Best Bread Machines in 2026: Loaf Shape, Gluten-Free Cycles, and the Dough-Only Trick

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Our quick picks

Below: why each one made the list, the numbers worth comparing, and what is wrong with it.

A bread machine is three appliances in one box on a timer: a mixer that kneads, a warm cabinet that proves, and a small oven that bakes. Understanding that is the whole guide, because it tells you what these machines are excellent at and where they are compromised.

What they are excellent at: taking flour, water, yeast and salt and producing a warm loaf with no skill and no attention, on a schedule, for years. What they are compromised at: the shape and the crust. A machine bakes in a deep pan with a kneading paddle in the bottom, so most loaves come out tall rather than long, with a hole in the base, and with a softer, paler crust than an oven produces.

Which brings us to the most useful thing in this guide, and the feature almost nobody uses. Every machine here has a dough-only cycle. Load it, let it knead and prove, then take the dough out, shape it, and bake it in your oven. You get real oven bread — proper crust, proper shape, no paddle hole — with the machine doing the part that takes skill and time. If you have ever been disappointed by the crust on machine bread, that is the answer, and it is free.

So the decision below is mostly about loaf shape, how much bread you actually eat, and whether you need a gluten-free program. Everything else is detail.

The one safety rule that is not obvious

Do not use the delay timer with milk, eggs, butter, yoghurt, cheese or fresh dairy in the pan. A delay timer leaves the ingredients sitting at room temperature, sometimes for many hours, before anything heats up. That is fine for flour, water, sugar, salt, oil and dry yeast. It is not fine for perishables, and this is the mistake that turns the machine’s best feature into a food-safety problem.

If you want to wake up to a loaf, use a recipe with no perishable ingredients — which is most basic bread. Use dry milk powder rather than fresh milk if a recipe wants dairy. For anything enriched with eggs and butter, bake it on a normal cycle while you are there.

Two smaller ones: the steam vent in the lid puts out hot steam for a long time, so do not lean over it and do not put the machine under a cupboard you need to open. And the pan and the paddle are extremely hot for a long while after the cycle ends — use oven gloves, and remember that a machine on a low counter is at a small child’s head height for two hours.

Vertical or horizontal — the decision that matters most

Almost every machine has a deep square or round pan and produces a tall, column-shaped loaf. Slice it and you get square slices that are taller than a supermarket slice and often too tall for a toaster.

A few machines — a small number, and they cost more — use a long horizontal pan with two kneading paddles instead of one. Those produce a loaf shaped like a loaf, with slices that fit a toaster and a sandwich, and the two paddles knead more thoroughly which improves the crumb.

If you are buying a bread machine to make sandwich bread that replaces what you currently buy, the horizontal pan is worth the money and it is the main reason our top pick is our top pick. If you are buying it to have warm bread with dinner, the shape is irrelevant and you should spend the money elsewhere.

What else actually matters

• Loaf size, honestly assessed. Most machines offer 1, 1.5 and 2 pound loaves; some go to 2.2. Homemade bread with no preservatives is best on day one and stale by day three, so a large loaf is only an advantage if your household will actually eat it. Two people are often better served by a 1 pound machine making bread more often.
• A real gluten-free program. Gluten-free dough must not be kneaded like wheat dough and rises once, not twice, so a genuine gluten-free cycle is a different program rather than a label. If this is why you are buying a machine, check that the cycle exists and read what it does.
• A dough-only cycle. For the oven-baking trick above, and for pizza dough, rolls, cinnamon buns and pasta. This is the feature that makes the machine useful beyond loaves.
• A heater in the lid, or dual heaters. The usual complaint about machine bread is a pale, soft top. Heat from above is what browns it. Machines that only heat from below cannot fix this.
• Power, roughly. Kneading stiff dough — especially wholemeal — needs torque. Underpowered machines struggle and the motor is the part that eventually fails.
• A viewing window. Sounds trivial and is really useful, because seeing the dough ball form is how you learn whether your flour needs a spoon more water today.
• Delay timer and keep-warm. Both standard. Read the safety note above about the timer, and take the loaf out promptly regardless — bread left in a warm pan steams and goes soggy-crusted.
• The pan and paddle coating, and whether you can buy replacements. The nonstick pan is the consumable in a bread machine. A model whose pan and paddle you can still buy in five years is a machine you can still use in five years.
• Beeper for add-ins. A prompt to add nuts, seeds or fruit at the right moment, so they do not get pulverised in the knead.

