Breville Barista Express vs Pro vs Touch: which one should you buy?

Barista Express vs Pro vs Touch at a glance

Head to head

The better result in each row is marked, based on four weeks with each machine and Breville’s specs. Rows where all three are the same have no winner.

The tally isn’t my verdict. The three are built for three different kinds of morning, so read the rows that match yours.

How the three fit together

Think of these as three steps on the same ladder. All three grind into a 54 mm portafilter✕PortafilterThe handle with a metal basket that holds the ground coffee. You lock it into the machine’s group head to brew., all three dose by time, and all three leave the tamping to you.

The Barista Express is the classic: a thermocoil heater, a round pressure gauge, physical dials and a gentle single-hole steam wand.

The Barista Pro keeps the buttons and the manual wand but swaps in a fast ThermoJet✕ThermoJetBreville’s fast heating system. Water is heated as it flows through a compact element, so the machine is ready in about three seconds. heater, a better 30-step grinder, an LCD shot timer and a far stronger four-hole steam tip.

The Barista Touch takes the Pro’s speed, puts everything on a touchscreen and adds an automatic steam wand that stops at your chosen milk temperature.

The Barista Pro sits in the middle: faster than the Express, more hands-on than the Touch.

Our tip: Decide how you want to steam milk first, because that one choice usually picks the machine for you.

Design, size and build

All three are brushed stainless steel with a hopper on top, a group head in the middle and a steam wand on the right. They all fit under standard wall cabinets, though I slid each forward to fill the hopper.

The Express is about 12.5 inches wide, 13.8 deep and 15.9 tall. The Pro is the widest at about 14 inches, but the shallowest at about 13 inches, and the lightest at about 20 pounds. The Touch is the most compact, at about 12.6 inches square and 16.1 inches tall.

The Pro’s stainless panels are magnetic, so I stuck a stirring tool and a brush right to its side. The Touch has no knobs at all apart from the grind dial, which keeps its front panel clean.

Width on the counter

Add a few inches in front for the portafilter handle.

Our tip: Stick small tools to the Barista Pro’s magnetic side panels, so your stirring tool and brush never wander off.

Heat-up and speed

This is the difference I felt every morning. The Express’s thermocoil was ready in about a minute; the Pro and Touch were ready in about three seconds.

The fast heaters change the routine. On the Pro and Touch, I switched off between coffees, because there was nothing to wait for. On the Express, I left it on during busy mornings.

The real gap is with milk. The Express can’t brew and steam at once, and after steaming it purges to cool back to brewing temperature. The Pro went from brew to full steam in about five seconds and back to brewing in about six. The Touch steams on its own while you clean the portafilter.

Power on to ready

My timings, from pressing the power button.

Grinder and dosing

All three grind with conical burrs straight into the portafilter and dose by time. The difference is resolution and evenness.

The Express has 16 steps on its side dial, plus a hidden inner burr. From the factory, mine was set to 6 and most of the dial was too coarse, so I moved it to 2. After that, step 7 was my sweet spot for a medium roast.

The Pro uses Baratza-designed burrs on an effectively stepless collar, shown as 1 to 30 on the screen. It produced a more even grind with less clumping, and my medium roast landed around 10 to 12. You set the grind time in tenths of a second.

The Touch also shows 30 settings; my medium roast landed around 10 to 13. Its cradle lets you push once to pause halfway and settle the grounds.

Grind steps on the dial

More steps mean finer control between settings.

None of them weighs the dose. My doses were about 15.4 grams on the Express, 16 on the Pro and 17.5 on the Touch, all checked on a 0.1-gram scale. Even on a fixed timer, the Pro’s doses varied by about 0.2 to 0.4 grams, so the scale stayed on the counter.

Our tip: Use a needle stirring tool on all three, because breaking up clumps before tamping fixed more sour shots than any grind change.

Gauge, timer or touchscreen

Each machine gives you feedback in a different way, and it changes how you learn.

