Jura vs Breville

Milk Frothing

One of the biggest differences between Jura and Breville espresso machines is the milk options:

The entry-level Jura machines don’t have any way of steaming milk. Whereas all the Breville espresso machines do – their entry-level offerings have a manual steam wand. So you’ll need to sharpen your barista skills to get that perfect cappuccino foam, but the option is there.

At the higher end, Jura coffee machines offer automatic milk steaming. This usually offers some form of customization although it can be quite limited. Breville also offers automatic milk frothing with their higher-end machines alongside the manual option.

If you’re proud of your latte art skills, a top-of-the-range Breville can make your espresso whilst you froth your milk manually. Jura, however, takes the process entirely out of your hands, providing milk for your selected coffee drink at the touch of a button.

Semi-Automatic vs Super-Automatic

As super-automatic espresso machines, Jura’s are built to make everything as easy as possible. You select your coffee and the machine does the rest.

Some models require the quite frankly outrageous hassle of moving your cup a few inches to the right to pour the milk in. But that is as difficult as it gets.

Breville has gone in a very different direction – they sell semi-automatic espresso machines:

All their machines require your involvement. On some models, it’s as simple as moving the portafilter from point A to point B. On others, you’re in charge of every element. This gives you more control and greater customization but they’re not “one-touch” espresso makers.

Read next: Get to grips with the Different Types of Espresso Machines

Cleaning & Maintenance

Are you a “little and often” or “occasional but thorough” type of cleaner?

Jura coffee machines “self-clean” after every use so you only need to do a deep clean every few months. This is simple to do and the machine will guide you through the steps. Although you do need to buy Jura branded cleaning products.

Beville uses the portafilter design meaning you need to clean it out after every use. This is as simple as emptying the grounds and rinsing the portafilter. But it needs to be done.

Another difference is that you can’t remove the Jura brew group to clean which upsets some coffee experts. However, we’re inclined to believe Jura when they say their self-cleaning works. We’ve never had an issue, never seen any evidence-based complaints, and they have hordes of great reviews suggesting it’s not a problem.

That said, if you want to be certain your machine is sparkling clean, then Breville is the better option as you can deep clean the portafilter and brew head as often as you like.

Budget

The biggest limiting factor in almost all purchasing decisions is how much it’s going to cost you.

Neither Jura nor Breville is “budget-friendly”. But the entry-level Breville machine is around $300 (without a built-in grinder) whereas the entry-level Jura is $1000 (for black coffees only).

For those looking for maximum functionality for their money, Breville is the clear winner. They sell many excellent espresso machines for under $1000 that can make all types of espresso drinks to a very high standard. Prices top out at $2800 for one of the best espresso machines out there (the Oracle Touch).

For those looking for ease and quality, and have the money to spend then Jura offers incredible design, amazing coffee, and the easiest user experience. You can even operate some machines from your phone. You get one-touch perfect coffee – milk and all – for pretty much any coffee style imaginable… For a price.

Jura S8

The Jura S8 automatic coffee machine is beautifully crafted. Sleek and elegant, with options for stainless steel or black finish. The touchscreen display is sharp and easy to use and, overall, the machine looks like a premium coffee spaceship with great caffeination available at the touch of a button.

The S8 is big – 11” x 13.8” x 17.3” – all that technology has to go somewhere. So you’re going to need some serious counter space to accommodate it. It weighs 22 lbs but since I can’t imagine anyone is planning to move this thing around regularly that isn’t a huge deal, just something to think about if you have to carry it to the top floor.

Jura machines are built to last and the S8 is no exception. With the water filters and regular descaling, this machine should comfortably last 5-10 years. You can also get it serviced by registered Jura technicians once a year if you like, which may extend the lifespan beyond even this.

Breville Oracle Touch

The Oracle Touch has been designed to look like a classic espresso machine. You have your portafilter, milk steaming wand, and bean hopper all clearly on display. I personally prefer this to the S8’s big box with spouts design but that’s a purely personal preference. The touch screen is beautifully rendered and easy to use too.

