The Best Coffee Grinder - A beginners guide to finding the best grinder for you
There are so many coffee grinders on the market that it's hard to know where to even start looking, so we've made this guide to help you find the best entry-level grinder for your budget, lifestyle, and preferred brew method.
The recommendations listed here are the results us researching and compiling data on coffee grinders since 2019, Yoji's personal expertise as a barista, and from the thousands of emails we've received from coffee lovers with feedback and suggestions for our grind size tools.
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Table of contents
What makes a good coffee grinder?
Consistent grind size
A consistent grind size is probably the most important factor that determines the quality of your coffee. The last thing you want is a grinder that creates different grounds from the day before, without you changing a setting. High quality materials, precision burr design, and good construction will result in better, consistent grounds.
Specialisation
A good coffee grinder isn't necessarily one that can grind well for every brew method, but a specialised one that can grind fantastically for a few. If you're someone who mostly drinks pour over, aim for a model that does well for pour over.
If you vary brew methods often, a jack-of-all-trades model may be necessary, but the best option is to acquire two specialised grinders that can cover the whole grind spectrum, if you can afford it.
Adjustability
A coffee grinder that has micro-adjustability will be a huge aid in making the best coffees from your beans. Aim to get a model that has at least 30-40 settings, especially for those claiming to grind for all brew methods.
You will need as many micro-adjustments you can get for espresso based grinders, but this is less necessary as you go towards coarser brew methods. A stepless coffee grinder is considered to be the ultimate form of adjustability, but they are typically more expensive.
Durability
Quality design and durable materials determine the longevity of a product and its impact on the environment, but will also determine consistency of coffee grind size after years of use.
Ease of use
Grinders are typically simple machines, but in a few cases they can be needlessly complicated or poorly designed.
Value for money
Some coffee grinders cost over $4000. They probably grind coffee really well — but not twenty times better than a $200 grinder. Although the return of quality diminishes the more you spend, we won't recommend grinders less than $80. Cheap coffee grinders break sooner and need to replaced, costing you more money.
Popularity
Of course, there are popular bad grinders, and unpopular good grinders. However, popularity means more online resources, a stronger community for troubleshooting, and ease of finding replacement parts.
Important notes before you buy a coffee grinder
Most important: choose a grinder that works for your preferred brew method.
Ensure your grinder produces the correct size for your brew method.
Not all grinders suit every brew method. Espresso needs fine grounds, while drip coffee requires medium or coarse grounds.
If you drink espresso and buy a grinder that can't produce fine grounds, it will be useless.
Read the notes for each of our recommendations to confirm it will work for your preferred brew method.
Always buy a burr grinder, not a blade grinder
Different brewing methods require different sized grounds. For instance, making espresso requires fine grounds, while french press requires medium to coarse grounds.
A burr grinder can grind beans down to a particular size, while a blade grinder smashes the beans into irregular chunks.
People still enjoy coffee they make from a blade grinder, but if you want to make quality coffee, you need consistent grounds.
Grinders
What is a burr grinder?
Electric vs Manual (hand cranked)
Consider buying an electric coffee grinder if…
- You need to grind a lot of coffee at once (e.g. for more than 3 people at once)
- You have an exceptionally busy life
- You need to avoid manual labour (e.g. you have an elbow injury)
Consider buying a manual coffee grinder if…
- You only make coffee for one or two people at a time
- You need to travel with your coffee grinder
- Don't have a lot of space in your home
- Have intermittent or no access to electricity
- Want to get buff arms
Conical Burrs vs Flat Burrs
Which one is better? The quick answer: it doesn't matter.
Conical and flat burrs are capable of grinding coffee very well, and both types are utilised in budget and premium markets, and domestic and commercial environments.
There are differences, if you want to get into the details we've written an article about it here:
Grinders
Conical Burrs vs. Flat Burrs
Our Coffee Grinder Top Picks
These grinders will perform very well in most home-use environments, able to grind consistently for a wide range of brew methods, as well as being well-established companies with a large community of users.
Baratza models are a great place to start. They are a giant in the coffee industry, and are a key player in the shaping coffee grinder design for domestic use today.
