One of the first pieces of advice I give to people building a home gym is to find room for a full power rack. Training at home often times means training without a spotter. No spotter means a high risk of injury and even death.

For home gym owners, the rack is your spotter. It keeps you safe and can very realistically save your life. So if you can, find room for a full rack. They really don’t take up much more room (once you add your bench and bar) than a squat stand or half rack.

A power rack will also allow you to perform a lot of movements you’d never be able to do with a bench rack, squat stand, or no rack at all. It’s the centerpiece of all great home gyms.

As important as they are, they don’t always need to cost a fortune. Yes, you can spend $1000’s on one. If I had the budget, that’s exactly what I’d do. But I don’t and a lot of you don’t either.

The racks on this page represent a great balance of price and functionality. Any one of them will serve you well.

If you are looking for great deals on home gym gear, make sure to check out my deals page here!

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What not to buy

First, don’t buy the least expensive rack you can. Often, the specs will make them look like they can hold a lot of weight, but they are not a good option, and capacity is only one of many qualities you should look for.

Cheap racks are not stable. They aren’t heavy enough to serve as a solid base to lift from. They move and wobble as you rack and unrack the weight. This is not safe.

They are also made from cheap steel that will bend over time. This isn’t good when you are trusting them to hold hundreds of pounds, sometimes suspended over your body!

If you are looking to spend $100-$200, you are better off buying used. Anything new at that price point, regardless of what the fake user reviews posted online tell you, will be a waste of money.

I also want to make it clear that higher-end racks, while very nice looking, are almost always an aesthetic choice. My high-end recommendation below will not hold weight any better than the other options listed.

It’s nicer looking with a better fit and finish for sure. It has more attachments and options available. It’s heavier duty with better welds. But it is not functionally better than a less expensive rack as long as that less expensive option is made well.

Power Rack Resources

Recommended Racks

As with most things in your home gym, it will always benefit you to buy on the nicer side of things. Remember that if bought right, you’ll have this rack for as long as you want to keep it. Good racks never wear out.

If you are on a budget, don’t be afraid to go with one of the lower-priced options below. Your rack isn’t as important as your bar or bench. Spend extra money there if you can and save on your rack.

I’ve broken down my list of recommended racks into a few categories. I’ve tested each of these racks personally (among many, many others) and recommend each of them with confidence.

Once you know which category you fit within, you will now know what rack to buy!

Best Power rack under $500

At this price point, you’ll find a lot of enticing options. Pretty colors with lots of attachments. They will mostly be from companies you’ve never heard of before, but the marketing copy on line will be persuasive. Don’t fall for it.

It’s hard to build a quality rack at this price point. For that reason, you want all of your money to go towards build quality, not colors and attachments.

For those reasons, my top pick here is the Rep Fitness PR-1000 combined with the optional weight storage. When paired together, you get a solid rack that will stay in place without bolting it to the floor (assuming you have plates on the storage portion). You can’t get better for the money!

Here is the rundown on the PR-1000 and weight storage:

Rack – $275.00
Weight storage – $149.00
Total price – $424.00 plus shipping
2″ x 2″ 14 gauge steel
1″ holes
2″ hole spacing
Numbered uprights
Dual pull-up bars (fat & thin)
Flat foot design is stable without being bolted down
Safety pins
UHMW protected J cups won’t damage your bar
Rack capacity – 700 lbs
Weight storage capacity – 2000 lbs
Weight storage stores 2 barbells as well
Available lat pulldown attachment, something only found in much more expensive racks.
Black powder coat

Where to buy

I’m constantly keeping an eye out for the best place to buy the products I recommend. Rep Fitness is constantly updating their products, so to ensure you get the latest versions, always buy directly from them. You’ll also get faster shipping, all available promos, and better customer service that way too!

