In the past few years, air fryers have gone from novelty gadget to kitchen essential. And for good reason: The countertop appliance—which circulates super-hot air, similar to a convection oven—can crisp up food with little to no oil, cook proteins fast and reheat pizza like a dream. And those are just the basic functions. Lots of people have become air fryer converts.

But before you hit “add to cart,” there are other factors to consider. How many people are you cooking for? What types of food will you be making? Of course, you also want an air fryer that cooks quickly and evenly, is quiet and odor free, has an easy-to-use control panel and isn’t a pain to clean. Air Circulating Oven

To help you find that just-right model, we talked to experts and cooked a lot of frozen french fries (and Brussels sprouts, and tofu—and yes, even some cake). These are the six that stood out.

The Instant Vortex Plus offers an easy-to-use control panel and impressively large basket, helping foods crisp quickly in a single, even layer.

The Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart Air Fryer delivers exactly what most households need. The square basket, which comes with a removable perforated cooking tray, provides a larger surface area than most fryers—meaning less crowding and better air circulation. In our test, it consistently churned out crispy french fries, golden-brown tofu and extra-crunchy Brussels sprouts. It handled four servings with ease; if you’re cooking for more, opt for a larger air fryer with at least an 8-quart capacity (see below for our pick). 

The air fryer’s digital control panel, which features a responsive touch screen and a knob for time and temperature, is easy to use. The screen displays progress bars during the cooking process, and the timer begins counting down in seconds at the 1-minute mark. If you plan on frying the same foods frequently, you can set and save custom time and temperature settings for any of the air fryer’s modes. 

All of the air fryers in Instant’s Vortex line have a built-in preheat cycle, which lasts 2 to 3 minutes. We found food cooked faster than it did in fryers without this feature, so the total time evened out. Plus, our experts recommend preheating any air fryer, to get crispy results. 

Partway through the cooking process, the air fryer beeps and the display shows “Turn Food.” Considering all air fryers recommend this step (it helps ensure even cooking) but many don’t alert you, the reminder is welcome. We also appreciated that when you pull out the basket, the interior light turns on and the timer pauses. 

Considering its 8-quart capacity, the Chefman TurboFry Touch is surprisingly compact. If you want to churn out crispy food for a crowd, this is a superb pick.

If you never want to stress about having enough basket space, opt for the 8-quart TurboFry Touch from Chefman. The deep, super-roomy basket can hold 16 pot stickers, several slices of pizza or 1½ pounds of french fries (just don’t forget to shake ’em). 

The attractive, matte-black appliance comes with five cooking presets: default (400 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes), meat, chicken, fish and fries. While it doesn’t offer additional cooking modes (such as baking or broiling), it truly excels at what it’s designed to do: air fry. Some other models failed to lock in moisture during cooking—rendering french fries too crunchy or tofu dry and crouton-like—but this one struck the perfect crispy-creamy balance every time. 

It also helps you out every step of the way. The shake indicator lights up when it’s time to flip food; the timer and heating pause when the basket is pulled out; and the whole thing shuts off when the timer is done. But the best perk may be the extra-large viewing window, which lets you monitor your food as it cooks.

Two small negatives to note: Unlike the Instant Vortex, this machine doesn’t let you manually control the interior light (when the heating element is on, so is the light). And while the instructions recommend a 5-minute preheat, there’s no built-in function, so you’ll have to set it up yourself.

This cute and compact air fryer, which lets you choose and save your own presets, is perfect for solo cooks.

Dash’s cute air fryer cooks food quickly and quietly, and takes up minimal counter space. Not that you’d want to store this gadget away anyway, since it comes in a variety of colors (Aqua, Cool Gray and Red) to complement any kitchen aesthetic.

The Digital Tasti-Crisp boasts a streamlined digital touch screen—a rarity in small air fryers—with a “quickstart mode” (400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes) and an option to customize three presets. The perforated crisper tray fits snugly into the drawer but can be removed for easy cleaning, whether by hand or in the dishwasher. 

Because of its small size, this model only makes sense if you’re cooking for one or two people. It can fit 6 ounces (two servings) of fries, eight small spring rolls, two veggie burgers or two (6-ounce) salmon fillets in a single layer. But if you try to add more, you’ll end up overlapping the food and compromising the crispiness. It’s also too small to fit a standard-size piece of pizza, though fans of square Detroit-style slices will be able to reheat with ease.

Two separate baskets means you can cook a complete meal in one go.

If you’re planning to air fry whole meals—or often eat different things than your partner or kids—a dual-basket air fryer is a smart idea. Place your protein in one basket, your veggie in the other and set them to cook at completely different times and temperatures. The Ninja Foodi‘s Smart Finish technology, which syncs the cook times so the baskets finish at the same time, ensures the quicker-cooking food doesn’t get cold. (Alternatively, you can set both baskets to cook for the same time and temperature). 

While some single-basket air fryers now come with a divider and offer the technology of two cooking zones, if you’ll often be cooking two different foods, you’ll want individual baskets. Using one large basket is clunky and inefficient; every time you add, turn or remove food from one side, you stop the frying process of the other food as well. 

