We compared current espresso machines that grind their own beans, judged on how finely the grinder adjusts, how much help they give with dosing and tamping, how fast and steadily they heat, how they handle milk and how much counter they need.
Ad disclosure: we earn a commission on Amazon links, at no cost to you. It never decides our picks. How this works
Best overall
Suits Manual espresso with the grinder in the same box
Best budget
Suits A grinder machine on a smaller budget and counter
Best premium
Suits Guided shots and auto milk for a shared kitchen
Best for push-button drinks
Suits Lattes at one touch, no barista skills needed
From spec sheets and independent tests. The best result in a row is tagged.
| Feature | Breville Barista ProBest overall | De'Longhi La SpecialistaBest budget | Breville Barista TouchBest premium | KitchenAid KF6Best for push-button drinks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operation | Semi-automatic, hand tamp | Semi-automatic, tamping guide | Semi-automatic, assisted tamp | Fully automatic, one touch |
| Grind settingsmanufacturer; KF6 per Business Insider | 30, conical burr Best | 8, conical burr | 30, conical burr Best | Set behind a side panel |
| Heatingmanufacturer | ThermoJet, about 3 s, PID Best | Thermoblock, 3 temperatures | ThermoJet, about 3 s Best | Automatic, set per drink |
| Assisted tamping | No: Magnetic hand tamper | Partly: Screw-on dosing and tamp guide | Yes: 22 lb lever, dose correction | Yes: Done inside the machine |
| MilkTechRadar, Business Insider, Reviewed | Manual wand, powerful | Manual wand | Auto MilQ, 4 milk types | Auto frother, tube-fed |
| Cold brewmanufacturer; KF6 menu per TechRadar | No: Not offered | Yes: Under 5 min | Yes: Under 3 min Best | No: Not on its drink menu |
| Water tankmanufacturer; KF6 per TechRadar | 67 oz | 56 oz | 67.6 oz, rear-mounted | 2.3 qt (about 74 oz) Best |
| WidthBusiness Insider, De'Longhi, TechRadar | About 13.9 in | About 11.2 in | About 13.4 in | About 10.2 in Best |
| On Amazon | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Breville Barista Pro (BES878) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo (EC9255M) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for Breville Barista Touch Impress (BES881) (opens in a new tab) | Check price on Amazon(paid link) for KitchenAid Fully Automatic Espresso Machine KF6 (KES8556) (opens in a new tab) |
Who each one is for, and what to know before you buy.
01Best overall
The best all-round espresso machine with a built-in grinder: it heats in seconds, grinds in finer steps than the Barista Express and carries a two-year warranty. You still tamp and steam by hand, and the wand takes practice.
Pick it ifHome baristas who want grind, dose and shot control in one machine and are happy to learn to steam milk by hand
Skip it ifAnyone who wants push-button milk drinks, or who expects to move to a standalone grinder later
Why it made the list. Business Insider's and NBC Select's best overall espresso machine: ThermoJet heat-up in about 3 seconds, a 30-setting conical burr grinder, PID and pre-infusion, and a two-year warranty. You tamp and steam by hand, and Business Insider found the wand takes practice.
02Best budget
The budget route to an espresso machine with a grinder built in: compact, easy to learn and strong on milk in two of three expert tests. Its 8-step grinder and 3-setting temperature control leave less room to fine-tune than the Brevilles.
Pick it ifFirst-time home baristas with a smaller budget and a narrow counter who want grinder, machine and wand in one
Skip it ifLight-roast drinkers who need fine grind steps, or anyone who wants automatic milk
Why it made the list. Tom's Guide's best-value grinder machine and TechRadar's best manual bean-to-cup pick, with a tamping guide, a strong manual wand and five-minute cold brew in a body about 11.2 in wide. Only 8 grind steps, and Business Insider could not dial in its sample.
03Best premium
The premium pick: it guides the grind, doses and tamps for you, steams milk on its own and adds cold brew, so a household of non-baristas gets consistent drinks. It is bulky, sits in the flagship price class, and its auto milk suits plant milk better than whole dairy.
