4 Tractor Supply Tools Under $20 Worth Adding To Your Collection

A random collection of hand tools on a dark wood surface

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You don’t need a big budget to assemble a capable set of everyday tools. Instead of purchasing high-end tools intended for professionals, focus on what you know you’ll use for common household repairs or your DIY projects. That could include a hammer, several types of screwdrivers, an adjustable wrench, a tape measure, and other indispensable tools, or you may require more specialized items tailored to specific projects. While large home improvement retailers like Home Depot or Lowe’s are obvious choices, don’t overlook Tractor Supply, which has a surprisingly solid collection of tools and hardware.

Tractor Supply bills itself as the largest “rural lifestyle retailer” in the U.S. It has more than 2,300 stores across 49 states and offers supplies for farmers, ranchers, contractors, tradesmen and more. Step into a Tractor Supply store and you’ll find everything from boots to pet supplies to tools, and much more. It offers plenty of high-end products and also affordable options, but of course, not every item is well-reviewed by customers. Here are some potentially worthwhile tools you can get for less than $20.

Mini Pliers Set

A pair of mini pliers with a black and red handle on a white background

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Pliers are an essential part of almost any tool kit. This set of mini pliers not only includes a variety of different types, they also come in a fun little bucket emblazoned with the Tractor Supply logo. The pliers are fitted into a removable tray for easy storage and access, and the bucket is less than six inches tall and can be easily stored on a worktop or cabinet. It’s a clever way to package a versatile staple of household tools.

The plier set is currently priced at $11.99. It includes 4-inch end cut pliers, 4-inch diagonal pliers, 5-inch long nose pliers, 5-inch bent long nose pliers, and 5-inch locking pliers. All of the pliers have comfort-grip handles for an easy, tight hold. They’re also made from steel for added durability and long-lasting use. This set is available both in-store and online, though you will pay for shipping unless your order totals $49 or more. Reviewers say the pliers are well-made and are a great value, with one noting that the small size is great for women or individuals with smaller hands.

JobSmart 21-piece assorted socket set

Sumala Chidchoi/Shutterstock

Whether you’re assembling furniture, finishing up your weekend DIY project, or tuning up the engine on your motorcycle, an assorted socket set puts a wide range of sizes at your fingertips. Priced at only $14.99, this JobSmart ⅜-inch Drive SAE/Metric Assorted Socket Set also comes with a storage rack for easy storage and access. It has 20 drive sockets, including 10 SAE sockets in the following sizes: ¼ inches, ⁵⁄₁₆ inches, ¹¹⁄₃₂ inches, ⅜ inches, ⁷⁄₁₆ inches, ½ inches, ⁹⁄₁₆ inches, ⅝ inches, ¹¹⁄₁₆ inches and ¾ inches. There are 10 metric sizes, including 8 millimeters, 9 millimeters, 10 millimeters, 11 millimeters, 13 millimeters, 14 millimeters, 16 millimeters, 17 millimeters, 18 millimeters, and 19 millimeters.

This kit also includes one 72T quick-release ratchet. These tools are made with chrome vanadium steel for durability, and have a two-color transparent electrophoretic surface treatment for easier identification. Reviewers find that the set is of good quality, especially for the low price.

Heavy-duty tradesman shears

If you think you don’t have a use for heavy-duty tradesman shears, you’ve probably never experienced the frustration of trying to open rigid, plastic clamshell packaging. If you’ve ever tried to unbox headphones or batteries encased in these frustrating containers, you understand why standard scissors rarely do the job.

These heavy-duty, titanium-coated single ring tradesman shears from Crescent are available at Tractor Supply for $19.99. In addition to opening those frustrating packages, you can use these shears on your DIY jobs to cut through tough material and cables, carpeting, rope and more. These shears have steel blades with a serrated bottom blade, and the spring-loaded scissors automatically open when you disengage the lock. The full metal core goes all the way through the handle for increased strength and durability. Tough cuts are supported with a channel for your index finger that helps increase your control. The lock makes it easy to safely store these shears in a drawer or tool chest.

Hobby Knife and Precision Screwdriver Set

Close-up of a woman using a craft knife to cut paper

tg-photo/Shutterstock

A screwdriver is an essential home improvement tool, even if you’re a renter. It’s one of the most versatile tools around and can be used for anything from assembling furniture to opening a can of paint. A hobby or craft knife can also be essential, with a sharp blade that can be used for crafting, modeling, DIY and general repairs. This 46-piece kit from JobSmart offers both these tools in one handy case for $12.99.

The hobby knife handle included in this set has an LED light with the necessary batteries included, and 13 blades to meet various needs. The screwdriver set includes a handle, extension bar, and 30 bits. Each bit is made of hardened nickel CR-V steel for strength. There are four Phillips bits, seven slotted bits, four Torx bits, four hex bits, and two tri-point bits. Everything comes packaged in a well-organized plastic carrying case for easy storage and transport. Tractor Supply advertises a lifetime guarantee for this product, though details about any warranty are not included online.

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Stephan Dorsey

Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.

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Recent Reviews

What I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Filed Anything

There’s a special kind of panic that hits at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday when you Google “can someone sue me personally for my freelance business” and the answer is, technically, yes. I know this because I lived it. For fourteen months, I ran a growing consulting side hustle- invoices, contracts, the whole act- under exactly zero legal structure. I didn’t choose to be a sole proprietor. I just never chose to be anything else, which, it turns out, is the same thing.

The wake-up call came from a client’s offhand comment about “your LLC,” followed by my very convincing silence. That night I fell into a research hole so deep I emerged the next morning having read seventeen tabs on liability shields, self-employment tax, and something called “piercing the corporate veil” that sounded like a phrase from a divorce lawyer’s memoir. So: is a sole proprietorship secretly a ticking time bomb? Is an LLC the adult, responsible choice, or just expensive paperwork with better branding? Let’s actually work through it.

