Picking a toilet sounds like the easy bit of a bathroom. It isn’t. Get the format wrong and you’re either staring at a cistern that won’t line up with your soil pipe, a pan that juts halfway across a cloakroom, or a wall hung unit your stud wall can’t actually hold. The good news: there are only a handful of decisions that matter, and once you’ve made them the right toilet more or less picks itself.

This guide runs through the four main toilet formats, why rimless and comfort height are worth caring about, and the toilet and sink combination units that save a small bathroom. There are real product picks with prices throughout, and a comparison table near the end if you just want the short version.

• Types of toilet explained
• Close coupled toilets
• Back to wall toilets
• Wall hung toilets
• Comfort height toilets
• Rimless vs rimmed: why it matters
• Toilet and sink combination units
• Choosing a toilet for a small bathroom
• What to check before you buy
• Which toilet is right for you?
• FAQ

Types of Toilet Explained

Four formats cover almost everything sold in the UK: close coupled, back to wall, wall hung and comfort height. They aren’t really competing on looks alone. Each one makes a different trade between price, how it’s plumbed, how much depth it eats and how easy it is to clean around. Sort out which of those you care about most and the rest follows.

Two more things cut across all four. Rimless versus rimmed (covered below) is about hygiene and cleaning, and you’ll find rimless versions of every format. Dual flush is now standard across the range, typically a 3 litre and 6 litre split, which is worth having for the water saving alone. Right, the formats.

Close Coupled Toilets

The default, and for good reason. The cistern bolts straight onto the pan as one unit, it sits on the floor, and it’ll work with pretty much any plumbing layout you throw at it. Soil pipe out of the floor or out of the wall, close coupled copes. It’s the cheapest format to buy, the easiest for a plumber to fit or swap, and there’s nothing hidden to go wrong behind a wall later.

For a family bathroom, an en-suite or a cloakroom where you just want a reliable standard-height toilet without fuss, this is the one. The Ellie Close Coupled Toilet at £199 is the no-nonsense pick here: high-quality vitreous china, a dual flush cistern (3L / 6L) and a classic close coupled shape that drops into a standard layout without any surprises.

If you want the easier-to-clean rimless flush but don’t want to spend more to get it, the Litchfield Aura Rimless Close Coupled Toilet is £139 and genuinely good value. Same vitreous china, same 3L / 6L dual flush, but the rimless design ditches the hidden channel where bacteria and limescale build up. It’s the cheapest way to get rimless tech without changing format, which makes it hard to argue against on a budget.

The honest downside of close coupled is the look. The cistern is on show, the pipework is on show, and it’s never going to feel as clean as a concealed setup. If that bothers you, read on. If it doesn’t, you can stop here and save yourself a few hundred pounds. Browse the full toilets range if you want to compare shapes.

Back to Wall Toilets

A back to wall toilet is the obvious step up in looks for not much more money. The pan sits flush against the wall and the cistern hides inside a furniture unit or behind a false stud wall, so all you see is the pan. No visible cistern, no exposed pipework, much tidier. It also pairs neatly with a run of matching furniture, which is where the fitted-bathroom look comes from.

The trade-off is depth. The concealed cistern, whether it’s in a unit or a stud wall, adds roughly 80 to 125mm behind the pan, so you lose a bit of floor space. In a generous bathroom you won’t notice. In a tight one, measure first.

The Middleton Rimless Back-To-Wall Toilet at £199 is the sensible core choice. It’s rimless, it comes with a soft-close wrap-over seat with top-fix quick-release buttons (handy for cleaning), and it measures roughly 400 to 410mm high by 360mm wide with a 495 to 520mm projection. Pair it with your own furniture or a back-to-wall WC unit and you’ve got the concealed look without overthinking it.

If you want a softer line, the Ferrara Plus Rimless D-Shape Back-To-Wall Pan at £249 has a D-shape bowl that’s a touch more contemporary, measures about 404mm high by 363mm wide by 512mm deep, and includes the pan fixing kit. One factual point worth knowing: the Ferrara Plus carries a 2-year guarantee, where most of our pans state a lifetime manufacturer guarantee. Not a dealbreaker, but check it against what you’re comparing.

