Outdoor pizza ovens have been rapidly growing in popularity over the last several years. In fact, more and more outdoor cooking brands seem to be expanding their repertoire to include pizza ovens in their offerings. But who does it best? Which brand makes the best outdoor pizza ovens?
Why Trust Our Review?
We have filled our outdoor kitchen and patio with outdoor pizza ovens as far as the eye can see. We have eaten so much Neapolitan style pizza that even our kids are getting tired of it. Imagine that... kids who are tired of eating pizza.
Grilling Gift Guide
Looking for gift ideas for yourself or someone special in your life? We've got you covered.
But in all seriousness, we have fully experienced each of the ovens we're talking about in this article. We built them, used them, used them again, and again, and again. We've even invited guests over to use them and share their opinions on the experience as first-time users.
The brands included today did not pay us to play. They did provide a sample oven and in some cases accessories for us to use but that is all. As affiliates, we can earn a small commission on the sale of any of these ovens if you choose to click our links.
It is our goal to test these ovens as impartially as possible and let the data speak for itself.
Our Quick Picks
Winners
Product Information
Best 12" pizza Oven
Gozney Roccbox
Detachable burners make it easy to switch from gas to wood
Every person reading this article or watching our video on YouTube will have different opinions on what makes the best pizza oven. There are different qualities or features that mean more to some than others. But here are a few of the main things to consider when evaluating which pizza oven is right for you:
What is the fuel source?
There are basically 4 different ways that a pizza oven can be fueled: wood, wood pellets, gas, and electric.
Some pizza ovens are fueled by wood. Wood-fired ovens are a lot of fun to use and really add a lot to the user experience, but at the same time, they add a lot of responsibility to the user experience as well. Launching, rotating, and cooking pizzas in a pizza oven can sometimes be overwhelming for new users even without the added task of building and maintaining a wood fire to the optimal temperature.
Gas pizza ovens take care of the fire responsibility for you, and for some users, that's exactly what they want and/or need. Some ovens require the use of propane tanks only, and some ovens can be converted to natural gas if that's the way you want to go. Not all gas ovens can use natural gas, so if that's what you're hoping to use, be sure to do the proper research to confirm that the oven you're planning to buy can make that conversion.
Electric pizza ovens are perfect for anyone living in an apartment, with limited patio space, or living in an area often under a burn ban. An electric indoor pizza oven would be the perfect solution for any of those situations.
What is the stone thickness?
When shopping around for a pizza oven, you will likely find a wide range of pizza stone thicknesses. Here's an important rule of thumb to consider and remember: the thicker the stone, the better the heat retention and heat distribution will be in that pizza oven. At the same time, the thicker the stone, the longer that oven will likely take to heat up; but once it's hot, it will stay hot.
What are the dimensions of the oven opening?
If you're buying a pizza oven to cook Neapolitan style pizzas exclusively, you may not really care about the dimensions of the opening. However, if you're planning on cooking any other types of foods (and we think you definitely can and should), the opening dimensions do matter.
The first dimension to look at is the width of the opening. This will tell you what size pizza peel you'll need for launching pizzas. Some ovens have a more rounded opening so the width will be different depending on the height.
The second thing to consider is the height of the oven. Is it tall enough for you to slide in a cast iron pan or Dutch oven? Is it tall enough for you to bake a sourdough boule bread? Do those things even matter to you? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Is the oven insulated?
Most pizza ovens will at least be double-walled, but some offer insulation between those double walls that greatly affect heat retention. An insulated pizza oven will most likely cost more than one that is not insulated, but it will stay hotter longer than the others.
If you're only planning on cooking a couple of pizzas each time, maybe the heat retention doesn't matter so much to you. But if you see yourself making a good amount of pizzas for an extended amount of time (pizza party!), heat retention (or lack of it) can make a big difference.
How Long isthe Warranty?
