Best Espresso Machines of 2025—and All of the Essential Tools and Accessories

Over the past few years, the coffeeshop experience has been transplanted into our homes, bringing a new level of gravitas to home espresso. In support of this shift, espresso machine manufacturers are adding far greater levels of control and technology to consumer machines while scaling down their pro-grade products for home use. Add an endless supply of compelling YouTube-influencer material on all facets of espresso brewing, and it's never been easier to become a bona fide coffee connoisseur from your kitchen. 

Once obscure tools and gadgets that were on the fringes of coffee geekdom have since become mainstream for many home-brewing rituals.

No matter where you fall on the fast-evolving spectrum of at-home coffee culture—from those who want to feel like a barista every morning to others who just want coffee shop-level lattes at the touch of a button—these machines and tools can serve as a nudge down the espresso rabbit hole, or provide a one-button-and-done convenience at home without settling for sub-par coffee.

Best Espresso Machines at a Glance

• Best Espresso Machine Overall: Breville Bambino Plus
• Best Advanced Espresso Machine: Breville Barista Touch Impress
• Best Intermediate Espresso Machine: Diletta Mio
• Best Espresso Machine/Grinder Combo: Philips Barista Brew
• Best Classic Italian Espresso Machine: Lelit Mara X
• Best Fully Automatic Espresso Machine: DeLonghi Magnifica Plus
• Best Portable Espresso Machine: Wacaco Picopresso

Related: The Best Coffee Beers in the World

Best Espresso Machines of 2025

Best Espresso Machine Overall: Breville Bambino Plus

For anyone looking to take a step up from espresso pods, this is the machine to buy. If you bought the Breville Bambino Plus and the Encore ESP grinder below, that combo could be all you’ll ever need to make great espresso drinks, and you can spend your money on good beans from then on. It looks luxurious, it doesn’t take up much room on the counter and it is ready in seconds. It’s also small enough that you can take it to a rental house, or home for the holidays, to avoid mom’s Folgers. 

To get the most out of it, you will need to buy a grinder, which could negate the advantage in counter space this compact machine offers. Also, if you think you may be making coffee for dinner parties, you might want a machine with a larger water capacity. But if you’re making just a few drinks at a time, and if counter space is an issue, this is the machine I recommend to anyone when they ask me what machine to buy. If you’re casual about it, this is a pinnacle, and if you’re serious, this is a perfect place to start.

• Pros: Small footprint, great espresso, fast heat up time
• Cons: Small water reservoir, you need to buy a grinder to get the most out of it

Best Advanced Espresso Machine: Breville Barista Touch Impress

The bright color touchscreen makes it extremely easy to choose what espresso drink you want to make—espresso, latte, flat white, cappuccino, and others. What makes this machine really stand out is that it is like having personal barista trainer. It tells you if your beans are ground too finely or too coarsely based on the time of extraction, and it tells you if you have put too many grounds or too few in the portafilter based on the pressure when you use the integrated tamper. Under grind, and it will keep adding more grounds in tiny amounts until it gets the it just right, and then it will remember that setting from then on. (You will likely have to go through this adjustment process any time you add new beans, however, since they will grind and extract differently.) 

Over time, this machine will help you understand the relationship between the fineness of your grind, the amount of beans you use, and how long each double shot should take when properly executed. There is a bit of trial and error, but thankfully Breville has made this a much cleaner process with an integrated funnel that channels all the grounds into your portafilter instead of on your counter.

• Pros: Touchscreen is intuitive, provides expert guidance, feels very high quality
• Cons: Dialing in can take time and will shift a little with every new coffee bean type

Best Intermediate Espresso Machine: Diletta Mio

If you’re interested in getting serious about your espresso, but still want something others in your household can learn to use without a manual, Diletta Mio pairs Italian-made quality with the precision of modern temperature control. The high-grade components can be individually serviced, so this machine can last decades—not tossed in a landfill when one thing goes wrong. 

The simple push-button interface makes it approachable for beginners, while the precise temperature control and quality internals make it serious enough to grow with you as you perfect your technique. Energy efficiency was paramount. A low-power draw for the boiler maintains brewing temp and a separate heat pump for steaming milk can be left off if you’re only making espresso.

