Best Espresso Machine With Grinder: 10 Reviews Compared

The Best Espresso Machine With Grinder: What Reviewers Agree On

Picking the best espresso machine with grinder comes down to one question: how good does the grinder need to be for the coffee you drink? Every reviewer who pushed these machines hard ended up talking about the grinder. Here's what the 10 reviews and their comment sections said about each pick.

Machine	What reviewers praised	Most common complaint	Best for
Breville Barista Express Impress	Tamp lever and dose sensor, 25 grind steps, programmable shot volume, five brew temperatures	Hopper is fiddly to refit; manual steaming has a learning curve	Beginners who might get serious
Breville Barista Express	Pressure gauge, actively heated group, steady brew temperature in Tom's Coffee Corner's probe test, metal body	No water-level sensor, loud grinder, single boiler	Hands-on learners on a tighter budget
Ninja Luxe Café Pro	Grinds by weight, suggests the next grind setting, huge drinks menu, auto milk	Shot volume overshoots and can't be reprogrammed, heavy purge water, more faults	Households that want easy lattes and iced drinks
Gaggia Magenta Prestige	One-touch drinks with a milk carafe, compact, easy to clean	Only about five grind settings, little control	Zero-effort milk drinks
De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo	Cool-touch steam wand, full accessory kit, water sensor, compact	Eight grind steps, fixed hopper, timed dosing, unheated group	Latte drinkers who never change beans

How We Chose

We didn't test these machines ourselves. We analysed 10 video reviews, picked because the reviewers pulled shots, measured something or lived with the machine for months:

• James Hoffmann, on the Ninja Luxe Café (bought at full price; particle-size and extraction measurements against a Fellow Opus)
• Tom's Coffee Corner, two videos: the Barista Express, Express Impress and Barista Pro side by side, and the Barista Express against the De'Longhi La Specialista Arte with temperature-probe tests
• Coffee Kev, two videos: the Ninja Luxe Café Pro against the Express Impress, and a six-month Ninja ownership update
• America's Test Kitchen, an eight-month test of espresso machines in the under-$1,000 tier
• Cafelista, three weeks with the La Specialista Arte Evo
• Espresso Doc, six months with the Barista Express
• Seattle Coffee Gear and Alternative Brewing, both retailers, on built-in versus separate grinders

We gave less weight to the two retailer videos, since both sell the grinders they recommend. Coffee Kev promotes his own coffee beans in his videos, and Tom's Coffee Corner uses affiliate links, but both showed side-by-side use, so we kept them at full weight. Claims only one reviewer made are credited to that reviewer. We also read the top comments under each video for recurring owner problems.

Breville Barista Express Impress: The Safest All-Rounder

The Express Impress is the Barista Express with the two steps beginners fumble most taken care of. A lever on the side tamps the puck at a set pressure, and a sensor reads how deep the tamp went and tells you whether to add or remove coffee next time. Tom's Coffee Corner counted 25 grind steps against roughly 16 on the original, so you're less likely to get stuck between a setting that chokes the machine and one that gushes.

Coffee Kev compared it with the Ninja Luxe Café Pro and summed up the split well. The Ninja gets you to an okay shot faster. The Impress takes a bit longer, but because you can reprogram the shot volume, choose from five brew temperatures and pull manual shots, it can go well past okay once you put in the effort. He also said he rarely hears of faults with it, apart from two or three owners with a bad dose sensor.

What you give up: there's no auto milk, so you'll need to learn the steam wand, which is single-hole and slower than the Barista Pro's. Kev found the hopper awkward to put back on, and the thermocoil needs about 30 to 40 seconds to heat. Like the original, it has no water-level sensor.

Check the Express Impress's price on Amazon

Breville Barista Express: Still the Benchmark

The original Barista Express has been on sale since 2013, and it's still the machine others get measured against. America's Test Kitchen named it their overall favourite after eight months of testing, because it makes respectable shots on presets but lets you program shot length and change grind and dose once you want to learn more. Tom's Coffee Corner put it head to head with De'Longhi's La Specialista Arte and said that at the same price he couldn't recommend anything else.

His probe readings explain why. The Express heats its group, so the shower screen sat around 60°C while the De'Longhi's was close to room temperature. During the shot the Express held roughly 91 to 93°C, and the Arte dipped to 83°C halfway through. The metal body, removable hopper and pressure gauge all came up as positives, and Espresso Doc liked the full kit: single- and dual-wall baskets, a milk jug, a magnetic tamper and a trimming tool.

