Best Vape Starter Kit: 5 Beginner-Friendly Kits

If you're looking for the best vape starter kit as a first-time buyer, the honest answer is that there isn't one single best kit. There are kits that solve different worries. Below are five real, in-stock starter kits, each chosen to answer one specific concern people have when they switch from smoking: wanting something impossible to get wrong, wanting it to feel like smoking, wanting to spend as little as possible to try it, wanting a stronger hit as a heavier smoker, or wanting room to adjust things later. Find the worry that matches you, and start there. 

What to Know Before You Buy Your First Kit

All five kits below are what's called pod kits: a small refillable pod clicks onto a rechargeable battery, with no coil-building, wiring, or settings menu involved. You fill the pod with e-liquid, charge the battery, and use it. That's the entire process, whichever kit you choose. 

All five also use a mouth-to-lung draw, the tighter, cigarette-like pull most switchers find easier to adjust to than the looser style associated with cloud-focused sub-ohm vaping. As a general starting point, people smoking around a pack a day often start on 20mg nicotine salt e-liquid, the strongest strength allowed under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, and adjust down over time. That's the pattern many switchers follow, not medical guidance, and all five kits below are compatible with nic salts.

If you'd rather work through a fuller decision framework before picking a kit, our guide to choosing your first starter kit covers that in more depth. What follows is a shortcut for anyone who wants specific recommendations first.

The 5 Best Vape Starter Kits for Beginners

Each kit below solves a different worry rather than competing head-to-head on the same features. Look for the one that matches how you're feeling about switching, not necessarily the cheapest or most popular. 

Easiest to Use: Vaporesso XROS Mini

The Vaporesso XROS Mini is £11.49 and built around a single idea: nothing to press, nothing to adjust. It's auto-draw, meaning it activates when you inhale, with no button to learn or hold down.

The pod tops up from the top without needing to remove it from the battery, so refilling doesn't mean touching a coil or getting e-liquid on your hands. Its 1000mAh battery and 2ml pod are enough for a full day of typical use for most switchers, and the leak-resistant design makes it a reasonable choice to carry in a bag or pocket. If you don't want to think about your first vape beyond charging and filling it, this is the one to start with. 

Feels Most Like Smoking: Aspire PockeX

At £19.89, the Aspire PockeX has been one of the UK's longest-running starter kits for a reason: its mouth-to-lung draw is deliberately built to mimic pulling on a cigarette, which matters if your biggest worry about switching is that vaping won't feel like anything close to smoking.

It runs on a single button, five clicks to turn on, and a 1500mAh battery, the largest of the five kits here, with a glass tank that resists the acidity of some e-liquids better than plastic. You can vape while it's charging, useful if you're used to reaching for a cigarette without thinking about battery life. It costs more upfront than the others, but it's built as a longer-term kit rather than a trial. 

Cheapest Way to Try Vaping: OXVA Xlim Go

The OXVA Xlim Go is £9.99, the least expensive kit on this list, which makes sense if you're not ready to spend much until you know vaping is actually going to work for you.

It's auto-draw like the XROS Mini, with a 1000mAh battery and a 2ml top-fill pod, but adds an adjustable airflow control so you can loosen or tighten the draw once you've got a feel for what you prefer. At 41g it's genuinely light in the pocket, and there's no meaningful trade-off in usability for the lower price: it's simply a smaller, cheaper version of the same easy operation. 

Best for Heavier Smokers: Innokin Endura T18E

Shaped like a pen rather than a compact pod, the Innokin Endura T18E (£14.99) suits people who smoked 15 to 20 cigarettes a day or more and want a firmer, more deliberate hit rather than a light draw.

It runs on a single button with a traffic-light battery indicator (green, amber, red), so there's no guessing how much charge is left, and pass-through charging means you can keep using it while it's plugged in. With a 1000mAh battery and 2ml tank, it's built around removing decisions: no wattage to set, no airflow to adjust, just fill it, charge it, and use it. 

Room to Grow: VooPoo Argus G2 Mini

Worth considering if you suspect you'll want more control once you're past the first few weeks, the VooPoo Argus G2 Mini (£10.99) doesn't lock you into the simplest setting indefinitely.

It's auto-draw like the XROS Mini and Xlim Go, but adds an adjustable airflow slider that shifts the draw from a tight, cigarette-like pull to something looser, plus a 1200mAh battery, the second-largest here. Its transparent pod lets you see your e-liquid level at a glance, a small but genuinely useful detail when you're not yet used to checking. It's a sensible middle ground between the simplest kits above and something more adjustable later. 

Do Starter Kits Come With E-Liquid?

Most do. The XROS Mini, PockeX, Endura T18E, and Argus G2 Mini all currently include one or more free 10ml bottles of e-liquid, enough to get started without an extra purchase. The Xlim Go doesn't include e-liquid at the time of writing, so you'll need to add a bottle to your order to use it straight away. 

The e-liquid that suits these kits is nicotine salt, a smoother form of nicotine designed for mouth-to-lung, lower-power devices like the ones on this list, rather than the sub-ohm liquids made for cloud-focused kits.

Is Vaping Legal to Buy at 18?

Yes. The minimum age to buy any vaping product, kit, pod, or e-liquid is 18 across the UK, regardless of nicotine strength. In England and Wales this is set out in the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015; Scotland and Northern Ireland enforce the same minimum age through their own equivalent regulations. Retailers, including GSF, can ask for photo ID if you look under 25, so it's worth having some with you if you're buying in person or verifying your age online. 

This applies to buying for yourself and buying as a gift. If you're picking up a starter kit for a partner or family member who's trying to quit smoking, the age rules apply to the recipient, not just the person paying. 

Which Kit Should You Choose?

If you're still not sure, the Vaporesso XROS Mini is the safest first pick for most people: it's cheap enough to not feel like a big commitment, and there's genuinely nothing to get wrong with how it works. From there, the right next kit usually reveals itself once you know what you actually missed about smoking, whether that's the stronger hit, the lower price, or just wanting more control. 

You can browse the full starter kit range if none of the five above quite fit, or the wider vape kit selection if you want to compare more broadly. 

FAQs

Which starter kit on this list is cheapest?

The OXVA Xlim Go, at £9.99. It doesn't include e-liquid, so factor in the cost of a bottle if you want to vape it straight away. 

Can I use nic salt e-liquid in any of these kits?

Yes. All five are mouth-to-lung pod kits designed around nic salts, so any nicotine salt e-liquid at 20mg or below will work in whichever one you pick. 

What happens when the pod or battery wears out?

The battery is rechargeable and should last years with normal use; if it stops holding charge, that's the device reaching the end of its life rather than something you can fix. Pods wear out sooner; expect a burnt taste or weaker flavour as the sign it's time for a fresh one, and check each kit's own product page for compatible replacement pods. 

Are these kits still legal now that disposables are banned?

Yes, in fact they're exactly the kind of device the ban was designed to point people toward. All five are rechargeable with a refillable pod, which is what the law requires a legal vape to be since 1 June 2025.