Many grinders can go from extremely coarse to extremely fine, but the important mark of an espresso capable grinder is the ability to make miniscule adjustments to the grind size. The difference in grind size between a perfectly extracted shot and a passable one is pretty marginal. This is not the case for filter and french press coffee, where there’s not as much need for fine adjustments. You might also find that what you prefer in a grind profile for an espresso is different from what you’d like in a filter coffee. People who prefer traditional espresso with a silky texture and stronger mouthfeel to it will probably like burrs that produce more fines, which give the shot more body. In filter coffee though, this will just lead to a muddy, overextracted brew. This difference is so stark that some people buy aftermarket burrs to swap out for their preferred brew method. A company called Niche recently released a grinder called the Niche Duo that has an almost hotswapping system for the grinder to make this process easier. You probably won’t find an electric grinder capable of doing both espresso and filter for under a thousand without some work on your part.

The alternative though is to use hand grinders. There are multiple premium hand grinders that produce amazing coffee for much cheaper than their electric counterparts. Relatively upstart brands like 1zpresso have multiple different hand grinders targeted at specific brew methods, but the 1zpresso JX Pro is really capable of doing both brew methods to a surprisingly good degree. There’s also established titans like the Comandante, which is featured in many barista competitions. Hand grinding for espresso isn’t too hard, but it will definitely work out your forearms, and I wouldn’t really recommend it for people who have arm/wrist issues. I can grind enough for my morning shot in about 30 seconds.

If you really wanted to get a grinder, I would focus on just getting one for now, and potentially picking up another to supplement the original grinder later. I went with a hand grinder to start with, but now I use both a hand grinder and an electric grinder. I hand grind for espresso, since I pull fewer espresso shots and have an espresso-focused hand grinder, and I use my electric grinder for filter brews. It was just a bit of a pain to swap back between grind settings for espresso and filter, especially when espresso requires such careful adjustments to it. This was really just a quick rundown on grinders, and was by no means exhaustive. If you’re interested in going down the rabbit hole, Lance Hedrick on YouTube has numerous videos on the topic of hand grinders, and is far more knowledgeable about the topic than I could ever be. His full reviews are lengthy and nerdy deep dives, but it’s useful to have this repository before spending money.