Best Espresso Machine: The Final, Definitive Answer
What’s the best food? What’s the best vacation destination? What’s the best movie? Best car? Pair of jeans? Shoes? Coffee? Can you answer any of these questions definitively? Of course not, because they’re all subjective. I will gladly die, wrapped in seaweed and rice, on the hill of sushi being the best food of all time; my wife thinks I’m nuts, of course, because pizza is the best food of all time. As much as we’d like to imagine otherwise, the question of which espresso machine is the best is equally subjective.
What you drink, how often you drink it, how many people use your machine other than you, and about a hundred other factors are all going to change the calculus that must be used to determine which machine is “best” for you.
Because that’s the question you should really be asking: “what’s the best espresso machine for me?”
Fortunately, figuring out which machine is best for you is an extremely achievable goal...especially when you have access to the guidance and knowledge of a team of industry experts with a collective century-plus of experience.
Which, in the paragraphs that follow, is exactly what I’m going to give to you. I’ve asked this question of just about everyone in the building: our sales staff, technicians, product specialists, and video team...everyone had a different opinion, different rationale. With their guidance, you will have the tools you need to answer, for yourself, once and for all, which espresso machine is best for you.
John & Will: The Profitec MOVE is Best for Functionality & Style
John is one of our most experienced commercial coffee experts. He’s got something like 15 years of cafe- and roastery-management experience under his belt, and he’s used more than his fair share of commercial and home espresso machines alike. His pick for best espresso machine is the Profitec MOVE. Why? Quite simply, “it just does everything you could possibly want.” It’s a dual-boiler with commercial-grade build quality and even has some handy accessibility features like time-of-day programming and programmable automated pre-infusion to help make users’ lives easier.
Plus, the OLED PID screen incorporates brew buttons for menu navigation, which makes adjusting settings super intuitive. “The UI is very good,” he says. “The single-shot button is yes, the double-shot button is no, and that’s all you need to know for success.”
Our newest video producer, Will agrees. He picked the MOVE because of its combination of simplicity, aesthetics, and performance…but he’s particularly excited about those aesthetics. “It’s a nice departure from your average dual-boiler...it’s not just a cube of polished stainless steel.” And those barista lights? “They make you feel like you’re in a football stadium of espresso brewing…and you’re the quarterback.”
We’ve had some questions about steaming performance on the MOVE, but “I really enjoy steaming on this thing,” Will assures me. “It’s got good and consistent pressure, and the two-hole steam tip gets a great vortex in the pitcher.”
But you don't have to take his word for it. Check out Marc's review for full steaming performance test results.
Marc & Steve: The ECM Synchronika II Maximizes Performance & Reliability
Those at all familiar with our YouTube channel know Marc. He’s been our primary on-screen personality and espresso machine reviewer for close to 15 years now. Needless to say, he’s had quite a lot of experience testing and brewing on all sorts of machines.
“As you spend more money on an espresso machine,” he told me, “what tends to happen is you add capabilities that help control variables.” The more you can control things like brew temperature or pre-infusion timing, the more consistently-tasty espresso you get to drink. “The Synchronika II,” Marc posits, “sits right at the point where the bang-for-buck curve starts to flatten out.”
Of course you can spend quite a lot more money on machines that have more features and higher performance than the Synchronika II. But, this is an incredibly-capable dual-boiler with a 6.5 minute heat-up time and intuitive menu navigation—that makes it an easy on-ramp to prosumer-grade espresso brewing at home. What more could you really ask for?
As an ECM, it also boasts top-of-the-line build quality. In fact, Steve, one of our lead technicians, picked the Synchronika II as the best espresso machine for exactly that reason.
“Every time I answer a tech call to help walk someone through maintenance at home,” he said, “I always hope their machine is a Synchronika…of course, Synchronikas don’t break all that often, so my life is rarely that easy.” Of course, it's the same for Synchronika IIs: even though it's relatively new, at it's heart, it's the same precise, reliable, and powerful machine as its predecessor.
Of course, we've done our homework on the Synchronika II. Check out Marc's full review for a really deep dive into its features and capabilities.
Bryan: The Rocket Bicocca Has Incredible Tech & Thoughtful Design
Now Bryan, who you will also recognize from our YouTube channel if you’ve been paying even a little attention, feels a bit differently. As far as he’s concerned, there actually is an espresso machine that delivers enough bang to justify its higher-than-Synchronika-II buck: the Rocket Bicocca.
