Quick Answer: Only get the Jura Z10 if you’re going to make iced milk drinks like an iced latte or cappuccino. If you’re not going to make these types of drinks then get the Jura S8.
The Jura Z10 is typically $1,000 more expensive than the Jura S8.
In this comparison of the Jura S8 vs the Jura Z10, I’ll explain why it’s only worth paying this extra money for the Jura Z10 if you’re going to make iced milk drinks.
Let’s get started.
Should I Get the Jura S8 or the Jura Z10?
Get the Jura Z10 if you want to make iced-frothed milk drinks like iced lattes and iced cappuccinos. If you aren’t going to make these types of drinks, then you’re better off getting the more affordable Jura S8.
The main difference between the Jura Z10 and the Jura S8 is that the Jura Z10 can brew “cold brew” coffee and cold milk foam, both of which come out of the machine at slightly above room temperature.
This means that the Z10 allows you to make drinks over ice without melting all your ice.
So, in essence, choosing the Jura Z10 over the Jura S8 is choosing to pay around $1,000 more for the ability to make iced milk drinks.
Jura Z10
The Jura’s Z10 cool milk foam feature allows you to make iced lattes at home.
Read Jura Z10 Full Review
If you’re not going to make iced milk drinks then save yourself the money and get the Jura S8.
I’d still recommend the Jura S8 if the only iced drink you want to make is iced espresso.
You can make the S8’s hot espresso over ice and not melt all your ice if you use large ice cubes.
Jura S8
The Jura S8 can make hot coffee drinks just as well as the Jura Z10 and typically costs around $1,000 less than it.
Read Jura S8 Full Review
What Are the Differences Between the Jura S8 and Jura Z10?
The table below shows the differences between the Jura S8 and Jura Z10.
| Better Value Than the Jura Z10 | Make Iced Lattes At Home |
| Jura S8 | Jura Z10 |
| 3.5 | 3.5 |
| $2,699 – $2,284 | $3,799.00 |
| Get it on Amazon | Get it on Amazon |
| 5 | 12 |
| 4 | 16 |
| None | 10 |
| Yes | No |
| No | Yes |
| Touch screen | Touch screen with rotary dial |
The differences between the two machines are (in order of importance):
- The Jura Z10 lets you make cold milk foam. The Jura S8 only makes hot milk foam.
- The Jura Z10 makes “cold brew” coffee. The Jura S8 does not have this feature.
- The Jura Z10 has 19 more menu items than the Jura S8 (however most of these are just cold versions of existing drinks).
- The Jura S8 lets you adjust your milk texture manually. The Jura Z10 cannot do this.
- The Jura Z10 is controlled by a touch screen and a rotary dial. The Jura S8 just uses a touch screen.
- The Jura Z10 has a “product recognizing grinder”. The Jura S8 does not have this feature.
Let’s run through how these different features affect the two machine’s functionalities, performance, and ease of use.
Jura Z10’s Cold Milk Foam
The Jura Z10’s cold milk foam lets you make iced lattes and cappuccinos without all your ice melting. The Jura S8 cannot do this.
The Jura Z10 has 10 milk temperature settings, but I’d imagine most people just use its highest and lowest settings.
Its lowest milk temperature is slightly above room temperature. Crucially, it’s cool enough that you can make a latte (or any other milk drink) over ice and it won’t melt all your ice.
The Jura S8 can only steam milk to one (hot) temperature. This will melt all your ice if you try to make an iced milk drink. The end result will be something lukewarm, watery, and just not very appetizing.
So if you want to make iced lattes, cappuccinos, and flat whites, get the Jura Z10 instead of the Jura S8.
Jura Z10’s “Cold Brew” Coffee
Although the Jura Z10’s cold brew coffee isn’t bad, I don’t think that this feature alone is reason enough to get the Jura Z10 instead of the S8.
The Jura Z10 makes its cold brew drinks by dripping room-temperature water slowly through your ground coffee.
You can see a video of the Z10 brewing a cold brew espresso below (watch from 5:51-6:40):
The sequence in the video is sped up. Brewing generally takes around 60-90 seconds depending on the size of your drink.
I haven’t tried the Jura Z10’s cold brew myself but users of the machine on Reddit seem to like it. You can see examples of people singing its praises here and here.
“The longer extraction time and coarser grind really do make it taste closer to a cold brew coffee than a normal extraction- I get a nutty flavor from our beans, with less acidity. It tastes very good, and is a milder than a normally made cup.”u/funmobile
Jura Z10 users also comment that the machine’s cold brew is weaker than traditionally made cold brew. This makes sense since cold brew is traditionally steeped for 12 hours, rather than 90 seconds.
The Jura Z10’s cold brew comes out at just above room temperature, so I think it’s intended to be drunk over ice.
