Finding a great pellet grill under $700 is getting harder every year. Prices are climbing, models we used to recommend have been discontinued or upgraded out of our budget, and the bar for what counts as good value keeps moving.
The good news is that there are still solid options if you know where to look. After testing every grill on this list, these are the best budget pellet grills you can buy right now.
UPDATED May 08, 2026: Completed a full retest of this category and updated our picks to reflect what’s actually available in 2026.
The best cheap pellet grills that are actually worth buying
$700 used to get you into a much bigger pool of grills. These days it takes a bit more research to find options that are genuinely well-built. We did manage to find some good options, but if your budget can stretch further, be sure to check out all our pellet grill reviews.
Our testing team had one simple instruction. Cook a bunch of food on each pit. After smoking pork butts, ribs, chicken wings, and turkey, and grilling burgers and shrimp, we paid close attention to smoke output, temperature consistency, and ease of cleanup. These are the grills that made the cut.
1. The Best Pellet Grill for Under $700 – Pit Boss 700 DX
Read our full Pit Boss 70 DX review.
The Pit Boss 850 DX punches well above its price. In our testing it delivered consistent results, above average smoke output, and genuine barbecue flavor across every cook we ran on it.
The cooking space competes with grills going for $1,000 or more, and the feature set does too. If you are shopping for the best value pellet grill under $700, this is where we would point most people first.
It is a Lowe’s exclusive, and buying from there gets you free delivery and assembly, which takes some of the friction out of getting a grill this size up and running.
We smoked ribs and chicken and both came out with solid color and a smoky flavor that actually tasted like barbecue. You can see the results of all our tests in our full video review below.
The flame broiler gives you a direct heat option for adding some char, which is a feature you do not always get at this price point. The sear zone is on the smaller side though, so if you are cooking for a crowd you will need to work in batches and rotate food to get an even result across the whole grate.
The app connectivity was a little frustrating. It took long enough to connect to the phone that we eventually stopped relying on it altogether. There are also some temperature swings and a left to right hot spot in the chamber, so on longer cooks you will want to rotate your food rather than leave it in one spot.
For most backyard cooks looking for an affordable pellet smoker that can handle a serious weekend cook, the 850 DX is hard to beat at the price.
Pit Boss 850 DX Pellet Grill
Pros:
- Excellent value for the price
- Useful Keep Warm feature with probe
- WiFi controller with solid temp control
Cons:
- Direct-flame searing makes cleanup take longer
- App setup can be slow initially
CHECK LOWE'S PRICE
2. Most Reliable – Traeger Pro 22
If you have ever had a smart grill refuse to start because it lost Wi-Fi at 6am on Thanksgiving morning, you will understand exactly why included a grill that just turns on.
Traeger’s servers have gone down on major holidays more than once over the years, leaving people with an expensive piece of metal and no way to cook. The Pro 22 has no servers. It has no app. It just runs.
This is a dinosaur by modern pellet grill standards with No Wi-Fi, no PID controller, no bells and whistles of any kind. What it does have is a standard algorithm controller, a solid medium smoke level, and the kind of reliability that comes from a design that has been proven over years of use.
Traeger has kept this grill in production even as they have moved on with newer models. The Pro 22 gave way to the Pro 575, then the Woodridge, and now the Westwood is their new budget option.
Every one of those upgrades came with Wi-Fi built in and for a certain type of backyard cook that is exactly what makes it worth buying. They just want to smoke up some ribs on a Saturday and know the grill is going to do its job.
In our testing we smoked chicken and St. Louis ribs on the Pro 22, and both came out well. The ribs had great smoky flavor and that perfect bite off the bone.
Sure, it won’t do the best job searing a steak, but for low and slow barbecue it consistently gets the job done. The cooking space is 527 square inches across two racks, the 18-pound hopper includes a pellet dump, and it comes with two color-coordinated probes. It is also lighter and easier to move around than a lot of grills I’ve tested around this size.
You are paying for the Traeger name, and compared to some of the other options on this list the Pro 22 does not offer a lot of creature comforts for the price. There is no side shelf, the technology is dated, and the app is not even an option. But if your idea of a perfect weekend is firing up the smoker without having to troubleshoot a firmware update first, that is not a con at all. It is the whole point.
3. Best for grilling – Recteq RT-B380 Bullseye Wood Pellet Grill
Read our full recteq RT-B380 Bullseye review.
The Bullseye has the most unique design out of all the grills I tested. It looks more like a kettle grill than a pellet grill.
This thing gets hot. We are talking 800 degrees in Riot mode, which is not something you see at this price point, or most price points for that matter. If you want to put a real char on chicken wings or sear something properly, the Bullseye can do it.
