While wood used to be the one and only choice for authentic Italian-style pizza, electric ovens have improved significantly in recent years. Their high temperatures, portability, and convenience let you cook a pizzeria-quality pie right from your backyard, patio, balcony or even kitchen in some cases.

Modern electric pizza ovens produce nearly identical pies as wood fires—but they’re much smaller, easier to use, and more cost-effective to run.

So, what’s the better choice between wood-fired vs electric pizza ovens? The answer depends on your space, budget,  and cooking style. Let’s compare how these two heat sources stack up across flavor, cost, performance, and more to decide which is right for your home.

How Each Type of Pizza Oven Works

Both wood-fired and electric pizza ovens radiate heat in controlled, enclosed spaces to rapidly cook pies, but each type of pizza oven generates heat from different sources.

Wood-fired ovens burn wood to reach cooking temperatures. The process is long and labor-intensive as it involves:

• Harvesting or buying firewood 

• Hauling your firewood to your oven and chopping it down to size

• Carefully stacking wood to fit into your oven’s firebox

• Lighting your fire and closely monitoring it until it comes up to temperature

A wood-fired oven may need to burn for up to six hours before it reaches its maximum temperature. This doesn't include the time it takes to gather fuel, break your wood down to size, and assemble your fire.

Electric pizza ovens, on the other hand, are much simpler and more convenient to use— plugging into standard outlets for immediate use. Electrical currents run through the oven’s elements, rapidly heating them to your desired temperature. While wood ovens can take six hours to crack 850°F, electric models can do so in fewer than 20 minutes.

Flavor and Cooking Performance Comparison

Both electric and wood-fired ovens offer crispy crust, melty cheese, and fantastic flavor. Depending on the oven’s quality, identical pies cooked in either kind will taste almost indistinguishable, but both styles do offer unique advantages.

Wood-fired ovens, for instance, give you:

• Varied heat zones: Large wood-fired pizza ovens have three temperature zones: the blazing back near the firebox, the relatively cooler front, and the radiant area near the roof. Skilled pizza chefs use these zones to their advantage by baking quick-cooking varieties near the back and other styles at the cooler front. They’ll also lift pizzas toward the domed roof for a few seconds to melt the cheese and crisp up the toppings.

• Higher maximum temperatures: Wood-fired ovens top out at over 900°F while electric ovens usually only reach 850°F. While this temperature difference is minor for most bakers, the extra 50°F may come in handy for extremely adept pizzaiolos.

Cooking differences between wood-fired and electric ovens

While wood-fired ovens do present unique cooking possibilities, electric pizza ovens also offer key advantages, such as:

• Even heating: While wood-fired ovens have hot and cold zones, electric models are more evenly heated. This leads to a more uniform cook and less need to closely monitor the pizza as it bakes. Unlike with wood-fired ovens, you don’t have to turn or lift the pizza toward the domed roof. 

• Instant temperature adjustment: Different kinds of pizzas—plus other dishes—require various cooking times. Electric ovens let you raise or lower the heat with a twist of a knob. Since the oven is well insulated, it can take time to reduce temperatures, so we recommend starting a lower temperature and increasing heat for different pizza styles. In comparison, you may have to feed a wood fire for hours—or let it burn down—to hit your desired pizza cooking temperature.

• Intelligent cooking features: Wood-fired ovens are basic: You add wood and they heat up, you let the fire burn out and they cool down. Electric ovens like the Current® Model P, however, feature Bluetooth and wifi integration, allowing you to control your oven’s temperature from anywhere. The Current® app also helps you pick cook times based on your ingredients with the Pizza Build Calculator, monitor your pizza, and pull your pie out the second it's done.

While the cooking style may be different between wood-fire and electric, you can achieve similar end results. The space and expertise needed for setup and maintenance, however, are incomparable–and an electric oven is going to save you time and hassle. 

Setup, Space, and Maintenance Needs

Wood-fired pizza ovens are behemoths. Next time you’re at an authentic, Italian-style pizzeria with a brick oven in the back, take a look at how much space it takes up—chances are, it wouldn’t fit well in your kitchen, backyard, or balcony. 

Since building a pizza oven is so complex and involved, homeowners generally hire a certified contractor or take a course to learn how. But building your oven is just the beginning. 

