Pizza night is beloved by lazy cooks and picky kids alike. Apart from ordering your usual pepperoni pie from a local pizzeria, there are nights when you may feel up to baking your own. Luckily, you can do this without making dough from scratch, since there are tons of premade options at the supermarket. But before you buy the first one you see, you should know that not all brands will deliver what you’re craving, depending on your preferences. Read on for our take on the best store-bought pizza doughs for every need, according to our taste test.
The 7 Best Store-Bought Pizza Doughs, Taste-Tested & Reviewed
Whether you like 'em crispy, chewy or gluten free
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Published Feb 3, 2023
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The Best Store-Bought Pizza Doughs at a Glance
Taryn Pire
Scroll down for in-depth reviews of each.
- Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough Overall: Birrittella's Fresh Pizza Dough
- Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Beginners: Pizza Buddy Pizza Dough
- Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Crispy Crust: Pillsbury Canned Classic Pizza Crust
- Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Chewy Crust: Trader Joe’s Ready-to-Bake Pizza Dough
- Best Gluten-Free Store-Bought Pizza Dough: Simple Mills Almond Flour Pizza Dough Mix
- Best Frozen Store-Bought Pizza Dough: ALDI Mama Cozzi’s Ready-to-Bake Pizza Dough
- Most Splurge-Worthy Pizza Dough: Whole Foods Market White Pizza Dough
How We Chose the Best Store-Bought Pizza Doughs
The ideal pizza varies from eater to eater, but generally, pizza dough should be doughy on the inside and crisp on the outside once baked. It should rise enough for a toothsome bite and a holdable crust on the edge. It should turn golden brown on top and on the bottom when baked. Its flavor should be neutral enough to accommodate any desired toppings but should still taste bready and well-seasoned.
To test the best store-bought pizza doughs, we used our recipe for cast-iron skillet pizza with fennel, sausage and garlic as a guide. We baked each pie in a cast-iron skillet for consistency. First, we added olive oil to the warmed skillet and swirled to coat. Then, we placed the pizza dough on the skillet, coaxed it to the edges and cooked it on the stove over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes to start the browning process. Finally, we added store-bought pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella cheese to the top, transferred the skillet to the oven and baked until the crust turned golden and the cheese was bubbling. (Cook times and temps varied from dough to dough, so we took package instructions into account.)
The 7 Best Store-Bought Pizza Doughs
The Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough Overall
- Value: 19/20
- Ease of Use: 19/20
- Flavor: 19/20
- Texture: 19/20
- Browning: 20/20
TOTAL: 96/100
Birrittella’s has been in business for more than a century, crafting pizza dough modeled after NYC’s world-renowned pies. (The recipe includes New York water, which is rumored to be the secret to a superior slice, and the dough is cold fermented for a more enhanced flavor.) Birrittella’s requires an hour or two of sitting on the kitchen counter to fully come to temperature, but we’re willing to wait for a Big Apple-like slice. The dough is pleasantly salty and flavorful, while the crust turns a gorgeous golden brown, making for an impeccable crunch in every bite.
Unfortunately, if you don’t live in the tristate area, you may not find this dough at a store near you, and the brand is unavailable in 13 U.S. states. But you can buy 20 dough balls online if you make ’za on the reg. (There are also gluten-free and whole-wheat options.)
The Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Beginners
- Value: 20/20
- Ease of Use: 19/20
- Flavor: 19/20
- Texture: 19/20
- Browning: 18/20
TOTAL: 95/100
Are you a frequent Walmart shopper? If so, you’ve likely seen this affordable brand in the deli section. The dough needs to come to room temperature before being used and the package recommends rolling it out before topping it, but other than that, there are no special steps. We think Pizza Buddy a great pick for beginners, since it’s basically foolproof and bakes to a perfect color and texture without much help. It also features separate instructions for pizza, breadsticks, calzones and garlic knots right on the packaging.
