An Exhaustive Guide to the Best Coffee Makers We’ve Ever Reviewed

At Epicurious we take our coffee quite seriously. We’ve tested and reviewed close to 100 machines of different styles, sizes, and price points looking for the best coffee makers. From the most complex smart espresso makers to the simplest styles that coffee drinkers have been using in one way or another for centuries, we’ve tried them all.

Because there are so many different types of coffee makers, we’ve collected a sort of greatest hits album here. Below you’ll find winners from all our different testing along with some information on the various types of brewers. While we can’t tell you what type of coffee you want to drink, how much work you want to put into making it, or how much space you have for a countertop appliance, we will arm you with recommendations that will allow you to use your answers to those questions and pick the best coffee maker for your routine.

Whether you’re looking for a run-of-the-mill drip coffee machine, a good-looking pour-over tool that connoisseurs swear by, or an espresso machine that even a total noob can operate, you can keep reading for our top picks.

Coffee drinkers are unlikely to agree on what constitutes an “expensive coffee maker,” so the answer to this question is wrapped up in subjectivity. What we can say with some certainty is that you should not buy a notably cheap coffee maker. What constitutes cheap is different for different types of machines. For example, we tested a reasonable drip coffee maker that cost around $100, but found all electric espresso makers that cost less than $300 to be disappointing to the point of being useless. It’s also frequently true that more expensive coffee makers do actually make better coffee. That’s because brewing coffee has a limited number of inputs; things like the quantity of coffee beans, the grind of coffee beans, the quantity of water, the temperature of water, and the brewing time. Expensive coffee machines do a better job of controlling those last three factors because of better water pumps, better temperature monitoring with PIDs, and more precise measurements. Expensive machines with built-in grinders, like super-automatic espresso makers, can also do a good job with the quantity and grind of the beans, although we think stand-alone burr grinders generally work better.

Drip coffee makers

When it comes to ease of use, there is nothing quite like a drip coffee machine. Make sure the water tank is filled the night before, put coffee in the brew basket, push the button, walk away. Drip coffee makers run the gamut from the ultra-budget models found in motels and sold at drug stores to more high-end ones like those from Technivorm, Oxo, and Café. While the number of added features may vary and cheap ones don’t make the best tasting coffee, a drip coffee maker will always be the most convenient system to brew a full pot of coffee. (For more info, read our full review of the best drip coffee makers.)

Café, a sub brand of GE’s, came on to the scene making beautiful appliances, both small and full-size. Its gold finishes look like the sorts of appliances that belong in custom designed homes in upscale zip codes. But it also turns out that Café’s coffee makers produce some damn good coffee. For most of 2022 and 2023, Café’s Specialty Drip Coffee Maker held the top spot in our testing after besting longtime favorite Technivorm Moccamaster. But Café one-upped itself by adding a built-in burr grinder to the machine that brews coffee to the Specialty Coffee Association’s (SCA) Golden Cup Standard, offers precise customization of water temperature, has options to brew exactly the amount of coffee you want, and uses Wi-Fi connectivity to let you schedule a brew from the other side of the country or just from the other side of the house by saying “hey, Google” or “Alexa, dote on me.”

Generally, we’ve frowned on built-in grinders, particularly for espresso makers (read more on that below), because they tend not to be powerful enough or offer enough different settings to really dial in a shot of espresso. But it’s a different story with this drip coffee maker. The coffee doesn’t need to be ground as finely, and the brewing method is more forgiving than making espresso. And there’s no denying it’s convenience: no filters to deal with, no filling a brew basket. The last thing that sets the Grind and Brew apart is that it can also function as a single-serve coffee maker, capable of making cups of coffee between 6 and 24 ounces. That makes this, without question, the most versatile high-quality drip coffee maker on the market at the moment.