Pick it ifHouseholds where several people make coffee and want cafe drinks without learning to tamp or steam
Skip it ifAnyone who wants to learn manual espresso technique, or who mainly drinks whole-milk lattes and wants the auto frother to handle them
Why it made the list. TechRadar's and Reviewed's top espresso machine: it guides the grind, doses and tamps at 22 lb, steams four milk types on its own and makes cold brew. TechRadar found the auto milk better with plant milk than whole dairy.
04Best for push-button drinks
The pick for one-touch drinks: it grinds, doses, brews and froths by itself, and two 2026 expert tests praise its espresso and milk. It gives less control than a portafilter machine, and the grind setting is tucked behind a side panel.
Pick it ifHouseholds that want espresso and lattes at the press of a button, with no grinding, tamping or steaming skills
Skip it ifAnyone who enjoys dialing in shots or pouring latte art, or who drinks mostly plant milk and wants a dedicated setting
Why it made the list. A super-automatic that grinds, brews and froths at one touch; Business Insider's best less expensive super-automatic and TechRadar's best fully automatic pick, praised for its crema and measured at about 44 dB while pumping. Grind changes mean opening a side panel.
A machine with its own grinder saves a second appliance, a second cord and the step of moving grounds from one to the other. The trade is permanence: the grinder decides how good the espresso can get, and it cannot be replaced without replacing the machine. If you expect to keep upgrading, a compact machine and a standalone grinder is the more flexible route, covered on our beginner espresso machine list, our espresso grinder list and our home espresso setup guide. If you want one box, these are the criteria that separate the four picks.
Three picks are semi-automatic: you grind into a portafilter, lock it into the group head, start the shot and steam milk with a wand. The Barista Pro, La Specialista Arte Evo and Barista Touch Impress differ in how much help they give along the way. The KitchenAid KF6 is a super-automatic: it grinds, doses, tamps, brews and froths inside the machine, and you choose a drink on a screen.
The difference is control against convenience. A semi-automatic lets you change grind, dose and shot length to suit each bag of beans and pour latte art; a super-automatic makes the same drink every time with no skill and gives you only the adjustments its menu allows. Business Insider found the KF6's grind setting sits behind a side panel, and TechRadar's own advice is that a buyer on a tight budget is better off with a manual machine.
The Barista Pro and Touch Impress use the same conical burr grinder with 30 settings, which Breville brands as Baratza European Precision Burrs. The older Barista Express has 16 settings and the Arte Evo has 8. Finer steps matter because espresso is sensitive: a shot that runs a few seconds fast at one setting may choke at the next, and with only eight steps you end up adjusting dose or tamp instead. Tom's Guide sieved the Arte Evo's espresso grind and found it very uniform, so the limit is range rather than quality, and it bites hardest with light roasts. Medium and dark roasts are far more forgiving.
Uneven dosing and tamping are the most common reasons a home shot tastes sour or bitter. The Touch Impress removes both: Breville's Impress Puck System doses from the last result, tamps at 22 lb when you pull a lever, and corrects the next dose, and TechRadar found it cleaner and more consistent than tamping by hand. The Arte Evo takes a middle path with a screw-on dosing and tamping guide and a tamper, which Tom's Guide preferred for keeping control without the mess. The Barista Pro leaves tamping to you with a magnetic hand tamper, and the KF6 does it out of sight.
Both Brevilles use ThermoJet heaters that Breville rates at about three seconds to extraction temperature, and Business Insider found the Barista Pro switches from shot to steam faster than rivals as a result. The Pro has PID control, which holds brew temperature steady from shot to shot. The Arte Evo uses a thermoblock with three temperature presets that De'Longhi calls Active Temperature Control; Tom's Guide points out that it is not a PID, though it still pulled a balanced double in its test.
