5 Best Pizza Stones For Homemade Pizzas

Tara Williams

Food Writer & Editor For KitchenSanity

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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Have you ever tried to make homemade pizza and wondered why your crust never turns out like pizzeria pizza?

The secret to producing a crispy pizza crust lies in the quality of heat. Pizzerias use a brick oven that distributes heat evenly. Unless you have the facilities to build a pizza oven in the backyard, the home alternative is to use a pizza stone.

Our top pick is the Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone. It’s portable, small enough to use on the grill or in the oven, but still big enough for a decent sized pizza, and highly heat resistant.

In this guide, you will learn the concepts of using a pizza stone and their features to help you find the best pizza stone for your baking needs. Don’t forget to check out our best pizza peel reviews for options to transfer your pizza or stone from oven to tabletop safely.

Top 5 Best Pizza Stones

1. Pizzacraft 16.5″ Round ThermaBond Pizza Stone

Pizzacraft 16.5' Round ThermaBond™ Baking/Pizza Stone - for Oven or Grill - PC9898

The Pizzacraft cordierite pizza stone has a big advantage over many competitors: it’s nearly immune to thermal shocks.

Crafted from the same material that’s used in car engines where heat changes are inevitable, this stone can withstand sloppy handling and careless cleaning much better than its counterparts; you’re free to stick it directly into a hot oven.

If you want your pizza stone to last several years, this is a great feature.

With a full 0.67″ of girth, this stone does a great job of retaining heat. It takes up to half an hour to reach full temperature, but once it’s there, it’ll stay hot for a while.

This helps deliver consistent heat after throwing a cold pizza or some refrigerated dough directly on the stone. Since it retains heat so well, It’s perfect for back-to-back baking of multiple dishes.

Unfortunately, it’s not the prettiest stone in the world. The manufacturer does not recommend using soap and says that spotting and discoloration are normal.

You’re not supposed to try to clean off blemishes as they develop, either. Luckily, your pizza stone will spend most of its time inside your oven with the door closed, so this isn’t too big of a downside.

If you want a thick, durable stone sized to fit most ovens, the Pizzacraft stone may be a great choice.

2. Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone

Old Stone Pizza Kitchen Rectanlge Pizza Stone, 14' x 16', natural clay

The Old Stone Oven pizza stone has excellent thermal retention.

It’s made from a ceramic that’s purported to be resistant to thermal shock, although we’d feel more comfortable if we knew exactly what was inside it.

If you’re looking for a robust pizza stone that’s a bit smaller than the Pizzacraft, it’s worthy of consideration.

Old Stone Oven says the stone is 0.8″ thick, which isn’t entirely wrong. It has small 0.3″ feet that keep it elevated to promote airflow. This makes it much easier to use one side of the stone than the other. Otherwise, they don’t interfere with the operation of the stone in any way.

You can still stick it on a grill or an oven rack quite easily.

While we’re not sure about this stone’s resistance to thermal shocks, it does handle extremely high temperatures with ease. The manufacturer claims it’s fine up to 2000 degrees F, which is far hotter than you’ll get with most home cooking.

You’re free to put it on a gas grill for a while and then sear steaks at 750 F if you want (although everything you cooked on the stone would be flavored with steak fat for a while afterwards).

Like other pizza stones, this stone isn’t particularly easy to clean and will stain and discolor over time.

The Old Stone Oven pizza stone is one of our top picks for smaller stones. It’s much more portable than the Pizzacraft and does its job quite well, giving you crispy pizza crusts and evenly cooked bread.​

3. Heritage Ceramic Pizza Stone For Oven, Grill & BBQ

Heritage 15' Ceramic Pizza Stone Set - Non-Stick, Stain-Free with Bonus Cutter - Black

The Heritage ceramic stone is available in both a 15″ round variety and a 16″ x 13″ rectangular variety.

We’d recommend the rectangle because it’s easier to put a pizza on it with a bit more room in the corners and you don’t have to do as much work when cutting parchment paper.