In all honesty, if you have big ice cubes or enough ice, you can have the Jura S8’s hot espresso over ice for a similar effect. Because espressos are small they won’t melt large ice cubes even if they are poured over them piping hot.
I have a hot espresso over ice cubes every morning, and my ice cubes have only melted about 10% of their volume by the time my espresso is ice cold.
So in short, while the Jura Z10’s cold brew isn’t bad, I don’t think it’s enough to justify spending more on the Z10 compared to the S8.
You can still drink the Jura S8’s hot coffee over ice without all your ice melting so it can serve the same purpose as the Jura Z10’s cold brew.
The Jura Z10 Has More Menu Items Than the Jura S8
The Jura Z10 can make cold versions of all the S8’s drinks and also has a handful of exclusive drinks, namely the caffe barista, lungo barista, and cortado.
You can recreate all of the Jura Z10’s exclusive drinks with the Jura S8 just by playing around with the latter machine’s customizations.
For example, a cortado is just a cappuccino with less milk. So you can make it with the Jura S8 by making a cappuccino with the Jura S8 and then turning the milk volume down (cortado has 4 seconds of milk dispensing as default).
You can do similar with the caffe barista and lungo barista.
So the main difference between these two machines’ menus is the Jura Z10’s inclusion of cold drinks.
This just reaffirms the point that the choice between the Jura S8 vs Z10 hinges on whether you’re willing to pay an additional $1,000 to be able to make iced drinks with your machine.
The Jura S8 Lets You Adjust Your Milk Texture Manually. The Jura Z10 Does Not Have This Feature
The Jura S8’s milk frother has a toggle that lets you switch between hot and foamed milk. The Jura Z10 doesn’t have this toggle.
The Jura S8’s milk frother switch lets you choose between hot milk or foamed milk. Put the switch in the twelve o’clock position for hot milk and the three o’clock position for milk foam.
You can even change texture as your milk is being dispensed if you want a combination of hot and foamed milk.
The Jura Z10’s milk texturing is a bit strange.
While the machine offers hot and foamed milk as separate menu options (so the machine is capable of producing both), it does not have this dial.
So the machine also does not let you customize your milk texture for each menu item. Instead, you just select the menu item and what you get is what you get, milk texture-wise.
So if you want an espresso mixed with hot milk (rather than foamed milk) the only way you can guarantee this is to brew an espresso and then top it with hot milk separately.
I think it’s a bit odd that the Jura Z10 does not let you customize your milk texture for each drink individually.
If you only drink hot milk drinks then I actually think that the Jura S8 is better than the Jura Z10 because of this easier milk texture customization.
The Jura Z10 is Controlled By a Touch Screen and A Rotary Dial. The Jura S8 Just Uses A Touch Screen
The Jura Z10’s inclusion of a rotary dial does make it a fair bit easier to control than the Jura S8.
All Jura machine’s touch screens have it that sometimes you have to tap a button on the touch screen (such as selecting a menu item) and sometimes you’ll have to swipe your finger against the touch screen (such as selecting your coffee’s strength).
Unfortunately, Jura touch screens aren’t great at detecting when you’re tapping the screen and when you’re swiping.
This can lead to a lot of wrong selections when the machine registers a tap instead of a swipe.
You can see a Jura user complaining about this in this Reddit thread:
And the UX of the interface.. oh god, took me 3 days to understand i have to swipe and not tap to change various settings. This is so counter intuitive.. If I were the PM or QA of this thing, every run I would do I would bring up this as a major UX pain point.u/rabus
The Jura Z10 uses a rotary dial which you can use to make “swipe” selections, rather than using the touch screen. This overcomes the touch screen tapping/swiping problem.
The Jura S8 does not have this rotary dial, only the touch screen, so you’ll always have this touchscreen issue.
As you get more and more used to the Jura’s touch screen’s quirks, accidental presses should happen less often, but the fact that Jura felt the need to add a rotary dial to the Jura Z10 shows that they acknowledge this is a problem.
The Jura Z10 Has A “Product Recognising Grinder”. The Jura S8 Does Not Have This Feature
The Jura Z10 will automatically change its grind size depending on what drink you select. This is only necessary because the Z10 makes cold brew coffee which requires a much coarser grind than espresso.
The Jura S8 cannot change its grind size automatically – you need to change its grind size manually by opening a lid behind the grinder and turning a dial. The Jura S8’s grinder dial is just behind the grinder
I think the reason why the Jura Z10 has this feature is because of its cold brew coffees.
Cold brew requires a much coarser grind than espresso, and forgetting to change the grinder setting when you switch from an espresso to a cold brew will result in the cold brew tasting bad.
So while it’s a nice feature to have on the Z10, you won’t miss it on the Jura S8 because it doesn’t make cold brew.
What do the Jura S8 and Jura Z10 Have In Common?
Here are what the two espresso machines have in common.
