The 6 Best Grills and Smokers of 2026: Smart, Portable, Pellet

The Grill has changed. The smoker has changed, too. Once governed mostly by feel and experience, the best grills and the best smokers now offer a fair amount of tech to measure and control temperature (think: temperature probes and fans to modulate airflow). After all, mankind’s formative invention wasn’t the “discovery” of fire; it was the power to control it.

The WIRED Reviews team has been testing grills for more than a decade—searing, smoking, grilling, and even baking on them in all kinds of weather—to find the best choice for everyone. These days, I’ve been most excited about the next-gen smart technology that allows for tight monitoring and temperature control. For instance, I tricked out my top-pick for smart upgrades, an old-fashioned Weber kettle, with the excellent Spider Venom ($280) digital temperature controller that allows me to turn my charcoal grill temps up and down like an oven. Summer is good. Also, charcoal makes all meat taste more like bacon. Mmmmm, bacon.

After you’re set with the best grills and smokers, check out other backyard buying guides for all your outdoor needs, like the Best Flat Top Grills and Griddles, Best Wireless Meat Thermometers, and Best Smokeless Firepits.

Best Charcoal Grill for Smart Upgrades

I’d argue that the best way to take advantage of top smart-grill technology is to add the newest and best tech to a sturdy, old-fashioned, classic grill that’ll outlast the tech. A grill like the classic 22-inch Weber Kettle.

The Weber Kettle is the infinitely hackable Honda Civic of backyard grills. Its combination of simplicity, reliability, durability, affordability, and outright ubiquity has spawned an innovative secondary market devoted to tricking out the humble cooker with smart temperature controls and more features than a multiplex.

The best Weber add-on I’ve tried so far is a fan-modulated temperature controller from Spider Grills called the Venom ($280) that tracks the temperature on each cook, allowing you to heat it up or turn it down, like a stove. According to my testing, it holds your charcoal grill to temperature within about 30 degrees Fahrenheit of the target, which is great for both low-and-slow cooking and for creating repeatable sear temps for a steak. This is especially true when using the attached meat probes. The only downside is that the Venom needs to be plugged in. Might I suggest a nice power bank?

WIRED product reviewer Scott Gilbertson has favored the excellent Weber Connect Smart Hub ($70) for years, which features probes to monitor meat temps and flipping times and can alert your phone (or just your ears) when your grill hits the ideal temperature zone. However, he admits that the Hub’s USB-A charger is starting to feel a bit old-fashioned.

This year, Weber is also coming out with a Performer Smart Ring ($280) that seems to operate a lot like the Venom. If it works anywhere near as well as the Venom, I’m eager to try it out.

But not every kettle upgrade worth trying is “smart.” I am in the process of testing a number of add-ons to the 22-inch Weber Kettle, including a Webcraft cooking ring ($249) from Spider that serves as a base for side shelves, a rotisserie, and a pizza oven conversion kit. A Weber rotisserie ($180) is also available from the Illinois mothership.

Note also that there are two versions of the Weber Kettle: Original and Premium. The Premium is around $80 more and features a built-in thermometer in the lid, a hinged cooking grate, and a fancier ash-removal system. They’re the same size and feature the same cooking space. Unless you really like the easier ash-removal system, save that cash and stick with the Original Kettle. Then put that money into cool upgrades.

For all of its strengths, my one wish for the Weber Kettle is better wheel nuts holding the big wheels in place. Unless you really hammer them on, they do have a tendency to slip off at inopportune moments.

A Sturdy Charcoal Alternative: The PK 300 ($700) is a fantastic old-school grill. It’s made of cast aluminum, so it’s a little heavier than the Weber, but you can also use for ovenlike cooking, much like a Big Green Egg (see below). The main reason Weber wins here is price, comparable durability, and the ability to add features as needed. But if you want a simple grill that’s heavy-duty, dependable, and comes with a 20-year warranty, the PK 300 is it.

Best Pellet Smoker

Georgia-based Recteq is the hold-my-beer of grill companies, the one with wild ideas and a yen for experimentation. It’s currently a big source for innovation in pellet grills and pellet griddles. The Flagship 1600 pellet smoker and grill from Georgia-based Recteq is a Wi-Fi–enabled smart device with a connected app that lets you monitor and adjust temperature from wherever you are. The app stores up to 30 days of cook history in a graph you can review, allowing you to dial in cooks over time. The app is a little buggy, mind you: But it’s useful.

