The Best Espresso Machines for Beginners, Coffee Nerds, and Everyone in Between

Size: 8.7" x 16.25" x 13.75" | Weight: 44.1 lb. | Water reservoir size: 84 oz. | Cup clearance: 4.5" | Colors: Stainless steel, black, white, limited edition gold | Warranty: Two years

Size: 7.7" x 12.6" x 12.2" | Weight: 11 lb. | Water reservoir size: 64 oz. | Cup clearance: 5" | Colors: Stainless steel, damson blue, and black truffle | Warranty: Two years

Size: 15" x 13.9" x 18.4" | Weight: 21 lb. | Water reservoir size: 81.2 oz. | Cup clearance: Variable | Colors: Black and stainless steel | Warranty: Two years or 7,000 cups

Size: 9.1" x 14.5" x 16.5" | Weight: 29.1 lb. | Water reservoir size: 68 oz. | Colors: Black | Warranty: Two years (200,000 espressos)

We’re picking nits a little to choose the Lelit MaraX as our favorite machine over this one. There are few features the Bello+ has that the MaraX does not. It has an adjustable digital PID, a shot timer to help you hone your shots, and programmable pre-infusion (again, an additional level of tweaking you can make to your coffee). It also heated up more a little quickly than the MaraX around 11 minutes. All those bells and whistles are nice-to-haves in our opinion though. We can get a shot timer from an affordable espresso scale, pre-infusion can be done manually on many machines, including the MaraX.

The steam wand of the Bello+ wasn’t our favorite. It was the most powerful of any machine we tried and it was very easy to overwork the milk. It’s also more expensive than the MaraX, which ultimately is why it ended up down here instead of with the top picks. Still though, it’s an excellent, consistent espresso machine.

A favorite of Bon Appétit food director (and fellow traveler in coffee nerdom) Chris Morocco, The Rancilio Silvia Pro X is a lovely machine to use. It’s a dual boiler (unlike the Lelit MaraX, which has a heat exchanger set up), so the water used to steam milk is always at the ready and at a different temperature than the brewing water. It has a useful pressure gauge, which a previous Rancilio model did not, and an adjustable PID controller you can set to the degree, which the Lelit does not. Ultimately we thought both the coffee tasted better and the milk frothed a bit better using the Lelit, but are willing to admit some subjectivity there. It also has a more industrial look that may not fit quite as nicely as part of a home coffee bar. In terms of performance though, we have no issues with the Rancilio Silvia Pro X and recommend it.

A step down from the Diletta Bello+, the Mio is another prosumer machine that pulls a nice shot and makes a nice cappuccino, the Diletta Mio uses a thermoblock heater for steam instead of the heat exchanger of the Lelit or the dual boiler of the Rancilio. That keeps both the cost and the weight a bit lower than they otherwise might be. It also heats up much more quickly—under 10 minutes, which is super speedy for a higher end espresso machine. However, we had an issue with longevity. After about six months of use we started having trouble with the water temperature dropping. It took very regular flushing to keep things on the up and up. One other issue with this Diletta is very low cup clearance, which meant that for milk drinks we needed to brew into a shot glass instead of the cup we intended to drink out of.

The Solis Barista Perfetta Plus is a tremendous budget machine. It has an adaptive PID (though changing it requires pushing a combination of buttons that resembles a cheat code in an old Sega Genesis game), which is practically nonexistent at this price point. The built-in pressure gauge is a feature we wish the Bambino Plus had and provides important feedback on whether your shot is coming out as intended. It has a very powerful steam wand, outperforming some machines that cost hundreds of dollars more. And finally: it has one of the smallest countertop footprints of any machine we’ve seen. Why don’t we have it recommended up at the top? We’ve seen it out of stock for long stretches, and until we can be sure that you’ll actually be able to get one no matter when you're reading this story, we don’t feel like we can.