The Pro and the Arte Evo have manual wands. Business Insider found the Pro's powerful enough to blow milk out of the jug until the angle is right; TechRadar and Tom's Guide both got good microfoam from the Arte Evo, though Tom's Guide found the wand sits low on a stiff joint. The Touch Impress adds Auto MilQ, with settings for dairy, oat, soy and almond: Reviewed found it excellent with plant milk, while TechRadar found it weaker with full-fat dairy and suggests steaming whole milk by hand. The KF6 froths automatically through a tube from your own jug and has no plant-milk profile, per TechRadar, though Business Insider got good results with both dairy and plant milk.
| Pick | Width | Water tank | Warranty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breville Barista Pro | about 13.9 in (Business Insider) | 67 oz (Breville) | 2 years (Breville) |
| De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo | about 11.2 in (De'Longhi) | 56 oz (De'Longhi) | 2 years, plus 1 with registration (De'Longhi US) |
| Breville Barista Touch Impress | about 13.4 in (TechRadar) | 67.6 oz (Breville) | 2 years (Breville) |
| KitchenAid KF6 | about 10.2 in (Business Insider) | 2.3 qt (TechRadar) | not confirmed |
Check the height under your wall cabinets, since every pick has a bean hopper on top, and the depth: the KF6 is narrow but about 18.5 in deep by Business Insider's measurement. Semi-automatics need regular descaling and a wipe of the group head and wand; the KF6 prompts a milk-line rinse after each milk drink and a periodic brew-unit clean.
Models we considered, and why each one did not make the list.
Still CNET's best overall espresso machine (June 2026) and NBC Select's pick for a built-in grinder. We left it off this list because the Barista Pro adds ThermoJet heat-up, 30 grind steps and a two-year warranty in the next price class up, and breville.com showed the Express out of stock on September 27. It remains a good one-box choice, and our Barista Express review covers it in full.
The same assisted tamping idea at a lower price class than the Touch Impress, with 25 grind settings. Business Insider's sample's assisted tamper malfunctioned repeatedly, and TechRadar replaced it with the Touch Impress as its top bean-to-cup pick. We are watching it.
Tom's Guide's top espresso machine (August 2026), but it did not appear in the other current roundups we checked. It is a candidate for the next update.
CNET's pick for espresso plus drip coffee. Business Insider found the closely related Luxe Café Pro needed several adjustments to dial in and varied in shot temperature and volume. As an espresso and drip hybrid, it belongs on its own page.
Long the default budget super-automatic, but Tom's Guide has dropped it from its main ranking and found it plasticky with milk that trails pricier machines, and CNET lists a LatteGo machine among those it tested but did not pick. The KF6 has stronger current test results.
CNET's splurge pick, with automatic grinding, dosing and tamping, but it sits in a higher price class than this list covers.
They were absent from the independent tests we rely on, so we could not verify their grinders or temperature control.
For medium and dark roasts, yes. The 30-step Breville grinders give enough control for most beans, and Tom's Guide found the Arte Evo's eight-step grinder very uniform. Built-in grinders reach their limit with light roasts and cannot be upgraded, which is why enthusiasts often prefer a separate grinder.
They share the grinder, heater and portafilter. Pay for the Touch Impress if several people make coffee and want the machine to tamp, guide the grind and steam milk; buy the Pro if you want to learn the craft and do those steps yourself.
Yes. With the semi-automatics you put pre-ground coffee straight into the basket, and the dual-wall baskets that Breville includes are made to work with it. The KF6 has a bypass chute for a scoop of ground coffee without emptying the hopper.
Prime Big Deal Days run October 6 to 7 and Black Friday is November 27. Espresso machines with grinders are frequent promotions at both, so if you are not in a hurry, a few weeks' wait is reasonable.
We compared current espresso machines that grind their own beans, judged on how finely the grinder adjusts, how much help they give with dosing and tamping, how fast and steadily they heat, how they handle milk and how much counter they need. The Breville Barista Pro is the best overall; the De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo is the budget pick, the Breville Barista Touch Impress the premium one, and the KitchenAid KF6 the choice for drinks at one touch.
The shortlist came from the grinder-equipped machines that current independent tests recommend: Business Insider (August 2026), TechRadar's espresso and bean-to-cup guides (September 2026), Tom's Guide (August 2026 guide, December 2025 review), NBC Select (March 2026), Reviewed and CNET, checked against Breville's and De'Longhi's US product pages. We have not used these machines ourselves; every result is attributed to the publication that reported it. Each pick is sold on amazon.com, none is on a CPSC recall list, and models that appeared in only one current roundup, drew repeated faults in testing or have been superseded were left out.
