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Are there expensive caffeine habits that need to be controlled in your local coffee shop? These cheap machines will help to make cafe-quality drinks in the privacy of your own home.

ZDNet's senior technical editor Jason Perlow is a technical expert with more than 20 years of experience in integrating large heterogeneous multi-vendor computing environments in Fortune 500 companies. The views he expresses do not necessarily represent the views of his employer, the Linux Foundation.

Drinking espresso at your favorite coffee shop or chain store (such as Starbucks) can become an expensive habit, and a basic tall or large coffee latte starts at about $4 per cup. If you drink one of them every working day, based on 300 drinks a year, it is equivalent to the habit of $1,200 per year! It may be time to consider using your own espresso machine, so you can save money and better control the quality and variety of coffee beans.

If your budget is very tight, De'Longhi’s Stilosa is one of the cheapest espresso machines we have ever used, and it comes with a 2-year manufacturer’s warranty. You need to practice grinding coffee and tamping the lens, the steam wand will take some time to start (so don’t worry), but the results we got are very good.

Disadvantages: Plasticky construction requires fine coffee grinding

Priced at $300 on the street, this is one of the best-priced and best-performing entry-level automatic espresso machines with a 51mm portable filter. It has a programmable shooting time, if you can adjust the coffee powder to a good powder level, it will produce good coffee grease in your shooting. Like Stilosa, it also has a 2-year warranty.

Advantages: good performance at the price point, sturdy portable filter design, good warranty

Disadvantages: practice the required ramming, find the required powder to grind

If you can find a previous model of Bambino before the launch of Bambino Plus (priced at US$400), you may be able to buy the original version for US$299. We happen to like Breville's manufacturing quality and industrial design very much, and like DeLonghi Dedica, it has a very good shooting effect, and the milk foam is also very good.

Advantages: Similar to Delonghi Dedica, you can pull out some beautiful shots through practice.

Disadvantages: This model is not the latest model, and the retailer's inventory may be low.

Calphalon Temp iQ is priced at US$400 (usually less than US$350), making it one of the best-performing and lowest-priced consumer espresso machines on the market. In addition to the intelligent boiler temperature adjustment system, the integrated PID also has a built-in heating tray that can provide beverages at an appropriate temperature, and an enlarged hand-held filter that can moisturize the coffee grounds to fully extract the best flavor. The machine also has a built-in milk frother for making lattes and other specialty coffee drinks. 

With an upgrade of $200, you can get a machine version with an integrated cone-burr coffee grinder with 30 adjustable settings.

Advantages: One of the cheapest home espresso machines, capable of high-quality extraction using integrated PID in the basic model.

Disadvantages: The basic model does not have a coffee grinder, which is indeed necessary to produce a proper extraction. Some users also noticed that the mobile filter may be difficult to access compared to other models.

Mr. Coffee Cafe Barista, which sells for less than US$200, is the cheapest semi-automatic espresso machine on our list. It has a powerful 15 bar pump and integrated milk dispenser/foamer with one-button control, allowing you to make your morning drink very easily. 

Advantages: Produce delicious espresso drinks at reasonable prices.

Disadvantages: A separate grinder is required. In order to make the most of this machine, you need to read the manual to understand how to properly prime the system and clean the foaming device after each use.

There are several things to consider when using an espresso machine. A suitable espresso machine requires the coffee to be ground very finely every time it is brewed, so you need to buy a coffee machine with an integrated grinder or a separate grinder. A real espresso machine, not a coffee machine (such as Keurig or Nespresso, or a traditional drip coffee machine), uses high-pressure (9 bar and higher) boiling water to extract coffee and produce coffee beans, that is, emulsified coffee beans floating on top of the lens Of oil. Espresso machines usually include a separate milk frother function, using a magic wand to make popular beverages, such as cappuccinos and lattes.

The cost of these machines is separate from the cost of burr coffee grinders, which start at about $200 and are used to produce the fine, powdered, tightly packed grounds needed to properly extract espresso. Since the cost of these professional consumers is very high, and there are many types of machines and grinders in this category, and there are many price points, we will not introduce them here. If you tend to buy this type of machine, I suggest starting from a professional commercial website, such as Seattle Coffee Gear or Whole Latte Love.

The cheaper consumer machines listed in this guide have improved in making espresso beverages and have become more reliable in recent years. However, they use smaller, non-standardized heads and handles compared to more production machines, and in all the cases listed above, you need a separate grinder. 

For all espresso machines, be sure to use filtered water instead of tap water, as mineral deposits can shorten the life of the machine or accelerate maintenance requirements. If your water is particularly hard, even after filtering, you should descale the machine regularly.

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