Where the Recteq shines most is in the generous 40-pound hopper that allows for long cooks and even heat across the entire surface of its spacious grill. (The “1600” in its name refers to the total square inches of cook space, including racks). The Flagship achieves evenness of heat through innovative design. The fire pot, located smack in the center of the barrel, has a symmetrical heat spreader and drip catcher that tilts toward the trays on either end. WIRED product reviewer Brad Bourque measured no more than a 7-degree Fahrenheit difference from the center to the outer edges of the smoker, an astonishing result.

The downside is you’ll have to clean out two separate drip buckets. But that’s a small price to pay for evenly cooked brisket and pork belly. The Flagship also masterfully produced smoke on low-heat cooks—often a difficulty for pellet grills, leading to a generous smoke ring on pork belly and ribs.

The Flagship burns low and slow down to 170 degrees Fahrenheit or as hot as 700 degrees for those who want to burn pellets to get a good sear. The benefits add up, even as we’re stuck wishing that Recteq would iron out the steep learning curve and occasional buggy push notifications on its app.

A Budget Smart Pellet Smoker: Not looking to spend four figures on a smart pellet smoker? The Zelos-450 pellet grill from Brisk It ($370) is a good option at a great price. This Wi-Fi-enabled pellet grill has a great design and features you won’t find on grills for a price that’s double or even more. It arrived with fanfare for a gimmicky AI recipe guidance feature that WIRED commerce director Martin Cizmar found a bit ineffective. But the other smart features are, indeed, smart. In a world of glitchy grill-control apps, the Brisk It app is simple, intuitive, and works flawlessly when lighting your grill or monitoring temps, according to Cizmar. Temp control via the included fan is a little fuzzy, about 30 degrees Fahrenheit off target, and it’s a bit small at 450 square inches. But assembly is easy. And at this price, it’s a steal.

Best Smart Charcoal Grill

The Masterbuilt 1150 is a big grill with a large capacity for meat, charcoal, and various cooking styles. This big Wi-Fi-enabled charcoal cooker has 1,000-plus-square inches of grate space, which is enough for a full brisket, a pork butt, and a few racks of ribs. It will slow smoke at 225 degrees Fahrenheit, but also heat up to a searing 700 degrees. With enough room for a full 17.6-pound bag of charcoal briquettes and an electric fan that controls the temp by blowing more or less air onto the charcoal, you can set it and forget it while you sleep or work.

It’s going to take some work to get there, though. This grill is a beast, weighing nearly 300 pounds in its packaging. Putting it together is a major project: A Taskrabbit Tasker that WIRED commerce director Martin Cizmar hired gave up after two hours, after losing numerous pieces. Then, a buddy who later attempted the project from scratch spent three hours trying to get it right. After you do get set up—however long that takes you—you’ll need to reserve two hours of seasoning time to burn off the factory chemicals. There is no electric starter, so you’ll be fiddling with fire starters. Oh, and the app can be a bit touchy and will beep incessantly if the fire is slow to start. The whole process is high-friction and fairly laborious compared to a higher-end product like a Yoder smart pellet grill, though that grill is nearly triple the price.

In the end, once the grill was all set up, Cizmar smoked some of the best ribs he’s ever made, and the $200 pizza attachment also worked like a charm. If you’re looking for a smart grill that has some champagne features on a beer budget and don’t mind a few rough edges, this is a great choice.

A Smart-Adjusted Ceramic Grill: We didn’t have great luck with the Konnected Joe (see below). But if you’re using a classic ceramic Kamado Joe, there’s a hack to getting temperature-controlled, probe-assisted cooks. Yoink out the built-in thermometer, replace it with a Chefstemp Protemp S1 digital controller ($85), and pair that with a ChefsTemp probe ($96) to offer app-supported monitoring of both meat and ambient temperatures.

