The 10 Best Coffee Grinders You Can Buy

As it pertains to making better coffee in the morning, no decision yields a greater effect than switching from pre-ground to whole-bean coffee. Roasted whole bean coffee carries with it the aromatics of the bean for a few weeks after roasting, and remains stable and “fresh” for much longer. Pre-ground coffee expels all the bean’s natural aromatic and exposes the grounds to particles that distort flavor — in other words, pre-ground coffee is stale coffee.

To convert whole bean coffee to ground coffee, we need a coffee grinder. But not all grinders are created equal. We tested what most experts consider the world’s best coffee grinders, comparing size, speed, price and performance, to identify which machines to buy, and these are the ten best coffee grinders to buy.

What Makes a Good Coffee Grinder?

Burrs, Not Blades

A rule of thumb: burr grinders rule, blade grinders drool. Where a blade grinder works more like a blender, chopping away at beans at the blade level, burr grinders effectively chew and crush beans. The difference between the two is dramatic. When coffee is put in a blade grinder — which are typically inexpensive and designed for spice grinding — only the beans that are in contact with the blade are brought to size. This means the beans that sit below the blade, or wedge themselves into corners, are left at a completely different size, while the beans at blade level are turned to dust.

“A nice burr grinder is going to allow you to dial in your grind setting exactly to how it’s brewing,” says Natalie Van Dusen, founder of Montana’s Treeline Coffee Roasters. “Using a blade grinder is equivalent to chopping your coffee into uneven pieces. This results in an inconsistent cup, because you have an inconsistent grind setting.” In other words, pots of coffee made with a blade grinder will never be replicable.

But even after you choose to go with a burr grinder, you’re still left with one more choice to make: conical burrs or flat burrs. Flat burrs are more expensive to manufacture and therefore are often found in pricer grinders, but one type is not necessarily better than the other. Flat burrs generally offer more consistency and uniformity in their grinds, which is good, but they can also retain more grounds and are more difficult to clean, which is not so good. It all depends on your preferences.

Sturdy Construction

With coffee grinders, the heavier the better. There are a few reasons for this. One, more weight means the machine’s motor won’t knock itself out of calibration or grind setting mid-grind. But it also means the grinder you’re buying — a relatively small machine tasked with crushing coffee beans for 30 seconds every day — is less liable to break internally because there’s less plastic and more metal.

Serviceability

No matter how nice the machine, every grinder requires service now and again. Even if there’s not a mechanical issue, you’ll need to remove the burr and guts of the machine to clean coffee from months ago off the internal gears. If you can’t take it apart easily, don’t buy it.

Built-in Scale

While not an outright necessity, you may look to save some counter space by opting for a grinder with a built-in scale. In the age-old question of whether to grind coffee by weight or volume, weight comes out on top, as it’s simply a more accurate way of measuring how much coffee you’re using. This means it leads to more consistent grinds, and as we’ve mentioned already, consistency matters when it comes to great coffee.

New and Upcoming Releases

Our recommendations are based on real-world testing. Here’s a snapshot of new and unreleased coffee grinders that we’re considering for future updates to this guide.

Baratza Encore ESP: Baratza’s Encore is an all-time classic, but like the Fellow Ode, it doesn’t grind fine enough for espresso. The Encore ESP solves this problem with the addition of 20 micro-step adjustments and an included dosing cup.

How We Tested

Amazon

Best Overall Coffee Grinder

Baratza Encore

• $150.00 at Amazon

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 40

Baratza is a coffee grinder company, and not a home appliance company, a kitchenware company or even a coffee company, It only makes coffee grinders, and that’s why it’s the most respected name in the grinding business. The brand is lauded for its use of heavy stainless steel burrs, replaceable parts, modularity and its unrivaled customer service department, with the Encore being its entry-level grinder.

The Encore is the most consistently good grinder for the money. Period. Though $140 is not cheap — a great coffee maker can be had for less — no grinder under $200 can chew through beans with as much reliability as the Encore. This, plus the ability to order more burrs when the originals eventually wear out and stellar customer service, ensure the Encore can sit on a countertop for as long as you can stand it.

