10 Store-Bought Pizza Crusts, Ranked Worst To Best

There isn't a soul on this Earth who doesn't enjoy a fresh, piping hot slice of pizza adorned with their favorite toppings. While there's nothing like a steamy pie from your favorite pizzeria, the price of ordering take-out frequently can add up and start to become a financial burden. Luckily, most supermarkets and online grocery retailers carry plain pizza crusts so you can enjoy an oven-fresh pie without leaving home and paying hefty prices. Unlike opting for a frozen pizza, using premade crusts allows you to deck out your pie with unique pizza sauce and all your favorite toppings, no matter how obscure. Anchovies and pineapple? You probably won't find that in the freezer section, but by using a plain pizza crust, all your sweet-and-salty dreams can be made a reality.

There are a lot of options for store-bought pizza crusts, from personal pies to raw dough to family-sized crusts. I chose some of the most popular options and made pizza at home to determine which crust made the most delicious pie. I opted for classic pepperoni and plain mozzarella for every pizza, using standard ingredients with no intricate flavors so that the flavor of each crust was apparent. I spread a thin layer of sauce on each pie and piled on plenty of cheese and toppings — though not excessively — to determine if the crusts can withstand a fully-loaded pizza. After making all 10 pizzas, I tasted each one and ranked them from worst to best based primarily on their taste, texture, and stability, so you know which crust to choose for your next family (or solo — I don't judge) pizza night.

Pillsbury is one of the most recognizable brands for those who like to make fresh-from-the-oven pastry creations without the hassles of gathering ingredients and setting up a whole baking operation. The brand offers a standard pizza crust that comes in a tube and, unlike the majority of the options on this list, must be rolled out and pressed before it can be adorned with sauce and toppings. Since the dough unraveled from the tube in an awkward shape, I formed it into a tight ball (small sized, since I had a lot of pizzas to tackle) before getting ready to press it out. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I pressed this dough ball for nearly 15 minutes and only got as far as a slightly flattened, round pizza dough ball.

So, despite my best efforts, I had to work with what I had. This dough is clearly not easy to manipulate into a flat pizza shape, which is the primary reason that it landed in the dead last position on this list. But if you were thinking that its taste would make up for its obscene consistency and toughness, you'd be wrong. This dough is incredibly sweet, so much so that I almost thought I had accidentally purchased pastry dough. Pizza sauce is naturally sweet, so combined with the crust, this pizza was practically a dessert. I wondered if I had let the dough ball rest for a few hours if it would have affected its flavor; it likely would have made it a little easier to work with, at least.

Just by looking at the package, you wouldn't think that this product from Whole Foods was a bag of pizza crusts; instead, the crust's color and thickness resemble whole-wheat wraps. Even though the bag is labeled "thin and crispy," I thought this was a bit of overkill. The crusts were barely a couple millimeters thick, so I didn't expect them to be able to withstand the weight of cheese, sauce, and toppings, and — just as I had assumed — the pizza dropped over the oven rack while cooking. Fortunately, the damage wasn't so severe that I couldn't salvage the pie. Only about ⅙ of the pie fell victim to the dreaded droop, so all I had to do was reposition it and it continued to cook without issue.

This crust looks like a crispy cracker, but it's actually incredibly soft and chewy, aside from the edges, which were almost too crunchy and a little too well done. The crust sagged, looking limp and depressed when I pulled a slice from the pie. I thought that I might have undercooked the pizza, but the outer edges definitely would have burned had I left the pie in even a minute longer. The crust also had a gritty, grainy quality (also reminiscent of a cracker) that didn't make it taste bad, but it didn't taste at all like how a pizza should. Flavor-wise, this crust could have used some sweet honey or savory olive oil to make it taste (and look) less like cardboard.

I felt deceived by the Mia pizza crust, which looked fluffy and appealing, but turned out to be a bit of a letdown. This crust is stone-baked, and comes as a convenient three-pack or two-pack of personal-sized pies for a creative date-night meal or for creating an easy dinner for picky kids. I thought the pizza crusts looked similar to traditional pita bread, and I was sad to discover that they don't taste much different, either.

There's a particular flavor that one looks for in a pizza crust — it usually involves a buttery, savory taste and a thin, crispy outer shell and delicate inside. The Mia pizza crust never got very crispy, although the inside of the crust was delicate and light, and there was no buttery flavor to speak of. It was well-done before the cheese was fully melted, so if you're using Mia's pizza crusts, be mindful of the amount of cheese you use, and definitely steer clear if you're known to throw caution to the wind and pile the cheese sky-high. The little pie was dry and bland and reminded me of making impromptu pizza on a slice of bread as a kid, with jarred marinara and whatever cheese was laying around in the fridge (or maybe that was just me). The edges of the crust began to burn on the side that was closest to the back of the oven, while the bottom of the crust was barely crispy.

