Cool - OK so I last year I bought my first coffee set up for home. I spent a hell of a lot of time researching what to buy before doing so. I was put onto the Coffee Forum UK site by I think Dubbers and I have spent a lot of time on that forum since as the various machines / grinders etc. have piqued my interest since dipping my toe.
The people on that forum are a lot more knowledgeable and experienced by myself (some can be quite snobby when it comes to equipment), but the general rule of thumb is that most hand grinders are not suitable for espresso - they can’t grind fine or consistent enough - blade grinders even less so. You can get hand-grinders that will do a good job, but you are into the £120 plus range for Made By Knock Aergrind or above. I got quite a shock at the prices of hand grinders.
If you prefer electric - the Sage Smart Grinder Pro is a stepped grinder with 60 settings which can pretty much do it all. (there are also 10 different burr settings, so technically this opens up to 600 settings, although in reality you never need that many settings). There are pros and cons of stepped grinders in that you can remember what grind setting works best on which bean, and it is very easy to change between settings with the LCD display. It gets mixed reviews on the CFUK Forum - but in terms of bang for buck it is hard to beat at the price. If you wanted to spend a little more, the Eureaka Mignon Manuelle is pretty widely regarded as a great lower range grinder. It’s stepless so might make changing between settings more tricky than something like the Sage SGP. Pricewise you’re looking at about £200 for the Sage and £250 for the Eureka Mignon brand new. If you buy used you can probably get both for £50 less than new (maybe less if they are out of warantee periods), but both tend to hold their value quite well