The complaints are consistent too. Tom's Coffee Corner, Espresso Doc and plenty of owners have run out of water mid-shot, because there's no water-level sensor. Espresso Doc called the grinder loud enough to wake a flatmate. Tom measured about 100 ml of water used across one shot plus steam warm-up and cool-down, so you'll empty the drip tray often. The grinder is where keen owners hit the ceiling. Alternative Brewing, a retailer, said many owners outgrow it once they start buying lighter roasts, and suggests adding a separate grinder rather than replacing the machine.

Owner comments on longevity were the most reassuring we read for any machine here: several people reported seven to ten years of daily use, with a pump or O-ring swapped along the way. Our Barista Express review covers it in more depth, and there's a guide to cleaning the Barista Express once you own one.

See the Barista Express on Amazon

Ninja Luxe Café Pro: Guard Rails for People Who Don't Want a Hobby

James Hoffmann compared the Luxe Café to bowling with the bumpers up. The machine weighs your dose with a built-in scale (he confirmed it by pressing a 4 g weight onto the portafilter mid-grind, and the dose came up short), then reads each shot and suggests a finer or coarser setting. He found the espresso drinkable but a little sour after following the prompts, and noted the grinder came close to a Fellow Opus in a particle-size test. Coffee Kev went further: after six months he called its guidance the most convenient he'd used on any machine, the much pricier Breville Oracle Jet included.

Hoffmann reviewed the ES601. The ES701 Pro linked here adds a tamp lever, ristretto and lungo, and a hot-water button, according to Kev.

The problems come up in every review. Kev's unit poured 50 to 53 g when it was set to give about 36 g, and you can't reprogram the volume the way you can on a Breville, which limits how good the shots can get. Both reviewers saw the drip tray fill quickly, because the machine purges water after every shot; Hoffmann's was full after six or seven drinks. Hoffmann found the drip setting ground so coarse that he'd pick a cheap drip machine over it. He also heard the grinder motor strain at fine settings, though commenters pointed out his US unit was running on UK 50 Hz power. Kev and many commenters reported cracked dosing funnels, hopper errors and replacement units. Most said Ninja's support sorted things out quickly.

Kev's practical tips: turn off the grind suggestions once you like the taste, try a setting or two finer than recommended, and keep a scale nearby to stop shots that run long.

Check the Luxe Café Pro's price on Amazon

Gaggia Magenta Prestige: For No Portafilter at All

If grinding, tamping and steaming all sound like chores, a super-automatic does the whole job inside the machine. America's Test Kitchen tried several and preferred the Magenta Prestige because the drinks tasted good, it's compact for its type, and the controls were obvious. A milk carafe froths and pours for lattes and cappuccinos, and there are around 12 drinks on the menu.

ATK's confidence partly comes from its older sibling, the Gaggia Anima, which they said has taken nearly ten years of abuse in their test kitchen without failing. This is the only pick with a single source, so treat it as ATK's recommendation rather than a consensus.

What you give up: the grinder has about five settings and you don't control the dose, tamp or shot the way you do on the Breville machines. Coffee will be consistent, but you can't tune it much.

View the Magenta Prestige on Amazon

De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo: Good Steam Wand, Limited Grinder

Cafelista bought the Arte Evo and used it for three weeks. It comes with everything: a metal tamper, a dosing funnel, a tamping mat and a steel milk jug. It's compact enough for most upper cabinets, and the first shot was perfectly decent. Both he and Tom's Coffee Corner rated the cool-touch steam wand highly. Milk doesn't bake onto the tip, and Tom timed it reaching steam faster than the Barista Express. Tom also found it used far less water per cycle, about 20 ml against the Breville's 100 ml, and it has the water sensor the Express lacks.

The grinder is the problem. It has eight settings, and Cafelista found that on some coffees one step made shots run fast and sour while the next choked the machine. Dosing is timed rather than weighed, so the dose changes whenever you change the grind, and the hopper doesn't come out for cleaning. Tom's version (the earlier Arte) has a 51 mm portafilter, no three-way valve, and an unheated group. Cafelista's fix is to weigh each dose and single-dose it, which works but undoes most of the convenience.

Buy it if you mostly drink lattes, stick to one medium-dark espresso blend and value the steam wand. Skip it if you like trying new coffees.

Check the Arte Evo's price on Amazon

Built-In Grinder vs Separate Grinder

Seattle Coffee Gear gave the clearest list of trade-offs, even as a retailer that sells both. An all-in-one is one plug and one footprint, its grinder is matched to the machine, and it usually costs less than a comparable machine and grinder bought separately. The downsides: the grinder is espresso-only in practice, you can't upgrade one half, and if the grinder breaks the whole machine goes in for repair.