I think the duration of a warranty says a lot about what a manufacturer believes is safe to expect from their product. Some brands only offer a one-year warranty while others offer 5 years. Newer models of pizza ovens are starting to introduce mechanics that never used to be used in this space with auto-rotating pizza stones. I would be nervous about purchasing an oven with technology that could at some point fail without a decent warranty to back it up.
Is it portable?
This is a factor that really doesn't matter much to me personally, but I know there are plenty of users who will take their portable pizza ovens to different locations, so ease of portability would be important. Not all pizza ovens can be moved around easily. So if you're hoping to sling pizzas on the go, the size and weight of your pizza oven will be very important.
How difficult is it to clean?
Wood-burning pizza ovens will produce a lot more ash and soot than their propane-fueled counterparts.
Any style of pizza oven will accumulate some flour or cornmeal on the pizza stone that will need to be brushed off occasionally. When you look at a potential oven, visualize yourself brushing debris out of the oven. Where will it go? Will it sweep right into a crack and get stuck? Into the abyss of the oven where you can't get it out?
In all the various pizza ovens we've used, we can tell that some brands have really put a lot of thought into making cleanup easy and others clearly have not.
Important side-note: While discussing pizza oven clean-up, I feel like this might be a good opportunity to let you know that you should never attempt to wash a pizza stone in water, no matter how big of a mess was made at launch. The best way to take care of that is with the cleaning power of a super hot fire. (Think self-cleaning oven).
Will it be difficult to assemble?
For the most part, pizza ovens are not hard to assemble, however, they can get pretty heavy requiring an extra set of hands potentially. If your pizza oven comes with a cart, those will generally require considerably more work to assemble than the oven itself.
Stainless steel parts will often come with a poly-film that will need to be peeled off before use. That can be a pretty tedious task, however, if you're lucky like us, you'll have a teenager in the house that will find this "so satisfying" and will willingly help you with this job.
Best 12" Pizza Ovens We Tested
We have tested 8 of the best portable pizza oven models available with 12" stone size and these are our findings.
The Bertello pizza oven has a nice amount of space to hold the fire when burning wood. Other ovens were very limited on space, requiring fuel to be added almost constantly but we appreciated that this wood fired oven did not skimp in that area.
We like that the everything bundle includes everything you will need, including a perforated peel (our favorite kind), an infrared thermometer, a weatherproof cover, and the propane burner with wood burning tray so you can get right to work baking Neapolitan style pizza as soon as your order arrives.
The Bertello hybrid pizza oven is the only oven that can cook with gas and wood at the same time. Most outdoor pizza ovens cook with just gas or just wood or wood pellets, or have the option to change burners between the two types of fuel types. But the Bertello actually allows you to add wood when using the gas burner, which is kind of the best of both worlds, right?
What we didn't like:
The opening of the Bertello pizza oven is very shallow, offering very little height clearance and limited visibility into the oven.
The gas burner adds an extra 10 inches to this already 24 inch deep oven. That's a significant amount of depth, and worth considering if space may be an issue for you.
In order to change the burner from wood to gas or vice versa you must reach your arm all the way into the oven to remove and exchange parts. This can be a very messy job since there isn't much height to the oven interior.
Working with a wood fired pizza oven is especially worth the extra effort if you can watch the fire dance. Of all the 12 inch ovens we've tested, this one feels the most like a real wood oven like our big Alfa 4 Pizze. It gives a clear picture of the cooking pizza while simultaneously offering a nice show of the fire.
Because of the spacious interior, we find it easy to light the fire and get the stone up to temperature in a decent amount of time.
Your oven purchase includes a pizza peel and a fire ember rake so you're ready to cook pizza as soon as you unbox.
What we didn't like:
The Cru wood fired pizza ovens are all 304 stainless steel and come out of the box covered in a protective coating that must be peeled off before using. While it's not an impossible task, it is kind of time consuming and probably took me at least 20 minutes to peel this one pizza oven.
Personally I prefer a perforated peel with a handle over the solid flat rectangle that Cru offers.
We found the Gozney Roccbox to be the most portable pizza oven in this group, coming out of the box with a lifting strap and retractable legs.