The Profitec 500 took the longest to heat up of the high-end machines we tested at close to 24 minutes. It was also one of the most finicky. Dialing in a shot took the longest and the machine demanded a very precise grind and tamp that we needed to adjust sometimes on a day-to-day basis. If you’re willing to take on all that, the machine is a beautiful feat of German engineering. The look is a little steampunk for our liking, but that’s a personal thing. This is one to consider if you want to dedicate time and effort to your morning coffee in a way that other espresso machines don’t demand of you.

Like most of the prosumer machines we tried, the Rocket Appartamento uses a heat exchanger to keep water hot for brewing and steam. It’s a little slower than most though so there was a longer wait between brewing and steaming milk. The included tamper, which could be replaced, didn’t fit flushly in the portafiler that came with the machine and left some loose coffee on the edges. It doesn’t have a PID controller (though a newer model that will get future testing does allow some adjustment) and it also has a bigger footprint than our top pick.

The Victoria is a step down Lelit’s lineup from the MaraX. It costs about 40% less, but we thought the tradeoffs for those savings were too much. It’s a single boiler machine without a heat exchanger, so we had to wait almost a full minute to steam milk after pulling a shot. And when we did steam milk, it lacked the texture we got from the model up. It does have a PID controller and shot timer, which are nice features though. Ultimately we think you can get similar quality for less money with a mid-priced Breville machine

The Express Impress was a big jump forward in technology for Breville. This was the company’s first machine to use a combination of smart grinding and tamping to let you know the grounds in your portafilter were all set for a good shot. After grinding, the machine measures whether it’s able to compress the coffee grounds with the right pressure. If it can’t compress them enough it means the grind is too fine or there is too much coffee. If it compresses too much, the reverse is true. It worked wonderfully for a while in our testing, providing useful feedback. The espresso and milk steaming worked at the same level they do in all the mid-priced Breville machines we tested—both consistently good. The problem we ran into with this machine was that it began jamming up with lighter roast beans. We asked Breville and didn’t get a definitive answer. But issues like this are why we typically stay away from espresso machines with built-in grinders. They tend not to have as many settings or as much power as stand alone grinders. However, Breville has been improving their built-in grinders with burrs from Baratza (the grinder company Breville acquired in 2020.

The Touch Impress is not quite a super automatic machine, but it's pretty close. It uses the same smart grinding and tamping as the Express Impress, though instead of dials and buttons there’s an LED touchscreen. You can select which drink you’d like and the machine will guide you through the steps one by one. The coffee is delicious, but we think that if you want this level of automation you may just want to go full super-auto and spring for the Bosch machine, especially because this one costs (at the time of writing) $1500. If you’re open to a more hands-on espresso experience there are prosumer machines in the same price range as the Touch Impress or less expensive Breville machines that will give it to you.

The one caution we’d have about this machine is the same one we mentioned above about built-in burr grinders. But the Barista Express is an affordable espresso machine that makes the kind of consistent coffee Breville is known for. The grinder itself is a little annoying to adjust—you have to free hand the grind time on a dial that is just labeled “less” and “more,” but we were able to get it in range after about 15 minutes of trial and error. If you do want an all-in-one espresso maker, this one is a good value.

Besides Breville, De’Longhi is the other name you’ll see again and again for home espresso machines between $500-$1000. The La Specialista Arte has a built-in burr grinder as well as a built-in hot water dispenser, which you can select with a dial near the group head. The steam wand wasn’t quite as powerful as those on Breville machines, but it still produced some texture to the milk. A small accessory that makes a difference is the included funnel. It attaches to the portafilter and keeps the grinding process cleaner than it would be otherwise. Aftermarket funnels are available for most machines, but it’s a nice accessory to have in the box. One thing to know about semi-automatic De’Longhi machines is that their portafilters are a slightly different size than many other machines. You could, for example, use the Solis portafilter in a Breville machine or vice versa. But the De’Longhi portafilers are deeper and narrower.

