Espresso machines · Alternatives
Alternatives to the Breville Bambino Plus
The Bambino Plus is bought for two published figures: a three-second heat-up and hands-free milk. Here is what to buy instead, depending on which of those you actually need.
The short answer
The best cheaper alternative to the Breville Bambino Plus is the De'Longhi Dedica Duo: narrower at 15 cm, a real steam wand, a one-touch cold brew mode, and a fraction of the price. The budget pick is the De'Longhi Stilosa. But be clear first: nothing else we cover textures milk hands-free, which is the Bambino Plus's headline feature.
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What the Bambino Plus is known for
Before recommending anything else, it is worth being precise about what you would be giving up, using only figures Breville publishes on its own product page and in its own manual.
- A three-second heat-up.Breville's ThermoJet system is stated to reach ideal extraction temperature in 3 seconds — that is Breville's own figure, in their own documentation, and it is genuinely unusual at this price.
- Hands-free milk texturing. Three milk temperatures by three foam levels, with auto-purge. You put the wand in the jug, press a button, and walk away. This is the feature people actually buy the machine for.
- PID temperature control and pre-infusion, a 54 mm portafilter, 15 bar, a 1.9 L tank, 1560 W, 10.91 lb, and a two-year limited warranty.
- A small footprint:7.5" W x 13.5" D x 12" H, and no built-in grinder.
That is a strong, coherent machine, and this page is not an argument against it — our own Bambino Plus review is positive. It is a page for the reader who has already decided to look elsewhere, usually for one of three reasons: price, the missing grinder, or a want for more control. Each of those points at a different machine.
The five alternatives, compared
Every pick on this page in one view, with the live Amazon price and stock on each row. Specs are the figures the maker or the listing publishes — nothing measured or scored by us. Prices are read from Amazon's API and were last checked November 6, 2026; where we have no verified price, the row says so rather than show you an old number.
| # | Machine | Why it's here | Price & availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  #1 De'Longhi Dedica Duo (EC890M) Best cheaper option · Semi-automatic 15 cm wide — narrower than the Bambino Plus · 'My LatteArt' manual steam wand · one-touch Cold Extraction cold brew, under five minutes per De'Longhi · Thermoblock · 15 bar · 1.1 L tank · 1450 W · 9.2 lb · no PID; no portafilter size published Beats the Bambino on footprint and price, and adds cold brew. You steam the milk. | Beats the Bambino on footprint and price, and adds cold brew. You steam the milk.15 cm wide — narrower than the Bambino Plus · 'My LatteArt' manual steam wand · one-touch Cold Extraction cold brew, under five minutes per De'Longhi · Thermoblock · 15 bar · 1.1 L tank · 1450 W · 9.2 lb · no PID; no portafilter size published | $249.00In stock, checked November 6, 2026 Check Price on Amazon |
| 2 |  #2 De'Longhi Stilosa (EC260BK) Budget pick · Semi-automatic Stainless steel boiler — a real boiler, not a Thermoblock · pannarello frother · 15 bar · 1 L tank · 1100 W · 8.61 lb · 1-year warranty plus 1 with registration The cheapest machine here that pulls a real shot. No PID, no automation. | The cheapest machine here that pulls a real shot. No PID, no automation.Stainless steel boiler — a real boiler, not a Thermoblock · pannarello frother · 15 bar · 1 L tank · 1100 W · 8.61 lb · 1-year warranty plus 1 with registration | $149.95In stock, checked November 6, 2026 Check Price on Amazon |
| 3 |  Most to grow into · Semi-automatic, 58 mm 58 mm commercial-size portafilter · aluminium boiler · commercial steam wand · 15 bar · no PID from the factory · large modification and parts ecosystem Similar money, commercial-size group, and the only pick here you can keep upgrading. | Similar money, commercial-size group, and the only pick here you can keep upgrading.58 mm commercial-size portafilter · aluminium boiler · commercial steam wand · 15 bar · no PID from the factory · large modification and parts ecosystem | $457.21In stock, checked November 6, 2026 Check Price on Amazon |
| 4 |  #4 Breville Barista Express (BES870XL) Grinder included · Semi-automatic, grinder built in 54 mm portafilter · PID · steel conical burrs, 16 settings, 250 g hopper · Thermocoil · 15 bar, pre-infusion · 2 L tank · 22.09 lb · 1-year limited warranty If the real problem is that the Bambino needs a separate grinder you also have to buy. | If the real problem is that the Bambino needs a separate grinder you also have to buy.54 mm portafilter · PID · steel conical burrs, 16 settings, 250 g hopper · Thermocoil · 15 bar, pre-infusion · 2 L tank · 22.09 lb · 1-year limited warranty | $499.95In stock, checked November 6, 2026 Check Price on Amazon |
