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15 Frozen Pepperoni Pizzas, Ranked Worst To Best

Pepperoni pizza is one of those rare foods that is good even when it's bad. The crust is satisfying whether it's crispy, chewy, or somewhere in between; tomato sauce always brings some sweet acidity to cut through the richness of the melted cheese; and some round slices of slightly spicy pepperoni just bring everything together. When the first frozen pizzas started to hit supermarket shelves in the '50s and '60s, consumers were given a quick, cheap, and easy method to recreate pizza magic at home.

These days, frozen pizza is still big business in America, with its annual sales in 2024 topping $7 billion. And it's expected to continue that trend in the coming years. The convenience mixed with a surprisingly decent bang for your buck will always be attractive to those in need of a quick meal that has a long shelf life in the freezer. Given the fact that the frozen pizza market has been around for nearly 80 years, it's time for a quick vibe check to see how 15 of our nation's most prominent frozen pepperoni pizzas stack up against one another. Which brand will find itself in the upper crust, and which brand will be stuck with the crumbs?

15. Home Run Inn

Though this Chicago brand has a great pedigree, it came in dead last for me. The origins of this Chicago fixture began nearly a century ago, and it was one of the early adopters of Chicago's lesser-known tavern-style pizza. The restaurant was also one of the early pioneers of the frozen pizza concept in the 1960s, leading the brand to expand across Illinois. Today, Home Run Inn continues to be a popular selection in the frozen pizza aisle. So what happened here?

The first issue I had with this pizza was the crust. It crisps up just fine in the oven, but it appears as though there is a substantial wad of unbaked dough beneath the crust's edges. This gave the whole pie a kind of unpleasant sourness that was hard to ignore. I also took issue with the pepperonis, which were paper thin and didn't really have much flavor. The one unifying aspect among all of these pizzas was the fact that whether it's cubed or sliced, pepperoni pretty much always tastes good on frozen pizza. But the pepperoni here lacked that spicy, oily kick and had an odd leathery texture that just didn't quite work. The cheese melted into a nice consistency, but I also found it suspiciously devoid of flavor. At nearly seven bucks a pop, there are plenty of superior options on the market.

14. Good & Gather

Target's house brand Good & Gather has quite a few great bargains in its stable, and plenty of them can give most other name brands a run for their money. When it comes to the Good & Gather frozen pepperoni pizza, however, there's not a lot to love. It's serviceable — the crust crisps up, the cheese melts, and the pepperoni is fine, but it just doesn't seem like it's trying that hard.

Outside of just having a low standard, this pizza best exemplified that watery tomato sauce phenomenon that sometimes occurs with frozen pizza. A good pizza needs a full-bodied tomato sauce that works in tandem with the other ingredients to create a quality pizza specimen. Even when it goes from frozen to heated, the sauce can definitely maintain that level of richness. The sauce on the Good & Gather brand pizza, however, just melts into a thin, weakly-flavored liquid that makes the crust get soggy on the top. It's a pizza that will definitely work in a pinch, but that six-dollar price point means you're paying a bit too much for pizza of this caliber.

13. Jack's

While I was trying the different pizzas on this list, I couldn't help but notice a few of the more cost-effective brands weren't packaged in a square box. Jack's, for example, sits on a round piece of cardboard and the label is shrink-wrapped on top of the pizza. Seeing that it clocked in at four bucks, I wondered how much of a typical frozen pizza budget goes into packaging. Of course, when I sliced up my Jack's pepperoni pizza and gave it a taste test, I realized that maybe this is just a case of "you get what you pay for." Of course, if you're up for the challenge, this can be the ultimate test of your pizza-hacking skills.

Jack's indeed is one of the cheapest frozen pizzas on the market, and I did notice a quality issue between it and some of the other bargain pizzas on the list. The main issue here was the cheese. I am of the opinion that the cheese pattern on the frozen pizza should change at least a little bit upon cooking. My Jack's pizza went in with the little shreds of cheese separated and came out with the little shreds of cheese separated. They had melted of course, but they still seemed to be avoiding one another. I think this can be chalked up to a design flaw, but I find it hard to trust a cheese that doesn't melt properly.

