Best Gozney pizza ovens | Good Food

We’ve tested a lot of pizza ovens here at Good Food, and one brand that consistently stands out is Gozney. Since launching in 2010, it has built a loyal following and become one of the biggest names in at-home pizza cooking.

Today, its range includes seven models, from the compact Arc Lite (£349.99) to the premium Dome XL (Gen 2; £2,499.99). While Gozney sits firmly at the premium end of the market, its ovens are known for their thoughtful design, ease of use and consistently impressive cooking results.

One recurring criticism that we have with Gozney is that most accessories are sold separately, which can really drive up the cost. A good peel is a must (from £39.99) and a stand can help you get more from your oven and extend its use beyond occasional summer pizza nights.

So, if you’ve decided that this year you want to take the leap and invest in a Gozney pizza oven, we’ve tested the whole range to help you find the model that’s best suited to your space, budget, and cooking style.

Tested and reviewed by Lydia Anderson, Elaine Lemm, and Natalie Bass.

Best Gozney pizza ovens at a glance

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Why you can trust Good Food reviews

At Good Food, our expert testing team has thoroughly reviewed a wide range of over 40 pizza ovens using our established matrix format to ensure each model is assessed fairly and consistently.

All testing is carried out in the Good Food Test Kitchen and garden, which is designed to mirror a typical home kitchen rather than a laboratory setting. Where our freelance contributors test, they do so in their own gardens. For pizza ovens, this means we’re not just looking at how they perform on paper – we build them, move them around, fire them up, cook with them in real conditions and consider all the details that matter at home, from how easy they are to light to how quickly they heat up and how consistently they cook.

Our reviews are entirely independent. We don’t share our findings with manufacturers or retailers prior to publication, and we never accept payment or incentives in exchange for positive reviews. This means that our recommendations are impartial and trustworthy, so you can feel confident when choosing a pizza oven based on our advice.

And, if you do make the choice to buy and are looking for some cooking inspiration, check out our guide to what you can cook in your pizza oven.

Best Gozney pizza ovens

Gozney Dome XL (Gen 2)

Available from Gozney (£2,499.99)

Best blowout pizza oven

Pros:

• Comes fully assembled
• Very easy to use
• Spacious cooking surface
• Versatile
• One-year warranty that can be extended to five

Cons:

• No accessories included
• Weighs 73kg – needs multiple people to help unbox

Star rating: 5/5

The Dome XL makes an impression before you’ve even cooked with it. Arriving fully assembled and weighing 73kg, it feels every bit like Gozney’s most premium oven. With room for an 18in pizza, two 12in pizzas or three 10in pizzas at once, it’s clearly designed for entertaining.

During testing, everything about the experience felt premium. The digital display allows you to monitor both the stone and ambient temperatures, making it easy to know exactly when the oven is ready. Once up to temperature, it delivered consistently crisp bases and beautifully bubbling toppings.

It’s also more versatile than a dedicated pizza oven. Add optional accessories and it can be used for roasting and smoking, with ample space for roasting tins, cast iron skillets and cake tins. There’s no escaping the size, weight and cost, but if you have the space and budget, this is one of the most capable home pizza ovens I’ve tested.

Read our full Gozney Dome XL (Gen 2) review here.

Fuel: gas (wood and charcoal kit optional)
Max pizza size: one 18in, two 12in, three 10in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 40 mins

Available from:

It’s worth noting that the XL isn’t the only choice for the Dome – if you’re after something a little smaller, the Dome (Gen 2) is available from Gozney for £1,999.99.

Gozney Arc XL

Available from Gozney (£799.99)

Best all-round pizza oven

Pros:

• Simple and quick to set up
• Attractive design
• Generous internal cooking space

Cons:

Despite its name, the Gozney Arc XL is still a compact pizza oven. It’s the same height as the original Gozney Arc, but with a deeper, wider mouth (9.5 x 42.7cm) and internal cooking area that comfortably accommodates large pizzas with enough room to manoeuvre them about. The design has also taken some inspiration from its pricier siblings in the Dome range, like the digital thermometer.

It’s those well-thought-out elements that make cooking pizza in this oven such a breeze. It’s ready to go straight from the box, so I wasted no time popping the batteries in for the temperature controls and connecting it to the gas. The temperature controls are easy to read and take the guesswork out of when to launch your pizza to ensure you get that mottled crust and perfectly melted cheese that a pizza should – and, all of mine did after around 1 min in the oven.

It doesn’t end with pizza, though: I also cooked sausages and corn on the cob in a cast-iron skillet using the temperature dial to completely control the heat for perfect browning.

