Generally speaking, there are 2 types of blenders i.e. jug blenders and immersion blenders. Jug blenders have a jug attached to the blender machine, whereas an immersion blender is basically a stick with a blade on it. The jug of the jug blender is where you place your ingredients, and the blades at the bottom spins to mix everything together.
The jug blender has more power than an immersion blender, and is therefore able to blend harder food items like ice cubes. Both these types of blenders are electric, however, you do get some jar blenders that are manual and will require continuous shaking to blend ingredients.
These manual jar blenders are usually cheaper than electric ones, and do not come with as many safety features (which we will explain later).