The best espresso machine for a beginner, at three budgets

The best espresso machine for most beginners in the UK is the Sage Bambino Plus: it heats in 3 seconds, steams milk for you, and at £349.95 on Amazon at the time of writing (September 2026) it leaves room in the budget for a grinder. If you want the grinder built in, buy the Sage Barista Express at £499. If you have under £200 and very little worktop, the De'Longhi Dedica EC685 at £173.75 makes acceptable espresso from pre-ground coffee.

Which espresso machine should a beginner buy?

The Sage Bambino Plus, unless you specifically want the grinder in the same box or have less than £200 to spend. The recommendation rests on unusually broad agreement among people who have used it. Lance Hedrick called it 'the best sub 500 espresso machine on the market' out of the box. Tom's Guide calls it 'the reigning champ of entry-level espresso machines'. Coffee Kev, who has owned one since 2020, rates it the best for the price for most people. James Hoffmann was cooler on its espresso but said it is the machine he would teach someone to steam milk on.

All three picks are manual espresso machines: you dose, tamp, lock in the portafilter and steam the milk, or on the Bambino Plus let it steam the milk for you. If you want to press one button and walk away, you want a bean-to-cup machine instead, which the section on who should skip all of these covers.

Sage Bambino Plus: best overall

Espresso machineSage Bambino Plus15 bar pump · ThermoJet · Automatic steam wand£349.95 on Amazon, checked September 2026Check price on AmazonRead the review

Sage quotes a 3 second heat-up from its ThermoJet heater, PID temperature control, 9 bar extraction from a 15 bar pump, and a 1.9 litre tank, in a body 19.4cm wide. What sets it apart is the automatic steam wand. You pick one of three milk temperatures and three textures, stand the jug on the sensor in the drip tray, and it stops at temperature and purges itself. Tom's Guide found the default milk closer to cappuccino foam than flat white; Coffee Kev's flat white settings are texture one, temperature two.

The compromises are in the build. Hoffmann says Sage 'spent the money on features rather than build'. It is light enough to slide when you lock the portafilter in, the drip tray holds about 150ml by Coffee Kev's measure, and the brew temperature is fixed at 93°C, which suits medium to dark roasts better than light ones.

Skip it if you will not buy a grinder or use pre-ground coffee, or if you want to adjust temperature and modify the machine later.

Owners' long-term reports, the grinder question and a year's running costs are in the full review. Sage Bambino Plus review

Sage Barista Express: best with a built-in grinder

Espresso machineSage Barista Express15 bar pump · Thermocoil · Conical steel burr grinder£499.00 on Amazon, checked September 2026Check price on AmazonRead the review

Sage puts a conical steel burr grinder with 16 settings and a 250g hopper on top of a Thermocoil espresso machine with PID control, a 2 litre tank and a manual steam wand. You grind straight into the 54mm portafilter, tamp with the built-in magnetic tamper and pull the shot. Coffee Kev calls it a solid, reliable workhorse, and says the cheaper lookalikes he has tried fall down on the grinder.

The grinder is also its limit. Coffee Blog says it is designed for forgiving espresso blends and may not grind fine enough for lighter roasts, and the retailer Alternative Brewing says many owners 'eventually outgrow the grinder'. TechRadar needed eight shots to dial it in from the manual's starting point. Expect a week of practice, and stick to medium-dark to dark espresso blends.

Skip it if you are short of worktop, since it is 31.8cm wide against 19.4cm for the Bambino Plus, or if you already know you want to explore light-roasted single origins.

The hard-water faults owners report, and how to avoid them, are in the full review. Sage Barista Express review

De'Longhi Dedica EC685: best under £200

Espresso machineDe'Longhi Dedica Style EC68515 bar pump · Thermoblock · Panarello steam wand£173.75 on Amazon, checked September 2026Check price on AmazonRead the review

De'Longhi lists a 15 bar pump, a Thermoblock heater, a 1.1 litre tank and a body 14.9cm wide. Its baskets are pressurised, so supermarket pre-ground espresso makes a shot with crema even with a light tamp, and a third basket takes ESE pods. The two-setting panarello wand foams milk for you, and Coffee Kev calls it the best panarello he has used.

Reviewers agree on its limits and disagree on what they mean. Hoffmann found it brewed cool, struggled with light roasts and made silky milk hard, and said its price 'says to me it's worth spending more'. Coffee Kev rates it among the best value machines on the market for ordinary coffee drinkers. TechRadar notes it needs a cooling cycle after steaming before it will pull another shot.

Skip it if you want flat whites with silky milk, or expect to buy a grinder soon: by the time you add a grinder, a metal tamper and an aftermarket portafilter, you are close to the price of a Bambino Plus.

What owners upgrade first, and what it costs, is in the full review. De'Longhi Dedica EC685 review

How do the three compare on paper?

The Sage Barista Express is the biggest and the only one with a grinder; the De'Longhi Dedica EC685 is the smallest, and Coffee Kev notes it is the only one of the three without PID temperature control. The Dedica is 14.9cm wide, against 19.4cm for the Bambino Plus and 31.8cm for the Barista Express, according to De'Longhi and Sage.

