Best Ooni alternatives 2024: best budget pizza ovens

It's almost unquestioned that Ooni makes the best pizza ovens around. I've tried several models and they all deliver top-quality pizza. There's a reason Ooni takes up two of the top three spots in my guide to the best pizza ovens. However, there are a couple of big drawbacks to the brand. 

Ooni ovens are incredibly expensive; their costliest is more than $800. Unlike lots of other brands, their ovens don't include essentials like a pizza peel and pizza cutter. You have to pay extra for accessories, so if you want our favorite ever pizza oven, the Ooni Karu 16, be prepared to spend more than $1300. 

That's why I've brought together a list of the best Ooni alternatives. If you want to save a little money, you'll find some good options here, as well as some top-line models that don't get quite the same attention as the big brand. I've been a product tester for years and examined plenty of the best pizza ovens. I've after taking into account cook time, ease of assembly, price, and the all-important taste test, these are the best Ooni alternatives. 

The quick list

We'll dig into the specifics further down. For now, these are all the best pizza ovens at a glance.

Best Ooni alternatives 2024

Best budget pizza oven

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Solo Stove's Pi Pizza oven is one of the cheapest we've tested, but it stands up to Ooni ovens nearly three times the price. It's a great option for beginners, too, because it has an obvious but incredibly helpful feature. There's a guard at the back of the oven which will stop you throwing your pizza into the flames. This means that even a total novice can make a good pizza. 

It runs on both gas and wood, so you can switch between convenient gas and authentic, smoky wood. The pizzas we made on this tasted incredible and are comparable to those we've tried in Oonis. 

However, it can be a little complicated. If you're cooking with wood, you need to use wood exactly one inch wide, and five inches long. You'll also need a small fire starter to start the flames. It's also tricky to top up your fuel once the fire is going. 

While a compact oven is great, the Pi makes pretty small pizzas. We found that we could only really make 10" pizzas, which is fine for single portions but small if you're making a lot of pizzas to feed a crowd. 

You can find more details in our Solo Stove Pi Pizza Oven review.

Best gas

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The Gozney Arc had some incredibly high praise from our tester, Laura. She used to work at a pizza place and has made thousands of pizzas, but thinks this oven helped her make better pizzas than any of them. 

Unlike the larger Gozney domes, this oven has a small footprint and a sleek profile that's great for smaller homes. However, it still fits a 14" pizza, so it's great for bigger portions and feeding a crowd.

It makes delicious pizza, a pretty good calozone, and it also excelled in our more left-field tests, making excellent roast peppers, chicken, and even a brownie. 

The drawback is that it only runs on gas, so you won't get the full smokiness of a wood-fired oven. Like Ooni ovens, it can be expensive to buy all of the add-ons. 

There's more detail in our full Gozney Arc review

Best indoor pizza oven

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Pizza ovens are usually restricted to outdoor cooking, so we were pleased to see Breville's Pizzaiolo come onto the market. This oven is rated for indoor use, so it's worth considering if you live in an apartment and want homemade pizza. 

I've had a look at this oven a few times and by far my favorite feature is the dedicated pizza settings. Unlike other pizza ovens that take a little mastery, this has a simple dial that will set your oven to the precise temperature of a wide range of different pizza styles. 

However, this oven is fuelled by electricity, which means it can't replicate the flavor of a gas-fired oven, and even further away from the smokiness of a wood-fired oven. It's also one of the most expensive ovens out there; even combination gas and wood ovens don't cost so much. 

You can find more details in our Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo review.

Best-looking pizza oven

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The S1 is an update to the original Gozney Dome; unlike the original, it's a little smaller and only runs on gas. However, the idea is that the S1 is cheaper than its predecessor. That sounds like a bargain, but it's still around $1500, so it's not the cheapest. 

It turns out huge 16" pizzas in under two minutes, but our tester found that you can easily fit two 8" pizzas, which is good if you want to turn out a lot of pizza relatively quickly. Unlike a wood-fired oven, it's incredibly easy to control and maintain temperature. This made for delicious pizzas and a fantastic calzone.

However, it's very expensive, and the starting price is higher than most Ooni ovens. Like Ooni products, you have to spend extra to get vital equipment like a pizza peel. 

There are more details in our Gozney Dome S1 review.

Fastest pizza oven

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The Roccbox is Gozney's most affordable oven, usually coming in at around $500. Unlike other ovens, it also includes an essential pizza peel. It hits 950°F, among the highest temperatures on the test. It also means that the Roccbox cooks the fastest of any oven on the test, finishing a pizza in little over a minute. What's more, all the pizza we made was delicious, with great leopard-spotting. 

