Breville Barista Express vs Barista Pro: is the upgrade worth it?

Barista Express vs Barista Pro at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on my four weeks with each machine and the manufacturer specs. Rows where the two are effectively the same have no winner.

Keep in mind that the tally is not my verdict. A pressure gauge matters a lot to some buyers and not at all to others, so read the rows that match how you drink coffee.

Design, size and build

Put the two machines side by side and they look like close relatives, which they are. Both have a bean hopper on top, a 54 mm portafilter in the middle and a steam wand on the right.

The big visual difference is the center of the front panel. The Express has a round analog pressure gauge, surrounded by chunky dials for grind amount, the shot buttons and a program button.

The Pro swaps that gauge for a backlit LCD, with three buttons and two dials around it. From across the room, the screen makes the Pro look a little more modern, and the gauge makes the Express look a little more like a café machine.

The Express keeps the round pressure gauge in the middle of its brushed steel front.

Both bodies are brushed stainless steel and feel solid. Neither flexed when I locked in the portafilter hard, and both wiped clean with a damp cloth every evening.

One small surprise on the Pro: its panels are magnetic. I stuck a stirring tool and a small brush to the side, which kept them off the counter all month.

The Express answers with a hidden storage box behind the drip tray for spare baskets and cleaning tools. I liked that a lot, because the extra baskets never went missing.

The footprint is different, not bigger

The Pro is wider, at about 14 inches against the Express at about 12.5 inches. But it is shallower, at about 13 inches deep against 13.8 inches.

In practice, the Pro needs a little more counter length and a little less depth. If you have a narrow gap between a sink and a wall, measure the width; if your counter is shallow, the Pro fits better.

The Pro is also the lighter of the two, at about 20 lb against 22 to 23 lb for the Express. Both still stay put when you twist the portafilter in, which is what weight is for on an espresso machine.

Width on the counter

Both fit under standard wall cabinets, but slide forward to refill the hopper.

Our tip: Measure the space under your wall cabinets before you buy, and leave about 3 inches above the hopper so topping up beans never means dragging the machine forward.

Heat-up speed and the morning workflow

This is the biggest practical difference between the two, and it changes how you use the machine every single day.

The Express uses a 1600-watt thermocoil✕ThermocoilA coiled metal tube with a heating element wrapped around it. Water heats as it flows through the coil. It is faster than a boiler but slower than newer low-mass heaters.. From cold, it took about a minute before the power button stopped flashing and it was ready to brew.

The Pro uses Breville’s 1680-watt ThermoJet✕ThermoJetBreville’s compact, low-mass heating block. Because there is so little metal to warm, it reaches brewing temperature in about three seconds and switches to steam almost instantly. heater. I pressed the power button, and about three seconds later the screen said it was ready.

That three seconds is real, and it is not a marketing number I had to squint at. Because it heats so fast, I switched the Pro off between coffees instead of leaving it idling.

My timings, from pressing the button to the action

My rough stopwatch timings in a 68°F kitchen.

Why the Pro still needs a warm-up

There is a catch, and it is the most important thing to know about the Pro. The heater is hot in seconds, but the heavy metal group head✕Group headThe round fitting on the front of the machine that the portafilter locks into. Hot water flows out of it and through your coffee. and portafilter are not heated directly.

Cold metal steals heat from the first shot. In my first week, my first espresso of the morning on the Pro ran two to four seconds faster than the second and tasted thinner.

The fix took 20 seconds: lock in the empty portafilter and run two blank shots of hot water into the cup. After I added that habit, the first and third shots tasted the same.

The Express has a quieter advantage here. If you switch it on and leave it for 20 to 30 minutes while you shower, the group head slowly warms through the metal, and the first shot comes out warmer without a flush.

Most mornings I did not want to wait that long, so I ran one blank shot on the Express too. In real life, both routines ended up close: about a minute on the Express, about 25 seconds on the Pro.

From power button to steaming milk, the Pro was always the faster of the two.