Low and slow is a different story, and there is something worth knowing before you use it that way. On one of our first cooks we ended up with a grease fire. Honestly, we saw it coming. The drip pan heat deflector design makes it pretty clear that grease is going to build up, and eventually it did ignite.
After that we started putting a pan on top of the heat deflector for every low and slow cook. Problem solved. It is a simple fix but worth knowing upfront rather than finding out the hard way.
Once we sorted that out the results were genuinely impressive. The St. Louis ribs had great color and a smoky, juicy flavor. The chicken wings were some of the best we have had off a pellet grill. The stainless steel chamber builds a patina over time and holds heat well.
A few practical things. The hopper holds 15 pounds, so overnight cooks are not really what this pit is designed for. The footprint is small, which is either a plus or a minus depending on your setup. And if you are planning to cook at high temps, make sure the grill is clean first. Ash and grease in the bottom of the chamber at 800 degrees is not a situation you want to deal with.
For someone who wants to smoke and still have the option to actually grill on the same pit, the Bullseye is a genuinely unique option at this price.
Other options to consider
If your budget can stretch – Weber Searwood
Read our full Weber Searwood review.
The Searwood has topped our list of the best pellet grills for the last two years running, and there is a simple reason for that. Versatility. You can smoke on it, grill on it, run a griddle insert, or throw a rotisserie on it.
Most pellet grills ask you to compromise on at least one of those things. The Searwood mostly does not. It sits a few hundred above our $700 ceiling, but if you can stretch it is one of the best value grills on the market. The cast aluminum bottom chamber is also built to last in a way that a lot of grills at this price are not.
If the Searwood is still a little over budget, Weber also makes the Smoque. Think of it as a stripped-down version without the versatility. It is a solid pellet smoker and the build quality is there, but in our testing the smoke flavor was not as deep as we would want. For pure low and slow results we would still take the Bullseye or the Pit Boss over it. But if you are set on Weber and smoking is all you plan to do, it is worth a look.
Read our full Z Grills 7002C2E review.
Z Grills used to be one of the easiest recommendations in the budget category.
The 7002C2E has a large 697 square inch cooking area, WiFi control, a 24-pound hopper with pellet dump, and two probe ports. On paper it still ticks a lot of boxes. The issue is the price keeps creeping up while the grills themselves have not changed all that much.
The saving grace is that Z Grills runs promotions constantly. At a discount the 7002C2E becomes a much easier recommendation. They also sell a blind box option that comes in well under $500, where you get a Z Grills pellet grill but do not know exactly which model until it arrives. If you are not fussed about the specific model and just want a decent cheap pellet grill at a low price, it is one of the better deals in the category right now.
What to look for when buying a budget pellet grill
Unless your budget is unlimited, buying any grill is a game of compromise. You need to understand which features are most important to you, and what you can live without.
Here are a few things I recommend you think about before pulling the trigger on a new grill.
Grill size
You need to think about both the number of people you will be cooking for and also the type of food you’ll be cooking.
If you think you’ll be throwing on multiple briskets or racks of ribs, something round like the Rectec Bullseye would not be a good option.
Grill size is measured in square inches. At this price point, the largest options will be around 700 square inches. Anything between 500-700 should be fine for most small to medium families.
WiFi connectivity
These days most pellet grills come with the option to control them via an app on your phone. Some of the budget grills we selected above like the Traeger Pro don’t include an app, while our top pick the Pit Boss DX does.
Being able to use an app can be really convenient, especially if you live somewhere that gets cold.
Storage & prep areas
A big pet peeve of ours is when a grill doesn’t have any good storage or prep areas. There’s nothing worse than carrying a tray full of seasoned meat out to your smoker, only. to balance it precariously on the edge of your deck while you open the smoker lid.
This is one of the reasons we rated the Pit Boss DX so highly. It was the only grill we tested that included a folding front shelf, and side shelf.
Most other grills limit you to the hopper lid.
Sear options
The dirty secret of the pellet grill industry is that these grills can seriously struggle to grill. That’s why we often refer to them as smokers first and foremost.
Luckily manufacturers are catching on, and now many will include different designs to give you some level of searing.
The Pit Boss allows you to open up a small sear zone in the middle of the grill that’s perfect for getting some char on your food.
Cleaning
Some pellet grills can be a real bear to clean. You need to carefully remove the grill grates and heat deflector to get access to the interior and fire pot so you can vacuum out pellet dust.
Did you miss our previous article...
https://manstuffnews.com/backyard-grilling/the-ultimate-pork-chop-guide
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