Say Goodbye To Kamado Joe: 5 Cheaper Alternatives For Grill Enthusiasts Worth The Money

Choosing what grill to buy can be overwhelming. First, you have to choose the best grill for your BBQ needs — should you buy a gas grill, an electric grill, or a charcoal grill? If you go old school and pick charcoal, you have to choose between what style of grill you want — a good old Weber, a bullet smoker, or a Kamado-style grill with roots in ancient Japan. And if you choose a Kamado-style grill, you're left to deal with the next headache: buying from Kamado Joe, one of the most popular brands in the category, or finding an option that does the job and is easier on the pocket. As always, we're here to help.

While Big Green Egg and Primo Ceramic Grills have both been making Kamado-style grills for much longer, Kamado Joe, founded in 2009, built a following of its own by marrying tradition with innovation. The Classic Joe line, and particularly the Series III, has been rated the best Kamado grill by Gardening Etc. (via Food4Media), but at around $2,200, it can burn a hole in your pocket. Are there cheaper options that are worth the money? The short answer is yes.

The core design of these egg-shaped ceramic grills with incredible heat-retention properties has remained largely unchanged through the centuries. From the Big Green Egg Company to Akorn and Summit, there are multiple brands making Kamado-style grills that get rave reviews from customers. Here are five cheaper alternatives to the Classic Joe – Series III.

Large Big Green Egg

Kamado-style grills started becoming popular in the U.S. after World War II, thanks to American soldiers who had been stationed in Japan. Having discovered the joys of these ceramic grills, it was common for soldiers to buy and ship the versatile pots back home at the end of the war. One of these servicemen, Ed Fisher, went on to found the Big Green Egg company in 1974.

Even today, over half a century later, grills from the Big Green Egg stable are highly rated, especially among experienced outdoor chefs who are looking for something solid, versatile, and rooted in nostalgia. You can use the large BGE to grill, smoke, roast, and bake at consistent temperatures ranging from 200 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Its 46-centimeter cooking surface diameter compares favorably with the Classic Joe (45.7 centimeters) as well.

The Large Big Green Egg is available on its official website for around $1,200.

Pit Boss K24 Ceramic Charcoal Grill

Pit Boss is known for its wide range of pellet grills and smokers. In fact, the Pit Boss PB440FB1 Pellet Grill made it to our list of best pellet grills, according to reviews. But the brand also boasts a much-loved Kamado-style grill — the K24 Ceramic Charcoal Grill — that's significantly cheaper than the Classic Joe – Series III.

The Pit Boss K24 is a large grill. With 662 square inches of cooking space, it's perfect if you often grill for large groups. It has a heat range that goes from 100 degrees Fahrenheit for cold smoking to a maximum of 600 degrees Fahrenheit for searing and char-grilling. When Barbecue Labs took the grill out for a spin, it did a great job cooking low and slow as well as hot and fast, while also delivering a perfectly seared steak off the grill. This grill also has some nice, user-friendly touches, like fold-down shelves to hold cooking accessories.

There's one negative that comes up a couple of times on a Reddit thread discussing the Pit Boss K24, and that's the design of the two-tiered rack setup. While Kamados have these to create different heat zones within the pot, some customers say the ones in the K24 don't cut it. "The middle rack is basically unusable unless [it is] just to catch drippings," one customer wrote on Reddit, while another described the rack system as being "mediocre." However, they both agreed it was an easy thing to fix. Worth considering given that it costs less than half of what you would shell out for the Classic Joe – Series III.

Primo Oval Large

Primo has been making ceramic grills since 1996, and takes great pride in being 100% made in America. Not just that, it also has innovative design features that it says deliver food with better flavors and give pitmasters even more flexibility than other Kamado-style grills on the market.

The grills are the brainchild of George Samaras, a former pharmacist in the Greek army who, in the 1980s, fell in love with Thanksgiving turkey cooked in a Kamado-style grill. When his attempts to build a business exporting these grills to Greece failed, he decided to build his own. They have a different, oval design and split, reversible cooking grids, which make it easy to create direct and indirect heat zones that allow you to smoke and sear side by side. The grills are also designed with a lid that sits higher than the competition, making it easier to fit whole chickens, turkeys, or longer cuts of beef such as ribs. Just make sure you're using the right kind of coal.

"I've been BBQing, smoking meats, etc. for [approximately] 30 years. Received this a week ago and so far we've enjoyed chicken, rib eyes, pork chops, and various squash... each has turned out incredible. [It's been] very easy to transition to cooking on this," a very happy customer said on the BBQ Guys website. "Definitely look forward to making bread in this as well as spatchcocking a turkey and cooking it in there," they added.

Akorn Charcoal Kamado Grill E16620

This popular model comes with a 20-inch diameter cast iron grill grate on which you can cook 27 burgers at one time (per a Smoked BBQ Source review). It also has good design features that allow you to easily add more coal and also clean up the ash. The reason it is so much cheaper than the other grills on this list is that it isn't made of ceramic, but uses insulated steel with a ceramic coating instead. Didn't see this twist coming to the long-running ceramic vs. stainless steel debate, did you? Either way, in this case, it sounds like a small price to pay for a big difference in price!

"This is hands down the best grill I've ever had," a customer wrote on Amazon after using the grill for a year. "I'd say it's the best purchase I've ever made, period, but I'm sure I'd be leaving out something really important like a house or a vacation to Australia or an engagement ring or something." The fact that this delivers a huge bang for the buck seems to be the consensus on a Reddit thread too. "I've gotta say, the best damn smoker/grill I've ever owned," a customer wrote, adding: "On top of the price only being $300, this grill doesn't need to be brought up to temp slowly in colder weather as there is no fear of cracking it like a ceramic smoker."

Summit Kamado E6 Charcoal Grill

There aren't too many lists to do with grills that don't feature Weber, a company that revolutionized backyard grilling after being inspired by the shape of a buoy back in 1952. If anything, it's surprising how long the brand synonymous with American barbecue took to jump onto the kamado bandwagon. In 2016, over 40 years after Big Green Egg hit the market, Weber introduced a line of high-end charcoal grills that looked distinctly different from their original kettles. These were the first grills in Weber's premium Summit Series, and in 2020, the company rechristened the product line as the Summit Kamado.

This is a grill that has been designed for flexibility. The cooking area has a 24-inch diameter, which means the Summit Kamado E6 is large enough to feed a crowd. Also, the grates can be easily repositioned if you want to convert the Kamado into a regular charcoal grill. Like the Akorn, the Summit Kamado E6 Charcoal Grill doesn't have a ceramic structure. The steel construction means the grill can be heated up quickly, while the dual-walled insulation ensures it retains heat well and helps customers cook with control and precision.

The positives of having a Summit Kamado E6 come through on a Reddit thread discussing how Weber's version compares to its ceramic counterparts. "I love switching from low'n'slow to searing and vice versa quickly, which isn't possible with a ceramic," one Redditor wrote as part of a long list of pros, which also included, "ceramic cracks, steel doesn't." According to this customer, the only downside is that the Weber Summit Kamado E6 isn't as fuel efficient as ceramic Kamado-style grills. But another brushes this off: "No real downsides, the 'efficiency' you lose in fuel to less insulation is balanced by the fuel you would have used to heat soak the ceramic."