The Takeaway:
1. Our Pick: Gaggia Anima
2. Runner-Up: Breville BES870XL
3. Value Pick: Gaggia 14101 Classic
We’ve scoured the internet in search of the best espresso machine for $600, and have found what we believe to be the best value on the market today in that price range plus two other great models that, although they didn’t win top honors in our eyes, would be great machines for the right person. Check out the table summary below.
Comparison Table
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Our Pick
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4.7
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4.7
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4.5
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$620.04
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$599.95
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$433.98
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Super Automatic
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Semi Automatic, Hybrid
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Semi Automatic
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16.9”x8.7”x13.4”
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13.2” x 12.5” x 15.8”
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25” x 13” x 12”
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16 pounds
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23 pounds
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20 pounds
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60 Ounces
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67 ounces!
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72 ounces!
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Double boiler system. Both are aluminum, lined with stainless steel, and both feature Thermoblock technology
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Single boiler, aluminum, lined with stainless steel. Has Thermoblock technology
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Single boiler, aluminum, lined with stainless steel. Has Thermoblock technology
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Yes, to a maximum height of 5.9”
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Yes, to a maximum height of 5.9”
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No, uses a Portafilter
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Ceramic Burr, 5 adjustment levels, paired with an 8.8 ounce bean hopper
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Stainless Steel burr (stepless) grinder with an 8 ounce bean hopper
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NA – No integrated grinder
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Steam Wand
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Steam Wand
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Steam Wand
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No
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Yes, but it’s very small
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No
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Anyone.
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This is an especially newbie-friendly machine and a great model to learn Barista skills on. Great for power drinkers and large households.
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Anyone on a budget, who doesn’t mind doing a bit of manual labor to create their favorite specialty coffee drinks.
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- Much more programmability than you’d expect to find on a machine in this price range
- Grinder could use more settings
- Generously sized water reservoir, grinder and bean hopper, very easy to use
- Bean hopper could be bigger, grinder is stainless steel, rather than ceramic, too much spillage when the grinder loads the Portafilter
- A perfectly full-featured, basic semi-automatic espresso machine
- The reservoir, while generously sized, cannot be used to its full extent. It needs a small length of hose to suck up the water from the bottom of the tank
Do you love a great cup of coffee?
Do you feel like you’ve simply outgrown your old, reliable drip-brew machine, and have begun casting a wistful eye toward those fancy espresso machines you hear everyone talking about?
If you have, then you may have been turned off by the high prices they charge for many of the top-of-the-line machines. It might surprise you though, just how good a machine you can get for not very much money.
If you’ve been looking for a way to replicate the “coffee shop experience” from the comfort of your home, and you’ve got at least a little money to spend, you can get a really great machine!
We’ve revealed our top pick and taken a high-altitude view of all three of the finalists in the table above. We’ll now get into the details about what makes each one stand out.
Ready? Then let’s get started!
Our Pick: Gaggia Anima
If you’re looking for a machine that’s convenient and easy to use, while still offering you a high degree of control over the drink-making process, then this model is awfully hard to beat.
Before we get into the specifics of this machine, we’d like to say a few words about Gaggia (the company that makes it) in general. As you no doubt saw in the table above, Gaggia nearly ran the table, capturing two of the top spots for machines offered in this price range.
They’re a great company, and one of the “Big Three” best-known names in super-automatic espresso machines designed for home use (the other two being Delonghi and Jura), and they make outstanding products that they stand behind.
In our view, in the $600 and under price range, the Gaggia Anima stands apart from the crowd and is well deserving of top honors. The feature set that this model comes equipped with is almost head-spinning, and Gaggia got so many things right with this model that it’s hard to know where to begin.
The Good
In no particular order then, here are the things we like best about the Anima:
It should be noted that there are three variants of the Anima. Our comments above are about the base model, which is the only one of the three that meets our price criteria. If you’re willing to spend more, upgrading to the Anima Prestige is your best bet, because, in addition to all of the above, it gives you the ability to program a variety of specific drinks for one-touch convenience.
As good is the Prestige is though, as you can see, the base model is certainly nothing to sneeze at!
The Bad
The model is not without its faults, flaws, and limitations, however. These include:
On balance though, this is a superb model, offered at an almost shockingly low price, and we don’t consider any of the negatives mentioned above to be deal breakers. If you’re looking for a machine that’s convenient and easy to use, while still offering you a high degree of control over the drink making process, then this model is awfully hard to beat.
Runner-Up: Breville BES870XL
Recommended for: This is an especially newbie-friendly machine and a great model to learn Barista skills on. Great for power drinkers and large households.
Breville is a well-known and respected brand in the American market, and the BES870XL is an outstanding machine, but also in many ways, hard to define.
It’s not a super automatic, but it can’t be rightly classed as a semi-auto either. Essentially, the designers have taken the best features from both worlds and merged them together. The results are sometimes less than perfect, but no matter how you slice it, this is a great machine, and only narrowly missed winning the top spot on our “best home espresso machine under 600” list.
