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Bring a taste of Italy to your parties this summer

With summer just around the corner, there’s never been a better time to invest in a pizza oven for the garden. Picture yourself, gathered around your new pizza oven, serving refreshing drinks and delicious homemade pizzas, while enjoying alfresco dining in the garden.

Pizza ovens, like some of the best BBQs, can be pricey, so finding one that’s perfect for your garden and lifestyle is key. There are a few things to consider first before you buy a pizza oven.

Pizza ovens come with a range of fuel types. While many are traditional wood-fired ovens, there are also ceramic and charcoal options. A lot of pizza ovens are gas-fired and come with an easy ignition and adjustable temperature, while some give you more than one option for cooking the perfect pizza. Whatever fuel you use, the most important thing about a pizza oven is the temperature. You need it to be between 400C and 500C before you can cook a pizza.

It might sound a little obvious but before you buy a pizza oven, work out where it’s likely to live in your garden. We’d suggest opting for one that will work with your space without overwhelming it, so check the dimensions before you buy and think about whether you'd prefer one on legs, or one that can sit on an outdoor tabletop. This is partly for aesthetics but also for safety, as your pizza oven needs to be stable, secure and away from your property’s exterior walls and any flammable materials.

Speaking of safety, there are a few dos and don’ts when it comes to pizza ovens. Most are designed to only be used outside, to minimise the risk of fire and to let the fumes ventilate properly. Never leave your pizza oven unattended once you’ve fired it up, and keep an eye on your kids and pets while it’s in use. Look for pre-assembled ovens or make sure you follow the instructions carefully, if you’re building your own, to avoid any safety risks.

While the pizza oven is the main investment, you might also want to consider adding a few accessories to make life with your pizza oven a little easier. These include oven gloves to protect your hands when you’re taking the pizzas out of the oven, a pizza peel tool to put your dough in to the pizza oven (and take it out), and a thermometer gauge so you know when the oven is hot enough to put your dough in (though some ovens have this included).

Here, we've rounded up some of the best pizza ovens on the market right now, with a range of prices, sizes and fuel types.

Ooni is the go-to for brilliant pizza ovens. Since they created the world's first portable pellet pizza oven in 2012, they've adapted their back garden pizza ovens range to six, priced from £249 to £699. We think the Karu 12 is a great option for a first foray into pizza ovens because the multi-fuel options give you plenty of cooking flexibility. You can use wood or charcoal to start with and later, if you want to add gas into the mix, you can buy an Ooni Gas Burner to attach on. The pizza oven reaches 500c in just 15 minutes meaning by the time you’ve decided what toppings you fancy it’ll be good to go.

One of the only pizza ovens we’ve come across that is okay to use both indoors and on a kitchen countertop, the Pizzaiolo promises to cook your delicious home-made pizza in just two minutes. It’s designed to replicate three types of heat to give you an authentic wood fired style pizza cooked to perfection. There are also preset cooking functions (deep pan, thin and crispy and frozen) and recipe cards to help you impress family and friends with your creations. This all-singing-all-dancing option also comes with a pizza peel and pizza pan.

This super chic pizza oven comes in three colours to suit any alfresco eating area or alternatively for £200 you can opt for a bespoke shade. Thankfully as well as a stylish design, the pizza oven cooks beautifully too, thanks to a clay base that reaches an ideal cooking temperature within 30 minutes. The outside of the pizza oven is a polished fibreglass shell which is very lightweight, making it easy to move around your garden or even transport to a friend’s house.

Stoke up the fire in this outdoor oven and enjoy your pizza in less than five minutes. We love the style of this rustic option, which looks like it could be something you found at a reclamation yard. The pizza oven is made from corten steel sheets and contains two stone baking boards inside the top part of the oven. These boards absorb all the heat from the flames and then pass it on to the food, so when you bake a pizza, it’ll always have a perfect light crispy base. It’s up to you to assemble the pizza oven, so watch out for those instructions.

Who says pizza ovens are just for your garden? This portable gas-fired option from Roccbox Gozney has retractable legs to make it easily folded away, so you can pop it in the back of the car if you’re heading off on holiday. It’s simple to use, reaches 500C quickly and promises to cook pizza in just 60 seconds. The pizza oven is coated in a Safetouch silicone jacket to reduce the risk of burning your fingers and it comes with a built-in thermostat and pizza peel.

Every Woody pizza oven comes with all the tools required to make a mouth-watering pizza, including a temperature gage and a pizza paddle. Once up to temperature, the wood-fired pizza oven maintains consistent heat and cooks your pizza in just 60 seconds. It’s lightweight, portable and made from rust-proof stainless steel.

This compact gas-fired pizza oven would be perfect for a smaller garden and comes with a host of accessories. There's a pizza stone, a water-resistant cover for when it’s not in use and a regulator and hose assembly for propane gas bottles, so you’ll have everything you need to get started straight away. The efficient oven has a glass window so you can keep an eye on the pie while it’s cooking without letting the heat out and the 30cm pizza stone promises to cook pizzas quickly and evenly.

More suited to larger gardens and spaces, this multi-function pizza oven would be a stylish addition to your outdoor area. Using lumpwood charcoal the oven quickly heats up quickly and cooks stone baked pizza in no time. It’s important to note that this pizza oven requires full assembly, so we’d suggest reading the instructions carefully to avoid any safety hazards.

You can gather your friends and really pretend you’re in Italy with this traditional rustic pizza oven that delivers authentic wood fired pizzas. Handmade by skilled craftsmen, the oven heats up to temperature in 20 minutes and takes around 60 seconds to cook your pizza. It has super handy storage shelves to keep your cooking utensils tidy and it’s coated in a thermal safety material, which means you can touch the outside of the oven while it’s at full temperature without burning yourself. A definite peace of mind for those with small children or pets.

In just 15 minutes, this 16-inch gas-fired pizza oven reaches the ideal temperature to produce a stone-baked crispy base and a perfectly cooked top. It comes with a ceramic pizza stone and is also available as a more compact 12-inch oven for those with smaller appetites.

The most affordable pizza oven we’ve come across on the market, this BBQ topper pizza oven just needs to be placed onto a charcoal or gas BBQ (so steer clear of this option if you don’t already own a BBQ) and it’ll heat up ready to cook your pizza in minutes. Keep an eye on the thermometer and when the pizza is cooked, lift it out with the paddle provided.

This multi-fuel pizza oven has a three-tier design with a top tier for baking your delicious food, a middle tier for charcoal and a bottom tier to store your charcoal or wood. There’s a long chimney for regulating heat and airflow, two wheels to make it easy to move around your garden and you can cook using wood or coal.

This frost proof pizza oven is designed to live outside and can withstand all weathers. It reaches temperature in 20 minutes and can cook one large pizza or two small pizzas in just 60 seconds. It also retains its heat for up to four hours, which is ideal for those of us who love going back for a second helping. Better still, you can customise the paint colour, tile and render of the outer shell so it’s fits perfectly in your garden as though it’s always been there.

This frost proof pizza oven is designed to live outside and can withstand all weathers. It reaches temperature in 20 minutes and can cook one large pizza or two small pizzas in just 60 seconds. It also retains its heat for up to four hours, which is ideal for those of us who love going back for a second helping. Better still, you can customise the paint colour, tile and render of the outer shell so it’s fits perfectly in your garden as though it’s always been there.

We're finishing on a high with another incredible pizza oven by gurus Ooni. This multi-fuel option has all the bells and whistles found on the other model - a mounted digital thermometer, the ability to cook with wood or charcoal and a three-year warranty - but it's slightly bigger with a cooking area spacious enough for 16inch pizzas.