Every built-in grinder here works best with medium-to-dark espresso blends. Kev said it directly about both the Ninja and the Express Impress, and ATK commenters said the same about the Breville. If you drink light-roast single origins or expect espresso to become a hobby, Alternative Brewing's suggestion of a compact machine plus a standalone grinder will serve you better. Our espresso grinder roundup covers the DF54 and Encore ESP, and the espresso machines for beginners guide covers machines without grinders.

What Actually Matters When You Buy

How finely the grinder adjusts. More, smaller steps make it easier to land on the right shot. Reviewers counted 8 on the Arte Evo, about 16 on the Barista Express, 25 on the Express Impress and roughly 25 on the Ninja. The Express models also have an internal burr adjustment for when the dial runs out.

How it doses. The Ninja weighs, the Express Impress reads tamp depth, and the Express and Arte Evo grind by time. Timed dosing shifts whenever you change the grind, so with those machines a cheap scale helps a lot.

Whether you can set shot volume. This is Coffee Kev's biggest practical difference. The Breville machines let you reprogram it. On the Ninja you can't, so your brew ratio partly depends on the machine.

Temperature and group heating. Tom's Coffee Corner showed the heated Breville group holding a steadier brew temperature than the unheated De'Longhi. Leave a Breville on a few minutes with the portafilter locked in before your first shot.

Water sensor and purge water. It's a minor point until you run dry mid-shot. The Arte Evo has a sensor; the Express machines don't. The Ninja and Express both send a lot of water to the drip tray.

Also Considered

• Breville Barista Pro. Tom's Coffee Corner praised its few-second ThermoJet heat-up, display, finer grind adjustment, water sensor and four-hole steam tip. It loses the gauge and long pre-infusion. We couldn't find it sold new on Amazon US, only renewed units.
• Breville Barista Touch Impress. Coffee Kev called it the choice for top cup quality with auto milk, without turning coffee into a hobby. It costs roughly twice as much as the Ninja.
• Ninja Luxe Café Premier ES601. The model Hoffmann reviewed. The ES701 Pro above adds a tamp lever and more drink options.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a built-in grinder good enough for espresso?

For medium and dark espresso blends, yes. ATK, Espresso Doc and many long-time Barista Express owners in the comments are happy with theirs. Where they fall short is light roasts and fine-tuning, because the steps are coarser than a good standalone grinder's.

Should I get the Barista Express or the Express Impress?

The Impress if the budget stretches. The tamp lever and dose feedback fix the two most common beginner mistakes, and it has more grind steps. The original Express is the better buy if it's well discounted, since both pull very similar shots.

Is the Ninja Luxe Café good for espresso?

It makes decent espresso with very little skill. Hoffmann and Kev both found it reliable at avoiding bad shots, but not at producing great ones, mainly because you can't set the shot volume. It's strongest for milk drinks and iced coffee.

Can I use light roasts in an espresso machine with a built-in grinder?

You can, but expect a struggle. Kev found both the Ninja and Express Impress do best with easy-to-extract medium-dark blends. If light roasts are your thing, buy a separate grinder. See our best coffee beans for espresso for blends that suit these machines.

What's the difference between a semi-automatic and a super-automatic with a grinder?

A semi-automatic like the Barista Express grinds into a portafilter that you tamp and lock in, and you steam the milk yourself. A super-automatic like the Gaggia Magenta Prestige does all of it internally at the press of a button, but gives you much less control.

The Verdict

Most people should buy the Breville Barista Express Impress. It's forgiving on day one, it has room to improve, and owners report few faults. Get the Barista Express if it's discounted and you don't mind tamping by hand. Choose the Ninja Luxe Café Pro if the person using it wants guidance and iced drinks more than perfect espresso, and accept a higher chance of a warranty swap. If you'd rather never touch a portafilter, ATK's pick is the Gaggia Magenta Prestige. And if you think espresso might turn into a hobby, skip the all-in-ones and buy a machine and grinder separately.

Sources

• James Hoffmann: The Ninja Luxe Cafe, an Everything Machine (review)
• Tom's Coffee Corner: Sage (Breville) Barista Comparison - Express vs Express Impress vs Pro
• Tom's Coffee Corner: Breville Barista Express vs Delonghi La Specialista Arte
• Coffee Kev: Ninja Luxe Cafe Pro 701 Vs Barista Express Impress
• Coffee Kev: Ninja Luxe Cafe 6 Month Update
• America's Test Kitchen: Best Espresso Machines (Beginner to Advanced)
• Cafelista: DeLonghi Specialista Arte Evo: What They Don't Tell Beginners
• Espresso Doc: Breville Barista Express: Still the Best Home Espresso Machine With Grinder?
• Seattle Coffee Gear: Should You Get an Espresso Machine with a Built In Grinder?
• Alternative Brewing: Breville Barista Express vs Bambino Plus + DF54