Best Espresso Machine Under 600 Dollars Review 2023

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 three of the four 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:

The Bad

The model is not without its faults, flaws, and limitations, however.  These include:

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.

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.

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.