This is a big machine with big capabilities.
“It does a great job of bridging the gap between a home and a commercial machine,” Bryan told me. And he’s right. Customization features like programmable pre-infusion times, PID-regulated group head heaters, and an easily-adjustable OPV are available if you want them, but it also just brews espresso if you’d rather skip all the rigamarole. It’s got best-in-class temperature stability, too, thanks to that heated group head, and, aesthetically, it makes just as much of an impact: “I really like the faceted side panels and the overall simplicity of its design.” It certainly is visually striking, simultaneously evoking modern style and ancient motifs. In fact, the inspiration for the side panels comes from the ashlar, a staple of renaissance architecture.
A feature Bryan particularly appreciates, and that might go unnoticed by a less-particular observer, is the drip tray. With many espresso machines, excess water is discharged into the drip tray through some sort of external piping: those with E61 groups, for example, have large, lower assembly cylinders, and even ring group machines tend to have something that sticks out the front of the machine. All this takes up valuable real estate, which makes fitting scales and cups under your portafilter spout more difficult.
On the Bicocca, this is not an issue. All the water venting is done behind the face of the machine, leaving you a large, clear workspace for prepping your cups and scales.
Of course, the espresso is the whole point, and the Bicocca performs impressively in this department as well. “I’ve pulled some really great shots on this machine,” Bryan tells me with a wistful twinkle in his eye.
For an even more detailed dive into the Bicocca, check out Marc's full review on our YouTube channel.
Nick: The JURA Z10 is the Master of Quality & Convenience
Nick is a walking encyclopedia of espresso machine knowledge. He was our sales manager for years and now leads the content and product teams, so his fingers are in the proverbial pies of every single product we carry and make content on. If there were ever a Jeopardy-style game show that tested contestants on their knowledge of espresso machinery, I’d bet on Nick over just about anyone else in the world without hesitation.
When I asked him what the best espresso machine was, his first response was “in some ways, every machine is my favorite.” Of course, he was on to my schemes from the get-go. But, after a little pushing, he agreed to play the game and declared the JURA Z10 was the best espresso machine.
“Honestly,” he mused, “it’s one of the most flexible and capable super-autos in existence.” Having had one in my home for a glorious couple of weeks, he didn’t really need to convince me of anything on that front. The Z10 has a HUGE drink menu, and even more customization options: 10 different milk and milk foam settings and 10 different brew strength levels, for doses anywhere between 5 and 16 grams.
Beyond that, the way this thing brews is remarkable. The Product Recognizing Grinder automatically adjusts grind size to match the drink being brewed; 3D brewing technology and Pulse Extraction Process give you rich, flavorful extractions; and the Cold Brew Extraction Process makes legitimate cold-brewed espresso and coffee in mere minutes using a dedicated water line that draws directly from the reservoir (rather than using the same line that draws through the boiler, as most other machines that make “cold brew” do).
Nick acknowledges that when most people ask the question “what’s the best espresso machine” they aren’t thinking of super-autos. But, for those interested in getting cafe-quality espresso and coffee in the most convenient way possible, the Z10 delivers better than just about any other option out there.
“The drinks are delicious,” Nick preaches to me, the choir. “You can customize them so much it’s almost impossible to make a bad drink as long as you know what you’re doing.”
Kenzie: The ECM Mechanika Max is the Best for New Hobbyists
If you’re new to the world of espresso but you KNOW you’re in the hobby for the long-haul, ECM’s Mechanika Max is the best espresso machine for you…so says Kenzie, one of our expert sales associates, anyways. As a heat-exchanger, it really makes preparing milk drinks easy since you can brew and steam simultaneously. But it is, of course so much more than that. The Mechanika Max is a smart heat-exchanger, one of the only ones in existence that allows you to monitor and adjust the temperature of the thermosyphon AND the boiler, meaning “it does a really great impression of a dual-boiler” in terms of temperature stability and precision.
It’s also an E61 machine, so you can add flow control if you really want to dive into the hobbyist brewing rabbit hole. The Mechanika Max is also relatively compact, so it fits well in a crowded kitchen and under cabinets. The real nail in the coffin, as far as Kenzie is concerned, is the value: “it’s a really good price-point for what the machine can do.” And she’s absolutely right about that. A dual-PID heat-exchanger with a plumbable rotary pump and time-of-day programming—not to mention ECM’s legendary build quality and reliability—you can’t really argue with that math…I certainly won’t, anyways.
