If you’re trying to eat more meals at home but the local pizza joint has your order memorized, it might be time to accept a hard truth: Pizza is always going to be a delicious, cheesy, and satisfying part of your life. 

With a pizza oven at home, you don’t have to give up your favorite food even if you cut back on takeout. But is a pizza oven worth it for the average home chef? 

Short answer? Yes.

Long answer? Also yes: You’ll spend less on pizza delivery, save money and time in the long run, fulfill all of your late-night cravings without breaking the bank, and learn to make homemade pizza—all for a moderate up-front cost. 

Let’s run the numbers. 

Is a Pizza Oven Worth It? Key Benefits at a Glance

Is a pizza oven worth it? Before we do the math, let’s talk about some benefits that aren’t related to cost:

• Homemade pizza anytime – With an electric pizza oven, you can make delicious, homemade pizza in your kitchen (or on your balcony, or in the backyard) anytime. Afternoon munchies, late-night snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner—with a pizza meal, you can dish up a slice for any (or every) meal.

• Pizza-making prowess – Of course, you’ll have to learn to make pizza to get the most value out of your new gadget. But if you’re already a culinary connoisseur, this isn’t a drawback—it’s an opportunity to learn a new skill (and one that produces delicious results).

• Personalized dishes – An at-home pizza oven makes it easy to experiment with new flavor combinations. Breakfast pizzas, cauliflower crust creations, flatbreads with goat cheese and green apples—these aren’t always in the rotation at your average pizza joint. But with a pizza oven, they can always be on the at-home menu. 

• Ingredient control – If you’re a clean eater, avoid gluten, have allergies or any other dietary restrictions, making pizza at home ensures you know exactly what is going into your meal. 

Cost Breakdown of Owning a Pizza Oven

It’s hard to assign a dollar value to the benefits above. So, let’s zoom in on some hard numbers: the upfront and ongoing costs of a home pizza oven. 

Upfront Costs

Your upfront costs for a pizza oven will depend on your choice of oven. While there are a few different types of pizza ovens on the market now, some of the most popular choices are:

• Wood-fire pizza ovens – Wood-fire pizza ovens are a great conversation piece if you have a big backyard, but they are also expensive. The average cost to install an at-home, brick, wood-fire pizza oven is $5,000.

• Gas pizza ovens – Pricing varies widely, from around $300 for compact, portable models to $3,000 for built-in or professional-grade setups, depending on fuel type, size, and materials. Product options range from large-scale, natural gas-fired ovens piped straight into your home’s utilities to simple propane grill attachments. 

• Electric pizza ovens – While not the cheapest option on the market, electric pizza ovens offer strong value, especially if you opt for a smart model with modern features, easy controls, and built-in safety tech. Some electric pizza ovens can be used both indoors and outdoors, adding even more value and versatility. The Current® Model P, for example, costs $699 and once you’ve plugged it into any standard outlet, you’re ready to go – no set up or build required. 

Ongoing Costs

Your ongoing costs will also depend on your chosen pizza oven:

• Wood-fire pizza ovens may require infrequent maintenance: Removing old coals and ashes, for instance. To operate them, you’ll need some firewood and matches. Wood-fire ovens may be a pretty penny to install, but upkeep and operational costs are somewhat nominal.

• Gas pizza ovens will require gas supplies: fresh cans of butane and propane, depending on your oven’s gas of choice. If you install a gas pizza oven that’s hooked up to your home’s natural gas system, you’ll have to pay utility costs (and natural gas prices can fluctuate).

• Electric pizza ovens will operate similarly to natural gas pizza ovens: Your only ongoing cost will be the electricity it takes to power it. 

Let’s do some math on the last option. As of April 2025, the average price of electricity in the US is just over $0.17 per kilowatt hour (kWh). The Model P Smart Pizza Oven uses 1,750 watts per hour.

At $0.17 per kWh, you’ll spend $0.30 per hour running the Model P:

1,750 watts ÷ 1,000 = 1.75 kilowatts

1,75 kilowatts x 1 hour = 1.75 kilowatt hours

1.75 kWh x $0.17 = $0.30

Frequency of Use

The answer to our central question, “Is a pizza oven worth it?”  depends on how much pizza you eat. 

