7 Best Cheap Coffee Makers in 2024

This is a review of the best cheap coffee makers. Read on to see more.

I want to have the best-tasting coffee at the lowest price. That inspired me to build this guide to help us find the best machines to suit our preferences.

I went with the Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ as the best overall because it’ll brew coffee quickly and requires minimal cleanup. Making it perfect for folks who are always in a rush, yet want great-tasting coffee.

Nespresso Vertuo Pop+: Best Overall

• Price: $$$
• Dimensions: 14 × 8.6 × 10.4 in (D, W, H)
• Water Capacity: 20.2 fl oz = 4 cups
• Coffee Maker Type: Capsule coffee maker
• Material: Plastic
• Carafe Material: N/A
• Warranty: 1 year

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You may not want to deal with capsules. Consider one of the other options on this list.

Dive deeper to unveil your perfect coffee machine.

Best Affordable Coffee Machines

1. Nespresso Vertuo Pop+: Top pick
2. Keurig K-Compact: Best for beginners
3. OXO Pour-over: Best for single-serve coffee
4. Hamilton Beach 2-Way: Best capsule maker
5. Bonavita 5 Cup Drip Coffee Maker Machine: Best for drip coffee
6. Mr. Coffee Steam Espresso: Best for espresso
7. Bialetti Moka Pot: Best maker, UK

Best Affordable Coffee Machines

The following sections will provide bite-sized reviews of each coffee maker to help you determine whether it’s worth getting. I’ll cover each machine’s specs, pros and cons, and other relevant information.

Keep other expenses such as coffee beans and electricity in mind when shopping for machines. I did what I could to help minimize expenses as much as possible while maximizing taste. I’ll provide more tips on buying more affordable machines toward the end of this piece.

Let’s dive into the first pick.

1. Nespresso Vertuo Pop+: Best Overall

Price *	$$$
Dimensions	14 × 8.6 × 10.4 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity	20.2 fl oz = 4 cups
Coffee Maker Type	Capsule coffee maker
Material	Plastic
Carafe Material	N/A
Warranty	1 year

The Nespresso Vertuo Pop+ works best for anyone who wants to brew black coffee and espresso quickly. It’s also a boon for those who don’t want to waste time cleaning their machine.

You insert a capsule, press a button, and bam. It brews an espresso in seconds. It’s the perfect fit for people craving quality coffee quickly.

The Pop’s wide coffee variety and superior brewing technology justify the price.

The variety comes from its use of Vertuo pods. Original line machines use Original pods (the smaller ones), which only brew espresso. These brew espresso and black coffee.

This Nespresso model doesn’t include a milk frother, a tool you’d use to froth/steam milk for lattes and cappuccinos. You must buy a separate milk frother to achieve this.

I recommend getting an Aeroccino, which is Nespresso’s automatic milk frother. It’ll do all the work for you but at a cost. You’d save a lot of money, but put in more work by getting a mini immersion blender.

The machine heats up in less than a minute, brews in about a minute, and powers off after 2 minutes. Making it perfect for anyone who wants a quick cup of coffee and doesn’t want to bother with their machines. 

Students and office workers come to mind with this use case.

You can’t program the machine to power on automatically. You’d need to buy a smart plug that’ll power on the machine at a set time. Nespresso (unfortunately) doesn’t sell these.

Do you see how I mentioned “Bluetooth” in the pros?

Connect the Pop to the Nespresso app via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to get notifications on when to clean or descale your machine. That’ll eliminate guesswork with maintenance, but why not add features like programmability or temperature control?

If you’re not the biggest fan of Nespresso machines, check out an alternative pick.

2. Keurig K-Compact: Most Beginner-Friendly

Price *	$$
Dimensions	13.2 × 7 × 12.5 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	36 fl oz = 6 cups
Coffee Maker Type	Capsule coffee maker
Material	Plastic
Carafe Material	NA
Warranty	1 year

The Keurig K-Compact is an excellent choice for anyone who wants a compact machine and doesn’t mind a lack of control over brewing strength.

A capsule coffee maker transforms small pods into tasty coffee. Pop a capsule in, push start, and get a freshly brewed cup instantly.

It’s perfect for those who value speed and ease over experimenting with different brewing methods.

Considering the Keurig K-Compact, it’s worth every penny. It delivers quick, quality coffee at an affordable price point.

Despite its size, the Compact accommodates 6-, 8-, and 10 oz cup sizes. Or remove the drip tray for easy cleaning and to fit a travel mug under it. The water reservoir is also removable, which makes it easy to clean and refill.

So long as you don’t have cabinets over the machine. Because you must reach both hands behind the machine to grab the tank. Moreover, it doesn’t provide any handles on the reservoir for a better grip. Bad for folks with wrist pain or butter fingers.

