We Tossed, Sauced, and Baked Many Pies to Find the Best Pizza Ovens

Best Overall

Ooni Koda 12 Pizza Oven

$399 at Amazon $400 at Williams-Sonoma $320 at Food52

Ooni is a major name in pizza ovens so it's no surprise the brand sits at the top of our list. The Koda 12 is one of the brand's less-expensive models, but after thorough testing both in the Lab and at home, we've deemed it our best overall choice for a variety of reasons. First, it couldn’t be easier to set up and use: Take it out of the box, unfold the legs, and you're ready to go.

This is an attractive oven with a sleek design, no chimney, and three legs that keep it stable on any surface. The body is powder-coated, cold-rolled steel with stainless steel accents. We found it easy to transport, weighing just under 30 pounds. When it’s time to store or travel, the legs fold down. It comes with a stone baking board for the perfect pizza crust, which can handle pizzas up to 13 inches (the pizza stone is 13.3 inches wide).

During testing, the Koda 12 took 15 minutes to reach the recommended temperature. The manufacturer claims it takes 15 minutes to reach 950 degrees Fahrenheit, and although we measured the back of the oven at "just" 830 in that time frame, we felt that was plenty hot, and still one of the quickest preheat times of all the ovens we tried. With super-high heat, this oven can cook a pizza in a minute, which we found true when cooking our whole-wheat pie. The supreme pizza we made took just 30 seconds longer than that.

We were also impressed with its consistency in producing multiple pizzas back-to-back with evenly melted cheese and perfectly cooked toppings. The Koda 12 cooks pretty evenly, but at these high temperatures, you have to turn the pizza every 20 seconds or it'll burn. Getting the hang of turning takes some practice, but it's easy to make pizzas once you do (and we found that a smaller peel helps).

Going beyond pizza, we used it to cook whole fish, steak, lamb chops, pineapple, tomatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, beets, and other veggies and were happy with all of the results. For pizza and more, this is an exceptional oven at a reasonable price.

It's not fully weatherproof, but it's easy to move out of inclement weather, and cleaning is simple. Ooni offers a three-year warranty if you purchase directly from its site. If you need more space, this model has a bigger brother, the Ooni Koda 16, that can handle pizzas up to 16 inches and can also be converted to run on a home gas line instead of a propane cylinder. It performed similarly well in Lab testing compared with the Koda 12, but it took longer to heat up and is more expensive.

Temperature Range: Up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Propane | Max Pizza Size: 13 inches | Weight: 29 pounds | Dimensions: 15.7 x 11.6 x 24.8 inches

Runner-Up, Best Overall

Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven

$403 at Amazon $450 at Walmart $403 at Wayfair

Outdoor enthusiasts might be familiar with the Solo brand for its camping stoves, a set of ingenious devices that generate tons of heat using minimal amounts of fuel, or for its warm and comforting fire pits. Solo jumped into the trendy world of home pizza ovens with the Pi, and we're happy to report that this machine makes great pizza.

The Pi is simple to set up: Place it on a stable surface, insert the snug-fitting two-piece pizza stone, and start the fire. (Solo also sells a wheeled stand made to fit the oven for extra portability.) The firebox is fairly small, needing frequent additions of small pieces of wood, but we found that it quickly heated the oven and made for a nice smoky char on the crust. The heat is highest at the back of the oven nearest the fire, which means you need to turn the pizza frequently for even doneness—but honestly, that's part of the art of pizza-making.

When it comes to cleanup, the Pi gets hot enough that anything sticking to the pizza stone or interior will burn to ash, which can simply be brushed away after the oven cools. The firebox is also removable to simply dump out the ash from the cooking fuel. The stainless steel exterior is made to stand up to outdoor storage and just wipes clean with a damp cloth. The pizza stone itself is removable for deep cleaning and can also be flipped over if one side gets stained.

If there's a big design flaw with this oven, it's the lack of a door on the front. The Pi retains enough heat to cook pizzas with no problem, but on a windy day, a gust blasting through the opening can interfere with the fire burning and even potentially blow it out.

In all, this oven performed quite similarly to the Ooni Koda above, with a somewhat higher price. Despite its bulky cylindrical look, it's almost the same in size and weight, too. Solo sells a range of accessories made to work with the Pi, from a bamboo peel to a full pizza kit including dough, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.

