The 8 Best Outdoor Pizza Ovens (2023)

“There’s no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box in your lap.” – Kevin James

Ha! Ha! It's kinda true but for this heavenly feeling, you have to cook or buy pizza. Cooking pizza is easy and fun, even budget-friendly. Go outside, cook pizza with friends and family. It's not only fun but gives you mental shelter in today's busy world. Nowadays outdoor kitchens are a growing trend, and people are finding an interest in outdoor pizza ovens also. These ovens are a lifesaver for fast and easy pizza cooking! 

First, we have to know what is Outdoor pizza oven! These are cooking appliances that use wood or charcoal to produce high temperatures. They are typically shaped like a dome with an opening at the bottom, which allows for cooking with both convection and conduction methods. Pizza ovens are usually small enough to fit on a patio but large enough to cook an entire pizza in less than two minutes.

Some Outdoor pizza ovens are so attractive that they make a spectacular addition to any outdoor kitchen. Even can produce so much more than pizza and can actually make a range of meat and fish dishes. That’s why, we also looked at how well these gadgets could cook a rib-eye steak and roast a whole chicken.

And here are the best outdoor pizza ovens to get your mouth watering!

• Ooni Koda Dome
• Gozney DomCom
• Lifestyle Verona Pizza Oven
• Gozney Roccbox
• Ooni Karu 16
• The FirePod MK III
• Delivita Berry Hot Oven
• Vango Camp Chef Pizza Oven

1. Ooni Koda Dome

Best For Beginners

★Fuel: Gas

★Material:  Steel

★Heat: Reaches 500°C

★Pizza size: 12in

★Weight: 9.5kg

It is famous since it was released in 2019, To make outdoor cookery incredibly simple. Under-five minutes from unboxing you can all set up, with the oven on its way to perfect pizza-making temperature, which because of its internal dimensions took only 20 minutes.

No more than 90 seconds of cooking gave us a 12in pizza with the perfect blend of oozing cheese and crispy toppings, as well as lovely charring around the well-puffed crust. Turning and accessing pizzas also isn’t a problem with the wide-mouthed design meaning that, with the aid of a turning peel, you can move the base around without having to take it out of the oven.

We always seem to get the best results from Ooni’s range on the koda 12, but maybe that’s because we’re just so used to cooking with it by now. In fact, we’ve become so confident that we’ve been expanding our dishes beyond pizza, to trays full of fajita mix – which come out of the oven wonderfully smoky – and even moist and juicy steaks.

It's very lightweight (9.5kg)

Reasons to buy

• Perfectly portable

• Convenient gas controls

• No assembly needed

Reasons to avoid

• It’s an expensive choice

2. Gozney Dome

Best Neapolitan Oven

★Fuel: Dual fuel

★Material: Unknown

★Heat: Reaches 500°C

★Pizza size: 15 - 16in

★Weight: 58kg

Launched in April 2021, the dome is essentially a scaled-down version of the ovens that Gozney installs in professional kitchens. Although, it’s actually still a sizable piece of kit with the dimensions of a traditional Neapolitan oven.

We tested the dual-fuel version (the purely wood-fired option is also available), which reached cooking temperature (500C) in around 50 minutes, tracking the heat build-up with the mounted digital thermometer, which was very accurate. The sizable opening means that it easily swallows a 15-16in pizza, cooking it in two minutes under a lovely, rolling, golden flame. Alternatively, there’s room for a couple of smaller pizzas and plenty more space for turning the pizza while it cooks for optimum results.

Whatever the size, the dome produced wonderful Neapolitan pizza, with a perfect crust – puffy, airy and delicious to the bite, while the rest of the pizza was classically thin but equally delicious. Similarly, the rib-eye was juicy and there’s plenty of room to roast a chicken too if you fancy a smoky spin on the traditional Sunday roast.

The insulation was fabulous and added to the stress-free experience as we didn’t have to keep worrying about temperature control, so it’s clear to see why the demand for the Dome has been huge. With more stock soon to be released this is a fantastic oven for anyone who wants to take their outdoor cookery up a notch or three.

Reasons to buy

• It makes amazing pizzas with very little effort

• Custom modes for all sorts of pizzas

• Can be used indoors and outdoors

Reasons to avoid

• You’ll lose that wood-fired charm

3. Lifestyle Verona Pizza Oven (UK Only)

Best: For multiple munchers

★Fuel: Gas

★Material: Stainless steel

★Heat: Unknown

★Pizza size: 10in

★Weight: 69kg

Okay, so the Verona isn’t going to win any style points compared to some of the other ovens on offer, but it’s like one of those amazing discoveries when you’re on holiday in Italy. A trattoria that doesn’t look very much on the outside, but investigate further and you’ll find it produces delicious food.

Looking more like a traditional BBQ than a pizza oven, the Verona is housed on a stand with a front drawer and cabinet (for utensils and the gas canister), as well as two foldaway prep shelves on either side. The optimum temperature was reached in 45 minutes and there’s plenty of controllability.

The big glass door means you can easily see when your pizza is nearing perfection on the stone at the bottom of the oven. We got a 10in pizza with a crisped base, good crust and just cooked toppings. However, there are multiple cooking surfaces within the oven, with two more racks above the stone, making it easy to cater to pizza and meat lovers alike.

Even though it’s a gas-fuelled oven, it does have a trick up its sleeve in the shape of a built-in wood chip smoker, which makes the pizzas taste more traditional in terms of wood-fired flavour.

