Abstract: A process is described for continuously preparing alkyl esters of (meth)acrylic acid by reacting (meth)acrylic acid and alkanols having from 1 to 5 carbon atoms in homogeneous, liquid, solvent-free phase at elevated temperature and in the presence of an acidic esterification catalyst, in which the (meth)acrylic acid, the alkanol and the acidic esterification catalyst are fed to a reaction zone (5, 6), the water formed during a residence time is removed rectificatively as a constituent of an alkanol-comprising mixture in a rectification unit III attached to the reaction zone (5, 6), the distillate obtained here is separated into an alkanol-comprising organic phase and a water-comprising aqueous phase, the organic phase is recycled into the rectification unit III and the aqueous phase is discharged, and a reaction mixture (21) is discharged from the reaction zone (5, 6), which comprises feeding the reaction mixture (21) discharged from the reaction zone (5, 6) to a catalyst removal unit V and separating it i