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Breville sells seven current espresso machines in the US, and the lineup reads like a ladder: Bambino at the bottom, Barista Touch Impress at the top. Most Breville espresso machine comparisons treat every rung as a strict upgrade — and that is the most expensive assumption a buyer can carry into this range. Move up the price bands and you can lose automatic milk, lose the analog pressure gauge, or lose the assisted tamping you just paid extra for. If you're still sorting out how espresso machines work, start there; if you're choosing between Breville models, stay here.
The real question isn't "which Breville is best." It's which Breville gives you the right balance of hands-on control, grinder quality, milk automation, guidance and budget. That balance is genuinely different for a beginner pulling two flat whites a week and for someone chasing light-roast single origins on a scale. The lineup is built to serve both, and the trade-offs are not signposted in the model names.
The seven machines are the Bambino BES450, Bambino Plus BES500, Barista Express BES870, Barista Express Impress BES876, Barista Pro BES878, Barista Touch BES880 and Barista Touch Impress BES881. The step-up ladder shows what each jump gives up, while cross-cutting platform details — 54 mm portafilters, ThermoJet versus Thermocoil, and the Impress puck system — determine how these machines feel day to day.
It's written for anyone buying their first serious espresso machine and for the upgrader deciding whether the next model up is worth the difference. If you're still choosing between machine types rather than models, the espresso machine types guide is the better starting point.
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Quick Verdict — The Seven Breville Machines at a Glance
| Model | Tier | Portafilter | Grinder | Milk | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambino BES450 | $ | 54 mm | None | Manual wand | Best coffee per dollar if you'll buy a standalone grinder |
| Bambino Plus BES500 | $$ | 54 mm | None | Automatic + manual | Milk drinks without a grinder |
| Barista Express BES870 | $$ | 54 mm | 16 settings | Manual wand | The traditional all-in-one starter |
| Barista Express Impress BES876 | $$ | 54 mm | 25 settings | Manual wand | Buyers who don't want to tamp |
| Barista Pro BES878 | $$$ | 54 mm | 30 settings (Baratza) | Manual wand | Fast heat-up, LCD, best grinder resolution |
| Barista Touch BES880 | $$$ | 54 mm | 30 settings | Auto MilQ | Guided touchscreen workflow |
| Barista Touch Impress BES881 | $$$ | 54 mm | 30 settings (Baratza) | Auto MilQ + alt-milk | Maximum assistance plus cold drinks |
Which Breville Espresso Machines Are We Comparing?
All seven models below are current in Breville's US lineup, and each maps to a Sage equivalent in the UK and Europe.
| US model | UK / Europe (Sage) | Role in the range |
|---|---|---|
| Breville Bambino BES450 | Sage Bambino SES450 | Compact baseline, no grinder |
| Breville Bambino Plus BES500 | Sage Bambino Plus SES500 | Baseline plus automatic milk |
| Breville Barista Express BES870 / BES870XL | Sage Barista Express, commonly SES875 | All-in-one with 16-step grinder |
| Breville Barista Express Impress BES876 | Sage Barista Express Impress SES876 | All-in-one with Impress dosing |
| Breville Barista Pro BES878 | Sage Barista Pro SES878 | All-in-one, ThermoJet + LCD |
| Breville Barista Touch BES880 | Sage Barista Touch SES880 | Touchscreen + Auto MilQ |
| Breville Barista Touch Impress BES881 | Sage Barista Touch Impress SES881 / SES882 | Impress + Auto MilQ + cold extraction |
The Breville/Sage split trips up a lot of buyers. Breville Group uses the Breville name in North America and Australia/New Zealand, and Sage in the UK and Europe, where the Breville trademark belongs to a different company. A Sage SES878 is the same machine as a Breville BES878. Note that the newer cold-extraction regional variant of the top model carries SES882, and the European Barista Express line currently uses SES875 — regional naming has drifted, so match by the machine, not the letters.
Two structural facts apply across the whole set, and both surprise people:
Every one of these machines uses a 54 mm portafilter. None of the seven steps up to a 58 mm commercial group. That's the Oracle generation at the top of Breville's range, a different family entirely. A 58 mm basket is not automatically a better-tasting espresso basket either — it changes puck geometry and the accessory ecosystem around it, and that's all.
None of these is a true bean-to-cup superautomatic. Even the touchscreen models keep a removable portafilter in the workflow. You still grind into the basket, you still move the puck, you still knock it out. "Touchscreen semi-automatic with automatic milk" is the accurate description.
