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14 Apr 2026

Pizza ovens vs barbecues: which should you invest in this summer?

We've compared these two popular outdoor cooking appliances to help you spend your money wisely

Lars StannardConsumer writer

Lars is a bloodhound when it comes to sniffing out bargains, including on major sales events such as Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. He is also handy at unravelling tech jargon and anything related to gaming.

Now that the sun is out, you might be thinking about buying a barbecue or pizza oven to enjoy cooking in the warmer weather.

There are plenty of cheap, basic barbecues and pizza ovens, as well as fancy, feature-packed models that are more versatile, but they often cost much more.

If you're weighing up which is the better investment, we've spoken to our experts to help you consider all the options and get the best deal.

Does your garden need a spring refresh? Here are 7 Which? Best Buys that will keep your garden from running wild

Barbecues or pizza ovens: what is the difference?

The easiest way to compare barbecues and pizza ovens is to think of them like cookers vs ovens. Barbecues are essentially cookers or hobs, while pizza ovens are similar to conventional ovens.

So before buying, the first question to ask yourself is what you use more indoors: your hob or your oven.

The key difference is that both pizza ovens and barbecues get much hotter than traditional cookers or conventional ovens and often cook food directly over flames. Both will give meat, fish and veg that smoky, charred flavour we all love.

But while barbecues can 'bake' things, they won't get as hot as pizza ovens. Pizza ovens can do much more than bake pizzas – for example, you can also roast meats and cook quick traybakes – but typically you can't cook a range of foods simultaneously, as you can on a barbecue.

Which you should choose largely depends on what kinds of foods you'll want to cook more often. If you want slow-cooked, smoky briskets or a wide range of food for your guests, go for a barbecue. If you're cooking food that benefits from high heat and short cooking times, opt for a pizza oven.

Barbecue pros and cons

Pros:	Cons:
Wide range of sizes, including very portable models	Won't get as hot as a pizza oven
Multiple cooking zones to cook a variety of food	Tend to take more effort to clean
Typically offer more cooking space	Can be time-consuming to set up
You can choose between charcoal, gas or electric models	Can take up a lot more space
The best make delicious, smoky food	Cooking times can be longer

We enlist expert chefs to cook a range of food to help us find the best charcoal BBQs and best gas barbecues in our tests

Pizza oven pros and cons

Pros:	Cons:
Can cook more than just pizza, including veg, pulled pork, steaks and more	Many aren't very portable; they tend to be heavy and bulky
Can get very hot	Trickier to cook several foods at once
You can choose between wood-fired, gas and electric ovens	There's a steeper learning curve
The best models will make tasty flame-kissed food	Wood-fired ovens need a lot more attention
Won't take up as much space as a large barbecue	You'll need to use cast-iron cookware to cook things like steaks or veg

Compare more than 30 models we've put through their paces to see which are the best pizza ovens

Our experts' verdicts: which one should you buy?

Joel Bates, Which? pizza ovens expert and principal researcher/writer, says:

'I adore cooking with both, but if you're twisting my arm, pizza oven. It just edges it over a barbecue because of one thing: versatility.

'The higher heat you can get from a pizza oven (up to 500°C or more) raises the bar for the quality of some foods that benefit from shorter cooking times under extremely hot temperatures.

'As expected, you’ll get much better pizzas than you could from a barbecue. Flatbreads such as naans or pittas will also be much better coming from a hot pizza oven, as the intense heat from all sides makes the breads puff up, giving you that beautiful leopard spotting that you won't get from a longer cook in a cooler barbecue.

'This type of heat is also amazing for high-temperature searing – the steaks you get from pizza ovens can be incredible because of it.'

Chris Brookes, Which? barbecues expert and senior researcher/writer, says:

'While barbecues can be better for general outdoor cooking, some of them are a real pain to set up, taking two researchers an hour or two.

'Consider how often you'd actually use a barbecue, whether you have the space for one, or if a portable one may be better.

'Barbecues tend to be more portable and often offer more cooking space than pizza ovens, allowing you to cook more food in one go.

'In theory, you can cook pizzas on a barbecue, but it's not something we've tried. If you think you're going to be eating a lot more pizzas or flatbreads, it's much easier to use a pizza oven for those.'

Popular pizza ovens

Here are some of the most popular pizza ovens that we've put through our tough tests.

VonHaus Outdoor Pizza Oven

This VonHaus wood-fired pizza oven is a popular choice, and it's available at lots of retailers. It's very budget-friendly and is one of the lightest models we tested, at 11.5kg.

It's not very large, though, and it can only fit pizzas up to 11 inches wide. It burns wood pellets as fuel, which can be topped up using a handy chute at the top.

Read our VonHaus Outdoor Pizza Oven review to see how well it cooks pizza.

Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven

This wood-fired Ooni pizza oven is significantly cheaper than many others. It isn't the biggest, but it can cook pizzas up to 12 inches in diameter.

It primarily burns wood logs, but if managing a fire seems daunting, this pizza oven can also use gas with an additional £90 gas burner attachment.

Read our Ooni Karu 12 review to see whether it's worth picking up.

Popular barbecues

We enlist expert chefs to help us test gas, charcoal and electric barbecues from the biggest brands, including the barbecues below.

Weber Smokey Joe Premium 37cm BBQ

This charcoal barbecue doesn't have many bells and whistles, but it's very portable. If you want to use it in the garden, you'll need to find a table or a high, solid surface to put it on.

It has a porcelain-coated body and an integrated vent to help you regulate heat. It's pretty compact, but Weber claims its cooking area is big enough to feed up to four people.

See whether it produces delicious food in our Weber Smokey Joe Premium 37cm BBQ review.

Heston Blumenthal Everdure Force 2-burner Gas BBQ

This gas barbecue has two burners and a generous 59 x 41cm cooking space. There's a built-in thermometer to help you manage the temperature, and you can remove the barbecue from the supplied stand if you want to use it as a tabletop unit.

It's very heavy, weighing 31kg, so you'll need two people to move it around.

Go to our Heston Blumenthal Everdure Force 2-burner Gas BBQ review to see if it's the right investment for you.

Ninja Woodfire Pro XL Electric BBQ

If you want to avoid using fuel altogether and save space, this electric model from Ninja could be a great choice.

It can air fry, smoke (using additional wood pellets) and grill food. It has only one cooking zone, though.

We were able to cook an entire Christmas dinner on it.

Enjoy spending more time in your garden with the 6 tech products our experts use outside