12. Totino's

Totino's frozen pizza has been in the game since the beginning, and it's definitely perfected its quality-to-price ratio. These days, a Totino's pizza is more rectangular than it used to be — it would appear that the brand is really gunning for the toaster oven market. Totino's pizza is also known for its cubed pepperoni, which ends up being both a blessing and a curse upon final delivery.

The crust on a Totino's pizza is cracker-thin, and it does get a nice crunch once it comes out of the oven. The cheese has the same problem as Jack's in that, though it looks like cheese, it doesn't taste or feel like cheese upon consumption. I tend to prefer a tomato sauce that isn't overly sweet, and though this is the case with Totino's, I think it works in the pizza's favor. It's the little pepperoni cubes that kind of make everything weird. Though the cube shape does make for a concentrated flavor, they end up tasting a bit more like hot dogs than pepperoni. There is a right way to do hot dogs on pizza — this just ain't it. These pepperoni cubes are also extremely oily, so the sweeter tomato sauce actually balances these flavors out a bit. A Totino's pizza is definitely a two-dollar vibe, but you do get a good amount of pizza flavor for those two bucks, which is honestly kind of impressive.

11. Kirkland

Costco's signature Kirkland brand has some definite highs and lows, and its frozen pepperoni pizza is definitely one of the misses. Though a four-pack of Kirkland pizzas translates into just over $3.50 per pizza, it doesn't quite stick the landing for what constitutes a quality frozen pizza. It looks the part when it comes out of the oven, but I felt like it could be so much better — perhaps Costco's food court pizza unfairly raised my expectations.

When I pulled this one out of the oven, it looked more appetizing than some of the other pizzas on the list. The pepperoni had a nice sizzle, the cheese melted evenly, and there was a nice crunch when I sliced it up. With each bite, however, my spirits fell. 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, and I was surprised at the overall mediocrity at play here.

10. Red Baron

A Red Baron pepperoni pizza is another good example of matching the quality of its ingredients to its asking price. At just under five bucks, a Red Baron pizza is a decent way to get good frozen pizza on a budget. This was also the pizza that seemed to start taking advantage of the home oven preparation because it gets a nice crispy ring of golden brown cheese near the crust which is one of the best features of the frozen pizza.

Overall, there is nothing glaringly wrong with Red Baron and I think it represents what most people think of and expect when preparing a frozen pizza at home. The crust is thin enough to be crispy, the sauce doesn't water things down, the cheese stays cheesy, and the pepperoni hits the right flavor notes. The reason Red Baron is at the bottom of the mid-tier is simply because there are other items on this list that do a better job with what they have.

9. Screamin' Sicilian

If I was considering box art and shelf presentation on this list, Screamin' Sicilian might just edge a few of these other contenders out. That mustachioed open-mouth cutout on the box always catches my eye when I am at the grocery store, but I doubt I'll be getting a serious craving for this brand in the near future. It's a good example of a mid-tier pizza and I'm not mad at its seven-dollar price point, but it just doesn't deliver on the screamin' part of the title. I'm not really sure it delivers on the Sicilian part, either.

Clever branding and packaging aside, I found this one to be shockingly middle of the pack. When I unwrapped it, I did note a perhaps greater-than-average quantity of pepperoni. However, all that pepperoni slid to the bottom of the pizza, and I had to spread them all out again before it went into the oven. It's a small nitpick, but frozen pizza should be at the epicenter of convenience.

It comes out of the oven looking nice, and all that extra pepperoni fills the kitchen with an appetizing pizza aroma. As Screamin' Sicilian found itself in the middle of the list, there aren't many glaring flaws to point out here. It's a perfectly satisfactory frozen pizza that maybe goes a little too hard when it comes to marketing.

8. Tombstone

Like Jack's, Tombstone opts for minimal packaging which could be saving the shopper a few bucks. Unlike Jack's, Tombstone has its flavor profiles together and its cheese melts properly. I think Tombstone's crust gets closer to that perfect balance between soft and crispy, which was honestly surprising.