In our product testing Ninja has distinguished its products by giving them two main features: They are less expensive versions of their best known competitors (think: this blender instead of a Vitamix) and they have some quirky extra capabilities (think: this double stack air fryer). Ninja’s entry to the semi-automatic espresso world fits right in. It is clearly here to offer a less expensive option to the Brevilles and De’Longhis of the world and, in addition to espresso drinks, it also claims to do drip coffee and cold brew. The Luxe Café Premier does indeed deliver tasty espresso shots. It also effectively uses similar smart grinding to the Impress series from Breville that figures out the right grind for you. But there’s a little too much going on.

The drip coffee tasted fine, though not as good as what we get from top drip coffee makers. The cold brew tasted a bit flat instead of rich and smooth. If you have a non-espresso drinker in the house those might be features worth having though. The real problem (and the one that kept us from considering it as a budget pick) is the Ninja’s milk frothing. In addition to steam, the milk jug uses a built-in whisk to stir the milk like stand-alone milk frothers do. The result was a lot of bubbles and not much body in either dairy or alt milks.

Let’s start with the good for the Philips Barista Brew: It has a heavy, 58mm portafilter (the same size you’ll find on true high-end machines), it has a high quality steam wand that repeatedly produced thick, smooth tops for our milk drinks. It also has a built-in americano button. This machine had one major issue though: The built-in grinder couldn’t grind fine enough to generate enough pressure to pull a satisfactory espresso shot. We’re quite sure the problem was the grinder because when we used a Fellow Opus and a Baratza Encore ESP to try this machine we were able to pull delicious shots with the right pressure.

The Infuser is a slightly older Breville model from a time before they were including grinders on most of their machines. It is essentially the Barista Express without a grinder and we think that makes it a pretty strong option for its price range. It brews flavorful espresso, has a pressure gauge, and an adequate steam wand. The dial that toggles between steam and hot water doesn’t feel quite as nice as the push-button operation of newer Breville machines, and because it’s older it can sometimes be a little harder to find. Overall we think the Bambino Plus presents a better package of features, but if you find one of these on sale we say snap it up.

The Gaggia Classic Pro shows up as a top pick on a lot of other lists of best espresso machines, probably because it has the look and feel of a prosumer machine at an entry level price. It’s the least expensive machine we tested that comes with a 58mm portafilter and has a nice steam wand too. It’s a single boiler machine though, so be ready to wait between brewing and steaming. One disappointment with the Gaggia we tested was that, despite many quality parts, it came with a cheap plastic tamper. We couldn’t get a good tamp and all the espresso we made using it came out under-extracted. Using the Gaggia is also a full analog experience. You start and stop the brewing and steaming process by flipping a switch. That’s not a knock on the machine—it’s how the Lelit, the Dilettas, and many nice espresso machines work. We mention it though, because someone buying a machine at this price point might be expecting the automatic stop that comes with something like a Breville machine, and you won’t get it here.

As a rule we expect very little from espresso machines that cost less than $200 because they tend to lack the temperature and pressure control needed for good coffee. But the Cuisinart surprised us. We pulled shots with nice crema on top (the machine only came with double-walled filter baskets though, so it was kind of cheating). The steam wand was a bit overpowered and tough to control (again, an issue when you don’t have good temperature and pressure regulation), but did produce a headier foam than most other machines around this price point.

No crema, over-extracted espresso, and an irritating steam wand that was almost always in the way during brewing; it’s features like these that scare us off cheap espresso machines, and they're all present on this De’Longhi. The milk foam was also so thick we could almost cut it with a knife.

The Dedica looks like it should be a nice machine, but it felt cheap and was mostly plastic. That wouldn’t have to be a dealbreaker, but the espresso also lacked much flavor. We actually prefer capsule coffee from a Nespresso VertuoPlus, which costs around the same amount of money. If you’re looking for something less expensive we’d point you either to that or the Solis Barista Perfetta.

