Sometimes a pie calls your name from the frozen aisle.
You just know there’s pizza down there.
But with countless varieties, toppings and price points, where do you even begin?
This isn’t the same as phoning your neighborhood pizzeria and expecting a reliably decent pie crafted with care. When you pick a frozen pizza off the grocery shelf, it’s on you to make sure it doesn’t end up charred before it reaches your plate.
If preparing a pizza requires effort on your part (beyond rifling through your pockets for spare change to tip the delivery person), it’s reasonable to want good value for that work.
So we tasked a group of Savinly Readers with a blind tasting: Five staff members sampled six frozen pizzas priced under $6 each. They scored each pie for flavor and estimated what it would cost at the store, since we didn’t disclose the price cap we’d applied to each frozen contender.
Some even tried to name the brands they were sampling.
Which pizza came out on top? Which was the cheapest? Read on.
1. Amy’s Cheese Pizza
We paid: $5.98
Savinly price guess: $3.86
Savinly score (out of 5): 1.5
Maybe starting our tasters with a curveball like Amy’s — which emphasizes organic tomatoes and flour — wasn’t the best move. On our one-to-five scale, with one being the lowest, Amy’s couldn’t even break a two.
“It’s spongy,” said Khiem Nguyen, senior Facebook engagement editor. “I’m really let down.” He kept eating the entire sample slice just to be sure.
Editorial intern Jacquelyn Pica and bookkeeper Natalie Williams weren’t thrilled with the ingredient balance. “I mostly taste the sauce,” Pica observed.
“There isn’t as much cheese,” Williams added, staring at her plate. “I prefer more cheese than sauce.”
Lovely. Our picky panel kicked things off with plenty of criticism.
2. Tombstone Five Cheese
We paid: $3.97
Savinly price guess: $5.40
Savinly score: 3.5
Tombstone comes wrapped on a plain slab of cardboard rather than a fancy box, but our tasters were surprisingly positive.
Senior writer Dana Sitar awarded this pie five stars. “I’ve had it before. I like the flavor. The cheese is just right,” she said. “It tastes pricier than it is, like it would be in a nicer package.”
“I’m a frozen pizza aficionado; it’s tough to fool me,” editor Robin Hartill declared before sampling. She gave Tombstone a four and guessed it would run about $6 — “Comparable to a Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready,” she said.
3. Freschetta Brick Oven Crust 5 Italian Cheese
We paid: $4.98
Savinly price guess: $4.80
Savinly score: 3.6
If any pizza was destined to earn a “meh,” it was this one.
“It’s almost like Domino’s Cheesy Bread rather than a pizza,” Hartill commented, invoking another well-known chain despite tasting only frozen pies that day.
“This feels more bargain-bin,” Sitar said. “It looks like a college dorm pizza, and it tastes like one, too.” When asked to estimate the cost, she bluntly replied, “$5 for five.” Ouch.
Pica gave Freschetta a four for “the best cheese,” and Nguyen and Williams (the latter guessed a hefty $7) concurred.
“The slightly charred cheese tastes great,” Nguyen conceded — a backhanded compliment to the cook (me).
4. Newman’s Own Thin and Crispy Four Cheese
We paid: $5.48
Savinly price guess: $3.75
Savinly score: 1.8
Forgive me, dear Paul Newman. I need to collect all these pizza comments for effect.
Sitar: “This is more like garlicky cheesy bread. It’s okay. It hardly qualifies as pizza.”
Hartill: “It’s not my favorite, though I know I’ve eaten this before. It tastes very familiar.” She refused to offer a price estimate. “Zero dollars,” she hissed.
Nguyen: “It has a nice bite. Crispy on top. Lacks real flavor though — just pleasant texture.”
Pica: “It looked crispy, but the cheese fails. Quite disappointing.”
Williams: “I like the seasoning, but the pizza itself is underwhelming.”
Category: sad trombone.
5. Red Baron Four Cheese
We paid: $3.50
Savinly price guess: $5.20
Savinly score: 2.9
After the harsh verdict on the previous pie, the panel seemed a bit restless.
Hartill continued with her offbeat comparisons. “It tastes like something you’d get at a bowling alley,” she said of Red Baron’s offering.
Sitar started by praising the cheese amount, then backtracked and said she wanted even more. “It tastes like a decent cheap pizza,” she concluded.
“It’s mostly bread and tomato sauce,” Nguyen dismissed. “I mean, I’ll eat it — and I am — but it lacks real flavor.”
6. DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Four Cheese
We paid: $5.47
Savinly price guess: $6.99
Savinly score: 3.9 (Winner, winner pizza dinner!)
DiGiorno was the airiest of the bunch, which nearly tricked our tasters.
“It doesn’t read as a frozen pizza at first glance,” Sitar said. “It almost seems like something you’d get at a restaurant.” She scored it a four but called it slightly bland. Her price guess was high: $8.
Hartill was confident from the start. “I’m pretty sure I know which pie this is,” she smiled. “Freschetta.” She awarded it 4.5 stars and estimated $7.99.
Williams also rated this one highly, giving it a 4.5 and guessing $6. “This might be my favorite,” she said.
They were all surprised when we revealed which pie was which — and who took the crown. It was almost disappointing to realize a major frozen pizza name — and one with some of the most unforgettable ads — had bested many rivals.
But DiGiorno has secured a spot in our stomachs (and our grocery carts).
Alright, Pizza Fans — What’s the Takeaway?
The lessons are straightforward, but worth noting:
You can find satisfactory frozen pizza for less than you might expect.
Don’t assume a higher price guarantees a perfect cheese-to-sauce balance or superior flavor.
And don’t call yourself a frozen pizza expert unless you arrive at the tasting table with unshakable confidence.
Your Turn: Which frozen pizza do you prefer?
If you’re looking for other frozen or budget pizza ideas, check out our roundups of best frozen pizza, options for those who need gluten free pizza, or our breakdown of pizza deal math to get the most for your money.