• Pros: Made in Italy, independent heating elements for coffee and steam, simple learning curve
• Cons: Space under portafilter only fits small cups, machine can’t be descaled at home

Related: Coffee Guru James Hoffmann’s Favorite Advice For Upgrading Your Daily Coffee

Best Espresso Machine Grinder Combo: Philips Barista Brew

For an all-in-one machine that grinds beans, makes your espresso, and produces excellent steam for foaming milk, this is a great value. Thanks to the stainless-steel trim, it looks like a more premium machine on your countertop, and it also works just as well as pricier options. You miss out on features like touch screens, but if your goal is just to make good espresso drinks, this does all that you need it to. 

 Another premium touch is the commercial-sized 58mm portafilter—larger than a Breville portafilter and the standard size for commercial machines. It also comes with a seriously good metal tamper, while other companies tend to go cheap with plastic options. 

After using it for a few weeks, the only non-premium aspect was simply the lighter weight of the machine—turn the portafilter handle too hard and it will move on your countertop when a pricier machine is more likely to would stay put because there’s more metal weighing it down. It has a very quick startup time, and a big water tank in case you need to make a large batch of drinks. Overall, this delivers the tactile feeling of a high-end semi-automatic machine and comparable results, for a better price.

• Pros: Great value, looks fantastic on the counter
• Cons: Interface is basic, grinder is not as good as standalone options and other combo machines

Best Classic Italian Espresso Machine: Lelit Mara X

When you think about a classic Italian espresso machine, you’re probably picturing something that uses the E61 Group Head. Invented in 1961, these machines are identifiable by a big, chrome, nose-like protrusion on the front, and eye-like knobs and pipes for arms on left and right for water and steam. They’re intimidating if you’ve never used one and a serious statement piece on any kitchen counter, but in the past they had an issue with temperature stability, swinging between too cool and too hot. 

The Lelit Mara X solved this by using two different PID temperature controls to constantly monitor and maintain the perfect temperature, so you get the look and feel of an E61 machine but with modern precision. Sure, there are still other modern machines that are more efficient, and that have far faster startup times, but they can’t give you the tactile satisfaction that the Mara X does. There is something so satisfying about lifting the wooden knob of the lever to start the shot, and turning the big wood knob to start the flow of steam. 

If you aspire to make your morning coffee a creative ritual and not caffeine delivery, this may be your dream machine. Despite the large counter presence, it’s pretty narrow in a good way—making room for the grinder you’ll want to pick up to pair it with. (Pro tip: I set this on a google smart plug and now the startup time is a non-issue because I can turn it on when I wake up and it’s ready when I get to the kitchen).

• Pros: Luxury build quality, stunning to look at, compact footprint while still having serious counter presence
• Cons: Slower heat up time due to boiler, standby mode is sluggish to reheat

Best Fully Automatic Espresso Machine: DeLonghi Magnifica Plus

I love the ritual of making coffee in the morning, but the better you get, the more of a process it becomes—weighing beans and grinding each shot’s worth, timing the extraction, making the perfect foam—if you must make more than two drinks at a time with that level of detail, it becomes a slog. 

Enter the superautomatic. Lazy? Perhaps. Not capable of a truly perfect drink? Maybe. But the ability to push a button and have a damn fine flat white or cappuccino appear moments later is nothing short of magic, no matter how many times I witness it. The factory settings of superautomatic machines keep getting better and better, and out of the box this one makes exceptional drinks. 

If you don’t have the bandwidth to geek out on all the steps of making the perfect espresso drink, or if you routinely make them for several people at a time, this is a not crazy expensive and lets you push a button get on with your work, and even caffeinate a crowd if need be. Other than the fact that it is plastic and not metal, I can find no flaws with this machine.

• Pros: Good value for a superautomatic machine, easy to use touchscreen
• Cons: Oily beans may clog the grinder, plastic build won’t give you that old Italy feeling

Best Portable Espresso Machine: Wacaco Picopresso

This portable, hand-powered espresso machine is about the size of a 12-ounce can, so you can take it anywhere. It has a longer learning curve than a countertop espresso machine, but when you get the grind, tamp, and pump pressure right, it’s magical to be able to make an espresso anywhere you have access to hot water—even from a thermos in your backpack. 

It’s great for a cabin in the woods, hotel rooms, or holidays with family who never moved on from Folger’s. We’ve used the Picopresso in all these scenarios, and it was a nice luxury to always have on-hand. You can't put a price on convenience. Well, actually you can, and this one is very fair.

• Pros: Easy to use, extremely portable
• Cons: Doesn't make much, can be a pain to clean

Best Espresso Tools and Accessories

Best Espresso Grinder: Baratza Encore ESP

Baratza is a company that only makes coffee grinders, which is why you should trust them to make yours. Historically, you had to spend more for their Sette series of grinders to dial in a perfect espresso grind. But, with the new Encore ESP, they have taken their most affordable grinder and given it serious espresso capabilities. When you’re adjusting the grinder on the small side of the dial for Espresso, the blades only make minute adjustments with each click—something critical for espresso.

But, when you adjust it to the big side for drip or pour over, the blades make larger adjustments. What this means is you get an espresso grinder on one side, and a grinder for everything else on the other. Simple but smart, this makes a great case for being not just the best value grinder for espresso, but also one of the most versatile grinders for coffee in general.

Best Espresso Scale: Acaia Lunar

A precise digital scale is critical for ensuring every dose going into the portafilter is equal, and for measuring the beans-to-coffee output ratio of your shots—18 grams of ground beans to 36 grams of espresso as a rule. Affordable scales can be found on Amazon to get started, but the industry standard is the Acaia Lunar: water-resistant, rechargeable, compact, and designed specifically for brewing espresso with dependable precision. It’s pricy for such a specific-use gadget, but it’s the last espresso scale you’ll ever buy.

Best Espresso Filter: Saint Anthony Industries The Harold

The ultimate way to test your barista chops is to do away with the dual spouts on the portafilter. As Saint Anthony’s cofounder, Khristian Bombeck, told me, “Naked portafilters don’t lie.” They tell the truth about your technique, the good, the bad, the ugly. “It’s an easy way to ruin a shirt or even your kitchen walls if you don’t do it right.” To use a bottomless (aka naked) portafilter takes a perfect dose of beans ground at just the right fineness, tamped into a level and uniform puck. It won’t make your espresso taste better, but it will allow you to perfect your technique and it will certainly make for a much prettier photo or video if you’re showing off once you get the hang of it.

Best Espresso Funnel: Decent Portafilter

This tiny metal ring will save you a lot of spilled coffee grounds on your countertop. While it's pricier than the ones available on Amazon, the embedded magnets that create a tight bond with your portafilter make this a worthy investment. Just make sure you get the right diameter for your machine’s portafilter—58mm for commercial-sized and 54mm for Breville. This is the funnel used by the aforementioned James Hoffman. 

Best Milk Frother: Dreo BaristaMaker

You can nail the perfect espresso shot, but if you botch the milk the drink just won’t look or taste right. If you love the ritual of foaming milk, then by all means keep doing it. But I have been using this frother for a few months now, and I love being able to set it to microfoam, push a button, and then go fixate on the minutiae of a perfect espresso shot knowing the perfect milk will be waiting for me when I’m done. 

Not to mention, I love not having to clean a steam wand with milk crust every morning. It’s very affordable, it makes rich microfoam and fluffy traditional foam, and it has settings for every kind of milk (cow, almond, soy, et al.) that your dietary requirements desire.

Best Espresso Splurge: Saint Anthony Industries Bloc Party

To level up at-home espresso, you need a clean place to work and a few critical tools. The Bloc Party gives you all those things: a distribution tool to make sure the grounds are evenly situated in the portafilter prior to tamping, a palm tamper that ensures you get a level puck, a firm rubber surface to rest your portafilter on while tamping, and a knock box to dispose of the spent pucks. Everything is made from stainless steel and American hardwood, packed into one attractive unit. They also make upgrade kits for Breville machines like this one, to customize your machine with a walnut-handled portafilter and tamper, and a matching walnut bean hopper cover.

Why You Should Trust Me

I got a head start in my love for serious espresso just by growing up in Seattle. Since then, espresso has become a serious daily ritual, and a world to explore as a journalist. In my pursuit of coffee knowledge, I have interviewed global coffee gurus, baristas, pro coffee gear makers, and bean roasters and producers. On my own, I have tested dozens of machines, and countless coffee tools and beans from a range of roasters and regions. 

Related: How Joseph Brodsky Finds (and Sells) the World's Best Coffee Beans