The Best Cheap Coffee Maker

When it comes to brewing good coffee, even an inexpensive coffee maker can get the job done. Since 2016, we’ve tested 18 promising cheap coffee makers, and we think the Ninja CE251 is your best option. In addition to brewing better-tasting, hotter coffee than the rest of the models we tested, it’s easy to program and use, and it looks great on the counter.

The Ninja CE251 consistently brewed the best-tasting coffee among the machines we tested, whether we used pre-ground or freshly ground beans. It was the only model we tried that reliably brewed at a hot enough temperature to extract good flavor from the beans and make a pot that was pleasingly hot to drink. It was also one of the easiest models to use and program, and it is among the most customizable—options for brewing a richer or a smaller batch let us dial in our results without compromising quality. Plus we enjoyed the thoughtful design: It comes with a scoop that tucks neatly into the brewer’s body, and a removable water reservoir allows you to fill the machine directly from the sink.

The Cuisinart DCC-1200 reliably brewed decent coffee, but the final product was not as good as the Ninja’s. It does have some of the most useful customizable features of the cheap coffee makers we tested, including user control of the hot plate’s holding temperature. The small-batch option is easy to use, but programming it on this machine is not as intuitive as it is on the Ninja. Of the models we tested, the DCC-1200 had one of the longest warranties (three years), but it has the hardest water tank to fill, with measurements that are nearly impossible to read.

The Zojirushi Zutto Coffee Maker EC-DAC50, the smallest model we tested, made consistently hot coffee that was the second most flavorful after the Ninja’s. With a maximum capacity of just under 23 ounces, the Zutto is more suitable for a household of one or two coffee drinkers. It’s a no-frills machine, with just a single on-off button that’s as easy to operate as they come. (This also means that the machine has no auto shutoff, so you’ll have to turn it off manually to avoid burning your coffee.) Though it lacks extra features, the Zutto reaches some of the highest brewing temperatures we tested. It also provides easy-to-follow instructions (and corresponding measurements on the water reservoir) for making iced coffee, a unique feature among the machines in this guide. While most automatic drip brewers hide the filter away in the machine’s body, the Zutto’s filter is inside the carafe, replicating a pour-over, for a different coffee-brewing experience. This also makes for a lower profile machine that’s easily tucked away.