Breville shares design platforms within pairs rather than across the whole set: the Bambino and Bambino Plus sit on one compact 54 mm/ThermoJet/PID platform; the Barista Express and Express Impress share a Thermocoil/PID/manual-steam architecture with different dose systems; the Barista Pro and Barista Touch share a 30-setting integrated grinder generation, with the Touch adding touchscreen and Auto MilQ hardware; the Touch Impress merges the ThermoJet/touchscreen family with Impress.
The Step-Up Ladder — What Each Upgrade Actually Buys
This is where the lineup stops behaving like a ladder. Read the "give up" column before you decide the next model up is an upgrade.
| Step | You gain | You give up |
|---|---|---|
| Bambino → Bambino Plus | Automatic and manual milk, 3 temperatures × 3 textures, 1.9 L tank vs 1.4 L, stainless portafilter | Nothing architectural — same ThermoJet, PID, 54 mm, 9-bar platform |
| Bambino Plus → Barista Express | Integrated 16-setting conical-burr grinder, analog pressure gauge, grind and dose controls, 1/2 lb hopper, ~2 L tank | Automatic milk and the 3-second ThermoJet heater — the Express runs on a Thermocoil and a manual wand |
| Barista Express → Express Impress | 25 vs 16 grind settings, intelligent dose feedback, 22 lb assisted tamp with a 7° finishing twist, next-dose auto-correction | Nothing structural — same Thermocoil/PID, 54 mm, manual milk and analog gauge |
| Express Impress → Barista Pro | ThermoJet 3-second heater, 30-setting Baratza European Precision Burrs, LCD interface | The Impress assisted-tamping system and the analog pressure gauge |
| Barista Pro → Barista Touch | Touchscreen drink menu, up to 8 saved coffees, Auto MilQ with 8 texture levels and 104–167°F milk settings | Nothing you'd miss, but portafilter handling, distribution and tamping stay manual |
| Barista Touch → Touch Impress | Impress dosing and tamping, dairy/soy/almond/oat milk optimization, newer menu, cold brew under 3 min and cold espresso under 2 min, explicitly Baratza-branded burrs | One saved-drink slot — the Touch stores up to 8 personalized coffees, current Touch Impress documentation specifies up to 6 named custom drinks |
Two of those rows are the ones buyers get wrong. The first is Bambino Plus to Barista Express: adding a grinder costs you automatic milk and the fast heater. It's a workflow trade, not a promotion. The second is Express Impress to Barista Pro: spending more removes the assisted tamping. The Pro is faster and more digital, but your puck prep becomes manual again.
Grinders — 16, 25 or 30 Settings, and the Bambino Exception
Breville's three grinder generations in this range are easy to keep straight: the Barista Express runs 16 precision settings, the Express Impress runs 25, and the Barista Pro, Barista Touch and Touch Impress run 30.
Resolution matters more than the headline number suggests. All three are stepped grinders, so each click is a fixed jump in particle size, and 16 steps spread across the espresso-to-filter range means a wide gap per step. On a medium or dark roast that's workable. On a light, dense, washed single origin, a 16-step integrated grinder can leave you parked between two settings that are both slightly wrong. That's the honest argument for stepping up to the Express Impress's 25 steps or the Pro's 30.
Burr identification is not uniform across the 30-setting machines, and this is worth stating precisely. Breville names Baratza European Precision Burrs on the Barista Pro BES878 and on the Barista Touch Impress BES881. For the Barista Touch BES880, the current US copy specifies hardened-steel precision conical burrs and 30 settings, without naming Baratza in the body text. Breville does not identify the BES880's burr assembly as Baratza, so it should not be assumed to be identical to the burrs in the other 30-setting models. Even when burr geometry is known, the label alone does not determine what the coffee will taste like; see our guide to flat burr vs conical burr grinders.
Whichever integrated grinder you choose, it doses by time and setting rather than by weight. A scale still belongs on your counter — you need to know your yield, not just your dose.
The exception at the bottom of the range is the whole point of the Bambino. Because the BES450 and BES500 have no grinder, the money you'd spend moving up to an integrated model can go into a standalone grinder instead. Espresso quality follows grind quality closely, and a dedicated espresso grinder is usually a better long-term purchase than a built-in one you can't outgrow separately. If that's the path you're considering, the coffee grinder buying guide and the grinder settings explained walk through what to pair with it.