What Is a Sole Proprietorship, Really?

Here’s the part nobody tells you clearly: if you’re earning money from your own business activity and haven’t filed anything with your state, you’re already a sole proprietor. There’s no form to submit, no fee to pay, no ceremony. You and the business are, legally, the same person. That’s the whole structure.

The upside is real. It’s the fastest, cheapest way to start working for yourself — no filing fee, no separate tax return, no annual report to remember. You just start invoicing. The downside is baked into that same simplicity: there’s no legal wall between your business and your personal life. If the business owes money or gets sued, the business is you, so your savings account, your car, and potentially your house are all fair game.

What Does an LLC Actually Protect You From?

A Limited Liability Company creates a separate legal entity- one that can own things, owe things, and get sued, largely independent of you personally. That separation is the entire point of forming one.

It’s worth being honest about the limits, too. An LLC won’t protect you if you personally guarantee a business loan, if you commingle business and personal funds, or if you’re personally negligent — say, you’re a contractor and you cause an injury through your own carelessness. Courts can “pierce the corporate veil” and go after your personal assets anyway if you treat the LLC as a legal fiction rather than a real, separately run entity. The protection is genuine, but it’s not a force field; it’s a structure you have to maintain.

Which One Actually Costs More to Start?

This is where a lot of the fear around LLCs turns out to be overblown, and a lot of the assumed simplicity of sole proprietorships turns out to be incomplete.

	Sole Proprietorship	LLC
Setup paperwork	None required (unless operating under a different name)	Articles of Organization filed with your state
State filing fee	$0	$35–$500 depending on state (national average is roughly $130)
Ongoing state fees	Typically none	Many states require an annual report; fees range from $0 to $800+ (California’s franchise tax is the notable outlier)
Separate business bank account	Optional	Strongly recommended to preserve liability protection
EIN required	Only if hiring employees	Recommended even for single-member LLCs, to avoid using your SSN

A sole proprietorship is still the cheaper entry point in dollar terms. But “cheaper to start” and “cheaper overall” aren’t the same question — it depends what a lawsuit, a bad debt, or a messy tax season would actually cost you.

How Do Taxes Actually Differ?

This is the part I got wrong for months, assuming an LLC meant a whole new tax regime. It doesn’t, automatically. By default, both a sole proprietorship and a single-member LLC are taxed identically: profits and losses pass through to your personal tax return, and you pay self-employment tax (15.3%, covering Social Security and Medicare) on your net earnings.

The actual tax advantage of an LLC isn’t automatic — it’s optional. A single-member LLC can elect to be taxed as an S-corporation once profits reach a meaningful level, which can reduce self-employment tax by letting you pay yourself a “reasonable salary” and take remaining profit as a distribution not subject to that 15.3%.

That election involves added complexity — payroll processing, additional filings — so it’s rarely worth it for a business bringing in a few thousand dollars a year. It becomes worth asking about once net profit is consistently well into five figures.

Does an LLC Actually Make You Look More Credible?

Here’s a question I didn’t expect to matter as much as it did: does “LLC” after your business name change how people treat you? Anecdotally, yes. Some clients, vendors, and lenders treat an LLC as a signal of seriousness — rightly or not — the way a business bank account or a proper invoice template does. It’s not a guarantee of better contracts, but it removes a small, avoidable hesitation from a prospective client’s mind.

It also matters for banking and financing. Business lenders and some payment processors are more comfortable extending credit to a registered entity with its own EIN and bank account than to an individual operating under their own name.

Do You Still Have to Report “Beneficial Ownership” in 2026?

If you researched this a year or two ago, you may still be carrying around outdated fear about the Corporate Transparency Act’s beneficial ownership information (BOI) reporting rule — the one that threatened steep penalties for LLC owners who didn’t file. Here’s the current state of play: in March 2025, FinCEN issued an interim final rule that removed the BOI reporting requirement for domestic U.S. companies and U.S. persons entirely. As of today, that requirement applies only to foreign entities registered to do business in the U.S. — not to a typical American-owned single-member LLC.

That said, the underlying law hasn’t been repealed, courts have upheld its constitutionality, and FinCEN’s final rule is still pending in 2026, meaning the rule could tighten again with limited notice. A small number of states have also introduced their own versions; New York’s LLC Transparency Act took effect January 1, 2026, but after a late amendment, it applies only to foreign LLCs doing business in New York, not typical in-state LLCs. The short version for most small business owners forming a domestic LLC in their home state: this isn’t currently a filing you need to worry about, but it’s worth a five-minute check-in with a professional if your situation involves foreign ownership or multiple states.

So, Which One Should You Actually Choose?

There isn’t a universally correct answer, but there is a useful set of questions. How much personal risk does your work actually carry — a freelance copywriter has a different exposure profile than someone renovating properties or handling clients’ money. How much profit are you actually generating, since that determines whether the tax flexibility of an LLC is relevant yet. And how much administrative overhead are you willing to take on, since an LLC does require you to actually treat it like a separate entity — separate bank account, its own paperwork, its own discipline.

If you’re testing an idea with minimal financial exposure and low risk of being sued, operating as a sole proprietor while you validate the business is a completely reasonable starting point- you can always convert to an LLC later, and most people do exactly that. If you’re already generating consistent revenue, working with clients under contracts, or doing anything with meaningful liability exposure, the cost of forming an LLC is generally small next to what it protects.

I eventually filed mine on a Wednesday afternoon, paid my state’s filing fee, and felt almost anticlimactic about how undramatic the process actually was compared to the spiral that preceded it. If you’re standing where I was, at least you can skip the 11 p.m. panic-Googling, you already know what the seventeen tabs would have told you.

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