We Tested 12 Indoor Pizza Ovens to See Which Ones Could Bring the Heat (But Not Burn the House Down) (2024)

I’ve long considered myself a pizza eater but not a pizza person. You know, someone who slings pies in their backyard on the regular. But after attending culinary school in Italy, reviewing outdoor ovens, and testing Ooni’s first indoor model last year, that’s changed. I now love both eating and making pizza.

Let’s circle back to indoor pizza ovens, though. While Breville’s long had the Pizzaiolo, the Ooni Volt burst onto the scene boasting a ridiculously high temperature range. When I tested it, I was astounded by just how great the pizza it made was, how hot it got, and how the exterior managed to stay lukewarm to the touch even when the inside of the oven was at 850°F.

I’ve used the Volt regularly since then. However, the concept of indoor pizza ovens, as a whole, has consumed me. As a New Englander who experiences cold weather 65% of the year, I’ve found that making pizza inside is often more reliable. But is the Ooni Volt truly the best there is? To find out, we put it to the test against 11 other indoor pizza ovens.

The Winners, at a Glance

This indoor pizza oven got ridiculously hot, cooking pies in 90 seconds. Its touchscreen and dial controls were easy to use and the exterior stayed rather cool to the touch. While this oven is quite large, its built-in handles make it easier to move.

The Pizzaiolo has a sleek, stainless steel body that resembles a toaster oven. (It’s just a bit bigger than a microwave.) It reached temperatures over its stated 750°F, heated up quickly, and was easy to operate.

This model feels cheap in comparison to the Volt or Pizzaiolo—but it’s also a fraction of the price. Impressively, it still got up to 725°F and charred pizza in some spots.

Kenji actually reviewed this oven many moons ago. Instead of having to turn the pizza while it’s cooking, you place it on the Crispy Crust’s baking stone, close the lid, and let the machine’s top and bottom heating elements do the work. It takes longer to cook pies, but it’s more beginner-friendly.

The Tests

• Temperature Test: We set the indoor pizza ovens to their maximum temperature and took readings of the stones at 20 and 30 minutes using an infrared thermometer.
• Cheese Pizza Test: We made a cheese pizza in each model, taking the oven’s interior temperature before and after cooking and timing how long it took each to bake the pie. We also recorded the temperature five minutes after retrieving the pizza, to see how well the ovens recovered.
• Pepperoni Pizza Test: We repeated the above test but with pepperoni pizza.
• Usability and Cleanup Tests: Throughout testing, we evaluated how easy the indoor pizza ovens were to use and clean. We also noted how hot the exteriors got when in use.

What We Learned

The Best Indoor Pizza Ovens Got Hot, Hot, Hot

If you’re after a pillowy, leopard-spotted crust (the hallmark of a good Neapolitan-style pizza), you need an indoor pizza oven that gets hot. We’re talking at least 700°F. Our winners all achieved this, with the exception of the Crispy Crust (it got to 605°F, but we think some cooks might be willing to trade performance for convenience). The Ooni Volt reached 850°F in just 20 minutes, resulting in pies that were ready in 90 seconds, with spotted bottoms and puffy edges. The Breville Pizzaiolo got to nearly 800°F—higher than its advertised temperature.

That said, just because the interior of an oven gets blazing hot doesn’t mean the outside should also. In fact, it ought to be the opposite: An appliance used inside should stay cool to the touch, or at least get no hotter than a toaster oven. The Ooni Volt has a carbon steel shell that rose to merely warm in our tests.

Dual Heating Elements Cooked Better

The best-performing indoor pizza ovens had heating elements on the tops and bottoms, blasting heat all over the pies and leading to even cooking. The Breville Pizzaiolo has one heating element under the ceramic deck and two concentric coils above the deck. The Ooni Volt has two heating elements and automatically adjusts their output depending on the selected temperature (though this can be manually overridden). As explained in our review of the Volt, “Different styles of pies require various temperatures and benefit from hotter upper or lower elements. If this sounds even mildly confusing, don’t worry: The oven includes a guide as to what temperature to use for each pizza type. For example, Neapolitan should be cooked at 850°F and the oven will favor the top heating element. New York pies, on the other hand, should be cooked at 650°F, and the heat will be much more balanced between the top and bottom elements.”

Digital Controls Were the Way to Go

Both the Volt and Pizzaiolo have digital controls combined with dials for easily toggling the temp, time, and settings. This made for a vastly better user experience. That said, they’re also a lot more expensive. The analog controls of the Cuisinart worked fine but were clunkier.

The Criteria: What to Look for in an Indoor Pizza Oven

The best indoor pizza ovens reached temperatures exceeding 700°F, resulting in beautiful pizzas we’d happily eat any day of the week. Plus, most home ovens can reach a maximum of 500°F, so a higher temperature makes a dedicated indoor pizza oven worth the investment. The controls should be intuitive (digital is best, though ovens with these are pricey) and the outside of the oven should stay relatively cool to the touch.