| 5 |  #5 De'Longhi Magnifica Start (ECAM22022) One-touch instead · Super-automatic Built-in conical burr, 13 grind settings, 250 g hopper · one-button espresso from whole beans · Thermoblock · 15 bar · 1.8 L tank · 1250 W · manual frother, NOT the automatic LatteCrema system · no warranty term published If what you liked about the Bambino was automation, this automates more of the shot. | If what you liked about the Bambino was automation, this automates more of the shot.Built-in conical burr, 13 grind settings, 250 g hopper · one-button espresso from whole beans · Thermoblock · 15 bar · 1.8 L tank · 1250 W · manual frother, NOT the automatic LatteCrema system · no warranty term published | $599.95In stock, checked November 6, 2026 Check Price on Amazon |
Which reason brought you here
"It costs too much."Then the Dedica Duo is the answer, and the Stilosa is the answer if the Dedica is still too much. Both pull real shots through a real portafilter with a real steam wand. What you lose is PID, the three-second heat-up, and hands-free milk — and you should assume you will need to learn to steam milk, which is a skill rather than a feature.
"It has no grinder, so the real price is higher."This is the most common and most reasonable objection, because it is true: a Bambino Plus plus a capable grinder costs more than the machine's sticker price suggests. The all-in-one answer is the Barista Express, which puts a 16-setting conical burr grinder and PID in one box. The honest counter-argument is in all-in-one vs a separate grinder: a separate grinder is usually the better long-term buy, and a built-in one cannot be upgraded without replacing the machine.
"I want more control / a machine to grow into."Then the Gaggia Classic Pro, which trades every piece of Breville's automation for a 58 mm commercial-size group and a modification ecosystem that is unmatched at this price. It is the opposite philosophy to the Bambino Plus, deliberately. We put the two head to head in Bambino Plus vs Gaggia Classic Pro.
"I actually want less work, not more." Then you want a bean-to-cup machine rather than a different semi-automatic. The Magnifica Start grinds, doses and brews on a button. Note the trade carefully: it automates the shot and leaves the milk manual, which is the reverse of the Bambino Plus. That is covered in semi-automatic vs super-automatic.
The five alternatives
De'Longhi Dedica Duo — the cheaper, narrower one
Who it is for:the buyer who wanted the Bambino Plus for its footprint and its price-to-capability, not its automation. It beats the Bambino on its own compact pitch: 15 cm wide against Breville's published 7.5 inches. Published specs are a Thermoblock boiler, 15 bar, a 1.1 L tank, 1450 W, 9.2 lb, a "My LatteArt" cool-touch steam wand, a digital display with espresso and double-espresso presets, and a one-touch Cold Extraction cold brew mode that De'Longhi says runs in under five minutes — something the Bambino Plus has no equivalent for. What you give up: PID, the three-second heat-up, and hands-free milk. Two honest notes. De'Longhi publishes no portafilter diameter for this machine anywhere, including in the manual's technical data table, so we do not state one. And most Dedica reviews online describe the discontinued EC885M, not this machine. Full write-up: the Dedica Duo review, and the direct comparison is Bambino Plus vs Dedica.
De'Longhi Stilosa — the budget pick
Who it is for:the reader whose actual constraint is the budget, full stop. The Stilosa is the cheapest machine here that pulls a real shot through a real portafilter, and its one genuinely interesting published spec is that it is the only De'Longhi on this page with a stainless steel boilerrather than a Thermoblock. Also published: 15 bar, a 1 L tank, 1100 W, 8.61 lb, a pannarello-style frother, and a one-year warranty plus a second with registration. There is no PID, no automation and no grinder, so you supply the skill — and you will need a grinder, which is the real budget line item. See the best espresso machines under $200 and Bambino Plus vs Stilosa.
Gaggia Classic Pro — the one you can keep upgrading
Who it is for: someone at roughly Bambino money who wants a commercial-size group and a machine that rewards learning. The Classic Pro uses a 58 mm portafilter — the commercial standard, which means the whole world of baskets, tampers, puck screens and bottomless portafilters fits it — with an aluminium boiler and a commercial-style steam wand. It ships without PID from the factory, which is the single most common modification owners make. This is the deliberate opposite of the Bambino Plus: no automation, maximum ceiling. Read the Gaggia Classic Pro review and 54 mm vs 58 mm portafilters before deciding, because the basket size is the real fork in the road.
