Anova Precision Oven 2.0 vs Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro

The Anova's 0–100% adjustable steam injection isn't a gimmick — it's a capability that simply doesn't exist in any other home countertop oven. For bread bakers, that steam in the first minutes of a bake creates the crust and oven spring you'd otherwise only get in a professional deck oven. For protein cooking, it enables genuine sous vide-style results without a water bath. The Breville has no steam capability whatsoever. If steam matters to you, the Anova wins this category by default — but ask yourself honestly how often you'd actually use it before spending $750 extra.

At $500–$550, the Breville isn't cheap — but it's less than half the Anova's price and covers 13 cooking modes that the Anova can't match in breadth. Good Housekeeping tested whole chicken, cake, and pizza with consistently even results, and they've been using it in their lab for over a year. The Anova's consensus score of 76 versus the Breville's 88 tells the story: the Anova is a specialist tool at a specialist price, and most cooks will get more value from the Breville's versatility.

Serious Eats specifically called out both apps for having well-developed recipe libraries, so this isn't a blowout. But the Breville's app-controlled autopilot mode — where you pick a recipe and the oven handles temperature, mode, and timing automatically — is useful for everyday cooking right out of the box. The Anova's app shines for multi-stage steam sequences and remote start, but the remote start feature actually concerned the Serious Eats tester enough to flag it as a safety issue. An oven that can be accidentally triggered from your phone is a real concern.

The Breville's 13 cooking modes include dehydrating, proofing, slow cooking, and bagel mode alongside the expected bake, roast, and air fry. It's genuinely designed to replace multiple appliances. The Anova is built around one core innovation — steam — and everything else is secondary. If you're replacing a toaster oven and want one machine that handles your whole cooking repertoire, the Breville wins decisively. If you already have a capable oven and want to add a precision steam tool, the Anova makes more sense.