The machine will take around 4 minutes to preheat, 1 minute to brew, and about a minute to reheat [1]. It’ll take you around 5 minutes to make your first drink; and 7 to make a second. Not bad compared to drip coffee makers, which could take up to 15 minutes to brew.

Once you finish brewing, the machine will power off after a couple of hours.

I wish it had a strong brew button like other Keurig models. This feature brews coffee slower to extract more flavor.

Don’t want to deal with capsules at all? The next pick is an excellent alternative.

3. OXO Pour-over: Best Cheap Single-Serve Coffee Maker

Price *	$
Dimensions	5.25 × 5.25 × 5.25 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	12 fl oz = 2 6-fl oz cups
Coffee Maker Type	Manual pour-over
Material	Ceramic & plastic
Carafe Material	NA
Warranty	2 years

The OXO Pour-over coffee maker is best for anyone wanting an affordable pour-over coffee maker that’ll automate a bit of manual pour-over coffee-making.

You pour hot water over coffee grounds housed in a paper filter. As water drips through, it extracts flavors directly into your cup, creating a fresh, robust brew.

Ideal for those seeking refined taste and hands-on brewing. 

Regarding the OXO Pour-over, it’s worth the investment. Superior design ensures consistent extraction and heat retention.

The water tank removes the guesswork of how much water to add to your coffee maker but gives you less control regarding the pouring technique. Something that could impact flavor extraction. That’s no problem. Remove the tank on days you want more control.

Keep it on when you feel lazy.

The pour-over maker uses a flat-bottomed design, which makes the device easier to clean and extracts flavor evenly. Resulting in an easier-to-clean coffee maker and a more flavorful drink.

The base—where the filter and beans go—is ceramic, which’ll retain heat better than glass or plastic. However, the water tank and lid is plastic. You’ll need to practice caution when using these to avoid breaking them.

Since it won’t withstand wear and tear well.

Before we go, it’ll take (on average) around 2 minutes for the water tank to empty the water over the coffee grounds. It’ll help you automate pour-over coffee making without electricity.

I might have strayed too far from capsule makers. Here’s an automatic coffee maker that doesn’t use pods.

4. Hamilton Beach 2-Way: Best Affordable Coffee Maker with No Pods

Price *	$$
Dimensions	10.63 × 12.20 × 13.70 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	12 cups
Coffee Maker Type	Drip coffee maker
Material	Stainless steel
Carafe Material	Glass
Warranty	3 years

The Hamilton Beach 2-Way works best for folks who want to automate drip coffee making, yet want the options of single-serve and carafe brewing.

This drip coffee maker brews by pouring water over coffee grounds. The water seeps through, extracting flavors, into a carafe below.

The Hamilton Beach 2-Way is worth the investment. Its dual functionality offers versatility for single-serve or full-pot brewing.

Other Hamilton Beach machines I’ve covered don’t have backlights on their display screens, but this one does (kind of). It doesn’t remain on 24/7, but it’ll activate when tinkering with the machine’s buttons.

Meaning it’ll work fine in low-light areas.

When you’re ready to brew, select the single-serve or carafe option. From there, you have only one brew selection option, Bold. It’ll brew slower to extract more flavor from your beans. I don’t notice much of a difference, but taste is subjective.

If you’re not ready to brew now, program it to brew later. And after a couple of hours, it’ll automatically power off. Both features will help you automate drip coffee making.

The single-serve side has a separate filter area from the carafe. The reusable filter it includes doubles as a scoop, which could save you a split second on grabbing a separate tool. But you’ll need to clean it after every use.

After cleaning, ensure it’s dry before scooping coffee to ensure you don’t wet other beans in your bin.

You’ll need at least 4” of vertical clearance to open the water reservoir and filter area lids, which means this machine won’t fit under many standard wall cabinets. Then the water reservoir is located on the machine’s rear. You won’t find yourself accessing it when the filter slot’s lid is open.

And what if you want to see how much water is left in the tank? There’s a window; but it’s on the side. Impractical if you have other appliances surrounding it.

Most coffee maker manufacturers don’t make water reservoirs well. My complaints will echo on various machines.

However, the 2-Way doesn’t include water filtration like many coffee makers. You must use pre-filtered water to ensure your coffee has no chlorinated taste.

I recommend the 2-Way if you frequently switch between drinking from carafes and single cups. While it offers flexibility, it doesn’t offer the most consistent-tasting coffee. This next pick does, though.

5. Bonavita 5-Cup Drip Coffee Maker Machine: Best Cheap Drip Coffee Maker

Price *	$$$
Dimensions	12.3 × 6.2 × 10.6 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	5 cups
Coffee Maker Type	Drip coffee maker
Material	Casing: stainless steelReservoir: plastic
Carafe Material	Stainless steel
Warranty	2 years

The Bonavita 5-cup coffee maker is ideal for anyone who wants consistent-tasting coffee brewed with ideal temperatures and such.