One caution on accessories: "54 mm" is a nominal diameter shared across the family, but portafilter ear geometry, basket depth and — on the Impress machines — assisted-tamp clearance differ. Check fit per part before buying an aftermarket basket or bottomless portafilter, especially on the BES876 and BES881.
Milk — Manual Steam vs Auto MilQ
Four machines here give you a manual steam wand and nothing else: the Bambino BES450, Barista Express BES870, Barista Express Impress BES876 and Barista Pro BES878. If you want to learn to texture milk properly, that wand is the tool. It's less forgiving and it will show you exactly where your technique is weak.
The Bambino Plus BES500 is the first step where milk becomes automatic. Automatic mode pairs 3 temperature settings with 3 texture levels, and you can still switch to the wand and do it yourself. Breville advertises 266°F steam capability on this machine.
The two Touch models move to Auto MilQ: an automatic wand with 8 texture levels and adjustable milk temperature from 104–167°F. The Barista Touch Impress BES881 adds presets for dairy, soy, almond and oat milk specifically, which matters more than it sounds — oat and almond are the milks most likely to behave badly with generic automatic texturing.
I'll be straight about the ceiling here. Automatic systems produce consistent, silky foam repeatably, and that's a genuine quality-of-life win at 6:30 a.m. What they don't do is teach you to texture, and none of them will get you to the microfoam control a practiced hand gets from a manual wand. If latte art is the goal, the wand wins. If a dependable flat white before work is the goal, Auto MilQ wins. If you want a closer look at the equipment side of that trade, the milk frother and steam wand comparison goes deeper.
Heating, PID and the 54 mm Ecosystem
Five machines in this set use ThermoJet heating with Breville's specified 3-second warm-up: the BES450, BES500, BES878, BES880 and BES881. Two use a PID-controlled Thermocoil: the Barista Express BES870 and the Barista Express Impress BES876, the latter specified at 200°F.
Read that 3-second figure correctly. It describes the heater reaching extraction temperature, not the whole machine reaching thermal equilibrium. A cold portafilter, a cold group and a cold cup will pull your first shot somewhere colder than you want regardless of how fast the heater got there. Flushing hot water through the portafilter before you dose is still worth doing on every one of these machines.
On the other side, Breville does not publish a directly comparable cold-start warm-up number for the Barista Express BES870. The Barista Express does not have a directly comparable published cold-start warm-up specification. What can be said accurately is that the Thermocoil machines are slower to reach ready than the ThermoJet ones — how much slower depends on the conditions and the definition of ready.
Underneath the heating differences, the extraction architecture is consistent across all seven: a 15-bar pump regulated down to roughly 9 bar at the puck, low-pressure pre-infusion before full pressure, and electronic PID temperature control. Note the pump rating distinction — a 15-bar pump is not a 15-bar espresso. If you want the deeper architecture discussion, the dual boiler vs single boiler and PID guide covers it properly.
Because every machine here is 54 mm, the accessory ecosystem you're buying into is the same at the top of the range as at the bottom. You are not unlocking commercial-size baskets by spending more. What you're buying as you move up is grinder resolution, heating speed, interface capability, milk automation and dosing assistance — not a different class of group.
Puck Preparation — Manual Tamping vs the Impress System
Only two machines in this comparison use Breville's Impress Puck System: the Barista Express Impress BES876 and the Barista Touch Impress BES881.
The mechanism has four parts. Intelligent dosing calculates the dose from the previous grind and tamp outcome. A dose-level indicator gives real-time feedback. The assisted tamp applies roughly 22 lb / 10 kg and finishes with a 7° "Barista Twist" to polish the puck. Then next-dose auto-correction adjusts based on what happened last time. On both machines, that same assisted-tamping figure applies.
The important distinction: Impress is assisted puck preparation, not a sealed automatic brew unit. You still handle a traditional portafilter. Non-Impress models, by contrast, require conventional manual tamping — the Barista Express and Barista Pro include a removable magnetic tamper for exactly that.
Impress does not remove grind dialing, and it doesn't diagnose your shot. A new Express Impress owner reporting that the automatic dose alternates between too much and too little, and occasionally chokes a shot while learning, isn't describing a fault — that's the system's correction loop working while the grind setting is still wrong. Grind size, bean age, roast level, output ratio and extraction time remain yours to manage.