If you prefer to use gas, Solo recently released the Pi Prime, which is essentially the same oven but with propane burners instead of a firebox for wood. We've tested it in our Lab as well as at home, and have gotten great results. The heat is more even and controllable than with the original, and it has an even higher maximum temperature, though you sacrifice some of the distinctive smoky notes of wood-fired pizza. (You can also buy a gas burner attachment for the original Pi that lets you use either type of fuel, but this adds expense.) And, after trying out the Pi Prime for months, we are still sold. It is a solid performer and is somewhat easy to travel with. Some discoloration in the stainless steel has appeared even with its protective cover due to weathering the conditions (aka winter), but we can probably get that off with a little bit of elbow grease.

Temperature Range: Up to 850 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Wood (can also use propane with burner sold separately) | Max Pizza Size: 12 inches | Weight: 31 pounds | Dimensions: 20.5 x 15.1 inches

Best for Wood Pellets

Ooni Fyra 12 Pizza Oven

Orig. $349 $249 at Amazon $250 at Williams-Sonoma View on Ooni.com

As you might have figured out from our list of winners, Ooni makes a lot of great pizza ovens. Its various models have a similar design but use different fuels to cook the pizza, and the Fyra is an excellent choice for the barbecue master who already has a wood pellet–powered grill or smoker. Pellet fuel is designed to start burning easily and heat quickly, and that's indeed what our tests found; after 15 minutes, the Fyra hit the second-highest temperature of all the models we tested, reaching 850 degrees Fahrenheit at the back of the oven. That kind of performance yielded beautiful crust, with nice smokiness from the wood fuel.

Like the other Ooni models, the Fyra is simple to assemble and is lightweight enough to move around fairly easily, though its tall chimney and large cylindrical pellet hopper render it somewhat more cumbersome than the Koda. The biggest downside is that managing the wood pellet fire takes some getting used to. The Fyra's attached hopper is self-feeding, but we found that keeping it topped up and the fire burning evenly required constant monitoring. Pellet fuel burns faster, hotter, and more evenly than wood chunks, but it also produces more smoke, so it's a good idea to place your Fyra away from doors and windows.

Temperature Range: Up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Wood pellets | Max Pizza Size: 12 inches | Weight: 22 pounds | Dimensions: 29.1 x 15.4 x 28.5 inches

Best Budget

Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Oven

Orig. $90 $79 at Amazon Orig. $105 $88 at Walmart $90 at Wayfair

If you prefer cooking your pizza indoors but don’t want to heat up your oven and your kitchen, the Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Pizza Oven does the job—and it’s fun to watch. The major selling points of this model are its budget-friendly price and portability.

The pizza tray rotates continuously to bake the pizza evenly without burning. It heats from both the top and bottom, just not at super high temperatures. However, the heating elements can be controlled separately, so if the crust is browned before the cheese is gooey, you can turn up the top heat and turn down the bottom heat.

In tests, it took a while to heat up, and there was some inconsistency in the browning of the crust, but the cheese melted well, and the pepperoni on the frozen pizza cooked up nice and crispy. We like that a timer turns off the heat automatically, so you can walk away without worrying about a burned pizza, and an audible signal will alert you that your pizza is done. The pizza tray is removable and has a nonstick coating for easy cleaning.

It's worth noting that you may notice multiple versions of the Presto Pizzazz for sale when browsing. While the packaging and finishes have changed a bit from time to time, the pizza maker and its controls have stayed essentially the same with every model.

Temperature Range: Unspecified | Heat Source: Electric | Max Pizza Size: 13 inches | Weight: 7.7 pounds | Dimensions: 15.3 x 14.3 x 10.3 inches

Best Indoor

Breville Pizzaiolo Pizza Oven

Orig. $1,000 $800 at Amazon $1,000 at Walmart $800 at Williams-Sonoma

With an indoor pizza oven, you don’t need to worry about the weather, fire, or lighting conditions so it's often easier and more convenient than an outdoor option. This Breville model can reach 750 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature required for authentic pizza. It is well-insulated, so the exterior stays pretty cool to the touch despite the super-high heat, although there will be some smoking.

Like other smart Breville appliances, this has easy-to-use settings, so it’s simple to choose frozen thin-crust pizza, deep dish, or a wood-fired style pizza. It’s also possible to customize the settings to get the perfect results for any pizza style and personal preference. In testing, we successfully baked a frozen pizza in 15 minutes using the oven's preset option and achieved fantastic results—nicely browned crust and golden brown cheese. We also successfully baked everything from frozen pizza to a thin Margherita pizza to a pan pizza layered with cheese and a meaty Bolognese. You won't get quite the same smoky flavor as a wood-fired grill, but for ease and convenience, the Breville cannot be beaten.