The bread machines we would actually buy

Ratings and review counts were checked as we wrote this. One thing to know about this category before the picks: bread-machine searches are unusually polluted with parts and lookalikes. Our searches returned replacement kneading paddles, drive belts, pan covers, a stand mixer and a breakfast sandwich maker on the first page. Read the title before you order.

1. Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus — best overall

Rated 4.6 stars across nearly 5,000 ratings. A horizontal two-pound pan with two kneading blades and a heating element in the lid, which together address the two real weaknesses of the format.

Two blades rather than one means the dough is worked evenly along the length of the pan rather than spun around a single point, and it produces a visibly better crumb — more even, less dense at the ends. The heater in the lid browns the top, so the loaf comes out looking like bread rather than like something pale that has been steamed. And the horizontal pan gives you slices that fit a toaster and make a normal sandwich.

It also has the courses that matter: a genuine gluten-free program, a wholemeal course that allows a longer knead and rise, a sourdough-starter course, a dough-only cycle and a jam setting. Zojirushi has been making these for decades and the machines have a reputation for running for many years, which in an appliance with a motor and a gearbox is the specification that actually matters.

• Horizontal pan — loaf-shaped bread, toaster-friendly slices
• Two kneading blades for a noticeably more even crumb
• Heater in the lid, so the top browns properly
• Real gluten-free, wholemeal, sourdough-starter and dough-only courses
• Long reputation for lasting many years
• Clear window and an add-ins beeper

Where it falls short: it is the most expensive machine here by a wide margin, and if you want warm bread rather than sandwich loaves you will not get that value back. It is physically large and heavy, and it wants a permanent home on a counter rather than a cupboard — a bread machine you have to lift out is a bread machine you stop using. The horizontal pan still leaves two small paddle holes in the base. And reviewers consistently note that the manual and the interface feel dated, with a learning curve on the custom settings.

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2. KITCHENARM 29-in-1 — best for gluten-free baking

Rated 4.6 stars across nearly 7,900 ratings — the same rating as our top pick on a deeper review base. Twenty-nine programs including a dedicated gluten-free cycle, and a one-press mode that remembers your settings.

We are singling it out for gluten-free specifically, because that is where this category either works or fails badly. Gluten-free dough is a batter, not a dough: it needs mixing rather than kneading, and it rises once. A machine that runs a wheat program on a gluten-free mix produces a dense collapsed brick, and a great many disappointed reviews across this whole category are exactly that. A machine with a properly implemented gluten-free cycle is the difference between usable bread and waste.

The very high program count is mostly marketing — nobody uses twenty-nine settings — but the useful ones are all there, including dough-only, yoghurt and jam, and the one-press feature actually removes friction from making the same loaf every week.

• Strong rating on a deep review base
• Properly implemented gluten-free cycle
• One-press repeat of your usual settings
• Dough-only, yoghurt and jam programs as well
• Good value against the Zojirushi for most of the function
• Clear window and add-ins alert

What owners complain about: it is a vertical pan, so the loaf is tall and the slices are square — fine for eating, awkward for a toaster. Twenty-nine programs means a menu you have to learn rather than three buttons. Reviewers report the nonstick pan coating as the wear point, so check replacement pan availability before you commit to it long-term. And it is a newer brand than the established names here, which matters for parts in five years.

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3. Cuisinart Bread Maker — deepest review base, and the sensible middle choice

Rated 4.4 stars across more than 17,100 ratings, which is the deepest review base of any bread machine we found. Stainless steel body, twelve programs, three loaf sizes and three crust settings.

This is the machine to buy if you want a bread maker rather than a project. Twelve programs is the right number — basic, French, wholemeal, sweet, gluten-free, dough, jam and a few more — and three loaf sizes means you can make a small loaf midweek and a large one at the weekend from the same machine.