Size: 10.5” x 14.5” x 17.4”
Capacity: 10 cups
Carafe style: Thermal
Features: Built-in grinder, wi-fi connectivity, adjustable brew strength, water filter, programmable timer, SCA Golden Cup certification
Warranty: Limited 1 year

If you want to save a little money and don’t need the built-in grinder, we still absolutely recommend the Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker. It has a slightly smaller footprint, so that could be preferable if you already have a lot of small appliances on your countertop.

Our coffee testers tend to prefer pour-over to even very good drip coffee machines. The Ratio Six is a drip machine that does a good job mimicking the pour-over technique. As a company, Ratio has only been around since 2012, but in that short amount of time it has created a line of machines that leapfrogged right to the top of the drip coffee world—and done it in style. The Ratio Six (don’t be fooled, this is actually an 8-cup coffee maker) won the same Golden Cup certification that the Café and Technivorm have from the SCA—and it is a looker of a machine. But it’s also technically proficient. It fully saturates the grounds with water at the right temperature and allows them to bloom at the beginning of the brewing process. Choosing the ratio also means there’s no need for an insulated travel mug. It comes with a thermal carafe that we found kept coffee warm for hours and didn’t spill a drop during a car ride to the park. It lands here as a personal choice instead of an objective winner just because the Café machine offers more value in the way of extra features and convenience.

Machine Size: 13.5" x 6.75" 14.25"
Coffee Capacity: 8 cups

In the most recent update to our drip coffee maker tests, we wanted to go deep on what we consider to be budget picks—those that cost $100 or less. We added another half dozen affordable, programmable coffee makers to the bunch and after batches and batches of mostly mediocre coffee, Braun’s Brewsense distinguished itself from competitors like Mr. Coffee and Ninja. The Braun comes with several nice extra features, like the ability to brew smaller batches of coffee (1 to 4 cups) or full carafes, two brew strength settings, an auto shutoff if you remove the glass carafe, and three different settings for the warming plate. This last feature is particularly nice because one of the worst parts of cheap drip coffee makers is that they tend to make undrinkable hot coffee that tastes increasingly burnt the longer it sits on a hot plate. We won’t go so far as to say that the coffee you get from the Braun is “great tasting,” but then again, it’s not fair to expect the same results from something that costs $95 as you do from something that costs $350. If you want a machine that’s affordable, easy to use, and makes a good cup of coffee, the Braun is for you.

Size: 7.9” x 7.9” x 14.2”
Capacity: 12 cups
Carafe style: Glass
Features: 1-4 cup options, adjustable brew strength, programmable timer, water filter, adjustable hot plate temperature
Warranty: 3 years

There is actually much more to consider when buying an espresso machine than simply “does this make good coffee?” That’s because the discrepancy in price, size, and functionality of espresso makers is so vast. If you wanted to, you could pay as much for one of these as you would for a used car. And you do generally get more for your money. The temperature control, pressure, and quality of the steam wand (or milk frother) are higher on pricier machines. But for most people the differences are not so great that they cannot get everything they need from a less expensive machine (read our full espresso maker review here).

The simple truth is that, after testing nearly 30 different espresso makers, Lelit's beautiful Mara X machine made the most delicious shot of espresso of them all. The body on it was so full it will coat your mouth, the crema so rich it made drinking the espresso a luscious, layered experience. Now, this is a machine that could be classified as a prosumer model. For the uninitiated, it's a term that refers to machines that are good enough you could find them in a fancy coffee shop, but scaled down in a way that they fit in most kitchens and cost much less than actual café espresso machines that can run over $10,000. And as a high-end machine the Mara X offers a lot of other nice features. It's a heat exchanger machine, which means that water for brewing coffee is separate from water used to steam milk. They need to be at two drastically different temperatures, and using a heat exchanger means there is no waiting between pulling a shot and frothing milk. Speaking of frothing milk, the steam wand offers a very controlled experience compared to some other prosumer machines we tested, which were so powerful they didn't leave any room for adjustment or error because by the time you figured out what you needed to do the milk was too hot. The Mara X also comes with a hot water dispenser for americanos and gorgeous wooden accents that make a machine you'll be proud to have sit permanently on your counter. It offers 4.5 inches of cup clearance (the space between the portafilter and the base of the machine), which means that you can brew directly into a larger cup for a cappuccino or latte and a large, easy-to-read gauge lets you know you're pulling a shot with the right pressure and how much power is in the steam boiler.