Fuel: gas
Max pizza size: 16in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 30 mins

Available from:

Gozney Arc Lite

Available from Gozney (£349.99)

Best pizza oven for small spaces

Pros:

• Practically ready to go straight from the box
• Stylish good looks
• Heats rapidly to 500C
• Compact for smaller spaces
• Easy to carry at only 12kg

Cons:

• No accessories included
• No built-in temperature display

Star rating: 5/5

Yet another full five stars for Gozney for the smallest oven in its range, the Arc Lite. Weighing just 12kg and taking up no more worktop space than a typical air fryer, it’s perfect for smaller spaces, like balconies and small gardens. It’s also easy to transport to campsites or even beaches.

What it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in quality. Delivered fully assembled and ready to use in 5 mins, it reaches temperatures up to 500C in just 20 mins and is quick and easy to fire up.

Naturally, you’re limited to cooking one pizza at a time, but given how quickly it turns them out, I rarely found this an issue. Neapolitan pizzas took 60 seconds, New York-style pizzas around 4 mins and my calzones were ready in just 5 mins. And, if someone at your party’s not a pizza person, you could instead wow them with a mushroom ragout, baby roast potatoes or a sharing sirloin, all of which were beautifully done in little over 20 mins.

Fuel: gas
Max pizza size: 12in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 20 mins

Available from:

Gozney Arc

Available from Gozney (£599.99), Lakeland (£599.99)

Best value pizza oven

Pros:

• Attractive design
• Easy to assemble
• Deceptively roomy interior
• Bright digital display

Cons:

• A little slow to heat up
• A lot of plastic packaging

Star rating: 4.5/5

The Arc does a great job of disguising its cooking capacity. Its deceptively small exterior is home to a generous internal cooking space, which is able to comfortably cook a 14in pizza.

I particularly liked the bright digital temperature display, which made it easy to monitor heat levels and see when the oven was ready. It took around half an hour to heat up, which was a little longer than expected for an oven this size – but, I must admit, I was testing on a bit of a windy day!

The pizzas themselves were consistently crisp with a nicely mottled base and, although Gozney suggests pizzas can cook in 60 seconds or less in this one, I found that the perfect cooking time was more like 90 seconds.

While still an expensive option at the mid-range of Gozney’s collection, the attractive design and impressive cooking results are akin to those on the high-end.

Fuel: gas
Max pizza size: 14in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 30 mins

Available from:

Gozney Tread

Available from Gozney (£499.99), John Lewis & Partners (£499.99)

Best pizza oven for camping

Pros:

• Easy to set up and operate
• Good-looking design
• Relatively lightweight, with handles for easy lifting
• Cools quickly

Cons:

Star rating: 4.5/5

Designed to be transported, the Tread pizza oven weighs only 13.5kg and is equipped with handles for easy lifting. And, at only 32cm tall, it should slot neatly into the boot of a car alongside tents, camping chairs and walking boots.

As with most of Gozney’s ovens, accessories cost extra, and to get the best results from the Tread, it’s definitely worth looking into the Venture stand, mantel, travel bag and roof rack, plus essentials like a pizza peel – all of which obviously push the price up.

It performed brilliantly in test; I loved how easy it was to operate and I had no issues controlling the temperature. It delivered quality results fast, reaching the ideal 400C cooking temperature after just 15 mins and the pizzas themselves were ready in just 90 seconds. The smaller cooking zone is the trade-off for portability, but I still had enough room to roast meat and vegetables in a tray.

After switching off the heat, I was impressed by how quickly the oven cooled down, making packing up far less of a chore than it is with some rivals.

Fuel: gas
Max pizza size: 12in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 15 mins

Available from:

Gozney Roccbox

Available from Gozney (£319.99)

Best portable pizza oven

Pros:

• Easy to set up
• Simple to use
• Quick, excellently finished pizza

Cons:

• Expensive
• Small oven space

Star rating: 4/5

Billed as the original stone-floor portable oven that started a “pizza revolution”, the Roccbox promises to deliver the renowned performance of Gozney’s commercial pizza ovens on a smaller, more portable scale. And, after testing, I would be inclined to agree.

The cooking results were impressive – it produced restaurant-quality pizza in less than 2 mins. Unlike the other ovens, it comes with a pizza peel, which makes it seem great value for money. The mouth is smaller than other models in this list, which can make launching pizzas a little tricky, but it helps retain the heat, so you can put a second pizza in as soon as you’ve taken the first one out.