Our Favorite Indoor Pizza Ovens

What we liked: The Ooni Volt is the most powerful indoor pizza oven we’ve ever tried. It reached 850°F in 20 minutes, cooked pizza in 90 seconds, and yielded pies with beautiful leopard spotting and pillowy crusts. It has two heating elements, which the oven will automatically adjust based on the selected temperature. The clear glass door opens and closes smoothly, and it has handles built into its side. The exterior also stayed fairly cool to the touch, even when we used it for hours.

What we didn’t like: Of course, this oven is wicked expensive. It’s also heavy and huge—and we can’t imagine having a large enough kitchen where this could stay out full-time. So, you’ll have to have a dedicated storage spot for it.

Key Specs

• Weight: 39.7 pounds
• Dimensions: 24.2 x 20.8 x 10.9 inches
• Temperature range: 150 to 850°F

What we liked: Sleek and about the size of a microwave, this indoor pizza oven has impressed us for years. It has three heating elements and, in our tests, it reached 797°F, which is higher than its stated maximum temperature of 750˚F. Pizza from it had beautiful char spots and pillowy crusts, and the heat recovered quickly in between pies. As we said in our dedicated review of the Pizzaiolo, “The Breville recovers its target temperature in the time it takes to stretch and top the next pizza, while a regular home oven takes some toggling (switching from broil back to bake) and at least a few minutes to come back up to temp.” Also a boon were its digital controls and dials, which were easy to operate and allowed you to choose from different pizza styles (like pan and thin and crispy).

What we didn’t like: Like the Volt, this is a very expensive indoor pizza oven. However, it didn’t heat as evenly as the Volt.

Key Specs

• Weight: 32.3 pounds
• Dimensions: 18.1 x 18.5 x 10.6 inches
• Temperature range: 350 to 750°F

What we liked: This oven got up to 725°F—impressive, given its sub-$300 price. It took an acceptable 30 minutes to preheat and baked up nice pizzas, though it took longer than other ovens (more on this below). Its controls were analog and clearly labeled. This is not the fanciest indoor pizza oven, but that’s okay.

What we didn’t like: It took a full 4.5 minutes to bake a pizza, which resulted in a chewier-than-desired crust. There is also a hot spot in the back of the oven, so we had to be vigilant about turning pies.

Key Specs

• Weight: 25 pounds
• Dimensions: 17.5 x 19 x 11 inches
• Temperature range: 350 to 750°F

What we liked: Kenji reviewed this indoor pizza oven years ago and he liked it. We felt the same way after retesting it. As Kenji wrote, “Happily, I can report that the oven does indeed perform as advertised, pumping out 10-inch pies in about 7 minutes, crisp bottom crust, decent charring, and all.” It’s mostly hands-free, too: Pop the pizza on the stone, close the lid, and wait. There’s no pie-turning involved.

What we didn’t like: It took a long time to heat up and bake pizza and didn’t reach the high temps of our other winners. It also offers less heat control. However, we think beginner cooks or those looking to make homemade pizza without fuss may like the Crispy Crust.

Key Specs

• Weight: 14.8 pounds
• Dimensions: 13.5 x 18 x 10 inches
• Temperature range: Up to 572°F

The Competition

• Betty Crocker Countertop Pizza Maker: This oven didn’t get hot enough and its heavy lid threatened to slam close.
• Chefman Home Slice Electric Indoor Pizza Oven: While this oven did heat sufficiently, the cheese didn’t fully melt, leading us to think the top heating element was a bit weak.
• Granitestone PIEZANO Pizza Oven: This oven cooked pizza unevenly.
• Hamilton Beach 12-Inch Pizza Maker: The Hamilton Beach had only five heat settings and we disliked this lack of control.
• Presto Pizzazz Plus Rotating Pizza Oven: Again, this model lacked adequate temperature control.
• Commercial Chef 12-Inch Countertop Pizza Maker: This indoor pizza oven only had three heat settings (high, medium, and low). Not enough!
• Courant 12-Inch Pizza Maker: Another model plagued by a lack of temperature controls.
• Gemelli Home Pizza Oven: The exterior of this oven got really hot.

FAQs

Can I use an Ooni pizza oven indoors?

You cannot use a standard Ooni pizza oven (or any outdoor model, for that matter) indoors. They use propane, kindling, charcoal, or wood pellets and have an open flame, which would be dangerous inside (not to mention the carbon monoxide risk). The Ooni Volt, however, is the company’s first electric indoor-outdoor pizza oven.

Is it worth getting an indoor pizza oven?

If you love to cook pizza, live in an area prone to inclement weather, and lack outdoor space but have storage space, an indoor pizza oven could be worth it.

Why We’re the Experts

• Riddley Gemperlein-Schirm is the senior commerce editor at Serious Eats. She’s been with the site since 2021 and previously worked at America’s Test Kitchen and Food52.
• For this review, we tested 12 indoor pizza ovens, evaluating how hot they got, how long they took to heat up, the qualities of their pizzas, and more.