10 Frozen Pizzas Ranked From Worst to Best by Italian Chefs

Frozen pizza has changed so much over the last few years. What used to be a cardboard crust topped with rubbery cheese is now a thriving category where quality actually matters. The global frozen pizza market reached nearly nineteen billion dollars in 2024, and it’s growing fast.

With so many options now flooding the freezer aisle, from dollar pizzas to premium imported pies, it gets hard to figure out what’s actually worth your money. Let’s be real, not every frozen pizza is created equal. Some taste like they were crafted by someone who’s never set foot in Italy, while others genuinely surprise you with how close they come to the real thing.

10. Totino’s Party Pizza

Totino’s easily took the crown as the absolute worst frozen pizza brand in multiple rankings by food experts and testers. The pepperoni pizza has over seventy ingredients, many of which sound more at home in a science experiment than in food. The third ingredient listed on the box is imitation mozzarella cheese, which should tell you everything you need to know. If you’re looking for something that remotely resembles authentic Italian pizza, keep walking past this one. The brand uses rehydrated mozzarella cheese, and when imitation foods are used, the final product is low in nutritional value.

9. Celeste Pizza

Celeste pizzas are cheap and convenient, but similar to Totino’s in terms of ingredients. The imitation cheese is just oil, potato, and corn starch and devoid of protein, calcium, and other nutrients typically found in real cheese. Celeste is restricted to regional markets, and if it was available nationwide, it would score among the worst pizzas on the list. Most bloggers and reviewers had absolutely nothing positive to say about it.

8. Tony’s Pizza

Tony’s may be among the pioneers of frozen pizza, but it is certainly not among the tastiest brands today, ranking well below almost every other national brand. Adjectives used to describe the sauce included watery, goopy, musty, and tasteless. The sparse amount of cheese didn’t help matters. The one saving grace is the low price point at less than four bucks, but you really do get what you pay for.

7. DiGiorno Rising Crust

Here’s the thing about DiGiorno. DiGiorno is the top-selling frozen pizza brand in the U.S., so clearly people are buying it. The issue is there’s too much crust, which isn’t surprising since the bulky Rising Crust option is the brand’s signature original style, making this a super doughy pizza. The sauce is overly sweet, further sinking this pizza in estimations of multiple taste testers. Overall, DiGiorno is trading more on brand awareness rather than good-quality pie.

6. Kirkland Signature Pepperoni Pizza

Though a four-pack of Kirkland pizzas translates into just over three dollars and fifty cents per pizza, it doesn’t quite stick the landing for what constitutes a quality frozen pizza. When pulled out of the oven, it looks more appetizing than some other pizzas on the list. This one definitely had the watery sauce going on, which muted the flavors of the tomato. It also washed out the flavors of the cheese and pepperoni in the process, creating an overall mediocre experience.

5. Red Baron Classic Crust

Red Baron proves you don’t need expensive ingredients to deliver on flavor, being one of the cheapest options. For a pie so well-priced, it didn’t skimp on cheese or sauce, which made multiple testers appreciate the layered bite. Red Baron was the closest to New York-style of all frozen pizzas tested with its ooey-gooey cheese, moderately thin crust, and expertly seasoned sauce. It’s nostalgic, reliable, and won’t break the bank. At three dollars and ninety-nine cents per pizza, you can’t beat the quality of Red Baron’s flavor.

4. Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy

After a lot of taste testing over the years, Newman’s Own Uncured Pepperoni Thin and Crispy Pizza was found to be the best frozen pizza by Food Network staffers in their 2023 test. The sauce is really tasty, and testers were very into this pizza. The sauce is herby with a slight tang, and the cheese is bubbly and tastes fresh. Newman’s Own uses pepperoni made from natural beef and pork, which is refreshing in the frozen pizza world. Most notably for its multi-grain crust, this pizza received rave reviews.

