The Popular Pizza Chain With The Most Affordable Stuffed Crust We Could Find

Stuffed crust pizzas are everywhere to be found these days. But that wasn't always the case. Who invented the stuffed crust innovation is up for dispute, as Pizza Hut was the first chain to offer a stuffed crust. But a man named Anthony Mongiello — CEO of Formaggio Cheese — claims he patented the idea, pitched it to Pizza Hut, and the chain ran with it several years later. He sued for $1 billion without success.

Regardless of who invented the stuffed crust, we're certainly thankful for its existence. And since it debuted in the 1990s, almost every pizza chain has some version of a stuffed crust pie. But not all of these pizzas are created the same and their price points will certainly vary as well. That's why we set out to find the most affordable stuffed crust at four of the most popular pizza chains in the U.S. And, after a good bit of menu scouring and research, the most affordable stuffed crust pie goes to Little Caesars.

Outside of Little Caesars, the three other chains we researched include Papa Johns, Domino's, and Pizza Hut. To standardize our comparison, we chose one large-sized pepperoni with a stuffed crust from each restaurant (except for Domino's, which only offers a medium-sized stuffed crust). Each chain has other options — with more cheese, more meat, or some variation of both — but limiting our choice to a single pepperoni stuffed crust pizza just made things simple.

Little Caesars had the most affordable stuffed crust pepperoni pizza, and it wasn't really that close. At $10.99, Little Caesars was substantially cheaper than the other three chains. Pizza Hut's large stuffed crust pepperoni cost $18.19 per pie, and Papa Johns offers the same for $19.49. Meanwhile, Domino's only offers a medium version of its Parmesan stuffed crust — but, at $16.74 per pie, even that was more expensive than the large version at Little Caesars.

It's no surprise that Little Caesars offers the least expensive stuffed crust that we researched. After all, the pizza chain is famous for its low-cost pizzas. The once famous $5 "Hot-N-Ready" pizza is no longer $5, but you can still get a large classic pepperoni for just $6.79 — which is incredibly cheap considering menu prices these days.

While we reviewed these pizzas based on cost, we can't say Little Caesars would top the list in terms of quality. When we reviewed the same four fast food pizza chains, Little Caesars came in third — ahead of Pizza Hut but behind Domino's and Papa Johns, which topped our list. For $10.99, Little Caesars stuffed crust pepperoni literally can't be beat on price. And, at that cost, it's actually a pretty decent pizza to boot.