The subject matter of the invention is an orbital shaker with a balancing device by means of which forces and moments which are caused by imbalance and arise during operation, in particular as a result of a possible variable loading (mass, geometry of the containers, properties of the contents) and variable operating parameters (speed of rotation and shaking radius), are compensated automatically and passively without supply of external energy. The balancing device can be designed such that only the unbalance forces are compensated (static balancing) and/or the unbalance moments (dynamic balancing).