The pizza stone is designed to produce the essential char you’d find on wood-fired pizza, while radiant heat provides the attractive leopard-spotted crust; convection heat perfectly cooks the cheese and toppings. Unlike ovens that only allow overall temperature control, this one has separate controls for the top and bottom heating elements for custom cooking options. In fact, we officially dubbed the Breville "the ideal nacho machine." It may be specialized for pizza, but we included the Pizzaiolo in our roundup of overall best countertop ovens because of that customizability.

It comes with a stainless steel pizza peel for sliding pizzas in and out of the oven and a carbon steel pan with a removable handle for thicker pies. While the metal peel works for removing pizzas from the oven and is sufficient for frozen pizzas, we found dough sticks no matter how much cornmeal you use so we recommend a wooden peel. The oven itself is attractive enough to leave on the counter, and while it's on the larger side for a toaster-style oven, it's still simple enough to move or store on a (large) shelf.

This is another pizza oven we have continued to fire up after testing in our Lab, and we are still impressed, especially when the weather is not cooperating for pizza night. We particularly love it for imported Chicago Deep Dish pies due to its ability to cook at lower, and controlled temperatures. Perhaps the most underrated result of our long-term testing is that it's still pretty clean.

Temperature Range: Up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Electric | Max Pizza Size: 12 inches | Weight: 45.6 pounds | Dimensions: 22.3 x 21.4 x 18.9 inches

Best for Wood-Fired Pizza

Ooni Karu 12 Pizza Oven

$299 at Amazon $402 at Walmart $300 at Williams-Sonoma

There’s something about the flavor of wood-fired cooking that makes it incredibly appealing, and the Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven delivers since it can run on gas, wood, or charcoal, just like many barbecue grills. You can grab some hickory, mesquite, and maple wood for their unique flavors or load it with a bag of charcoal. It can also be used with gas if you purchase the gas burner (sold separately). After extensive testing, we were consistently impressed with the delicious results.

Setup is easy, but because of the multi-fuel feature, there are a few more components to keep track of than other models. The body is stainless steel with ceramic fiber insulation, so it holds in the heat, while the included Ooni baking stone retains heat for a perfect crust every time.

While the manufacturer says this oven can get up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit in just 15 minutes, we found it took quite a bit longer. However, once heated, the oven held the temperature well and cooked the pizzas evenly—as long as you turn them often (every 15 seconds). Supreme pizzas, whole wheat pizzas, and veggie pizzas were cooked to perfection in our testing. Pizzas can be cooked in as little as 45 seconds!

A chimney baffle controls the heat by adjusting the oxygen flow for high heat or for low-and-slow cooking. A port on the back makes it easy to add more fuel for longer cooking sessions or to add new wood for different flavors. There's a small learning curve and ways to play around with controlling the temperature, like moving the pizza from the back of the oven to the front, but we found using this oven pure fun. And, if you want to go beyond pizza night, we also successfully baked cornbread and grilled hot dogs in the Karu.

When it’s time to move or store, the legs fold down for a smaller footprint, and it's lightweight enough to move easily. Ooni offers a three-year warranty if you purchase directly from its site.

Temperature range: Up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Wood, charcoal, or propane | Max Pizza Size: 12 inches | Weight: 26.4 pounds | Dimensions: 30.31 x 15.75 x 31.5 inches

Best Multi-Fuel

Gozney Dome Dual-Fuel Pizza Oven

$2,000 at Home Depot $1,699 at Gozney.com $2,000 at Ace Hardware

When you want a high-end pizza oven but don’t want to build a custom brick oven in the backyard, the Gozney Dome can step up to the plate. It has a wide opening that can handle larger pizzas (15 or 16 inches, although we found the largest pizzas more difficult to place and keep far enough from the flames). The dual-fuel oven can burn wood and gas (there are separate models for wood-and-propane or wood-and-natural-gas), and it has an integrated thermometer that makes it easy to check the internal temperature.

The Gozney Dome is a heavy beast, weighing 128 pounds, so it will take two people to lift it safely onto a table or cart. We'd recommend buying Gozney’s own stand, since it’s built to hold the Dome specifically, and the four caster wheels let you move the oven around easily. The oven comes mostly assembled, but you have to place the included battery in the digital display, and then a short burn-in is required before first use.