Of all the 12 inch ovens we tested, the Gozney Roccbox was the easiest to exchange burners between gas and wood. It was just a simple twist on/off from the under side of the oven with no need to reach inside and get dirty.
The Roccbox comes with a pizza peel in the box. First, I love it when a pizza oven comes with the tools necessary to use it. But secondly, this may very well be our favorite peel we've ever used. It was surprisingly high quality ($85 value according to their website) for being included in the purchase of the oven.
When a pizza oven is rocking interior temps of up to 1000°, the outside can get dangerously hot to the accidental touch. Gozney designed the Roccbox with a safe touch silicone jacket that drastically reduces the exterior temperature.
The Gozney Roccbox was designed with a baffle above the fire that encourages the flames forward toward the opening and over the cooking pizza. Whether you're cooking with wood or gas, it's just mesmerizing to watch.
What we didn't like:
The Gozney Roccbox is certainly at a higher price point than some of the other ovens, particularly if you plan on adding the wood burner to your purchase. However, after using all of the ovens, I will say it performs at an equally higher level to the price.
This was 100% the easiest pizza oven to use. The ease of just selecting the type of pizza we're cooking on the control panel and just pressing start and then coming back 3 minutes later to a perfectly cooked Neapolitan pizza was quite shocking. I'm not exactly sure what we were expecting from this pizza oven, but the Ninja was a real pleasant surprise for us.
The Ninja Woodfire is an 8-in-1 outdoor oven and cooking delicious pies is only 1 of its 8 tricks! We have yet to even explore the other 7 functions including max roast, specialty roast, broil, bake, smoker, dehydrate and keep warm.
The Ninja electric pizza oven is solidly built and I love the anti-slide feet on the bottom. They keep the oven from moving around as well as protect my table or counter from being scratched.
You can add 1/2 cup of pellets to the oven to add wood-fire flavor to whatever you're cooking.
With the discount code BBQLAB, you can save 15% on your outdoor oven bundle purchase.
What we didn't like:
I wish the door had a window so I could watch the pizza cooking inside.
It took longer than I expected (25 minutes) to preheat to 700° to cook a Neapolitan pizza.
Even though it is electric, the Ninja Woodfire is an outdoor oven only and should not be used inside.
Designed just like the Ooni Karu 16, I love that the lid over the wood burner can hang from the back while you're tending to the fire so you don't have to worry about finding a safe place to set it down. I thought it was genius when we first tested the Karu 16, and I still think it's genius with the 12G.
I appreciate the window on the door so I can easily watch my Neapolitan pizza cooking inside.
Ooni offers a 60 day guarantee and if you're not happy with your purchase in that window they'll buy it back from you. And on top of that, they offer a 5 year warranty on all their outdoor pizza ovens.
We didn't have the gas burner to use with this Karu 12G (however we have tested it with the Karu 16), but we like that it is an optional add-on that is available. Working a wood fire isn't for everyone, and for many adding the gas burner is an easier method that results in getting more use out of their pizza oven.
What we didn't like:
The Ooni Karu 12G took a full half hour to reach over 700° when burning wood.
To clean the Karu 12G of ash, you must reach your arm all the way into the oven to pull the wood tray out the front, which is a messy job.
We have tested all three of the Solo Stove Pi portable pizza ovens and the Pi Prime is our favorite of them all. Fueled by gas, it heats up the fastest and cooks beautiful pizzas.
I love that the knob to control the burner is located in the front and we can make small adjustments while we watch the flames from the front. For instance, we like to pre-heat this oven on high but turn it down to medium once we launch the pizza. With the knob in the front we can make that change easily without having to walk around the oven.
Solo Stove offers a lifetime warranty and excellent customer service.
Your purchase includes a "shelter" or cover to protect your Pi Prime from the weather.
The price is super affordable, and if you use our discount code BARBECUELAB, you can save $10 on your Solo Stove purchase of $99 or more.
What we didn't like:
It's important to know that the Pi Prime does not currently fit on Solo Stove's Pi Stand. I'm sure there is a redesign in the works but at this time they are not compatible.