There's also a workflow trap worth naming. If you buy an Impress machine and then add a WDT tool and a separate hand tamper, you've bypassed the feature you paid for. On the Express Impress in particular, serious manual distribution generally means working around or past the built-in tamp workflow. A scale is the accessory that still earns its place, because Impress manages your dose and tamp, not your beverage yield.
Interfaces and Programmed Drinks
The Bambino pair keeps things physical: buttons for one- and two-shot volumetric control plus steam and hot water, no display and no saved profiles. The Barista Express and Express Impress add dials, adjustable grind and dose controls, and an analog extraction-pressure gauge — a genuinely useful diagnostic that the more expensive Barista Pro does not have. Neither Express model offers drink profiles.
The Barista Pro introduces an LCD with adjustable grind, half-cup and full-cup volumetric control and a manual shot option, but no named drink library.
The two Touch machines are where the interface becomes the product. The Barista Touch BES880 runs a touchscreen with a pre-programmed coffee menu and stores up to 8 personalized coffees. The Barista Touch Impress adds real-time guidance, a café-favorite menu and explicit cold-extraction programs on current US stock: Breville claims Cold Brew in under 3 minutes and Cold Espresso in under 2 minutes. Current Touch Impress documentation specifies up to 6 named customizable drinks, and the preset count shifted from 13 to 14 as the cold menu expanded.
One caveat if you're buying used: owners of earlier Touch Impress units have reported that the cold menu was not simply field-upgradeable. Current BES881 stock advertises cold extraction, but you should verify the installed menu on the exact machine you're buying rather than assume every BES881 behaves like new stock.
Head-to-Head Specs Comparison
Brewing, milk and workflow
| Model | Grinder | Heating | Milk | Puck prep | Saved drinks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambino BES450 | None | ThermoJet (3 s) | Manual wand | Manual | None |
| Bambino Plus BES500 | None | ThermoJet (3 s) | Automatic + manual, 3 temp × 3 texture | Manual | None |
| Barista Express BES870 | 16 settings, conical burr | Thermocoil + PID | Manual wand | Manual | None |
| Barista Express Impress BES876 | 25 settings, conical burr | Thermocoil + PID, 200°F | Manual wand | Impress, 22 lb + 7° twist | None |
| Barista Pro BES878 | 30 settings, Baratza European Precision Burrs | ThermoJet (3 s) | Manual wand | Manual | None |
| Barista Touch BES880 | 30 settings, hardened-steel conical burrs | ThermoJet (3 s) | Auto MilQ, 8 textures, 104–167°F | Manual | Up to 8 |
| Barista Touch Impress BES881 | 30 settings, Baratza European Precision Burrs | ThermoJet (3 s) | Auto MilQ + dairy/soy/almond/oat | Impress, 22 lb + 7° twist | Up to 6 named |
Capacity and footprint
| Model | Water tank | Bean hopper | Dimensions (W×D×H, in) | Portafilter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bambino BES450 | 1.4 L / 47 fl oz | — | 11.9 × 6.1 × 13.5 | 54 mm |
| Bambino Plus BES500 | 1.9 L / 64 fl oz | — | 11.9 × 7.4 × 14.3 | 54 mm |
| Barista Express BES870 | ~2 L / 67 oz | 1/2 lb | 15.9 × 13.1 × 12.4 | 54 mm |
| Barista Express Impress BES876 | 2 L | 250 g | 12.9 × 14.9 × 16.1 | 54 mm |
| Barista Pro BES878 | 67 oz | 1/2 lb | 16.1 × 13.8 × 13.1 | 54 mm |
| Barista Touch BES880 | ~2 L / 67 oz | ~1/2 lb | 15.7 × 12.6 × 12.4 | 54 mm |
| Barista Touch Impress BES881 | 67.6 fl oz | 12 oz | 14.2 × 13.4 × 16.3 | 54 mm |
Two notes on that second table. The Bambino models have no hopper because they have no grinder — that's the design, not an omission. And on weight, the grinder-equipped machines are substantial: the Barista Express is 22.09 lb, the Express Impress 22.6 lb, the Barista Pro 20.92 lb, the Barista Touch around 21.8 lb, and the Touch Impress 24.18 lb / 10.97 kg. The Bambino pair are compacts, but don't expect a countertop footprint as slim as the width figures suggest on the grinder models — the depth is the constraint.
Owner-Reported Issues Across the Range
None of the following establishes a failure rate; these are recurring owner reports, useful for knowing what to watch for and how to maintain the machine. These are recurring owner reports, useful for knowing what to watch for and how to maintain the machine — not evidence that any model is statistically unreliable.