This is another big espresso machine; it’s even bigger than the S8 at 14.5” x 14.7” x 17.6” and weighs a staggering 37lbs. If you have a big kitchen and no intention of moving it, this shouldn’t matter too much.

Breville coffee machines last a long time, and the commitment to quality engineering is superb. Compared to the S8, there are a lot fewer moving parts. Whilst that doesn’t guarantee a longer lifespan, there are certainly fewer things that can go wrong.

Winner

For me, the Breville is a better-looking machine than the S8 – I like my coffee machine to look like a coffee machine. But this is purely a personal preference. Since both are known for high coffee machine durability, round 1 is a draw.

Jura Coffee Machine S8

Jura machines are designed to be as easy to use as a coffee machine possibly can be while still delivering exactly what you want – the ultimate quality coffee.

Using the simple touch screen, you can choose:

• Your preferred coffee drink
• Strength
• Temperature
• Milk frothiness

Once you have perfected your brew, the S8 will save your customized settings for later. This is one-touch coffee drinks at their finest. As the milk texture is adjusted with a level above the nozzle, you’ll need to remember your preferred setting if there are a few of you using the machine with different preferences.

Breville Oracle Touch

The Oracle Touch is similar to the S8 in that you use a touchscreen display to choose your favorite coffee. You can then cycle through the customizable options and save your preferences for later.

However, there’s more involved in the brewing process as you need to move the portafilter after the coffee has been ground and tamped to the brewhead. Plus you need to add milk to the jug for frothing.

This may be too much of an annoyance for those looking for ultimate convenience. But it does give you more flexibility to get your shots exactly how you want them. Plus it makes the whole process feel like you’re a master Barista making perfect coffee with ease.

Winner

The S8 is undoubtedly an easier machine to use than the Oracle Touch. It’s incredibly simple with minimal effort required to get your perfect coffee. Whilst the Oracle Touch is still very simple, there are more steps involved. This is generally true of all Breville coffee machines – they prefer a more involved coffee experience.

Jura Espresso Machine S8

The S8 has 7 grind settings, 10 coffee strength settings, 3 water temperature settings, adjustable water and milk volume, and adjustable milk foam. That’s a lot of customization options.

In fact, there are 210 possible coffee outcomes for each of the 12 coffee options simply by adjusting the grind setting, water temperature, and strength.

Everything except the milk foam can be adjusted through the touchscreen or via Jura’s app. I’m a big fan of the app though I don’t own an Apple watch so haven’t tried brewing my coffee from my wrist which looks insanely cool.

It’s almost impossible to imagine that you won’t be able to produce EXACTLY what you want from this coffee machine.

Breville Oracle Touch

The Oracle Touch takes customization to an entirely different level. It’s what makes it one of the best Breville espresso machines you can buy.

Starting with a whopping 45 grind settings, you can then adjust the temperature in 2°F increments, plus the weight of ground coffee up to 22g. Add to that adjustable milk temperature, foam texture, and milk-to-foam ratio, and you have a frankly insane level of control.

With all this control, you may worry that you’ll get confused. We can’t guarantee that you won’t but you can at least save 8 drinks to simply select from at a later date which takes away some of the stress. The steaming wand can also be used manually for the control freaks like me.

If you want to fiddle with the minutiae of your coffee selection, this is the machine for you.

Winner

The customization options on the Breville Oracle Touch are staggering, giving you near-total control of your coffee brewing. The S8 is easier to customize but has a much smaller range of choices, though they’re certainly not lacking.

S8 by Jura

Jura’s commitment to being as easy to use as possible extends to cleaning. This automatic espresso machine will let you know when it needs descaling and take you through the process step by step, using their branded cleaning products.

The brew group can’t be removed for deep cleaning. But there don’t appear to be any issues as a result so we can safely assume that the internal cleaning processes do the job very well.

