Hard to answer easily, particularly without defining “cheap”
Personally I have too many workshops and vehicles, and thus several meters.
Among them, an old AVO Mk7, and a couple of other moving needle meters, including ones for less than £5; all work OK, and I sometimes prefer an analogue meter.
Digital meters, I’ve a decent Fluke, Robin, and an old ex BT one, as well as a couple of Lidl/Parkside offerings.

Value for money, the Lidl one I keep in the Disco is probably the best; I guess about £10, and plenty accurate enough for most jobs.
N.B. I have seen a video warning that one of the Parkside meters shows 240V OK, but failed to register/display 1KV
Doesn’t bother me too much, as it’s for car, not high voltage use; one thing I’ve always been taught, test the test gear before relying on the readings.
i.e. Before checking if a tag is 240v live, I always check another one which I know is live.

As well as the meter, it also proves you’ve plugged the test leads in properly, and the wires are unbroken.
Cheap meters do tend to have less overload protection; 10A fast blow fuses often fitted to high end meters are expensive, and larger than conventional sized ones.

When my AC/DC clamp meter died last year, I looked at getting it repaired, as I wanted something to measure heavy DC amperages for automotive use.
I ended up with one of these, which, at the time, was £40 off eBay from a UK based seller.
It works well, if I had all my meters stolen, and needed a single replacement for general use, I’d likely look to get another one or equivalent; my only real complaint is the lack of provision for a croc clip on the test probe(s)

Bill

This little LAP meter from Screwfix:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-dc-digital-multimeter-600v/793rt#product_additional_details_container

Is a good budget choice. More functions than the <£5 one and readilly available. It is also safer (CATII) than the cheap ones for mains use.

A good used choice recently were ex-MOD Fluke 25s These can be had for as little as £30 on ebay if you can wait for one to turn up at the right price (couple at around £50 at the moment).

Robert
Far too many multimeters here including 15 Flukes up to 6.5 digits….

On 7 February 2025 at 21:03 Danni Burns Said:

..WHat functions do these not have that I would need? Fluke 101 Handheld Easily Carried Digital Multimeter 600 V CAT III (these are circa £60 new)

 

For most purposes beginners need a meter that measures AC and DC volts up to, say 500 or 600V, resistance up to, say, 2 megaohms, and DC current up to 250mA, with a 10A range.  AC current is nice to have but pushes the price up, and may not be used much.

That requirement makes the Fluke 101 an expensive mistake. If I read the spec right the 101 doesn’t measure current at all, so 0/10 in my book.  It measures up to 40Mohms, capacity (farads) and frequency, all unlikely to help a beginner. Other Flukes do meet all basic requirements, but check the specs.

Throwing money at meters gets you some combination of improved robustness,  accuracy, and resolution, and/or auto-ranging, auto-shutdown, higher CAT rating, AC current, wider ranges, and maybe inductance, capacity, diode, and transistor testing.  If you don’t know yet why these are worth having, start with a basic instrument, set the range manually and remember to turn it off.

At this stage best avoid chasing ‘quality’ unless you have a specification.   The cheap meter I pointed at does the basics, and, if it has limitations, understand them and then go upmarket as necessary.  The ex-MOD meters recommended by Robert are excellent provided they are in good condition.   Solidly made for a reason: servicemen bash them about, so secondhand is a risk…

Dave