The Express has a round pressure gauge✕Pressure gaugeA dial that shows the pressure in the group head during a shot. Low means too coarse or under-dosed; maxed out means too fine.. My first “perfect” 27-second shot tasted sour because the needle never reached the espresso zone. The timer said yes, the gauge said no, and the gauge was right.

The Pro replaces the gauge with a backlit LCD showing grind setting, grind time, shot size and a running shot clock that starts when full pressure kicks in. It replaced my phone stopwatch on day one, and with a scale it gave me everything I needed.

The Touch puts everything on a touchscreen, with five presets, eight saved drinks and short visual tutorials. Its presets all brew the same shot, so I saved my own versions with different milk settings.

The Express gauge is still the best teacher of the three.

Our tip: On the Pro, set the temperature to match the roast before you touch the grind, because temperature changes the taste as much as a grind step.

Espresso quality

With good puck prep, all three make café-level espresso. The differences are in how easily you get there and how far you can push it.

On the Express, 15.4 grams in and 30 grams out in 25 to 30 seconds gave a shot that poured like warm honey, with deep, velvety crema✕CremaThe golden, foamy layer on top of a fresh espresso. and a sweet, creamy taste.

On the Pro, 16 grams in and 32 grams out ran in 28 to 30 seconds. The crema was thick and hazelnut-colored even with all-arabica beans, and it tasted of chocolate and caramel with gentle acidity.

On the Touch, I stopped shots by weight in manual mode: 17.5 grams in, 40 grams out in 28 to 32 seconds, with tiger-striped crema and chocolate and nut notes.

My espresso ratings

My scores out of 10 from the single reviews.

Shots in my target window, week 4

From my four-week shot logs. All three started around 45 to 50 percent in week one.

Light and dark roasts

Temperature control is where the Pro pulls ahead. On its default, a light roast tasted sharp and sour; on High with a finer grind, it opened into sweet citrus, orange peel and stone fruit. A dark roast on Medium-Low turned from burnt and bitter into toasted nuts and dark caramel.

The Touch handled roasts well too, at 198 to 200°F for dark and 204 to 206°F for light. The Express can be nudged warmer, but only through a button combination, and its narrow grind range struggles with very light, dense beans.

Light-roast sourness on the Pro, by temperature

My taste scores, where 10 is very sour.

Our tip: Light roasts need heat, so raise the temperature before you blame the grinder on the Pro or Touch.

Milk drinks

Milk is where these three split most clearly.

The Express has a manual wand with a single-hole tip. Steam arrived in about 15 seconds, and it’s gentle, which gave me time to find the whirlpool. By week three, I could pour a heart most mornings. For two or three drinks in a row, though, it felt slow.

The Pro has a four-hole tip and strong, dry steam within seconds. A 6-ounce jug took about 30 seconds and came out glossy, like wet paint. It’s one of the easiest all-in-ones I’ve used for latte art, once you learn not to overshoot the temperature.

The Touch steams milk on its own. A sensor in the drip tray stops the steam at your set temperature, with eight texture levels. Level 3 at 140°F made fine microfoam✕MicrofoamMilk foam with bubbles so small you can barely see them. It feels silky and glossy, and it’s what you need for latte art. good enough for hearts and simple tulips.

The Pro’s four-hole tip builds a whirlpool in seconds.

Seconds to steam about 6 oz of cold milk

My timings. On the Touch, you’re free to clean up while it steams.

My milk drink ratings

From the single reviews.

Our tip: Use a smaller jug while you learn on the Pro, because its strong steam heats a big jug unevenly at the bottom.

Hot water and americanos

All three have a dedicated hot water outlet, so none of them forces water through the coffee for a long drink.

On the Express, you turn the right-hand dial to hot water. The Pro’s spout delivered a smooth, steady stream that didn’t spit or sputter like older models. The Touch has an Americano preset that brews and adds water automatically.

For a long black✕Long blackA double espresso pulled on top of hot water. It keeps more crema than an americano, where the water goes in after the shot. on any of them, I poured water first and pulled the shot on top. The water on all three suits green and herbal tea better than strong black tea.