The seventeen thousand ratings are the real argument. In an appliance with a motor, a gearbox and a heating element, a large and stable review base at a decent average tells you the failure rate is acceptable, which is not something a specification sheet can tell you.

• Deepest review base in the category
• Twelve well-chosen programs including gluten-free and dough-only
• Three loaf sizes and three crust shades
• Stainless body that wipes clean and does not yellow
• Widely stocked, with paddles and pans readily available
• Straightforward controls

The downside: vertical pan, so tall square slices. At 4.4 stars the complaints are real and consistent: the nonstick pan coating wearing after a couple of years of regular use, and a top crust that stays pale because the heat comes from below. Reviewers also note it is louder during the knead than the more expensive machines. And — a category-wide warning that applies hardest here — searching for this model returns replacement paddles and pan covers above the machine itself.

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4. KBS Pro 710W — best for large loaves and wholemeal

Rated 4.4 stars across more than 11,600 ratings. A 2.2 pound capacity with a 710-watt motor, a stainless body, seventeen programs and a recipe book that reviewers actually mention using.

The reason to pick this one is power and capacity together. Wholemeal and multigrain doughs are stiff and heavy, and they are where underpowered machines audibly struggle and eventually die. A stronger motor kneads them properly rather than pushing them around, which shows up in the rise. If most of what you want to bake is wholemeal, seeded or multigrain rather than white sandwich bread, this is the pick.

A 2.2 pound loaf is also large — worth having for a family that gets through bread, and worth avoiding for a household of two, because homemade bread with no preservatives is not good on day three.

• Deep review base at an acceptable rating
• Strong motor that handles wholemeal and multigrain dough properly
• 2.2 pound capacity for a large household
• Seventeen programs including gluten-free and dough-only
• Stainless body and a viewing window
• Recipe book that reviewers rate as actually useful

What you give up: vertical pan, tall loaf, and a bigger paddle hole than the smaller machines. At 4.4 stars the complaints cluster on the pan coating and, in a minority of reports, on the machine arriving with a dented pan — unbox and check before the return window closes. It is loud on the wholemeal knead, which is the trade-off for the torque. And 2.2 pounds of bread is a lot of bread; do not buy the capacity you will not eat.

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5. Zojirushi Home Bakery Mini — best for one or two people

Rated 4.5 stars across roughly 2,200 ratings. A one-pound machine from the brand with the best reputation in the category, and the pick we would push against most people’s instincts.

The logic is the same as with slow cookers. Homemade bread has no preservatives: it is excellent on day one, fine on day two and stale on day three. Two people buying a two-pound machine end up either eating stale bread or throwing bread away, and eventually stop bothering. A one-pound machine making a fresh small loaf twice a week is a machine that gets used.

It also takes up much less counter space than the large machines, which matters more than people expect — a bread machine in a cupboard is a bread machine you have retired.

• One-pound loaf, which is the right size for one or two people
• Zojirushi build quality and longevity in a small machine
• Much smaller footprint than the two-pound machines
• Dough-only and jam cycles as well as bread
• Solid review base at a good rating
• Fresh bread more often rather than stale bread for longer

The part that annoys people: it is a vertical pan and a single blade, so it does not give you the loaf shape or the crumb of the Virtuoso Plus. It is expensive for its size — you are paying for the brand and the longevity, not the capacity. It has fewer programs than the cheaper large machines, and notably it does not have the full course list of its bigger siblings, so check the specific cycles you need. And one pound of bread is truly one pound; it will not stretch to a family.

Check the current price on Amazon →

6. Hamilton Beach Automatic Bread Maker — best budget pick

Rated 4.4 stars across roughly 1,400 ratings. Fourteen settings including gluten-free, two loaf sizes, three crust shades, a delay timer and a window — the whole standard feature set at the bottom of the market.

This is the machine to buy if you are not sure you will use a bread machine, which is a reasonable thing not to be sure about. Plenty of people love the idea and discover that in practice they buy bread because it is easier. Finding that out cheaply is better than finding it out expensively, and if you do use it every week you can upgrade later knowing exactly which features you actually want.

