This is no April fool's joke, it is indeed possible to get a professional espresso machine for as low as $200, and in fact if you choose to, you can even opt not to pay.

Of course, nothing is free in this world, with such arrangements, there would always be some strings attached.

The consideration would be how the "strings" works for you? If you are acceptable to the terms for this arrangement.

A commercial espresso machine requires a fast turn around, and huge water capacity to brew espresso and froth milk so the machine overall capacity is big.

With such a big capacity, the price that you would need to pay is also much higher than those home espresso maker.

On average, you can expect to pay between $5000 to $8000 for a standard commercial grade espresso machine.

Do note that at this price tier, the espresso machine does not comes with a lot of features.

Yes, it is expensive, and that is the reason why some cafe and coffee shop owners opt for other arrrangment

You might think it is impossible to get an espresso machine for $200, but that is not to purchase it but to rent it. And at $200 per month, you would be able to get a pretty high end machine such as Cimbali or even better.

The rental model also has many perks throw in such as installation and free on site maintenance.

The fixing of pipes and electrical points can run into a couple of hundreds of dollars, so any savings you have is welcome especially for cafe just starting out.

Personally, I think the free on site preventive maintenance adds the most value. Imagine this, someone maintaining the machine free of charge, to ensure that you can serve great tasting espresso to your customers every time!

This is a relative new model and not many companies is yet exploring it. This free on loan model is actually a spin off from the office coffee service.

For commercial setting, the cafe or coffee shops would have to take much higher minimum order of coffee in order to quality for a espresso machine to be loan free to them.

Other than coffee purchase, the coffee company would usually request the coffee shop to show their brand names, featured their coffee in their drinks menu and even use their products in their food products.

There you have it, some ideas to think through when it comes to getting an espresso machine for your cafe.