Ooni Koda 12 Gas Pizza Oven

Why it's worth it

The Koda 12 is the small propane sibling: 12-inch pies, 950°F in 15 minutes, and just over 20 pounds. It's a budget way into real Neapolitan heat, and the only oven here you'd actually throw in a car for a camping trip.

This is the oven that proves you don't need to spend a lot to break 900°F. The Koda 12 gets as hot as ovens that cost several times more. What you give up is size, not temperature. A 12-inch pie feeds one hungry person or two people splitting, so a pizza night for four means four separate bakes. At 60 seconds each that's fine — it's the dough-stretching between rounds that slows you down.

Twenty pounds changes what the oven is for. You can carry it one-handed to a campsite, a tailgate, or a friend's backyard. Nothing else in this guide is remotely portable; the next lightest option here weighs more than 30 pounds and is meant to sit in one place. If you live in an apartment with a small balcony or you move a lot, the footprint matters as much as the price.

From our review of 6 pizza ovens, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +This is the oven that proves you don't need to spend a lot to break 900°F
• +Twenty pounds changes what the oven is for
• +Owners who've never made pizza before report getting good results within a few tries, which isn't true of every oven in this…

What to know

• –Twelve inches is tight
• –Like the Koda 16, it's propane-only and open-fronted, so cold weather and wind will fight you