Five kinds of coffee machine are sold to UK homes, and the choice between them is rarely about taste. It is about how much counter you can give up, how many minutes you will spend per cup, and what you are willing to clean.
The machines named below are the ten we cover, and the prices are the UK range recorded on 21 September 2026.
The five types side by side
| Type | Example machine | Width | Water tank | What you do per cup | UK price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manual espresso | Gaggia Classic E24 | 200 mm | 2.1 L | grind elsewhere, dose, tamp, brew, steam | £549 |
| Espresso with built-in grinder | Sage the Barista Express | 318 mm | 2 L | grind into the basket, tamp, brew, steam | £499.95 |
| Bean to cup | De’Longhi Magnifica Evo | 240 mm | 1.8 L | press one button | £349 to £443.99 |
| Pod | Nespresso Vertuo Pop ENV90.Y | not listed | not listed | drop in a capsule | £99 |
| Filter | Sage Precision Brewer Thermal | 360 mm | 1.7 L | fill, press, wait | £259.95 |
Manual espresso machines
A manual machine has a group head, a portafilter and a steam wand, and nothing else. It does not grind, so the real price is the machine plus a grinder.
The three we cover sit a long way apart. The De’Longhi Dedica Style EC685.M is the small one: 4.22 kg, a 1.1 L tank, 120 mm of cup height and £179. The Sage Bambino Plus is 194 mm wide with a 1.9 L tank and reaches brewing temperature in 3 seconds, at £349.95 to £399.95. The Gaggia Classic E24 is 200 mm wide, holds 2.1 L, carries a 58 mm portafilter and a three-year UK warranty, and costs £549.
Effort per cup is highest here. You grind, dose, tamp, lock in, brew, steam the milk, then knock the puck out. Upkeep is a wipe and purge of the steam wand after every milk drink, a cleaning cycle with a tablet, and descaling.
Espresso machines with a built-in grinder
These put a burr grinder on top of the same espresso machine, so beans go in and ground coffee lands in the portafilter. You still tamp and you still steam.
The cost is width. The Barista Express is 318 mm across with a 250 g hopper and 16 grind settings. The Sage the Barista Pro is 408 mm and the Sage the Barista Touch 400 mm, because on those the grinder sits beside the group head rather than behind it. The Ninja Luxe Café Premier is 336 mm wide and weighs 17 kg, with 25 grind settings and an automatic shut-off after 20 minutes.
Prices run £499.95 for the Barista Express, £599.95 for the Barista Pro, £499 for the Ninja and £1,049 for the Barista Touch, whose steam wand runs itself between 40 °C and 75 °C.
Bean to cup machines
A bean to cup machine grinds, doses, tamps and brews inside a sealed brew unit. One button, one drink, and the spent puck drops into a bin you empty every ten or twelve cups.
They are the narrowest machines here and the deepest. The Magnifica Evo is 240 mm wide and 440 mm deep, the De’Longhi Rivelia 245 mm by 430 mm, the Philips Series 3300 LatteGo 247 mm by 434 mm. Hoppers hold 250 g, 250 g and 275 g of beans. The Rivelia’s grounds container takes 10 servings, the Philips 12.
Upkeep moves from the portafilter to the machine’s insides. De’Longhi’s Magnifica Evo manual says to clean the removable brewing unit at least once a month, and that the unit cannot be removed while the machine is on. Philips’s manual for the Series 2300 and 3300 takes the brew group out weekly for a rinse under the tap, asks for a coffee oil remover tablet monthly, and says to lubricate it every two months so the moving parts keep moving. The LatteGo milk jug comes apart for cleaning after every use. That is the trade for the one-button cup.
Prices: £349 to £443.99 for the Magnifica Evo, £422.95 to £569.99 for the Philips 3300, £592 to £749.99 for the Rivelia.
Pod machines
Pod machines take a sealed capsule, so there is no grinder, no dose and no tamp, and the cost per cup is set by the capsule rather than the beans.
De’Longhi’s UK pod range gives a fair picture of the spread: 29 machines, from the Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS at £54.99 and the Genio S at £89.99, through the Nespresso Vertuo Pop at £99, to the Citiz at £175 and the Gran Latissima, with its milk system, at £419. We do not cover pod machines, only espresso and bean to cup.
Filter machines
A filter machine brews a jug rather than a shot, and nothing it makes is espresso. Sage’s Precision Brewer Thermal is the reference point at £259.95: 1.7 litres, 36 x 16.8 x 39.5 cm, with flat bottom and cone filter baskets in the box.
Counter space is the surprise here. At 360 mm wide it is broader than every bean to cup machine we list and broader than the Barista Express.
Choosing by the constraint you actually have
If the gap under your wall cupboards is the problem, measure height before width. Bean to cup machines are narrow but deep, and the Barista Express stands 404 mm tall with the hopper on.
If minutes per cup is the problem, bean to cup or pod. If you want to change how the coffee tastes, you need the grind settings and the tamp, which means manual espresso or an espresso machine with a grinder.
If you only ever drink one cup at a time and hate cleaning, a pod machine at £54.99 to £419 does the job that a £1,049 machine does badly. If you drink four cups before ten in the morning, a 1.7 L filter jug costs less than any of it.
