Three kinds of machine are sold for home espresso in the UK: manual espresso, espresso with a grinder built in, and bean to cup. Pick the kind before you pick the model, because the kind decides how many minutes you spend per cup and how much counter you give up.
The 21 machines below are the ones this page covers, which is a slice of the UK market rather than all of it. Every price is the UK range on 21 September 2026.
The machines this page covers
| Machine | Kind | W x D x H (mm) | Tank | Milk | UK warranty | UK price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De’Longhi Dedica Style | Manual espresso | not published | 1.1 L | Manual wand | not published | £179 to £179.90 |
| Smeg ECF02 | Manual espresso | 149 x 329 x 330 | 1.1 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £299.95 |
| Sage the Bambino | Manual espresso | 302 x 154 x 342 | 1.4 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £329 to £329.95 |
| Sage the Bambino Plus | Manual espresso | 194 x 362 x 304 | 1.9 L | Automatic wand | 24 months | £349.95 to £399.95 |
| Gaggia Classic E24 | Manual espresso | 200 x 270 x 355 | 2.1 L | Manual wand | 36 months | £549 |
| Sage the Dual Boiler | Manual espresso | 379 x 403 x 371 | 2.5 L | Manual wand | 24 months | not published |
| Ninja Luxe Café Premier | Espresso, grinder built in | 336 x 344 x 372 | 2 L | Automatic wand | 24 months | £499 to £499.99 |
| Sage the Barista Express | Espresso, grinder built in | 318 x 351 x 404 | 2 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £499.95 |
| Sage the Barista Pro | Espresso, grinder built in | 408 x 350 x 332 | 2 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £599.95 |
| Sage the Barista Express Impress | Espresso, grinder built in | 422 x 367 x 310 | 2 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £714.99 to £729.95 |
| Sage the Barista Touch | Espresso, grinder built in | 400 x 319 x 314 | 2 L | Automatic wand | 24 months | £1,049 to £1,049.95 |
| Sage the Oracle Jet | Espresso, grinder built in | 422 x 360 x 378 | 2.3 L | Automatic wand | 24 months | £1,699.95 |
| De’Longhi La Specialista Maestro | Espresso, grinder built in | 360 x 365 x 470 | 2.5 L | not published | not published | £1,299 to £1,299.99 |
| De’Longhi Magnifica Evo | Bean to cup | 240 x 440 x 360 | 1.8 L | Carafe | not published | £349 to £443.99 |
| Philips Series 3300 LatteGo | Bean to cup | 247 x 434 x 366 | 1.8 L | Carafe | 24 months | £422.95 to £569.99 |
| De’Longhi Rivelia | Bean to cup | 245 x 430 x 385 | 1.4 L | Carafe | not published | £592 to £749.99 |
| Smeg BCC12 | Bean to cup | 180 x 433 x 336 | 1.4 L | Manual wand | 24 months | £699 to £699.95 |
| De’Longhi Eletta Explore | Bean to cup | 260 x 450 x 385 | 1.8 L | Carafe | not published | £949.99 to £969.99 |
| Krups Intuition Experience+ | Bean to cup | 240 x 400 x 365 | 3 L | Automatic wand | 24 months | not published |
| Jura ENA 8 | Bean to cup | 271 x 445 x 323 | 1.1 L | Milk pipe | 25 months | £1,095 |
| Jura E8 | Bean to cup | 270 x 446 x 348 | 1.9 L | Milk pipe | 25 months | £1,245 to £1,295 |
Start with the kind, not the model
A manual espresso machine is a group head, a portafilter and a steam wand. It does not grind, so the shelf price is not the price of the setup: add a grinder to it. You dose, tamp, lock in, brew and steam yourself, every cup.
An espresso machine with the grinder built in stacks a burr grinder on the same machine. Beans go in, ground coffee lands in the basket, and you still tamp and still steam. One box instead of two, and a wide box.
A bean to cup machine grinds, doses, tamps and brews inside a sealed brew unit, and the puck drops into a bin you empty every seven to sixteen cups. One button per drink. The upkeep moves from the portafilter to the machine’s insides.
If that has not settled it, the five types of coffee machine side by side adds pod and filter to the picture, and bean to cup against espresso works through the choice most buyers are stuck on.
Manual espresso, and who it suits
If you already own a grinder
Buying a machine with a grinder built in means paying twice for grinding. The manual machines here with a published UK price run from £179 to £549. Size of portafilter decides which baskets and tampers fit: the Gaggia Classic E24 and the Sage the Dual Boiler take 58 mm, both Bambinos take 54 mm, the Smeg ECF02 takes 51 mm, and De’Longhi does not publish a figure for the Dedica. Portafilter sizes explained covers what that changes.