The pressure gauge vs the LCD

This is the row in the head-to-head table where the cheaper machine wins, and for some buyers it decides everything.

The Barista Express has a round analog gauge in the middle of the panel. During pre-infusion✕Pre-infusionA short, low-pressure soak of the ground coffee before full pump pressure starts, so the water spreads through the puck evenly., the needle sits low; once the pump kicks in, it should climb into a shaded espresso zone and hold there.

If the needle stays low, the puck is not resisting the water enough. If it slams to the top, the grind is choking the flow.

That instant visual feedback taught me faster than anything else on either machine. In week one on the Express, I could see a bad shot coming within five seconds, before I had tasted it.

Where the needle settled on the Express

Approximate needle position as a share of the dial during my test shots.

What the Pro shows instead

The Pro’s LCD shows your grind setting, your grind time, the selected shot size and a running shot clock. The timer starts when full pump pressure kicks in, and it replaced my phone stopwatch on day one.

You do lose the pressure needle. In practice, the shot clock plus a scale told me everything I needed, because time and weight are what you actually dial in against.

Where the screen really earns its place is the menu. Changing the brew temperature on the Pro takes two button presses; on the Express it means a button combination you will probably look up in the manual.

The Pro’s LCD sits where the Express puts its pressure gauge.

Our tip: If you are a complete beginner, watch the gauge or the shot clock for the first two weeks, then trust your scale and your taste.

Grinder: 16 steps vs 30

Both machines grind straight into the portafilter with stainless steel conical burrs✕Conical burrsTwo cone-shaped grinding parts, one inside the other. Beans are crushed between them, and the gap between the burrs sets how fine the coffee is.. On paper they do the same job. In my hands, they felt like different generations.

Barista Express: two adjustments, and you need both

The Express has 16 steps on the side dial, with lower numbers finer. There is also an inner burr adjustment hidden under the hopper, which shifts the whole range of that dial.

From the factory, my upper burr sat on 6. With fresh espresso beans, that left most of the side dial too coarse to be useful.

So I emptied the hopper, lifted it off, pulled the upper burr out by its wire handle and turned it from 6 to 2. After that, the side dial had usable steps on both sides of my sweet spot, which landed at step 7.

The grounds came out fluffy and fairly even, but they clumped a little at fine settings. Those clumps were behind my first sour test shot, when the gauge needle never rose into the espresso zone.

Barista Pro: a better grinder, plainly

The Pro uses hardened steel conical burrs from Breville’s Baratza line, with 30 settings. The adjustment collar is effectively stepless, so you can stop between numbers for fine tuning.

The grind was more even and less clumpy than on the Express. With a fresh medium roast, I ended up around 10 to 12; light roasts went a few numbers finer and dark roasts a few numbers coarser.

There was no hidden burr to move and no hopper to take off. For anyone who switches beans often, that alone is a real upgrade.

Usable grind range for espresso

Rough share of each dial that produced drinkable espresso with fresh medium-roast beans.

Our tip: Only turn the grind dial or collar while the motor is running, on either machine, because turning it finer with beans sitting in stopped burrs can jam them.

Dosing and tamping

Neither machine weighs your coffee. Both grind by time, and pushing the portafilter into the cradle starts the motor.

On the Express, a front dial sets how long the motor runs. My first attempt at step 5 gave only about 8 grams in the double basket, so I turned it up, weighed, adjusted and repeated until the scale read about 15.4 grams every time.

On the Pro, you set the grind time in tenths of a second on the screen. My target was 16 grams, and consecutive grinds varied by about 0.2 to 0.4 grams on the same setting.

That drift is normal for timed grinding✕Timed grindingThe grinder runs for a set number of seconds rather than stopping at a set weight. The dose changes slightly as beans age or the hopper empties., and a scale makes it a non-issue on both machines. If you buy either one, budget for a scale that reads to 0.1 gram.

The tools in the box

Both come with a tamper, the Razor dose-trimming tool, a stainless milk jug, single and dual wall baskets and a cleaning kit. The Express tamper is magnetic and clicks into a slot next to the group head.

