Seeing as how I didn't have $300-$700 to spend for what I really wanted, for the price it is perfect. If you don't mess with the plastic frothing piece and use the bare steam wand it froths well enough and if you grind your own beans you can pull very nice shots. One slight hitch is that it leaves kind of a wet mess of grounds in the portafilter, but not drippy enough to make cleaning up a huge inconvenience, and the reason for that is a finishing shot of steam to make sure the pump is empty between uses, so it's a good thing. I'm just very happy this budget-friendly option allowed me to brew at home again!