Despite the blistering temperatures reached inside the oven, the insulation and silicone jacket mean that it remains safe to touch throughout, though the same obviously can’t be said for the burners at the back of the oven, which do indeed get very hot.

Fuel: gas (option to buy a detachable wood burner)
Max pizza size: 12in
Max temperature: 500C
Heat-up time: 20 mins

Available from:

Still not sure? Read more in our guide to are Gozney pizza ovens worth it?

How we tested pizza ovens

Every pizza oven we review is put through the same testing matrix, so each model answers the same questions, whether it was tested in the Good Food Test Kitchen garden or in one of our expert testers’ own gardens. Pizza ovens have become a year-round thing and so has the launch of new products, meaning that we test all year round, always outdoors and in real conditions rather than a lab.

We’ve been testing pizza ovens this way for seven years, covering around 40 models to date. A single test, from unboxing and assembly all the way through to the final pizza can take anywhere from 1-4 hrs, depending on the oven. The cooking is the quick bit: once an oven is up to temperature, a pizza only takes a couple of minutes. But, no verdict here rests on one afternoon of cooking. Each tester keeps the oven for around a month, cooking with it in their own garden as often as they like, so our ratings reflect what the oven is actually like to live with, not just how it performs on its first outing.

In every oven, we cook two benchmark pizzas: classic margherita and a topped pizza, both made with Northern Dough Co pre-made dough, meaning any difference in the bake comes from the oven, rather than the dough. We follow the manufacturer’s recommended pizza temperature where one is given, and aim for around 450C where it isn’t. Every finished pizza is then scored out of 10, and this score feeds into the overall star rating.

After years of testing, we’ve learned not to take the oven’s word for how hot it is. Before launching our pizza, we take a temperature reading of the stone using an infrared thermometer gun and compare it against the oven’s own temperature display, if it has one. We also record how long it takes the oven to reach the optimum temperature, keeping in mind that a pizza oven will heat up a lot quicker on a hot summer’s day compared to a cool spring afternoon.

Pizza is only part of the picture; our testers also cook whatever else they fancy in the oven, which can be anything from steaks and vegetables to roast potatoes and more, to see how it performs as an oven.

Each model was scored against standardised criteria and marked out of five on the following core aspects. These scores determine the overall star rating:

• Overall build quality: pizza ovens are investment purchases, and therefore should be built to last
• Cooking results: the ultimate criteria – we score the finished pizzas out of 10
• Ease of build and use: we time how long it takes to build the oven and rate the instruction manual. We then assess how easy it is to use the oven
• Safety: pizzas require incredibly high temperatures to cook, so we look for excellent insulation and safety features to make using the pizza oven easy to use
• Value for money: if the price doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t make it into the best list
• Sustainability: as well as looking at whether the packaging can be recycled, we check the warranty of each pizza oven and investigate whether it’s easy to source spare parts or arrange repairs

What to look for in a pizza oven

Budget

Start by setting your budget – but know that more money does not always mean a better pizza. If you’re looking to spend a few hundred pounds, ignore large, built-in stone ovens as these complex products are very expensive, usually costing at least £500.

Storage

Consider the space you have available. The smallest pizza ovens I’ve tested are the BBQ-top models that, thanks to their boxy size, can easily be stored in a garage, shed or even inside somewhere.

A number of the models on this list have easy foldaway legs, meaning they too will take up very little room when not in use. Some of the larger models I’ve tested will need to be kept outside in all weathers; in this case, a cover is an absolute must.

Set-up

I took ease of set up into consideration when testing each of these pizza ovens. While you should take this into consideration when buying, I also suggest working out the best place to put your pizza oven for use.

I spoke to the reviews experts at Gardeners’ World, who said: “It’s best to place your pizza oven wherever you’ve put your social areas, to save you carrying pizzas up and down the garden. They can look fantastic on modern garden tables and make an excellent focal point for entertaining.

“Pizza ovens are safest on stone or concrete patios, but with some heatproof material underneath, they should be perfectly safe on wooden decks, too. Site your pizza ovens a few metres away from fire hazards like fences and low-hanging branches. Make sure there’s open space above your oven for smoke to escape, and you’re good to go”.

You should also consider an area that best allows for smooth launching of your pizzas, plus plenty of surface space to both build your pizzas and plate them up once cooked.

Accessories

Take a look at which accessories your chosen pizza oven comes with. In our eyes, a pizza peel is an essential, but some brands don’t provide these as standard, and this will be an additional cost.

Fuel type

Some will be gas-fuelled, others need wood, or it may be a multi-fuel. Indoor pizza ovens plug into the mains, so don’t need any other means of generating heat.

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