Jun 27, 2023 9:00 AM

The Best Espresso Machines for the Home Barista

Turning your kitchen into a café is a great way to learn (or hone) the art of making the perfect shot.

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Breville Barista Express Impress espresso machine on purple backdrop

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Espresso machines are intimidating. Just look at them, with their screaming-hot metal, scalding steam, and polished chrome tubes. Each and every one of those weird little parts plays a role in shaping the perfectly pulled shot. Espresso is as personal as it is technical, which means that shopping for a home espresso machine is kind of a nightmare. Everyone has different but adamant opinions, and the machines themselves tend to be expensive.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide. After testing dozens of coffee machines over the years, the WIRED coffee nerds have pooled their opinions and expertise to compile a list of espresso machines to turn your kitchen into a café.

It’s hard not to be a caff-fiend when you work somewhere called WIRED, so it should come as no surprise that we have an extensive library of coffee coverage. Be sure to check out our other coffee guides, like the Best Latte & Cappuccino Makers, Best Portable Coffee Makers, Best Coffee Subscriptions, and Best Coffee Grinders.

Updated June 2023: We've added the Breville Barista Express Impress.

Photograph: Breville
Best for Most People
Breville Barista Express
This Breville machine produces consistent pressure for espresso, steams milk with an easily adjustable steam wand, and even grinds beans for you. It’s basically a coffee shop that lives on your countertop. Just like its more expensive siblings (we also like the Barista Pro), the Barista Express builds up water pressure gradually—which you can watch on the included pressure gauge—ensuring a smooth and even extraction.
Its sturdy, mostly-metal construction and easy cleaning have also helped make it a popular choice for several years now and a longtime favorite of ours. WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using one with no issues for five years.
$688 at Amazon
$700 at Best Buy
$700 at Seattle Coffee Gear
Photograph: Seattle Coffee Gear
Best Overall
Diletta Mio Espresso Machine
The Diletta Mio is everything an Italian-made espresso machine should be. It's compact, stylish, built to last, and brews circles around the competition. It's an absolute joy to use, too. The controls are all straightforward and pared down to the essentials. You have one button for power, one button for brewing, one button for steaming, and a switch to toggle between brew-ready and steam-ready modes. A good espresso machine should feel a little analog, like an heirloom-quality stand mixer.
The Mio keeps things just modern enough, though. It features a PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller, which is essentially a little computer that uses an algorithm to monitor the machine's internal temperature to keep it steady or make sure it hits your desired temperature. Machines that don't have a PID typically use an internal thermostat to determine if it has reached the proper temp, and then just like the thermostat in your home, it shuts off the heating element. That's fine for keeping a house warm, but it tends to make your espresso inconsistent. It's unusual to find this feature on an espresso machine at this price, and it makes sure every shot you pull is dialed in just how you want it.
$1,300 at Seattle Coffee Gear

Photograph: Rancilio
Runner-Up
Rancilio Silvia M
The Rancilio Silvia Pro (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of my favorite dual-boiler espresso machines. It’s packed with pro-grade features, and it’s built to last. This machine is not the Silvia Pro; it’s the Silvia M—but it’s almost identical and hundreds of dollars cheaper.
The sleek silver body is narrow enough to fit on most apartment countertops, and it produces consistent water and steam pressure—which means consistent, well-extracted, café-grade espresso. Most impressively, the interior of the machine doesn’t contain much plastic, and as you’ll be able to tell from its weight (30 pounds), this thing is built like a tank. By minimizing plastic inside and outside, the company has ensured the machine will last longer since repeated expansion and contraction caused by heat can make plastic components unstable over time.
$865 at Amazon
$900 at Seattle Coffee Gear
Photograph: Breville
An Elevated All-In-One
Breville Barista Express Impress
This espresso machine is the more tricked-out sibling of our top pick, the Breville Barista Express. It includes more grind and dosing settings, and automates some of the more complicated parts of brewing consistently good espresso, like getting just the right amount of beans ground per shot. It even has a handy tamping lever for making sure your grounds get tamped perfectly.
There are some caveats and some features you end up missing out on (like measuring grounds by weight not by grind time), but overall, the Barista Express Impress (6/10, WIRED Recommends) is a solid machine well worth considering for the home barista.
$874 at Amazon
$900 at Best Buy
$900 at Williams-Sonoma