Taking its name from Tombstone Tap, the Medford, Wisconsin bar where owner Joe Simek started whipping up his own pizzas, Tombstone and Totino's have been in competition since the 1960s. Though it may not have always been the case, I'm starting to think that Tombstone might have the upper hand. It's a bit more expensive than Totino's, but the flavors and textures that are going on here are pretty impressive for a five-dollar price point.

For me, Tombstone is all about the crust. It's just on the verge of cracking the rising crust concept that Freschetta and DiGiorno do so well, and getting that caliber of crust for five bucks is worth it. The pepperoni, sauce, and cheese all work well together and do a decent job of making you forget you're eating a frozen pizza.

7. Freschetta

There's no question that Freschetta's rising crust is a game changer. Even if you happen to enjoy a thin, crispy number, you cannot deny the magic of biting into this crust knowing that 15 to 20 minutes ago it was a hunk of ice. That said, I had some issues with the rest of the pizza that caused this one to tumble down the ranks a bit.

For starters, the cheese/pepperoni/sauce ratio was all messed up here, and I blame the cheese. I'm not usually one to turn my nose up at extra cheese, but once the pizza came out of the oven, I noticed the melted cheese kind of overwhelmed everything else. It would be one thing if it was the kind of cheese that you want to overwhelm every facet of your taste buds, but I found the Freschetta cheese to be a one-note salt bomb that wasn't doing the pie any favors.

On top of that, the pepperoni was quite salty, and the sweetness of the tomato sauce just couldn't do anything in the face of such overwhelming levels of salinity. Given Freschetta's excellent crust and fresh ingredients, I'm willing to chalk this one up to a quality control issue. All the same, I thought this pie was mid-tier at best.

6. Rao's

I didn't know Rao's made a frozen pizza until I started assembling my list of contenders, but based on how fervently Ina Garten swears by Rao's spaghetti sauce, I had high expectations. Admittedly, I am a fan of Rao's jarred spaghetti sauce — when it goes on sale, that is — and since pizza can live and die by its sauce, I figured this would be a good pick.

My verdict on Rao's was overall very positive. It's a uniform pizza whose flavorful pepperonis are well-dispersed and orderly across the entire pizza surface. It has a nice, crispy crust that isn't too thin or too doughy and it has a good cheese-to-sauce ratio that isn't too salty. The pizza sauce is good, but I did expect it to be a little better based on how good Rao's spaghetti sauce is. Perhaps there is a reason that Mezzetta seems to have overtaken Rao's when it comes to consumer popularity.

At ten bucks a pie, Rao's is among the most expensive frozen pizza varieties on the market, though I still think it merits a purchase if you're craving something with a bit more flavor. Where most frozen pizza seems content to put pepperoni and cheese in charge of pleasing the taste buds, Rao's adds a dash of Italian seasoning to the mix and it goes a long way.

5. Trader Joe's

The freezer aisle at Trader Joe's is a treasure trove of quick dinners and snacks, so it makes sense that frozen pizza would make an appearance. I thought putting "Naples style" on the box was a bold claim since there are entire academies dedicated to traditional pizza Napoletana. While I wouldn't go as far as saying Trader Joe's is capturing the centuries of pizza culture that Naples-style pizza implies, it's a better-than-average frozen pizza.

With its thin, slightly chewier crust and its sauce that leans more into a fresh tomato and basil flavor profile, it's definitely shooting for Naples. It may not quite hit the mark, but it's nice to have a frozen pizza variety that does a few things both differently and well enough to add some spice to the frozen pizza landscape.

Its unique flavors also come with a six-dollar price tag, so there is definitely a lot of value in this particular brand of frozen pizza. Pairing this with Trader Joe's Pizza Ranch Salad Kit is not a bad way to whip up a cheap, Italian-inspired dinner at home.

