Breville Espresso Machines Compared

The Bambino Plus removes every barrier to good espresso. The ThermoJet heating system is ready in 3 seconds — no waiting around. The automatic steam wand handles milk frothing for you, which means you're making lattes on day one without learning steam wand technique. It pulls consistent, balanced shots through a 54mm portafilter, and the whole machine is barely bigger than a toaster. If you want one machine that just works from the moment you unbox it, this is it.

The Barista Express is one of the most popular home espresso machines there is, for a reason. It has a built-in conical burr grinder, so you go from whole beans to espresso in a single machine — no separate grinder cluttering your counter. The grind-to-brew workflow keeps everything tight: adjust grind size, dose, tamp, pull. You learn espresso fundamentals without needing extra equipment. The steam wand is manual, which means you'll need to practice milk texturing, but that's actually a plus — you're building real skills. It's bigger than the Bambino, but you're getting a grinder and espresso machine in one footprint.

The Barista Express teaches espresso by making you do everything, and the two jobs beginners get wrong most are the dose and the tamp. The Impress takes over both. Its grinder doses on its own and reads how full the basket came out, then corrects the next dose, and the tamping lever presses at a steady 10kg and finishes with a 7° twist, so every puck starts level. The rest is the Express: a conical burr grinder with 25 settings, PID temperature control with an adjustable brew temperature, single and dual-wall baskets, and a manual steam wand. What you are buying at around $790 is the Express without the first month of sour, uneven shots.

The Barista Express is the machine everyone recommends and the Pro is what it should have been. Same idea — grinder and espresso machine in one body — but with the ThermoJet system from the Bambino, so it reaches extraction temperature in three seconds instead of waiting on a thermocoil, and it switches from espresso to steam instantly rather than making you pause between the shot and the milk. PID regulation holds the brew temperature to within 2°C. The integrated grinder doses straight into the portafilter and is genuinely good, if not the equal of a $200 standalone. What you are buying at around $850 is the all-in-one convenience without the Express’s wait to heat up and to switch to steam.

The Barista Touch is for someone who wants the Barista machines’ espresso without learning a steam wand. You choose a drink on the touchscreen, and it walks you through grind, brew and milk, with the automatic wand texturing the milk to the temperature and texture you set, so a flat white comes out the same every morning, and up to eight of your own drinks save to the menu. Underneath it’s the fast Breville: ThermoJet heating reaches extraction temperature in three seconds, PID holds it there, low-pressure pre-infusion starts the shot gently, and a conical burr grinder with 30 settings doses on demand. You still tamp by hand, and the grinder lives and dies with the machine. What you are buying at around $1,000 is café milk drinks with nothing left to practice but the tamp.

The Touch Impress is the Barista machine with the fewest steps left to you. The touchscreen walks you through each drink, the grinder doses on its own and reads how full the basket came out, then corrects the next dose, and the Impress lever tamps at a steady 22lb with a 7° twist, so the puck starts level every time. The automatic wand froths dairy, oat, almond or soy milk to the temperature and texture you set, ThermoJet heating reaches extraction temperature in three seconds, and a cold brew setting makes iced coffee without a pitcher in the fridge overnight. The Baratza burrs have 30 settings. What you are buying at around $1,400 is a café latte where the only skill left is choosing the drink.

Every other Breville leaves you at least one job. The Oracle Jet does them all except locking the portafilter in: it grinds 22g into a 58mm portafilter, tamps it automatically, and its Barista Guidance reads each shot and tells you whether to grind finer or coarser. The automatic wand froths dairy, soy, almond or oat milk anywhere from 104°F to 167°F at eight textures, and Auto Queue starts the milk while the shot runs. ThermoJet heats the group head, adjustable in single degrees, and the Baratza burrs have 45 settings. It pairs the commercial 58mm portafilter with a grinder in the same body. What you are buying at around $2,000 is café espresso and milk with no technique left to learn and room to tune every variable if you want to.

The Bambino is the Bambino Plus's younger sibling. You get the same ThermoJet heating system (3-second heat-up), the same 54mm portafilter, the same PID temperature control, in an even narrower body. The difference? The steam wand is manual instead of automatic. That means you'll need to learn to froth milk yourself — but a lot of people actually prefer this, because you get more control over texture and temperature. It also comes with both pressurized and non-pressurized baskets, so you can start easy and level up your technique over time. At $300, it's $200 less than the Plus and arguably the best value in beginner espresso machines.

The Dual Boiler is Breville's machine for people who want to work every variable by hand. One boiler brews and the other steams, so a latte doesn't wait for the machine to switch, and PID holds the brew water within 2°F through a heated group head. The 58mm portafilter takes the commercial baskets and tampers, low-pressure pre-infusion starts the shot gently, an over-pressure valve caps the pump, and the LCD runs a shot clock so you can repeat a good extraction. There's no grinder and the steam wand is manual. Budget for an espresso grinder on top, one that adjusts finely enough to hold an espresso setting: the machine is only as good as the grind you feed it.

The Infuser is Breville’s older no-grinder machine, from before the Bambino. It has PID temperature control you can adjust in 2°F steps, low-pressure pre-infusion, a pressure gauge that shows whether the shot is in range, single and double shots that stop themselves with a manual override, and an automatic purge after steaming so the next shot isn't too hot. It has no grinder and a manual wand, and it heats with a thermocoil, so Breville states no three-second heat-up for it. It's worth knowing the newer Bambino Plus costs $100 less, heats in three seconds and froths milk for you.