Breville Bambino Plus vs. Barista Express: Built-In Grinder or Buy Your Own?
Breville Bambino Plus vs. Barista Express: Built-In Grinder or Buy Your Own?
Both of these are Breville machines, both show up constantly in the same “which espresso machine should I buy” threads, and both get recommended on this site — just never against each other, directly, until now. The Bambino Plus ($499.95) is this site’s own Best Overall pick under $500, and it ships with no grinder at all. The Barista Express ($699.95) costs $200 more and solves that problem by building a grinder into the machine itself. That’s the entire decision, reduced to its simplest form — but “the entire decision” has more real tradeoffs packed into it than the price tags alone show.
The Spec Comparison
| Breville Bambino Plus | Breville Barista Express (BES870) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $499.95 | $699.95 (Breville’s own standing price; retailers commonly show $549.95-$681.20 — see note below) |
| Portafilter | 54mm | 54mm |
| Heating | ThermoJet (fast-recovery, ~3 sec to temp) | Thermocoil, with genuine PID temperature control |
| Pump | 9-bar extraction | 15-bar pump, with low-pressure pre-infusion before a 9-bar extraction |
| Steam wand | Automatic texturing mode + full manual mode | Manual only (no auto-texture mode) |
| Grinder | Not included | Built-in conical burr, 16 settings, with dosing funnel + Razor trimming tool |
| Warranty | 2-year limited (confirmed via Breville’s own terms) | Not stated on Breville’s current product page — confirm before buying, don’t assume it matches the Bambino Plus |
| Footprint | 11.9” x 7.4” x 14.3” | 15.9” x 13.1” x 12.4” — noticeably larger, mostly to accommodate the hopper and grinder |
A real finding worth naming up front, since it cuts against the obvious assumption: the Barista Express actually ships with genuine manufacturer PID temperature control, confirmed directly on Breville’s own product page — a spec the Bambino Plus does not have. That’s not how these two machines usually get talked about (the Bambino Plus is this site’s “best overall” pick, so it’s tempting to assume it wins every spec), but it’s real, and it’s the kind of thing this site’s own “show the math, not just the reputation” standard means we don’t get to skip.
On the $699.95 price specifically: that’s Breville’s own listed standing price, and per this site’s standing rule against citing a sale price as if it were the regular one, that’s the number used throughout this piece’s math. Worth knowing: third-party retailers (Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, per aggregated current listings) commonly show this machine anywhere from $549.95 to $681.20 — a wider spread than most gear on this site shows between manufacturer and retailer pricing. If you’re actually shopping, check current retailer pricing directly; the math below uses the standing $699.95 figure specifically because that’s the number that won’t disappear when a sale ends.
The Honest All-In Cost
This is the comparison that actually matters, and it’s the same methodology Best Espresso Machine $500-750 already uses to compare the Gaggia Classic Pro and KitchenAid KES6551 against the Bambino Plus — price the grinder in on both sides, because a machine without one isn’t really priced at its sticker number.
Bambino Plus + a Real Grinder vs. Barista Express, All-In
That $50.05 gap is genuinely small — and it lands almost exactly where the Gaggia Classic Pro + Encore ($698.95) and the KitchenAid KES6551 ($699.99) already sit in our Best Espresso Machine $500-750 guide. All three “go over $500” options converge on roughly the same real all-in number once a grinder is priced in on every side — which tells you the premium for “more than the Bambino Plus” is consistently about $50, regardless of which specific upgrade you’re buying (a 58mm boiler machine, a built-in grinder, or this one). That’s not a coincidence worth hand-waving past; it’s a genuinely useful thing to know before you shop this tier at all.
Breakeven, using this site’s standard assumptions (5 café-equivalent drinks/week, 48 weeks/year, $6.50/drink café baseline, $1.25/drink home ongoing cost — see How Much You’ll Save Making Coffee at Home):
| All-in cost | Breakeven vs. café habit | |
|---|---|---|
| Bambino Plus + Baratza Encore | $649.90 | ~5.5 months |
| Barista Express (grinder included) | $699.95 | ~6 months |
Half a month’s difference in breakeven. The real decision here isn’t about money — it’s about the three things below.
Difference #1: The Steam Wand
The Bambino Plus’s automatic milk-texturing mode — pick a temperature and foam level, press the button, walk away — is genuinely the bigger beginner-friendliness advantage of the two machines, and it’s easy to undersell next to the grinder conversation. The Barista Express’s steam wand is manual only; you’re learning to texture milk by hand from day one, the same learning curve our $500 Home Café Setup guide describes as “genuinely learnable in a few weeks, not a professional-only skill” — but it is a real curve, and the Bambino Plus skips it entirely if you want.
Difference #2: Grinder Quality, Not Just Grinder Convenience
This is the comparison the Barista Express’s own built-in grinder doesn’t win outright, and our own BES870 dialing-in guide already documents why, independently of this piece — real findings from that research, cited here rather than repeated verbatim:
- Retention is a known issue. The built-in grinder’s chute and chamber hold onto ground coffee between uses more than a dedicated standalone grinder does; some owners report needing to vacuum out trapped grounds when changing settings.