Hamilton Beach makes some good inexpensive small appliances, toasters and kettles for example, this is not one of them. We hesitate to call what was on top of the espresso shots crema. It was closer to pudding. The steam wand couldn’t evenly heat the milk: Some of it badly scalded before everything in the pitcher was heated through.

The fancier of the two De’Longhi super automatic machines we tested delivered once we get it dialed in. The burr grinder on the Eletta Explore has 13 settings and we found we had to set coarser for espresso than we would have thought, around 6. With the milk container attached it can make around 50 drinks, though many of them are just iced versions of the hot drinks. The touchscreen is intuitive and provides step-by-step instructions when necessary. The water tank is big enough a two coffee drinker household should only need to refill it once during a week. Both the straight espresso and the black coffee tasted a bit flatter than the drinks from the Bosch, and the foam was a little thinner. This machine can, however, make cold foam if you like iced cappuccinos.

We started using the Jura E8 the same day we were testing Breville’s Barista Express Impress, and while the espresso shots from the Jura weren’t quite as bright as the Breville’s, both machines showed off all the same tasting notes. The espresso from the Jura was the best of all the super automatic machines. The E8 textured dairy milk well, but struggled with oat milk. That struggle wasn't unusual in automatic machines but we still have to ding it.

We still think this is a nice machine, that makes delicious coffee, it just isn’t as versatile as either the Bosch or the De’Longhi Eletta Explore.

Like the name suggests this was the quietest super automatic machine of any we tested. Super autos are a noisy bunch between the grinding, the water pumping and the automated milk steaming. While it’s not as hushed as making pour-over, the Miele kept things to a pretty low hum. The drink list is short: cappuccino and a couple of latte options to go with espresso shots and black coffee, but it makes those drinks well. It looks good on the counter and if you aren’t interested in a big drink library you’ll enjoy this machine.

The Philips Lattego was easy to use, perhaps because it can only make five different drinks. The espresso wasn’t super flavorful, but it wasn’t bad. The issue with this machine wasn’t with its coffee, it was with its milk. The milk came out with very little texture, regardless of whether we made a latte or a cappuccino.

The little brother of the Eletta Explore, this De’Longhi machine is simpler, smaller and much less expensive. It makes seven drinks compared to the dozens and dozens for the Eletta Explore, but the coffee quality was similar. The espresso tasted a little flat and the milk could have used a little more body. That made the added drink capabilities of the Eletta Explore very apparent. If you’re considering the Magnifica EVO and aren’t entirely set on an full auto machine, we’d recommend choosing a semi-automatic Breville machine at a similar price instead. This one occupies a tough middle space: It isn’t as versatile as a lot of super automatic machines we tried and can’t make coffee as well as similarly priced semi-automatic machines.

As with the Flair, it doesn’t make much sense to compare the 9Barista to say, a Breville or De’Longhi machine, because it’s a stovetop espresso maker. If you’ve ever used a Mokapot it works sort of like that, except much better. Its boilers actually produce the correct pressure for an espresso shot and those shots tasted better than everything except the very best prosumer models we tested. The little brewer is dense, it weighs in at almost four pounds (a mark of quality), and if you’re up for a more manual experience you won’t be disappointed.

Using the Flair Pro 2 is an entirely different experience from every machine we’ve covered up to this point. That’s because this is a fully manual lever espresso maker. That means you have to heat the water and produce the necessary pressure yourself. There were some messy moments as we figured out how to use it, but the Flair did produce some truly delicious espresso. The trick, which someone from Flair shared with us, is to allow a brief period of pre-infusion when you don’t pull too hard on the lever. It lets the pressure build more slowly. A lever machine like the Flair is a commitment and you have to want to work for your coffee and the small 46mm filter basket is a little tedious to fill. But if hands-on experimentation is your thing, this is a fun machine. It’s also great to travel with: It comes apart and fits into a case about the size of a large tablet.