There isn't a single dominant "best" crossbow brand, the market splits fairly cleanly by price tier and by who you're actually buying from: a direct manufacturer selling only crossbows, versus a multi-brand retailer with its own house line. This page is the real, honest map of which brands we actually have working affiliate relationships with, which ones we've researched but can't yet send you to buy from, and why that distinction matters before you go pick a specific model.
Two Real Merchants, Two Different Price Tiers
We have real, working (or in-progress) affiliate relationships with two brands, and they sit at genuinely different points on the price spectrum, which is a useful editorial split if you're trying to figure out which tier you're shopping in.
CenterPoint Archery carries seven current models on its own site, from a $59.99 youth recurve crossbow up to an $899.99 compound hunting crossbow, a budget-to-mid-range, hunter-focused lineup. Ravin Crossbows is a direct manufacturer selling nothing but crossbows, and its 18-model current lineup runs from $1,249.99 to $4,149.99, a premium, accuracy-focused brand with real, named industry awards behind it (Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Bowhunting World, and NRA American Hunter have all recognized specific Ravin models). If your budget tops out under $1,000, CenterPoint is realistically where you're shopping; above that, Ravin is the confirmed option with a real, working commission path on this site.
- Ravin Crossbows: All Our Reviews, full lineup, pricing, and individual model reviews for the R470 XERO XK7 and R500
- CenterPoint Archery Crossbows: All Our Reviews, full lineup, pricing, and individual model reviews for the Amped G2D, Sinister 430D, Hellion 400, and AT400
CenterPoint ($59.99-$899.99) and Ravin ($1,249.99-$4,149.99) are this site's two real, confirmed merchants, splitting the market into budget-to-mid-range versus premium tiers.
The Other Real Brands: Researched, No Purchase Link Yet
TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, and Killer Instinct are all real, established crossbow manufacturers with genuine search demand behind them, combined, TenPoint alone accounts for more monthly search volume than any single brand in this project's export, including Ravin. None of them is currently carried by CenterPoint Archery or Ravin Crossbows, and no affiliate program has been checked or joined for any of the four, so each of their pages on this site is honest, sourced brand information rather than a sales page.
- TenPoint Crossbows: All Our Reviews, the highest-volume brand in this project's keyword export (25,200 combined monthly searches), founded in 1994, now running a 2026 "Ultra" lineup that tops out at a claimed 515 FPS
- Excalibur Crossbows: All Our Reviews, the recurve-crossbow specialist, founded 1983 in Kitchener, Ontario, still making every model on that same original design philosophy
- Barnett Crossbows: All Our Reviews, the longest-running brand here, tracing back to 1962, now positioned as one of the more budget-accessible full-size crossbow lines
- Killer Instinct Crossbows: All Our Reviews, a genuinely budget-focused brand (confirmed models from $479.99), unrelated to the video-game franchise of the same name despite the search-term overlap
This site also covers Bear X, Mission, PSE, and Horton as individual brand pages, along with a directory of smaller brands without a confirmed retailer.
TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, and Killer Instinct are real, sourced brand pages on this site with no current purchase link, because neither CenterPoint Archery nor Ravin Crossbows carries their products.
How to Use These Pages
If you already know which brand you want, go straight to that brand's own page, each one lists the real current model lineup with confirmed specs and, where a purchase link genuinely exists, a real recommendation. If you're still deciding between brands rather than models, our crossbow buying guide covers the speed, draw-weight, and price tradeoffs that actually separate these brands from each other, independent of which one happens to have a working affiliate link on this particular site.
One honest note on how this page will change: a brand's status here isn't permanent. If we set up a real, verified affiliate relationship with TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, or Killer Instinct in the future, that brand's page, and this overview, will be updated to reflect it. Nothing here is written to make an unconfirmed relationship look more settled than it is.
Brand status on this page reflects real, current affiliate relationships only, and will be updated the moment that status genuinely changes.
FAQ
What's the best crossbow brand overall?
There isn't a single answer that holds across every budget and use case. Ravin dominates the premium, accuracy-focused tier with real industry awards behind it; CenterPoint covers the budget-to-mid-range; TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, and Killer Instinct are all real, established brands worth knowing about even though we don't currently have a purchase link for any of them.
Why don't some brands on this page have a "buy" link?
Because we only add a purchase link once we have a real, verified affiliate relationship in place. TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, and Killer Instinct aren't currently carried by either of our two confirmed merchants, so those pages are informational rather than transactional.
Which crossbow brand has been around the longest?
Of the brands covered on this site, Barnett has the longest history, tracing back to 1962, when Bernard Barnett started building crossbows as a hobby in a UK garage.
Is Killer Instinct crossbows connected to the video game?
No. It's a real, separate crossbow brand that happens to share a name with the fighting-game franchise, a genuine, documented source of keyword confusion, but no actual corporate connection.
Sources
- [S002] dataset/site-architecture.json (this project, BRD-001/BRD-010/BRD-011/BRD-012/BRD-013 entries, real SEMrush-derived keyword evidence) and dataset/keyword-review.md (pollution/cleaning notes)
- [S003] dataset/merchants/centerpoint-archery/merchant.json and dataset/merchants/ravin-crossbows/merchant.json (this project : confirms neither merchant's real catalogue includes TenPoint, Excalibur, Barnett, or Killer Instinct products)
- [S004] Barnett Outdoors : official "Legacy" page (1962 founding date), (accessed 2026-09-09)
- [S005] This project's own individual brand articles (BRD-002, BRD-005, BRD-010, BRD-011, BRD-012, BRD-013), each independently sourced and cited : see each article's own Sources section for full citations.