Coffee Machine Buying Guide

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Coffee Machine Buying Guide

12 February 2026 • 5 min read

We may be thought of around the world as a nation of tea drinkers, but with over £10 billion being splashed out at coffee shops each year, there’s no doubt a large percentage of us Brits would rather sip on a cup of joe than a cup of char! And as nice as it is to pop into your local coffee shop every time you’re thirsting for your favourite brew, that can not only end up costing you a lot of money each month, but it’s also not always practical – especially when you’ve just rolled out of bed in the morning!

The solution? Invest in a coffee machine and become your own barista - that way you can enjoy your favourite drinks whenever you like (as well as impressing your guests when they pop over for a cuppa). This coffee machine buying guide will take you through everything you need to know to find a model that will match your lifestyle, budget and level of coffee making experience. Whether you’re a latte lover, espresso enthusiast or flat white fan, you’ll soon be serving up delicious drinks in no time.

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Types of Coffee Machines

Filter Coffee Machines

Sometimes known as drip coffee makers, these classic options are the simple but effective way to get your daily coffee fix. They're also incredibly easy to use - you simply place your ground coffee of choice into the filter, fill the water reservoir, then sit back and wait as the machine slowly drips hot water over the grounds, filling your kitchen with the scent of freshly brewed coffee. The resulting filtered coffee drips into a carafe, which usually sits over a hot plate to keep it warmed for an extended period of time. Affordable and easy to use, these machines offer a fuss-free way to enjoy fresh coffee. Their main drawback is a lack of flavour complexity when compared to espresso makers or bean-to-cup machines.

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Espresso Coffee Machines

Espresso machines use a pump to force pressurised hot water through the coffee grounds, ensuring maximum flavour is extracted. They tend to have higher price points and can involve a longer learning curve, but once you’ve mastered them, the coffee you’ll be serving is far superior to many other machines. A number of models include a steam wand or frother, allowing you to create those fancy espresso-based drinks like creamy cappuccinos and lattes. As well as the higher prices, their other potential drawback is that they generally require a finer grind of coffee, and though ready ground coffees can be used in them, seasoned espresso users prefer to grind their own coffee beans. This can result in greater expense as you’ll need to invest in a quality grinder, though some machines do include built-in grinders.

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Pod Machines

Pod coffee machines are ideal for those who want hassle-free drinks. They use pre-filled pods you insert into the machine, which then pumps the right amount of hot water through. As well as pods containing different strengths of coffee, there are also milk pods that allow you to make milky drinks like lattes, and you can even buy pods for hot chocolate – these often feature famous chocolate brands, so you and the kids can enjoy your fave chocolate flavours (such as Maltesers or Terry’s Chocolate Orange) in a cup! The main issue some people have with these machines is the extra waste produced by the used pods, as well as a lack of customisation options when it comes to flavours and strengths.

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Bean-to-Cup Machines

These coffee machines are automated to take care of the whole coffee making process for you. They’ll grind the beans, brew the coffee and will usually even froth the milk – all within a single appliance, so all you need to concentrate on is the taste. Bean-to-cup coffee machines are great at delivering consistent results so that each cup of coffee matches the strength and flavour profiles you prefer. While convenient, they're usually found towards the top end of the price bracket and don’t allow for as much customisation or manual control.

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What Features Should I Consider?

Ease of Use

Espresso machines take practice and require a lot of manual control, from grinding the beans to tamping the grounds down to frothing the milk. Once using your machine becomes second nature, you’ll be rewarded with some of the best coffee you’ve ever tasted, but there is a learning curve to consider. If you’d prefer a machine that’s far easier to use – particularly on those early mornings when you need a quick cup of coffee to get you going before work – a pod machine or filter coffee machine might be right for you. For something that’s easy to use while also offering more complex flavour profiles, a bean-to-cup machine could suit your needs.