Photograph: Breville
Best for Cramped Countertops
Breville Bambino
The Bambino is a cute little thing about the size of two cereal boxes side by side. It's a small, no-frills espresso machine—just a steam wand and buttons for power, one shot, and two shots—but it manages to pack some serious brewing power. There’s no shot timer or adjustable temperatures. It's a little boiler inside a little machine, but it can extract espresso every bit as well as bigger and more expensive Breville machines.
It's lightweight, so make sure you brace it with both hands when you’re twisting the portafilter in place; mine had a habit of sliding around.
$300 at Amazon
$300 at Seattle Coffee Gear
$300 at Williams Sonoma
Photograph: Delonghi
Best Budget Espresso Machine
Delonghi Stilosa Espresso Machine
Finding a good inexpensive espresso machine is tough, but the Delonghi Stilosa is one of our all-time faves, and it's usually around $100. You're not going to get high-end features like a pressure gauge or built-in grinder, but what the Stilosa does provide is everything you need to make great espresso at home: a solid portafilter, a reliable steam pump, and a steaming wand. It is a little light, so you'll want to brace it when you mount and dismount the portafilter (or it might slide around on you).
After brewing cup after cup of espresso, the Stilosa never showed signs of slowing or breaking down the way many inexpensive machines can. If an espresso maker is too cheaply made, after a few months of use you'll often start to see a sputtering steam wand and notice that the machine is struggling to build up pressure. We never saw these symptoms in the Stilosa. It's not as quick or powerful as the premium machines on this list, but it's a great place to start learning the ins and outs of espresso, and it will serve you well for a long time to come.
$86 at Amazon
$86 at Target
$88 at Best Buy

Photograph: JEFFREY MICHAEL WALCOTT/Flair
Best Hand-Powered Machine
Flair Classic Espresso Maker
There’s something satisfying about literally pulling your own espresso, and this machine allows you to do exactly that. There’s no milk steamer, no boiler, not even a power cable. This thing is all human-powered. You just load it up with coffee and water per the manufacturer’s instructions and give it a good press. There’s an included pressure gauge so you can keep your extractions as consistent as possible.
$229 at Amazon
$229 at Flair Espresso
Photograph: Aeropress
Best for Portability
AeroPress Go
This is another human-powered “espresso” machine, and it’s great for travel. Think of it like a big syringe: You fill it with coffee and hot water, push down the plunger, and enjoy a cup of coffee!
It’s not exactly espresso. Coffee technically needs to be extracted under at least 9 bars of pressure to be considered espresso, and the AeroPress is an infusion brewing device: The water and coffee grounds hang out and steep like tea. Still, pushing the water through the grounds does make for a cup of coffee that’s espresso-like, offering the same kind of rich complex flavors you’d get out of a traditional pressurized extraction.
$40 at Amazon
$40 at REI

