The 5 best pizza ovens, tested and reviewed

Best overall

The Roccbox Pizza Oven is a powerful oven with a small footprint. It has a max temperature of 932 degrees F and, with the legs folded up, is only under two feet long. The oven weighs almost 45 pounds, but is small enough for you to pack and bring with you to parties or camping. Due to the high temps, the oven incinerates debris so there's virtually no clean-up.

The oven comes with attachments for wood-burning and gas heating, an extensive user manual with recipes, a high-quality metal pizza peel, and a one-year warranty. The body of the oven is durable stainless steel covered with a safe-touch silicone jacket. A thermometer is built into the oven so you can easily track the temperature.

We've used the Roccbox to make dozens of pizzas and were impressed by the speed — we made 12 pizzas in under an hour using this oven. Since the flames come from the back, you need to rotate the pizza halfway through, but the metal peel made that task easy. The oven is well-designed, the right size, durable, easy to use, and easy to clean. In addition to making pizza, the Roccbox easily handles steak, salmon, pork chops, and roasted vegetables.

Ken Forkish, author of The Elements of Pizza and owner of Ken's Artisan Pizza also recommends the Roccbox for non-pizza cookery. "The height of the dome in these small portable outdoor ovens is very much relevant. It [the Roccbox] has a higher dome and I did pretty good steaks in it, but I can't do them in my Ooni. If you want to do general cookery outside of pizza, I've found the Roccbox to be more flexible." Just be mindful that you're cooking with extremely high heat, so you'll need to closely watch whatever you're cooking.

Read our full review of the Roccbox Pizza Oven.

Best wood-fired

The Ooni Fyra Pizza oven (formerly the Ooni 3) is made of powder-coated carbon steel for long-term durability and reaches temperatures up to 950 degrees. The oven has a striking appearance with a large chimney for optimal airflow. It fits pizzas up to 12 inches in diameter.

The body features ceramic insulation to maintain heat efficiency. While the previous model offered the option to use gas via an optional burner accessory, the current Fyra is a dedicated wood pellet oven. (If you want to learn more about cooking with wood pellets, check out our guide to the best pellet smokers.)

The oven gets up to temperature in as little as 15 minutes and a 20-pound bag of wood pellets was enough to make about 50 pizzas. You have to keep an eye on the pellets to make sure the airflow is just right and that they don't jam up in the metal tube.

The flames are directed to the roof of the oven rather than directly onto the pizza, so you get excellent radiant heat. For best results, you should rotate the pizza every 20 to 30 seconds and keep a close eye on the pellets to ensure they are burning properly. We've also tested the Ooni Koda 16 and loved the performance.

Best indoor

How do you bring the fiery furnace of a pizza oven indoors? One way is to get the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo for your kitchen. This countertop appliance can reach temperatures of up to 750 degrees F, and is designed to emulate a brick oven; it's sealed to protect against heat loss, including the double-pane window.

Using Breville's Element IQ technology, the Pizzaiolo cooks pizza evenly, whether it's frozen or fresh. It also has settings for pizza styles, like thin-and-crispy, New York, or wood-fired.

In our review, we found the oven only required a few minutes to preheat, which makes getting a pizza from dough to mouth even faster. Despite the small opening, the Pizzaiolo can cook other foods too, thanks to the auto-eject door that facilitates easy removal of food from the oven. In our tests, pizzas baked evenly with just one spin (although this isn't really necessary).

However, it's an expensive appliance that's really for a single purpose. If you love Neapolitan-style pizza, there's no other compact appliance that can achieve what the Pizzaiolo can. But, if you don't care about this particular style of pizza, you may be better served by Breville's Crispy Crust Pizza Maker, which can be had for around $150 and does a good enough job.

Best budget

Though not shaped like a classic oven, the Pizzazz features a 12-inch nonstick baking pan that rotates between two heating elements: one on top and one on the bottom. As it rotates, the pizza — or other foodstuffs — cook evenly. We called it the best novelty pizza maker in our guide to the best pizza-making tools.

The Pizzazz has served as an integral part of several dinner parties thanks to its ability to bake delicious homemade pizzas with minimal effort. Because your pizzas cook out in the open, it's a pretty hypnotizing way to watch your crust puff and your cheese bubble.

Cooking pizza often requires screaming hot ovens, but with the Pizzazz, you'll get a well-cooked pizza without heating up the whole house. It's also a great way to crisp up the frozen ones — though of course, homemade dough will always yield a better result.

Best for grilling

When it comes to outdoor cooking, there's just nothing like the taste that comes from the best charcoal grills. Making pizzas on a charcoal grill isn't new, but the KettlePizza turns a Weber Kettle Grill into a pizza oven that reaches temperatures of up to 750 degrees F. That's plenty hot enough to create the crust and mouth-feel you'd get from a good pizzeria.

The basic kit comes with an expandable insert that fits on the base of a Kettle grill, which you cover with the lid; an aluminum pan is included. The Deluxe USA kit includes a metal peel and pizza stone. If you already have a Weber Kettle, this is by far the best value you'll get when buying a pizza oven.

For non-Weber owners, KettlePizza also offers pizza oven kits for gas grills that sit directly on the grill grates. The stainless steel insert reflects heat down to the surface of the pizza and can reach temperatures between 600 and 700 degrees F.

