Buying guides
Espresso machine guides, sorted by who you are
The honest answer to “which espresso machine should I buy” is another question: how much of the process do you want to do yourself, and where is the machine going to live? Each guide below takes one of those answers and works out the rest from our reviews. Same catalogue, same scores, different question.
For beginners
Your first machine, and the three ways a first machine goes wrong.
Top pick: Breville Bambino PlusFor small kitchens
Machines that genuinely fit, measured rather than described as “compact”.
Top pick: Breville Bambino PlusFor milk drinks
Flat whites and cappuccinos, and the choice between texturing milk and pressing a button.
Top pick: Breville Bambino PlusOn a budget
What cheap really costs once the grinder is in the basket.
Top pick: Breville Barista ExpressFor learning properly
Machines that reward technique, for people who want the craft and not just the drink.
Top pick: Breville Dual Boiler BES920XLFor busy mornings
Bean to cup at one press, and the maintenance nobody mentions before you buy.
Top pick: Philips 3200 Series LatteGoHow these rankings are built
Every guide starts from the same database of machines we have reviewed, and every machine carries seven scores from 0 to 10: espresso quality, ease of use, milk and steam, barista control, build quality, maintenance and value. A guide declares which of those matter for its reader and by how much, and the shortlist comes out of that arithmetic rather than out of our mood.
That is why the same machine can top one guide and sit mid-table in another. The Bambino Plus wins on ease and milk and has no grinder, so it leads the beginner guide and drops down the budget one, where a machine you have to pair with a separate grinder is not the cheap option it looks like.
The picks at the top of each page are ours, written by hand, and they sometimes disagree with the raw ranking. When they do, the guide says so and explains why. The full method, axis by axis, is on how we score.
If none of the six questions above is yours, the 2026 buying guide ranks the whole catalogue as one list, and the comparison tool puts any machines you like side by side, spec for spec.