Best pizza ovens

Takeaway pizza is all well and good, but nothing really compares to the smoky taste and perfect texture a flaming hot pizza oven will give you. 

Restaurant-quality pizza is possible with the best pizza ovens and we've been testing them since 2020, munching our way through pizza cooked by 15 of the UK's most popular pizza ovens. We've put brands such as Ooni, Aldi, Gozney, La Hacienda, Sage, Burnhard, Dellonda and Igneus through tough tests find out which ones will take your home pizza cooking to the next level.

Our most recent tests were done in April 2022.

The pizza oven you choose makes all the difference. You want it to reach the right temperature, maintain the flames, be easy to clean afterwards and, of course, create delicious pizza. Pizza ovens can cost less than £100 or more than £1,000. Picking the right oven is important if you're considering parting with a lot of money, and we've found you generally do need to pay a bit more to get the best pizza oven. 

Along with our full test results below, we've rounded up expert advice on buying a pizza oven to help you on your journey to becoming a pizzaiolo at home.

Read our guide to find out which pizza ovens we recommend, and important things to bear in mind if you decide to shop for the best pizza ovens.

Prices and availability last checked: 7 June 2022.

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The best pizza ovens

Only logged-in Which? members can view the pizza ovens test results below. 

If you're not yet a member, you'll see an alphabetically ordered list of the pizza ovens we tested. Join Which? now to get instant access to our test scores and Best Buy recommendations below.

Aldi Gardenline Table Top Pizza Oven

Only available at Aldi: £129.99 (out of stock).

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Wood-fired

Fuel(s): Wood pellets

Size and weight: 78 x 35 x 74cm (HxWxD), 8.5kg

Maximum pizza size: 10.5 inches

Other key features: 28 x 28cm cordierite pizza stone

As you might expect, this Aldi pizza oven is significantly cheaper than most others we tested. Could it be a bargain route into home pizza cooking, or are you better off paying more?

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Burnhard Nero

Only available at Amazon: £199.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Wood pellets, wood logs, charcoal

Size and weight: 83 x 41 x 81cm (HxWxD), 15kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 10-inch aluminium pizza peel, 36 x 32cm cordierite pizza stone, integrated thermometer

The Burnhard Nero can use charcoal as well as wood to cook, so we tested it separately using wood logs and charcoal briquettes to see what the differences are in how it cooks.

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Dellonda DG10

Cheapest price: £179.98 available at Amazon, Dellonda.

Date tested: April 2022

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Wood pellets, wood logs, charcoal

Size and weight: 82 x 44.2 x 74.5cm (HxWxD), 14kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 11-inch pizza peel, 33 x 33cm cordierite pizza stone, integrated thermometer

The Dellonda DG10 has a thermometer built into the door so you can keep track of the heat inside the oven. In our tests we also used a temperature gun to check the heat of the pizza stone, as it's important the stone stays hot to give your pizzas a crispy base.

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Gozney Roccbox

Cheapest price: £399 available at Gozney, also available at Amazon.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Gas, wood logs (requires Roccbox Wood Burner 2.0, £100, available at Gozney)

Size and weight: 47 x 41 x 53cm (HxWxD), 20kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 12-inch perforated aluminium pizza peel, 31.5 x 34cm cordierite pizza stone, detachable gas burner, hose and regulator, bottle opener, carry strap, integrated thermometer

The Gozney Roccbox comes with plenty of features, including a carry strap, a pizza peel and even a bottle opener. We fired it up several times using both the gas and wood burners to see if it you'll also get delicious pizza along with all those bells and whistles.

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Igneus Classico

Cheapest price: £875 available at Igneus, The Pizza Oven Shop.

Date tested: April 2022

Type: Wood-fired

Fuel(s): Wood logs

Size and weight: 103 x 66 x 68cm (HxWxD), 45kg

Maximum pizza size: 22 inches

Other key features: 60 x 60cm cordierite pizza stone, embers rake, integrated thermometer

Pizza ovens don't get much more traditional than the Igneus Classico, which requires you to build and burn your wood fire in the centre of the oven and pushing it back before you start cooking. We tested to see if the traditional cooking method led to better-tasting pizza compared with the modern-style ovens we tested.

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Igneus Minimo

Cheapest price: £299 available at Igneus, The Pizza Oven Shop.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Wood-fired

Fuel(s): Wood logs

Size and weight: 63 x 41 x 49cm (HxWxD), 15kg

Maximum pizza size: 11 inches

Other key features: 11-inch aluminium pizza peel, 30 x 40cm cordierite pizza stone, embers rake

The Igneus Minimo is much smaller than the large Igneus Classico, but has the same traditional design and wood-fired cooking method. Our tests looked at whether this compact oven is easier to use than its larger counterpart, and how their heat-up times compare.