Wall Hung Toilets

Wall hung is the format people lust after. The pan mounts onto a concealed steel frame behind the plasterboard, nothing touches the floor, and the cistern and pipework all disappear into the wall. You get a floating pan, clear floor underneath, and the room instantly feels bigger and easier to mop around. For a contemporary or small bathroom, it’s the look that does the most work.

Here’s the bit the showroom photos don’t tell you: a wall hung pan needs a separate concealed frame and cistern, and that’s usually sold on its own. The Deia Rimless Wall Hung Pan at £219 is a lovely rimless pan in high-quality vitreous china (370mm wide, 360mm high, 480mm deep) with a slim soft-close seat included, but it’s the pan only. You still need a frame and cistern behind it. Good if you’re building a custom install and want to choose the frame yourself.

If you’d rather buy the whole thing in one go and not play matchmaker, the Wall Hung Frame and Cistern with the Scudo Matt Black Riviera Round Pan at £369 is the complete solution: frame, cistern, pan and soft-close seat in the box, with a dual flush mechanism (3L and 6L). The frame supports up to 400kg and is height adjustable, and the matt black pan makes it a proper statement rather than another white bowl. That £369 versus the £219 pan-only price is the real comparison to make. Once you’ve added a frame and cistern to a bare pan, the all-in kit usually works out the smarter buy.

The catch with wall hung in general is the install. It is not a DIY job. You need a solid wall or a proper frame system rated for the load, the frame has to be fitted and squared before the plasterboard goes up, and getting the pan height right matters. Budget for a competent fitter. If you’re weighing a floating pan as part of a wider furniture decision, our guide to wall hung vs floor standing bathroom furniture goes through the same trade-offs for vanity units.

Comfort Height Toilets

Standard toilet seat height is around 400mm off the floor. Comfort height models sit higher, closer to the height of a chair, which takes a surprising amount of strain off your knees and back when you’re sitting down and standing up. It’s only a few centimetres, but if you’ve got dodgy knees, you’re tall, or there’s anyone elderly or less mobile in the house, it’s the single most worthwhile upgrade on this list. Fair warning: once you’ve used one, a standard pan feels oddly low.

Comfort height isn’t a separate format so much as a height option layered onto the others. You can have it close coupled, back to wall, or both at once. A few we’d point at:

• Close coupled: the Choices 600 Comfort Height Close Coupled Toilet at £199 keeps the conventional one-piece layout but raises the seat. The open back design also makes installation easier and gives better access to the pipework, with the usual 3L / 6L dual flush. A good shout if you want comfort height without changing how the toilet is plumbed.
• Close coupled with a soft-close seat included: the Spa Comfort Height Close Coupled Toilet is £269 and comes with a soft-close seat in the box plus the 3L / 6L dual flush. A tidy step up if you’d rather not buy the seat separately. You’ll find it in the toilets range.
• Back to wall: the Deia Comfort Height Rimless Back-to-Wall Pan at £199 is the one that does everything at once: comfort height, rimless and the concealed back-to-wall look, with a soft-close seat. It’s got a compact projection (around 485mm) and a width of about 365mm, so it suits an accessible bathroom where you still want the minimal finish. If accessibility matters and looks matter, this is the pick.

One gap worth flagging honestly: there’s no wall hung comfort height pan in the range right now. If you specifically want a floating, raised-height pan, you’d be building it from a frame and a standard-height wall hung pan, so the back-to-wall Deia is the easier route to comfort height plus the concealed look.

Rimless vs Rimmed: Why It Matters

Nearly every toilet we’d recommend now is rimless, and it isn’t a marketing gimmick. A traditional rimmed pan has a channel running under the rim where water flows during a flush. That channel is exactly where limescale and bacteria collect, it’s awkward to reach, and it’s the bit everyone hates cleaning.

Rimless does away with the channel. Water sweeps directly around the bowl in one open path, covering the whole surface, which gives a more powerful, more hygienic flush and turns cleaning into a quick wipe rather than a scrub under a hidden lip. No hidden ledges, less bleach, less effort.

If you’re buying new, go rimless. There’s no real reason not to, and as the Litchfield Aura at £139 shows, you don’t pay a premium for it any more. The only time rimmed makes sense is a like-for-like replacement where you’re matching an existing suite exactly.

Toilet and Sink Combination Units

This is the answer if space is tight. A toilet and sink combination unit puts the WC and basin into one continuous run of furniture, usually with the pan at one end, the basin at the other and storage in between. The cistern hides inside the unit, the pipework’s concealed, and the whole thing fits against one wall as a single fitted piece. For a cloakroom, a downstairs WC or a small en-suite, it’s the most space-efficient layout going.