Oracle Touch by Breville

The Oracle Touch is also exceptionally easy to clean but is more of a “little and often” clean rather than the occasional deep clean that the Jura requires. The big advantage of the portafilter system is that there is no danger of nasty stuff building up in your brewer as it can be quickly cleaned after each use.

You also don’t need to pay for expensive cleaning supplies to run “descaling” cycles every so often. The Oracle Touch needs less maintenance as there are fewer moving parts on the inside of the machine. Just dismantle and clean the grinder every week or so and make sure the milk wand stays clean and you’ll be fine.

Want to Dive Deeper into the Jura S8?

Check out our in-depth review of this awesome espresso maker. It falls in the middle of the Jura coffee range, offering great functionality for the price.

Read More

Winner

Both are top super automatic espresso machines that make cleaning as simple as possible. It all comes down to whether you would prefer one big deep clean every so often, or more frequent cleans that take just a few minutes.

The question is, do you want ease or customization?

If you want great coffee as easily as possible then the Jura S8 automatic coffee machine is the one for you. It is super simple to use – just push a button and get extremely good espresso.

The Breville Oracle Touch is one of the best coffee machines available if you want to be more involved in brewing your espresso. Especially if you want to fiddle with settings to get the best from your favorite single-origin espresso beans.

The coffee quality is indistinguishable, they are two of the finest coffee machines money can buy. So it really boils down to how you want to use the machine day to day. Few coffee machines offer this kind of quality, customization, and great looks. They’re both fantastic.

Entry-Level Showdown: Jura ENA 4 vs Breville Barista Pro

This used to be the Jura A1 vs Breville Barista Pro battle, but the A1 has sadly been discontinued and we’re still not over it. But move on we most.

The ENA 4 is now Jura’s entry-level offering. Rather than comparing it to the entry level offering from Breville, which is almost a third of the price, we’re comparing it to the Barista Pro which is roughly the same price to allow for a fairer comparison and competition.

Jura ENA 4

Sleek curves with a diamond-patterned cylindrical water carafe, the Jura ENA 4 is a great-looking machine. Available in a choice of black or white, it’s one of the best-looking home coffee machines you can buy – a talking point of any kitchen.

Jura’s signature design style shines through with the chrome accents and gorgeous display. Although the water carafe may divide a few people, the diamond pattern helps keep it looking nicer for longer.

Considering the entry-level status, it’s still pretty big. Measuring in at 10.7” x 12.7” x 17.5”, the depth means it will need some counter space, even if it isn’t too wide or tall. All that tech has to fit somewhere after all. That said, by super-automatic espresso machine standards, this is still a compact machine.

Jura’s reputation for build quality is hard-earned and the ENA 4 is no exception. With proper cleaning, it should easily be brewing awesome espresso for 5-10 years and look great whilst doing it. Usually, it’s the grinder that gives out after around a decade rather than the machine itself.

Breville Barista Pro

Breville’s preference for making café-style espresso machines can be seen in the Barista Pro which I like, but it won’t be for everyone.

What’s great about the Barista Pro is that it comes in a choice of 9 colors. The bad news is that all except the brushed stainless steel and black are more expensive and they’re all pretty muted. But it’s nice to have the options.

The Barista Pro is also a big machine. Measuring 13.9” x 13.5” x 16”, it takes up a significantly larger portion of your kitchen than the ENA 4. If you’re limited on counter space this could be a problem but for those with the space, it’s still relatively compact when compared to the offerings of other coffee machine brands.

Breville also makes robust coffee machines that are built to last. With very few moving parts compared to the Jura machines, there is less that can potentially go wrong. So, you can reasonably expect a similar 5-10 year lifespan from the Barista Pro – possibly even longer.

Winner

Jura espresso machines are frequent recipients of design awards so it’s hard to argue with the sleek looks of the ENA 4. As build quality is a hallmark of both coffee brands, they both come out equal there. So, the Jura ENA 4 wins this category purely based on superior looks.

The Breville Barista Pro, however, gets bonus points for being available in a range of colors – not something offered by most coffee machines at this price point.