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La Hacienda Steel Multi-function Pizza Oven 56173

Cheapest price: £150 available at Amazon, Argos.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Wood logs or charcoal briquettes

Size and weight: 157 x 51 x 38cm (HxWxD), 22.5kg

Maximum pizza size: 11 inches

Other key features: 30 x 30cm cordierite pizza stone, built-in thermometer

This La Hacienda pizza oven is one of the largest we tested, but it can also be used as a barbecue, making it arguably one of the biggest space savers. Does the quality of its pizza make it the perfect two-in-one solution for cooking in your garden?

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Ooni Fyra 12

Cheapest price: £249 available at Amazon, John Lewis, Lakeland, Ooni.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Wood-fired

Fuel(s): Wood pellets

Size and weight: 72 x 39 x 57cm (HxWxD), 10kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 33 x 33cm cordierite pizza stone

The Ooni Fyra 12 is the brand's cheapest pizza oven, costing around £50 less than Ooni's other 12-inch pizza ovens. Our test results reveal whether we think that's money well saved.

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Ooni Karu 12

Cheapest price: £299 available at Amazon, John Lewis (out of stock), Lakeland, Ooni.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Wood logs, charcoal briquettes or gas (requires Ooni Gas Burner, £79.99, available at Ooni)

Size and weight: 77 x 40 x 85cm (HxWxD), 12kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 33 x 33cm cordierite pizza stone

If you can't decide which fuel type you like best, the Ooni Karu 12 will let you experiment with every option available. We tested it using wood logs, charcoal briquettes and propane gas to find out which cooks the tastiest pizzas.

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Ooni Karu 16

Cheapest price: £699 available at Amazon, John Lewis, Lakeland, Ooni.

Date tested: April 2022

Type: Multi-fuel

Fuel(s): Wood logs, charcoal or gas (requires Ooni Gas Burner, £79.99, available at Ooni)

Size and weight: 83.7 x 19.6 x 81.5cm (HxWxD), 28.4kg

Maximum pizza size: 16 inches

Other key features: 43 x 43cm cordierite pizza stone, digital thermometer

The Ooni Karu 16 is Ooni's premium option and is one of the most expensive pizza ovens we tested. It can cook 16-inch pizzas, has a large, heat-proof glass door to help visibility during cooking and a digital thermometer to help you track the heat. But is it really worth all that cash?

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Ooni Koda 12

Cheapest price: £299 available at Amazon, John Lewis, Lakeland, Ooni.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Gas

Fuel(s): Gas (propane)

Size and weight: 30 x 39 x 62cm (HxWxD), 9.25kg

Maximum pizza size: 12 inches

Other key features: 33 x 33cm cordierite pizza stone, gas hose and regulator

If you're put off by the prospect of cleaning up ash and soot when you use your pizza oven, a gas option such as the Ooni Koda 12 could be best for you. We compared it with the wood-fired pizza ovens to see if there's a significant difference in taste.

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Ooni Koda 16

Cheapest price: £499 available at Amazon, John Lewis, Lakeland, Ooni.

Date tested: April 2022

Type: Gas

Fuel(s): Gas (propane)

Size and weight: 37.2 x 52 x 63.4cm (HxWxD), 18.2kg

Maximum pizza size: 16 inches

Other key features: 43 x 43cm cordierite pizza stone, gas hose and regulator

If you want a reliable and consistent pizza oven you might be considering the Ooni Koda 16. A long, thin gas burner goes all the way along the back and side to provide constant, low-maintenance flames. We considered this and other key factors when deciding whether to recommend you buy it.

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Sage The Smart Oven Pizzaiolo SPZ820BSS

Cheapest price: £699 available at Lakeland, also available at Harrods, Sage.

Date tested: August 2021

Type: Electric

Fuel(s): Electricity

Size and weight: 27 x 47 x 46cm (HxWxD), 15kg

Maximum pizza size: 11 inches

Other key features: 11-inch aluminium pizza peel, 30 x 30cm cordierite pizza stone, 30 x 30cm pizza pan

This Sage pizza oven is the only one we tested that lives in the kitchen instead of the garden. You can adjust the settings to cook thin, deep pan, wood-fired or even frozen pizzas. We pitted its wood-fired-style pizzas against the real thing to see if electric pizza ovens can compete with traditional wood-fired ones.

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Barbecue-top pizza ovens

As well as putting wood-fired, gas and electric pizza ovens through our full tests, we tried out a couple of popular barbecue-top pizza ovens to see if you can still get delicious pizza without shelling out for a full oven.

La Hacienda BBQ Pizza Oven

Only available at Amazon: £81.72.

