Best indoor pizza ovens 2024, tried and tested

OK, first things first: this machine is colossal. You will need a dedicated kitchen area to house the Sage pizzaiolo, as you would any large appliance. Weighing in at around 20kg, this is not something that is easily stored away in a cupboard. If you can accommodate the size, then you are in for a treat as it is by far the best and most functional machine we tried. With seven presettings – wood fired, New York, pan, thin & crispy, frozen and two manual temperature settings – this oven uses conductive, radiant and convective heat to cook anything from meat, fish and veg in addition to brilliant pizza.

It comes with a pizza stone or deep dish to cook on and reaches a searing 400C in just a few minutes. The result was a meltingly hot pizza, thoroughly cooked dough with a perfectly blistered crust (you can choose how dark you’d like it) in two minutes. Using the pizza stone gives an authentic wood fired flavour and a superior texture thanks to the absorbent nature of the stone, too.

Our criticism of this clever machine – aside from its size – is that it’s hard to get fresh pizza into the oven. Without the flip up lip format of the other ovens you’ll need to be well skilled with a pizza paddle (provided) in order to successfully slide your lovingly made pizza on to the stone without any dough or topping casualties. Practice makes perfect.

This charming looking machine is a simple design: a flip-top opens up to expose a pizza stone base for cooking on, and a top element to heat evenly and bake the toppings. Using the same stone as used in the wood fired ovens of some of the most famous Neapolitan pizza restaurants, the pizza stone makes for a searing hot surface to cook on, while imparting a truly fantastic flavour and aroma to fresh dough. It also absorbs any humidity for a perfectly crisp, light base.

After preheating for 10 minutes, the stone is ready to cook on and will have homemade dough pizzas cooked to perfection in around four minutes – take care when opening the lid, though, as things do get steamy in there. We loved the speckled char of the crust and the flavour of the pizza was hands down the best we tried – plus it’s quick and easy to use and store.

We liked that it comes with two special pizza spatulas which we found helpful and easier to negotiate than a large pizza paddle – it makes putting fresh pizzas on the stone a doddle. Other foods can also be cooked on this, if added to a foil tray. The downsides of this machine are that the pizza stone is hard to clean – it’s not removable and if toppings accidentally overflow you’ll find yourself in quite a mess. It also set off our smoke alarm repeatedly, but it was worth it for the fantastic pizza result.

The Judge pizza maker is almost identical to the MisterChef appliance, with the same simple press format, non-stick plates and smart red finish. It also has a similar spec: it heats to 220C using dual heating elements but this machine only uses 850W which makes it extremely energy efficient, at around half the energy use of a standard oven. Ready to cook on in just 10 minutes, this press will have steaming hot pizza ready for you in another 10, and the non-stick surface means that clean ups are a doddle. At less than £50, it’s a fantastic budget option.

This tomato-red electric pizza oven is essentially a piece of commercial kitchen equipment. It is vast and heavy (30kg) but it cooks up some seriously exceptional pizzas. Set up is simple – affixing the handles and inserting the two pizza stones – then preheat and you’re ready to go. You can choose to operate one or both parts of the oven using the three heating elements, there’s an easy-to-operate timer function for up to 30 minutes and a light to allow you to view your food cooking.

The oven will accommodate two large pizzas up to 16in and is suitable for homemade, shop-bought or frozen pizzas, breads and more. The temperature range is from 0C to a searing 350C which makes for some perfectly leopard-spotted sourdough pizzas, too. We found that our homemade deep pan pizzas cooked in just 10 minutes at a temperature of 250C, but for thinner Neapolitan style pizzas we’d suggest cranking the temperature right up and you’ll be tucking in in just a few minutes.

Cooking on the pizza stones gives a wonderfully authentic flavour and ensures the bases were crisp and even with every bake. While this oven may be a bit OTT for most standard kitchens, it would certainly make for some terrific pizza parties, and if you’ve been dreaming of setting up your own pizza joint, here’s your answer.