Two things to note about this machine: First, using it is a very hands-on experience. You need to lift and lower a lever to pull a shot and open and close valves for steam and hot water. That's all great for customizing your shot as you want it, but there is no automation to any part of the process. Second like lots of nicer espresso machines, this one takes a while to heat up. We found it took close to 18 minutes before you could pull a shot. That's not uncommon amongst machines of this ilk, but is something you should be ready for if you choose to get one.

Machine size: 8.7" x 16.25" x 13.75"
Basket size: 58 mm
Cup clearance: 4.5"
Heat source: Heat exchanger
Warranty: 2 years

The Solis espresso maker jumped back up to the top of our rankings thanks to the illuminating benefits of long-term testing. We liked this Solis from the jump: Not only does it brew terrific espresso and froth both dairy and nondairy milk incredibly effectively, it also has a very small footprint on the counter, which is rare in nice espresso machines. It was briefly knocked out of its top spot by the Breville Barista Express Impress, which came with a built-in burr grinder and smart tamper. Ultimately, that built-in grinder was the Breville’s downfall. While the machine is well-designed (the smart tamping system, in particular, was very accurate), the grinder proved under-powered and unable to handle light roast coffee beans. Given that we liked the coffee from the Solis just as much as the coffee from the Breville, and it was still brewing as well a year on as it did the day we got it, we gave it the nod. It comes with other features that are standard on good espresso makers in this price range, like a pressure gauge and the ability to adjust water temperature and program shot volumes. At the time of writing, the Solis also only cost $330, which is a bargain for a machine that performs this well. We think this is the machine that will work best for the most people.

Machine Size: 7" x 17" x 12.5"
Basket Size: 54 mm
Cup Clearance: 3.5"

Breville’s newer pint-size entry to the espresso market is as foolproof as a semiautomatic machine can be. It heats up in seconds and, because it only comes with pressurized filter baskets, shots come out perfect every time. That said, we had a non-pressurized filter basket that fit the machine and tried it. The results were excellent, though without a pressure gauge it might be hard to use this machine to learn how to pull a good shot if you don’t have experience doing it already. But the best part about the Bambino if you’re a beginner is its automatic milk texturing. Thanks to a preprogrammed steam wand and a milk sensor, you just stick the wand in the milk jug, set how much foam you want (cappuccino or latte), push a button, and wait. The automatic milk texturing here was actually better than what we produced on any of the manual machines. Like the Solis, this is also a teeny appliance by espresso machine standards, taking up next to no space on the counter.

Machine Size: 7.7" x 12.6" x 11.8"
Basket Size: 54 mm
Cup Clearance: 5"

At the beginning of 2023, we tested pod coffee makers for the very first time. Expectations were not high; our general experience with k-cups and Keurig k-cup brewers in hotels and car dealerships has not been encouraging. Most plastic coffee pods are also environmentally problematic—they can remain in landfills for hundreds of years without breaking down. The appeal of pod coffee is clear, though: It is fast and convenient. The question for us was: Could a machine provide that convenience without compromising too much on flavor? Ultimately, we found not one, not two, but actually three machines to recommend, all of which use either recyclable or biodegradable pods (none of which happen to be made by the current king of single-serve, Keurig). You can read all about them in our full single-serve coffee maker review. For the purposes of this list, though, we only recommend what we found to be the very best.