It is also the most sensible thing here to give as a gift to someone who has mentioned wanting to try baking bread, for the same reason.

• Cheapest way into the category with the standard feature set
• Fourteen settings including a gluten-free cycle
• Two loaf sizes and three crust shades
• Delay timer and viewing window
• Long-established brand with wide availability
• Low-risk gift or low-risk experiment

Where it disappoints: the shallowest review base of our picks, so less long-term data. It is the least powerful machine here and reviewers report it labouring on stiff wholemeal dough, which is where cheap machines fail. The top crust stays pale, because there is no heat from above. Build quality is plastic and it feels it. And the pan coating is the wear point, as it is on every machine in this guide — but here the machine is cheap enough that a worn pan may mean replacing the machine.

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Runners-up

The Neretva 2.2 pound 15-in-1 is rated 4.5 stars, on about 900 ratings. It is one of very few machines at its price with dual heaters, which is the feature that browns the top crust and the thing most cheap machines cannot do. We have kept it out of the picks only because a 900-rating base is thin for an appliance with a motor, not because we found anything wrong with it. If the pale-crust problem is what bothers you and the Zojirushi is out of the question, it is the one to look at.

Close calls we passed on

• Replacement paddles, drive belts, pans and machine covers. Not a joke — our searches returned all four on the first page, above the machines. A Cuisinart paddle, a Hamilton Beach drive belt and a fabric machine cover all ranked above actual bread makers. Read the title.
• A stand mixer and a breakfast sandwich maker. Both appeared in searches for bread makers from those brands. Check you are buying the appliance you think you are.
• “Renewed” bread machines. The motor, gearbox and heating element are the expensive parts and you cannot assess any of them from a listing. Not in this category.
• Machines with no gluten-free program, sold as gluten-free capable. Running a wheat cycle on a gluten-free mix produces a dense collapsed loaf, and a large share of the angry reviews across this whole category are exactly that.
• Machines whose pan and paddle are not sold separately. The nonstick pan is the consumable. If you cannot buy another one, the machine’s life is the pan’s life.
• The 2025–2026 wave of new listings with a few hundred reviews. There are many, they look identical, and an appliance with a motor and a gearbox is not the place to gamble on a brand with no history.

A quick way to decide

• Do you want sandwich bread that replaces what you buy? Horizontal pan. That is the Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus and it is the main reason to spend more.
• Is gluten-free the reason you are buying one? Check the machine has a real gluten-free cycle, and prefer one where reviewers say it works. The KITCHENARM is our pick for this.
• One or two people? A one-pound machine. Fresh small loaves beat stale big ones, and it takes half the counter space.
• A family that gets through bread? Two pounds or 2.2, and prioritize motor power if you bake wholemeal.
• Mostly wholemeal, seeded or multigrain? Power matters more than programs. The KBS.
• Not sure you will use it? Buy the Hamilton Beach, find out cheaply, upgrade later if you love it.
• Do you care about crust more than convenience? Then buy any of them and use the dough-only cycle, baking the loaf in your oven. That is the honest answer to crust.
• Where will it live? If the answer is “in a cupboard,” buy the smallest one. A machine you have to lift out is a machine you will not use.