In testing, it took 45 minutes to reach max temperature, so you will want to plan ahead with this model. Because the oven is so big, you can play around with where you place your pie depending on how close to the heat you want it. After 45 minutes, it was 750 degrees Fahrenheit at the back of the oven, 720 in the front, 900 on the left side, and 700 on the right. Thankfully, the Dome's sizable opening also makes it easy to rotate the pizza for even doneness.

While it takes a while to heat up, our results were worth it. It's definitely a splurge, but seriously fun to use. You can cook a thinner, minimally-topped pizza in just around 30 seconds! Cooking with gas was slightly easier, but we love the smoky flavor that cooking with wood provides. In testing, we saw consistent results from both methods, with all kinds of pizzas.

Not just for pizza, this oven can be used for other baking or roasting projects, and it comes with two probe thermometers that plug into jacks on the front. We've charred steaks with it as well as cooked pizzas in the months following our Lab test and have been happy with the results. It's been easy to hook up the propane tank when needed or build a wood fire, and it's sturdy enough to stay put permanently anywhere you'd like. The cover—and the fact that this pizza oven is built like a tank—kept it safe in the yard through a snowy winter and even through a roof-damaging hailstorm.

Temperature Range: Up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Wood and propane or natural gas | Max Pizza Size: 16 inches | Weight: 128 pounds | Dimensions: 26 x 24.8 x 28.8 inches

Best Grill-Top

Onlyfire Pizza Oven Kit

$170 at Amazon View on Onlyfire.com

If you have a gas grill, maybe you don’t need another outdoor appliance just for pizza. The Onlyfire Pizza Oven Kit is an insert designed to work inside a grill with the lid open. It provides a perfect space for cooking pizza evenly on the top and bottom, which is something you can't do by simply throwing a pizza directly on the grill grates or on a pizza stone on top of them. The base is 17 inches square, so it’s wise to measure your grill to make sure it'll fit, but assembly couldn't be easier: Pull it out of the box and stick it on the grill.

The insert is made from stainless steel with a double-walled roof to keep the heat in, and it has a thermometer on one corner so you can check the internal temperature easily. Testing showed that this insert provides much better results than cooking a pizza on a grill by itself. It took about 15 minutes to reach 690 degrees Fahrenheit at the front of the oven. This is comparatively low-and-slow for pizza, but we found that the stone held heat well. Our cook times were longer than hotter ovens—it took us 9 minutes to cook a supreme pizza—but we found the bake to be consistent, and the results were tasty. But since the Onlyfire relies on the grill for its heat, the maximum temperature (and cook time) will depend on the power of whatever you place it on.

We've tested the Onlyfire kit on a Weber grill as well as a smaller pellet grill with regular and gluten-free pizza and have had no problems with either. The included pizza stone is 14 inches, and a 13.5-inch-wide pizza peel is also included to get the pie neatly in and out of the oven. It also makes it easy to turn the pizza while cooking. If you're a beginner pizza maker, you might also be disappointed in the lack of directions, though there are lots of online resources available (including right on this here website).

This model is made for gas only, but charcoal grillers, you're not left out! Onlyfire makes a similar oven designed to fit a kettle-style charcoal grill.

Temperature range: Varies | Heat Source: Gas grill | Max Pizza Size: 14 inches | Weight: 10 pounds | Base Dimensions: 17 x 17 inches

Best Multipurpose

Cuisinart 3-in-1 Pizza Oven

Orig. $200 $173 at Amazon $173 at Walmart $185 at Wayfair

If you are looking to get the most out of your outdoor pizza oven, the Cuisinart 3-in-1 Pizza Oven Plus offers versatility, portability, and performance—and it's one of the more affordable options on this list. In addition to making pizzas with the included 13-inch cordierite pizza stone, this Cuisinart oven functions as a grill with 260 square inches of cooking space or a griddle with 233 square inches of space. Even with all of that functionality, we were most impressed with how easy this model is to use as a pizza oven and the consistency of the final pies.

In testing, it took 15 minutes to reach 600 degrees Fahrenheit at the front of the oven. It features a nice oven-style opening with a lid that folds down, and we found it easy to turn the pizzas, which you only have to do once, halfway through cooking. This means there is minimal babysitting needed, but you'll still end up with evenly cooked cheese and a crisp crust.

When you want to move on to searing steaks, cooking hamburgers, or frying eggs, there's a dual-hinged lid you can flip up and down to convert between cooking modes and integrated storage space for storing the grill grate and griddle plate.

