We updated this guide in February 2022 to ensure all products previously vetted by the Kitchen Appliance and Culinary Innovation Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute were in stock and correctly priced. We also added two new picks from Ooni and additional testing notes from recent road testing.
Tacos might have Tuesday, but pizza has any night it wants. Whether you know how to make a pizza at home or are taking it easy with one of the best frozen pizzas, a home pizza oven takes pizza night to a whole new level. Like the best air fryers, home pizza ovens might not have been standard equipment in the past, but modern kitchens and outdoor entertaining areas are including them more and more.
While you can make pizza in a toaster oven or regular oven, home pizza ovens are specialized ovens designed to reach higher temperatures (some up to 950°F) and are shaped to conduct heat efficiently for that hot-and-fast style of restaurant pizza. They range from indoor electric models to outdoor wood-fired units. But what they all have in common is creating speedy, crispy, chewy, cheesy pizza whether you start with a store-bought pie or make your own.
How we test home pizza ovens
The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab road tested an assortment of home pizza ovens, including both indoor and outdoor models. Each oven was tested with 12-inch pies: Fresh dough was topped with canned tomato sauce and a pre-shredded mozzarella. During testing, we made more than 20 pies, using over five pounds of cheese and 10 pounds of dough. The oven was always preheated when called for by the manufacturer’s instructions. And, whenever possible, the oven’s own accessories, such as peels, were used to remove the pies. We evaluated how easy the ovens were to set up and use, how quickly they baked fresh and frozen pizza and whether the results were worth the effort.
Those that delivered a superior slice made our list of the best home pizza ovens to buy in 2022, along with others we haven’t formally in the Lab, but come from brands we trust after years of experience testing kitchen appliances:
