3 options covered
Best Espresso Machines for Beginners
Three of the seven machines we track take a step off your hands that the others leave to you. “Beginner” here is not a judgement about the coffee — it is a count of what the machine does instead of you: measuring and tamping the dose, texturing the milk, or running the whole shot.
Breville Barista Express Impress
Breville’s assisted espresso machine: 25 grind settings, assisted tamping, PID temperature control and a 54 mm portafilter, with the milk still yours to steam.
- Best for
- Someone who wants the dosing and tamping taken out of their hands at $799.95 while keeping control of the shot and the milk
- Key differentiator
- Assisted tamping and 25 grind settings with published PID temperature control, for $799.95
The machine measures the dose and tamps it, and you run the shot and the milk. Breville calls it an assisted manual machine and publishes 25 grind settings, PID temperature control and a 15 bar pump with 9 bar extraction, at $799.95.
Good fit if
- You want the machine to measure the dose and tamp it for you
- You want 25 grind settings, and every dose tamped the same way
- You want assisted tamping at $799.95 and a steam wand you still work yourself
Consider another option if
- You want milk textured hands-free; this machine leaves the wand to you
- You want a published warm-up time; Breville states none for this thermocoil
- Price
- $799.95
- Machine type
- Assisted semi-automatic: the machine doses and tamps, you run the shot
- Grinder
- Integrated conical burr grinder
- Grind settings
- 25
Breville Barista Touch Impress
Breville’s guided espresso machine: assisted 22 lb tamping with automatic dose correction, Auto MilQ hands-free milk texturing, 13 drink presets and a three-second ThermoJet heat-up.
- Best for
- Someone who wants the dose, the tamp and the milk handled by the machine and is prepared to pay $1,499.95 for it
- Key differentiator
- Auto MilQ hands-free milk texturing and assisted 22 lb tamping with automatic dose correction, with 13 presets, for $1,499.95
The only machine here that textures milk for you. Breville publishes assisted tamping at 22 lb with automatic correction of the next dose, Auto MilQ hands-free microfoam with alternative milk settings, 13 presets plus six drinks of your own, and 30 grind settings, at $1,499.95.
Good fit if
- You want Auto MilQ to texture the milk hands-free, with settings for alternative milks
- You want 13 drink presets and room for six drinks of your own
- You want the dose tamped at a stated 22 lb with the next dose corrected automatically
Consider another option if
- You want to texture every jug of milk yourself
- You want a published pump or extraction pressure figure; this page states neither
- Price
- $1,499.95
- Machine type
- Assisted semi-automatic: the machine doses, tamps and textures the milk
- Grinder
- Integrated conical burr grinder with Baratza European Precision Burrs
- Grind settings
- 30
De’Longhi Magnifica Evo
De’Longhi’s fully automatic espresso machine: six one-touch drinks from a built-in conical burr grinder with 13 settings, and a milk frother you work yourself.
- Best for
- Someone who wants coffee at one touch without learning to dose or tamp, and does not mind steaming the milk themselves
- Key differentiator
- Six one-touch drinks with no portafilter to handle, from a built-in grinder with 13 settings, for $749.95
One press grinds, doses, tamps and brews; the milk is still yours. De’Longhi publishes six one-touch drinks, a built-in conical burr grinder with 13 grind settings, a 15 bar pump, a 60.87 oz tank and an 8.82 oz bean container, at $749.95. No portafilter to handle and no shot to time.
Good fit if
- You want six one-touch drinks with no portafilter to handle
- You want the grinding, dosing and brewing done at one press, for $749.95
- You want a 60.87 oz water tank you can lift out and refill
Consider another option if
- You want access to the dose, the tamp and the shot
- You want a published heating system or extraction pressure; De’Longhi states neither here
- Price
- $749.95
- Machine type
- Super-automatic: one press grinds, doses, tamps and brews
- Grinder
- Built-in conical burr grinder
- Grind settings
- 13
How we selected these options
The rule reads the Machine type key fact, and qualifies a machine whose stored workflow begins “Assisted semi-automatic” or “Super-automatic”. Three of the seven machines we track qualify. The other four — the Barista Express, the Barista Pro, the Gaggia Classic Pro E24 and the De'Longhi Stilosa — publish no assisted or automatic step, so they are excluded by the rule rather than by an opinion about them.
“Beginner” here is not a claim about the coffee, and it is not a claim about which machine is better. It is a count of the steps the machine performs instead of you. None of these machines carries an affiliate offer, so nothing on this page could have been shaped by one.
Three different amounts of help
The Express Impress measures and tamps the dose, and leaves you the shot and the milk. The Touch Impress does the same and adds hands-free milk texturing, thirteen drink presets and room for six drinks of your own, on a touchscreen. The Magnifica Evo goes further in one direction and less far in another: one press grinds, doses, tamps and brews, with six one-touch drinks and no portafilter to handle, and then hands you a frother to work by hand.
So the three are not a ladder. Two of them take the hardest manual step — getting a consistent dose tamped flat — and leave you the rest. One removes the shot entirely and leaves you the milk.
What you give up as the machine does more
Every step a machine takes over is a variable you can no longer change deliberately. On the Express Impress and the Touch Impress the tamp is consistent, which is the point, and it is also no longer something you can adjust when a coffee is extracting too fast. On the Magnifica Evo there is no dose to see and no shot to time, so a cup you do not like is adjusted through settings rather than through technique. Whether that is a relief or a limit is a question about you, not about the machine, and no specification answers it.
Price
$749.95 for the Magnifica Evo, $799.95 for the Express Impress, $1,499.95 for the Touch Impress. The machine that automates the most of the brewing is the cheapest of the three, because what the Touch Impress adds on top is the milk, the screen and the presets.
What is not here, and why it might still suit you
The Barista Express grinds and doses and asks you to tamp; the Barista Pro does the same with a faster heating system. The Gaggia Classic Pro E24 and the Stilosa leave every step to you and have no grinder at all. None of those is a worse machine, and the Barista Express in particular is the cheapest of the four Brevilles. They are simply machines that do not take a step off your hands, which is the only thing this guide is about.
Compare these products
How we choose
Every figure on this page comes from the manufacturer's own documentation. We do not test products ourselves, we publish no ratings, and the options above are not ordered from best to worst — read how we evaluate products, or browse the full espresso machines category.