Bambino and Bambino Plus. The recurring theme is reduced flow or weaker steam after scale buildup, which points at maintenance rather than a design fault. The Bambino Plus specifically draws reports of steam performance declining or the automatic steam stopping early; community diagnosis typically lands on wand blockage or the drip-tray milk-temperature sensor. Owners also frequently mix up the cleaning/backflush cycle and the descaling cycle on this machine and get stuck in the button sequence — they are separate routines, and the manual treats them separately.
Barista Express. Two families recur: grinder contamination and jamming, particularly when the burrs are set very fine, and hydraulic issues — buzzing with no pressure traced to solenoid or valve faults, plus internal or discharge-tube leaks. If your Express grinder jams, clean the burr chamber and chute before you replace anything.
Barista Express Impress. The complaint isn't tamp failure, it's the learning behavior of the assisted dose system. Expect the correction loop to overshoot while you dial in. See the puck-prep section above — it's normal, and it doesn't mean the machine is broken.
Barista Pro. The grinder is the recurring topic: occasional jams, clutch-like skipping, and at least one case of a loosened reverse-thread lower-burr nut that suddenly produced much faster shots. Clean the burr chamber, then verify burr seating and hardware before you conclude the brewing system has failed.
Barista Touch. The most specific pattern is the milk-temperature sensor and its associated startup errors, including ER05 failures that owners have resolved by repairing or replacing the sensor rather than the machine. There's also multi-owner discussion of lower touchscreen regions becoming intermittently unresponsive. This machine's convenience depends on sensors and touchscreen electronics that the mechanical Barista Express doesn't have.
Barista Touch Impress. Reports cluster around three systems: grinder feeding (motor running without reliably moving beans, sometimes after trying less-oily coffee), electronics and power (intermittent no-power, rebooting), and milk/steam errors including steam stopping after one or two seconds.
Across all seven, the maintenance basics are the same. Clean and descale are different procedures with different consumables — scale and coffee oils cause poor flow, weak steam and grinder problems in ways that look like faults. The espresso machine cleaning and descaling guide covers the consumables, and the maintenance and troubleshooting guide works through the symptom-level fixes.
On accessories, one myth is worth retiring: a bottomless portafilter is a diagnostic tool, not a flavor upgrade. It makes channeling visible, which is genuinely useful for learning, but changing the spout doesn't improve extraction. Precision baskets alter flow resistance and will usually require you to re-dial the grinder. Puck screens are optional cleanliness and water-dispersion aids. A scale is generally the more useful first upgrade than a basket because it helps control dose and beverage yield.
Which Breville Should You Buy?
If you want the best coffee per dollar and will buy a grinder separately: the Bambino BES450. It pairs the same ThermoJet, PID, 54 mm and 9-bar architecture as machines costing several hundred more. Put the difference into a standalone espresso grinder and you'll out-drink most all-in-one setups at this price. This is the enthusiast path, and the fact that it's the cheapest machine in the range is the point.
If you make milk drinks and don't want a grinder: the Bambino Plus BES500. Automatic texturing with 3 temperatures and 3 textures, a larger 1.9 L tank, and the same fast-heating compact platform.
If you want one machine that grinds, brews and steams: the Barista Express BES870. The 16-setting integrated grinder, the pressure gauge and the all-in-one footprint make it the conventional starting point. Accept that you're trading away automatic milk and the fast ThermoJet heater, and that 16 grind steps are coarse for light roasts.
If you don't want to think about tamping: the Barista Express Impress BES876. The Impress system handles dose consistency and tamp force with 22 lb of assisted pressure and a 7° twist, plus 25 grind settings over the Express's 16. Just don't buy it and then work around it with a manual tamper and WDT.
If you want the fastest heat-up, the best grinder resolution and a manual puck: the Barista Pro BES878. ThermoJet, 30-setting Baratza European Precision Burrs and an LCD. Remember you're giving up Impress assisted tamping and the analog pressure gauge to get there.
If you want the machine to guide you: the Barista Touch BES880. Touchscreen drink selection, up to 8 saved coffees and Auto MilQ with 8 texture levels across a 104–167°F range. Distribution and tamping stay yours.
If you want maximum assistance and cold drinks: the Barista Touch Impress BES881. Impress dosing and tamping, Auto MilQ with dairy/soy/almond/oat presets, Baratza burrs, and current cold programs — cold brew under 3 minutes, cold espresso under 2. Verify the menu on used stock.
