The Ooni Volt versus the Breville Pizzaiolo: Which Pizza Oven Is Better?

For pizzeria-quality pies with exceptionally pillowy, chewy-tender crust, you need an oven that gets very hot—ideally 700 degrees or more. Two electric models, the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo and the Ooni Volt 12 Electric Pizza Oven, reach those temperatures. They preheat quickly, have user-friendly controls, and make it both easy and fun to make outstanding pizza. Because they’re electric, they can be used indoors or outside. They’re co-winners. The Ooni Volt is larger, so it can accommodate a slightly larger stone for slightly larger pizzas, but it is also bulkier and may not fit on all countertops. The Breville Pizzaiolo is compact enough to fit in most kitchens, but its smaller stone means that your pizzas will also be slightly smaller. 

What You Need to Know

You can make pizza in your kitchen’s oven with a baking stone or baking steel, but many companies claim that indoor pizza ovens do a better job. Unfortunately, most are disappointing. When we reviewed indoor pizza ovens, we found that they’re generally slow, don’t get very hot, and make pizza that’s mediocre at best. 

When Breville launched the Smart Oven Pizzaiolo in 2019, things changed. This electric model was compact enough to fit on a kitchen counter and both the stone and the air inside the oven exceeded 750 degrees. Now Ooni—one of the biggest names in portable outdoor pizza ovens—has launched an electric pizza oven of its own. Cleverly, the Ooni Volt is marketed for both indoor and outdoor use. Of course, as long as you have an outdoor electrical outlet, the Pizzaiolo can be used outdoors too. 

After baking dozens of pizzas in side-by-side tests, we were impressed by both the Ooni Volt and the Breville Pizzaiolo. At about $1,000 and roughly 30 pounds or more, they are both pricey and heavy, but they are well designed and deliver on their promise to make exceptional pizza. They’re best for people who intend to make a lot of pizza. If pizza making is one of your main hobbies and you want an indoor/outdoor appliance to take your pies to the next level, the Breville Pizzaiolo or Ooni Volt might be right for you. Read on to learn more about them. 

What We Liked

• High Temperatures: Both the Breville Pizzaiolo and Ooni Volt are capable of achieving really high temperatures. In our tests, we found that the temperature of the air and baking stones actually exceeded the pizza ovens’ respective maximum settings of 750 and 850 degrees. The difference between 750 and 500 degrees (the highest temperature a home oven can achieve) is significant. Baking pizza at such high heat means that the bottom crisps up and the toppings cook before the interior of th...
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