10 Store-Bought Frozen Pepperoni Pizzas Ranked Worst To Best

The frozen pizza landscape is constantly evolving and innovating. Frozen pizza consumption increased by over 90% during the first month of the pandemic as people sought comforting yet convenient foods (via Adweek). That boom isn't slowing down. According to a report by Allied Market Research, the frozen pizza market is expected to reach $39.4 billion by 2031, thanks to an annual growth rate of nearly 8%.

Every frozen pizza fan knows that some are simply better than others. When I set out to rank the best pepperoni options the industry has to offer, I decided to focus only on the classic varieties to keep things simple. But my pizza-tasting adventure also introduced new questions about frozen pizza. Like, why do the pepperonis fall to the bottom half of the pizza with some brands, and others come out of the box with the pepperoni still frozen in place? Why do pizza companies feel the need to point out that they use real cheese — what's the alternative? And what makes the word "fresch" better than "fresh"?

Fortunately, in my search for the best and worst store-bought frozen pizza brands, I did get answers to some of these questions. Most importantly, I answered the question of which brands of frozen pepperoni pizzas are the best and which are the worst.

Tony's Pizza claims that its frozen pizzas use the same secret pizza recipe that used to fill Tony's Little Italy restaurant with customers. I think something was lost in translation when they started selling frozen pizzas in the 1970s, because Tony's Frozen Pepperoni Pizza doesn't taste like it's from a pizzeria at all. It just tastes like a cheap frozen pizza.

Admittedly, the flavor is pretty good, with a deep, tomatoey sauce and spicy pepperonis. It's the dry and crumbly texture of the crust that really brings down the quality of the pizza. The edges actually started to curl up in the oven, so when I ran a pizza wheel through the misshapen pie, the brittle crust snapped and crumbs scattered everywhere. But that wasn't the worst part. The truly disappointing part of this pizza was summed up by one of my fellow diners, whose only comment was, "Where's the cheese?" Sparse as it is, the shredded mozzarella cheese did get melty and gooey when baked, but it wasn't enough to balance the crust-to-sauce-to-cheese ratio.

According to the pizza box, Tony's pizza has 25% more pizza, which the fine print reveals is a shot at Jack's Pizza, which sells lighter frozen pizzas. I don't know if Jack's is Tony's direct competitor or just the only brand that makes Tony's look better in comparison, but it's not a very good selling point, considering the fact that being 25% heavier doesn't make the pizza taste any better.

Home Run Inn Pizza was one of the companies that ramped up production to meet demand for frozen pizzas from Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2025, frozen pizzas were the company's main moneymaker, despite its mixed reviews. I can report that as of 2026, Home Run Inn frozen pizza is still as divisive as it was when The Takeout taste-tested it back in 2018.

Rating this pizza was an exercise in opposites. Half of those who tried the pizza with me initially commented that the pizza had no sauce, while the others were overwhelmed with wet globs of overpoweringly bitter tomato sauce. Some described the tavern-style crust as flaky and buttery, like pastry, and others said it was dense, dry, and sour (a result of the slow-fermenting process). Tasters did agree there wasn't enough pepperoni and that a pizza this beautiful should taste better.

Home Run Inn is one of the few frozen pizza brands that partially bakes then flash-freezes its pizza, which yields a pie with spots of golden brown cheese right out of the box. Once baked, the cheese layer, which extends all the way to the edges, was rich and stretchy. The one question I'm still left with is, why does a partially baked pizza have one of the longest cook times at one of the highest temperatures compared to the other frozen pizza brands?

Ever since I tasted Rao's marinara sauce, I've become the kind of person who no longer cares if another brand of pasta sauce goes on sale — I'll pay the premium price for Rao's rich and flavorful sauce any day. So, naturally, I had high hopes for Rao's Made For Home Brick Oven Crust Uncured Pepperoni Pizza. After all, as it says on the box, it's a "famous" pizza sauce made with "naturally sweet, vine-ripened Italian tomatoes and basil."

That's why I was shocked that what was supposed to make this pizza stand out from all the others did so for all the wrong reasons. Not only was the sauce not the star, but it was the reason the pizza ranked so low. The problem was, Rao's pizza sauce tasted like bitter disappointment — which was mostly due to the strong metallic flavor reminiscent of the can of the tomato sauce. How is that even possible?!