Customisability

The more customisable your coffee machine, the more you can alter things like taste and temperature to suit your preferences. Machines built for convenience (like pod machines) will be less customisable, whereas espresso machines will provide a large number of options, such as grind size (which impacts the flavour and intensity of your coffee) and water temperature, while manual milk frothers allow for different textures, as well as temperatures for drinks like lattes and flat whites.

Maintenance

All coffee machines will require some sort of maintenance and regular cleaning, but of course some will need more than others. At the very least you’ll have to regularly descale if you live in an area with heavy water, and clean removable parts such as water reservoirs and drip trays. More complex models, like espresso machines and bean-to-cup machines will require more maintenance due to the greater number of parts they feature. This will include cleaning of components such as steam wands and brew units.

How to Choose the Right Coffee Machine

Choosing the right coffee machine starts with your daily routine. If you’re rushing out the door most mornings, a quick, no-fuss option might be best - but if you’ve got time to savour the process, a more hands-on machine could be the perfect fit. Read on to learn what might suit your lifestyle best.

For many of us, that early morning coffee is the most important (not to mention enjoyable) one of the day, helping you to shrug away the cobwebs and set you up for the day ahead. It stands to reason, then, that for a lot of people the most important factor in choosing their coffee machine is convenience and time. If quickly getting your coffee on busy mornings is a necessity but you still want to enjoy something with more depth of flavour than a teaspoon of freeze-dried granules, then a pod machine might be ideal – simply select your pod, fill the reservoir, pop your cup underneath and let the machine do all the work while you get the kids’ toast ready!

When you’ve spent a lot of time and effort throwing a dinner party for friends or family, you don’t want to ruin the restaurant experience by serving them a mug of instant coffee at the end of the night. You can really wow them by making their coffee exactly as they like it with an espresso machine. But if you’d rather spend as much time as possible chatting to your guests, a bean-to-cup machine might be more your thing. This will create one of the best brews they’ve ever had but won’t require nearly as much work on your part to get it made! For even more simplicity you can go classic with a filter coffee machine – this will allow you to get the coffee brewing when you head out to the kitchen for the desserts, ensuring a delicious carafe is all set for serving at the end of the meal.

Here at Very you’ll find a whole host of coffee machines at a variety of different price points to suit your budget. At the lower end of the price bracket is a range of pod machines such as the Nescafe Dolce Gusto collection, or the Nespresso Vertuo Pop coffee machines by Krups. These machines are a great way of giving yourself an easy and fuss-free way of quickly fixing yourself a fresh cup of coffee whenever you like. It’s worth keeping in mind that despite their affordability, the price of new pods will generally be higher than the cost of ground coffee or beans.

Which Coffee Machine is Best for Me?

Now you’ve got a good understanding about the different types of coffee machines and what they can do, it’s time for you to choose the perfect model to suit your own needs and lifestyle. To ease the agony of choice a little, we asked our team of Very tech experts to get together (over a coffee, naturally!) and give you their top product picks for the best coffee machine in four key categories.

Best Coffee Machine for Espresso Lovers

Sage the Barista Express Espresso Machine

Enjoy café-worthy coffees straight from the bean with this Sage the Barista Express Espresso Machine. Interchangeable filters and a choice of automatic or manual settings give you total freedom over your drinks, while an integrated precision conical burr grinder features dose control to deliver just the right amount of coffee on demand. The digital temperature control heats water perfectly and the Breville Razor dosing tool trims the puck for a consistent dose and extraction. If you love your milky drinks, you can use the steam wand to create the kind of authentic light and fluffy micro-foam needed for latter art.

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Best Coffee Machine for Small Spaces

Daewoo 20-Bar Digital Compact Espresso Coffee Maker

Small on size but big on power, this compact espresso machine packs 20 bars of pressure to create coffee with rich aromas and those distinctive frothy tops. A 1.2 litre water tank allows you to make several cups without refilling, while the LED display with easy-read settings ensures a hassle-free brewing experience. The manual steam wand makes easy work of creating milk-based drinks like lattes and flat whites. It comes complete with a single filter, plus a two-cup filter for making a pair of espressos at the same time, as well as a measuring spoon/tamper, two espresso glasses and a steam jug.

