We Tested the 5 Best Bread Machines for Home Kitchens

Our Favorite

Our favorite bread machine overall, the Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus, is on the pricey side, but it's worth it for a person who will use their bread maker with some frequency. It turns out gorgeous, evenly-cooked loaves with perfectly soft, golden crusts, and its versatile presets and delayed-start timer make it easy to set it and forget it. If you're looking for an equally versatile machine with a smaller footprint, we also loved the Cuisinart Compact Automatic Bread Maker.

Factors to Consider

Size

Choosing the best bread maker is a matter of knowing yourself and your needs, like how big you need your loaves to be. Some machines only produce loaves of one size, whereas others allow you to produce various sizes. So, knowing how big (or small) you prefer your bread size is important. There is also the matter of how big the machine is itself. If you are short on counter space, you may want to look into a smaller model that you can easily store away in your kitchen cabinets. But if space is no object and you're a frequent baker, a bigger machine could stay out on your countertop with no problem.

Features

Not all bread machines are created equal, and since home bakers want different things from their appliances, that may be OK. The machine that delivers 10, 1-pound gluten-free loaves a year may not be the same bread maker that makes the best 2-pound whole wheat loaf once a week. Are there specific automatic settings you’d prefer your bread maker to provide, or do you want to be able to tweak the kneading and baking period to meet the needs of your own recipes? Do you want the bread machine to do the kneading for you? Do you care if the kneading paddles leave marks on your loaves? These are all features to take into consideration when choosing the best bread machine for you.

Some machines come with pre-programmed settings that allow you to simply put in the ingredients and push a single button, while others are more suited to customizing your loaf. If those types of features are important to you, then you'll want to pay close attention to what settings your machine offers and whether or not they can be adjusted manually.

Ease of Cleaning

Lastly, how hard is it to clean the machine and all of its accouterments? Does it require disassembly, and are all of the pieces hand-wash only? These days, there are many bread machine models that come with dishwasher-safe parts; however, there are still plenty that don't offer that convenience. You should also consider which parts of the machine are removable and which ones aren't, as that will affect how thoroughly you can clean them. Some parts may only require a quick wipe-down with a damp cloth, while others might require a bit of soaking if they're covered in sticky dough. Overall, knowing how much time and effort you wish to commit to cleaning your machine is important when looking to make an investment in a countertop bread machine.

The Tests

After researching the different options on the market, we selected 20 bread machines (13 vertical and 7 horizontal) based on what our competitors were recommending and by analyzing each machine's overall functionality and features. To find the best bread makers out of the bunch, we put all the models through a series of tests and inspections in our lab that were designed to determine their efficacy, including how well they produced plain white bread, the outcome of their banana bread, and how easy they were to clean after use. We also prepared the loaves using the recipes that came with each machine in order to evaluate them as fairly as possible. Some of the other factors we looked for during testing included, what settings the machines provided, the consistency of their performance, their versatility, and how easy they were to use.

Each machine was first evaluated on its ability to produce a classic loaf of white bread, taking into account how easily the bread released from the pan, its texture, and the color of the crust. We also observed whether or not the kneading blades stuck to the bottom of the loaf. Then, we made a loaf of banana bread to determine how well each machine distributed add-ins throughout the baking process. Finally, we cleaned each machine according to the manufacturer's instructions, observing how much dough or baked bread was left behind on the paddles, whether there was any flour scattered throughout the machine, how difficult it was to take apart, and whether its parts were dishwasher-safe. Throughout testing, we noted how complicated each machine's features were to use and if their pre-programmed settings were easy to work with for producing different kinds of bread. We also looked at how well each one performed and how versatile they were when it came to handling various breads (as well as noting things like how the machine kneads and what additional helpful features there were, such as a “keep warm” or “gluten-free” functions).

Other Bread Machines We Tested

Strong Contenders

Breadman 2-Pound Professional Bread Maker ($280 at Amazon)

This machine is well-engineered, from its solid construction to its industrial, stainless steel design. But despite its luxury feel, we found that its performance was too inconsistent for it to rank higher on our list.

CUSIMAX 2-Pound Bread Maker ($110 at Amazon)

The CUSIMAX produced a great loaf of white bread, and we loved how easy its recipes were to follow. However, it seemed to struggle with other types of bread and didn't do a great job of fully incorporating the dry ingredients into our banana bread loaf.

KBS Large 17-in-1 Bread Machine ($128 at Amazon)

We loved how easy this machine was to use, including its automatic add-in feature and its straightforward display and settings. However, due to the lackluster loaves it produced, we were not as impressed by its performance as we were by some of the other machines on this list.

What Didn't Make the List

There were a few other models that stood out to us during our testing, but they ultimately didn't make the cut when compared to our favorites. The Cuisinart 2-Pound Convection Bread Maker (CBK-200) was among those that didn't quite measure up. Despite its versatility and easy-to-use design, we found this machine to be pretty shakey and loud during use. The Zojirushi Home Bakery Maestro Breadmaker didn't live up to the performance of its counterparts on our list either. With limited instructions and no viewing window at the top, it is difficult to monitor your bread during the baking process, making it anyone's guess as to how the final product will turn out. Add in the fact that you have to allow the machine to cool completely before you can start another bake cycle, and you're left in a bit of a pickle if your loaf comes out underbaked. We also tested the Neretva Bread Machine and the KITCHENARM 29-in-1 SMART Bread Machine, but despite the Neretva's aesthetic appearance and the KITCHENARM's 29 settings, their performance left much to be desired.

Our Expertise

Contributors and food writers Christa Glennie and Summer Rylander wrote this piece using our expert testers’ findings. While sampling and examining the loaves, our expert testers learned a lot about each machine’s strengths and weaknesses above and beyond operation. They evaluated each machine on its ease of use, performance, versatility, and ease of cleaning. When combined with the test results, our contributors’ longstanding devotion to all things gluten and culinary backgrounds easily determined which of the bread makers stacked up.