✔️ Horizontal vs. vertical loaf shape: Bread machines produce either horizontal or vertical loaves. ✔️ Settings: Most bread machines come with settings for different types of bread, such as white, whole wheat, or sweet loaves, and some offer additional special cycles for various doughs or even jam. If the bread maker doesn't have an automatic add-in feature, the machine beeps to signal when to add extra ingredients, but a few times I missed the alert when stepping away and ended up with plain bread.