spin. The impact absorbs that in pulses. It is not that the drill fails. It is that it is the wrong tool for sustained torque, the same way a flathead “works” on a Phillips screw right up until it cams out.
What to actually buy
The sane, cheap way in is a two-tool combo kit: a drill and an impact driver on the same battery, in one box, for less than buying them apart.
The catch nobody mentions first is that you are not really choosing a drill. You are choosing a battery platform. The drill is cheap. The dozen tools you buy over the next decade, all locked to one battery, are the real commitment. So pick the ecosystem, then take its combo.
The DeWalt 20V pair is the common starting point and the value pick, and the durability reputation backs it up. One owner whose 13-year-old DeWalt finally died put the loyalty plainly: getting 13 years out of it would sell them on another DeWalt. If you want pro-grade and do not mind paying, the Milwaukee M18 combo is the step up most often named on jobsites. If budget is the whole concern, Ryobi ONE+ is the homeowner favorite, with the widest range of cheap one-battery tools to grow into.
If you have not committed to a platform yet, that choice matters more than the drill itself. We break down all five in the best power tool brand, per Reddit.
Where the “buy both” advice misleads
r/Tools answers this question with “get the combo” almost reflexively, and for the people answering, that is right. They build things. But the sub skews toward tradespeople and serious hobbyists, and their default is not always your default.
If you genuinely drive two screws a year and hang the occasional picture, you do not need an impact driver. One drill is fine. The combo is the right call for anyone doing real projects, but “everyone needs both” is the kind of advice that sounds authoritative and quietly oversells. Be honest about how much you actually build before you buy the second tool.
The other thing to tune out is the torque-number arms race. Past a basic brushless model, the spec sheet stops mattering for home use. A mid-range combo will out-work what most people ask of it for a decade. Buy for the jobs you actually do, not the jobs the spec sheet implies.
Common questions
Can an impact driver drill holes? Yes, with hex-shank or impact-rated bits, and it is fine for occasional holes in wood. But it is loud, hard to start precisely, and has no clutch, so for clean or repeated holes a drill is the right tool.
Do I really need an impact driver, or just a drill? If you drive a lot of long screws or do real construction-style projects, get both. If your projects are light and occasional, a single drill with a clutch covers it.
Is a drill or an impact driver better for driving screws? Short screws and delicate work: the drill, because the clutch stops you overdriving. Long or stubborn screws: the impact, because the torque comes in pulses that won’t wreck your wrist or strip the head.
Should I buy them separately or as a combo? The combo, almost always. A drill-and-impact kit costs less than the two tools bought alone and puts them on one battery and charger.
Which one to buy first
Tool prices bounce around, especially on Amazon, so treat any number here as a recent check rather than a promise. And if you truly only own a tool to hang the occasional shelf, ignore all of this and buy one drill.
But for anyone building a kit they will actually use, the drill-and-impact combo is the answer the threads keep landing on. Buy both, on one battery, and stop overthinking it.
For the next decision, which brand to lock into, start with Milwaukee vs DeWalt vs Ryobi vs Makita vs Bosch. And once you are past the power tools, the same “is the premium worth it” logic plays out with Knipex vs Channellock pliers and Wera screwdrivers.