Breville Barista Express — the same brand, with a grinder
Who it is for:the reader whose objection is the missing grinder rather than the machine. It keeps the things people like about Breville — PID, pre-infusion, a 54 mm portafilter, an extraction pressure gauge for feedback — and adds steel conical burrs with 16 grind settings and a 250 g hopper, on a 2 L tank. The honest trade against the Bambino Plus: no hands-free milk, no ThermoJet three-second heat-up (Breville publishes no heat-up figure for the Thermocoil at all, so we state none), 22.09 lb instead of 10.91 lb, and a one-year limited warranty where the Bambino Plus has two. Breville's own sources also disagree on wattage — 1600 W on the product page, 1750 W on the rating plate in their manual — so we do not pick one. More in the Barista Express review and Bambino Plus vs Barista Express.
De'Longhi Magnifica Start — automate the shot instead
Who it is for: the reader who liked the Bambino Plus because it does things for you, and would rather have more of that than less. This is bean-to-cup: a built-in conical burr with 13 grind settings and a 250 g hopper, one-button espresso from whole beans, a Thermoblock boiler, 15 bar, a 1.8 L tank and 1250 W on the US machine. Read the milk line carefully, because it is the whole trade: the frother is manual, not the automatic LatteCrema system, which starts at the pricier Evo and Plus tiers. So against the Bambino Plus you gain shot automation and lose milk automation. De'Longhi publishes no warranty term for this model, and its own published net weight exceeds its own published shipping weight, so we publish neither figure. More in the Magnifica Start review.
When to just buy the Bambino Plus
Three cases, and they are common enough to say out loud on a page like this.
You want milk drinks and do not want to learn to steam.Covered above: nothing here replaces the automatic milk system. Steaming is learnable — our latte art guidestarts at the beginning — but if you do not want to, buying a cheaper machine and discovering that is an expensive detour.
You brew one or two drinks and then leave the kitchen. The three-second heat-up is not a gimmick for a once-a-morning drinker; a machine with a conventional boiler wants warming up properly, and there is a real difference between pulling a shot on demand and planning for it. See how long espresso machines take to heat up.
Your counter is the constraint and the Dedica is not quite right.The Bambino Plus is one of the smallest machines with PID and automatic milk, and the Dedica Duo — while narrower — is a different machine with different compromises. If footprint is the brief, the best espresso machines for small kitchens compares all of them on published dimensions.
Either way, the money that most reliably improves any of these machines is not the next machine: it is the grinder. That argument is machine or grinder first, and the pairing page for this specific machine is the best grinders for the Breville Bambino.
What we know, and how we know it
What we did
- Took the specs from the manufacturer's own documentation. Not from a retailer listing, and not from another blog.
- Priced it from Amazon's API, with the date we checked shown next to the number. If that price is more than 48 hours old, this page stops showing a number at all rather than show you a wrong one.
- Formed a verdict from those specs, the price, and what owners publicly report.
Where we hedged, and why
Every machine on this page, including the Bambino Plus itself, is in our spec database, sourced from Breville's, De'Longhi's and Gaggia's own product pages and manuals. The claims we attribute to Breville — the three-second ThermoJet heat-up, the three-by-three milk system with auto-purge, PID, pre-infusion, the 54 mm portafilter, the 1.9 L tank, 1560 W, 10.91 lb and the two-year warranty — are Breville's own published figures, not our measurements.
Where a maker publishes nothing we say so rather than fill the gap: no portafilter diameter for the Dedica Duo, no warranty term for the Magnifica Start, no heat-up figure for the Barista Express's Thermocoil, and no single wattage for it either because Breville's own sources conflict. We have not used these machines and we have not tested any of them against each other — the recommendations are formed from published specs, price and what each machine is built to do.
What we did not do
We do not run a lab. We have not pulled thousands of shots on this machine, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We have not used this unit ourselves. Everything above is sourced research, and it is labeled as such. Where we have used a machine, we say so and show it.
How we're paid
If you buy through a link on this page, we earn a commission. It costs you nothing extra and it does not change what we recommend — we link to the better option for the buyer even when it earns us less. See how we review and our full disclosure.