If the counter is narrow
The Smeg ECF02 is the narrowest machine on this page at 149 mm. The Bambino’s published footprint is 302 by 154 mm, the shallowest of the group, and the Gaggia Classic E24 is 200 by 270 mm. Measure the depth of your counter as well as the run of it, because that is where these three differ most.
If you want the milk made for you but not the grinding
The Bambino Plus is the only machine under £400 here with an automatic steam wand, and every other machine that steams milk for you starts at £499. Its cheaper sibling loses that wand and keeps the speed: Sage’s page for the Bambino gives a manual wand and 3 seconds to brewing temperature at £329 to £329.95.
If the warranty is what you care about
Gaggia Direct’s technical features page for the Classic lists a three-year UK guarantee, a 2.1 litre tank and 1,200 watts. Thirty-six months is the longest on this page. Sage, Smeg, Krups, Philips and Ninja all publish 24 months, Jura 25, and De’Longhi publishes no UK warranty length for any of its five machines here.
More on this kind in espresso machines for the home and, on a budget, espresso machines under £500.
Espresso with a built-in grinder, and who it suits
If you want one box and still want to tamp
This is the middle ground: the grind is yours to change, the milk is yours to steam, and nothing needs a second appliance. Prices here start at £499 for the Ninja Luxe Café Premier and £499.95 for the Barista Express. The full set is in coffee machines with a grinder built in.
If the cupboard above the counter is low
Height splits this group in two. The Barista Express stands 404 mm tall, the tallest of the Sage machines, while the Barista Express Impress, from the same family, is 310 mm. The Barista Touch is 314 mm and the Barista Pro 332 mm. The La Specialista Maestro is 470 mm, the tallest machine on this page.
If you want the most grind settings
Sage’s page for the Oracle Jet lists 45 grind settings and a 340 g hopper at £1,699.95. The Barista Pro and Barista Touch give 30, the Impress and the Ninja 25, the Barista Express 16 and the La Specialista Maestro 15. If the choice is inside the Sage range, which Sage coffee machine compares them on their own.
Bean to cup, and who it suits
If the answer has to be one button
Every machine in this group makes a milk drink without you touching a portafilter. The cheapest here is the Magnifica Evo at £349 to £443.99, which is Bambino Plus money for a machine that grinds as well. Bean to cup machines in the UK covers the group properly, and bean to cup under £500 covers the bottom of it.
If you refill tanks grudgingly
Krups’s manual for the Intuition Experience+ gives a 3 litre tank, nearly three times the Jura ENA 8’s 1.1 litres. Tank size and price do not track each other: the £1,095 ENA 8 holds 1.1 litres, the same as the £179 Dedica.
If descaling is the job you dread
Philips’s product leaflet for the Series 3300 claims up to 5,000 cups without descaling thanks to its AquaClean filter, which is the longest interval any maker here puts in writing. Both Juras prompt for descaling on their own schedule instead. What the job involves is in descaling a coffee machine.
If the milk comes from a jug, a carafe or a tube
Four machines here use a carafe you detach and refrigerate. Smeg’s page for the BCC12 instead gives it a manual wand, so it is the bean to cup machine for someone who still wants to froth by hand, at 180 mm wide with 185 mm of cup clearance. Jura’s ENA 8 instructions for use describe a third way: a pipe that draws milk from your own container.
Where the makers leave the most out
De’Longhi is the thinnest publisher on this page. It gives no UK warranty length for any of its five machines, and for the Dedica Style at £179 it publishes no width, depth or height at all. If that machine has to fit a gap, you will be measuring it in a shop.
Philips, Gaggia and Ninja do not say what heats the water, and De’Longhi does not say for the Magnifica Evo or the Rivelia either. Smeg, Philips, Gaggia and Ninja never say whether temperature is held by a PID. Sage is the fullest publisher on this page: PID on every Sage machine here except the Oracle Jet, plus burr type, filter interval and warranty length throughout.
If the budget is a fixed number
At £179 to £300 the choice is a manual machine and a separate grinder, and the grinder is the part worth arguing about. At £350 to £400 it is the Bambino Plus with automatic milk and no grinder, or the Magnifica Evo grinding for you with a carafe. At £500 the Barista Express and the Ninja Luxe Café Premier put a burr grinder in the same box. Above £1,000 you are paying for automatic milk, more grind settings and, at Jura, a machine that tells you when to clean it.