The Pro adds a clear dosing funnel that clips onto the portafilter. With a thin-needle stirring tool, it let me break up clumps before tamping without spilling a gram, and my shots got noticeably more consistent.

A small scale next to the Express made more difference than any setting on the machine.

Espresso quality

Here is the honest headline: once dialed in, both machines pull espresso that tastes like it came from a café. The difference is how quickly you get there and how easily you stay there.

Both use a 15-bar pump, PID✕PID controlA small controller that constantly adjusts the heater to hold the water at one temperature, instead of letting it swing hot and cold. temperature control and a short low-pressure pre-infusion before full pressure. I aimed for a classic 1:2 brew ratio✕Brew ratioThe weight of coffee in the basket compared with the weight of espresso in the cup. 16 g in and 32 g out is a 1:2 ratio. in 25 to 30 seconds on both.

Barista Express: a slow start, then honey

My first properly dosed shot hit 30 grams in 27 seconds. On paper that looked fine, but the needle never rose into the espresso zone and the cup tasted sour and weak.

I kept the dose at 15.4 grams, moved the side dial two steps to 7 and took more care settling the grounds. This time the needle climbed into the middle of the zone and stayed there.

The shot flowed like warm honey, with a deep, velvety crema. It tasted sweet and creamy, with balanced acidity and no harsh bitterness.

Barista Pro: syrupy from day two

With 16 grams in and 32 grams out, my medium-roast shots on the Pro ran in about 28 to 30 seconds and poured like syrup.

The crema was thick and hazelnut-colored, and the cup tasted sweet and rounded, with chocolate, caramel and a gentle acidity. Back-to-back shots were very consistent, because the ThermoJet holds its temperature tightly through the shot.

The Pro reached a sweet, syrupy shot a day sooner than the Express in my testing.

Share of shots inside my target window, by week

From my shot logs: 25–30 s on the Express, 26–32 s on the Pro.

The log tells the real story. By week four the two machines were almost level, which means the Express is not a worse espresso machine; it is a slower one to learn.

Research from the Technical University of Munich backs up what my logs showed: grind size, flow rate and temperature all shift how quickly compounds leave the puck. The Pro simply gives you finer control over two of those three.

Our tip: Change only one thing per shot, because if you move the grind and the dose together you will never know which one fixed it.

Temperature control and different roasts

Both machines hold brew temperature with PID control. The difference is how easy it is to change it, and that matters more than I expected.

On the Express, you can nudge the temperature up or down a few degrees through a button combination. I left it on the default for medium roasts and raised it slightly for one light roast, which reduced the sourness.

On the Pro, five settings from Low to High sit in a menu, two button presses away. I changed them every time I changed beans, because it was so easy.

The light-roast test

I ran the same light-roast single origin on both machines. On the Express, it needed a finer grind, a slightly higher temperature and a longer 1:2.3 ratio before the sourness turned into a pleasant, fruity brightness.

On the Pro’s default setting it was sharp too. With the temperature on High and the grind several numbers finer, it opened up completely, with sweet citrus, orange peel and bright stone fruit, and a crema I did not expect from a light roast.

Sourness in the light roast on the Pro, by temperature

My taste scores, where 10 is very sour.

Dark roasts went the other way. On the Pro’s default, a dark blend tasted harsh and burnt; on Medium-Low with a slightly tighter ratio, it turned into toasted nuts and dark caramel.

Most espresso is brewed somewhere between about 194 and 205°F. Lighter roasts generally want the top of that window and darker roasts the bottom, which is exactly what the Pro’s menu lets you do in seconds.

Steam wand and milk drinks

If you make milk drinks, this section matters more than anything above it. It is also where the two machines feel most different.

Both have a manual steam wand on a swivel joint, so you stretch and texture the milk yourself. The Express has a single-hole tip; the Pro has a four-hole tip fed by the ThermoJet.