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Best value for money Coffee Machine

Tassimo by Bosch Happy Friendly Pod Coffee Machine

(Includes 70 Drinks Value Starter Bundle)

So easy to use, this Tassimo by Bosch machine features a fuss-free one button operation which means all you have to do is pop your chosen pod into the machine and hit start! Tassimo’s INTELLIBREW system will then scan the drink’s barcode and automatically adjust the brew time, temp and amount of water to achieve the perfect drink. You can pick from over 50 different drinks from well-known brands, and to get you started it comes complete with a 70-pod starter pack containing Costa, Cadbury, Kenco and Lor Drinks.

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Best Coffee Machine for versatility

Ninja Luxe Café Premier Coffee Machine

This bean-to-cup coffee machine by Ninja is a versatile 3-in-1 wonder that’s all about allowing you to enjoy the coffee shop experience at home. From espressos to iced lattes, the built-in Barista Assist Tech takes away all the guess work and lets you choose from automatic brew programs to easily achieve the perfect cup – simply fill up the water reservoir, add your choice of coffee beans to the hopper and prep the machine, then choose your coffee style, strength and drink size. The only way it could be easier is if the machine washed up for you afterwards! If you prefer to have a little more control over your cuppa, you can pick from 25 different grind settings. Automated frothing pre-sets help you make your own micro foam, and the machine comes complete with a froth jug featuring integrated whisk, assisted tamper, built-in grinder, cleaning brush set, starter kit, cleaning kit and even a recipe guide!

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Sip, Sip Hooray!

So now we’ve spilt the beans on everything you needed to know about coffee machines, you should have no trouble picking the right model for your kitchen counter. Just think, from now on when friends and family pop round for a coffee you’ll be able to forget that tired jar of freeze dried granules and instead really espresso yourself as you dream up some barista-worthy brews that are sure to get them coming back for more! In need of a shot of inspo? Check out our collection of coffee machines, all delivered straight to your door and coming with the option of Very protect to cover your coffee machine against accidental damage from day one.

FAQs

Different types of coffee machines work in different ways. Filter machines drip hot water through the coffee grounds, while espresso machines pump hot water through at high pressure (approx. 9 bars of pressure). Pod machines pierce a pre-packaged pod, then force hot water through (the amount varies depending on the type of coffee drink the pod is designed to make). Though these methods differ and will produce different tasting coffees, they all share the same core process of heating water from a reservoir using a boiling element, as well as a mechanism to help the water pass through the coffee grounds.

Generally speaking, pod coffee machines are the easiest to use. Built for the ultimate in convenience, they don’t even require you to measure out the coffee grounds - simply fill the water reservoir, select your pod of choice and place it in the machine. This is one of the reasons you’ll often see pod coffee machines in hotel rooms or holiday lets, as they require no learning curve to use and create minimal mess.

No, you cannot use ground coffee in all machines. Pod machines do not take ground coffee unless it’s within the pre-packaged coffee pods that are designed for that particular model of machine. Most bean-to-cup machines allow you to use ground coffee thanks to a bypass chute, but it’s important to check the manufacturer’s manual to learn what sort of grind size is required and how much ground coffee you should use to avoid potential blockages and damage.

It’s also important to know which coffee grind size is right for your machine. For filter (drip) machines you’ll need to use a medium-grind coffee, while espresso machines require a much finer grind size.

Manual coffee machines will require a greater amount of hands-on operation, which many coffee lovers prefer as it allows them to adapt their brews to their own personal taste. These manual operations include grinding the beans, tamping down the grounds or frothing the milk for lattes, flat whites and other milky drinks. Automatic coffee machines will do most of the work for you, allowing you to select the type of coffee drink you want without worrying about grind sizes or pulling levers. Though limited in how much you can customise your drinks, many people prefer automatic coffee machines due their convenience, time-saving capabilities and consistent results.

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