If you're in the market for an indoor pizza oven, you only have two options: the Breville Smart Oven Pizzaiolo and the Ooni Volt 12. No other indoor pizza oven on the market comes close to these two models. They've remained the only real options for several years.
However, if you're new to domestic pizza ovens, it can be hard to choose between the two. They look similar, perform the same task, and cost roughly the same.
I've tested lots of the best pizza ovens - in fact, the Breville was one of the first I tested years ago. After lots of tests, I've found that the Ooni Volt 12 makes better-tasting pizza than the Breville. However, the Ooni has several shortcomings - its price, size, and ease of use - which means the Breville can be a better option.
Which oven makes the best tasting pizza?
Winner: Ooni (just, and not for every type of pie)
Taste is hard to call because it's so subjective. However, when it comes to a classic pizza, the Ooni Volt does a better job. You can see in the images below that the pizza made in the Ooni had much better basics. The crust is crisper, and the cheese is golden. The sauce retains its moisture without becoming overly wet and soggy. The Breville oven is worse in all of these departments. The crust is slightly burnt, but still isn't as crisp the cheese isn't as well melted or browned, and the sauce is a little wetter than it should be.
However, the Breville has a significant advantage over the Ooni Volt in that it has dedicated settings for different types of pizza. While the Ooni is better at generic cheese pizzas, the Breville is designed to make lots of different styles of pizza and sort all the timing and temperature for you.
Which oven is easier to use?
Winner: Breville
The feature mentioned above makes the Breville oven much easier to use than the Ooni Volt 12. It offers dedicated settings for different styles of pizza, and it also has dedicated darkness settings, so not only can you tailor the pizza to a particular style, but you can also bake it exactly as you want.
This means that unlike the Ooni Volt 12, there's no learning curve. You can just set it to New York, for example, dial in your desired doneness, and cook.
However, there is a significant catch here, which is that the Ooni oven is better for making pizza in bulk. It has an excellent temperature boost function, which increases the temperature of the oven when its door is open. This means you don't have to wait a few minutes for the oven to get back up to temperature to make your pizza.
On top of that, the Ooni oven is faster than the Breville. On their highest, fastest settings, the Ooni Volt 12 is 30 seconds faster than the Breville oven, which is part of why it tastes a little better.
Which oven is cheaper?
Winner: Breville
For the last year, these ovens were the same price - $999 - but the Breville oven was recently reduced by $200 to $799. The Ooni Volt was also reduced to $899, but it's $100 more expensive than the Breville.
On top of that, the big issue with Ooni products is that they don't include vital equipment. Breville's oven comes with a pizza peel and pan, but Ooni's does not. A peel is essential because it's the tool you need to load the pizza into the oven. With Ooni, you have to pay an extra $10 for the peel. It's not exactly a financial hit, but it's $10 more than you have to pay for the Breville, which is already cheaper.
Which is best for storage?
Winner: Breville - unless you have outdoor space
The Breville Pizzaiolo is easiest to store because it's smaller than the Ooni Volt, which can totally dominate a countertop. The Ooni is also slightly too big for most kitchen base cabinets, so it can be trickier to store than the Breville oven.
That said, the Breville Oven is also huge; when I tested it for a different magazine a few years ago I found that took up almost an entire half of my countertop. However, it's a little smaller than the Ooni Volt 12, so it's a better choice for storage.
However, the Ooni Volt 12 is rated for outdoor use, which also means that it can be stored in outdoor buildings, or, in a pinch, under a cover outdoors, which isn't possible with the Breville oven.
Which is better looking?
Winner: Breville
I think the Breville oven is better looking than the Ooni. It's not the most exciting-looking oven in the world, but it's a neutral stainless steel appliance that won't look out of place in any kitchen. The Ooni, however, is a black monolith that's fine in modern, Scandinavian kitchens, but will look a little too sci-fi in more traditional homes.
Buy Ooni Volt 12 if...
- You want the very best pizza
- You want fast pizza
- You want to make lots of pizza
Buy Brevillie Smart Oven Pizzaiolo if...
- You want to save money
- You want easy pizza
- You have a smaller kitchen
However, these pizza ovens aren't your only choice. Indoor pizza ovens are notoriously poor compared to outdoor pizza ovens, so before you spend any money on these ovens it's worth weighing up indoor pizza ovens vs outdoor pizza ovens. Outdoor models are less convenient, but they taste much better.
