Best Cappuccino Maker

Quick answer: The best cappuccino maker is the Breville Bambino Plus.

While you can make a cappuccino with any espresso machine with a steam wand, lots of espresso machines are pretty terrible at steaming milk. 

So while your “plain” espressos will be nice, your cappuccinos will suck.

In this roundup of the best cappuccino makers, I’m going to run through the espresso machines that I’ve found to produce the best-foamed milk and which allows you to make a cappuccino with as little work or practice as possible.

I’m also going to give my recommendations on some super-automatic espresso machines that allow you to make a cappuccino with just one button press.

My recommended machines are:

• Best overall: Breville Bambino Plus
• Budget pick: Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista
• Best for one-touch cappuccinos: Philips 2200 LatteGo
• Best regardless of price: Breville Oracle Touch

In addition to reviewing these machines, I’m also going to explain why I don’t recommend the popular Gaggia Classic Pro and Delonghi ECP range to cappuccino drinkers.

Top Picks

Best Overall: Breville Bambino Plus

Cappuccino Quality

The Breville Bambino Plus can make a coffee shop quality cappuccino.

This is demonstrated in this video where a barista makes a better cappuccino with the Breville Bambino (the direct downgrade of the Bambino Plus) than someone using a high-end commercial espresso machine.

What’s more, the Bambino Plus can make near-coffee shop quality cappuccino without you needing to manually froth milk. 

Just put its automatic steam wand on medium temperature and maximum texture, and you can make a 90% perfect cappuccino (your steamed milk won’t be quite as uniform in texture if you use it manually, but it won’t be far off).

Cappuccino Quality Rating: 9/10

Drink Customizability

The Breville Bambino Plus gives you three automatic milk textures and temperatures. All other customizations need to be done manually.

Most of Bambino Plus’s users online tend to prefer setting their steam wand on its thickest texture setting and middle temperature for a cappuccino.

The Bambino’s steam wand can also be used in manual mode, which will allow you limitless customizations once you learn how to brew espresso and steam milk.

Its cappuccino’s strength is completely determined by how much espresso you brew and how much milk you steam.

Drink Customizability Rating: 7/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Breville Bambino Plus requires you to dose and tamp a portafilter for every drink you make. Its steam wand is quicker to clean than a milk frother, however.

There is a bit of skill involved in dosing up a portafilter, but you can remove this learning curve by using the machine’s pressurized portafilter baskets. This prevents your espresso from under-extracting if you tamp poorly.

The most annoying thing about using a portafilter is that you’ll have to knock out your puck and clean it out after you make your cappuccino.

Super-automatic espresso machines – like the Philips 2200 LatteGo, for example, don’t require you to do this.

That being said, the Bambino Plus’s steam wand is much easier to clean than the milk frother found on the Philips or Mr. Coffee cappuccino machines. All it requires is a quick wipe down, rather than a full-on rinse out.

Ease of Use and Cleaning Rating: 7/10

Design and Durability

The Breville Bambino Plus is compact and smartly designed. It’s not the most durable cappuccino maker, however. Don’t expect it to last longer than 4-5 years.

The Bambino Plus uses a thermojet heating system to power its brewing unit and steam wand. 

These tend to deteriorate after 4-5 years of regular use and cannot be replaced.

Other than that the Bambino Plus is smartly designed and ergonomic. 

Design and Durability Rating: 7/10

Value for Money

The Breville Bambino Plus outperforms many cappuccino makers twice its price.

It offers exceptionally good value for money, especially when you consider that it’s only slightly harder to use than a super-automatic espresso machine. 

Super-automatics start at around the same price as the Bambino Plus and produce a far inferior cappuccino to it.

Value for Money Rating: 10/10

Breville Bambino Plus Pros

• Can make café quality cappuccino.
• Allows you to froth milk hands free or manually.
• Can make a very good plain espresso shot as well as a cappuccino.

Breville Bambino Plus Cons

• You need to dose up a portafilter before every shot.

Budget Pick: Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista

Cappuccino Quality

The Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista can make a passable cappuccino. I’d be disappointed if I got served it in a coffee shop.

