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Stihl Tools is a German brand that started as a family business, and one of only a few big toolmakers that managed to avoid being bought by a large corporation. Perhaps that’s the reason behind some of the brand’s unusual business decisions, from its continued dedication to gas tools to the choice of sticking with premium products at a time when seemingly every other manufacturer is getting into the affordable tools market. And then, there’s the brand’s most baffling choice of restricting online sales and shipping to just a few trusted dealers.

Why does Stihl not ship its tools like any other manufacturer? According to the company, it’s worried that not every dealer will be able to manage tool shipping. On the one hand, shipping heavy and intricate machinery isn’t easy. Meanwhile, pretty much every rival toolmaker (and every other brand in every other industry) has found a way to ship big, delicate goods across the world — doing so with Stihl tools can’t be that much harder.

Regardless, only some of Stihl’s authorized dealers (an already small club) are trusted enough to sell the company’s goods online, and even fewer will ship the tools to your home. Here are your best options for buying Stihl tools online, whether you want them delivered to your front door or to a store near you.

Acme Tools is the best place to buy Stihl tools if you value home shipping and breadth of choice above anything else. There are a lot of different models on offer, and most of them can be shipped directly to your home. The retailer clearly values its partnership with the toolmaker, too, seeing as it dedicated an entire page to Stihl tools and accessories featuring the German manufacturer’s bright orange and white brand-specific colors. And like the other options on this list, Acme is an authorized Stihl dealer; at least some local Acme stores double as Stihl service centers.

Getting back to buying goods online, Acme Tools claims that Stihl does not authorize home shipping of “gas-powered tools, iMow mowers, and spare parts,” or at least it didn’t as of July 2023. Still, this leaves a huge number of tools that can be delivered right to your door, including a few new Stihl products added in 2026. Sadly, Acme Tools’ huge list of refurbished tools does not include any Stihl products, at least at time of writing. Refurbished Stihl products from an authorized store would be very welcome, since the brand’s most powerful tools, including its many chainsaws, can get really expensive.

Playing around with the Dealer Locator tool on Stihl’s U.S. website reveals just how many Ace Hardware stores all over the country carry Stihl tools, but the retailer’s real strength is that it will ship a lot of these products directly to your home. That said, tool availability depends on your location. That’s because, unlike nearly every other hardware store you can think of, Ace Hardware is not a franchise but a co-op managed by the owners of each individual store. This structure proved successful for Ace, but came at the cost of inconsistent coverage between locations.

Ace Hardware may have partnered with DoorDash as a way to differentiate itself from its rivals, but the company’s delivery system is still a bit of a mess. To check if you (as in, you in particular, based on your location) can buy a certain Stihl tool from Ace, you need to insert your Zip code and select a local dealer on Ace’s website. Then, look for the tool you need. If it’s available for delivery or pickup at the selected store, it will say so under the price.

If the tool isn’t available there, don’t worry. Ace Hardware is a very popular chain, so there’s a good chance of there being another Ace store near you that can ship the item. Ace Hardware can help you find that store, too. When you try to buy an item from your local Ace where it isn’t available, the store website will give you a list of nearby dealers that carry the item. Open that list, and you’ll find the different locations arranged by distance in miles, with some extra information like availability and work hours.

It’s true that Northern Tool doesn’t ship every Stihl product in its inventory, but we’re talking about a massive list of over 400 items at time of writing, most of which can be purchased online and shipped. Delivery times can be a little long, depending on where you’re located. Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Virginia can enjoy relatively fast shipping of up to four business days. Other states will have to wait a little longer, up to eight days if you live in regions like the Pacific Northwest. Priority and Express options are faster and seem to be available everywhere, but they’re more expensive. Larger tools may need truck freight shipping instead, which has longer delivery times everywhere.

Speaking of tools, shipping is available on a number of batteries, chainsaws, cutoff tools, and much more. There are also quite a few of the brand’s beloved leaf blowers ready to be shipped. Even if Northern doesn’t sell all its inventory online, it’s clear that breadth of choice is not an issue. The store also seems to run a lot of sales; at time of writing, for example, the Stihl AK Series Handheld Blower Kit ships all over the U.S. mainland and is on sale for $199, saving you $50. The discount is matched by the official Stihl website, but Northern Tool adds standard shipping for free.

Unlike many toolmakers that have exclusivity deals with a handful of stores, Stihl works with a lot of small, local distributors. This means that the best way to buy a tool online is often to get it shipped to a local dealer and pick it up from them. That might sound complicated, but thankfully, you can do all of that directly on Stihl’s website. Just select the tool you want, click on “Select Online Seller” on the right side of the product page, enter your zip code, and select your preferred dealer.

Having to pick up a tool at a store may not fit your definition of an online purchase, but wait until you see just how many small Stihl dealers are out there. Unless you live in a very rural area, you’re bound to find a dealer close to home. After you insert your Zip code, Stihl will show you a list of dealers, complete with key details like the distance of the store in miles, how long it’s going to take to ship the tool to the location, and the product’s price. This last one is often the same for every dealer, but it’s worth seeing if someone’s having a sale.

Stihl has a lot of dealers in the U.S., many of which sell their tools online. However, making this list was quite difficult; in an effort to make the article useful to everyone, we focused exclusively on authorized resellers that operate across the whole country. The vast majority of Stihl-partnered stores are quite small and only operated in a single location or a handful of states. We represented these stores on the list by including Stihl’s Dealer Finder tool, but avoided covering any of them in detail.

We also restricted our list to authorized Stihl dealers, which meant excluding Amazon, eBay, and a few other resellers. You can certainly find Stihl tools in good conditions on these websites, but as the Stihl Limited Warranty clearly says, only authorized dealers are expected to supply the buyer with a warranty. Many users have reported problems buying Stihl batteries on Amazon in particular, so be careful.