You can make quality pizza in your oven with the help of a pizza steel or cordierite stone, but I have an unfortunate truth for you: The best pizza oven is not the one in your kitchen right now. Dedicated pizza ovens deliver what a kitchen range cannot: extremely high temperatures that lead to blistered, leopard-spotted pies, crispy-yet-tender crusts, and-depending on the variety-smokey, wood-fired flavor.
Not so long ago, home pizza ovens were an extravagant luxury. They cost thousands of dollars and occasionally required a construction crew (we know one person who had an oven deposited at his house with a helicopter). But while they can yield high-quality Neapolitan-style pies, those massive steel or brick ovens are not only prohibitively expensive, they take forever to get hot-sometimes more than an hour-and the fires are a pain to maintain.
But we have entered a home pizza making renaissance. A number of companies now make more reasonably-priced, small-enough-to be-portable pizza ovens. These ovens heat up faster than the pricey pizza ovens of old, and fit in suburban yards, truck beds, and small patios. The brand Ooni has gained the most name recognition, but other brands like SoloStove, known for their fire pits, and Gozney, known for their commercial pizza ovens, are joining in the important mission of making pizza accessible to home cooks.
I tested a number of these home ovens to find the best balance of price, convenience, and, of course, overall quality of pizza. Find my favorites below, and scroll to the bottom of the page to learn more about the testing process and what we looked for in an oven.
Table of contents
The best pizza oven overall
The best wood-burning pizza oven
A note on the process of using a pizza oven
How I tested pizza ovens
What I looked for
Other outdoor pizza ovens I tested
The takeaway
As soon as I unboxed the Koda I could see its thoughtful design. There's virtually no assembly involved with this machine-a huge plus. Simply unfold the three legs on the bottom, hook the thing up to a propane tank as you would your gas grill, and you're on your way to eating pizza within 30 or 40 minutes (including heating and cooking time). I could slide pizzas easily into the dome-shaped opening and I could turn pizzas easily while they cooked. (Always rotate your pizza! More on that below).
This pizza oven uses a gas burner, and, as we've discussed in the grilling context, gas is the most convenient fuel source. All that's required here to light and maintain the fire is the crank of a dial. Though the Koda can reach 950°F, it got up to the optimal pizza cooking temperature, 750°- 850°F, in just 15-20 minutes.
A note for this and all pizza ovens though: Don't start firing pizzas as soon as you see a 750°F reading on the thermometer. Let the oven preheat for 15-20 minutes more. That allows the pizza stone on the floor of the oven to reach the right temperature and ensure you don't churn out pizzas that are charred on top, but blonde on the bottom.
I cooked pizzas faster in some other ovens during our testing, but pizzas in the Ooni came out more evenly-cooked, with crispy outer and chewy inner crusts covered in small char marks.
Another great design feature: The Koda has an L-shaped fire. The heat comes not just from the back as it does in many ovens, but from the left side as well. That means a pizza requires fewer rotations, and the oven has more even heat distribution.
The Ooni is relatively small: It's 25 inches wide and about 15 inches tall. It has a cooking surface that's 16x16, with the ability to cook a 16 inch pie. It weighs 39 pounds. Though it is heavy, the machine's shape and foldable legs make it easy to fit in the trunk of a car. A carrying case with a strap even makes it possible to sling this thing over your shoulder and take it to the beach.
There is a 12-inch version of this oven, the Ooni Koda 12, which offers easier portability, though it does not have the L-shaped flame and, obviously, cooks smaller pies. Depending on your outdoor setup and your desire to cart this thing around, the small size can be an advantage or a disadvantage.
Overall the Ooni Koda is convenient and easy to use, makes fabulous Neapolitan pizza, and works for in a variety of settings-large yards, tailgates, or trips to the park. It is great for beginners looking to hone their homemade pizza making skills or regular pizza eaters who want an easy way to work it into a regular weeknight dinner.
For serious pizza makers, the limitation of gas as the only fuel source could be disappointing.
$599.00, Ooni
I preferred gas pizza ovens to wood-fired ones in this testing for the convenience. Not only is the fire self-sufficient, I also had a lot less mess to deal with in the form of ash and soot. Ovens with wood burners, particularly ovens of the size I tested here, need their fires constantly fed to maintain high heat (larger ovens require less feeding, but are less practical in other ways). In theory, the flavor is much better on a wood-burning oven, but in our testing I didn't notice much difference.