Photograph: Amazon
Great for Stovetops
Primula Stainless Steel Moka Pot
My first coffee pot was a Moka pot, and it lasted for ages. This one is solid stainless steel, with a few plastic accents, like the grip, and it’s a reliable pick for coffee that's stronger than what you'd get from a standard drip machine. If you want to get technical, espresso must be extracted under at least 9 bars of pressure, and most stovetop Moka pots just don’t make the cut—this one included. However, if you aren't picky, it's often close enough. With a good milk frother like this one, you can make a killer latte with this stovetop not-quite-an-espresso machine.
$25 at Amazon
Photograph: Fellow
Pre-Brew Accessories
Bean Storage, Tamps, and More
There’s always room to up your game, and there are quite a few additional tools that can help you make the best espresso possible. These are all tools you’d employ before the brew, setting the stage for the perfect extraction.
Fellow Atmos Canister for Coffee Beans ($40): A vacuum canister is a great way to store your coffee beans. By vacating the chamber of all air every time you close it, the Fellow Atmos slows down the degradation of all those flavorful oils and chemical compounds inside your freshly roasted beans.
Oxo Conical Burr Grinder ($99): This is one of our top picks in our Best Coffee Grinders guide, and it's a good choice for espresso. Espresso requires a fine and consistent grind, the likes of which you can easily get out of a burr grinder. Just be sure to get in there and give your burrs a sweep now and then—maintenance that the Oxo makes easy, with a bean bin that snaps apart without any fuss.
Bezzera Bottomless Portafilter ($80): Nothing will improve your espresso brewing like a bottomless portafilter. Not because it will make your coffee better; it’ll make you better by making you more aware of your mistakes and inconsistencies. Bottomless portafilters are finicky, and when your grind is off or you’ve over-tamped your grounds, the bottomless portafilter lets you see that in how the espresso coats the bottom of the filter and pours down into the cup. Be sure to double-check the circumference on your espresso machine’s group head, though (the place the filter attaches). There are a number of standard sizes, so you need to make sure you order the right one. The most common are 53 mm and 58 mm, and almost every bottomless portafilter comes in each of these sizes.
Crema Distributor & Tamp ($44): Once you put your grounds into your portafilter, the next step is giving them a good, even tamping. You want to use about 30 to 40 pounds of pressure, and while you can use a scale to determine exactly what that feels like, I find it’s better to just press with your upper body, then extract a shot and see how it went. If it’s too bitter, you tamped too hard; if it’s too watery you didn’t tamp hard enough. A distributor (also called a leveler) makes it easy to get an even surface for you to tamp, and this one has a tamp on one side and a distributor on the other so you can level off your beans, then flip this tool over and give 'em a good tamp. Just make sure you get one that fits the circumference of your machine’s portafilter!
Duralex Picardie Shot Glasses, Set of Six ($21): These are my favorite shot glasses in general, but they’re also great espresso shot glasses—tall and narrow enough to allow a wonderfully aerated crema to form on top, and made of tempered glass so they can stand up to the heat. They’re also great for serving up smaller drinks like macchiatos—a shot of espresso with a dollop of froth on top.

Photograph: Origami Japan
Post-Brew Accessories
Steamer Pitchers, Syrups, and More
Once your espresso is brewed, steaming away in its tiny little cup, it’s time to consider just what you’re going to do with it. These are some of my favorite accessories for mixing up an excellent beverage, hot or iced.
WPM Wide Mouth Steaming Pitcher ($37): Most hot espresso drinks call for steamed milk, and to steam milk you’re going to need a steamer carafe. Your machine probably came with one, and it’s probably perfectly fine! Think of this pitcher as an upgrade. It’s angled to provide ample room for you to steam up and polish your milk, it’s made of solid stainless steel, and it has a cute little paint job. What’s not to like?
Holy Kakow Flavored Syrups ($19): If you’re mixing up a sweet drink, you should really consider investing in high-quality syrups. Holy Kakow is my favorite brand by far, and it’s a mainstay of cafés in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve ever had a mocha in Portland and wondered why yours don’t ever taste that good, it’s because of Holy Kakow. The company makes a variety of different syrups, but my favorite is definitely the chocolate syrup. I’m a sucker for a good iced mocha.

Jaina Rodriguez Grey is a product writer and reviewer at WIRED covering coffee, sex tech, and gaming. Previously, she was a legal researcher for Thomson Reuters and a tech reporter for Digital Trends. She currently resides in Portland, Oregon, with her partner and a pet rabbit named Lola.

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