Heat-up is where the Bambino Plus stands out: Sage quotes 3 seconds, and Tom's Guide measured under 10 seconds from cold. Sage publishes no figure for the Barista Express, which TechRadar timed at about 40 seconds and Coffee Kev at about 30. Tom's Coffee Corner says the Dedica is ready in 30 seconds.

What does a year of espresso cost through each machine?

Between about £690 and £1,000 in the first year at two drinks a day, machine included, against £2,555 to £2,920 for two coffee-shop flat whites a day. The coffee is priced at the medians of our catalogue on an 18g dose: 63p a cup for whole beans across 812 products, and 71p for ground coffee across 483. Two a day for a year is 730 drinks.

Every setup here pays for itself inside four months against a £3.50 flat white. Each home drink from whole beans saves about £2.87 in coffee, so the Barista Express is covered after about 174 drinks (roughly 12 weeks at two a day) and the Bambino Plus with a Smart Grinder Pro after about 188 (13 weeks). Pre-ground saves about £2.79 a drink, so the Dedica is covered after about 63 drinks, around a month. None of this counts milk, which the café price includes.

The table also shows that pre-ground is not the cheap option. The median ground coffee we track costs 8p more per cup than the median whole bean, largely because beans are sold in bigger bags. A grinder saves about £58 a year at two a day, so it earns its place on quality long before it does on price.

Running costs beyond the coffee are small. Sage's quick guides ask for a new water filter every three months or 40 litres, the Barista Express guide asks for descaling every 60 to 90 days depending on water hardness, and the Bambino Plus asks for a cleaning cycle every 200 shots.

Do you need a coffee grinder for an espresso machine?

Not to start, but you will want one within months if you care about the espresso. All three machines come with pressurised (dual wall) baskets, which Sage's quick guides say are for pre-ground coffee or beans with no roast date: they create the resistance in the basket, so the grind matters less. The two Sage machines also include single wall baskets, which need freshly ground coffee at the right fineness and give better espresso in return.

The Barista Express solves this with its built-in grinder. For the Bambino Plus, Coffee Kev suggests the Sage Dose Control Pro, the Sage Smart Grinder Pro or the Baratza Encore ESP; the Smart Grinder Pro is £189 on Amazon at the time of writing. For the Dedica, a grinder also means an aftermarket portafilter, because De'Longhi builds the pressurisation into the portafilter itself, as Coffee Kev explains.

Coffee grinderSage Smart Grinder ProConical steel burr · 60 grind settings60 grind settings, according to Sage.£189.00 on Amazon, checked September 2026Check price on AmazonRead the review

What do beginners get wrong in the first month?

1. Buying the wrong beans. Coffee Kev and Coffee Blog both recommend medium-dark to dark espresso blends for machines at this level. Coffee Kev says dense, light-roasted single origins can make Sage's built-in grinders slip their clutch, and Hoffmann found light roasts sour on the Bambino Plus and the Dedica.
2. Giving up on the grind too early. TechRadar needed eight shots to dial in the Barista Express, which is normal.
3. Using the wrong basket. Pressurised baskets are for pre-ground coffee and single wall baskets for fresh beans, as Sage's quick guides set out.
4. Ignoring the water. Barista Express owners report heaters blocked with scale in hard-water areas; use the filter and descale on schedule.
5. Not holding the machine. The Bambino Plus and the Dedica are light enough to slide when you lock the portafilter in, as Hoffmann and Coffee Kev both point out.

Who should skip all of these?

• Anyone who wants coffee at the press of a button. All three are manual machines; a bean-to-cup machine grinds, tamps and brews for you.
• Anyone who mostly drinks mugs of black coffee. Espresso machines earn their place on espresso and milk drinks; a filter machine or a cafetière is simpler for a mug.
• Anyone with very hard water who will not descale. The long-term faults owners report on the Barista Express are mostly scale.
• Tinkerers who want a machine for a decade. The usual answer is the Gaggia Classic Evo Pro, covered below.

The Gaggia Classic Evo Pro is £549 on Amazon at the time of writing. Gaggia lists a brass boiler, a 58mm stainless steel portafilter, a three-way solenoid valve and a 2.1 litre tank, and it is made in Italy. It is a hobby machine rather than a first one. Hoffmann called the Classic Pro 'frustratingly close to great' as sold, with temperature and pressure fixes that mean opening it up and voiding the warranty. Lance Hedrick says its steam is weak unless modified, and Coffee Kev notes the UK Evo Pro still came with the higher-pressure valve when he looked.

Espresso machineGaggia Classic Evo Pro15 bar pump · Single boiler · Manual steam wand58mm portafilter, brass boiler, made in Italy.£549.00 on Amazon, checked September 2026Check price on Amazon

The verdict

Buy the Sage Bambino Plus and a grinder if milk drinks are most of what you make. Buy the Sage Barista Express if you want everything in one box and will stick to espresso blends. Buy the De'Longhi Dedica EC685 only if the budget genuinely stops under £200, and use it with pre-ground coffee as it was designed to be used.