Great Value — Walmart's house brand — offers a pizza dough that's very similar to Pillsbury, so it should come as no surprise that it's near the bottom of this pizza crust ranking. Unlike Pillsbury's horrendously tough and difficult-to-press dough, Great Value's was slightly more malleable, although I still wasn't able to get it to retain a typical pizza shape. I used the fool-proof Roman-style technique that I learned while working in a commercial pizza kitchen to press the dough, to no avail. This technique involves sprinkling flour on the dough and then pressing the ball from the middle to the edges until it reaches the desired shape and thickness — or, in this case, until my patience runs too thin (much unlike the pizza dough).

Great Value's pizza dough was incredibly sweet, like Pillsbury's. It was soft, fluffy, and doughy, and brought on a wave of childhood memories. It reminded me of Chuck E. Cheese's pillowy, tender, love-it-or-hate-it pizza, or a similar pie that's usually reserved for children. These pizzas have no amount of crispiness, a sweet flavor, and no butteriness or olive oil essence to give the crust a flavor boost. While some pizza-lovers may enjoy a nostalgic pie made with this crust, pizza connoisseurs are likely to turn their nose up at it.

This pizza stands out as the only gluten-free option on the list, but I thought it would be fair to include it due to its popularity. This crust is among the go-to choices for those who abstain from gluten, but it might also make a great option for folks who just prefer a crispy, crunchy pizza pie. Most people who don't need to eat gluten-free shy away from foods made with cauliflower that are normally made with wheat; it's usually pretty difficult to mask the earthy, sulfuric flavor that cauliflower leaves behind, but Caulipower gets the job done. There's still traces of cauliflower flavor left behind, but it's tame enough that it can easily be subdued with pungent toppings, like jalapeños or hot honey.

The Caulipower crust cooked faster than I had anticipated, and faster than the package instructions claim. Directions say to cook for 12 to 15 minutes, but I found that the pizza was getting close to burning in only 10 minutes. Despite almost burning, the base was tasty and extremely crunchy, with no softness or stretch to it whatsoever. It's extremely thin, cracker-like texture held onto a substantial amount of cheese and pepperoni without issue, but when slicing this pizza, its excessive crunch led to broken shards of crust and uneven slices.

Pillsbury makes another appearance on this list, although this one significantly less unfortunate. Like the aforementioned Pillsbury crust, the Pillsbury thin and crispy dough came in a small tube and unraveled into a weird pizza dough snake. I formed the dough into a ball before pressing and could immediately tell this one would be easier to work with than the original Pillsbury dough. I also noticed that it was much stretchier and stickier than the other tubed doughs, so I had to employ a little extra flour to get the job done.

After pressing the dough to the best of my abilities, I found that I was able to create a much flatter, rounded shape than I had with the other two tubed doughs, but I still wasn't able to achieve a thin, crispy crust, which is the obvious intention of this product. Nevertheless, I trudged on, waiting to see if this pie had the potential to be crispy at all. Although it wasn't nearly as thin and crispy as the image on the tube, it had a sweet-and-savory flavor and a hint of butteriness. Pockets of air in the crust gave it a light, velvety quality. Much like the dough, the final product had a stretchy, elastic quality that I didn't find appealing, but might cater to some pizza lover's tastes.

Like just about every New Yorker, I love a good thin crust pie, so this extra-thin pie from Golden Home looked to be right up my alley. When the cheesy pie came out of the oven, I was impressed with its aesthetic appeal, although I was a little disappointed that the crust was done before the cheese was evenly melted; another 2 minutes in the oven would have been ideal for the cheese, but overcooked the crust. In order to get this crust to achieve the perfect crisp right when the cheese is gooey and melty, less cheese is probably necessary.

This pie was a good mix of crispy and soft — a ratio that might differ between taste preferences, but should ultimately always exist in a good pizza. The bottom of the pie had a light char and slight crispiness, while the insides of the crust were pillowy and airy. A hint of honey mixed with salt would be great for a tasty sweet-umami combo in this rustic pizza. However, I found the crust to be a bit too dry. Brushing it with oil would have likely alleviated some of the dryness and added some extra moisture, but I avoided adding anything to the crust besides sauce and toppings (unless package directions required it) in order to accurately decipher the crust's flavor.