Let’s look at the average price of a large cheese pizza in the US: It’s around $18. Meanwhile, one hour of at-home oven cook time costs approximately $0.30, while at-home pizza-making supplies can cost as little as $5 total.

So, if you order pizza once a week, the Model P (at $699) will pay for itself in a little over a year. 

But let’s face it, with a pizza oven at home, you might start cooking pizza multiple times per week. 

Alternatives to Buying a Pizza Oven

If you’re not totally onboard with purchasing your own pizza oven (yet), there are some alternatives to consider: 

• Make pizzas on the grill – Grilled pizzas are delicious. However, weather could sabotage your plans to grill outdoors, and transferring pizzas from pan to grill and back again could prove challenging. High risk, high reward. 

• Make pizza in a conventional oven – Of course, you could make do with your conventional oven. But since it likely wouldn’t reach the optimal cooking temperature as a pizza oven would (the Model P tops out at 850 degrees), you may not reach restaurant quality with your kitchen oven. Low risk, low reward. 

Ultimately, buying a pizza oven is a low-risk, high-reward proposition:

• Low risk – Once you know the average price of pizza delivery in your area, your local cost of ingredients and electricity, and the price of your chosen pizza oven model, you can calculate the exact cost of your investment. 

• High reward – Making pizzas after your oven pays for itself won’t be free (you’ll still have to pay for electricity and ingredients), but you’ll save money compared to delivery after the break-even point. (Also, did we mention you’d always be able to make pizza at home?)

Who Will Get the Most Value From a Pizza Oven?

With both hard numbers and benefits in mind, who stands to get the most out of an at-home pizza oven?

Pizza Lovers

If you’re a bonafide pizza fanatic ordering delivery at least once a week, you stand to get your money’s worth out of a pizza oven. However, pizza lovers also stand to gain from a quality standpoint. While we used an $18 per cheese pizza as an average price, this number probably correlates to average quality. 

Anyone who has ever made a pizza from scratch can tell you that homemade pizza—even in the early days of your journey—is heads and shoulders above the average delivery pizza. And, after some practicing making fresh pizza at home, the quality is sure to eclipse the nearby takeout joint in your neighborhood. 

Families

If multiple people live in your household, you’re probably not paying for just one cheese pizza when you order delivery. Even if you only order two pizzas for your family each week at average delivery prices, you’ll still break even within 8 months (i.e., around 30 weeks). 

But this isn’t the only benefit of a family pizza oven:

• Satisfy every taste – If you have picky eaters at home—or particularly adventurous eaters (pickles, anyone?)—you won’t have to compromise for simplicity’s sake or order split-topping pizzas anymore. Instead, each member of the family can have their own pizza featuring their favorite choice of toppings.

• Teach cooking skills – A straightforward electric pizza oven is a great tool for teaching youngsters how to cook. With simple settings and quick preheat times (not to mention a delicious end product), making pizza is an excellent way to practice building those creative culinary skills from an early age. Plus, it offers a hands-on bonding experience. Even when you’re not cooking pizza, you can use your pizza oven to try other recipes and experiment.

• Enjoy versatility – You don’t have to use a pizza oven exclusively for pizza making. In fact, you can make a ton of different tasty foods. You can use it to roast vegetables, crisp up breaded meats, or even whip up mouth-watering lava cakes.  

Start Smart: Choose A Pizza Oven Designed for Everyone with Current

So, is a pizza oven worth it? Yes—in just about every way. Whether you’re a pizza lover, a parent, a budding chef, or anything in between, you can benefit from making pizza at home. And, after breaking even, you’ll spend less on better-quality pizza. It’s just that simple. 

Ready to start tossing dough and sprinkling cheese? Check out the Current® Model P Smart Pizza Oven. Electric, portable, and suitable for indoor and outdoor use, the Model P is the perfect pizza oven for buyers with value in mind.