Ten received positive reviews from music critics. Robert Copsey of
Digital Spy awarded the album five stars out of five, praised the inclusion of the songs "Black Jacks" and "
Memory of You" in the bonus disc tracklist and called
Ten "a balanced collection that should please both casual and dedicated fans." Simon Gage of the
Daily Express wrote that Girls Aloud are "celebrating their decade with an album that includes greatest hits [...] and [...] a number of new tracks that are in the main pumped-up crowd-pleasing pop" and noted that "you’d have to be mad not to go with it." Lee Williscroft-Ferris of
So So Gay noticed that "Girls Aloud's success lies in having stuck with a winning formula to carve out a distinctive, instantly recognisable sound for themselves, while never becoming tedious or predictable", called
Ten "an essential addition to anyone's music collection" and described it as "a true testament to Girls Aloud's prowess as a manufactured girlband, who have stood the test of time through a combination of clever marketing, wise adherence to a successful musical direction and the chemistry which binds the five individuals together as an act." David Edwards of
Drowned in Sound praised the band's production team,
Xenomania, for crafting "wondrous and weird, dirty and daunting, sexy and sublime songs" and noticed that Girls Aloud "for most of their career, [...] delivered blindingly good pop music." However, he criticised the choice of singles included in the album as well as the covers, while praising songs like "
Call the Shots", which he described as "an impeccable piece of melodic layering and dynamic majesty" and "
Biology", which he hailed as "their absolute masterpiece, [...] a beautiful Frankenstein's monster of modern pop." He eventually called Girls Aloud "the greatest British pop band of the past ten years." Douglas Wolk of
Pitchfork compared them to
The Supremes and described them as "a group whose presence is all about charm and restraint, and whose behind-the-scenes powerhouse is a brilliantly original writing and production team." He highly commended the complexity of the songs "Biology" and "
Love Machine", but felt that the covers and the new tracks, particularly "
Beautiful Cause You Love Me", "just drag the album down." He went on to suggest that "they may have a second wave in them" and concluded by writing that "the virtue of Girls Aloud's best songs [...] is that the next part is always even better than the one you're listening to until, suddenly, they're over." Commenting on the new tracks, Phil Udell of
State felt that "they have managed to maintain the quality" and noted that the singles "Love Machine", "
The Show" and "Biology" "still prove the highlight of their career so far, fizzing with an excitement and joy that's hard to beat." Si Hawkins of
The National wrote that Girls Aloud were "a breath of fresh air [...] back in 2002 [...] and have remained a guilty pleasure ever since", highlighted "On the Metro" as the standout new track and called
Ten "a fine body of work." In his review of the album, Andy Kellman of
AllMusic noticed that "despite the amount of new material, some of which is not up to par with the earlier smashes and certain album cuts, this is a handy sampling of Girls Aloud's biggest moments." Jon O'Brien of
omg! praised the band's ability "to cram more hooks into each song than most of their rivals could manage in their entire career" and although he criticised all of the new tracks except "
Something New", he eventually called
Ten a "triumphant retrospective". ==Commercial performance==