7 Store-Bought Pizza Crusts, Ranked Worst To Best

There's nothing quite like homemade pizza made using homemade pizza dough, but let's face it — there's not always time for that. An easy hack for making things taste homemade is to use store-bought pizza crusts and add your favorite toppings to that. But, not just any store-bought pizza crust will do. Unfortunately, some options are barely palatable.

Since every great pizza starts with a great crust, it's crucial you find the best option for this shortcut. Thankfully, you don't have to go through a lot of disappointing trial and error because, I've done the hard work for you. I had the opportunity to try seven store-bought pizza crusts and judge them based on their taste, texture, and smell. I relied on my love of pizza and extensive food industry experience to rank the brands from worst to best. Ready to find out which pizza crust will grace your oven next homemade pizza night? Let's get into it.

Target's Good and Gather Organic Ultra Thin Pizza Crusts cost $5.79, and includes two 12-inch organic pizza crusts. To me, this is a good deal for an organic option — or, at least it would be, if it were worth the cost. Like our sixth option, this pizza has an overwhelmingly yeasty smell, and not in a good way. It smells more like someone just threw straight yeast into a bag and called it a day. Aesthetically, the crust is kind of flaky straight out of the box (and this only intensifies after cooking. However, the coloring is a bit pale compared to some of our better-ranking options.

If you can believe it, the taste test went even worse than I imagined it would. The crust tasted like someone placed yeast next to a bunch of chemicals and allowed them to mix. Besides the yeasty chemicals, the crust was without seasoning or any significantly positive flavor profile to balance things out. Rest assured, I won't be putting myself through that again, and I don't recommend you do, either — skip this in lieu of much better tasting options.

The Market Pantry Original Pizza Crusts cost $3.59 for two 12-inch crusts. I personally think this is an excellent deal and, based on this fact alone, would make these a great option for homemade pizza night on a budget. Unfortunately, the old adage "you get what you pay for" ends up being true here, because this pizza crust is far from the best quality. Straight out of the box, the aesthetics are a little strange — the crust feels too hard and looks like it has too many holes in it in person. The smell is overwhelmingly yeasty, instead of a pleasant starchiness — which wasn't only disappointing, but downright repulsive.

I'm sad to report the taste test went about as well as my first impressions said it would. The taste was very bland, with only mild yeasty notes if anything. Oh, and texturally, this felt and tasted more like eating crackers rather than a pizza crust. Skip this on your next trip to Target — I know I won't be purchasing it again.

The Stonefire Artisan Thin Pizza Crusts cost $6.99 for four small individually-sized pizza crusts. Not only do I think this is a great deal, but I also love the sizing and quantity. This allows a family of four to create their own unique pizzas, which could be a really fun dinner activity. The aesthetics were nice and in line with what I was expecting, but there wasn't any defining smell.

Unfortunately, as much as I really wanted to love this option, I just couldn't. There's a weird taste to this crust that's hard to describe — it's like sourdough that's been left to sit and gone bad. Because of this strange taste, it was hard to even finish the pizza and I ended up passing it off to another family member. Oh, and the texture was mediocre — a little too hard on the edges and a little too soft towards the toppings when cooked according to the directions. I don't recommend this option at all and definitely won't be purchasing it again for myself.

The Caulipower All About The Base Pizza Crusts were the more expensive gluten-free option, at $9.49 for two large pizza crusts. Despite being about 50 cents more expensive, I still don't think this is a bad deal for a specialty option. The aesthetics are nice and standard, which I thought was awesome considering this is a gluten-free option. There isn't any defining smell, but if you get really close to it, you can catch very faint starchy hints.

Taste-wise, this was pretty good — far from my favorite, but not awful, either. There was a slightly off taste that I can only describe as what gluten-free foods taste like — it's almost a little doughy even when fully cooked. That translated to the taste when alone. However, when made into a whole pepperoni pizza, that off-taste was barely noticeable. I do recommend this option to anyone who needs to follow a gluten-free diet (although there is a better option on this list).

The Boboli Original Crust costs $5.49 for a single crust, which is a little bit on the pricey side when you compare quantity versus cost. However, I do like that the crust is made with no high fructose corn syrup and zero grams of trans fat, as advertised on the packaging. The aesthetics are really nice — the crust is thick and has a mild browning straight out of the box. Once cooked, it turns golden nicely, giving a crunchy texture on the bottom with a lighter fluffiness towards the center. It's not like it's undercooked, but more like it's artisanal bread instead. As for smell, there's a light starchiness, but nothing to write home about.

The taste is amazing. It's starchy with buttery notes and a faint hint of something that reminds me of that brick oven pizza taste. It went really well with the pepperoni and cheese toppings, but I think it would also be really good with sausage. Overall, I will definitely buy this again. The only reason this ranked lower was because there were two options I preferred a little more. That being said, I highly recommend this item to everyone who loves good homemade pizza with a standard crust.

The Boboli Thin Crust cost $5.49 for a single crust and, like the original crust option, it's made with no high fructose corn syrup and zero grams of trans fat. This is nice, despite the crust being one of the more expensive options when broken down per pizza crust. And, like the original version of Boboli, this is an amazing crust. It appears slightly browned straight out of the box, and achieves a nice golden hue after cooking. There's a faint starchy smell that combines with the rich, umami smell of the toppings during cooking and makes my mouth water.

The taste is nearly identical to the original version, with an overarching starchiness laced with faint buttery tones. Texturally, this is a little better than the other option and achieves a perfect crispness without being too hard — hence why this ranked one spot better than its brand counterpart. I would definitely buy again and the only reason a Boboli crust didn't rank in the top spot was because of personal preference.

The Schar Gluten-Free Pizza Crusts cost $8.99 for two medium-sized pizzas. While this is expensive for this list, it's pretty standard for gluten-free specialty crusts — I wouldn't say it's a great deal, but I wouldn't say it's a bad one, either. The best part here is that the pizza crust is made with sourdough, which offers a nice tangy smell and taste profile that I love. I'm always really happy to find an excellent gluten-free product, but this is the first time one has topped my personal charts. And, I've done quite a few of these rankings already, from ranking store-bought bread to determining the best Aldi bakery items.

I've personally never thought of sourdough pizza crust before, but now that I've experienced it, I don't think there's any going back for me. There's a softness to the texture that's just right instead of being too crispy, and a light hallmark sourness to the bread that balances the earthy, umami pizza profile. I highly recommend trying this for yourself, even if you don't follow a gluten-free diet, so you can see why it ranked in our top spot.

I bought every option available to me at my local ShopRite in Vineland, New Jersey, for inclusion on this ranking list. I judged the pizza crusts based on their taste, texture, and smell. To make my determinations, I relied on more than 15 years experience in the food industry, as well as decades of pizza consumership.

To ensure the ranking was as fair as possible, I made each pizza crust in the exact same way. They were first sprayed with a light layer of oil, before adding the toppings, which included seasoned tomato sauce, pepperoni, and a mixture of shredded provolone and mozzarella. On top of this, each pizza was lightly seasoned with garlic salt, as is my personal preference. Although my personal preferences may play a role in these rankings, I aimed to be as unbiased about product quality as possible.