Amazon

Best Upgrade Coffee Grinder

Baratza Virtuoso+

• $250.00 at Amazon

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 40

Baratza is the only brand to have three products on this list, and for good reason. Unlike other specialty coffee grinder producers, its products cover the spectrum of coffee nerdery — beginner to commercial-grade. The Virtuoso+, which replaced the discontinued Virtuoso, is the ideal upgrade pick from the Encore.

It replaces the annoying plastic build of less-premium grinders with a heavier, metal foundation that reduced vibration and risk of decalibration. Its burrs are the same size (40mm, one for each grind setting) as the stainless steel burrs in the Encore, but they’re cut sharper and thus able to produce finer grounds. The guts of the machine are made of more metal and less plastic than its sibling, too. Plus, the Virtuoso+ has a sturdy knob and timer system that the Encore — and most grinders that aren’t commercial-grade — don’t have. The timer allows you to figure out exactly how much coffee you grind per pot once and, from there on out, it’s set-and-forget.

Amazon

Best Budget Coffee Grinder

Oxo Brew Coffee Grinder

• $80.00 at Amazon
  $100.00 (20% off)

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 38

There’s a high probability that there are more Oxo products in your kitchen than any other brand. For $100 and under, there’s not a better coffee grinder. Oxo’s first stab at a craft coffee-driven grinder ticks all the boxes you want out of a grinder — conical steel burrs, adjustable grind settings, a timer — and comes in a lot cheaper than most with similar specs. Plus, Oxo’s grinder occasionally goes on sale (we’ve seen it as low as $70 on Amazon), where most high-end grinder prices are stable. This is as little as you should spend on an electric grinder.

Williams Sonoma

Best Coffee Grinder for Espresso

Breville Smart Grinder Pro

• $200.00 at Williams Sonoma
  $350.00 (43% off)

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 60

Breville makes the best home espresso machines so it stands to reason they’d make a pretty good espresso grinder, too. Expect products that obsess over details wrapped in a nice commercial-residential aesthetic.

Compared to other grinders in its price range (and some well above), Breville’s offers extraordinary precision and customization. It has more grind settings (60) than any other grinder on this list, supreme programmability and loads of helpful presets. Plus, it’s got a nifty hook to slot in a portafilter for espresso grinding and it’s fairly simple to take apart and maintain. The ability to buy it in different colors is a nice touch.

Courtesy

Best Coffee Grinder for Drip Coffee

Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2

• $345.00 at fellowproducts.com

• Burr Type: Flat
• Grind Settings: 31

Fellow’s original Ode grinder is the coffee grinder to get for both design freaks and coffee nerds. But despite its slick looks and professional-grade flat burrs, the grinder wasn’t without its flaws. Namely, it was extremely messy.

So for 2022, Fellow updated the Ode with this second-generation model. They made some noticeable improvements, including a redesigned hopper for more efficient feeding and improved burrs that allow for more precise and finer grinds. They also added anti-static technology to the catch, and I can say that whatever magic is going on behind the scenes here has turned the Ode from one of the messiest grinders around to one of the neatest.

Despite these improvements, the Ode Gen 2 still isn’t the perfect grinder, even if it is the best-looking. While its burrs are tough to beat for drip coffee and pour-overs, they still don’t grind fine enough for espresso. And the button placement, a frequent complaint of Gen-1 owners, is in the same awkward place on the bottom front-hand side of the grinder, often leading to inadvertent activation. Even so, if you’re looking for a statement piece grinder for your coffee corner, there’s still no beating the Ode.

Read our full Fellow Ode Gen 2 review.

Fellow

Best Do-It-All Coffee Grinder

Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder

• $195.00 at fellowproducts.com

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 41

Fellow followed up the release of the Ode Gen 2 just a few months later in February 2023 with the Opus, a new budget-priced (for Fellow, anyway) grinder that could finally grind fine enough for espresso.