I didn't expect much from this humble little pizza crust by Mama Mary's, but its tiny size yielded a delicious personal pizza. The first thing I noticed when unpacking the crust was the premade rim; instead of guessing where the outer edge of the crust should stop and the sauce and cheese should begin, it's predetermined on this crust. It looked like a very shallow bread basin, where sauce, cheese, and toppings could sit, limiting the chances of all the fixings sliding off in the oven. I found myself wondering why all pizza crusts weren't made this way.

The Mama Mary's original crust is about a ½ inch thick and very tender. It was extremely buttery, dense, and cake-like, but despite its desert-like texture, it wasn't too sugary. Its flavor was neutral, with no one profile overpowering the other, which is a quality most would want in a pizza crust. A balanced base allows the rich flavors of high-quality cheese and toppings to shine without distracting with too many savory ingredients or too much sweetness. The crust's sturdy texture could handle a hefty topping load, and would probably make it well-suited for stovetop preparation in a cast iron pan. If you try this, just be sure to cover it with a lid for at least a couple minutes to ensure the cheese melts.

The Jus-Rol brand pizza crust acted as a perfect in-between of the tubed pizza doughs on this list and the bagged, whole crusts. This crust unravels into a raw dough sheet, so no rolling into a ball and pressing required. It also comes with its own parchment paper to bake on, so all I had to do was plop it on a baking sheet and go to town with cheese and pepperoni. It unraveled into a large, family-size rectangle with medium thickness somewhere in between thin and crispy New York-style and thick and fluffy deep-dish. Since I didn't have many mouths to feed (and was already quite a few pizzas deep at this point), I chose to cut out a small square for this test.

Like I did with the other raw dough options on this list, I stuck the Jus-Rol pizza dough in the oven for just a couple minutes with sauce only, and then pulled it out to add the toppings and cheese. When I pulled it out, it was clear that it wasn't earning any points for aesthetics. The cheese was well done, although the crust was only lightly done, creating an odd contrast in colors and a lack of consistency. This was a disappointment, but I was still thoroughly impressed by the flavor, texture, and structure of this pizza. I noticed immediately that it was extremely moist and silky. Its delicate, airy consistency gave it a melt-in-your-mouth quality, and even though it was light as air, it didn't droop when I went in for a bite. There was minimal sweetness to this crust, replaced by just a hint of salt and the umami taste of olive oil; the perfect flavor to complement gooey, creamy cheese and savory meat.

Coming in hot in the top spot, we have Mama Mary's thin and crispy crust. This crust mimicked a classic New York-style slice, albeit with some minor differences that made it unique and delicious just the same. This crust wasn't as thin as the options on this list that were designed to be light and crunchy, like the 365 Organic or Caulipower. It left enough thickness to provide an ultra-crispy exterior and tender, chewy interior that was moist and luxuriously smooth. The outer rim was cracker-crunchy and cooked to perfection.

This thin and crispy crust is essentially a slimmer version of the original Mama Mary's, so it had a similarly balanced flavor profile with just a touch of sweet-and-salty essence that's needed to make a delicious foundation for a pizza. When it came to mouthfeel, I found this crust to be much more buttery and velvety, without being oily, than the slightly drier original version. It had a hint of chewiness that added texture to its crunch for a more complex crust than any of the other options. Since it wasn't paper-thin like other crusts on this list, it left room for ample cheese and toppings, never threatening to topple to the bottom of the oven.

To conduct this text and ranking, I cooked each pizza according to the package directions for its crust. I made smaller pizzas when working with dough, in order to minimize waste. To top every crust, I chose plain mozzarella cheese, simple jarred pizza sauce, standard pepperoni, and a light sprinkling of Italian herbs to create the epitome of a classic pie. None of these toppings included any bold ingredients that could potentially distract from the flavors present in the crusts. When topping each pizza, I added a generous amount of cheese — without crossing into overzealous territory — to assess how well each crust could support ample toppings.

In ranking the crusts, I focused first on their individual flavors, evaluating them independently of the toppings. It's evident that the key to a good pizza base is texture, so that factor played the biggest role in deciding which crusts made a party-worthy pie and which should never grace the inside of a pizza oven. I also considered whether the flavor of the crusts complemented the toppings or distracted from them. Finally, I tested the stability of each pie, noticing that nearly every pizza crust was able to withstand substantial cheese and toppings.