How Toilet and Sink Combos Work

The basin sits on top of the vanity section with a cupboard or drawer underneath, so the loo roll, cleaning bottles and clutter have somewhere to live. The toilet cistern is concealed inside the unit next to it, fed by a back-to-wall pan. Because it’s all one run against the wall, you get a fitted look without having to match separate pieces yourself, and you reclaim the floor space two standalone fittings would have wasted.

The Empire 1100mm Combination Toilet & Sink Unit in Anthracite at £369 is a good example of how these are built. It combines the toilet and sink into one cohesive design, has a solid one-piece single tap hole polymarble surface (no grubby seam around the basin) and carries a 5-year guarantee. The anthracite finish is bang on trend and hides marks better than gloss white. One important caveat, and it’s why you read the spec rather than the headline: the back-to-wall toilet pan is not included, and the tap and basin waste are sold separately. So budget for those on top of the £369.

What to Look For in a Combination Unit

• Width: these typically run from around 900mm up to 1200mm. A 900mm unit is the sweet spot for a cloakroom, where you still get a usable basin and some storage. Measure your wall and account for pipework and any radiator before you commit.
• What’s actually included: this is the big one. Some units come as furniture only, with the pan, tap and waste bought separately (the Empire is one of these). Others bundle the pan in. Read the product description line by line so the final bill doesn’t surprise you.
• Pan type: combos use a back-to-wall pan. Make sure it’s rimless for the easy cleaning you’re presumably buying a tidy unit to get.
• Basin size: compact units sometimes shrink the basin to save width. If you want a proper hand-wash basin rather than a token dish, check the basin dimensions before ordering.
• Finish: anthracite, matt grey, white gloss and oak-effect are all common. Match it to any furniture you’ve already got.

Is a Toilet and Sink Combo Right for You?

If any of these sound like your situation, a combination unit is almost certainly the answer:

• Your cloakroom is too small to fit a separate basin and toilet comfortably
• You want a fitted furniture look without buying and matching separate pieces
• You need hidden storage, because there’s nowhere else for the spare loo rolls
• You’re doing up a downstairs WC or an under-stairs bathroom

The one trade-off is flexibility. Once you’ve fitted a combination unit you’re committed to that layout, so if you’re the sort who likes to rearrange, separate pieces give you more options later. For the vast majority of cloakrooms and small en-suites, though, a combo is the most practical solution by a distance. Browse the combination units and pair the right tap from our sink tap buying guide if the unit doesn’t include one.

Choosing a Toilet for a Small Bathroom

Space matters more than people expect, and the number that catches everyone out is projection: how far the pan sticks out from the wall. A pan that projects 700mm looks fine in a showroom and miserable in a 1.5m cloakroom. Here’s where to focus:

• Short projection pans: look for a projection around 500mm or less. The Deia comfort height back-to-wall pan, for instance, projects roughly 485mm, which is genuinely compact for a back-to-wall.
• Wall hung: lifting the pan off the floor opens up the room visually and makes cleaning easier. You give up some depth to the concealed frame, but the sense of space usually wins.
• Combination units: as above, putting the toilet, basin and storage into one run is the single most space-efficient move you can make in a small room.

Whatever you fit, leave yourself room to use it: aim for at least 200mm of clear space either side of the pan and around 600mm in front. Tighter than that and it feels cramped and becomes a pain to clean around. If the whole room is a squeeze, our guide to designing a small bathroom covers the layout side in more detail.

What to Check Before You Buy

Most toilet returns come down to one of four things going unchecked. Run through these before you order anything.

Plumbing configuration

Find out where your soil pipe exits: through the floor (bottom outlet) or through the wall (rear outlet). Your pan needs to match, or you’re paying a plumber to re-route pipework, which adds cost and time. Plenty of UK homes have a rear outlet, but don’t assume. Look before you buy.

Flush system

Dual flush is standard now, a smaller flush for liquids and a fuller one for solids, and it saves a real amount of water over a year. The Scudo and Litchfield pans in our range run a 3 litre and 6 litre split. Compare that to the 9-plus litres an old single-flush toilet dumps every time and the saving adds up fast.