Its main problem is that its steamed milk doesn’t have a uniform texture.

While the top of your drink will be nice and foamy, the bottom will just be coffee and hot (but untextured) milk.

Just to reiterate, the Cafe Barista’s cappuccinos aren’t terrible. They’re just quite a bit off what you would get in a coffee shop (or what you’d get from the Breville Bambino Plus or Oracle Touch).

Cappuccino Quality Rating: 6/10

Drink Customizability

The Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista has two automatic cappuccino sizes. You don’t get much customizability beyond that.

These two sizes are 6oz and 10oz.

While the espresso machine’s milk frother does have a dial to adjust its texture, this only acts as a toggle between either hot milk or foamed milk. The hot milk option is for a latte, with the foamed milk for a cappuccino. 

You don’t have much scope for adjustment between these two textures – the toggle opens and shuts a valve.

Drink Customizability Rating: 5/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista requires you to load up a portafilter before every cappuccino you make.

Like the Bambino Plus, this means that you’ll need to clean out your portafilter after you brew your drink.

It uses an automatic milk frother that can detach from the machine. You can see a video of it in action here (watch from 20:05 – 21:15).

You clean the milk frother by filling it up with soapy water and having it run a clean cycle. This will push the soapy water through its milk system. You’ll then need to run another milk cycle to rinse out the soapy water.

This is far, far more time-consuming than wiping down a steam wand. 

Ease of Use and Cleaning: 5/10

Design and Durability

The Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista is cheap feeling and not all the fun to use. It should last you a long time, however.

The espresso machine has a low external build quality. This negatively affects the machine’s usability. 

Locking in its portafilter and removing/reattaching its milk system is fiddly as everything feels flimsy.

The machine is decently durable, and will likely outlast the Breville Bambino Plus because of its more simplistic internal build (it doesn’t have as delicate a heating system, for example).

Mr. Coffee’s espresso machines are a regular on r/buyitforlife, a subreddit dedicated to durable hardware. You can find two threads dedicated to it here and here (neither is this exact model, however).

Design and Durability: 6/10

Value for Money

The Mr. Coffee is the most affordable espresso machine with reliable milk steaming capabilities.

If you’re not a coffee snob and want something that will get the job done as cheaply as possible, then it’s going to be a solid purchase.

Value for Money Rating: 9/10

Mr. Coffee Café Barista Pros

• Way cheaper than any other cappuccino maker featured here.
• Likely to have a longer lifespan than the Breville Bambino Plus.

Mr. Coffee Café Barista Cons

• It won’t produce the best textured cappuccino.
• It feels cheap and flimsy to use.

Best for One Touch Cappuccinos: Philips 2200 LatteGo

Cappuccino Quality

The Philips 2200 LatteGo will produce a good, but not outstanding cappuccino.

The machine uses a milk frother rather than a steam wand, so your drink’s texture won’t be as uniform as what you’d get with the Breville Bambino Plus or Breville Oracle Touch.

Still, this milk texture problem isn’t as bad as with the Mr Coffee Cafe Barista. The Philips  2200 LatteGo’s cappuccino quality is about halfway between these two machines.

Cappuccino Quality Rating: 7/10

Drink Customizability

The Philips 3200 LatteGo gives you three strength settings and three texture settings for your cappuccino.

The machine also has 12 grind settings which you can also play around with – this will affect your cappuccino’s flavor balance.

While you don’t have quite the granularity of control over your drink as you would with the Bambino Plus, it’s far easier to make these strength and texture changes with the Philips 2200.

All you have to do to make these customizations is to press a couple of buttons, rather than change the way that you manually brew your cappuccino.

Drink Customizability Rating: 8/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Philips 2200 LatteGo is the easiest of my recommended cappuccino makers to use and clean.

All you need to do to make a cappuccino is load the machine up with coffee beans and press a button.

It’s easy to clean too. It has an automatic rinse cycle for its espresso brewing unit. Then all you need to do to finish cleaning is remove its milk carafe and put it in the dishwasher.