Affordable grinder for most brew methods
Baratza offer an espresso capable version of the Encore: The Baratza Encore ESP. It has a slightly higher price point but it's perfect as an espresso capable, multi-purpose grinder. You can find further details below in 'Best Grinder for Espresso'.
The following grinder also has had a huge role in influencing coffee grinder evolution: The Breville (Sage) Smart Grinder Pro. Released back in 2016, this grinder is still very popular, and for its price range has very few rivals than can match its grind quality.
Espresso focused all-rounder
This Timemore C3 Esp Pro is our top pick for a manual/hand grinder. For its build quality, material choice and grind quality over a large grind range, its price tag is pretty exceptional. This model is the espresso focused model of the C3, and has quite a few setting in the espresso range for proper dialling-in.
Consistent manual grinder for all brew methods
Best Electric Grinder
Here are our top picks for entry-level electric grinders for home use. They're very good candidates for beginners with great ease of use, grind consistency and versatility.
The following grinders (including the aforementioned Smart Grinder Pro and Baratza Encore) are some of the most influential models in the industry, each playing a key role in shaping today’s coffee brewing market.
The first two grinders on this list are Fellow’s Ode and Opus, two grinders that have redefined modern coffee equipment with minimalist design, simplified controls, and professional performance.
The Ode excels at coarser grind sizes for pour over and other brew methods, while the Opus extends its range finer, towards the coarser end of espresso.
Best for non-espresso
Entry-level all purpose grinder
Baratza Encore
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Breville (Sage) The Smart Grinder Pro
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Best Manual Grinder
These manual grinders produce results which easily rival their electric counterparts. Although they take longer to grind coffee, they are less noisy, compact, more robust, and portable.
King of hand grinders
1Zpresso's flagship model for most brew methods
Best espresso hand grinder
Timemore C3 ESP Pro
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Best Grinder for Espresso
Espresso requires a very fine and uniform grind. It also requires a more precise dialling-in process to achieve the best possible extraction. Therefore grinders for espresso have to be more precise and have more settings than models specialised for coarser brew methods.
The following two grinders have dozens of settings in the espresso range with only a few microns difference between each step.
Product recommendation
Product recommendation
Best Grinder for Pour Over
Good pour over grinders prioritise clarity, consistency, and control. They do this by grinding between a medium-fine to medium-coarse range, with as few fines and boulders as possible. The following two grinders are exceptionally good at this job, and are great entry-level options for a proper pour over set up.
1Zpresso's pour over model
Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2
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Best Grinder for AeroPress
We've nominated the Knock Aergrind for our manual hand grinder of choice for the AeroPress. It fits perfectly within an AeroPress and makes travelling with your coffee set up much easier.
The other is the Wilfa Smart Aroma, an electric home grinder that performs extremely well for the whole AeroPress grind range, from espresso like method to coarser immersion based brews.
Product recommendation
Product recommendation
Best Grinder for French Press
These grinders are capable of creating unimodal grind profiles for coarser settings, which is perfect not only for French Press, but for drip, cold brew, and other coarse immersion brewing methods.
The Timemore C2 is an older model to the C3 ESP Pro mentioned before, but grinds just as well for coarse methods. If you like the look of the C3 ESP but don't require espresso capability, the more affordable C2 might be what you need.
Manual grinder for coarse brew methods
Baratza Encore
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Best Small Electric Grinder
The Eureka Mignon Specialita and Fellow Ode Brew are compact grinders that pack impressive performance into a small footprint. They can sit neatly on your kitchen counter, and despite their size they both house very powerful motors and precise burr sets that deliver consistent grounds.
We recommend the Specialità as an espresso focused grinder, and the Ode as the pour over/immersion choice.
Great for espresso
Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2
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Best Manual Coffee Grinder for Home Use
If you're looking for a manual grinder that doesn't have to be portable or compact, the ROK grinder is one of the most distinctive options available. It’s a vertical lever grinder that makes hand grinding faster and requiring less effort than the traditional horizontal method.
Great espresso choice