Click here to check stock, pricing, and options on the Rep Fitness PR-1000 rack and weight storage

The 2 Best All-Around Power Racks for the money

There are a lot of high-end power racks out there (see the end of this section for an example). The thing is that they don’t function any better than these next two less expensive options.

When I built my current home gym, the two most important pieces of equipment to me were the barbell and the bench. Those are the things you have direct physical contact with while training.

So those are the two items I spent more money on. When it came to my rack, I wanted something extremely solid and built to last. But I didn’t need a lot of the bells and whistles that drive the price up on higher-end racks.

So after driving to countless friend’s garages, local gyms, CrossFit boxes, and second-hand fitness stores to try out almost 30 different racks in person, I narrowed my choices to two.

I think either of these racks would make an amazing centerpiece to your home gym. Both of them will last a lifetime. Both have more than enough available options and attachments to work for 90% of the people building a home gym. Both of them are reasonably priced and will leave money in your budget for the other things you’ll need!

The Titan X-3 Series Power Racks

Of the two finalists in my search for my new power rack, I went with the X-3 flat foot rack from Titan Fitness. The deciding factor was that the tall model came in a flat foot option. I don’t want to bolt my rack to the floor, so I opted for a model that was designed for that application.

I love my rack. It’s big and beefy and heavy and black and I love the way it looks in my gym. There isn’t a day that goes by where I wish I’d made a different decision.

X-3 is a whole series of racks by Titan Fitness (see my full write-up on Titan as a company here). There are bolt-down and flat-foot models available. You can get tall and short versions of both. There is also an assortment of depths. There are even models that fold up flat against the wall. You can find an X-3 that meets just about any need or installation application you might have.

Here are the high points that all of them share:

Price range of $565-$900 depending on the configuration
3″ x 3″ uprights
11 gauge steel
Flat foot or bolt down design
2/3″ holes
2″ hole spacing throughout
1″ (westside) hole spacing through the bench area
Dual pull-up bars (fat and thin)
Pin and pipe safeties included
UHMW protected j-cups won’t damage your bar
Rackable weight capacity of 1,650 lbs
Total rack capacity of 6,170 lbs
Tons of attachments available
10″ and 24″ extensions are available
Black powder coat

Titan is almost always running some type of sale. They also sell out of products quite often. For those two reasons, the best place to buy a Titan rack is on the Titan site directly. You’ll almost always get a better price there than elsewhere and when new stock arrives, they fill their own orders first.

Click here to see the full assortment of X-3 racks and rack accessories here on the Titan Fitness site.

The Rep Fitness PR-4000 Series Power Racks

My other finalist when searching for my own rack was the Rep Fitness PR-4000. It’s actually quite a bit better than the Titan in several respects. The build quality is nicer and the welds are much cleaner. It comes in 6 different colors and the finish is far superior to the Titan model. It has more configurations available along with more and higher quality accessories available.

If the Rep had been available in a flat foot model, I would have gone that route. Instead, if you aren’t going to bolt down the Rep, you need to buy additional feet and supports. I don’t have the room for those, so it didn’t work out for me. If you have the room or are going to bolt your rack down, I think the Rep PR-4000 is actually a much better rack between the two.

Here is a rundown of the PR-4000 series rack from Rep Fitness:

Price range of $621-$1,700 depending on finish and configuration
Price range of $621-$694 in a comparable configuration to the Titan X-3
3″ x 3″ uprights
11 gauge steel
5/8″ holes
2″ hole spacing
1″ hole spacing through the bench area
You customize your accessories when ordering, you aren’t stuck paying for basic ones if you don’t plan on using them
4 pull up bars available
3 safety types available
4 j-cup varieties available
1,000 lb capacity
Available in 6 colors including a hand finish clear that’s amazing!

There are so many cool features and add ons available for this rack. Since this isn’t a full review, I don’t have room for them here, but do yourself a favor and head over to the Rep site to check them out. That’s also the only place you can completely customize your new rack.

Pro tip – The clear coat finish looks amazing!!!