They Both Make Espresso and Milk Drinks at the Touch of a Button
Both machines have the same workflow, allowing you to make espresso, drip-style coffee, and milk drinks with one button press.
They Have the Same Brewing System
Both machines have one thermoblock heating system for their espresso brewing and milk steaming.
This means that you can expect both machines to have a similar lifespan.
An espresso machine’s heating system is usually its first component to give out. So the fact that these two machines use the same heating system means that they should last the same amount of time.
They Look Similar
The machines look very similar to each other.
I wouldn’t buy one machine over the other purely for aesthetics.
They Both Require the Same Cleaning and Maintenance
Both machines have the following cleaning and maintenance procedures:
- They both need to have their drip tray and used coffee ground containers emptied and rinsed every few days.
- They both run a quick rinse cycle when turning on and off.
- They both need to have their milk system cleaned after every milk drink. Here is a video on how to do this.
- They both need to have their brewing system cleaned using cleaning tablets after every 180 drinks that they make.
- Neither machine needs to be descaled if you use Jura smart Claris water filters.
- They both need to have their rubber milk pipe changed every 3 months.
Both Machines Can Be Controlled From Your Smartphone
Both coffee machines can be controlled via your smartphone with the Jura app.
The general consensus of the Jura app on Reddit is that it sucks. As one user eloquently puts it:
“The J.O.E. companion app is horrendous. It feels like it was made, but not finished, in a week by a summer intern who then decided he wanted to become a monk. And then nobody finished the app, but they put it up on the app store anyway.”u/educated_eel
The app is equally horrendous on both machines so it’s no reason to go for one over the other.
I’m now going to assess the Jura S8 and Z10 along the following criteria:
- Espresso quality
- Milk steaming performance
- Functionalities
- User-friendliness
- Design and durability
- Value for money
Espresso Quality
Both machines use the same grinder and brewing system, so make equal-quality espresso.
All Jura machines make the same quality of espresso and other black coffee drinks, with the exception of their ENA range (the Jura ENA 8 and ENA 4), which make slightly inferior coffee).
Espresso Quality Winner: Draw
Milk Steaming Performance
Although the Jura S8 gives you more control over your milk’s texture, the Jura Z10’s ability to make cold milk foam means that it’s overall a better machine for milk drinks.
If you’re only going to drink hot milk drinks, then the Jura S8 is the better machine because its milk texture adjustment dial lets you easily switch between adding hot milk and milk foam to your drink.
The Jura Z10 instead forces you to choose between either hot milk or milk foam and gives you no easy way to change between these two options.
That being said, the Jura Z10’s ability to make cold milk foam means that it’s a better machine for milk drinks than the Jura S8.
Milk Steaming Performance Winner: Jura Z10
Functionalities
The Jura Z10’s ability to make iced drinks means it has far more functionality than the Jura S8.
This leap-up in functionality is the biggest difference between the Jura Z10 and the Jura S8. With the Jura Z10, you’re basically paying an extra $1,000 to be able to make iced coffee and iced latte.
Functionalities Winner: Jura Z10
User Friendliness
The Jura Z10’s addition of a rotary switch to its control panel makes it slightly easier to use than the Jura S8.
Both machine’s touch screens can be a bit jumpy when you have to swipe to make a selection.
The Jura Z10’s rotary dial lets you make these swipes in a more reliable way. This makes it slightly easier to use than the Jura S8.
User Friendliness Winner: Jura Z10 (but only just)
Design and Durability
Both machines have the same basic design and use the same internal and external components. So you can reasonably expect them to last the same amount of time.
The two machines have the exact same:
- External material
- Touch screen
- Heating system
- Grinder burrs and gears
The machine’s differences lie in their functionalities rather than in their build. So they should last you the same amount of time assuming you use them in the same way.
Design and Durability Winner: Draw
Value for Money
The Jura Z10 only offers better value for money than the Jura S8 if you think it’s worth paying an extra $1,000 to make iced lattes.
I think that most people would not think that this is worth it. So for the majority of people, the Jura S8 offers better value than the Jura Z10.
Value for Money Winner: Jura S8
Jura S8 vs Z10: Final Verdict
I only recommend the Jura Z10 over the Jura S8 if you are going to make iced milk drinks with your machine.
Jura Z10
The Jura’s Z10 cool milk foam feature allows you to make iced lattes at home.
If you aren’t going to make these drinks then get the Jura S8 instead of the Jura Z10. The Z10’s only real upgrade compared to the Jura S8 is the ability to make these drinks.
Even if you are going to make iced black coffees then I’d still recommend the Jura S8 over the Jura Z10 as you can brew the S8’s espresso over ice cubes without melting all your ice.
Jura S8
The Jura S8 can make hot coffee drinks just as well as the Jura Z10 and typically costs around $1,000 less than it.
If you’d like to find out more about what Jura has to offer then check out my roundup of the best Jura coffee machines.