4. Hearth & Fire

Right off the bat, I think a ten-dollar frozen pizza is just a bit of an indulgence. I found many of the contenders on this list to be tasty, but I had to take them down a peg when I saw the price tag. However, Hearth & Fire's pepperoni pizza has so much going for it that I think ten dollars is reasonable for what you're getting. Hearth & Fire has a whole 20-hour crust fermentation process that goes into each pizza, and they bake it in a pizza oven before it gets packaged for distribution.

It looked like it had just come out of a pizza oven once it was ready for slicing, and I could see a good dusting of Italian seasoning on top. The pepperoni comes in sliced rounds and cuboid rectangles, which is a nice touch for those who are a fan of both preparations. The crust, the cheese, the pepperoni, and the seasoning all hit the right bases for me, and I do think this is a fine example of a frozen pizza. I don't typically like spending ten bucks on a frozen pizza, but I could see myself snagging another one of these if I was in the mood for something a bit fancier.

3. California Pizza Kitchen

I usually get a little snobby when I see that a national restaurant chain has started selling frozen versions of its menu items, but I had to roll that attitude back when I tried this pizza. From a flavor perspective, it hits a lot of the same notes as Hearth & Fire but its cheaper price point makes it a bit more attractive to the frozen pizza consumer. Whether CPK's frozen pizza has always been tasty or whether this is part of the restaurant's comeback plan after filing for bankruptcy, it's a well-made frozen pizza.

From the crust to the pepperoni, this pizza is foundationally great. It's the sprinkle of dried basil and the addition of fontina and hickory-smoked gouda in its cheese portfolio that really send this pizza over the top. The crispy crust did a good job of tying everything together, and the sauce's flavor was rich and complemented the other flavors nicely. After my experience with this frozen pizza, I'm kinda rooting for CPK to get its groove back.

2. DiGiorno

Of the self-rising crusts on the frozen pizza market, DiGiorno remains the champ. When you commit to tearing through fifteen frozen pizzas, you commit to tasting a lot of crust, so when I finished off a slice of DiGiorno, I was initially taken aback by its flavor. One thing about trying so many different pizzas in a short period of time is that you start to get used to a crust having an inescapable whiff of freezer. DiGiorno's crust, however, managed to circumvent that fact by creating a frozen crust that actually tastes like it was baked somewhere.

At around eight bucks, DiGiorno is not a bad option for those after a higher caliber of pizza experience. The crust is the lynchpin for the whole pizza, but the other toppings do well enough to supplement how good this crust is. I appreciated how well they stay on the crust once you pick up your slice. A lot of pizzas that go for the soft crust tend to lack structural integrity, but the DiGiorno crust keeps it together.

1. Motor City Pizza Co.

Admittedly, when I started assembling the contenders on this list, I was confident that no pizza would come close to a restaurant-prepped pizza, even by fast food standards. That was before my experience with Motor City Pizza Co., however. This Detroit-style deep-dish pizza knocks everything out of the park, and I'm still scratching my head as to how it could be this good. It is near the eight-dollar mark if you find it at Walmart, but Costco sells two-packs for thirteen dollars. At that price, Motor City Pizza Co. becomes one of the cheaper options on the list, which is insane because it blows the rest of the competition away.

I think the two most important things that Motor City gets right are the Detroit deep-dish presentation and the fact that each pie is packaged in its own pan. The pan can go right into the oven, which helps recreate those crisp, cheesy corners that make Detroit-style pizza so delectable. The crust is just soft enough in the middle, but it maintains a great crunch on the bottom, so you get two great textures in one pie. The cheese, sauce, and pepperoni are all at their A-game as well. I just don't have anything bad to say about this pizza.

Rationale

The biggest factor in how this ranking shook out was price. A good price is the whole reason one purchases a frozen pizza over a Hot-N-Ready pizza from Little Caesars. So, when a pizza's quality did or did not match up to its price tag, it was helped or hindered in the rankings. 

As this was a list of specifically pepperoni pizza, I wanted to make sure the pepperoni flavor factored into the rankings as well. Interestingly enough, all fifteen of these contenders were pretty consistent when it came to pepperoni flavor. From there, I factored in the other components of a good pizza: crust, sauce, and cheese. After taking all of those factors into consideration, I assembled the list accordingly.

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