The Stoke Stove is a spacious 12 inch pizza oven with a decent amount of clearance above the stone. The interior capacity allows for optimal views of the pizza and fire as well as the opportunity to cook other foods besides Neapolitan style pizza.
Stoke Stove offers a 365-day trial period followed by a lifetime warranty on their portable pizza ovens. That tells me this company is very confident in this product and is willing to stand behind it with these offers.
The starter kit includes a peel, basic pizza cutter, and a carrying cover.
What we didn't like:
Occasionally if there was any amount of wind whatsoever when we opened the door to the front of the oven, massive flames would shoot out the back of the oven several inches. Thankfully we didn't have anything combustable nearby, but it was quite shocking when we first noticed.
Changing from gas to wood or vice versa is a bit of work that requires pulling the stone out and flipping the oven up side down. It's a bit more of a commitment to make the switch than we prefer.
The pizza peel that came with the oven seemed like more of a turning peel to us and was not large enough to launch 12" pizzas.
The capacity of the fire drawer is too small in my opinion. It can only hold a small amount of fuel and therefore needs to be replenished often. We preferred cooking with gas in this pizza oven.
Your purchase of this WPPO pizza oven includes a storage cover/carrying bag, peel, poker and pizza cutter.
At first we struggled to get the stone to reach optimal temperature and eventually learned that it was due to user error. We had not placed our pizza stone on the L brackets elevating it from the floor of the pizza oven. Making that switch made all the difference and once the stone was able to heat from the top as well as the bottom it reached our desired temperature in a much more reasonable amount of time.
What we didn't like:
We had a lot of difficulty opening the door of the Lil Luigi at first; so much so that we were literally bending the handle. But we eventually discovered that 2 washers were used where there was only supposed to be 1 and once we fixed that manufacturing error the door opened a lot easier.
The downside for me with this oven is that the fire drawer is on the small side when we were using wood splits. Multiple times, I would get the wood stuck in the door trying to put the drawer back in, but that isn't an issue if you're using pellets or wood chips. I do find that you have to really pay attention to your fire though, since there's considerably less room for fuel in this drawer compared to some of the others, which just means you're adding fuel more often.
The Moderno has a very attractive design, and it's also very sturdy.
It has the thickest fire bricks of all the ovens we tested, providing a substantial boost in heat retention.
The double-walled insulation keeps this oven hot for an extended amount of time. Once it's up to temperature, it will stay there.
To be honest, the pizzas cooked in the Alfa Moderno were our favorite to eat. They were cooked more evenly than any other outdoor pizza ovens we tested.
Cleaning the Moderno is simple.
We love the design that allows the fire to arch over the top of the pizza to promote an even cook.
What we didn't like:
The inside of the oven does feel a little cramped, (but maybe that's because we're used to using its big brothers, the Alfa 4 Pizze and Alfa Nano)
Because of the extra thick fire bricks, this oven took the longest to come up to cooking temperature.
The price tag is pretty high for a pizza oven of this size.
We love the versatility of the Ooni Karu 16 multi fuel pizza oven. Out of the box, it cooks pizzas with wood. However, a propane or natural gas burner can be purchased separately and the oven can easily convert to to this fuel source instead.
With a 16.7" square stone, this is one of the more spatious pizza ovens we tested in this category, which makes turning pizzas during a cook a lot easier.
We love the hinged glass door that comes with the Karu 16. Though this can only be used when cooking with wood and requires being removed when cooking with gas, it really helps keep heat inside the oven while you can still watch the pizza cook.
What we didn't like:
When cooking with wood, the glass door does collect a fair amount of soot, eventually making it impossible to see through it. However, it does wipe clean pretty easily when cool.
Check out our full review of the Ooni Karu 16 multi-fuel pizza oven.
The L-shaped burner helps pizzas cook more quickly with only 1 (180 degree) turn of the pizza required.
The Ooni Koda 16 gas pizza oven comes with an impressive 5-year warranty.