Wood-fired oven maintenance is also a hassle compared to electric ovens. With a wood-fired oven, you have to:

• Find and prepare enough firewood to burn throughout the baking process

• Sweep away ash and burnt bits of wood

• Scrub off soot and charred pieces of pizza

Electric ovens, on the other hand, are plug in and pie. They work right out of the box and require minimal upkeep compared to wood fires. Simply wipe them clean after they cool off, and they’re ready for your next pizza night.

Cost Differences and Materials Use

Speaking of pizza nights, they’ll be significantly cheaper if you choose electric over wood fire. An efficient electric pizza oven like the Current® Model P only requires an electrical outlet for function, no other costly materials like propane or wood. 

While wood-fired ovens technically use no electricity, they can burn through about seven pounds of wood per hour. If you live in your own forest, surrounded by as much abundant firewood as you can harvest, this might cost you nothing. But most people don’t have that set up, and they have to pay for every log they burn. 

Wood prices vary from place to place, but you’ll almost certainly spend more on fuel for a wood-fired oven than energy for an electric model. 

Which One Is Right for Your Cooking Style?

Beyond practical and financial concerns, personal preference makes a major impact on which type of oven is right for you.

Wood-fired may be a better choice if:

• You have plenty of space: Wood-fired ovens are enormous. They won’t fit in most apartments, townhomes, or smaller properties. If you have a large backyard and are willing to dedicate a sizable chunk of it to your oven, wood may be for you.

• You enjoy the process: Wood-fired ovens take an incredibly long time to get hot. If you enjoy preparing firewood, loading the firebox, and monitoring your blaze while you wait to eat, go for a brick oven.

• You’re off-grid: One of the major benefits of wood ovens is their lack of electricity. If you’re living off-grid and power-free, you can still enjoy hot, fresh pizza when you want it.

• You’re a pizza purist: The overall flavor and mouthfeel of electric and wood oven-cooked pizzas may not be that different, but if you're set on cooking pizza in the traditional method, wood’s the only way to go.

Electric ovens, on the other hand, may be more your style if:

• You prefer convenience over showmanship: Wood ovens certainly seem impressive with their amber glow and radiating heat, but electric ovens take next to no time to set up, heat, and bake in comparison.

• You value safety: Electrical appliances are grounded, feature failsafes, and don’t rely on open flames. Wood fires, on the other hand, can grow out of control if you’re not careful.

• You crave versatility: The intense heat of wood-fired ovens makes outstanding pizzas, but isn’t useful for many other recipes. Meanwhile, electric ovens are easily adjustable, allowing you to prepare a wide range of dishes.

• You like to experiment: Smart pizza ovens, like the Current® Model P, are better for trying out new recipes. Simply input your pizza style, toppings, and preferences into the Current® app, and it’ll suggest the perfect cooking temperature and time for your pie.

Electric ovens are simply more economical, convenient, and useful than wood-fired pizza ovens. And, when you choose the Current® Model P, you get all the power of a wood oven with the simplicity and price of an electric.

The Current® Model P: A Cut Above Other Electric Pizza Ovens

When it comes to wood-fired vs electric pizza ovens, there’s simply no competition: electric wins across convenience, price, safety, and more.

A main issue with many electric ovens is their maximum temperature—it’s often not hot enough to achieve a brick oven’s charred, smoky notes. The Current® Model P, however, burns as hot as many conventional wood-fired pizza ovens. 

With the ability to hit 850°F, it produces the same crisp, leopard-spotted crust as a brick oven without any of the extra work. Discover how electric outperforms wood fire any day by baking your next pie with the Model P.

Sources: 

National Library of Medicine. Performance characterization of a traditional wood-fired pizza oven. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35933596/

Goodfellas Pizza School. A Guide to Temperature Zones in a Brick Oven. https://www.pizzaschoolnewyork.com/a-guide-to-temperature-zones-in-a-brick-oven/

National Library of Medicine. Unlocking the secrets of Neapolitan pizza: A concise review of wood-fired, electric, and gas pizza ovens. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39363225/

Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Build a Masonry Oven.  https://yestermorrow.org/learn/courses/build-masonry-oven

National Library of Medicine. Performance characterization of a traditional wood-fired pizza oven. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35933596/