Pit Boss vs. Traeger: Which Is Better?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to grilling and smoking food. There are the traditionalists who like to have their hands in all aspects of the cooking process, and there are those who enjoy the flavor and texture that grilling and smoking produce but don’t want to commit to it as an all-day affair. Well, maybe there’s a third school. A friend who cooks competition barbecue and does whole-hog pop-up events told me they no longer have any desire to tend a smoker all night if it doesn’t pay the bills, and is now a pellet grill convert for home smoking because of their decidedly hands-off cooking capabilities.

Pit Boss and Traeger are two brands that tend to rank high in our grill tests. While similar, each offers something different, whether you’re looking for features, fuel efficiency, value, or the assurance of a good warranty. But when put to the test, which is the better brand? We compared the test data we’ve compiled over the last few years to examine them side-by-side.

Key Specs

• More Affordable: Pit Boss
• Better Construction: Traeger
• More Innovative: Traeger
• Higher Temperature Range: Pit Boss
• Better Temperature Control: Traeger
• More Fuel-Efficient: Traeger
• Our Overall Pick: Traeger

What We Love About Each Brand

Traeger patented the first pellet grill in 1987. It took a simple idea from wood pellet furnaces: You fill a hopper, and an auger feeds wood pellets to an igniter. Controls regulate the speed of this as well as the intensity of the heat. Since debuting the pellet grill, Traeger has brought its thick, double-walled construction offerings to create grills that are well-rounded for grilling or smoking and offer a simple, largely hands-off approach to outdoor cooking.

Pit Boss started by improving upon existing pellet grill designs. Since then, it has expanded beyond pellet grills to smokers, griddles, and gas grills. Pit Boss delivers quality outdoor products at a lower price.

Both brands offer good warranties. All Pit Boss grills have a five-year limited warranty. Traeger grills made before October 2021 have a three-year warranty. Flat-top grills have a five-year limited warranty, while non-connected grills (ones without WiFi) and the D2 WiFIRE have a seven-year warranty. Grills from the more expensive series, Timberline and Ironwood, have a 10-year limited warranty.

Who Makes the Better Pellet Grill?

Are you looking for an uncomplicated pellet grill that still offers great performance? Consider the Pit Boss 440 Series. With a price that’s less than half of its opponent, this pellet grill outshined many of its competitors in our pellet grill tests when it came to heating time, heat retention, and temperature recovery. Because of the firebox’s location adjacent to the grates, there were some hard-to-avoid hot spots, and we saw some temperature fluctuations up to 50°F during the long-smoke tests, which imbued a slightly astringent taste to the pork butt’s bark. It fared much better in the short-smoke and grilling tests, leaving a clean, smoky flavor and a nice sear.

Dimensions: 40 x 50 x 24 inches | Grilling Area: 518 square inches | Extra Features: None, but Bluetooth connectivity is available as an add-on

The Traeger Pro 780 had a larger grilling area and price tag than the Pit Boss 440. With those obvious differences out of the way, the Pro 780 gave grilled food a deep, smoky flavor while minimizing the smoke leaving the grill. We didn’t get the hard grill marks one expects from a wood grill, but the food cooked very evenly, thanks to a lack of hot spots. When we cooked over high heat, we did see a significant temperature drop after opening the grill, and the Pro 780 struggled to recover. The intuitive control panel and app provide a clear view of the remaining temperatures and cook time. 

Dimensions: 55 x 49 x 27 inches | Grilling Area: 780 square inches | Extra Features: WiFIRE technology, a comprehensive yet easy-to-use control panel, wheels, and meat temperature probe connectors 

The Verdict: Which Brand Is Better?

Because of the Pit Boss 440 Series Wood Pellet Grill’s hot spots and temperature fluctuations during cooking, the Traeger Pro 780 scored higher despite its delayed heat recovery. 

Who Makes the Better Large Pellet Grill?

When we tested the Sportsman 820, it sat firmly in the middle of the pack. We’ve come to think of “average” as “bad,” which isn’t true. It did perform better at low-temperature smoking than searing and produced chicken wings with a nicely balanced smoke flavor. It had more than adequate heat retention and recovery and a large cooking area. It lacked the app connectivity of similar models, which would be a nice addition to this grill. All in all, we view it as a good value for the price. 

Dimensions: 58 x 32 x 52 inches | Grilling Area: 892 square inches | Extra Features: Meat probe

The Timberline is a self-contained outdoor kitchen. It’s marginally smaller than the Sportsman 820 in terms of cooking area but has many extras, like WiFi connectivity, a cutting board, pellet storage, and an induction cooktop. We were impressed with the smoky flavor it gave chicken wings, pizza, and flank steak, and it produced the best pork butt of any of the pellet grills we tested. Three tiers of grates made moving food on and off the grill quite easy, and the grill had excellent temperature control with no noticeable hot spots. 