Barista Express: gentle and forgiving

On the Express, you turn the right-hand dial to steam, the pump clicks and steam builds within about 15 seconds. The first puff is wet, so I always purged it into the drip tray first.

With the tip just under the surface and slightly off-center, the milk grew slowly. After about 40 seconds it looked like glossy paint, and 6 ounces took me roughly 45 seconds in total.

That slower pace is actually helpful for a beginner, because you have more time to find the whirlpool. For two or three drinks in a row, it feels slow.

Barista Pro: fast, dry and powerful

On the Pro, dry steam arrived within a few seconds of turning the knob. The milk started spinning almost immediately, which is the single most important thing for silky microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, which is what a good flat white or latte needs..

A 6-ounce latte jug took about 30 seconds. The milk came out glossy and smooth, with very fine bubbles, and I stopped at around 140 to 150°F when the jug was too hot to hold.

Seconds to steam 6 oz of cold milk

My stopwatch timings with cold whole milk, from opening the steam to closing it.

The Express steams more gently, which gives a beginner more time to find the whirlpool.

The purge after steaming

Both machines dump a little water and steam into the drip tray when you close the steam. That cools the heater back to brewing temperature so your next shot is not scalded.

On the Express, the purge is noticeably bigger, so the drip tray filled faster on milk-heavy mornings. On the Pro, it uses much less water and the tray needed emptying less often.

Our tip: Keep the milk in the fridge until the second you steam it, because cold milk gives you more time to texture before it gets too hot.

Latte art and back-to-back drinks

Yes, you can pour real latte art on both. By week three on the Express, I could pour a heart most mornings and a simple rosetta on a good day.

On the Pro, I was pouring hearts and simple tulips by the end of week two. The four-hole tip gets the milk spinning so quickly that you spend less time hunting for the right angle.

The downside of strong steam is speed. Small jugs heat quickly on the Pro, and it is easy to overshoot the temperature if you look away for a few seconds.

A better base for milk drinks

For lattes and flat whites on the Pro, a slightly shorter shot worked best: 16 grams in and about 28 grams out. That denser espresso held up better against the milk and gave the white foam more contrast.

On the Express, I kept the normal 1:2 shot and simply pulled it before steaming. It cannot brew and steam at the same time, and switching back from steam to brew needs a short cool-down.

Time for two flat whites in a row

From switch-on to the second cup, including warm-up, grinding, steaming and wiping the wand.

Our tip: Practice pours with water and a drop of dish soap in the jug, so you can rehearse the wrist motion without wasting milk.

Hot water, americanos and tea

Both machines have a dedicated hot water outlet to the right of the group head. You turn the right-hand dial to the hot water symbol, and it flows from its own spout.

On the Express, the water came out hot but in slightly uneven bursts at first. On the Pro, it poured a smooth, steady stream that never spat, which made americanos and tea much less messy.

A proper americano✕AmericanoA shot of espresso topped up with hot water. Made this way, the coffee is never over-extracted, unlike pushing a whole mug of water through the grounds. is espresso plus hot water, never a whole mug pushed through the grounds. On both machines, I preferred the long black method: hot water first, then the shot on top, which keeps more crema.

The water is hot enough for green and herbal tea on both, but not quite boiling, so strong black tea is better made with a kettle.

Both machines have a separate hot water spout, so americanos never mean over-extracted coffee.

Cleaning and upkeep

Daily cleaning on a semi-automatic machine is mostly about habits, and the habits are the same on both. After every milk drink, I wiped the steam wand with a damp cloth and gave it a quick purge.

After every shot, I knocked out the puck, rinsed the basket and flushed the group head. Milk dries fast on hot steel, and dried milk is far harder to remove, especially from the Pro’s four tiny holes.

Backflushing and descaling

When the Express’s Clean Me light comes on, or the Pro shows its prompt, it is time to backflush✕BackflushingRunning water backwards through the brew valve with a rubber disc in the basket. With a cleaning tablet, it dissolves coffee oils that build up inside.. You put the rubber disc and a cleaning tablet in the basket, lock it in and run the cycle.

