Carpet sweepers are available in either mechanical or electrical versions and available for both home and commercial applications. In mechanical or the manual carpet sweepers, when the carpet sweeper is pushed, the rollers at the base of the sweeper rotate the brush which pick up all the dirt from the floor or the carpet. In electrical carpet sweepers the process of rotation is done by the inbuilt motor.

Electrical carpet sweepers are available with a few variations like cordless variety, portable type, rechargeable and also in the electrostatic variety.
The carpet sweeper have recently be replaced to a large extent by vacuum cleaners. The advantage of carpet sweeper over the vacuum cleaner is that it is comparatively silent and hence can be used during working hours without disturbing anyone. This is useful especially in the hospitality industry like hotels where diners are not disturbed by the sound and the place is also kept clean.

The Hoky carpet sweeper is one of the most famous carpet sweeper, so much so, that in some places the carpet sweeper is referred to as a Hoky. Hoky is sometimes wrongly refereed to as Hockey carpet sweeper.

Some of the other famous and best brands are Bissel carpet sweeper, Shark carpet sweeper, swifter carpet sweeper, rubbermaid carpet sweeper, oreck carpet sweeper, casabella carpet sweeper and fuller brush carpet sweeper.