3. Screamin’ Sicilian Holy Pepperoni

Screamin’ Sicilian is one of the best frozen pizzas to try if you want something close to a wood-fired pizza restaurant experience, and many taste testers are amazed by its authentic taste. Holy Pepperoni is great for those who love an overload of toppings, featuring two full layers of crispy pepperoni and a ton of extra sauce. The pizza tasted fantastic. The crust was crispy, the cheese was gooey and fragrant, and the pepperoni was manifold. For a true-blue nostalgic pepperoni pizza experience, you can’t get more traditionally delicious.

2. Rao’s Brick Oven Crust Five Cheese

Rao’s Brick Oven Crust Five Cheese Pizza is the absolute best frozen pizza, and at around ten dollars and fifty cents to thirteen dollars per pie, it’s one of the most expensive options, but more than worth the elevated price. Rao’s had it all, with crispy yet doughy crust topped with vibrant tomato sauce and a generous layer of five different cheeses. The brand knows how to deliver a product that tastes the most authentically Italian. The pizza boasts a crispy but soft and dense crust that actually tasted like it came from a brick oven.

1. Genio Della Pizza The Bianca

Italian Genio Della Pizza’s The Bianca won the Best New Frozen Pizza award at the first Freezies Awards in 2024. Simply Recipes noted that Genio Della Pizza’s The Bianca was their top pick for best frozen pizza. The U.S. frozen pizza market is valued at over six billion dollars and quickly growing, with premium products leading the charge. Genio Della’s founder, Anthony Mangieri, is also founder and owner of Una Pizza Napoletana and self-described pioneer of Neapolitan-style pizza, and went where too few frozen pizza companies dare to go – buffalo mozzarella. This is frozen pizza elevated to an art form, made by someone who genuinely understands what authentic Italian pizza should taste like.

What Makes a Frozen Pizza Actually Good According to Italian Standards

Italian chefs judge frozen pizza by standards most Americans never even consider. It’s not just about toppings piled high or extra cheese – it’s about the dough quality, the balance of flavors, and whether the crust has that slight char and chew you’d find in Naples. Real Italian pizza uses minimal ingredients done exceptionally well, which is why many mass-market frozen pizzas with their long ingredient lists immediately fail the authenticity test. The cheese matters enormously too – low-moisture mozzarella is fine for American-style pizza, but true Italian pizza demands fresh mozzarella or even buffalo mozzarella for that creamy, delicate flavor. Sauce should taste like actual tomatoes, not ketchup with oregano thrown in. When Italian chefs taste frozen pizza, they’re looking for that elusive quality of freshness despite being frozen, and they can instantly tell when a company took shortcuts with cheap oils, artificial flavors, or cardboard-like crusts that snap instead of fold.

The Shocking Truth About Why Most Frozen Pizzas Taste Nothing Like Italian Pizza

Here’s something that’ll blow your mind – the average frozen pizza sits in warehouses and trucks for weeks before hitting your freezer, and that journey absolutely destroys any chance of authentic Italian flavor. Italian chefs explain that real pizza dough needs to ferment for at least 24 hours to develop those complex, slightly tangy flavors you taste in authentic pizzerias, but most frozen pizza manufacturers rush their dough production to maximize profits. They compensate for this lack of flavor development by loading up on salt, sugar, and artificial seasonings that mask the mediocrity. Even worse, the freezing process itself creates ice crystals that damage the dough’s gluten structure, which is why so many frozen crusts turn out either soggy or weirdly tough instead of having that perfect chewy-crispy texture. The tomato sauce situation is equally depressing – while a traditional Italian pizza sauce might contain just San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, and a pinch of salt, frozen pizza sauces often read like chemistry experiments with modified food starch, high fructose corn syrup, and “natural flavors” that aren’t remotely natural. This is precisely why Italian chefs get so passionate (okay, let’s be honest – angry) when judging frozen pizzas, because they know what pizza should taste like and how far most brands fall from that standard.