The Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens for Perfect Pies at Home

To make truly great pizza at home, you need three things: fresh dough, quality toppings, and most importantly, a pizza oven that gets far hotter than any home oven or conventional grill. The best pizza ovens we tested all proved capable of getting scorchingly hot and producing crispy, chewy, perfectly blistered pizza. That said, they are not all created equal.

• Best pizza oven overall: Ooni Koda 16
• Best budget pizza oven: Solo Stove Pi Prime
• A great larger pizza oven: Ooni Koda Max 2
• Best electric pizza oven: Ooni Volt

Good pizza ovens will get frequent use. Yes, you can have a summer evening on the patio, string lights overhead, friends and family adoringly toasting your pies with Negronis, but the utility of these ovens goes far beyond pizza. They’re basically high-heat outdoor ovens, just as capable of roasting steak, fish, and vegetables as cooking pizza.

Bad pizza ovens? Well, they’ll end up on the island of forgotten appliances, alongside so many bread makers and panini presses. Read on for the pizza ovens we think are worth the space and money involved, and will keep you blistered crusts for years to come.

What we love:

It’s been more than five years since the first-generation Ooni Koda 16 hit the market. Yet even with plenty of new competition, this pizza oven is still our favorite in terms of size, price, and overall performance. The L-shaped burner ignites easily and heats the stone to 950 degrees in less than 20 minutes. From there the oven can crank out a perfectly charred Neapolitan pizza in just 90 seconds. Like any pizza oven, there’s a learning curve to heat management, though this task was easiest with the Koda 16. The 16" surface also offers plenty of space for maneuvering or using with a cast-iron skillet to sear and roast steak, chicken, fish, and vegetables.

What we’d leave:

One reason we chose the Koda 16 was for its goldilocks size. We wouldn’t call this a portable pizza oven, but at 42 lb., it is easy enough to reposition or store inside for the winter. That said, there are reasons to want something smaller or larger that is either easier to move around or big enough to accommodate larger pizzas. But recognizing that, Ooni extended the same basic design and functionality to five different Koda ovens.

Solo Stove Pi Prime

$450

Solo Stove

What we love:

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use, inexpensive outdoor pizza oven that makes great pizza, it’s hard to beat the Solo Stove Pi Prime. At just $350, the Pi Prime doesn’t have the bells and whistles of more expensive ovens, but it does its most important job very well: It gets hot fast. In just 15 minutes, the stone preheats to more than 900 degrees, able to cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in 90 seconds. Weighing in at just 30 lb., the Pi Prime is also relatively portable. The simple, familiar stainless-steel design requires no setup or additional accessories, and it’s easy to clean and store.

What we’d leave:

The only real downside to the Pi Prime is the 12" stone, which we generally find to be just a bit too small for our liking. However, if you’re just starting out with homemade pizza, or don’t have a ton of space or money to spend, this is a great option.

Ooni Koda 2 Max

$1,199

Ooni

$1,199

Backcountry

If you have the budget and space to upgrade, the 24" Ooni Koda 2 Max is as good as it gets without committing to some sort of immovable brick oven. The Koda 2 Max is on the pricey side for our tests at $1199, but it’s still less expensive than most professional-grade pizza ovens. The Koda 2 Max shares the same basic design as other ovens in the Koda line, with one big exception: two separately controlled burners, one on each side of the oven. This dual-burner functionality gives you greater control of the temperature and enables two-zone cooking. Because of its size and dual-burner setup, this oven gets and stays very hot. Though it takes a bit longer to reach temperature than smaller ovens, there is virtually no rebound time required when making pizzas, and it continues to fire in even the coldest, windiest conditions.

What we’d leave:

Like we said, it’s big, and as such it burns through propane at approximately twice the rate as the smaller ovens we tested, so always be sure to have a backup tank in hand.

Ooni Volt 12

$899 $629 (30% off)

Amazon

$899

Ooni

What we love: In general, we are not fans of electric pizza ovens. They’re typically quite small and struggle to hit the high temperatures for speedy cooking and blistered crusts. The Ooni Volt is an exception. It can top 800℉ in about 20 minutes using the boost function that accelerates the process of heating the pizza stone. This is also a more versatile countertop appliance than many pizza ovens are. The temperature settings dip as low as 250℉, meaning that it’s also easy to bake bread, roast vegetables, even reheat pizza you previously made in it. Finally, it gives control of the heating elements so you can amp up the lower element to crisp crust while lowering the upper element to avoid charred toppings.

What we’d leave:

You can keep the Volt outside, but if you’re putting a pizza oven outside, we think you’re better off with gas. So, assuming you’re keeping this one indoors, the one downside is that it takes up a lot of space. With a footprint of 24” x 21” it could eat up part of your counter.

We made a lot of pizza. For each oven, we started by cooking a basic Neapolitan-style Margherita at the maximum temperature of each oven (between 900-1000 degrees), as well as a simple New York-style pepperoni cooked between 600-700 degrees. From there, we played with a variety of different pizza doughs (e.g. sourdough, pre-frozen, gluten-free, etc.), temperatures, and toppings to determine overall ease of use, quality of the finished product, and relative value for the price.

Our top picks are all gas pizza ovens (except for the electric Volt), and that’s because they’re just so much easier to use than wood-burning ovens. For versatility's sake and the likelihood you’ll actually use them on a regular basis, we think gas is the way to go. There are some good wood-burning ovens below, but just know they’re much more of a commitment to cook with.

