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Breville’s two mid-priced machines with built-in grinders cost about the same and look alike from across the kitchen. They solve different problems. The Barista Express Impress takes the guesswork out of dosing and tamping. The Barista Pro heats up in seconds and gives you more grind settings. Which suits you depends on where you tend to go wrong.
This comparison is built from Breville’s specs and US prices in September 2026.
At a Glance
| Barista Express Impress (BES876) | Barista Pro (BES878) | |
|---|---|---|
| US price, September 2026 | $799.95 list, $649.95 on sale | $849.95 |
| Heating | Thermocoil with PID, brew water at 200°F | ThermoJet, 3-second heat-up |
| Grinder | Conical burrs, 25 settings | Conical burrs, 30 settings |
| Dosing and tamping | Assisted tamping and automatic dose correction | Manual, with a dosing funnel and a trimming tool |
| Portafilter | 54mm | 54mm |
The Impress: Help Where Beginners Struggle
Dosing and tamping are where most home espresso goes wrong, and the Impress puck system handles both. Grind into the portafilter, lower the tamping lever, and the machine tamps with a fixed 22 pounds of force and a 7-degree twist to polish the puck. It also measures how full the basket was and corrects the next dose automatically, so it settles in over a few shots. A PID controller holds the brew water at 200°F.
The trade-off is heat. The Impress uses Breville’s thermocoil rather than the faster ThermoJet, so the first shot of the morning takes longer to get going.
The Pro: Speed and More Grind Settings
The Barista Pro’s ThermoJet heater is ready in 3 seconds, which matters most when you want a coffee right now. Its grinder has 30 settings against the Impress’s 25, and it uses burrs from Baratza, the grinder maker Breville owns. A screen shows the shot timer and lets you program shot volumes.
The Pro leaves dosing and tamping to you. It comes with a dosing funnel and a trimming tool to level the dose, but you’ll need to learn to tamp evenly, and it won’t correct you.
Which to Buy
If you’re new to espresso and want consistent shots from the first week, the Impress is the safer bet, especially on sale at $649.95. If you already know how to dose and tamp, or you’re impatient in the morning, the Pro’s speed and extra grind settings make more sense. Both use 54mm baskets, which you can upgrade with precision baskets and a bottomless portafilter, and both have manual steam wands, so our cortado recipe works the same way on either, and so does a flat white.
Built-in grinders are a compromise, whichever you pick. If you outgrow yours, you can still use a separate grinder and keep the machine for brewing and steaming. For the other ways machines heat water, see our guide to boiler types, and for the next price level up, our Silvia Pro X vs MaraX3 comparison.