For our purposes, the best way to approach this machine is to treat it as a semi-automatic, but detail the “extras” that other semi-autos just don’t offer, and with that in mind, the first thing we have to say about the BES870XL is that it’s a really forgiving machine if you’re a new user.
Some semi-autos are notoriously twitchy and difficult to use, but that’s not at all the case here.
Sure, there’s some hands-on work to be done to make your favorite specialty coffee drinks, but this isn’t one of those models where you have to stick your tongue out, squint your left eye, and do the “Voodoo Chicken Dance” at just the right time or your shot will be utterly ruined (and there are some semi-autos on the market where that’s not far from being an accurate description!)
On the other hand, this machine has so many “extras” that comparably priced semi-autos don’t have, that it’s not a great machine to learn on either because a lot of the skills you pick up when using this one just won’t translate well to some other machine.
What We Liked Best
Besides the relative ease of use and forgiving nature of the machine, the thing we like best about the 870XL is the size of the water tank. 67-ounces is big enough to keep pace with even the most extreme power drinkers, or large households if everybody is a casual drinker.
The grinder is sheer awesome as well, being “stepless.”
What that means is, almost every grinder built into an espresso machine comes with some predefined number of grind settings. They are what they are, and you can’t change them. You’re also limited to whatever number of settings the manufacturer decides to give you.
With a stepless grinder though, there are no predefined settings. You can make incremental adjustments and whatever fine-tuning you like until the grind is perfectly aligned with your flavor preferences.
Now granted, there were some problems with the implementation of the grinder, but even taking those into account, this is an amazing feature.
We also like the fact that unit comes with a PID on the front panel that allows for precise boiler temp control. The implementation isn’t flawless, which makes it a bit cumbersome to use, but it only takes a few minutes to master it, and once you do, it won’t be an issue.
Finally, the machine is super easy to use and clean. It’ll probably take you longer to set the machine up initially than it will to figure out how to make your first drink!
What Could Stand Improvement
None of these are deal breakers, but they’re all important in their way:
As you can see, most of the issues we have with the unit are centered on the grinder. If Breville made these changes, we’d be hard pressed not to give the unit a perfect five-star rating. Seriously, it’s that good.
Value Pick: Gaggia 14101 Classic
Recommended for: Anyone on a budget, who doesn’t mind doing a bit of manual labor to create their favorite specialty coffee drinks.
Although this model won top honors in our under $500 list, it places a middle of the pack third in the “best espresso machine under 600 dollars” list. The addition of just a hundred bucks to your budget opens up a lot more in the way of possibilities!
Even so, there’s a lot to like about the 14101, starting with the fact that it’s got the largest water tank of any machine on our list of finalists, with a whopping 72-ounce capacity. It’s true that you don’t get to make use of quite all of that, thanks to a design flaw that doesn’t allow the boiler to pump water from the very bottom of the tank, but even so, it’s still got the biggest raw capacity in its class.
Its steam wand is excellent, and it gives you all the tools you need to make any specialty coffee drink you could want (except a grinder! As a semi-auto, you’ll need to buy that separately). Even better, it’s the least expensive machine on the list, which means you’ll have plenty of cash left over to buy the aforementioned grinder!
Other than the small issue with the water tank, the model doesn’t have any weaknesses to speak of, making it incredibly appealing, especially to those on a tight budget. It’s a good pick if there are things about our first and second place entrants that put you off.
Also Great: Gaggia Unica Coffee Machine
This product has been DISCONTINUED by the manufacturer. Check out other Super Automatic Espresso Machines products we've reviewed.
Recommended for: Single power drinkers. Small households with 2-3 casual coffee drinkers. People who are new to the world of specialty coffee.
Rounding out our list of finalists in our “best espresso machine for under 600” list is the Gaggia Unica. It’s an excellent machine, and bears great similarity to our winner, the Gaggia Anima, but with a slightly scaled back feature set and a correspondingly lower price.
If the machine you want is the Anima, and you just can’t afford it, then you’ll probably be interested in the Unica. Its 57-ounce water tank isn’t much smaller than the Anima’s 60-ounce offering, and both machines use the exact same grinder.
You’ll find a bit less in the way of customization options and programmability, but that follows, as those are the areas the company made cuts to in order to bring the price down.
Best Espresso Machine Under 600 Dollars 2024 Conclusion
So in the end, what is best espresso machine under 600 bucks?
We stand by our top pick, and we really do think you’re going to love the Gaggia Anima. It’s got an amazing feature set for the money.
Having said that though, everyone’s tastes and preferences are different, so here are some of the reasons you may decide the Anima isn’t for you, and gravitate to one of our other top picks:
Sources & Resources
- Gaggia Anima User Manual.
- Breville BES870XL User Manual.
- Gaggia 14101 Classic User Manual.
- Gaggia Unica User Manual.
- Gaggia USA, Official Brand Website.
- Breville USA, Official Brand Website.
- Steam Wand Technology and Maintenance, J.L. Hufford.