What to look for in a pizza oven

Size and capacity: All of the ovens covered here are meant to cook one pizza at a time very quickly. A model with a wide opening will allow you the space necessary to use a peel to maneuver your pie while it cooks. If you want to set it and forget it, an indoor model that either cooks your pies with no turning required or even turns them for you might be a better fit.

Maximum temperature: Many outdoor pizza ovens can reach temperatures upwards of 900 degrees. While cooking pizza at that temperature is common in restaurants and pizzerias, home cooks might want to shoot a little lower. Ken Forkish prefers to bake pizza between 750 and 800 degrees: "If you bake a pizza in 60 seconds at 900 degrees you need to be really good because you're gonna have to turn the pizza a few times in that period and you also need to have particular skill with a peel [...] These kinds of ovens you can't do that. There's just not enough room within the oven to treat it that way while it's baking."

Portability: If you plan on bringing your oven to parties or camping trips, choose a model that isn't too heavy or bulky. Many brands sell carrying cases to make relocating easier. If you anticipate storing your oven between uses, it's worth considering size and weight. A larger oven accommodates larger pies, but will also take longer to cool down before you can safely store it. Something lighter with a smaller footprint will be easier to set up and tear down.

Accessories: One of the best pizza peels is an important purchase for launching and retrieving Neapolitan pies. Also, while some ovens ship with or have baking stones built into them, we recommend buying any of the best pizza stones if your model doesn't have one. Outdoor ovens can benefit from a cover and/or carrying case for inclement weather and pizza-making trips away from home. Finally, many ovens have a built-in thermometer, but an infrared thermometer helps to manage temperature fluctuations in real-time.

Types of pizza ovens

Propane and natural gas: While some prefer the flavor of wood-fired pizzas, gas-powered ovens are capable of producing top notch pies and can be easier to manage than other fuel sources. "Gas is really a lot more easy to control and because of the size of these ovens," says Forkish. Gas ovens also heat up and cool down faster than their wood or charcoal-fueled counterparts, which is an asset if you plan to store your oven, rather than keeping it set up permanently.

Wood and charcoal: There's a distinct flavor and smokiness you can only get from cooking over a fire, but wood-fire ovens require more maintenance. "If you're not used to working with wood-fired ovens, there's a way bigger learning curve with wood." says Andrew Janjigian, author of Wordloaf. Cooking pizzas over a wood or charcoal fire means actively tending to that fire to maintain an even temperature.

Hybrid: Hybrid ovens offer the option to use wood (or wood pellets), charcoal, or gas as a fuel source. Some, like the Roccbox, ship with a hose to connect the oven to a propane tank and offer an optional attachment for wood-burning. Others, like some Ooni pizza ovens, have the option to purchase an accessory to attach the oven to a fixed natural gas line.

Electric: Indoor ovens are designed to sit on a countertop and plug into a standard 120 V outlet. They're great if you don't have the space for an outdoor oven or want to make pizza in any weather. The electric options we recommend have lower temperature ranges than outdoor ovens, topping out around 750° F. However, with heat sources both above and below the cook surface and a variety of available settings, you can still make fantastic pizza.

Grill insert: Cooking pizza over charcoal on a grill offers a similar smoky flavor to wood, but can require tending to maintain consistent temperatures when cooking more than one pie. It can be difficult to achieve the high temperatures necessary to cook Neapolitan-style pizza quickly with charcoal alone. KettleGrill recommends adding hardwood chunks on top of charcoal briquettes when cooking pizza if you want to achieve a temperature above 600 degrees.

Pizza oven FAQs

What else can you cook in a pizza oven?

Pizza ovens can cook plenty of other foods, but it requires some strategy. Because pizza ovens operate at extremely high temperatures, you should check your cookware for the manufacturer's recommendations for maximum temperature thresholds. The best cast iron is a good bet.

Ken Forkish encourages home cooks to consider the dimensions of their oven before embarking on non-pizza cookery. "I found the height of the dome in these small portable outdoor ovens is very much relevant," he says. With a lower dome, any splatters from your food will hit the ceiling and then come down as soot. Forkish recommends the Gozney Roccbox Pizza Oven for cooking things other than pizza.

Andrew Janjigian uses his Ooni oven to pre-cook pizza toppings and sauces while the oven is heating up as well as baking bread: "I did a pita recipe and a lahmajun recipe, and many other flatbreads I do all the time."

How do you clean a pizza oven?

Pizza ovens are meant to run at very high temperatures, which functionally is like running your residential oven on self-clean mode. Temperatures ranging from 700 to 900 degrees F and above get rid of most debris and grime. That said, you should occasionally surface clean the inside of your oven and the surface of your stone. Be sure the oven is completely cool before cleaning.

Ovens with chimneys may periodically need extra soot cleaned out to maintain optimal airflow. Avoid abrasive materials and harsh chemicals when cleaning your oven, opting instead for mild soap and water, and be sure to dry all surfaces thoroughly.

How do you clean a pizza stone?

The most important part of cleaning a pizza stone is not using soap. Most stones are porous and can absorb the soapy smell and taste. Ooni, the manufacturer of our best wood fire pizza oven, recommends removing the baking stone from their oven, flipping it over, and placing it back in the oven so that the bottom of the stone essentially cleans itself in the high heat.