In terms of cost, you need to budget quite a bit more than just the cost of the oven itself. At the very least, you’re going to need a table or stand capable of supporting the considerable weight. And a cover to protect your new outdoor pizza oven from the elements. And a pizza peel, turning peel, serving peel, oven brush ...you get the idea. To fully equip your new oven, plan on spending about 50% of the price of the actual oven on related accessories.

Gozney Tread

$500

Gozney

$500 $400 (20% off)

Amazon

Gozney Tread Portable Pizza Oven

$550

Gozney

The idea of traveling with a pizza oven may seem a bit ridiculous, but the new Gozney Tread (an evolution of the original Gozney Roccbox portable oven) almost has us convinced that a portable pizza oven could be a thing. Almost. With Tread, Gozney promises “pizza in places you never thought possible.” According to the company’s promotional imagery, this includes beaches, deserts, and snow-covered mountain peaks. At only 30 lb. this seems somewhat feasible, until you add a sturdy carrying bag, telescoping stand, top rack, propane tank, and accessories to the scale. Nevertheless, every element of the Tread is sturdy and well designed, and it’s not hard to imagine taking the oven along for tailgating, car camping, or a day at the beach. Wherever you take it, the Tread is fully capable of cooking a perfectly charred, leopard-spotted 12" pizza. It gets hot fast, retains heat well, and, just as important for portability, cools to the touch in less than 30 minutes. Even if you never take it anywhere but your back patio, the Gozney Tread is one of our favorite small outdoor pizza ovens. And it should be, considering it’ll cost you more than $1,000 once fully accessorized.

Oxo Grinder

$1,000 $900 (10% off)

Amazon

$1,000

Gozney

Obviously, the best pizza oven will make great pizza. At the same time, if you’re going to spend more than $1,000 on something that’s going to take up permanent residence on your patio or deck, it should look nice, too. Fortunately, you get both form and function with the Gozney Arc XL. While the stone took nearly 40 minutes to reach 900 degrees, it retained heat better than most ovens tested and produced a perfectly blistered Neapolitan-style crust in just over one minute. It won’t work as well without the optional stand ($250), which features a steel platform below for your propane tank, large castor wheels, and two foldable wood wings for ingredients and tools. So if you’re considering this one we’d highly recommend it.

Ooni Karu 2

$849

Amazon

$799

Ooni

Can’t decide between the ease of gas and the smoky flavor of wood? The Ooni Karu 2 Pro gives you both, sort of. Like the other two multi-fuel ovens in Ooni’s lineup, the Karu 2 Pro (a larger version of the 12" Karu 12 and essentially the new version of the Ooni Karu 16) is inherently a wood-fired pizza oven, and it excels as such. As with any wood-burning oven, it takes some practice to master temperature control, though multiple dampers and a glass door on the front offer several levers for managing heat. However, we found the Karu 2 to be problematic when converted to propane or natural gas. Due to the overhead position of the burner, it was challenging to keep the toppings scorched before the crust was done. With quite a bit of practice, we were able to find the balance, though it was far more challenging than with other ovens tested. If you want a well-made, easy-to-use wood-fired pizza oven, we highly recommend the Ooni Karu 2. If you think you’re more likely to use the gas functionality, there are far better pizza ovens for less money. (Specifically, the Ooni Koda 16.)

Halo Versa

$550 $400 (27% off)

Amazon

At first glance, the Halo Versa pizza oven is intriguing, featuring dual two-level burners and a rotating stone “allowing for hands-free pizza making.” However, upon closer inspection, it’s a bit of an over-engineered mess. Even at comparable temperatures, pizzas take twice as long to cook on the Versa, and at times, we couldn’t get the rotating stone to stop. (Yes, trying to slide raw dough onto a spinning stone is as perilous as you’d think.) To be fair, you can produce a fine pizza with the Halo Versa, though it’s well worth the extra $100 to upgrade to our overall pick, the Ooni Koda 16.

Gozney’s top-of-the line oven is an excellent performer. It heats up quickly, has a generous mouth to accommodate full-sized pizzas, and dual fuel capabilities let you choose between the ease of gas or the hands-on and more flavorful option of wood. This is a heavy oven though—nearly 130 lb.—and should be elevated for comfortable use. To that end, it’s a little disappointing that the stand is sold separately (and costs an extra $350), especially when the price tag of the oven itself is quite high. But if you’re in the market for a pro-quality home pizza oven, you’ll be happy with the Dome.

Breeo Live Fire Pizza Oven

$1,998 $1,898 (5% off)

Breeo

The first thing to know about the Breeo pizza oven is that it is not a stand-alone pizza oven. It’s an addition to either one of Breeo’s smokeless fire pits or to its newer live fire grill. In one way, that offers you some versatility, but the pizza oven is heavy to put on and take off all the time, 60+ lb., even without the two-piece stone. It’s particularly good atop the live fire grill because that puts it nearly four feet off the ground, a comfortable height to slide pizzas around. The Breeo reached temperature incredibly quickly: The temperature of the pizza stone was nearly 800 degrees in less than 25 minutes. But the temperature would drop rapidly if the fire didn’t have regular feeding. We did love the size of the Breeo, which can accommodate a pizza 14" in diameter. Once it’s set up, this is a good, user-friendly choice for a wood-only oven.