The real highlight of the pizza was the cheese blend, with mozzarella, provolone, fontina, Parmesan, and Romano, which melted into a rich, cheesy layer. The other elements of the pizza were nothing special — the crust tasted like a saltine cracker, and the pepperoni was mild in flavor.

The words "Rising Crust" are front and center on the Great Value Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza box, which hints at the size of its considerable crust compared to its other elements. Due to the multiple leavening agents in the dough, the crust did rise as it baked, forming a thick and fluffy base that was reminiscent of focaccia, just less oily.

This bulky crust overshadowed the pleasantly spicy and acidic pizza sauce, which was unable to keep the pizza moist. The layer of cheese — a mix of mozzarella, provolone, parmesan, and Romano cheeses — baked up nice and crispy. While the pepperoni slices were spread thin, they were thick-cut and added a meaty and mildly spicy flavor.

The addition of other ingredients could have helped mitigate the unbalanced crust-to-toppings ratio. You could certainly add more meat, olives, or mushrooms to the pizza before baking it, or add other ingredients after the pizza comes out of the oven, such as ricotta or burrata, which would add more substance, moisture, and texture to balance out the crust.

While I didn't find the official origin story for how Freschetta got its name, I think it's obvious that it's meant to imply fresh ingredients. In fact, it's surprisingly common for frozen pizza brands to emphasize the idea of fresh ingredients in their ads and on their packaging. But Freschetta takes its tagline a step further by replacing the word "fresh" with "fresch", a play on the brand's name, so it reads as "A Fresch Take on Frozen."

However fresh its ingredients are or however clever its marketing team is, Freschetta actually delivers on its promise for a delicious pizza. Freschetta Naturally Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza has a flavorful and fluffy crust, bright tomato sauce, and a generous layer of cheesy goodness. The signature pepperoni was less flavorful than other brands, but the rich-tasting sauce made up for it.

Another way the brand sets itself above other frozen pizzas is its emphasis on the fact that Freschetta's Naturally Rising Crust recipe doesn't use chemical leaveners (as is the case for Great Value's rising crust) in its dough, which expands in the heat of the oven to form an airy, chewy crust.

Have you ever wondered why the Sicilian's giant mouth on the box of a Screamin' Sicilian Pizza Co.'s pizza is screaming? Is he screaming because the pizza is too spicy? Not likely. Even with all the thick-cut pepperoni piled onto the Screamin' Sicilian Holy Pepperoni pizza, it's not a screaming level of spice. It's more of a pep in your step type of pepperoni.

Could the Sicilian be screaming because the pizza is too hot? The thick layer of mozzarella cheese on this pie will melt into hot lava in an oven set to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. However, the instructions recommend not cutting into the pizza pie while it's still screamin' hot. Is the pizza so good that the Sicilian is screaming in disbelief? Now we're getting closer. The company website reveals the screaming mouth on the box, and in the name of the pizza, is founder Gaspare "Papa Palermo" Fallucca, a mustachioed Sicilian who was constantly accused of screaming due to his passionate style of speaking.

So, the mouth on the box is screaming out of excitement, and I don't blame it. The pizza has a Sicilian crust, which is not the same as a Neapolitan crust, characterized by its dense and crunchy texture. It isn't very flavorful, but the earthy pizza sauce and the peppy pepperoni heap on plenty of flavor. With the stretchy, crispy-topped cheese layer, the Holy Pepperoni is a pizza worth getting excited about.

DiGiorno Premium Pepperoni hits all the classic Italian flavors and textures that make a great pizza. The sauce, though thin, is speckled with herbs, with the basil flavor coming through most prominently. The garlic flavor is there, too, and complements the robust spice of the thick pepperoni slices. The all-important cheese coverage was above average. And finally, the crust, in this case a wood-fired style crust, was the right blend of textures — chewy, with a contrasting texture of a soft interior and crispy exterior. The edges didn't get too crunchy (until I reheated a slice the next day).

