What is the best frozen pizza? The best frozen pizza is whatever pizza happens to be in your freezer late at night when you’re desperately hungry and nothing is open for delivery. But you can make sure that the pizza you pull out of that ice box is truly the objectively best tasting frozen pizza by reading our list. We tasted through the best frozen pizza brands and these were the best pies, no matter what your style is.
Frozen pizza is its own classification of pizza. It’s never going to taste like homemade pizza or delivery pizza (no matter what a certain brand says in its ads)—and that’s okay. Sometimes, you want that slightly sweet sauce, that stretchy blanket of cheese, that smattering of pepperoni cubes. And it’s always smart to have a pizza or two in your freezer. You never know when the hunger will hit at 2 a.m. when all the delivery spots are closed, or at 5 p.m. when you’re faced with a “starving” child (or roommate) who refuses to wait longer than 25 minutes to eat.
But which pizzas should you choose to grace your freezer shelves? That’s why Sporked is here. We tasted through way too many frozen pizzas (turns out there is an upper limit) to find the best. We assessed pizzas by considering what they were trying to do. Was it trying to be a crispy thin crust pie? Was it trying to be a crispy-edged Detroit-style ‘za? How well did it do it? Would this be satisfying in a nostalgic way? Would it scratch that doughy itch? These are some of the questions we all seriously posed as we sat around a conference table. And here are the answers. Here are the best frozen pizzas you can buy:
- Screamin’ Sicilian Original Holy Pepperoni Frozen Pizza
One taster noted that this pizza tasted like “arcade pizza” and it’s really the most apt tasting note I can think of. They went on to clarify that it specifically tasted like pizza from an “arcade in the middle of nowhere,” and then added, “I kind of like it.” Indeed, this is what nostalgia tastes like. After sitting out for a few minutes, the thin crust gets a tad soggy and the cheese layer solidifies. The sauce tastes like a standard marinara. And it is entirely satisfying. It tastes like you’re seven years old again, trying to score enough tickets to buy that knockoff Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper. (Uh oh, I just revealed my age.)
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- Mama Cozzi’s Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza
This extremely doughy frozen pizza from Aldi scratches a very specific itch. “It seems like real cafeteria pizza,” Sporked managing editor Gwynedd Stuart said, hitting the nail on the head. The sauce is definitely on the sweeter end of the spectrum and, boy, is there a lot of it. A “commendable amount of sauce,” according to Gwynedd. The cheese can’t quite contain it. Luckily, the pepperoni is actually spicy, so it balances out the sauce. It’s good-bad pizza. It’s the best frozen pizza to pair with a cheap (like, two-buck-Chuck-cheap) bottle of wine and a screening of The Room. Good-bad. You get it.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
- Great Value Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza
I was legitimately impressed by how much this crust rose in the oven. It puffed up like someone was inflating it with a bicycle pump. It rose. Eventually it settled down a bit, but the end result was still the most crust-forward pizza we tried. If you wish pizza was actually cheesy breadsticks, Great Value’s Rising Crust is the best frozen pizza for you. The sauce is rich and tangy. The crust is doughy to the max and deliciously buttery. You could lay your head on this pillow of a pizza and wake up to a delicious snack. You could and you should.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- Tombstone Frozen Pepperoni Pizza
“What do you want on your Tombstone?” It’s the key line from one of the first commercials I remember really locking onto as a kid. “How brilliant,” I thought. “They’re asking a man who is sentenced to death what he wants written on his grave marker and he’s responding with pizza toppings!” Literal gallows humor. It was a formative moment for me as someone who occasionally attempts to be funny. Now, did the pizza itself live up to that brilliant ad campaign? In a way, yes. This is the ultra-thin, crackery crust pizza most people think of when they picture frozen pizza. And, for a lot of people, it’s their favorite frozen pizza because it hits those classic expectations. It’s the kind of pizza that you could fold in half and eat entirely by yourself as a pizza sandwich. Have one ready to go in your freezer, you’ll thank yourself later.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Target
- Sam’s Choice Rising Crust 7 Cheese Pizza Stuffed Crust
Take that, DiGiorno. Sam’s Choice sees your four cheese and raises you three. This extremely cheesy pizza (as in, if you’re lactose intolerant or even slightly nervous about dairy, turn back) features a blend of provolone, cheddar, fontina, Romano, Parmesan, and two types of mozzarella, all stuffed on top of the pizza and in the crust. Too much cheese? That would be a hard no from Sporked writer Jordan Myrick. “I could even do more cheese,” they said. “I love her.” If you feel that too much cheese is still not enough cheese, then this is the best frozen pizza for you.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- DiGiorno Crispy Pan Pepperoni Pizza