Ease of Use and Cleaning: 10/10

Design and Durability

The Philips 2200 LatteGo will generally last you around 4-5 years. A similar amount of time to the Breville Bambino Plus.

The espresso maker’s exterior is very plastic-heavy. 

While it doesn’t feel anywhere near as flimsy as the Mr Coffee, if having a solid-feeling machine is important you’ll be disappointed with the Philips 2200.

Still, the machine is likely to have a decent lifespan of around five years – similar to the (admittedly slightly cheaper) Breville Bambino Plus.

Design and Durability: 6/10

Value for Money

The Philips 2200 Lattego is the most affordable super-automatic espresso machine that has a cappuccino function.

Add this to the fact that it can steam milk to a higher quality than most super automatics (including those made by Delonghi) and this makes the Philips 2200 LatteGo an excellent deal for cappuccino drinkers.

Value for Money Rating: 8/10

Philips 2200 LatteGo Pros

• Can make a cappuccino with one button press and minimal clean up afterwards.
• It produces a better milk texture than most super automatic espresso machines.

Philips 2200 LatteGo Cons

• Makes worse cappuccino than the Breville Bambino Plus, despite being more expensive than it.

Best Regardless of Price: Breville Oracle Touch

Cappuccino Quality

The Breville Oracle Touch can make a coffee shop-quality cappuccino.

It uses a steam wand, so it can make evenly textured milk.

The Breville Oracle Touch has a larger, more powerful steam wand than the Bambino Plus. This allows you to produce that drier, denser foam that you typically associate with a cappuccino.

No other domestic machine makes getting this milk texture as easy as the Oracle Touch.

Cappuccino Quality Rating: 10/10

Drink Customizability

The Breville Oracle Touch lets you customize every aspect of your drink, and save up to 13 preset recipes.

The Oracle Touch lets you customize your cappuccinos:

• Size
• Coffee to milk ratio
• Temperature (to the nearest one degree Fahrenheit)
• Texture (to one of nine settings)

You can control all of this with its touch screen. No need to learn any brewing or milk-steaming techniques.

Drink Customization Rating: 10/10

Ease of Use and Cleaning

The Breville Oracle Touch automates every aspect of your espresso brewing, you just need to move the portafilter from the grinder to the brew unit.

The machine will grind your beans, doses your portafilter, tamp your puck, and steam your milk for you.

Its steam wand works the same as the Bambino Plus, you just need to select a temperature and texture and put the wand in the milk jug. You can also steam your milk manually if you want even greater control over your milk’s texture.

The only way that the Oracle Touch is more work to use than the Philips 2200 LatteGo is that you need to knock your coffee puck out of your portafilter and clean it out afterward.

Ease of Use and Cleaning Rating: 9/10

Design and Durability

All the Oracle Touch’s parts are well thought out and made.

This makes the machine a joy to use.

The Breville Oracle Touch uses a double boiler heating system, rather than a thermojet. This means that it does not have the Bambino Plus’s durability issues.

Design and Durability Rating: 9/10

Value for Money

The Breville Oracle Touch is very expensive. I don’t think it offers amazing value for money because it’s not easy to open up and repair/replace parts.

Most espresso machines in the Oracle Touch’s price bracket have buy-it-for-life potential. The Oracle Touch doesn’t.

Even though it’s the easiest espresso machine to make a cappuccino with, I don’t think it offers great value for money because it lacks the longevity to justify its huge price tag.

Value for Money Rating: 5/10

Breville Oracle Touch Pros

• Makes the best cappuccino of all machines featured here.
• Allows you to make whatever cappuccino recipe you want with just a few button presses.
• Has the highest build quality of all the machines featured here.

Breville Oracle Touch Cons

• Far more expensive than any other machine featured here.

Ones to Avoid: Gaggia Classic Pro and Delonghi ECP3420/3630

I wouldn’t recommend the Gaggia Classic Pro or Delonghi ECP3420/3460 espresso machines to someone looking for a cappuccino maker as these machines have particularly poor milk steaming capabilities.

Both machines have small steam boilers, meaning that you have too low a steaming pressure to properly roll your milk around for a consistent temperature.

