Buy an AeroPress if you make one cup at a time and want it easy. Buy a French press if you make several mugs at once and like a heavy, full-bodied cup. Buy a pourover cone if you want the cleanest, brightest coffee and enjoy taking three careful minutes over it.
All three are cheap, all three make excellent coffee, and none of them is a wrong choice. They differ in how many cups they make, how much attention they ask for, and what the coffee feels like in your mouth. This guide compares them side by side so you can pick one and get brewing.
Side by side
| AeroPress | French press | Pourover | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tastes | Smooth, rounded, bold | Rich, heavy, textured | Bright, clean, layered |
| Makes | 1 cup, up to about 10 oz | 1 to 5 mugs, by press size | 1 to 2 cups, up to about 21 oz |
| Hands-on time | About 2 minutes | A minute, then waiting | 3 to 4 minutes, all hands-on |
| Forgiveness | Very forgiving | Forgiving | Rewards good technique |
| Filter | Paper (a metal disc is optional) | Metal mesh | Paper |
| Cleanup | Easiest: pop out the puck | Messiest: scoop out sludge | Easy: throw away the filter |
| Starting recipe | 15g, 180g water | 30g, 480g water | 20g, 320g water |
| Also needs | Nothing | Nothing | A kettle you can pour slowly |
Choose the AeroPress if…
- You drink one cup at a time, especially in the morning when you do not want to think.
- You travel, or want something that survives a bag or a desk drawer.
- You like to tinker. It handles almost any grind, time, and temperature, and the AeroPress page has recipes from a straight cup to a concentrate for milk.
Its limit is size. The standard model makes one mug, so it is the wrong tool for a household that drinks a pot. Its paper filter makes a cleaner cup than a French press, but it has less body than one and less clarity than a pourover. It sits comfortably in the middle.
Choose the French press if…
- You make coffee for two or more, or drink several mugs over a morning.
- You like a heavy, rich cup with body you can feel. The metal mesh lets the coffee’s oils through, and that is what gives it the weight.
- You want the least technique. Pour, wait, press. The French press page has a slower method that cuts the sludge right down.
Its drawbacks are sediment at the bottom of the cup and the cleanup. The oils that give it body also carry cafestol, which raises cholesterol in people who drink a lot of unfiltered coffee; see filtered vs unfiltered coffee if you drink several cups a day.
Choose pourover if…
- You buy good beans and want to taste them. Light and single-origin coffees taste their most distinctive brewed this way. See flavor profiles.
- You enjoy the process. Pourover asks you to pour in stages, watch the time, and adjust. For many people that ritual is the point.
- You want the cleanest cup. The paper filter catches the oils and fine particles, so the coffee is light-bodied and clear.
It is the least forgiving of the three. Grind, pour speed, and water temperature all show up in the cup, and a cheap grinder shows up most of all. A gooseneck kettle helps but is not essential to start; see what to buy for your first coffee setup.
Things that matter more than the brewer
Whichever you buy, the same three things decide most of the taste:
- Fresh beans. Stale coffee tastes flat in any brewer. See how long coffee stays fresh.
- A decent grinder. A burr grinder makes more difference than which of these three you pick.
- The ratio. Weigh your coffee and water. The ratio calculator gives you both for any of these brewers, starting from each one’s own recipe.
What about a drip machine?
If you want several cups with no effort at all, a good drip machine beats all three. It is the right choice for a household that wants a pot ready in the morning. The manual brewers win on control, cost, and the size of the cup you can make well; a drip machine making a single cup is rarely at its best.
Still undecided?
Start with the AeroPress if you drink alone, and the French press if you do not. Both are inexpensive, hard to get wrong, and teach you what changes a cup. If you later find yourself wanting more clarity from good beans, a pourover cone is the cheapest second brewer you can buy. The methods page compares all nine methods on this site, including moka pot and cold brew.