Date tested: May 2020

Type: Barbecue-top

Fuel(s): Charcoal briquettes or gas

Size and weight: 15 x 40 x 35cm (HxWxD), 8.4kg

Maximum pizza size: 11 inches

Other key features: 30 x 30cm cordierite pizza stone, built-in thermometer

La Hacienda makes both standalone pizza ovens and barbecue-top-style ones for those with limited space. We tried out the La Hacienda BBQ Pizza Oven to see if you can still get delicious pizza without having to get a full-sized pizza oven.

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Lidl Barbecue Pizza Oven

Only available at Lidl: £39.99 (in store only, stock varies).

Date tested: May 2020

Type: Barbecue-top

Fuel(s): Charcoal briquettes or gas

Size and weight: 14 x 40 x 35cm (HxWxD), 4kg

Maximum pizza size: 11 inches

Other key features: 30 x 30cm cordierite pizza stone, built-in thermometer

The Lidl Barbecue Pizza Oven is available seasonally in store in the middle aisles of Lidl. If it cooks pizzas as well as the standalone pizza ovens, it could prove to be a fantastic bargain. But can this low-cost pizza oven really compete with the big brands?

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How we tested pizza ovens

We selected the UK's bestselling pizza ovens and cooked more than 50 pizzas to find out which ovens are the easiest to use and which cook the best pizza.

We bought every pizza oven we tested and we don't accept gifts, so you can be certain our reviews are unbiased and independent.

Portability and stability

Freestanding pizza ovens like those we tested are often billed as portable, so we weighed them and carried them a short distance, taking bulkiness and comfort into account.

It's also very important that an oven that gets as hot as 500°C is perfectly stable, so we checked that the pizza ovens had strong legs and weren't prone to wobbling.

Ease of use

If it's difficult to control the temperature or feed the flames, a struggle to get pizzas out of the oven or to turn them, or if it's hard to see what you're doing, cooking pizzas can quickly become a stressful experience. When getting the flames going, heating the oven to temperature and cooking pizzas, we noted any design elements or features that impacted our cooking experience.

Time to reach cooking temperature

Pizza ovens need to reach consistently high temperatures to give a perfectly browned and crispy base to your pizza.

The optimum cooking temperature is between 400°C and 500°C, and it can be frustrating if your pizza oven takes a long time to reach that temperature or fails to reach it at all.

We used a temperature gun to record the surface temperature of the pizza stone in the oven, and timed how long it took to reach 400°C. Some pizza ovens took as little as 15 minutes to heat, whereas others couldn't get that hot after an hour.

Pizza quality

We cooked three of the most popular types of pizza – margherita, pepperoni and vegetarian – in each pizza oven so we could compare the textures and flavours.

We used the same method and recipe to prepare the dough, allowed it to proof for the same amount of time (24 hours), and used exactly the same method and ingredients to prepare and cook each pizza.

We photographed and tasted every pizza we cooked, checking for evenness of cooking, the texture of the crust and base, and any flavours that were especially present or lacking.

Cleaning

After cooking with each pizza oven, we allowed it to cool fully before cleaning it. Pizza ovens can be messy if there's leftover flour, stuck-on bits or areas where ash can collect, so we took note when the pizza ovens we tested were especially hard to clean.

Types of pizza oven at a glance

Freestanding pizza ovens

Gas, wood-fired and multi-fuel options are available.

• Cost between £200-£700 A considerable investment but way below premium pizza ovens that go into four figures.
• Portable Although their size and weight can still be considerable, this type of pizza oven is usually designed to be set up and used anywhere, so you could take it camping or to the beach if you wanted.
• Mainly cook one at a time It's rare for portable pizza ovens of this type to have room for more than one pizza at a time. Most of those we've tested can fit pizzas of around 11 or 12 inches maximum, but there are a few that can cook 16-inch pizzas.

Barbecue-top pizza ovens

These are often made up of a simple metal box with a pizza stone inside. They sit on top of a barbecue and are heated from below using the grill.

• Check size Your barbecue grill area needs to be large enough to accommodate the pizza oven you’re interested in buying. Make sure to measure it up.
• Slower to cook There’s no overhead heat like there is with a portable pizza oven, so they cook more slowly, but you’ll still need to keep an eye on them to avoid them burning the pizza.
• Gas is easiest In our experience, these ovens are more straightforward to use with a gas barbecue, because it’s easier to maintain a consistent temperature.

Brick or clay pizza ovens

If you’re really into pizza, you might want to invest in a purpose-built pizza oven as a feature for your garden.

• Ready made or build your own You can either buy a ready-made oven or build your own using a pre-built model with assembly required, such as the Gozney Stone Core.
• Wood fired Most models are wood fired, so they take a bit of skill and patience in handling the cooking temperature to get the best out of them.
• Cook for a crowd These pizza ovens usually have large chambers to fit a roaring fire and several pizzas, so you can cook for several guests and have an area inside to keep your pizzas warm.