A friend of mine happens to have one of these and I was over the other week. It made an incredible flatbread, and it's also great for a delicious pizza bianca with goat's cheese.

The marketing materials for this claim that it's a 'portable' oven, and that's not exactly true. It's easier to move around the yard than other pizza ovens I've seen, but you can't exactly take it to work. We also found the wood hopper a little lacking, and it can't match the blistering temperatures of gas. 

You can find more detail in our Gozney Roccbox review.

Best large pizza oven

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If you want a truly authentic pizza, the Alfa Nano is probably as close as you can get without building your own clay or brick oven. It has a huge capacity which can hold two pizzas at once. There are other, even bigger models - I'm thinking of the Alfa Moderno, available at BBQ Guys - but it's very expensive.

It makes delicious pizzas, but like other wood-fired ovens, it takes a little time to master. That said, our tester achieved a fantastic crust and well-cooked toppings. 

It might be called the 'nano', but if you have a small yard, this is definitely overkill. It's also very simple for such an expensive oven, lacking a digital thermometer or any bonus features. 

You can find more details in our ALFA Nano Pizza Oven review.

How we test

We tested these pizza ovens on a huge range of pizza styles. We've tried traditional Neapolitan pizzas, New York style, Chicago deep dish, and calzone. We've also tested the ovens on a range of different breads, including garlic bread, focaccia, and naan.

We then pushed these ovens beyond just dough. We've roasted chicken, lamb, and a wide range of vegetables to test their versatility. We've even tested sweet treats like brownies. 

In every test, we timed how long it took each oven to reach temperature and cook a pizza so that we could assess their energy efficiency, as well as the ease of ignition. 

As we cook, we pay close attention to the appearance of each oven to see which spaces it will suit. We also consider the boring but essential details like assembly, storage, and maneuverability. We evaluate all of this against price and warranty, to make absolutely sure that the ovens we recommend are the best value for money.  

You can find more information on our testing process in our How We Test guide.

Meet the team

Jason Orme

Jason is Managing Director of Homes & Gardens, and a number of other home and interiors websites and magazines. He has worked in homes media for over 20 years, appearing in all the mainstream national newspapers as well as many specialist magazines, including Homebuilding & Renovating, which he edited for 12 years.

Jason reviewed the Ooni Karu 16, and found that it is 'by some distance the leading pizza oven of its type available. For a pizza oven of this size and spec – a real crossover between the pro models and consumer-friendly versions – it’s very intuitive and easy to use.'

Helen McCue

Helen is a trained home economist with a 20-year career in appliance reviews. She is a freelance writer specializing in home appliance reviews, but she’s most at home when trying out the latest kitchen and cooking gadgets.

She tested the Ooni Fyra12  in her own backyard and found that 'even a novice cook will be able to achieve good results'. 

Millie Fender

Millie is Head of Ecommerce at Woman & Home, and was previously Head of Reviews at Homes & Gardens. She has reviewed a number of the pizza ovens in this guide. With a lot of trial and error, she's discovered exactly what an oven needs to make the best pizza. Millie tested the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo in her kitchen at home. 

Alex Temblador

Alex Temblador is a Contributing Editor at Homes & Gardens. She writes on a wide variety of topics for H&G, and has tested everything from vacuum cleaners to fitness equipment and pizza ovens in the name of product research. 

Alex reviewed the Gozney Dome, a versatile outdoor oven that allows at-home cooks to use gas or wood to create everything from pizzas to salmon, steaks, and vegetables. She says 'Gozney made a smart move when they created the Dome...it retains heat like few products can'.

Kaitlin Madden

Kaitlin is Executive Editor at Homes & Gardens. She is also the co-founder of the The Finish, an interior design start-up which offers home decorating services on demand.

Kaitlin reviewed a number of the pizza ovens in this guide, including the Solo Stove Pi. She thinks this oven makes better pizzas 'than anything you've ever cooked at home'.

FAQs

What's the cheapest Ooni?

The cheapest Ooni is also my favorite: the Ooni Fyra, available at Ooni. It costs $349, though that doesn't include a pizza peel or slicer. 

Final thoughts

If you're just starting out with a pizza oven, it's worth learning how to light a pizza oven. If you have a wood-burning oven, it's important to invest in the best wood for a pizza oven.

These alternatives are good options, but for my money, Ooni still makes many of the best pizza ovens on the market. If you know you want an Ooni, take a look at my dive in to the best Ooni pizza ovens.