There’s a lot to like about the Opus, including that it looks almost as stylish as the Ode, is nearly as quiet and that its 41 grind settings — including 20 micro-adjustments — allow it to consistently grind beans for everything from espresso to cold brew. It’s also a heckuva lot cheaper, coming in around $150 less than the Ode Gen 2.

Naturally, to come in at such a lower cost, some sacrifices had to be made. In addition to using cheaper conical burrs, Ode’s heavy-duty aluminum body for one made of plastic, leading to a less-premium feel. The Opus is also a lot messier than the Ode. Despite using the same anti-static tech, the Opus has a tendency to hold onto some grounds after each use, which comes pouring out when the machine is bumped or when the button is accidentally pressed. Still, these are minor gripes for a machine as beautiful and capable as this one.

Read our full Fellow Opus review.

Blue Bottle Coffee

Best Hand Coffee Grinder

Porlex Mini Grinder II

• $84.00 at Blue Bottle Coffee

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 12

Hand coffee grinders are a workout. The Porlex Mini Grinder, however, makes it less of a workout. After testing multiple hand grinders, we found Porlex’s is one of the easiest and least strenuous to use, and for years, the original had a spot on this guide. But now Porlex has released a sequel to its travel-friendly hand-cranker, and it’s gotten even better.

Like the first Porlex Mini Grinder, the II is super easy to adjust the grind setting – using an intuitive click system — and it feels like it takes fewer cranks to go through its static-free hopper of coffee beans. According to the brand, the II’s redesigned ceramic burrs are far more efficient and able to produce 1.3 times as much coffee from the same number of turns as the original. The whole thing feels even more durable too, as the materials have been improved.

Still, this is rather small if you’re using it to make your coffee at home — especially if brewing for a crowd — and while it’s not too much of a chore to use, having to do so a ton is no picnic. It’s also on the pricier side for a hand grinder at over $80.

Amazon

Best Entry-Level Coffee Grinder

Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill

• $60.00 at Amazon

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 18

Cuisinart is in the business of making everything for the kitchen, and that extends into the coffee realm. It won’t produce grind sizes as uniform as more expensive models, but it is a really, really competitive price for a burr grinder with a small countertop footprint. Its 18-position grind selector doesn’t offer the most precision when it comes to grind size, but somewhere in that range you can find something that suits your preferred coffee-brewing method. It even has a built-in timer, which is always a plus when it comes to coffee grinders. Its 8-oz hopper is removable for easy cleaning, and while it does have a lot of plastic parts to go along with its stainless steel main housing, the plastic used is at least BPA-free.

Amazon

Best Coffee Grinder for the Budget-Conscious Shopper

Mr. Coffee Automatic Burr Mill Coffee Grinder

• $50.00 at Amazon

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 18

You’ll recognize the Mr. Coffee name because of its super-affordable coffee makers, so it only makes sense a brand with “coffee” in its name will make a coffee grinder. You shouldn’t expect the most uniform grounds from a $40 coffee grinder, but in a pinch, this will make do. Because this is a cheap machine, don’t expect it to be a workhorse like the better options on this list.

However, reviewers have noted that Mr. Coffee’s customer service is excellent and always willing to help. One of our testers has also used a Mr. Coffee grinder for 15 years, and in his words, it “just won’t break.” So even at such a low price, you should expect great durability. Like the above Cuisinart, this model uses conical burrs to produce 18 grind settings, but it comes in what is subjectively a less-attractive package.

Amazon

Best Coffee Grinder for Coffee Nerds

Baratza Sette 270

• $400.00 at Amazon
  $459.00 (13% off)

• Burr Type: Conical
• Grind Settings: 270

Make no mistake, Baratza’s Sette machine is an incredible tool. It’s meant for baristas to accurately grind out shots of espresso in real-time, so it has a built-in scale and dosing system to go along with a category-leading 270 grind settings. It’s also significantly faster at getting through espresso grinds than others within a couple of hundred dollars. This is one of the best coffee grinders that can actually handle making a fine-enough coffee grind for espresso drinkers, while also excelling at large grind sizes. You probably don’t need this at home if all you’re drinking is a morning cup, but if you’re moonlighting as a competitive barista, this will help you make a winning cup.

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