These two machines sit close together at checkout and far apart over five years. The difference is not hidden inside a headline: the same live calculation used by the coffee-machine page is broken out below.
The machine was never the expensive part
A £94 hardware gap is small beside years of capsules, beans or ground coffee. Every drink repeats the system’s per-cup economics, so a difference that feels minor at one cup becomes substantial after four cups a day for five years.
Capsule systems are especially easy to misread because the machine can be inexpensive while the compatible capsule price is effectively a recurring subscription. The box price tells you which machine is cheaper today; the per-drink input tells you which routine is cheaper to sustain.
Why the answer can change
Fewer cups reduce the influence of coffee and pods. More milk drinks increase external milk cost only for machines whose research model requires it. Bean price, electricity rate and ownership period are all editable, so this is a reference comparison rather than a universal verdict.