While we appreciated the built-in preheat cycle of our favorite single-basket air fryer, we actually liked that this model doesn’t have one. Preheating dual baskets is fussy, since you have to stand by to add food at two different times. Just know that you may need to increase the cook time by a few minutes for maximum crispiness. 

There are a few small downsides: While this model has the longest time range of any we tested, the temperature range is limited to 300 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which can add frustration if you’re using a recipe that calls for a temperature outside that range. The timer also doesn’t pause when you pull out the baskets.

Due to its impressive capacity and 13 cooking functions, this versatile appliance can practically replace your oven.

If you’re strictly in search of an air fryer, opt for one of the basket-style models, which will save you counter space. But if you’re looking for a multipurpose appliance that can toast, bake and air fry (among many, many other things), the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is worth the investment. It became such an instant favorite in my house, in fact, that we found ourselves using it to cook everything we were making. 

What sets this model apart is its impressive capacity (it comes with one air frying basket but can hold up to four—extras are sold separately in packs of three); its “super convection” setting (which churns out extra-crispy air fried food; and its easy-to-use interface. Some settings, including air frying, have a built-in preheat cycle—and similar to the Instant Vortex Plus, this feature resulted in quicker-cooking food. 

I also appreciated that two of the racks automatically eject when you open the door, so you don’t have to reach deep inside the hot oven to flip or retrieve the food. The rack positions are also printed on the oven door window, reminding you at a glance which rack to use for which setting. The oven’s long cord (57 inches) means you have flexibility on where to place it on the counter. And the convection fan can be turned off completely—not the case in some other models we tested—allowing the device to operate similarly to a standard oven.  The oven excelled at most tasks, from baking a 9-inch round cake to melting cheese under the broiler (and we loved that we could watch through the door). Unfortunately, toasting bread exposed a weak spot; the left side of the oven in our testing didn’t get quite as warm. It’s also pricier than some multipurpose fryers, though it does come with several useful accessories, including a nonstick pizza pan.

The most attractive of the bunch, this air fryer boasts an intuitive touch screen, a shake reminder, and nine one-touch cooking functions.

Out of all the air fryers we tested, this was the only one with the control panel on top , a feature we found attractive and functional. We also liked the Pro LE 5.0-Quart for its stylish gray color and matte finish. Most important, it did a great job at crisping fries and veggies, both of which cooked faster than anticipated. Due to its slightly limited capacity (1 quart smaller than our top pick), it’s best for two to four people—no more. 

There’s no automatic preheat cycle—this model allows you to set it or skip it. The shake reminder is also optional; you can add or remove it by pressing “Shake.” When the cook time is up, you can select “Keep warm” (170 degrees Fahrenheit for five minutes), a feature not offered by many competitors. 

The preprogrammed cooking functions are labeled with words rather than icons, making them easier than most to navigate. It has a wide range of temperature options, too: You can set it between 170 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit in 10-degree increments. This model also has a basket release button, which you’ll hold down to remove the basket from the fryer. While this took some getting used to, it feels particularly secure.

The biggest drawback is the noise. Despite its “Air Whisper” technology, it was far from quiet, and a lot of air blows out the back of the machine while it’s in use.

In addition to being a serious home cook and avid air-fryer user, I have spent the last 10 years working as a food editor, recipe developer and recipe tester at a variety of publications and websites, including “Cooking Light,” “Real Simple” and TheKitchn.com. Many of these recipes have involved air fryers, meaning I’m very familiar with the pros and cons of the various features.   

As part of my research, I spoke to three experts who are longtime air fryer users: Andrea Nguyen, cookbook author and writer of the blog Viet World Kitchen; Marisa Moore, R.D.N., a registered dietitian nutritionist; and Tara Holland, a recipe developer and tester. In addition to testing 16 air fryers, I reviewed additional air fryer ratings. 

Based on my research, I gave preference to digital interfaces, which make it easier to set the time and temperature and are less likely to break. I also gave priority to square-shaped baskets, which can hold more food in a single layer than circular ones of the same capacity. Any family of four will need at least a 5-quart air fryer, so I eliminated any 4-quart or smaller models for my “best overall” category. 

Over the course of several weeks, I cooked a variety of foods to see which models excelled at the most popular air frying tasks, including cooking frozen foods, crisping up fresh veggies with minimal oil, cooking proteins quickly and reheating foods to their original state. My first test was cooking frozen french fries according to the manufacturer’s directions. This initial round of testing told me a lot : which air fryers produced crispy, evenly cooked food, of course, but also which ones were the fastest, quietest and easiest to work with. I also cooked frozen spring rolls to see if they crisped all the way around or came out with soggy bottoms. 

Cooking simply seasoned Brussels sprouts revealed which air fryers could replicate the crispiness of a deep fryer. I also air fried marinated cubed tofu to see which models crisped the outsides without drying out the insides. When I reheated leftover pizza, I looked for crispy crusts, warmed sauce and perfectly melty cheese. 

For the air fryer toaster ovens, I tested for hot spots by filling each model with as many slices of white sandwich bread as would fit. I also baked 1-ounce balls of cookie dough and 9-inch round cake layers, broiled pizza bagels to test how well the cheese melted and cooked frozen pizzas too. 

More specifically, my vetting focused on the following factors: 

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