However, if you're a purist who really wants that smokey flavor, Ooni's Karu model could be for you. This model allows you to use wood, wood chips, and even charcoal as fuel sources. That last one means you can keep a more constant temperature without second-by-second monitoring. You can also cook at lower temperatures if you'd like to make things other than pizza in the oven.
To load the oven, simply fill an included stainless steel basket with the fuel and a fire starter, push it to the back of the oven, and light it through a door in the top. Then close the back door, close the front door, and make sure that the vent in the chimney is open. You can keep feeding the machine fuel through that back door; the opening is large, and easy to fit large chunks of wood through.
The Ooni Karu has a digital built-in thermometer attached to the front that's easy to read, which is an added feature that its less expensive counterparts (including the winning Koda above) don't have. But keep in mind that the thermometer monitors the temperature of the air in the oven, not the temperature of the stone. Ooni actually recommends using an infrared thermometer to check to make sure the stone is hot. Another special feature of this particular model: It has a glass-fronted oven door, so you can monitor your pizza with the oven closed (note that the door can get foggy and sooty from smoke if you're using wood rather than charcoal or gas). And while the doors on other models, including Oonis, often require removal via a handle, the Karu's is on a hinge. That means you don't have to look around for a place to rest your lid while rotating or removing pizzas from the oven. This may seem like a small thing, but dealing with loose lids actually got quite annoying in the testing process.
Should you want to take the easy route, you can buy a gas attachment for this oven, and it will run, like the Koda, on propane.
Overall, the versatility of this multi-fuel pizza oven can't be beat. It's even recommended by the Neapolitan Pizza Association for home use. It's fun to experiment with the various fuel types, finding a blend of charcoal and wood that works well, or going all in on a pure wood cooking experience. You should also note that while this oven comes in 12-inch pizza size (the Ooni Karu 12) I preferred the 16. Since this one isn't particularly portable, the increased space offers a much better experience. The smaller model also lacks some of the additional features, like the built-in thermometer.
The heat comes entirely from the back in this oven, so you have to carefully monitor the pie and rotate it frequently during cooking to avoid burning one side, as opposed to the multiple heat directions offered in the Koda. I also wish that the option to use gas didn't require an additional purchase.
$799.00, Ooni
There's a pretty large learning curve associated with any high-temperature pizza oven. Dialing in the cook time, temperature, and number of pie rotations for the perfect pizza requires trial, error, and patience. All those things will vary based on the recipe of your crust, its thickness, the wetness of your toppings, and so forth. The rotating in particular takes some getting used to. With temperatures this high, you really have to use a pizza peel to turn the pizza every 20-30 seconds. I burned and undercooked a few pies in each oven before I figured out how to get an optimal pizza; and I'd still like to get to a place where I can cook the pizzas faster, at higher temperatures. But, as long as you go in eager to learn, all of that trial and error is just part of the fun of pizza making as a hobby.
With the help of a baker pal and a couple of friends who used to work in a pizzeria, I set up all of the pizza ovens in a yard. I assembled each with the help of a particularly handy friend, noting how easy they were to set up out of the box (both for a novice at construction projects, like me, and a pro, like my friend). I hooked the gas ovens up to propane tanks, and filled the wood-fired ovens with fuel, then lit each pizza oven; I noted how long it took each of the ovens to get to temperature.
Next I fired off a whole bunch of Neapolitan pizzas. The pizza dough recipe came from the aforementioned pro baker friend. I made sure to try simple pizzas (shredded cheese and sauce) and more complex topped pizzas (like broccoli with white sauce pizza, mortadella and burrata pizza, and breakfast pizzas topped with eggs) in each oven, since things like the increased moisture in fresh mozzarella can affect the cook time and texture of your pizzas. I also made some thicker-crust Roman-style pizzas in cast iron skillets. I rotated the pizzas as necessary, and noted the time that they took to cook, as well as other pizza characteristics like amount of char, texture of crust, and even baking through the middle. In the ovens that excelled at pizza, I also fired some vegetables, like asparagus.
We only looked at outdoor ovens. Indoor pizza ovens, like the popular Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo, are sort of a different animal altogether, since they're electric and essentially souped-up countertop ovens. Perhaps future reviews will take them into consideration.
The ovens I tested ranged from fully assembled, to an hour-long assembly time with heavy lifting. I wanted a machine that was easy to get going, without sacrificing quality. Although ovens with a more intense setup to offer a feeling of permanence to the final product.