- Burr alignment sometimes needs manual adjustment — documented as “an intended part of operating the machine” by independent troubleshooting sources (Seattle Coffee Gear, among others), not a sign of a defective unit, but still a real maintenance step a standalone grinder doesn’t ask of you.
- Unit-to-unit variability is a real, reported pattern — your specific machine’s grinder may not behave identically to someone else’s, meaning you establish your own dial-in from scratch regardless of what settings someone else recommends.
Against that, the Baratza Encore side of the Bambino Plus pairing brings 40mm conical steel burrs across 40 discrete settings — a wider, more granular range than the built-in grinder’s 16 — and it’s the grinder Best Burr Grinders for Every Budget calls the one “most people won’t feel the need to replace later.” The honest read: the Barista Express’s built-in grinder is genuinely good enough to make real espresso, and it’s a real convenience win (one box, one footprint, zero separate grinder research) — it is not, however, the better-specified grinder of the two paths, and anyone who already knows they’ll eventually want to upgrade the grinder anyway is arguably better off starting with the Encore from day one rather than replacing a built-in unit later.
Difference #3: One Box vs. Two
The Barista Express is a single purchase, a single footprint, and nothing left to research once you’ve decided on the machine. The Bambino Plus + Encore path is two purchases, two footprints, and a second research decision (which grinder) layered on top of the first (which machine). If “I don’t want to make a second decision” is worth something to you, that’s a real, legitimate reason to pay the Barista Express’s $50 premium — it’s the same logic our $500-750 guide applies to the KitchenAid KES6551 against this exact Bambino-Plus-plus-Encore baseline, and it holds here too.
Who Should Buy Which
Buy the Bambino Plus (+ a standalone grinder) if:
- You want the single best beginner-friendly steam wand of the two, full stop — the automatic mode is a real advantage the Barista Express doesn’t have at any price.
- You’re comfortable researching and buying a grinder as a second, deliberate decision, rather than accepting whatever’s built into the machine.
- You want the wider, more granular grind range the Encore’s 40 settings give you over the built-in grinder’s 16.
Buy the Barista Express if:
- You want one box, one footprint, and nothing left to decide once the machine arrives.
- Genuine manufacturer PID temperature control matters to you more than automatic milk texturing does — a real, if underrated, spec win for this machine.
- You’re fine learning manual steaming from day one, and you’d rather spend your “convenience budget” on not shopping for a grinder than on automatic milk texturing.
Neither is a wrong purchase. The honest finding here is that the real gap between them, once a grinder is priced in on both sides, is about $50 and half a month of breakeven — small enough that the decision should be made on the three differences above, not on sticker price alone.
FAQ
Is the Barista Express’s built-in grinder as good as a separate grinder like the Baratza Encore?
Good enough to make real, good espresso — not as well-specified. The built-in grinder has 16 settings against the Encore’s 40, and our own BES870 dialing-in guide documents real, independently-sourced limitations (grounds retention, occasional burr-alignment needs, unit-to-unit variability) that a dedicated standalone grinder doesn’t have in the same way. It’s a convenience tradeoff, not a flaw that makes the machine a bad buy.
Does the Bambino Plus or Barista Express make better espresso?
Shot quality is closer between these two than the price gap suggests — both use a 54mm portafilter, and the Barista Express’s genuine PID control is arguably a real edge the Bambino Plus doesn’t have. The bigger practical differences are the steam wand (automatic on the Bambino Plus, manual-only on the Barista Express) and the grinder (none included vs. built-in), not raw shot quality.
Which one is better for a first-time espresso machine buyer?
The Bambino Plus, if automatic milk texturing matters to you and you don’t mind a second grinder decision. The Barista Express, if you’d rather not make that second decision at all and are fine learning to steam milk by hand from day one. Both are genuinely beginner-appropriate machines; this isn’t a “one is for beginners, one isn’t” situation.
Why does the Barista Express cost $200 more than the Bambino Plus if the grinder’s not even better?
Because you’re not just paying for grinder quality — you’re paying to not have to shop for a grinder at all, plus genuine PID control the Bambino Plus lacks. Priced honestly (Bambino Plus plus the Encore this site already recommends), the real gap shrinks to about $50, not $200 — see “The Honest All-In Cost” above.
Should I just buy the Barista Express and skip buying a separate grinder entirely?
If you want the simplest possible path to a working setup, yes — it’s a genuinely capable machine as-is. If you already suspect you’ll want to upgrade the grinder eventually (chasing finer consistency, lower retention, or a single-dose workflow), our BES870 dialing-in guide covers exactly what to buy when that day comes, including both electric and manual upgrade paths.
Pair It With
For the full standalone buying case on each machine on its own terms, see Best Espresso Machine Under $500 (Bambino Plus) and our dedicated Breville Barista Express Review. If you already own a Barista Express and are past the “should I buy this” question, the BES870 dialing-in guide is the next stop, and Best Burr Grinders for Every Budget covers the Encore pairing in full.