Click here to check out all the options, colors, and accessories for the Rep Fitness PR-4000 power rack.

Premium power racks

While I think the above two racks are the perfect solutions for most regular people putting together a home or garage gym, I also realize that a lot of you like and have the budget for the nicer things in life. That’s where premium rack options come into play.

In my search for racks, I was lucky enough to try out some very high-end racks. Of those, one in particular really stood out. The racks made by Elite FTS.

Elite FTS is owned by Dave Tate, one of the most well-known names in powerlifting. Trained in the famous WestSide barbell gym by the even more famous Louie Simmons, Dave Tate is one of the most respected names in weight training.

The Elite FTS racks are hands down some of the best racks you can buy. Check them out here on the Elite FTS site. I am not affiliated with them in any way and don’t make a dollar if you buy one of their racks. But if you are looking for the best rack you can buy, that’s the place to go.

Wait, no Rogue???

I hesitated to add this section, but since it’s the elephant in the room, I thought I’d address it.

You can’t watch a YouTube video or talk to a CrossFit athlete without running into Rogue. They make really great products that a ton of people use and love.

When I was building my home gym, I truly thought I would end up with a mostly Rogue gym. But over and over and over as I tested things, every single Rogue product had the same problem.

Rogue is overpriced.

Again, I’m not knocking their gear. It’s awesome. But so is the gear from a lot of other people. And a lot of it comes in at much lower prices. Here’s why…

With Rogue, you are paying for several things. Great R&D. Made in the USA. Built like a tank. Beautiful fit and finish.

You are also paying for something you don’t have to pay for with anyone else. A monumental marketing budget. Rogue spends untold dollars getting their name in front of you. That’s why you see it everywhere.

From social media influencers to YouTubers to bloggers like myself, Rogue pays everyone to convince you they are the best. That’s in addition to paying to be on every traditional marketing channel as well.

Ever see the CrossFit games? Every single piece of equipment being used was donated for free by Rogue. The marketing budget they throw at CrossFit alone would dwarf several of its competitors’ marketing departments combined.

So when I look at recommending something like a power rack, here’s where Rogue fits in.

First, they don’t really have any budget options, so that rules them out of the $500 category.

In the all-around value category, the Titan X-3 will get the job done just as well as anything Rogue makes for a significantly lower price.

The welds aren’t as pretty. The powder coat is not great. It may show up with some dings and other aesthetic issues. I will never say the Titan is a higher quality item than Rogue. It’s not.

But for the price difference (which is huge), I’m more than willing to live with some issues that have zero impact on the functionality of the rack.

Then let’s look at the Rep Fitness PR-4000. It is 100% as good or better than anything comparable that Rogue makes. And it does that at a lower price. If you step up to the Rep PR-5000 model, there’s no reason at all to look at Rogue, which again is a higher-priced rack.

That leaves the premium category. In that category, as a customer, you are saying that you are placing the overall quality of the product ahead of the price point on your list of priorities.

And that means that a whole lot of companies jump well ahead of Rogue. Sorinex and Elite FTS both come immediately to mind as far as building superior racks.

I know some of you Rogue fans are out there screaming at me and calling me an idiot right now. I understand that. They really do make a great product. I just think that when you put aside brand loyalty and really look at what you get for your money, Rogue simply doesn’t win in any category.

If I took the nameplates off of them and put them side by side with price tags on them, I firmly believe very few people would buy the Rogue option.

I also firmly believe that if they did buy the Rogue, they would be happy. I can’t say this loud enough, they really do make a great product and I have nothing bad to say about the products themselves.

So, right or wrong, that’s my opinion after spending who knows how many hours researching every single piece of gear I put into my own home gym. And it’s that research that went into this recommended gear section.

I know that if you buy anything on any of these recommended gear pages, you’ll be thrilled. You’ll get a ton of value for your money. You’ll have a home gym to be proud of. So enjoy your new rack!