Dimensions: 51 x 59 x 25 inches | Grilling Area: 880 square inches | Extra Features: Stainless steel racks, bamboo cutting board, pellet storage bin, Bluetooth probes, induction cooktop

The Verdict: Which Brand Is Better?

The Traeger Timberline delivered better all-around results in our testing, so it wins this round. It is, however, significantly more expensive, so we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Pit Boss Sportsman 820 as an alternative. The Sportsman 820 functioned better as a smoker than a grill, leaving flank steaks more than a bit lacking from what one would expect from a grilled steak. But it made some of the best wings of the models we tested. 

Who Makes the Better Electric Smoker?

The Pit Boss 3-Series was a small but sturdy smoker weighing about 75 pounds. It had some nice features, like a digital control panel that operates in five-degree increments. The design of the chip tray and water pans keeps you from having to open the smoke chamber to refill either, which means less chance of temperature fluctuation during cooking. It produced ribs with a nice bark, and considering a distinct lack of smoke escaping the chamber, the smoke was subtle and not overwhelming at all. The results were similar when we tested salmon fillets, with the smoke accentuating the fish with no acridity or over-smokiness. 

Dimensions: 23 x 47 x 22 inches | Cooking Area: 748 square inches | Extra Features: Digital control panel 

As the name suggests, the Traeger Tailgater is a portable pellet grill. It retains most of the functionality of its larger cousins, but the temperature caps at 450°F, making it better suited for smoking than searing. While small, it still holds two chickens or three racks of ribs. It produced some passable chicken wings, although the smoky flavor lingered after eating them. In contrast, it made a nicely-barked pork butt but with a decidedly muted smoke flavor. Because of its smaller size and a smaller hopper, we had to monitor the pellet level more closely and refill it during the long smoking test.

Dimensions: 36 x 37 x 18 inches | Cooking Area: 300 square inches | Extra Features: Folding legs, temperature probes, digital control panel, app connectivity

The Verdict: Which Brand Is Better?

The Pit Boss 3-Series did the job it was supposed to as a smoker. The Traeger Tailgater is a grill that smokes, and its smaller format sacrificed some of the performance of Traeger’s larger models. The Pit Boss takes this round.

How We Tested Pellet Grills and Smokers

Pellet grills and smokers are related, although their purposes diverge at a certain point. You can use a smoker or a pellet grill for smoking foods, but you can’t get the high temperatures needed for grilling from a smoker.

We’ve done extensive testing on pellet grills, electric smokers, and charcoal smokers in our test lab, followed by home testing to see how they hold up six months later. Unfortunately, when we tested charcoal smokers, Pit Boss’s offering wasn’t yet on the market.

We utilized some of the same tests for pellet grills and electric smokers, as the two serve similar purposes, up to a point, and then used more product-specific tests to gather data for each. We rated them in the following categories:

Design

We started testing with the first impression you, as a consumer, would get. We removed the grill/smoker from its packaging and assembled it per the manufacturer’s instructions. We rated each model on the ease of setup and clarity of the directions. After assembly, we rated each model on how easy it was to add and remove food, add fuel, and move the grill or smoker.

Performance

Each grill or smoker got put to a short smoking test using chicken wings. Pellet grills then got a long smoking test using pork butt, which we rated on bark development, smoke ring, cooking time, and flavor. We tested their searing capacities by grilling flank steaks and baking capabilities by heating a frozen pizza. We judged each on their cooking time, flavor, texture, and appearance. We judged electric smokers similarly, using ribs for a long-cooking test, and salmon for a cold-smoking test. We judged pellet grills and smokers on their heating time, fuel efficiency, and heat and smoke retention.

Cleanup

As with all cooking projects, there will be some cleanup afterward. We cleaned each model according to the manufacturer’s directions, noting the ease of tasks like cleaning the grates and drip pans, emptying ash, and cleaning the outside.

More Products We Love

The Ironwood 885 is a mid-market Traeger grill with a larger cooking area and a bit more functionality than the Pro 780. It gave good results in baking and searing tests and is a good, versatile smoker grill with plenty of smart features.

This gas smoker from Pit Boss is ideal for folks who like to actively smoke their food. It has two gas burners; one controls the temperature, and the other controls the smoke level. Learning to work the two burners in conjunction takes some playing around, but we found the end result was flaky salmon, tender ribs, and moist chicken wings. The 3-Series’ racks are large enough to hold a slab of ribs and chicken wings without touching, and while we might have preferred more smoke to the meat, we couldn’t argue with the tenderness of the results.

The Last Word

Traeger and Pit Boss both have strengths and weaknesses. Pit Boss produces very good products with a reasonable cost-to-performance ratio while being easy to use and producing good end results. Traeger makes more versatile pellet grills, but they come with a much higher price tag that accounts for those added niceties that make Traeger a more set-it-and-forget-it line of grills.

Our Expertise

Greg Baker is an award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. His written work appears in Food & Wine, Serious Eats, and other publications.Greg loves cooking over fire any chance he gets, and has a veritable arsenal of grilling equipment.