Getting good bread out of it

• Weigh your flour rather than measuring cups. A cup of flour varies substantially depending on whether you scooped or spooned it, and bread is far less forgiving of that than a cake. A kitchen scale is the single biggest improvement available to bread-machine baking.
• Use bread flour, not all-purpose, for white loaves. The higher protein is what gives structure and rise. This is the most common cause of a dense loaf.
• Add ingredients in the order the manual says, which is almost always liquids first, then flour, then yeast in a small well on top.
• Keep yeast and salt apart until the mixing starts. Salt in direct contact with yeast kills it. Put them in opposite corners.
• Check the dough ball five minutes into the knead. It should be a smooth ball that clears the sides. Too wet and sticky, add flour a spoon at a time; too dry and crumbly, add water the same way. Flour absorbs different amounts on different days and this ten-second look is what separates consistent loaves from lottery loaves.
• Use lukewarm water, not hot. Water hot enough to feel hot kills yeast. Body temperature is right.
• Do not use the delay timer with dairy, eggs or anything perishable. Use dry milk powder instead if a recipe wants milk.
• Take the loaf out as soon as the cycle ends. Leaving it in the warm pan steams the crust soft.
• Cool it on a rack for at least half an hour before slicing. Bread is still setting inside when it comes out, and cutting it hot gives you a gummy crumb. This is hard to wait for and it makes a real difference.
• Fish the paddle out of the loaf with a wooden or plastic tool, never a metal one, or you will scratch the nonstick.
• Never soak the pan, and never put it in the dishwasher unless the manual says you can. Water in the shaft seal is what kills bread pans. Wipe it out warm.
• Store the loaf in a paper bag or a bread bin, not plastic, for day one. Plastic softens the crust. Slice and freeze whatever you will not eat in two days — homemade bread freezes and toasts beautifully and goes stale fast.

Frequently asked questions

Is bread from a bread machine as good as oven-baked bread?

The crumb can be just as good. The crust and the shape are not — a machine bakes in a deep pan with a paddle in the bottom and cannot brown a crust the way an oven does. The fix is to use the dough-only cycle and bake the loaf in your oven, which gives you oven bread with the machine doing the kneading and proving.

Why is my machine bread dense or collapsed?

The usual causes, in order: all-purpose flour instead of bread flour; flour measured by volume rather than weight; water too hot and the yeast killed; old yeast; salt in contact with the yeast; or too much liquid so the dough rose and then collapsed. Checking the dough ball five minutes into the knead catches most of these while you can still fix them.

Can I use a bread machine for gluten-free bread?

Yes, if it has a real gluten-free cycle. Gluten-free dough is closer to a batter: it wants mixing rather than kneading, and it rises once instead of twice. Running a normal wheat program on a gluten-free mix produces a dense, collapsed loaf, which is what most of the disappointed gluten-free reviews in this category are describing.

Is it cheaper than buying bread?

Compared with supermarket own-brand sliced bread, not necessarily. Compared with a bakery loaf or a premium supermarket sourdough, usually yes. But the honest reason to own one is control — you know exactly what is in it, you can make the bread you actually want, and it is warm.

Why is there a hole in the bottom of my loaf?

That is where the kneading paddle was. Every machine does this. You can lift the paddle out after the final knead and before the bake on some models, which reduces it, and baking the dough in your oven removes it entirely.

Can I leave it on a timer overnight?

For a basic loaf of flour, water, salt, sugar, oil and dry yeast, yes — that is what the timer is for. Do not do it with milk, eggs, butter, yoghurt or cheese in the pan, because those sit at room temperature for hours before anything heats up. Use dry milk powder if a recipe calls for milk.

What size bread machine should I buy?

Buy for what you will eat in two days, not for the biggest number. Homemade bread with no preservatives is excellent on day one and stale by day three, so a one-pound machine used often beats a two-pound machine used occasionally. Two pounds and up makes sense for a family that gets through bread.

How long does a bread machine last?

The nonstick pan is the consumable and typically wears first, often within a few years of regular use — check you can buy a replacement pan and paddle for whichever model you choose. The machine itself, from an established brand, commonly lasts many years; the motor and gearbox are what eventually go, usually on machines that have been asked to knead heavy wholemeal dough they were not powerful enough for.

What we would buy

If you want bread-shaped sandwich bread and you will use the machine every week, the Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus is the one worth paying for — the horizontal pan, the two blades and the lid heater are the three things that fix what people dislike about machine bread. If gluten-free is the reason you are buying one, the KITCHENARM is our pick. For most people who just want a bread maker that works, the Cuisinart has seventeen thousand ratings behind it at a fair rating, and that is a good enough reason.

And whichever you buy: weigh the flour, use bread flour, look at the dough ball five minutes in, and try the dough-only cycle with your oven at least once. Those four things will do more for your bread than the difference between any two machines on this page.

Also worth reading: our guide to the best toasters — including why your first slice is always paler than the second.