The decision does not start with the coffee maker: it starts with how much you plan to spend on the grinder. An honest comparison by budget and by what you drink, with the real cost per cup.
The mistake that costs most
Before looking at machines: if you're going to buy whole bean coffee, the grinder matters more than the coffee maker.
The typical beginner's setup — a €400 machine and a €25 blade grinder — makes worse coffee than the reverse: a €150 machine and a €200 burr grinder. A blade grinder breaks the bean into uneven fragments, so the same cup contains over-extracted and under-extracted particles at once. No coffee maker fixes that.
The practical rule is to split the budget roughly evenly. It's covered in the grinder guide.
Start with two questions
What do you normally drink? If your coffee comes with milk, you need something concentrated: espresso, moka or capsules. If you drink it black in a large cup, filter methods will give you far more.
How much time do you have in the morning? A V60 is five minutes of attention. A capsule is thirty seconds. Buying a method that doesn't fit your actual routine always ends the same way: in a cupboard.
The options, one by one
Capsules · €50-200
Maximum convenience and an identical result every day. No cleaning, no learning curve.
The cost per cup is the highest: around €0.65 for a specialty capsule against roughly €0.25 grinding your own. At two coffees a day, that's about €290 a year in difference. It's a legitimate trade — you're paying for time — but worth doing the sum. What to look for when buying is in the compatibles guide.
Moka pot · €20-40
The most underrated on the list. It doesn't make espresso (it works at 1.5-2 bar, not 9), but it gives a concentrated coffee with character for very little money, lasts decades and doesn't break.
Two corrections that improve it a great deal: fill the base with water that's already hot and don't tamp the coffee into the funnel. Most bitter moka coffee in the world comes from those two habits.
Filter: V60, Chemex, AeroPress · €15-40
The best value in coffee if you drink it black. For under €40 you get access to what tasters and competitors drink, provided you have a decent grinder.
A clean, aromatic cup with lighter body. It asks for five minutes and some attention. Start with the V60 guide.
French press · €20-35
Full immersion, dense body, no technique required. The easiest of the lot and very practical for making several cups at once. It leaves some sediment, which can be largely minimised — that's in the French press guide.
Espresso machine · €200-1,500
The quality ceiling if you like espresso and milk drinks, and also the most demanding option in money, time and learning.
Two specific warnings. One: below €300 they almost always come with a pressurised basket, which cancels out the effect of your grind; replacing it costs about €15 and is the first thing to do. Two: the "bars" advertised (15, 19) are pump capacity, not working pressure — correct extraction happens at 9. Don't pay extra for that number. Both are explained in the espresso guide.
Bean-to-cup · €400-2,000
Grinds, tamps, extracts and ejects the puck by itself. Capsule convenience using whole bean, with whole-bean cost per cup. In exchange, almost no control: the built-in grinder is usually modest and the parameters fairly locked down.
A good option for offices or households with high consumption and little patience. A poor one if what appeals is tinkering.
Cost per cup, plainly
| Method | Equipment | Cost per cup |
|---|---|---|
| Capsules | €50-200 | ~€0.65 |
| Espresso with whole bean | €200+ and grinder | ~€0.25 |
| Filter / press | €15-40 and grinder | ~€0.50 |
| Moka pot | €20-40 | ~€0.30 |
Filter costs more per cup than espresso simply because it uses more coffee per serving (15-18 g against 8-9), even though the cup is much larger.
What I'd do with each budget
- Under €100 — a V60 or French press plus a decent hand grinder. It's where you get the most coffee per euro, without question.
- €100-300 — an electric burr grinder and a filter method, or a good moka if you take it with milk.
- €300-700 — an espresso machine with a normal basket and a dedicated espresso grinder, splitting the spend between the two.
- You want zero complication — capsules, and don't feel you've cheated. The best method is the one you use every day.
If you're still torn between concentrated and long, we compare them in espresso versus filter. Coffee for whichever method you choose: espresso, moka pot, bean-to-cup or filter; and if you settle on capsules, the machine loan programme removes the upfront cost.