Our tip: Warm your cup with the hot water outlet while the portafilter flushes, so both are ready at the same time.

Cleaning and upkeep

Daily habits are the same on all three: knock out the puck, rinse the basket, flush the group head and wipe the steam wand straight after milk.

The differences are in the details. The Express purges more water after steaming, which fills its drip tray faster on milk-heavy mornings, though its tray is large with a red float. The Pro’s purge uses much less water. The Touch’s automatic purge goes into its small tray, which I emptied daily.

The Pro’s four tiny steam holes clog fast if milk dries on them, so I purged and wiped immediately every time. All three prompt you to backflush✕BackflushingRunning water backwards through the group head with a blank disc and a cleaning tablet in the basket, to dissolve coffee oils. with a tablet; the Touch also guides descaling on screen.

Daily hands-on cleaning, two milk drinks

My estimates from the single reviews.

Our tip: Keep one damp towel for the steam wand and one dry towel for the basket, whichever machine you choose.

Water, beans and supplies

All three have a 67-ounce tank at the back and use the same Breville charcoal filters, cleaning tablets and descaler. The Pro and Touch warn you when water is low; the Express doesn’t, so I checked it every morning.

For water, the Specialty Coffee Association’s brewing standard aims for about 150 ppm of total dissolved solids. Very hard water scales the narrow ThermoJet channels faster, so the filter matters even more on the Pro and Touch.

Espressos per 67 oz tank

Rough maths allowing for blank shots and purging.

Our tip: Write the grind number on each coffee bag once it’s dialed in, so the next bag of the same beans starts in the right place.

Mistakes I made, and how to avoid them

Each of these machines taught me a lesson in week one. Here’s how to skip straight to week two.

On the Express, I judged the grinder before moving the inner burr, and almost blamed the machine for shots that were really a setup issue. On the Pro, my first shot every morning ran two to four seconds faster than the second until I added two blank shots. On the Touch, I trusted the timed presets and my shots wandered by several seconds, until I switched to manual mode and stopped by weight.

None of these took more than a day to fix, and all three machines became predictable once I had.

Our tip: Change one setting at a time on any of the three, and taste after each change, so you always know what helped.

Real-life scenarios

These are the moments where one of the three clearly pulled ahead.

For milk drinkers who want it easy, the Touch is the one to share.

My scorecard

These are my own scores out of 10, from my single reviews of each machine. I added speed and learning value because they separate the three most clearly.

Barista Express

Barista Pro

Barista Touch

Overall, I rate the Express 8.0, the Pro 8.5 and the Touch 8.4. The Pro is the best all-rounder; the Touch is the easiest; the Express is the best teacher.

Which one should you buy?

Start with the milk. If you want it steamed for you, buy the Touch. If you want to steam by hand, choose between the Express and the Pro based on how much speed and temperature control are worth to you. For the wider picture beyond this matchup, see my guide to the best Breville espresso machines.

For the two-way versions of this choice, see my Barista Express vs Barista Pro, Barista Pro vs Barista Touch and Barista Express vs Barista Touch comparisons. If tamping worries you, read Barista Touch vs Touch Impress.

For most people who steam their own milk, the Pro is the sweet spot.

Barista Express vs Pro vs Touch specifications

From manufacturer specifications and my own testing.

How I tested and compared them

I used each machine as my everyday espresso maker for four weeks, for espresso, americanos, long blacks, cappuccinos, flat whites and lattes. The notes were written up together by Michael Reynolds and the HouseholdMe team.

I weighed every dose and yield on a 0.1-gram scale, logged shot times daily, mapped every grind range with light, medium and dark roasts, tested temperature settings and timed heat-up, steam and full drink routines.

I steamed whole, semi-skimmed, skim and oat milk, ran every cleaning routine and checked my notes against Breville’s specifications and owner documentation.

• Coffee: dose, yield, crema, body and roast range.
• Milk: steam power, texture, latte art and automatic milk.
• Workflow: heat-up, controls, feedback and drink timings.
• Ownership: cleaning, water care, footprint and warranty.