There's a lot to say about the Mechanika Max we couldn't get to in such a short blurb, so if it sounds exciting, definitely check out our in-depth review.
Zach & Missy: The Profitec Pro 800 Blends Historic Style with Modern Features
You don’t need to be a luddite or fancy yourself a steampunk overlord to appreciate the classics…at least that’s what Sales and Engagement Manager Zach and Sales Lead Missy say. They both picked the Profitec Pro 800 as the Best Espresso Machine because this thing is, as Missy put it, “as old school as you can get with modern technology.”
Whereas certain other “lever” machines just use a lever as an aesthetically-antiquated way to engage an electronic brew pump, the Pro 800 is the real deal: you use your actual arm muscles to pull a lever that creates negative pressure to draw hot water from a dipper boiler, which is then pressed through your espresso from the force of the internal spring expanding. Not only is that a pretty cool thing to do, and a fun homage to espresso’s origins (the very first espresso machines, designed by Achille Gaggia, worked exactly like the Pro 800, which is actually where the term “pulling a shot” comes from), a true lever machine gives you a shot profile you simply can’t get from other machines.
Zach used to own a series of espresso trailers he’d set up at events, and he used lever machines in them because they offer “a very specific pressure profile with a natural pre-infusion” that results in a “rich, thick crema that’s very smooth, especially with dark and medium-dark roasts.”
So no, the Pro 800 isn’t the best if you’re super-busy and have hectic mornings. But if you enjoy the historic; if you want rich, smooth shots; if you love the ritual of espresso brewing and want to experience it as it existed at the dawn of the era without sacrificing modern conveniences like PID temperature regulation and a steam wand; the Profitec Pro 800 really is the best espresso machine for you.
Me: The Gaggia Classic Pro E24 is the Best for Beginners
Discerning readers will, at this point, be screaming at the computers: “but which espresso machine do YOU think is best??” And that’s true: I haven’t personally weighed in, mostly because the machine I love most, the one I think is truly the best for me, the espresso machine to end all other espresso machines in my humble opinion, has been discontinued.
(But, if you’ve read my other blogs, you know which one I’m talking about.)
So, like Nick, I will use my vote to fill a gap. Every machine on this list so far costs $2,000 or more. That’s a lot of money to shell out for someone who, perhaps, isn’t quite sure they want espresso as a hobby.
This is where the Gaggia Classic Pro E24 comes in.
Gaggia didn’t skimp on build quality when designing this thing. A single-piece, stainless steel housing; heavy, brass boiler and group head; and a solid, 58mm portafilter do more than make the Classic Pro E24 an extraordinarily reliable piece of espresso brewing equipment. Because the internal components through which water passes are all made of dense, thermally stable metals, it’s able to maintain brewing temperatures much more consistently than any machine with a thermoblock boiler and plastic group head ever could.
That means, despite being one of the least-expensive espresso machines around, the Classic Pro E24 is capable of producing a truly cafe-quality shot of espresso, even without a PID. If you’re sitting there thinking “but how can you know anything about temperature stability without a PID?” don’t worry—we tested it extensively. Check out Marc’s YouTube review for an easy process you can use to get 200°F brew temperatures every single time.
At the end of the day, the Classic Pro E24 is reliable, built to last, and brews great espresso. What more could you ask for from your entry-level machine? Fun colors? Check. Available wood accenting? Check. Compatibility with pro-brewing upgrades like precision filter baskets and bottomless portafilters? Check and check.
There may be budget options out there with flashy features like PID regulation and auto-frothing wands, but if reliability, espresso quality, and aesthetics are at all important to you, the Gaggia Classic Pro E24 is the best entry-level espresso machine.
What’s the Best Espresso Machine For You?
As much as I’d like to, I can’t tell anyone what the best espresso machine is. This is a question each of us needs to answer for ourselves.
Do you value performance or price? Build quality or ease of use?
If you’re a true espresso nerd with an unlimited budget, sure: the Synchronika II or the Rocket Bicocca are some of the best espresso machines for you. But would I recommend one of those to an espresso newbie who isn’t certain they’re interested in getting into the hobby, even if they did have more money than they knew what to do with? No way.
My hope is that, at this point, you have the tools you need to be able to ask yourself the right questions that can help lead you to an answer for yourself. And, of course, if you’re suffering from analysis paralysis or just need an expert opinion to bounce some ideas off of, you can always give us a call.
Photography by Grace Walker
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