The Archive
279 guides · page 14 of 24
Comparison
Ooni vs Gozney (2026): Which Pizza Oven Brand Should You Buy?
The two brands that built the modern home pizza-oven category, settled head to head. They share the same ~950°F ceiling and both belong to the 60-Second-Pizza Club, so this is not a fight about temperature. It's a fight about philosophy: Ooni engineers for range, portability, and value; Gozney engineers for heat retention, glass-door theater, and the feel of owning furniture. We put their two 16-inch gas flagships, the Koda 16 and the Arc XL, on the same bench and tell you which brand is actually right for you.
Read the guide →~9 min read
Explainer
Gas vs Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens (2026): Which Should You Buy?
The most-argued question in the category, settled with measurements instead of vibes. Modern gas and wood ovens hit the same ~950°F ceiling, so this is not really a fight about temperature. It's a trade between convenience and flavor, between a 15-minute push-button preheat and a fire you tend, and between heat recovery that resets in seconds and a bed of coals you have to feed. Here's how each one actually behaves, who each one is for, and the multi-fuel option that quietly wins for more people than either purist will admit.
Read the guide →~9 min read
Explainer
How to Choose a Pizza Oven (2026): The Complete Buyer's Guide
Pizza-oven marketing is a contest to print the biggest temperature number, and almost none of those numbers is the one that decides your pizza. This is the rigorous version: how to pick a fuel, why the FLOOR (not the dome) makes the crust, how size and portability and insulation actually trade off, what the learning curve really costs, the budget tiers that matter, and the signature test method we use to separate ovens that bake from ovens that just claim a big number.
Read the guide →~12 min read
Review
Ooni Volt 2 Review (2026): 850°F Pizza, Indoors, on an Outlet
Every other serious pizza oven asks you to go outside, light propane or wood, and make smoke. The Ooni Volt 2 plugs into a standard kitchen outlet, reaches ~850°F with twin elements and a real thermostat, and makes a 90-second Neapolitan pie on your countertop with no fire and no smoke. At around $699 it now undercuts the Breville Pizzaiolo by roughly $300, and it is the only true indoor-Neapolitan path. Here's the full Volt 2 verdict.
Read the guide →~8 min read
Review
Solo Stove Pi Prime Review (2026): The Easy, Good-Looking First Oven
Solo Stove took the company's signature round, sculptural look and pointed it at pizza: one propane dial, no fire to manage, ~850°F on the stone. It is the easiest, most forgiving way into 90-second Neapolitan pizza we've tested, though at about $400 it is no longer one of the cheapest. Here's the full Pi Prime verdict: where its simplicity is a genuine gift, where ~850°F costs you a beat against the hottest gas ovens, and who should buy it.
Read the guide →~8 min read
Review
Gozney Arc XL Review (2026): The 16-Inch Design Flagship, Tested
The Arc XL is the prettiest serious pizza oven you can buy, a full-size 16-inch chamber with a rolling flame and a wide glass door, built to live on a patio and look good doing it. Here's the full verdict: where its design and full-size capacity justify $500 over the Ooni Koda 16, where it doesn't, and who should actually buy it.
Read the guide →~12 min read
Review
Gozney Roccbox Review (2026): The Beginner-Proof Portable, Tested
The Roccbox is the premium portable that most forgives a first-timer, dense insulation, a safe-touch silicone shell, and a stone that holds its heat between pizzas. And at $399 on Amazon at our July 2026 check, the usual premium over the Ooni Koda 12 has evaporated. Here's the full verdict: what the insulation buys you, where the weight and 12-inch ceiling cost you, and who should actually buy it.
Read the guide →~8 min read
Review
Ooni Karu 12 Review (2026): Real Wood-Fired Flavor, Pocket-Sized
The smallest, cheapest way into genuine live-fire pizza. The Karu 12 burns real wood or charcoal (with an optional gas burner if you want it) to a 950°F floor, and the flavor is the kind gas simply can't fake. It also asks more of you than any gas oven here. Here's what the wood-fired char is really worth, the learning curve nobody warns you about, and who should buy the easy gas sibling instead.
Read the guide →~9 min read
Review
Ooni Koda 16 Review (2026): The Default Great Gas Oven, Tested
The oven we hand most people who just want great pizza without a learning curve. The Koda 16 turns a propane tank into a 950°F floor, bakes a true Neapolitan in well under 90 seconds, and gives you a full 16 inches to do it, no fire to tend, no wood to buy. Here's where it genuinely leads, where the gas-only simplicity costs you, and who should buy something else.
Read the guide →~9 min read
Buyer's Guide
Best Pizza Ovens for Beginners (2026): Forgiving, Foolproof Picks
Most "best beginner oven" lists just rank the cheapest ones. We did the opposite: we looked for the ovens that forgive a slow launch, recover their floor heat between pies, and don't punish you for a learner's mistake. These are the six we'd hand a first-timer, from a safe-touch gas oven to a rotating stone that turns the pizza for you, to an indoor countertop unit that needs nothing but an outlet.
Read the guide →~11 min read
Buyer's Guide
Best Budget Pizza Ovens Under $300 (2026): Real Pizza, Less Money
You do not need to spend $500 to make a leoparded, 60-second pie. We ranked the cheap end of the shelf on verified floor temps and found six budget ovens that bake genuinely good pizza, plus the honest catalog of what you give up to get there, because at this price the compromises are real and we won't pretend otherwise.
Read the guide →~10 min read
Buyer's Guide
Best Gas Pizza Ovens (2026): Crank-and-Go, Ranked
Gas is the format that turned backyard pizza from a weekend project into a weeknight habit: turn the dial, wait twenty minutes, and you're launching pies. We verified the specs, cross-checked owner-reported floor temps, and ranked the seven gas ovens worth your money by the only thing that decides a great pie: how hot the stone gets and how fast it comes back.
Read the guide →~11 min read