There’s a lot to unwrap with the “consistent” aspect. We’ll come back to that in a second.

This machine brews coffee by dripping hot water over ground beans, gathered in a filter. Hot water percolates through, falling into a carafe.

It suits coffee enthusiasts valuing simplicity and consistency in their daily brew.

The Bonavita 5 Cup Drip Coffee Maker justifies its price. It offers dependable performance, rich taste, and precise temperature control.

SCA stands for Specialty Coffee Association. They’re a non-profit organization that strives to create a coffee community. They also put coffee makers through rigorous tests to ensure they brew optimal cups of coffee.

Some of what they measure include [2, 3]:

• Carafe temperature: Machine must maintain temperatures between 195 & 205 °F.
• Coffee clarity: Every 100 ml of coffee should have no more than 75 mg of sediment.
• Extraction uniformity: Should extract 18–22% of the coffee weight in the basket.
• Brewing temperature: Temperatures cannot exceed 205 °F.

It also suggests that coffee makers should include pre-infusion, and this one does. This feature saturates beans prior to brewing to ensure even flavor extraction, which further enhances your coffee’s taste.

It’s a shame there’s no warming plate. However, the carafe will keep your drink warm for a couple hours after brewing.

Prior to brewing, you must remove the grounds lid, then the carafe. Adding an extra step to your brewing.

You also can’t program it to brew at a specific time. Meaning Bonavita’s machine isn’t ideal for complete automation, but more so ideal for taste.

However, it is pretty flexible design-wise. In narrow areas, you could reposition the machine and have a window to see the remaining water in the reservoir. Though, you’ll have more difficulty accessing the side button.

If you prefer espresso, yet don’t want one of the capsule coffee makers I mentioned, consider the next pick.

6. Mr. Coffee Steam Espresso: Best Cheap Espresso Maker

Price *	$$
Dimensions	9.84 × 10.63 × 12.4 in (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	4 solo shots
Coffee Maker Type	Semi-automatic espresso maker
Material	Stainless steel & plastic
Carafe Material	NA
Warranty	1 year

The Mr. Coffee Steam Espresso machine is a fantastic choice for anyone who wants an espresso machine at a low cost.

This espresso maker is semi-automatic. You grind the coffee, measure it, and press it into the portafilter. Then, you start the machine. It stops when you choose, controlling the brew’s strength and flavor.

Ideal for enthusiasts craving customization with espresso, yet want a bit of automation. 

The Mr. Coffee Steam Espresso is worth investing in. It offers affordable, rich-tasting espresso and a user-friendly design.

Do you have a small kitchen or live in a tiny home? No problem. This coffee maker will fit in most cramped areas due to its small size. And unlike most machines, it doesn’t require a lot of vertical clearance to access the area where you add beans.

Since you’d add beans to the portafilter in the machine’s front.

But you must access the rear to add water. Something you must do frequently due to the tank’s small size. And the water tank isn’t removable. You must bring a pitcher to the machine whenever you want to refill it.

The manufacturer built most of the machines out of cheap plastic to cut costs. Most folks may notice a strange chemical smell emanating from the machine before opening. I recommend cleaning the machine and running a couple of cycles without coffee grounds to clean everything.

Don’t expect the highest quality steamed milk from the steam wand. It’s not flexible, which means you won’t have much control over your milk’s texture. A factor that’ll contribute to the milk’s overall taste and mouthfeel.

That’s irrelevant if you’re just looking for a machine that’ll make lattes and cappuccinos. Espresso makers with 360 ° steam wands will usually cost hundreds (or thousands) of dollars.

If you’re outside the US, this machine may not support your country’s plug sockets. Consider this next pick as an alternative.

7. Bialetti Moka Pot: Best Cheap Coffee Maker, UK

Price *	£
Dimensions	10 × 13.9 × 16.9 cm (D, W, H)
Water Capacity / Enough for	160 ml = 2 cups
Coffee Maker Type	Stovetop
Material	Aluminum & thermoplastic
Carafe Material	Thermal
Warranty	2 years

The Bialetti Moka Pot is the best choice for anyone in the United Kingdom because it doesn’t require a specific plug outlet to operate. You heat it with whatever stovetop your home has.

This stovetop coffee maker brews by forcing hot water, pressurized by steam, through ground coffee. Best suited for those who appreciate a strong, espresso-like coffee.

As for the Bialetti Moka Pot, it’s worth every penny. Perfect for connoisseurs valuing quality, traditional espresso, and lasting durability.

These machines can last over 10 years if you take care of them. And don’t place it in the dishwasher. As the detergents can cause the aluminum to corrode. Bialetti recommends washing it with only hot water and by hand.

The aluminum also poses another problem, you can’t use it on induction ovens due to its lack of magnetic properties. This specific oven type requires that you use magnetic metals (e.g., steel). Otherwise, it won’t heat.