Soft-close seat

Non-negotiable, in our view. A soft-close seat stops the lid slamming, which is kinder to the seat’s hinges and a lot kinder to anyone trying to sleep at 2am. Many pans include one (the Middleton, Ferrara Plus, Deia pans and the Scudo wall hung kit all do), but some don’t, so check whether the seat is in the box or an extra.

Will it actually fit?

Measure before you order. Specifically:

• Available width along the wall
• Projection (how far the pan will come off the wall, plus the cistern depth on a back-to-wall or wall hung setup)
• Soil pipe position: centre of the pipe from the wall, and its height off the floor
• Clearance to any door, radiator or other fitting

If you’re swapping like-for-like, measure the old toilet and find something with similar dimensions. If you’re changing format, say going from close coupled to wall hung, get a plumber involved for the fitting and the frame.

Which Toilet Is Right for You?

The short version. Find the row that matches what you care about most and the format falls out.

Toilet type	Best for	Look	Install effort	Example pick
Close coupled	Family bathrooms, en-suites, cloakrooms, tight budgets	Cistern and pipework on show	Low, easy swap	Ellie £199 / Litchfield Aura rimless £139
Back to wall	A tidy concealed look paired with furniture	Pan only, cistern hidden	Medium, needs a unit or stud wall	Middleton £199 / Ferrara Plus £249
Wall hung	Contemporary and small bathrooms, clear floor	Floating pan, everything hidden	High, needs a rated frame	Scudo matt black kit £369 (complete)
Comfort height	Taller, elderly or less mobile users	Varies (it’s a height, not a format)	Same as the base format	Choices 600 £199 / Deia back-to-wall £199
Toilet & sink combo	Cloakrooms and small en-suites, space saving	Fitted run, cistern and storage hidden	Medium (note: pan/tap often extra)	Empire 1100mm anthracite £369

If you remember one thing: pick the format for your space and plumbing first, then choose rimless every time, and add comfort height if anyone in the house would benefit. Get those three right and you won’t regret the buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between a close coupled and a back to wall toilet?

A close coupled toilet has the cistern bolted on top of the pan as one visible unit sitting on the floor. A back to wall toilet hides the cistern inside a furniture unit or behind a stud wall, so you only see the pan. Back to wall looks much tidier but takes up a bit more depth and costs a little more to install.

Are rimless toilets better?

Yes, genuinely. With no channel under the rim, there’s nowhere for limescale and bacteria to build up, the flush is more powerful, and cleaning is a quick wipe instead of a scrub. You no longer pay extra for it either. The Litchfield Aura rimless close coupled is £139.

What is a comfort height toilet?

A toilet with the seat set higher than the standard 400mm or so off the floor, closer to chair height. It makes sitting down and standing up easier, which helps anyone tall or with knee, back or mobility issues. You can get it as a close coupled (Choices 600, £199) or a back-to-wall pan (Deia, £199).

What size toilet do I need for a cloakroom?

Look for a short projection pan, around 500mm or less, or a toilet and sink combination unit. A combo puts the toilet, basin and storage into one run, which is the most space-efficient option for a small room. The Empire 1100mm combination unit is built for exactly this, though a 900mm unit suits the tightest cloakrooms.

Can I fit a wall hung toilet in any bathroom?

You need a solid wall or a proper frame system rated for the load, because a bare stud wall won’t hold a wall hung pan plus a person. The frame is fitted and squared before the plasterboard goes up, so it’s a job for a qualified plumber or bathroom fitter, not a weekend DIY swap.

Do toilet and sink units come with the toilet and basin included?

It varies, so always check the spec. Some units include everything; others, like the Empire 1100mm combination unit, are sold as the furniture with the back-to-wall pan, tap and basin waste bought separately. Read the product description line by line before ordering so the final cost doesn’t catch you out.

What’s the best toilet for a small bathroom?

For the smallest rooms, a toilet and sink combination unit or a short projection back-to-wall pan wins on space. If you want the floor to feel more open, a wall hung pan lifts everything off the ground, though it needs a rated frame behind the wall.

Still weighing it up? Browse the full range of toilets and our toilet and sink combination units for the space-saving route. If your toilet is one piece of a bigger project, our guides to designing a small bathroom and wall hung vs floor standing furniture are worth a read, and the sink tap buying guide helps you pick the tap a combo unit won’t include.