Best Gas Grill

WIRED has been recommending the Weber Spirit 200 series for years. The reasons are straightforward: simplicity, build quality, even-cooking temps, and easy-to-adjust propane gas burners. It’s a compact and affordable line of two-burner grills that still offers spacious side trays and—like a lot of Webers—hooks for accessories and snap-on options to build out your workspace. Weber’s porcelain-coated cast-iron grill grates are solid, and clean-up is easy with a little soap and water. It also cooks your food well. But note that we’re also in the process of testing Weber’s new generation of smart gas grills like the Genesis 325W ($949) that offer digital control and monitoring.

A Bigger Option: If you’re cooking for a crowd and want something larger, try Charbroil’s massive 6-Burner Performance Series ($600). It’s a great grill for crowds. It also has a 10,000-BTU side burner to heat up your beans while the hot dogs are cooking.

Best Hybrid Grill

The charcoal versus gas grill debate will never be settled to either side’s satisfaction. (Those of us in the charcoal camp usually have to live with being right in silence.) But what if you could avoid the debate altogether by having both in the same grill? This is where the head-exploding emoji goes: Charbroil’s hybrid grill can switch between gas and charcoal modes. There’s also a side burner for heating up your mac and cheese or other sides, making it more of an outdoor kitchen than some of the other options here. Under the hood, this hybrid looks like every gas grill you’ve seen: Bars cover gas pipes to distribute flames, with a cast-iron grate on top of that. The results from the gas grilling are as good as any I’ve tried.

But if you remove the bars and add a tray to cover the gas burners, you’ve got a charcoal grill. There’s room for only a single layer of charcoal, which isn’t going to work for smoking, but for flavorful sears, it’s perfect. To get it going, all you have to do is light the gas burners and close the lid, and your charcoal will be ready in about 15 minutes. It really is the best of both worlds. Note that I only tested the three-burner model, which Charbroil has since swapped for a bigger four-burner. —Scott Gilbertson

Best Portable Grill

The suitcase-style Nomad Portable Grill is the Yeti of portable grills, notes WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson. It’s better in every way than competitors and is priced accordingly. This Nomad, in particular, is quite simply the best portable grill money can buy. Between its perforated, anodized-aluminum shell and its cast-aluminum grill boxes, it’s the rare portable grill that announces sturdy solidity, with a grilling surface held in place by high-temperature-resistant magnets. Even the handles and latches feel strong.

It’s likewise smartly designed, packing up into—as you likely already gleaned—the shape of a suitcase. The heavy-duty handles and latches are strong. Though the Nomad is 28 pounds, which is a bit on the heavy side for a single-hand carry, the shape and large handle actually make it easier to carry than smaller and cheaper models.

The Nomad uses a dual-venting system to achieve good airflow, even when the lid is closed. The vents, combined with the raised fins on the bottom of the grill (which elevate your charcoal, allowing air to flow underneath), allow for very precise control of both high and low temperatures. If you live and die by overlanding, this grill could be your new constant companion.

A Great Budget Portable Grill: WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson also loves the simple Weber Jumbo Joe ($90), a smaller version of the classic Original Kettle. It’s an easy choice for tailgates, especially. And if you want to use it at home, you can build yourself a stand for home cookouts. It’s low-cost, light, and dead simple. All are virtues.

Other Grills I Recommend

Recteq X-Fire Pro 825 for $1,400: Pellet smokers rarely crest much over 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which does not offer the sear you’d get on a charcoal or gas grill. But Recteq’s 825-square-inch, dual-pot X-Fire Pro wants to be your everything device, notes WIRED reviewer Kat Merck. In Smoke Mode, the left fire pot ignites for classic low-and-slow smoking. Switch the big knob to Grill Mode, and both pots fire up, with an adjustable damper over the right side. The damper, controllable with another knob, allows you to open access to the right fire pot just a little bit, or all the way to the gates of hell—1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. It takes about 20 minutes for the fire pot to get going this high, and if you don’t clean the fire pot first, it’ll kick off a lot of sparks in the process. Who knows why you need to get to 1,200 degrees? But as Merck notes, this is a company known for a cartoon bull logo and bull-horn handles. “Recteq likes to be extreme, so it tracks,” she says. If you keep your sear to a more human 600 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s a solid grill and sear experience. But keep in mind that the high power draw from the dual igniters will require a 10- or-12-gauge extension cord, which is probably better than the cord you’ve got at home. The X-Fire also didn’t produce the same smokiness as WIRED’s top-pick Recteq Flagship 1600, according to Merck’s testing, which means you’ll end up using smoke tubes at low temperature if you want to get more smoke in the meat. Note, too, that the advertised 20-pound pellet capacity is split between fire pots. This could mean refilling a 10-pound hopper multiple times during a long cook.