You could fix this issue by buying a steel plate adapter. It magnetizes to an induction heater and transfers the heat to your Moka Pot.

If you don’t care for milk-based drinks like lattes, then the Bialetti is an ideal way to get an affordable, high-quality espresso-like drink. So long as you monitor your brewing.

You’re not automating any brewing, meaning you must pay attention to the process to ensure it doesn’t over-extract your beans. Over-extraction means you’ll have bitter-tasting coffee because the brewing went on for too long.

And:

The drinks it produces are espresso-like, not espresso. It uses 1.5 bars of pressure, whereas espresso uses at least 9. The higher bars of pressure also give espresso crema, the creamy foam that chills on top of it, which helps with taste and mouthfeel.

If you’re not an espresso connoisseur, you shouldn’t notice much of a difference.

Get the inside scoop on how to pick the best budget coffee maker in our next section.

How to Choose the Best Cheap Coffee Maker

Follow this checklist when shopping for affordable coffee makers:

Many of these criteria may not fit into what you deem as necessary for coffee makers. Take some of what I teach and use it to help build your own coffee machine checklist.

For now, read through the following sections and see my reasoning for each item on the above table.

1. Coffee Machine & Reservoir Size

Larger coffee makers excel in function, often boasting numerous features. Their expansive water reservoirs are primed for serving multiple cups. But size isn’t just about capacity.

Consider smaller coffee makers. Tailor-made for travel or compact kitchens, they’re efficient without sacrificing flavor.

Water reservoir size is also crucial.

Bigger means brewing multiple cups simultaneously. Smaller reservoirs promote fresh water usage, enhancing coffee taste.

Cheap coffee makers aren’t one-size-fits-all. They come with varying water reservoir sizes. Consider size as a factor to meet your coffee needs without breaking your budget.

2. Features

All these features will improve your coffee-making experience with cheap coffee machines:

Most coffee makers under $100 will include warming plates, water level indicators, and programmability. Upon increasing the price, you’ll see more quality-of-life features like anti-drip function, auto shut-off, and pause & serve.

Choose only the features that would benefit coffee drinkers in your home. Otherwise, you’re burning money that could buy higher-quality coffee beans.

3. Type of Machine

Compare all the different types of cheap coffee makers:

Let’s make a further comparison:

• Get an automatic pour-over if: You appreciate consistency & simplicity in your coffee routine.
• Choose an AeroPress if: You’re a traveler seeking compactness & quick, full-bodied coffee.
• Opt for a semi-automatic espresso maker if: You crave control over espresso extraction & have time to learn.
• Invest in a manual pour-over if: You’re a coffee enthusiast valuing taste nuances.
• Select a stovetop coffee maker if: You appreciate intense, espresso-like brews.
• Purchase a manual espresso maker if: You are passionate about the craft & seek barista-level espresso at home.

Opt for capsule/pod coffee makers if they fit within your price range. I would have loved to include them in this table, but their prices fluctuate so often that I don’t know whether it would be the right choice.

These machines typically have fast heat-up times, will automatically turn off, and eliminate the need for coffee grinders. All while providing a consistent taste with every cup.

To have maximum control over your drink’s taste, opt for manual espresso makers. Though, prices for decent-quality entry-level models begin at $120.

Stovetop coffee makers allow you to serve espresso-like beverages to groups of people due to being made in a “carafe.” And opt for the AeroPress for portability.

4. Drinks It Can Make

Most affordable coffee makers can produce these beverages:

Almost all affordable espresso makers (except for capsule machines) include milk frothers, which allow them to produce lattes, macchiatos, and more. Meanwhile, they’ll make Americanos.

You’ll need a combination coffee maker to make a red eye. As it combines black coffee and espresso.

All other coffee machines will produce black coffee. Unless they support Nespresso/K-Cups plus black coffee. Then you’ll open yourself up to a new world of beverage making.

FAQs for Cheap Coffee Makers

Read on to find frequently asked questions about cheap coffee makers.

Our Verdict

Our top 3 picks were as follows:

• Nespresso Vertuo Pop+: Heats & brews quickly while offering access to various coffee drinks.
• Keurig K-Compact: An affordable Keurig machine that doesn’t demand much space.
• OXO Pour-over: Complete control over your brewing.

I chose the Vertuo Pop as the best because the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi connectivity takes the guesswork out of maintenance and the quick brew times give you coffee quickly.

Nespresso Vertuo Pop+: Best Overall

• Price: $$$
• Dimensions: 14 × 8.6 × 10.4 in (D, W, H)
• Water Capacity: 20.2 fl oz = 4 cups
• Coffee Maker Type: Capsule coffee maker
• Material: Plastic
• Carafe Material: N/A
• Warranty: 1 year

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Footnotes:

• * Price will vary by model, manufacturer, and vendor.