Shopping for a coffee maker sounds simple, until you actually start looking. Drip, pour over, single-serve, French press, cold brew, Turkish — the options pile up fast, and the right one for you depends on how you like your coffee, how many people you’re brewing for, and how much counter space you can spare.
We get it. A coffee maker isn’t just another kitchen gadget. It’s the machine that kicks off your morning, so it’s worth getting right.
That’s what this page is for. Below, you’ll find two ways to find your match: buying guides organized by brew style and size, and hands-on reviews of specific machines people ask us about most.
Our List of Best (Roundups)
Start with brew style if you already know how you like your coffee. Drip is still the default for most kitchens, and our best drip coffee makers guide covers the machines worth actually owning. Prefer it cold? Our best iced coffee makers picks are built to brew iced coffee directly, not just pour hot coffee over ice cubes. If you like the flavor of pour over but not the babysitting, the best automatic pour over coffee makers guide handles the pouring for you, while purists who want full control should look at our best French press coffee makers roundup instead.
A few categories are less about brew method and more about lifestyle. Our best smart coffee makers guide is for anyone who wants app or voice control over their morning brew, and the best pod coffee makers list covers the single-cup convenience machines most offices already run on. Can’t decide between drip and single-serve? The best 2 way coffee maker guide covers machines that do both. And if you grew up on something stronger and more traditional, our best electric Turkish coffee makers picks are worth a look.
Size matters just as much as style, and it usually comes down to how many people are drinking coffee in your house. Living solo? The 4-cup coffee maker and best 5 cup coffee maker with auto shut off guides won’t take over your counter. For a couple or a small household, the 8-cup coffee maker and 10-cup coffee maker guides hit a comfortable middle ground. Bigger families and anyone who hosts often should skip straight to the 12-cup coffee maker and 14-cup coffee maker guides.
Brand loyalty counts for something too, especially once you’ve found a machine that just works. We’ve rounded up the best Keurig coffee makers and best Bunn coffee makers, two of the most established names in home brewing, plus our Bella coffee maker reviews for a simpler, design-forward lineup. Budget the deciding factor? Our best single serve coffee maker under $100 and best coffee maker under $300 guides are built around price first, and the Calphalon coffee maker review is a solid mid-range option to measure everything else against.
Individual Reviews
Keurig shows up more than any other brand in reader questions, so we’ve reviewed several models individually. The Keurig K155 is built for offices and high-volume brewing, while the Keurig K-Mini and Keurig K-Mini Plus are for anyone tight on counter space. Step up in features and you’re looking at the Keurig K-Select or Keurig K-Elite, and if you’re weighing whether the price premium is worth it, our Keurig K-Supreme review breaks that down directly.
A handful of drip machines come up just as often. Cuisinart has two tiers worth comparing: the Cuisinart DCC-3200 and the Cuisinart DCC-1200. For something more feature-heavy, the Breville Precision Brewer is worth a look, and the Ninja CE251 is a solid programmable option at a friendlier price. Need one machine to handle both single cups and a full carafe? That’s exactly what the Hamilton Beach FlexBrew is built for.
If you’d rather skip the electricity altogether, Bodum makes two of our favorite manual options: the Bodum Pour Over Coffee Maker and the Bodum Columbia French Press. Craving iced coffee specifically? The Mr. Coffee Iced Coffee Maker is built to brew cold from the start. And for coffee on the move, we’ve got three worth comparing: the genuinely portable Makita Coffee Maker, the design-forward Redline MK1, and the fully automatic, one-touch Tchibo Coffee Machine. Still deciding on something in the 5-cup range? Our 5-cup coffee makers guide rounds up seven more to compare.