Traeger Woodridge Pro for $1,000: The Traeger Woodridge Pro is WIRED’s previous top-pick pellet grill and smoker for most people. It still exists beautifully at the intersection of value and utility, and is likely to make you popular in the neighborhood. It’s a straightforward beast of a thing that’s easy to clean, easy to dial in for a perfect rack of ribs, and big enough to cook up two pork bellies at the same time. My new top-pick Recteq has a couple smart features that make us prefer it, like temperature history on its meat probes, and an easier learning curve on smart features. But this Woodridge will still make you quite popular in the neighborhood.

Traeger Timberline Wi-Fi Wood Pellet Grill for $3,300: If you’re serious about grilling and smoking, Traeger’s Timberline is almost a step up from a smoker. It’s the perfect all-in-one outdoor kitchen. It uses the same wireless smoking smarts as the Woodridge but adds some extras, like an induction burner (perfect for adding a last-minute sear with a cast-iron pan or steaming some veggies). The insulated smoke box has room for six pork shoulders, or about the equivalent racks of ribs or chickens. Former WIRED editor Parker Hall has managed to feed hundreds of people using it. (As a longtime food and barbecue critic, I can vouch heartily for Hall’s resulting brisket and ribs.) If that’s not enough, there’s also an XL version that’s even bigger. “All of my meats heated evenly and were perfectly cooked right when the smoker said they would be,” Hall says. If you want flawless smoking from the comfort of your couch and price is not a factor, the Timberline delivers.

Masterbuilt Gravity Series 800 for $899: This spacious Masterbuilt offers a nice combination, notes WIRED reviewer Chris Smith: charcoal flavor with the temperature precision of gas or electricity. The large, top-loading charcoal hopper uses gravity (hence the name) to feed heat into an internal housing, and an integrated fan enables precise digital temperature control—on the device or via the app. You’ll reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit within 15 minutes. Temperatures are remarkably consistent once stabilized, and if you want to add smoke flavor, just throw wood chunks into the ash bin and let falling charcoal embers do the rest. But the versatility comes with caveats. You may miss the ability to sear directly over a flame, and you’ll need to change out the internal housing before switching to the flat-top grill.

Yoder YS640S Pellet Smoker for $2,700: Most grills do one thing well and several others poorly or not at all. Yoder’s YS640S is a more versatile tool, thanks to a design that allows easy access to the auto-feed firebox. Like Traegers that are half the price, this Kansas-made grill uses an electric fan and an auger to feed wood pellets in for a slow smoke session. It’s all driven by a control board that sends temp alerts and allows you to adjust the temperature via Wi-Fi. As a smoker, it easily handled ribs and a chuck roast, holding the temperature better than most. This is thanks to its bomb-proof 10-gauge steel construction, which means this grill weighs as much as a refrigerator. Where the Yoder really stands out, though, is as a grill and possible pizza oven. By removing a steel plate positioned over the fire pit, you can sear burgers directly over the flame or remove the grills and plop on a hefty pizza oven attachment ($489), which uses the pellet feed system to maintain a constant 900-plus degrees Fahrenheit.

A Grill to Avoid

Kamado Joe Konnected Joe for $1,900: There’s a lot to like about this kamado-style grill. Indeed, WIRED previously recommended it for its electric ignition and Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to measure the temperature of the interior and the meat via two probes. But over long-term use, WIRED commerce director Martin Cizmar has had constant problems with the electric grill tripping the 2-year-old GFCI outlets on his patio. Once it even tripped the breaker. A Reddit thread reveals this is a common problem. Like the Redditors, Cizmar found temporary relief by running an extension cord into an outlet in his kitchen, but even that has failed him a few times during testing. Unfortunately, this grill is a hard pass until the issue is resolved.

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