The Spinn is not a traditional pod coffee maker. It’s actually not a traditional coffee maker of any type. Instead of forcing water down through coffee grounds, it spins a centrifuge at 4500 RPM. This spinning motion pushes the coffee grounds against the wall of the centrifuge and shoots water through them sideways. The centrifuge technology allows the Spinn to mimic a number of different brew styles, including espresso, cold brew, and a very impressive pour-over. It’s a smart gadget that you can program and use from your phone. As much as we downplay the importance of apps for any food or drink appliance, this machine really makes the most out of its techy features. As we said, it’s not a pod machine. It uses freshly ground coffee beans with its built-in burr grinder. Note that, while we don’t like built-in grinders for most machines, this is more like a fully automatic machine, and because of its unique brewing process, it needs a built-in grinder. It is certainly a step up in price over any pod machine we tested, but it’s also a step up in coffee quality.

Read our full review of the Spinn here.

Machine Size: 13.5" x 8.5" x 14"
Drink Type: Drip-style, pour-over, cold brew, nitro cold brew, espresso
Coffee Type: Fresh beans

Though it’s not quite as versatile as a couple other single-serve machines, we liked (the Bruvi, for example, can make cold brew, hot drip coffee, and Americanos; the Spinn can do even more), the Nespresso Vertuo can brew everything from single espresso-style shots to 8 oz. cups with the push of a button. The machine is able to read a barcode printed on every pod and set itself to brew whatever kind of coffee that pod is made for. That means you don’t have to select cup size, brew strength, or anything else. In our testing, we found the coffee to be well-balanced (much more than we can say for a number of other machines we tested). The pods are also fully recyclable using Nespresso’s recycling program, which does require you to ship the pods off to be recycled. In addition to making tasty coffee, the Nespresso is fast. It heats up in just 20 seconds and can have a completed cup of coffee in your hand in less than a minute.

Machine Size: 8.7" x 12.7" x 12.8"
Drink Type: Coffee and espresso
Coffee Type: Nespresso Vertuoline capsules

Cold-brew coffee is not just a summertime phenomenon that has everyone you know walking around with enormous plastic cups. It’s a brewing method that produces an entirely different type of drink (and should not be confused with iced coffee, which is coffee brewed over ice, or simply served over ice). Cold brew is a drink that’s smooth, chocolaty, and as easy drinking as coffee gets. It is also incredibly easy to make. The only irritating ingredient is time. Almost all cold-brew systems, including our favorite below, take at least half a day. But if you can’t have your coffee any other way, then it’s certainly worth the wait.

The Oxo cold-brewer operates differently from the infusion-style coffee makers we tested. Its perforated lid controls the flow from the water reservoir and limits how much water can come into contact with the coffee grounds at a time. The water slowly works its way through the coffee until, ultimately, it all gets filtered into a glass carafe. The advantage of this method of making cold brew is that there is no shaking or stirring required. It really is a set-it-and-forget-it operation. Another plus to the Oxo is that both the carafe and the brewing container have marks showing how much water and coffee to use. While it’s preferable to measure both coffee and water by weight (get yourself a good scale!), we found the volume measurements here totally usable.

One note: The Oxo produces a cold-brew concentrate that needs to be diluted at a 1:2 or 1:3 coffee-to-water ratio. You don’t want to mess with the brew strength of a cold-brew concentrate. If you want cold brew you can drink straight, a simple filter basket brewer like this Hario cold-brew bottle will make solid coffee and look good enough that it can sit out on the counter when not in use.

Size: 9.5" x 9.5" x 14.7"
Capacity: 40 oz.

For those who don’t have the counter space for a drip machine, a French press is a terrific manual coffee brewing option that can fit in your cabinet. French press loyalists like that this method doesn’t require the use of a paper filter; because water comes in direct contact with the coffee grounds, more of the oils make it into the final product, which yields a stronger taste. Another benefit of the French press is that it allows for great control, both of water temperature and brew time. Read our full review of the best French press coffee pots here and get a detailed rundown of how exactly to make French press coffee here.

