Gaggia - Classic (Pre 2018)

Gaggimate/Gaggiuino>Profitec Go>Gaggia in objective capability. Gaggia out of the box is great for Italian style espresso, but I found it lacks the control needed to properly enjoy a larger variety of espressos (eg lighter roasts). Profitec Go seems nice, and I almost bought it myself but went with Gaggia to save space. I’m glad I did because I then did Gaggimate, and the pressure/flow profiling plus temp control, brew by weight, etc etc far outdoes the Profitec for about the same price. Basically gives you capabilities similar to a $4k Decent. The mod does require some effort, but I think anyone can do it and there’s an active Discord if you need help. Be sure not to cheap out on the grinder either - DF54/64 are a really great value, aside from a few exceptions most cheaper grinders are not good enough to make good espresso.

I’d never use a stock GCP; if I had to choose between a stock GCP and a Bambino, I’d choose a Bambino every time (I’ve had both) Without modifying, I wouldn’t touch a GCP, no consistency (for me); modified (Gaggiuino, in my case), I consider it far beyond a beginner machine. I don’t ever have upgrade fever

This is exactly how I feel. I’m totally satisfied with my modded Gaggia, performs great and I like my workflow. Maybe would upgrade someday just for fun, but have no reason to. 

Really, the next step up from this machine is anything with a PID. The Bambino Plus has that, and it's a common mod for the GCP, although Gaggiuino is almost certainly the best bang for buck mod route with the GCP.

Hit r/gaggiaclassic and/or the Gaggia Classic Facebook groups. There's already been some fairly comprehensive discussion there. TLDR: the UP is not really mod-able (Gaggiuno/GaggiaMate) due to the highly integrated logic board design, so if that's a future goal, just get an E24. Also, the pressure gauge shows boiler pressure, not true brew pressure.

If you only do espresso and not milk drinks, consider the flair 58. It heats up fast, uses a standard 58mm portafilter, and is a fully manual lever (complete control, quiet). It is slower to use than most— at around 3-4 minutes more per shot, and does not come with steam capability. That said, the flair 58 gives you all the room you need to grow as you learn to pull shots, since you control all the factors involved— 2 bars, low pressure experimental shot? pull slowly and pull gently. Going for a vintage spring lever profile? Pull hard, then ease off slowly. Low pressure, long preinfusion? Pull gently, keep the pressure, then pull hard all the way down. Pair it with a nicer grinder: lagom casa, baratza forte/ Vario plus, zerno, timemore 064s. If not the flair 58, the Profitec Go is probably the best in that price range. If you like to tinker, a gaggia classic pro + gagguino upgrade/DIY mod for more capability at the same price. Slightly stretching the budget, lucca tempo, for quick and strong steaming (if that matters for entertaining). But focus on the grinder— that’s the key

Used Gaggia Classic with the Gaggimate mod (I know, biased), plus a Kingrinder K6. If you want a slightly more polished OOBE, maybe a Bambina Plus and an Encore ESP. Leftover budget in both cases can go towards accessories (tamper and scale at least) and nicer coffee

For that budget I'd seriously consider looking for used machines, then buy something like a DF54 to go along with it. Marktplaats has tons of machines available at any given time, things like Gaggia Classics, Rancilio Silvias and Quick Mill 820 and 3000 are always quite available. You'll need to inform yourself what to watch out for for any given machine, but that's quite manageable. Accesories are also much cheaper second hand (sometimes people sell them with their machines), and it's not exactly like a knock box or tamper will deteriorate a lot over time

Just by nature of its function it's gonna be hard to get an espresso machine that will last without maintenance and/or replacing parts long-term. High heat and pressure are not nice to things. What you're looking for is something easily repairable. Look for legacy brands and then take a look at their machines that have fewer electronics and more tried and true mechanisms that have easy to find off the shelf parts. I'd recommend Rancillio or Gaggia semi-autos and Flair or La Pavoni if you don't mind levers. I own a 2013 Gaggia and there's 0 signs it's gonna quit anytime soon.

So my husband and I have two espresso setups. I worked as a barista when I was in uni, so I'm more bothered about coffee. My husband likes my coffees, but he's not bothered enough to go through the 'proper espresso' steps when I'm not home. In the kitchen I have a modified gaggia classic (£500 new). I use locally roasted whole beans coffee (£8-12 per 250g). I stick it through a DF54 single dose grinder (£180 new). I use a cheap dosing funnel, tamper, WDT tool, and scale (all cheap via AliExpress). I stick it through a bottomless portafilter with a non-pressurised single wall basket. I froth milk in a cheap milk jug with a proper fully manual steam wand. This makes coffee that is on par or better than coffee from specialty coffee shops. - My husband (who WFH) has a much more simple and cheap setup in 'his' home office. He uses regular supermarket preground coffee (£2.5-4 a bag). He sticks it through a stock Delonghi Dedica (£160-180, using the portafilter and pressurised basket that comes with it. He doesn't weigh his coffee or his shots, just scoops it out and tamps it straight from the jar with the plastic scoop/tamp tool that comes with it. He steams milk with the 'semi automatic' steam wand that comes with the delonghi - it doesn't take any skill or knowledge to steam milk with it. This makes coffee that is better than Nespresso, miles better than Macdonald's/Greggs, and still better than Pret/Nero/Starbucks/Costa. But not as good as a proper speciality coffee shop (or mine from my kitchen setup). - If you don't know about espresso, I'd get a machine like the Delonghi Dedica (or the Bambino) - it's quite cheap, small, makes better espresso than coffee chains, and you can still get the upgrades and grinder later if you want to 'up your game'.

The gaggimate only looks as ugly as you want it to look. There are a lot of housing options for the displays made by the community, most look better than the housing for sale on the gaggimate store. There are also options for smaller screens, but it only supports round displays for now. There is also an option not to have a display at all and just use the buttons on your machine as you usually would, and set up the profiles from you phone. Personally, I'd still take a modded classic machine from pre 2014 with a gaggimate or gaggiuino, as it offers more than the gaggia up does, like profile building, flow and pressure control, brew by weight. I understand that modding a machine and various profiles is a bit of a faff and too nerdy for most people, and that the up offers a machine for the customer who just wants a machine that makes an espresso without having to take up a whole new pointless hobby of espresso machine modding, but i think for that customer, the profitec go is the better option, every part of it is easy to fix, source/replace.

Do you have any tolerance for fiddling? It would be relatively simple and inexpensive to add a PID and a dimmer to a gaggia, which you could mess with to your hearts content, and have a pressure gauge for analog readout. Plus (unconfirmed because I don’t have any data, but I think it makes sense) you could insulate the boiler, which should decrease heat-up time, probably. Personally I like the electronics and the data from having a preset profile, so I did a gaggiuino, but at least from a hardware perspective the gaggia is solid, and you can add on whatever controls you like to augment that. The new gaggia with the brass boiler and a Silvia are slightly “fancier” versions of this same thing, and the profitec go/ecm casa v would be an “upscale” version of this same idea. You could also install the “silent” lelit pump or that diaphragm vibe pump silencer, if you so desired