It is relatively lightweight (compared to most) and therefore a truly portable propane pizza oven.
The Ooni Koda 16 requires essentially no assembly. It's basically ready to go straight out of the box.
Cleaning the Ooni Koda 16 is simple.
What we didn't like:
If you're new to turning pizzas, the L-shaped burner can also come back to bite (or burn) if you can't manage to turn the cooked portion of your pizza away from the flames quickly enough.
Check out our full review of the Ooni Koda 16 gas pizza oven.
The Camp Chef Italia Artisan oven is best for people who don't want to manage an active flame kissing their pizza. It's a radiant heat style of oven, where the stone gets the direct heat and the ambient heat cooks the pizza, which means it takes longer to cook a pizza in this oven. For some people, that's easy and this fits the bill.
What we didn't like:
The rectangular dimensions of this pizza oven is designed to cook 2 small pizzas side-by-side rather than 1 larger pizza, which is what we're used to.
Without direct flame access, we had a difficult time getting the browning we were looking for on the crust and toppings without burning the bottom of the crust.
This pizza oven features a completely innovative design that we've not seen in other pizza ovens.
The auto-rotating stone allows the pizza to cook evenly without relying on the user to manually turn. This is very helpful for beginners!
The clamshell top opens up fully to assist with cleaning. The drip tray under the stone removes easily to dump ash and crumbs.
The rotating pizza stone heats from below with an infrared burner, as well as a gas burner in the back.
Even though the Halo Versa does have an AC adapter to power certain features, it can also operate with D batteries if you choose to take this pizza oven on the go.
The Halo Versa comes with a 5-year warranty, which is impressive given the additional mechanical features that this pizza oven offers over the competition.
What we didn't like:
We had some challenges getting the top to cook as quickly as the bottom. However, we also recognize that we were working with a lot of different pizza ovens at the same time and we can't expect them all to cook pizzas the exact same way. I believe that if we were focusing exclusively on the Halo Versa only we probably would have figured out the sweet spot for the Versa more quickly.
This oven heats up super fast and was usually ready to cook pizzas within 10 minutes of lighting it.
The self-rotating stone makes this an easy pizza oven to use for beginners.
I love that the cart comes with a place to store the pizza peel and the propane tank.
The Blackstone pizza oven includes a pizza peel.
What we didn't like:
The one-year warranty makes me nervous about this pizza oven. If the stone rotating feature fails, the pizza oven no longer works because the heat source will only target one section of the stone. Any pizza oven with the added technology of a rotating stone just has me wondering how long those mechanics will work before there are problems that will render it useless, so I would feel a lot better if this oven came with a longer warranty.
The cart was quite a bit of work to build.
I wish the included pizza peel was slotted to allow the semolina or bench flour to fall off before the pizza is launched.
Melissa is the co-founder of The Barbecue Lab, along with her husband David. While she shares David's passion for outdoor cooking and good food, she's much more comfortable being the one behind the camera.
Artificial Intelligence has been taking over in many aspects of our lives, and it's found our way into the outdoor cooking space. Today we're putting the Brisk It Origin 940...
Today we're taking a thorough look at Breeo's brand new live fire grill. Live fire cooking has been growing in popularity here in the U.S. over the last couple of years,...
Just found this , thanks for the comprehensive reviews. So the Ninja is really compelling, but do you give up anything when going electric vs gas? As i read all your reviews, wood only is our as it doesn’t really change anything but makes it more complicated and is really for the enthusiast. So electric vs gas, is there a difference? The cheese on the Ninja looked like it had broken down more than on others? thanks for any guidance
Richard
May 9, 2024 4:01 pmJust found this , thanks for the comprehensive reviews. So the Ninja is really compelling, but do you give up anything when going electric vs gas? As i read all your reviews, wood only is our as it doesn’t really change anything but makes it more complicated and is really for the enthusiast. So electric vs gas, is there a difference? The cheese on the Ninja looked like it had broken down more than on others? thanks for any guidance