If you are still choosing rather than substituting, start with how to choose an espresso machine or the best espresso machines for beginners. More on the espresso machines hub.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to the Breville Bambino Plus?
The De'Longhi Dedica Duo, if price or footprint is what sent you looking. It is narrower than the Bambino Plus at 15 cm, has a real 'My LatteArt' steam wand and a one-touch cold brew mode De'Longhi says runs in under five minutes, for a fraction of the price. You give up PID, the three-second heat-up and hands-free milk. The De'Longhi Stilosa is the budget pick below it.
Is there a cheaper machine that textures milk automatically like the Bambino Plus?
Not among the machines we cover. The Bambino Plus's automatic milk system - three milk temperatures by three foam levels with auto-purge - has no direct equivalent in the alternatives here, all of which have manual steam wands. If hands-free milk is specifically what you want, the question is whether the Bambino Plus's price works for you, not which cheaper machine to substitute.
Bambino Plus or Barista Express?
It depends whether you want a grinder in the box. The Barista Express adds steel conical burrs with 16 grind settings and a 250 g hopper, and keeps PID, pre-infusion and the 54 mm portafilter. The Bambino Plus keeps the hands-free milk system, the three-second ThermoJet heat-up, a far smaller footprint at 10.91 lb, and a two-year warranty against the Express's one year.
Is the Gaggia Classic Pro better than the Bambino Plus?
It is a different philosophy at similar money, not a straight upgrade. The Classic Pro uses a 58 mm commercial-size portafilter, which opens up the whole accessory and modification world, and it rewards learning. It has no PID from the factory and no automation of any kind. The Bambino Plus automates milk and heat-up; the Gaggia gives you a higher ceiling and asks for the skill.
What does the Breville Bambino Plus actually do better than cheaper machines?
Two published things. Breville states that its ThermoJet system reaches ideal extraction temperature in three seconds, which is unusual at any price. And it textures milk hands-free across three temperatures and three foam levels with auto-purge. It also has PID, pre-infusion, a 1.9 L tank and a two-year warranty, in a 7.5-inch-wide body - but the heat-up and the milk are the reasons people buy it.
Should I buy a super-automatic instead of the Bambino Plus?
Only if you want the shot automated more than the milk. A bean-to-cup machine like the De'Longhi Magnifica Start grinds, doses and brews on a button - but its frother is manual, not the automatic LatteCrema system, so you gain shot automation and lose milk automation compared with the Bambino Plus. That reversal is the trade to understand before you switch categories.
Do I still need a grinder if I buy a Bambino Plus alternative?
Yes, for every pick on this page except the Barista Express and the Magnifica Start, which have grinders built in. The Bambino Plus has none either, which is the most reasonable objection to it: the real cost of a grinder-less machine is the machine plus a capable grinder. That is also the money that most reliably improves any of these machines.
Sources
Specs come from the manufacturer's own documentation. Prices come from Amazon's API. Where a claim comes from what owners report, we link the thread and say so.
- Breville Bambino Plus (BES500) product page and manual (ThermoJet ideal extraction temperature in 3 seconds, 3 milk temperatures x 3 foam levels with auto-purge, PID, pre-infusion, 54 mm portafilter, 1.9 L tank, 1560 W, 10.91 lb, 2-year limited warranty)
- De'Longhi EC890M Dedica Duo product page (15 cm width, My LatteArt steam wand, one-touch Cold Extraction cold brew, 1.1 L tank, 1450 W)
- De'Longhi Stilosa (EC260) product page (stainless steel boiler, 15 bar, 1 L tank, 1100 W)
- Gaggia Classic Pro (E24) product page (58 mm portafilter, commercial steam wand)
- Breville Barista Express (BES870XL) product page and manual (54 mm portafilter, PID, 16 grind settings, 250 g hopper, 2 L tank, 22.09 lb, 1-year limited warranty; product page states 1600 W while the manual's rating plate states 1750 W)
Keep reading
- Breville Bambino Plus reviewThe machine itself, on the specs Breville publishes. Read it before you substitute.
- Bambino Plus vs DedicaThe top pick here, head to head with the machine it replaces.
- Bambino Plus vs Gaggia Classic ProAutomation against ceiling, at roughly the same money.
- All-in-one vs a separate grinderIf the missing grinder is your objection, read this before buying the Barista Express.
- Best espresso machines for small kitchensEvery machine here compared on the dimensions their makers publish.
- Best grinders for the Breville BambinoThe purchase that improves any of these machines more than swapping machines does.