Jura ENA 4

If Jura does one thing well it’s making super easy to use super-automatic espresso machines. So, the ENA 4 really couldn’t be easier to use. As it only makes 2 types of coffee anyway, you just push the buttons on the top to select what you want and cycle through the options for changing the strength and water volume.

Once your settings are saved, it’s just a one-button machine for pulling espresso, black coffee, or doubles of each. Coffee brew cycles don’t get any easier than that.

Breville Barista Pro

The Barista Pro has more customizable options than the ENA 4. This means there’s a little more work involved and it’s slightly more complex to get used to, if only because there are more things to choose from. However, the LCD screen clearly displays your current settings and instructions making it very easy to choose the options you’re after.

Whether this style of coffee brewing is better depends on whether you want to be able to customize different coffee drinks or if you are just looking for simplicity.

Winner

In the battle for simplicity, the ENA 4 wins hands down.

But it does also have fewer options so there are sacrifices for that extra ease of use. Being one of the best Jura coffee machines for black coffee lovers, if this is you, the ENA 4 is the clear winner. But, if you want milk frothing and more customization, simplicity doesn’t mean anything as you won’t have those options.

Jura ENA 4

The Jura ENA 4 doesn’t offer a lot in terms of options, but then it isn’t meant to:

You get three strength options, then you can adjust the water volume from 0.5 oz up to 8 oz. This does mean you could program the ENA 4 to make lungo (long shot), or ristretto if you prefer. The ENA 4 is designed to produce superb black coffee, nothing more, nothing less.

Breville Barista Pro

The Barista Pro offers a lot more customization options.

There are 30 grinder settings, then you can adjust the strength, pre-infusion time, extraction time, and temperature. So you can make a lot more different coffee drinks with the Breville Barista Pro than its competitor from Jura.

Dialing in the coffee you want is definitely possible. It just might take some fiddling with settings.

Winner

The Breville Barista Pro is a vastly superior coffee maker in terms of customization options. Even if all it had was the milk wand, it would still offer more than the ENA 4. That’s the market that Jura was aiming for, of course, but when we are stacking up the range of options, the Barista Pro is in a different league.

Want to Dive Deeper into the Breville Barista Pro?

Check out our in-depth review of the Breville Barista Pro: an incredible semi-automatic espresso machine for beginner’s and more experienced coffee lovers alike.

Read More

Jura ENA 4 Espresso Machine

Like everything else with the ENA 4, cleaning is mostly automatic and incredibly easy. The espresso machine does it all for you on a daily basis and will let you know when a deep clean is required.

Carrying out a deep clean does involve using branded cleaning products. And it comes with the caveat that the brewgroup can’t be removed so it begs the question as to whether it is adequately cleaned. But it all seems to work great and thousands of happy customers can’t be wrong.

Breville Barista Pro

The portafilter design of the Barista Pro makes cleaning very easy. Just remember it needs to be done after every use to keep it in top condition.

Milk frothing wands can get very dirty very quickly. So you need to stay on top of cleaning the wand to make sure it doesn’t get blocked. Overall though, it’s still a very easy machine to keep clean.

Winner

They’re both really easy to clean, but the Jura is ridiculously low maintenance so has to take the W here too. This was a close race though. The only real reason the Breville is harder to clean is that it has a milk wand – extra features mean extra cleaning.

If all you want to drink are espressos or black lungo coffee, the Jura ENA 4 is the clear winner. You’ll get exceptional coffee without all the bits you don’t need.

For literally everyone else, the Breville Barista Pro is the standout. It has a milk wand for a start. This alone even will make it the better option for many people.

The level of customization is far beyond what the ENA 4 can offer. Every negative of Breville’s Barista Pro vs the Jura ENA 4 is caused by it having more features allowing it to do more things. These extra features are obviously only good if you actually use those things.

The ENA 4 is for the espresso drinker who wants an amazing coffee machine to automatically make their perfect espresso shot. The Barista Pro is for literally everyone else.