Still weighing a semiautomatic against the wider market? The best espresso machines guide and the budget-by-price-band breakdown put these Breville models next to their competitors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is the Barista Pro better than the Barista Express Impress?
Not universally. The Barista Pro brings ThermoJet's 3-second heater, a 30-setting Baratza grinder and an LCD. The Express Impress brings assisted dosing and tamping plus a separate analog pressure gauge. Moving from the Express Impress to the Pro means gaining grinder resolution and heat-up speed while losing the Impress puck system.
Q: Do any Breville machines in this range use a 58 mm portafilter?
No. All seven models here — Bambino, Bambino Plus, Barista Express, Express Impress, Barista Pro, Barista Touch and Touch Impress — use a 54 mm portafilter. Breville's 58 mm commercial-style platforms appear in the Oracle generation, not in this family.
Q: What's the real difference between ThermoJet and Thermocoil?
ThermoJet is Breville's rapid-heating system, specified at a 3-second warm-up on the BES450, BES500, BES878, BES880 and BES881. Thermocoil, used on the Barista Express and Express Impress, heats water through a coil with PID control. ThermoJet reaches extraction temperature faster; neither reaches full thermal equilibrium of the portafilter and group in that time, so a warming flush still helps.
Q: Can I use a bottomless portafilter on all these machines?
Diameter-wise, all seven are 54 mm, so many aftermarket parts are nominally compatible. In practice, portafilter ear geometry, basket depth and Impress tamp clearance vary by model, so verify fit for the specific machine and part. A bottomless portafilter is best used as a diagnostic for puck preparation — it reveals channeling you'd otherwise miss.
Q: Do I still need a scale if I buy the Barista Touch Impress?
Yes. The Impress system manages your dose and tamp, not your beverage yield. Weighing output is the only way to know your ratio and to tell a grind problem from a dose problem on any of these machines.
Q: Are Breville and Sage the same machines?
Yes. Breville Group sells these machines as Breville in North America and Australia/New Zealand, and as Sage in the UK and Europe, where the Breville trademark belongs to a different company. A Sage SES878 and a Breville BES878 are the same machine under different regional branding.
Q: Does the Barista Touch Impress actually make cold brew?
Current US BES881 stock is Cold Extraction Enabled, with Breville claiming Cold Brew in under 3 minutes and Cold Espresso in under 2 minutes. Earlier units may not have that menu installed and owners have reported no simple upgrade path. If you're buying used, confirm the menu on the specific machine.
Q: Which Breville is best for a beginner?
It depends on whether you want to learn the craft or just drink well. For learning, the Bambino BES450 paired with a capable standalone grinder teaches you more per dollar than any all-in-one, because it forces you to manage dose, distribution and grind separately. For convenience, the Bambino Plus BES500 adds automatic milk without giving up the fast heater. If you want the machine to do the thinking, the Barista Touch BES880's guided workflow is the easier entry.
Conclusion
The Breville range isn't a ladder, and treating it as one is how buyers end up paying more for less of what they actually wanted. Every machine here shares the same 54 mm group, the same roughly 9-bar extraction and the same pre-infusion — so what you're really buying as you move up is grinder resolution, heat-up speed, milk automation, dosing assistance and interface guidance, in different combinations.
The cleanest way to choose is to start from the two features you can't work around. If you'll buy a standalone grinder, the Bambino BES450 gets you the best espresso per dollar in the entire range. If you want one box that does everything, the Barista Express BES870 is the traditional pick, with the Express Impress BES876 adding the assisted tamping that removes the variable most beginners struggle with. The Barista Pro BES878 buys speed and grinder resolution at the cost of that assistance, and the two Touch models sell guidance and milk automation — with the BES881 adding both Impress and the current cold-extraction programs.
Whichever you land on, budget for a scale and for the cleaning and descaling consumables before you budget for accessories. Bottomless portafilters and precision baskets only pay off once your puck preparation is repeatable, and on the Impress machines, manual distribution tools partly undo what you paid for.
→ Check the current price of the Breville Barista Express on Amazon
For the adjacent reading, the best all-in-one espresso machines with grinder and frother covers the all-in-one category in depth, the best espresso machines with built-in grinder compares integrated-grinder options across brands, and the beginner espresso machine guide frames the semiautomatic versus superautomatic decision if you're still not sure which side of that line you belong on.
