Create a slice of Italy with the best indoor pizza ovens

Best: Overall

Rating: 9/10

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.

Best: For variety

Rating: 7/10

This sleek looking pizza oven is like a pizza version of a sandwich toaster – in a good way. Suitable for pizzas up to 12in, this easy-to-store machine is a convenient way to cook up hot, tasty pizzas fuss-free. Using dual heating elements and non-stick plates, this press-style machine heats up to 220C quickly, and will cook most homemade or shop bought pizzas in around 10 minutes. You won’t achieve that signature spotted crust with this machine, but it does deliver evenly cooked, light and crispy bases with uniformly baked toppings.

The non-stick plates mean it’s really easy to clean – just wipe with a soft soapy cloth – and it cools down ready to put away after use in around 20 minutes. You can also use this machine for a variety of foodstuffs, not just pizza, and it’s great for foolproof omelettes, a quick plate of loaded nachos, or to quickly reheat cold pizza. An energy efficient and impressive way to cook any style pizza, and we found it to be completely smoke-free too.

Best: Multi-use oven

Rating: 7/10

Another entry from premium electricals brand Sage here. The smart oven pro is a countertop oven that will cook up a pizza – and more – while using far less energy than your main oven. Five quartz elements deliver precise and stable heat, and this oven’s super speed preheat means it’s ready to go in just four minutes. Choose from ten settings – including toast, bake, grill, roast, pizza, cookies, reheat and slow cook – and let the oven’s intelligence system do the rest. Equipped with a convection fan, it claims to reduce most cooking times by around 3 per cent and is large enough to accommodate a 1in pizza, a whole chicken or nine hole muffin tray while still being compact enough to house on the worktop.

With temperatures ranging from 50-230C, this Sage oven doesn’t reach the dizzyingly high temperatures of the dedicated Pizzaiolo oven (so you probably won’t achieve those tasty charred spots) but will still produce restaurant quality pizza if cooked on a pizza stone (not included). We cooked our pizzas on the non-stick baking tray provided and found that the oven preheated quickly and shaved a few minutes off of the pizza cooking time; roughly 20 minutes in all for a small homemade pizza which emerged evenly cooked with a tasty, crisp yet puffy base.

While the pizzas are a great reason to buy this oven, don’t buy it for pizzas alone (check out the others on this list instead) but more for its brilliant multi-functionality. It is hard to beat for ease of use, size and price and it’s absolutely no surprise that fans of this oven say they prefer it to their main oven – particularly now when energy saving is high on everyone’s mind.

Best: For flavour

Rating: 8.5/10

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.

Best: Budget oven

Rating: 7/10

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 under £50, it’s a fantastic budget option.

Best: Mid-range pizza oven

Rating: 8/10

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.