Descaling is guided on screen on the Pro and done with the included powder on the Express. Both use a charcoal water filter in the tank, which Breville suggests replacing every two to three months.

One difference matters for hard-water homes. The ThermoJet has narrow channels, so scale builds up quickly inside it if you skip the filter; on the Pro, I would treat the filter as essential rather than optional.

My hands-on cleaning time per day

My estimate, not counting automatic purges.

Our tip: Wipe the steam wand within ten seconds of steaming, because milk that bakes onto hot steel takes minutes to scrub off later.

Noise and daily use

Both grinders are loud for a few seconds, as most grinders are. The pumps hum and click, and the steam wands hiss.

The Express’s steam takes longer, so its hiss lasts longer. The Pro’s steam is louder but over in half the time, and on balance the two felt about equal in my open-plan kitchen.

A week of mornings

On the Express, my routine settled at about four to five minutes for a latte, from switch-on to first sip. I switched it on, let it heat, ran a blank shot, ground, tamped, brewed, steamed and wiped.

On the Pro, a flat white took about three to four minutes. Power on, two blank shots, grind into the funnel, stir, tamp, brew, steam, pour and wipe.

The bigger difference was the tank. The Express has no low-water sensor, so if it runs dry mid-shot the pump keeps going and the shot is ruined. The Pro warns you before it starts, and it saved me at least two shots in four weeks.

Minutes from switch-on to first latte

Average across my weekday mornings.

With a knock box and tamper beside it, the Pro’s whole routine fits in under four minutes.

Beans, water and supplies

Both machines reward fresh beans more than almost anything else. Coffee roasted within the last two to four weeks gave the best crema and the most even flow on both.

Supermarket beans with no roast date ran fast and thin, even at fine settings. University of Oregon researchers found that uneven extraction can waste up to 40% of the coffee in a puck, and stale, uneven grounds make that worse.

Use filtered or fresh tap water with the filter in, and skip pure distilled water. Coffee needs some minerals to taste full, and the machines’ sensors rely on them too.

Roughly how far one 67 oz tank goes

Rough maths allowing for blank shots, purging and rinsing.

The numbers are close, because both tanks are the same size. The Pro uses a little more water on blank shots and a little less on purging, so it evens out.

Our tip: Buy beans in bags you can finish within two to three weeks, so your grind setting stays stable from the first shot to the last.

Real-life scenarios

Specs only go so far. These are the situations where one machine clearly pulled ahead during my eight weeks of testing.

For learning the craft one shot at a time, the Express is still a lovely machine to live with.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10. The first four come straight from my single reviews of each machine, and I added speed and learning feedback because they decide this matchup.

Breville Barista Express

Breville Barista Pro

Overall, I rate the Express 8.0 and the Pro 8.5. The Express is the better teacher and the cheaper way in. The Pro is the better machine to own every day, especially if milk is part of your routine.

Which one should you buy?

It comes down to one question: is a milk drink your daily habit or an occasional treat? Answer that honestly and the choice mostly makes itself.

If you are still weighing the wider range, see my Barista Express review and Barista Pro review, or browse all the coffee makers I have tested.

For daily milk drinks, the Pro earns its place on the counter.

Barista Express vs Barista Pro specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my only espresso machine for four weeks, making espresso, americanos, long blacks, cappuccinos, flat whites and lattes every day. Testing and notes were written up together by Michael Reynolds and the HouseholdMe team.

I logged dose, yield and time for every shot with a 0.1-gram scale, mapped both grind ranges with light, medium and dark roasts, timed heat-up and steaming with a stopwatch, and steamed whole, semi-skimmed, skim and oat milk.

I followed every daily, weekly and prompted cleaning routine, then compared my notes with Breville’s specifications, owner documentation and published espresso research.

• Coffee: dose, crema, body, flavor and consistency.
• Milk: steam power, microfoam texture and speed.
• Workflow: heat-up, controls, feedback and daily routine.
• Ownership: cleaning, water care, footprint and warranty.