The best coffee machines

While Australia is famous for its coffee, more and more Aussies are making the choice to brew theirs at home rather than hit up their local cafe.

According to Nespresso, around 73% of Aussies are already making coffee at home in some form. The main motivation? 63% said that they switched out of a desire to save money. Given recent economic shifts and the clear price advantage that homemade espresso can have over the barista-bought alternatives, that shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

However, all that cash saved is worth nothing if the final product doesn't live up to the taste test. With that in mind, we've put together a comprehensive round-up of the best coffee machines you can buy in 2023, or take a look at our guide for picking the best coffee machine for you.

Priced at $749, the Magnifica S is a great option for consistent espresso at home that you don't have to think too much about. While it's on the pricier side for a home machine, the convenience factor and coffee quality make it a good buy for caffeine fiends who make multiple cups in a day.

Although the friction of working without a built-in grinder makes the DeLonghi Dedica Arte a little difficult to recommend to first-time coffee machine owners, the slim chassis and high-performance hardware make it a steal at the low asking price. It's far from an all-in-one solution, but the results stand well above what similarly-priced options can offer.

If you're keen on pushing the quality of your pod coffee to the limits, it's hard to go past Nespresso Vertuo Pop. It's a colourful and capable machine that produces consistent and delicious results. You're going to be paying a little bit more than the average pod coffee machine demands, but if you care about your coffee, it's a surcharge that'll justify itself soon enough.

For those in search of the best place to start when it comes to making espresso at home, Sunbeam's Barista Max has everything you could possibly want. It's got tons of accessories, plus a built-in grinder and a design that makes it extremely to jump in and make a hobby of homemade espresso. It's sometimes a little messy to use, but it's all part of the process and the results go down easy enough.

Even if you've set your sights on something a little more ambitious than pod coffee, the Nespresso Barista Milk Frother is an accessory well worth considering. It's expensive, but utterly indispensable once you find a place for it within your kitchen.

The short answer: by making (and drinking) a lot of coffee. The longer one: We spend some serious time not just using the coffee machines we review, but also thinking about the type of users they're for. We don't just read and regurgitate a spec-sheet. We take stock of what the landscape looks like, and how machines like the Sunbeam Barista Max fit into it.

Even if there are clear differences between home espresso machines like this one and cheaper pod-based options, those differences can be bridged by a thorough assessment of how successful both approaches are when it comes to solving the problem of delivering the quality homemade coffee possible with as little effort as possible.

For a full breakdown of our approach to reviewing coffee machines, visit this page.