The dough’s flavor is bready and ever so slightly saltier than most of our other picks, which we appreciated. The crust browned on all sides, making for a chewy-yet-crispy bite.
The Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Crispy Crust
- Value: 18/20
- Ease of Use: 18/20
- Flavor: 18/20
- Texture: 19/20
- Browning: 20/20
TOTAL: 93/100
Just like the brand’s famous biscuits, you simply pop the tube open, unroll the dough and bake. The package suggests prebaking for 8 minutes on a greased nonstick baking sheet (we used a skillet for testing purposes, so we had to reform the rectangular dough sheet into a circle), topping the dough and baking again to completion, so it’s a bit fussier than standard dough you’d find at the supermarket. Nevertheless, the Pillsbury pizza turned out tasty and evenly cooked. The flavor of the dough is pretty plain, since there are no herbs or special ingredients added. We were most impressed by the ridiculously crisp crust.
The Best Store-Bought Pizza Dough for Chewy Crust
- Value: 20/20
- Ease of Use: 20/20
- Flavor: 19/20
- Texture: 18/20
- Browning: 17/20
TOTAL: 94/100
The second most affordable pick by a dime and the fastest cook time on this list, Trader Joe’s never disappoints. You’ll need to let the dough come to room temperature for 20 minutes before baking, but other than that, it’s as easy as stretching it, topping it and popping it in the oven. The dough has a pleasant yeasty, bready flavor and a decidedly doughy texture. If you love soft, thick crust, look no further. As for browning, the bottom turned a light golden color, but the top of the crust remained pretty pale, likely due to the package’s lower cook temp.
The Best Gluten-Free Store-Bought Pizza Dough
- Value: 17/20
- Ease of Use: 17/20
- Flavor: 20/20
- Texture: 18/20
- Browning: 19/20
TOTAL: 91/100
It takes a bit more work than pre-bought doughs since you have to mix it yourself, but it might be work the brief arm workout to have a gluten-free pie this tasty. The Simple Mills mix is baked at a lower temp than most pizza doughs and for about twice the time (a 15-minute prebake plus a 15- to 20-minute final bake), so comparatively, it’s a small labor of love. But you can smell how herbaceous and flavorful the vegan, gluten-free mix is the moment you open the bag, since it includes organic oregano and garlic.
This pick also boasts the shortest and best quality ingredient list of the bunch. It’s not as crisp as standard pizza; the crust is a bit crumbly when bitten, but it’s still sturdy enough to hold.
The Best Frozen Store-Bought Pizza Dough
- Value: 19/20
- Ease of Use: 19/20
- Flavor: 18/20
- Texture: 18/20
- Browning: 18/20
TOTAL: 92/100
This value buy requires a bit of forethought since it needs to thaw in the fridge overnight before it’s used, but it’s always good to have a ball of dough in the freezer in case of a future dinner emergency. That being said, we think it being pre-frozen may have contributed to a lack of browning on the outer crust (the bottom turned a beautiful golden brown). That resulted in a chewier, doughier slice, and if that’s your favorite kind (thin crust be damned), then look no further than this ALDI staple. The price tag doesn’t hurt either.
Most Splurge-Worthy Store-Bought Pizza Dough
- Value: 17/20
- Ease of Use: 19/20
- Flavor: 19/20
- Texture: 18/20
- Browning: 19/20
TOTAL: 92/100
Whole Foods has a range of in-house pizza doughs, including whole wheat and ancient grain varieties, but we went with the O.G. for testing purposes. The ingredients are simple, and we felt the dough was the easiest to work with of the bunch in terms of malleability. Unlike most brands on this list, the package comes without baking instructions (if you’re stumped, use our cast-iron skillet pizza recipe as a guide), but in terms of what it requires, it’s just as easy to use as other standard doughs. Ready your taste buds for malty flavor, modestly crisp crust and a pillowy interior. The one downside is the price, but that comes with the territory at this specialty store.
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Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.