The crust is such an important factor in the pizza experience. It can make or break a pie. It used to be that all frozen pizzas had a dry, cardboard-like crust because it was all the manufacturers could produce. But frozen pizza changed forever with the introduction of the rising crust, made with yeast, which produced a softer, lighter base. And who originated this game-changing crust? It was DiGiorno, back in 1995. Freshchetta released its own rising crust frozen pizza the following year under suspicious circumstances – Kraft, DiGiorno's parent company, accused Freschetta's parent company, Schwan's, of poaching a contractor to obtain its rising crust secrets.

I guess Red Baron's classic crust harks back to the days before fluffy crusts because its base was fairly high on the crispy scale. But in every other aspect, Red Baron Classic Crust Pepperoni Pizza was far ahead of most of the other frozen pizzas in this ranking. It was one of the spiciest pizzas I tasted, with welcome heat and flavor originating from the large population of pepperoni that provided good coverage over the spicy, slightly acidic pizza sauce.

But the real hero of this pizza is its thick layer of gooey, melty cheese. And in case you had any doubt, it is 100% real mozzarella cheese, which, if you've noticed, seems to be a designation many manufacturers feel the need to put on their products. It sets them apart from the budget pizza brands that use "cheese blends" containing additives. However, it's also worth noting that I soon realized "whole milk mozzarella" is another one of those food label phrases that can be misleading. Every time I checked the ingredient list on a pizza with the "whole milk mozzarella" claim, it also used cheese blends that contained additives.

I had high expectations for California Pizza Kitchen's innovative take on a classic pepperoni pizza — after all, it was a CPK chef who introduced the world to BBQ chicken pizza. California Pizza Kitchen Double Uncured Pepperoni did not disappoint. It was rich, hearty, and bursting with flavor. I was pleasantly surprised that double pepperoni didn't mean more meat, just two types of pepperoni, each with a specific role. The traditional round slices of pepperoni provided spicy notes and lingering heat, and the small diced cubes, which cooked into crispy bites, added a crunchy texture and satisfying greasiness. 

The pizza sauce tasted bright and fresh, and the addition of smoked Gouda to the traditional mozzarella cheese was a sophisticated upgrade. As you'd expect from CPK, the pizza had a fancy finishing touch – piles of chopped basil leaves sprinkled on top. However, my fellow test-tasters disagreed on whether the basil added a fresh taste or just the appearance of freshness. 

And finally, CPK's Neapolitan-inspired crust was the perfect texture — a balance of lightly crispy and overall soft and chewy — making it one of the favorite crusts among the tasters. Did you catch that? One of those phrases is required to avoid false advertising. In case you were curious, the addition of the word "inspired" clarifies that CPK's recipe doesn't strictly follow the rules set by the Neapolitan crust police.

Pizza Antica Pepperoni Pizza is not like any frozen pizza you've ever had. No one would ever guess it was a frozen pizza if they didn't see you actually take it out of the freezer. And maybe it isn't. 

Maybe it is not fair to compare this hand-crafted farm-to-freezer pizza to a regular frozen pizza. Besides the fact that it's the only pizza on this list that didn't come in a box, it was also unique in that it was fully baked before it was frozen, which meant the cheese had already developed that deep browned flavor. And it's the only manufacturer that actually planned for customers to arrange their own toppings (instead of responding to a pile-up at the bottom of the plastic packaging). The pepperoni slices, which packed a spicy punch of flavor, came in a separate, vacuum-sealed package. Why? I have no idea. I'm done asking questions. I've found the answer to the ultimate comfort pizza, and it's the spicy, rich, and cheesy Pizza Antica Pepperoni Pizza.

I'm still grappling with how to describe this pizza because there was not a hint of the typical dry and hard frozen pizza crust. The crust is thin but moist, chewy but soft, like a foldable, but floppy New York-style pizza, with the classic Neapolitan-style leopard crust and charred spots. All I know is that it was delicious.

I selected 10 frozen pepperoni pizzas from among the many shelves of frozen fare at two local supermarkets. While I originally hoped to try pepperoni pizzas of a consistent crust style for a more fair comparison, I soon realized that there are so many different kinds of crusts — and I am far from an expert on America's regional pizza styles – so there was some variety in the crusts.

I knew I couldn't do this alone. Luckily, the siren song of "hot pizza!" brought together several family members, friends, and friends of family members who happened to drop by at the perfect time to be sworn in as my fellow pizza taste-testers. My reviews were first and foremost based on my own experiences, but their feedback also informed each pizza's ranking.