When I first took this fluffy, puffy, cheese-draped pizza out of the oven, I thought Motor City might have some competition. And it is good. But it’s just not Motor City good. The crust is drier and more bread-like than chewy pizza crust. The sauce is very nice—tomato forward, not sweet—and the cheese has a great pull, which is hard to find in a frozen pizza. The sides are nice and crispy—important for pan pizza. Gwynedd compared it to Pizza Hut pan pizza, which is pretty high praise. It’s definitely the best frozen pizza if you’re looking for that classic pan-style crust but Motor City is nowhere in sight.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Four Cheese
The sauce on this pie is definitely on the sweeter end, the cheese (a mix of mozzarella, Parmesan, asiago, and Romano) is a thick blanket, the crust is closer to doughy bread than anything you’d find at a New York pizzeria. If you’re looking for an authentic pizza experience, this is not the best frozen pizza for you. But if you’re looking for a cozy Snuggie of a meal, this classic frozen pizza is a great option. It’s not delivery. No one would ever think it was delivery. It’s DiGiorno, and that’s perfectly fine.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
- Freschetta Five Cheese
So many frozen pizzas have a sweet sauce. But not Freschetta. Freschetta’s tomato sauce is ultra savory and there is a lot of it. The crust bakes up fluffy and crusty. The cheese melts into a real topping—not just slightly melted shreds. And let’s talk more about that cheese. There are five different cheeses on this pizza (mozzarella, asiago, parmesan, fontina, and provolone) and you can tell. You can taste the complexity. Even the crust is sprinkled with a couple of different cheeses (asiago and parmesan), making it a must-eat for even those who typically leave little crust smiles behind. It’s definitely the best frozen pizza for crust-hounds like myself who can’t wait to scoop up any crusts left behind and eat them like breadsticks.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Chicago’s Home Run Inn Cheese Classic Pizza
After initially publishing this article, there was an outcry from you, my dear readers. Apparently, we screwed up. We didn’t include Home Run Inn pizza. How dare we. Well, we are always open to recommendations from passionate eaters, so we cooked up a cheese pie. And? I am pleased to say that we were, indeed, wrong to miss this pie. It is almost like a savory tart. The tomato-rich sauce and crispy-gooey cheese blanket a flaky pastry-esque crust. You were all correct and I thank you for bringing this pizza into my life. If you’ve never had this before, do yourself a favor and try it. It’s the best frozen pizza to have if you’re looking for true decadence.
Credit: Liv Averett / Target
- Motor City Detroit Style Supreme Deep Dish Pizza
In my humble opinion, Detroit-style pizza is the best frozen pizza brand. It’s the best thing to happen to pizza since ranch dressing. With its high, doughy crust and cheesy, crispy edges, it provides a perfect base for a mound of toppings and is just plain satisfying in a way thin crust pizza never is. I was extremely dubious that a frozen pizza would come close to the real thing. But Motor City has cracked it. Pillowy and doughy? Check. Cheesy, crispy edges? Check. Generous topping distribution? Check. I’ve thought about this pizza multiple times since we tasted it. I will buy it with my own cash, which I earned by tasting this, the best frozen pizza.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
Best Nostalgic
Best Cafeteria-Style
Best Extremely Doughy
Best Thin Crust
Best Cheesy
Best Pan Pizza
Best Thick Crust
Best Cheesy Crust
Best Indulgent
Best of the Best
Rhett & Link’s Pick
DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Four Cheese
In their blindfolded frozen pizza taste test on Good Mythical Morning, Rhett & Link both rated DiGiorno’s classic cheese pizza at the top, with Link giving it a nine out of 10 and Rhett giving it an eight. Both also guessed the brand correctly, citing its “signature dough” and “plumpification.”
Other frozen pizzas we tried: Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy Pepperoni, California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken, Mama Cozzi Thin Crust, Jack’s Original Thin Crust Pepperoni Frozen Pizza, Red Baron, Marketside, One Bite 5 Cheese Stone Baked Pizza, Celeste Pepperoni Microwave Pizza For One, Palermo’s Rising Crust Supreme Pizza, Quest Thin Crust Pizza Uncured Pepperoni, Tony’s Pizzeria Style Pizza
Watch Us Taste Test Frozen Pizzas!
Pizza, Wings, Salad: Oh My! These Are the Best Ranch Dressings to Buy
A good ranch should strike the perfect balance of sweetness, tartness, and saltiness. What we found, however, is that there are many different interpretations of ranch dressing that range from incredibly delicious to truly heinous.
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