The Best Coffee Makers For Under 50 Bucks In 2024
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Brewing delicious coffee at home shouldn’t cost a fortune—and, lucky for us, it doesn’t.
If you want to improve your coffee brewing experience without breaking the bank, we’ve got you. Any of our best coffee makers for under $50 will give you a high-quality brew at home.
But how do you pick the right coffee maker for you?
When choosing a new coffee maker, many factors must be considered: the amount of coffee you’re brewing daily, the availability of storage space, portability, and noise level (to name a few).
So, let’s unpack these a bit.
Table of Contents
The Best Coffee Makers For Under 50
Which Coffee Maker Is Best For Me?
First, you should consider how big a batch of coffee you usually make. A manual brewer (like an AeroPress) generally has a much smaller capacity than a drip coffee maker, so keep that in mind.
Kitchen storage space is at a premium in most homes, so consider where you’ll store your new coffee maker and whether you’re okay with it living on your kitchen counter.
Do you often travel or love to camp? If you don’t want to go without your brew while on the road, consider a small, manual brewer for easy portability.
If you are brewing coffee while others in the home are sleeping, consider the noise level of your future coffee maker. Thankfully, most of our picks for the best coffee makers for under $50 are extremely quiet.
So, now that you’ve sorted your wishlist for your next coffee maker, let’s get brewing.
Best Coffee Makers For Under $50
For many, a standard drip coffee maker is the weapon of choice on bleary-eyed mornings. We get it.
Electric drip coffee makers offer a range of features like programmability, brew strength, brew temperature, and more. Drip coffee makers are some of the most popular coffee machines because they offer both convenience and affordability.
So, if drip coffee makers are your idea of the best coffee makers for under $50, we’ve got the best budget coffee maker for you.
Bella 14755 With Brew Strength Selector
The Bella 14755 With Brew Strength Selector is hands-down the best drip coffee maker under $50.
This little coffee maker packs impressive features for a tiny price tag. For less than $50, the Bella 14755 offers auto shut-off, brew-strength selector, programming, and a permanent filter.
This model by Bella outperformed others at three times its price in our tests. While we prefer manual brewing to drip coffee machines at this price point, this Bella is the exception.
Whether you’re brewing for a crowd or just for yourself, Bella has got you covered. This machine offers a small-batch setting of 1-4 cups, allowing you to brew for one to two people.
And if you struggle to remember to clean your coffee maker (slowly raises hand), don’t worry. The Bella 14755 offers a unique cleaning cycle to make cleaning a breeze.
The Bella 14755 is definitely one of the best coffee makers for under 50 bucks and might just be one of the best drip coffee makers, period.
Automatic Coffee Machine Vs. Manual
One surefire way to brew a delicious cup of coffee on the cheap is to do so manually. But what is manual brew coffee?
Manual coffee brewers refer to any coffee maker that requires the user to do the work manually. These small coffee makers give the user control rather than relying on machinery to brew the coffee.
Despite the name, manual brewers like the pour over and French press offer many conveniences over their electric drip counterparts and are incredibly simple to use.
Manual brewers require zero electricity, are portable, and brew superior coffee to any drip coffee maker we’ve tried.
The main drawback to choosing a manual brewer over an electric coffee maker is the size. Manual brewers often have much smaller capacities than their electric drip coffee counterparts.
Let’s take a look at our top manual picks for the best coffee makers for under $50:
Chemex Pour Over
Arguably one of the most attractive coffee makers globally, the Chemex Classic Series is a winner. It’s also the quietest coffee maker on our list.
One of the best coffee makers for under $50, this beautiful piece of equipment is a breeze to use and produces a stellar cup of coffee.
You don’t have to sacrifice too much capacity with this one. The “8-cup” version holds 40 ounces of coffee, which is enough for a few generous mugs.
No electricity is needed for this brew; boil water, place a filter in the Chemex, add a coffee ground to medium-fine, and slowly pour the water over the grounds.
The Chemex is small enough to store easily in a cabinet but so eye-catching that you might want to display it on the counter or a shelf instead.
For more on the pour over method and why we can’t get enough of it, check out this feature on pour over coffee.
Bodum French Press 1928-16US4
If bold, rich coffee is more your speed, the French press might be your perfect manual brewer. This Bodum French press is an absolute classic, producing a phenomenal cup of coffee in just 4 minutes.
Learning how to use a French press coffee maker is straightforward, even if you’ve never used one before. Brewing with a French press requires little more than boiling water, coarse ground coffee, and the patience to wait 4 minutes while it steeps.
The capacity of this Bodum French press is 34 ounces (also offered in 12 and 17 ounces). The cup measurements referenced in the “8-cup” description are 4 ounces, so you’ll get about three large mugs out of this brewer.
This French press is made of high-quality stainless steel (it is also available in other materials) and features a glass carafe. Bodum even makes a shatter-resistant version of the carafe for those who are a bit accident-prone.
Another bonus feature of the French press is that you can also make cold brew coffee in the French press!
The French press is for you if you like your coffee dense and full-bodied. Give this gem a try, and you’ll quickly see why it tops any list of the best coffee makers for under $50.
Bialetti Moka Pot
Love espresso but don’t want to invest in a clunky, counter space-hogging espresso machine? We feel you.
Enter the Moka Pot. The Moka Pot is a small manual coffee brewer that produces rich, espresso-like coffee in a matter of minutes.
In fact, coffee made with a Moka Pot is the closest thing you can get to espresso without an espresso machine. Learning how to use Moka Pot to brew an exceptional cup of coffee takes a bit of trial and error, but you’ll master it after a few uses.
The Moka Pot is also referred to as a stovetop espresso maker, even though the coffee produced isn’t technically espresso. The pressure created by the steam in the Moka Pot can’t compete with that of an espresso machine.
This pressure creates the crema on top of an espresso shot and the incredibly concentrated brew that we all know and love.
All you’ll need to brew with a Moka Pot is finely ground coffee, filtered water, and a heat source (open flame or stove burner). The Moka Pot comes in various sizes, the largest of which is 27 ounces.
The Moka Pot can be easily stored out of sight when not in use. It is totally portable and makes the perfect coffee maker for camping. It is easily one of the best coffee makers for under $50.
AeroPress
Last on our list, but in no way least, is the AeroPress. The AeroPress makes a concentrated, quality brew in just minutes and is the most packable of any on this list of the best coffee makers for under $50.
The main downside to AeroPress is its size. It is designed to be a single-cup brewer, making it ideal for brewing one rich cup of coffee or two small, concentrated cups that may be diluted with water or milk.
The AeroPress is lightweight and easily packed into a carry-on bag, so you can take your coffee anywhere you roam.
The coffee produced by the AeroPress is full-bodied and dense, much like the French press, and only takes about 2 minutes to brew.
Cleaning the Aeropress can be a bit of a headache. Still, this little coffee maker has a home in your coffee equipment collection. It brews a delicious cup of coffee with reasonably minimal effort and a super reasonable price tag.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Heather Calatrello
Heather is the head coffee roaster and founder of ShedLight Coffee Roasters in San Diego, CA. Her solar-powered coffee roastery was recently the subject of a BlueDot Living dispatch, and she has repeatedly been featured in Food & Wine, Real Simple, Parade, and more.