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What's the difference between charcoal, gas and wood-fired pizza ovens?

Gas pizza ovens

Just like with barbecues, gas pizza ovens are for those who value convenience over authenticity.

Gas pizza ovens heat up quickly and are mess-free thanks to there being no ash or leftover fuel, but the smokeless flames can leave your pizzas without the complex flavours you'd get with a wood-fired oven.

Propane burns hotter than butane, and is therefore the preferred gas for use with pizza ovens.

Wood-fired pizza ovens

The traditional and most popular type. They require the most patience and skill, as they take longer to reach cooking temperature than gas, and need constant attention to get the flames to the right size and consistency.

They do, however, usually produce the tastiest pizza, as the wood smoke infuses additional flavours into the crust and base.

The dryer the wood you use, the better. Avoiding moisture and sap will help your wood to burn cleanly, and prevent the smoke from being too thick and pale. Offcuts of silver birch or similar hardwoods are ideal, and you'll want logs six or seven inches long for smaller pizza ovens.

Sustainably sourced wood logs are available, and where possible we'd suggest buying these as they will have a reduced impact on the planet.

Charcoal pizza ovens

Charcoal pizza ovens have a similar process to charcoal barbecues.

Some pizza ovens only take fast-burning charcoal briquettes, whereas others can take lump charcoal too.

You'll need to load up the grate and let the coals burn white to get the oven ready for cooking. Pizza ovens with larger grates are best for charcoal, as smaller grates will struggle to produce enough heat to get the oven up to temperature.

Cooking with charcoal can be frustrating, as there's no guarantee the coals will get the oven consistently hot enough. Topping up the coals will effectively restart the heating process. We'd recommend mixing wood logs in with the charcoal to help it burn at a hotter, more consistent temperature.

What tools do you need to use a pizza oven?

• Temperature gun or built-in thermometer It's key for you to be able to keep track of how hot your pizza oven is, to ensure it stays at the right temperature. Between 400°C and 500°C is ideal, so a temperature gun or a built-in thermometer (if your oven has one) is essential for knowing when your pizza oven is ready to cook. Using both is best, as temperature guns tell you how hot the pizza stone is, which built-in thermometers don't. A hot pizza stone is essential for a crispy base.
• Pizza peel You'll need a paddle to take your pizza in and out of the oven safely. You can get aluminium or wood pizza peels, and while the aluminium ones are easier to clean and maintain, they're more prone to sticking. Dusting the peel with flour or semolina will help to prevent your pizza sticking to the peel.
• Turning peel This smaller paddle has a rounded edge to help you slide it under one side of the pizza and turn it while it's cooking, without the need to take it out. This peel is a handy tool, but it's not essential like the standard pizza peel.
• Pizza stone These are the cooking surface, and are usually made from moisture-absorbent cordierite. They're fantastic for retaining heat and are key for crisping up the base of your pizza. Most pizza ovens come with a pizza stone included.
• Pizza cutter A good pizza cutter is key for slicing up and serving your pizza. The larger the circular blade, the better. This prevents the pizza cutter from moving your toppings around, and makes it easier to cut through extra-puffy pizza crusts. See the best pizza cutters.
• Bristle brush Especially useful for wood-fired ovens where ash is likely, a tough bristle brush is handy for removing ash from the pizza stone ready for cooking, as well as for cleaning out your oven after use.

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Six tips for cooking with a pizza oven

• Keep a consistent temperature 400-500°C is ideal for cooking pizza, but some ovens can get up to 800°C or more. A consistent heat will cook your pizzas evenly and keep them from burning unexpectedly.
• Dust your peel with flour Pizza dough sticks very easily, so dusting your peel with flour will help it to slide on and off. Be careful not to overdo it, though, as too much flour underneath will burn and taste bitter.
• Assemble your pizza on the peel Save yourself the stress of trying to slide the peel underneath the squishy dough and avoid ruining the shape of your pizza. The peel is the perfect assembly station as long as you dust it first and remember to give it a shake every 30 seconds to stop the pizza sticking.
• Rotate it regularly Especially in gas and wood-fired pizza ovens, the strongest heat comes from one direction. You'll want to rotate your pizza a few times during cooking to make sure it cooks evenly. Once every 30 seconds is a good rule of thumb to follow. 
• Try other dishes too Pizza isn't the only thing a pizza oven is good for. If you have cookware that can handle the heat, there are endless possibilities – try roasting a joint of beef or even steaming a pot of mussels.
• Don't overdo it with toppings Less is definitely more when cooking with a pizza oven. Too many toppings will leave you with a soggy base and watery top. The crust cooks and burns very quickly during cooking, so be minimal with your toppings to ensure they cook just as fast.