Our one complaint with this appliance was the complicated setup, but after it was assembled it was incredibly easy to use. While it isn't the lightest pizza oven on our list, you should be able to pack it up in the car for camping trips, tailgating, and more.

Temperature Range: Up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Propane | Max Pizza Size: 13 inches | Weight: 45 pounds | Dimensions: 25 x 20 x 17.5 inches

Best Electric

Ninja Woodfire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven

$400 at Amazon $410 at Walmart $400 at Target

Want wood-fire flavor without the hassle of starting a grill with charcoal or wood? Check. Make pizzeria level pizzas by just turning a dial? Also check. What makes Ninja WoodFire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven truly standout is the advanced technology, the ability to infuse smoky flavor with just a half-cup of wood pellets and the versatility that is packed inside a small but powerful appliance.

Making pizza in the Ninja Woodfire could not be easier. It has preset settings for Neapolitan, thin crust, New York-style, pan pizza, and frozen. You can also customize the time and temperature for your own unique style of pizza. The preheating times were long but not always so—the longest is 25 minutes for Neapolitan-style pizza, which is still pretty good for an electric oven. Depending on which kind of pizza you cook, the oven bakes it in anything from three minutes for Neapolitan to 20 minutes for a frozen one.

The best part of using this oven was that we didn’t need to turn the pizza while it was baking. The pizzas were cooked evenly with a blistered crust and all the cheese evenly melted. Cooking pizzas one after another was also quick. Up to four Neapolitan-style pizzas can cook back-to-back before needing a little time to get the temperature back up. To add smoke while cooking pizza, all you need to do is press the "woodfire" ignition button and it gets to work instantly. The smoky flavor is not intense, but a light lingering taste of fire which we quite liked.

Since the temperatures in the Ninja Woodfire oven can be controlled with a dial, baking various kinds of breads was super easy and produced really good results. We used it to make demi baguettes, bagels, boules, and even flatbreads like naan and kulcha. It also comes preassembled. The manufacturer recommends using an SJOW extension cord less than 50 meters in length—we used a 14-gauge, 25-feet extension cord that is also suitable for outdoor use.

Temperature Range: 105 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Electricity | Max Pizza Size: 12 inches| Weight: 32.4 pounds | Dimensions: 21.5 x 18 x 15.1 inches

Best New Release

Ooni Volt 12 Electric Pizza Oven

$899 at Amazon $900 at Williams-Sonoma $999 at Ooni.com

We (and most of the hardcore homemade-pizza fans out there) absolutely love the Ooni brand...clearly. Its gas- and wood-powered ovens cook up incredible charred-and-smoky pizza in minutes, and they look really cool doing it. The only problem is that all of Ooni's models were for outdoor use only. Until recently.

The Ooni Volt is the brand's first indoor oven, using electric heating elements above and below the pizza for optimal results. This is no underpowered countertop oven, however: It got the dense, heat-holding pizza stone up to 763 degrees Fahrenheit in testing. (That's at the Volt's maximum temperature setting of 850; it ran a little cool in general but still more than hot enough for proper bubbly, charred crust and browned cheese and toppings.)

We made a ton of incredible pizzas with this thing, albeit setting off the fire alarm multiple times with our first few attempts. Shaping, saucing, and topping homemade pizza dough is a tough technique to master, as is wielding a pizza peel, and any sauce, cheese, or topping spills will result in plumes of acrid smoke. (Nonetheless, the pizzas we cooked while spills smoldered still tasted great.)

It's automatic enough for a beginner to use, but the controls of the Volt are also finely adjustable, with a precise temperature control and timer, plus a knob that regulates the balance of power between the top and bottom heating elements. You want the highest heat, all from the top, for thin Neapolitan-style pies, and lower heat, equally balanced between top and bottom, for baking frozen pizza. It's an improvement over other Ooni models, and being able to use it indoors is a big plus, but it's also quite a bit pricier, more than double the cost of the gas-powered Koda that was our overall favorite.

All in all, the Ooni Volt is quite similar in design, performance, and price to the indoor Breville above, with a slight advantage to the Volt for its slightly higher temperature and more straightforward controls. Because this Ooni is such a recent launch, we haven't had the chance to pit them head-to-head directly. Yet.

Temperature Range: 250 to 850 degrees Fahrenheit | Heat Source: Electricity | Max Pizza Size: 13 inches | Weight: 39.2 pounds | Dimensions: 24.2 x 20.8 x 10.9 inches