As far as we can tell, it’s not as resistant to thermal shocks as either of the models above, so you’ll want to preheat it with your oven and wait for it to cool before rinsing it off. Still, you’ll get excellent (small) pizzas on it without any hassle.

SEE ALSO: Calzone vs Stromboli

Again, you should limit yourself to warm water and a gentle scrub when cleaning this stone. Staining is inevitable, although it’s much harder to see any discoloration on the black.

While this stone has a ceramic glaze that makes it slightly more slippery than some of its counterparts, it’s still a good idea to dust the surface with flour or cornmeal before you bake on it; it’s not entirely non-stick.

The good news is that you don’t have to worry about keeping temperatures down to preserve your non-stick coating. You’re free to throw it on the grill on high for as long as you want.

The Heritage pizza stone is a bit small but it’s still a fine option for any kitchen that needs a baking stone. The black colored stones are particularly good at hiding any spots that appear over time.​

4. Solido Pizza Stone

Pizza Stone - Baking Stone. SOLIDO Rectangular 14'x16' - Perfect for Oven, BBQ and Grill

The Solido baking stone itself measures 0.75″ high. It has a series of 0.3″ spiral grooves on the bottom that are designed to funnel heat towards the center for more even baking.

It’s made of the same cordierite as the Pizzacraft above, making it almost impervious to thermal shock.

There are two important differences between this stone and the Pizzacraft. One, this stone is smaller. This makes it easier to take outside and throw on the grill, but it means you can’t cook two small pizzas on it at once.

Two, it has grooves on the bottom. This promotes airflow and even heating, but it also means you can’t flip it over and use the back.

The Solido pizza stone is one of our top picks if you need a pizza stone that you can use on the grill. It’s pretty similar to the Old Stone Oven in terms of features, but we prefer this one since we know it’s made of cordierite.​

5. Dough-Joe Pizza Steel Baking Sheet (The Samurai)

Dough-Joe Samurai Pizza Steel Baking Sheet-'The Samurai'-15' x 15' x 1/4'-16-pound carbon steel, Made in USA, great for creating a Wood-Fired Oven crust in your own home!

Unlike the other stones on our list, the Dough-Joe set is made of 5 cordierite tiles that each measure 6″ x 9″.

This adds a lot of flexibility to your baking endeavors, enabling you to cook long things, tall things, and small things with ease. When you only need to take a single tile out to the grill, you can.

With the same cordierite construction as our top one-piece picks, these stones are very resistant to thermal shocks and can withstand temperatures that are about twice as high as your grill can reach.

They’re about 0.8″ thick, giving them excellent heat retention. Like many of our other picks, the bottom of each tile is ribbed for better grip and air circulation.

Breaking up a pizza stone into multiple tiles is brilliant and helpful, but it’s not without downsides.

Notably, these stones aren’t watertight when you arrange them on an oven rack. This means any grease or sauce or liquid that drips off of whatever you’re cooking can slip through the cracks.

You may want to throw a baking pan or cookie sheet or something below them when you’re actually cooking in the oven. Alternatively, consider putting parchment paper on top. On the grill, this isn’t as much of a concern for most people.

If your primary purpose isn’t cooking pizza, the Dough-Joe set of tiles may be the best option for baking and the occasional pizza.​

Final Thoughts

Making pizza at home can get the whole family involved for a delicious treat and everyone can customize their pizza just the way they like it.

However, everyone needs to understand the process and dangers of using a pizza stone.

While there are many great pizza stones available on the market, the Old Stone Oven Rectangular Pizza Stone is made in the USA and can help create a crispy crust that your pizza deserves. It’s definitely one to consider.​

Did you enjoy this guide? Let us know in the comments below with your favorite pizza stone and share any tips that make things easier for you.​

Written By Tara Williams

Tara Williams is a seasoned food writer and editor who's been with KitchenSanity since its beginning. With a knack for experimenting with food and creating delicious recipes, she's your go-to for straightforward kitchen advice and practical tips from personal experiences. As a mom of two, Tara understands the value of time. She crafts articles that enhance your cooking skills and free up time for what matters most—like family moments.

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