I wanted ovens that could reach very high temperatures with little effort and that required little effort to keep going. At least, I wanted that insofar as it did not interfere with quality flavor and texture in my pizzas. And, of course, I acknowledge that for some users, the learning curve and personal effort in getting the fires going in these machines is part of the appeal of pizza making as a hobby. For fires that required regular maintenance I wanted an oven that was easy to feed.
The optimal temperature for cooking pizza is anywhere from 700-850°F. Your oven can't get that hot, nor could one of the pizza ovens I tested. I also, as noted above, concentrated on how long it took to get to these temperatures, and how difficult it was to maintain them.
Design really matters with a pizza oven because everything has to happen so fast. The openings in the front of the oven need to be wide and accessible, making it easy to maneuver a food that has a high tendency to stick, and that needs to be rotated frequently. The doors (if the oven has them) also need to open easily. Even better if you can monitor your pizza without opening them. Built-in or included thermometers are a huge help. And proper placement of the fire inside helps ensure even cooking, and that you don't light your pizza on fire (which I did a few times).
As always, I wanted the best bang for the buck, without sacrificing quality. The ovens we tested ranged in price from less than $200 to $2,000. This is a niche item that requires some advanced design and features-if you're passionate about pizza and you think it's worth owning an oven, we wanted to find one that worked, at the best price point.
I was quite happy with all of the pizza ovens. In the end, I got a delicious pizza out of all of them (even the one that couldn't reach regular pizza oven temperatures)-and choosing the winning models really came down to optimal price points and user-friendly bonus features.
The Alfa Nano cooked pizzas very evenly; I got well-cooked pizzas even when I forgot to obsessively rotate them (frequent rotation was key to an even bake on pizzas made in the Oonis). The Alfa also had a higher finish quality than any of the other ovens tested here. Putting it together involved a fairly rigorous assembly process that took over an hour. It's massive, but it looks luxe. And it is luxe-this model costs around $2,000 at the time of writing. Overall I didn't think the performance warranted spending that much more than the winning Ooni, but if you're looking for a model that can live in your yard permanently, always ready to cook, this could be the model for you.
The Solostove Pi oven got nice and hot, and produced great pizza after a bit of experimentation.. And I liked that you can use gas or wood in this model. However, the heat came purely from the back, so I had to rotate pies frequently. That's fairly standard and not a problem, but the opening in the front is small, making it hard to monitor the pizza and harder to rotate it. These minor inconveniences, mixed with higher price points than my preferred Ooni models, took it out of the top slot.
Cuisinart's entry was essentially just a gas grill with a dome shaped-top and a detached small pizza stone that you can take in and out of the oven. We couldn't get this oven hot enough, and it churned out a lot of blonde pies, without that beautiful charred crust.
The Ooni Frya 12 is Ooni's least expensive oven; It's $350 at the time of writing. It worked well, but maintaining the fire required fairly constant monitoring and adding of wood chips. I went through many, many wood chips in the process of making pizza. This oven also only comes in a 12-inch size, so not only do you have to put in more effort in feeding the fire, but also you have to fire off more total pizzas if you're throwing a pizza party for a crowd. Expect to be standing over your oven all night. That said, wood pellets are easier to come by than some of the wood required for other wood-fired ovens, so if you want true wood-fired flavor, and don't mind the effort it could work well for you.
The Roccbox, Gozney's smaller oven, is most comparable to the Ooni Karu. It has both gas and wood burning capabilities (the wood burner costs an extra $100) and an accurate built-in thermometer. It got incredibly hot in testing, easily hitting 750? and reaching 900? when cranked up to the max, but the silicone jacket on the Roccbox actually makes it much cooler to the touch than that, so it's a bit safer to have in the yard with curious pizza eaters around. The pizzas from the Roccbox were on the level of both of our top picks, but ultimately the Oonis got the nod for a few reasons. The Roccbox makes 12-inch pizzas and that really does create some limitations as noted with the Ooni Frya. With its gas heating element the oven took a bit longer to reach cooking temperature than the Ooni Koda and the wood-burning element was just not very practical to use. It required constant feeding of tiny, specially-sized logs. The Ooni Karu, on the other hand, could accommodate both lump charcoal and regular wood chunks that you can buy at any hardware store. The Gozney Dome looks like it improves on this and can accommodate standard logs. We look forward to giving that a try in future updates to this piece.
If you're looking for ease of use without sacrificing quality flavor, we recommend the gas-powered pizza oven, the Ooni Koda 16. If you're looking to nerd out on pizza, and want the opportunity to cook with a wood-fired pizza oven without spending thousands of dollars, the Ooni Karu will give you what you're looking for-plus a few more fuel options for added convenience.