REASONS TO BUY

+Reasonably priced

+Goes up to 930 degrees

+No chimney makes it very portable

REASONS TO AVOID

-You can add gas, but it costs extra

4. Gozney Roccbox

Best: Portable Pizza Oven

★Fuel: Gas or wood-fuelled

★Material:  Steel and stone with silicone jacket

★Heat: Reaches 500°C

★Pizza size: 11in

★Weight: 20kg

The Gozney is an old flame of ours (pardon the pun) and we’ve reviewed it before, but it’s still one of the best ovens around if you want to add some portability to your pizza making. It produces a lovely flame, which rolls over the roof of the chamber and has a good reach, creating deliciously, crispy 11in pizzas that need minimal turning thanks to the even heat environment in the oven.

The oven was pizza-ready in around 20 minutes, and the crust was cooked and crispy in two. You can fit the roccbox with a detachable wood burner, but the oven produces a pure golden gas flame, rather than the blue flames that you will see on some inferior ovens, giving the user a real taste of the wood-fired experience.

A little on the heavy side (20kg) to be carried for great distances, it does lend itself well to the car boot, so no matter where you travel you’re never far away from great food.

REASONS TO BUY

+Includes a professional pizza peel and carry strap 

+Silicone cover makes it safe-to-touch 

+Capable of cooking a Neapolitan pizza in one minute

REASONS TO AVOID

-Wood burner attachment sold separately

5. Ooni Karu 16

Best: Multi-Fuel Oven

★Fuel: Wood and charcoal with a gas burner sold separately

★Heat: Reaches 500°C

★Pizza size: 16in

★Weight: 28.4 kg

We reviewed Ooni’s new oven last year and there’s a good reason why it’s made the list again – it really seems to represent a culmination of all the knowledge that Ooni has acquired about wood-fired and gas-fuelled outdoor cookery, which has then been condensed down into this excellent oven.

The full glass door allows you to maintain the temperature and still keep a close eye on what’s cooking, as well as give a good view of the excellent flame roll that’s created. The front-mounted digital thermometer was spot on, which meant that we had bags of control over the 16 inches that came out of the oven in around 60-seconds. For the connoisseurs among you, we can confirm our pizza had a superb, crispy base thanks to the dry heat environment that the karu 16 creates.

The pizza stone worked well at drawing the moisture from wet pizza dough, leaving it wonderfully crispy, but still succulent in all the right places. The same was equally true with the control we had over other meats, especially our chicken, which came out of the oven succulently smoky.

REASONS TO BUY

+Chic design

+Will fit balconies and patios

+Choice of colors

REASONS TO AVOID

-Not a classic oven

-Expensive option

6. The Firepod MK III

Best For Touring

★Fuel: Unknown

★Material: Steel

★Heat:

★Pizza size: 7in2in

★Weight: 30kg

As the name suggests, this is the third incarnation of the gas-fired Firepod and we’ve been a big champion of the product from day one. We particularly enjoy how it consistently produces mouth-watering, 7in pizzas with just a couple of turns of the paddle. Ready to cook in just under six minutes you’ll get pizzas with a crispy base, perfectly puffy crusts and well-cooked toppings in around two minutes.

The oven comes with two different lengths of detachable legs, stubby and long, so you can set it up easily at home or use it on days out. One of the things we’ve always loved about the Firepod is the build quality, and the Mk III seems to be the best example of that yet, with 2mm of steel encasing the oven so it can withstand plenty of hard knocks. In addition, the fact it runs on gas means you can plug it into a caravan’s gas socket and cook fresh pizzas while touring.

Although this one is out of stock, you can sign up to be notified once it’s back.

REASONS TO BUY

+Chic design

+Will fit balconies and patios

+Choice of colors

REASONS TO AVOID

-Not a classic oven

-Expensive option

REASONS TO AVOID

-Is not as portable as some of the smaller pizza ovens

7. Delivita Berry Hot Oven (UK Only)

Best Looking Oven

★Fuel: Wood

★Material: Fibreglass

★Heat: Reaches 500ºC

★Pizza size: 12in

★Weight: 30kg

We’ve always really liked the styling of the Delivita with its sleek, shiny fiberglass shell that houses a supremely efficient oven, which after being loaded with wood is ready to go in 25-30 minutes and produces wonderful results. The berry hot effortlessly cooked a 12in base and crust with a lovely bite, evenly melted mozzarella and well-cooked toppings. And the design of the oven imparted a truly authentic woody flavour throughout the whole pizza.

The traditional clay base retains the cooking heat efficiently, acting as a perfect heat sink by storing and radiating heat back into the pizza base and making for a sublime steak. Due to the efficiency of the oven, you are left to concentrate on your pizza without fussing with the fuel, which is a blessing, especially if you’re not overly familiar with cooking with fire. There was a wonderfully wood-fired flavour to the bases too, which can be rotated easily inside the oven so you can adjust whether you want them crispy or doughy.

REASONS TO BUY

+Big enough to fit a 16-inch pizza

+Wood fuel creates an unmatched flavor

+Comes with the convenience of gas fuel

REASONS TO AVOID

-Is not as portable as some of the smaller pizza ovens

8. Vango Camp Chef Pizza Oven

Best For Camping

Fuel: Cook over a stove

Material: Unknown

Heat: Reaches 370°C

Pizza size: 10in

Weight: 9.54kg

There was a time when we went camping and the most we could expect at mealtimes was a Pot Noodle, however, now we can turn out pizza after pizza using the cooker's gas burners. The oven sits on top of the burners and uses them as the heat source to get the 10in ceramic pizza stone up to temperature, which takes around ten minutes on full power, the temperature of which was easily controlled using the gas controls. Around two minutes we found the oven achieved a nice crispy base and a slightly doughier one in 90 seconds.

Reasons to buy

• It’s reasonably priced

• Has everything you need

• We could reach high temperatures

Reasons to avoid

• It’s a high maintenance piece of kit