Everything We Recommend
The short answer: the Breville if you want the most complete bean-to-cup education for the least money and rather like the idea of learning the craft; the De’Longhi if you want a friendlier milk wand, adjustable brew temperatures, and good drinks with less trial and error. Below we compare grinding, temperature, milk, and price to settle which belongs on your counter.
Meet the Contenders
Breville Barista Express BES870XL
The machine that taught a generation of home cooks what a burr grinder was for, and still the default recommendation a decade on. It grinds on demand straight into the portafilter, holds its brew water at the right temperature with digital PID control, and ramps the pressure gently at the start of the shot so the flavour extracts evenly. Nothing about it is flashy; all of it works.
Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine BES870XL, Brushed Stainless Steel
- Integrated conical burr grinder doses fresh grounds straight into the portafilter
- Low-pressure pre-infusion and PID temperature control for even, balanced shots
- Powerful manual steam wand textures true microfoam for latte art
De’Longhi La Specialista Arte EC9155MB
De’Longhi’s answer to the Breville, and a more compact one: a slimmer machine with a built-in grinder, a cool-touch steam wand, and a proper barista kit (dosing funnel and tamping station) in the box. Its signature trick is active temperature control, with three extraction temperatures you pick to suit the beans, plus preset recipes to get you pouring on day one.
De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Espresso Machine EC9155MB
- Three selectable extraction temperatures match the brew to your beans
- Cool-touch My Latte Art steam wand makes microfoam without the burn risk
- Barista kit included: dosing funnel and tamping station for a clean, level tamp
Grinding and Dosing
Espresso lives or dies at the grinder, which is why both of these machines built one in. The Breville’s is the more serious tool: a conical burr grinder with sixteen grind settings and dose-control grinding, which means it delivers the right amount of freshly ground coffee directly into the portafilter while you stand there feeling like you have staff. Sixteen settings matter more than they sound, because in espresso the gap between a sour gusher and a choked drip is one or two notches. The Arte grinds into the portafilter too, and its dosing funnel keeps the counter tidier than the Breville manages, but it offers eight grind settings: coarser jumps, which occasionally leave the perfect grind sitting somewhere between two of them. For everyday bags of supermarket beans you may never notice; the day you buy something lighter and fussier, you will.
Round to Breville: sixteen grind settings give you the finer control espresso actually rewards.
Temperature and the Shot
Both machines take shot temperature seriously, which is not something you could say of home espresso ten years ago. The Breville uses digital PID control to hold its set temperature precisely, and adds low-pressure pre-infusion that soaks the puck gently before ramping to full pressure, a genuinely useful trick that evens out extraction and forgives an imperfect tamp. The De’Longhi holds temperature just as competently but puts the decision on the front panel: active temperature control with three extraction temperatures, so a darker roast gets brewed cooler and a lighter one hotter, exactly as it should be. On the Breville, changing brew temperature means a small detour through button-holding; on the Arte it is a setting you actually use. Add three preset recipes (espresso, americano, hot water) and the De’Longhi simply gets you to a well-brewed cup with fewer wrong turns.
Round to De’Longhi: three front-panel brew temperatures beat a buried menu.
Milk: The Learning Curve
Here the two machines show their personalities. The Breville’s steam wand is powerful and entirely manual: it will texture true microfoam for latte art, and it will also, in your first fortnight, produce some memorable bubble baths while you learn. It is the better teacher; it is not the gentler one. The De’Longhi’s My Latte Art wand stays cool to the touch while it works (no more reflexive yelp when you grab it to wipe it) and it is tuned to make silky, pourable foam with far less technique. If your household drinks flat whites and you would like them to be good this month rather than eventually, the Arte’s wand is the kinder companion. Purists will point out that a manual wand mastered is a skill for life. They are right, and they are also not the ones cleaning milk off the splashback.
Round to De’Longhi: the cool-touch wand makes good microfoam without the apprenticeship.
Price and Value
The Breville lists at $549.95 and the De’Longhi at $699.95, and that gap is difficult for the Arte to argue away. The Barista Express is the more complete espresso education (finer grinding, pre-infusion, a wand that rewards practice) for $150 less, which is roughly a very good burr grinder’s worth of change. The De’Longhi spends its premium on convenience: the temperatures, the presets, the barista kit, the slimmer footprint. Those are real things, but they are comforts, not capabilities. It is also worth saying that either machine only makes sense if espresso is genuinely your drink; if what you actually want is a great morning potful, the machines in our best coffee makers roundup will get you there for a fraction of this money.
Round to Breville: the fuller espresso toolkit for $150 less is the better deal.
Which Should You Buy?
Two rounds apiece, fittingly, because these machines are aimed at two different temperaments rather than two different budgets. The Breville took grinding and value; the De’Longhi took temperature control and milk. The question is not which is better; it is how much of the barista’s job you want to keep for yourself.
Buy the Breville if you want the best-value bean-to-cup setup on the market and you like the idea of getting good at this: dialling in the grind, learning the wand, earning the shot.
Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine BES870XL, Brushed Stainless Steel
- Sixteen grind settings and dose-control grinding for proper dial-in
- Pre-infusion and PID temperature control produce even, balanced shots
- The complete espresso education, $150 less than the Arte
Buy the De’Longhi if you want excellent drinks with a shorter apprenticeship: selectable brew temperatures, presets for day one, and a cool-touch wand that makes latte-art foam without the burns.
De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Espresso Machine EC9155MB
- Three brew temperatures on the front panel, matched to your beans
- Cool-touch My Latte Art wand makes silky microfoam with less technique
- Slimmer footprint plus a barista kit with dosing funnel and tamp station