Delonghi’s ECP models are particularly bad for this. They often run out of steam before your milk is even at a drinking temperature.

What to Ask Yourself When Buying a Cappuccino Maker?

Here are the questions to ask yourself when selecting the best cappuccino maker.

How Much Do You Want to Pay?

Cappuccino makers range from around $200 to over $2,000. You pay a premium for an easier workflow and customizations, but not necessarily for better cappuccino quality.

Paying more usually gives you the following:

• Easier workflow: Cheaper cappuccino makers usually require you to dose and tamp your ground coffee in a removable portafilter, which you then need to clean after brewing. More expensive machines do this automatically. 

• More automated customizations: More expensive cappuccino makers make the process of adjusting your drink’s strength or milk texture easily. Expensive machines allow you to do this with a button press, with cheaper machines relying on your manual espresso preparation or milk steaming technique to make these changes.

• A nicer user interface: More expensive cappuccino makers often have touchscreen control panels. Cheaper machines have more rudimentary dials and buttons.

The big take home here is that you can save yourself a lot of money if you’re willing to learn how to brew the espresso part of your cappuccino manually. 

Manual brewing tends to produce a tastier cappuccino as well, especially if you like the drink to have a strong coffee flavor.

I think that the best value-for-money cappuccino maker is the Breville Bambino Plus.

How Much Effort Do You Want to Put Into Brewing Your Espresso?

Cappuccino makers vary in how much effort you need to put into brewing your espresso.

All the machines recommended here have automatic milk steaming.

They vary in how much work you have to do to brew the espresso part of your cappuccino. You’ll either have to:

• Press a button and your machine will immediately squirt out your espresso and frothed milk.

• Remove your portafilter from the machine’s grinder and attach it to its brew head. The biggest effort here is dumping out your used coffee puck after your espresso shot has been pulled.

• Dose and tamp your grind coffee and attach your portafilter to your espresso machine. There’s a bit of skill to this, and a bit of mess potential. If you use pressurized portafilter baskets (which both the Breville Bambino Plus and Mr Coffee Cafe Barista have) then this dramatically reduces the importance of tamp precision.

The table below shows the effort involved in making a cappuccino with the machines featured in this article:

If you want the lowest-effort cappuccino then go with the Philips 2200 LatteGo.

Milk Frother vs Steam Wand?

You’ll need a steam wand to get a cappuccino resembling what you’d get in a cafe or if you want to make latte art.

Although steam wands are generally harder to use than a milk frother (the latter just involves pressing a button), the cappuccino machines I’ve recommended here all have automatic steam wands which removes any real learning curve to them.

I really can’t see any situation where a milk frother would be preferable to an automated steam wand. 

Just be aware that an espresso machine with a steam wand (automatic or otherwise) will tend to also have a portafilter, meaning that you can’t make a cappuccino with just the touch of a button.

The table below shows whether the cappuccino makers recommended in this article have a milk frother or steam wand:

The Breville Oracle Touch and the Breville Bambino Plus are the cappuccino makers that will give you the best milk texture.

Are You Going To Mainly Be Drinking Flavored Cappuccinos?

No judgment here, but if you’re going to drink flavored cappuccino then there’s no point in paying a premium for a superior espresso brewing system.

With espresso machines, you often have to pay a large premium for very small gains in espresso quality.

If you then mix this espresso with frothed milk and syrups you won’t be able to taste the difference in the base espresso.

You’re better off saving yourself money and going for a cheaper espresso brewing system. 

That’s why if you’re going to drink flavored cappuccino I’d recommend the Philips 2200 LatteGo as it sacrifices a small amount of espresso quality to be as easy to use as possible.

Best Cappuccino Maker: Final Verdict

The best cappuccino maker is the Breville Bambino Plus.

For more information on this machine, please see my comparison of the Breville Bambino vs Breville Bambino Plus.
If you want to make espresso as well as cappuccino, please see my roundup of the best espresso machine for beginners.

Best Cappuccino Maker FAQs

Here are some questions that people ask when looking for the best cappuccino maker.