Espro has the smartest designed French presses out there. Sure, they seem a little over the top with their dual interlocking filters and rubber sealing gasket, but they aren’t just for show. They’re incredibly effective. The sleek P7 model came remarkably close to a completely clean cup of coffee (i.e., filtering out all the grounds when you pour), but Espro’s presses were also the only ones designed to stop the coffee extraction process after you push the plunger. Most French presses keep the coffee in contact with the water the entire time, which can cause massive amounts of over extraction (and some unwanted flavors) down at the bottom of the carafe. But the Espro creates a little buffer zone after plunging that prevents that. It’s also just a very sexy coffee maker. While Bodum’s Chambord press is the iconic design of the category, the stainless-steel P7, which comes in half a dozen finishes, is more modern, more attractive, and also more heavy-duty.

Size: 5.6" x 3.8" x 9.1" (18 oz.) and 6.7" x 4.6" x 10.1" (32 oz.)
Capacity: 18 oz. and 32 oz.

The Espro P3 has the same filtering mechanism as the P7, so you can feel confident you’re getting quality coffee from it. The only difference is the body: It’s a plastic frame with a glass beaker. That doesn’t look quite as nice, but it also costs less than half as much. We’d also note that a big plus of choosing a steel press over a glass one is that it will be better insulated, but as Epi contributor Ever Meister pointed out in their explainer on brewing French press: You shouldn’t let the coffee sit in the press anyway. That’s how over extraction can happen, and while it isn’t as big a deal with an Espro as it would be with…well…any other French press because of the filter system, we still recommend decanting into a different container, so the insulation of the press itself shouldn’t be a big factor in choosing one.

Size: 6.1" x 4.3" x 9.5"
Capacity: 32 oz.

Making coffee doesn’t get more low-tech than pour-over. And that’s not a bad thing! Coffee lovers who prefer a manual brewer find that pour-over yields a smoother, brighter cup than French press. Plus, it’s a great option if you’re just looking to make a single cup of coffee for yourself every morning. The key attribute of pour-over brewing is the ability to achieve “blooming.” Blooming happens at the point when hot water initially saturates the grounds and the coffee starts to expand during hydration. Pour-over can be a finicky process for newbies, though. You should weigh your coffee grounds in grams (generally between 15 and 17 grams of water to 1 gram medium-grind coffee is the ratio to use) and measure your water’s brewing temperature to between 195 and 200℉ to ensure the good results. But with a little practice, you’ll be brewing like a pro.

The Chemex brewer and its hourglass shape are iconic in the world of pour-over coffee. You may have even walked into a coffee shop where coffee made with the pour-over method is just called Chemex. What makes the Chemex stand out in a sea of coffee drippers is that it is perhaps the easiest to learn in what can be an unforgiving way to make a cup of coffee. Part of that is the shape, but part of it is the proprietary filters that help trap oils, reducing some of the bitter flavors. The other great thing about Chemex brewers is that you can make a lot of coffee at once. Imagine hosting a brunch and needing to make everyone an individual cup of coffee. No thanks.

Size (for 6-cup model): 5.3" x 5.3" x 8.5"
Capacity: 30 oz.

If pour-over is a morning ritual you keep just for yourself, a single-serve dripper will be more your speed than a 6-cup Chemex. The Kalita Wave is perhaps even easier to use than the Chemex thanks to its flat bottom. Because the water doesn’t drain through a single point, you don’t need to be as careful when you pour it.

Size: 4" x 4" x 2.5"
Capacity: 16 oz.

We’re including a recommendation for a thermal carafe in our pour-over section because, unlike a drip coffee maker, most pour-over rigs do not come with a hot plate to keep your coffee warm once it’s brewed. A good thermal carafe prevents that awful choice of chugging the coffee you so carefully brewed or (gasp!) drinking it at room temperature. The Ratio carafe claims to keep coffee hot for 90 minutes. We found it worked for closer to two hours. It’s also compatible with the Kalita Wave.

Size: 7.9" x 7.9" x 7.1"
Capacity:  40 oz.