What Are the Best Traeger Alternatives? {Value, Features, Quality}

Traeger Alternatives

What Are the Best Traeger Alternatives? {Value, Features, Quality}

If you have been looking for a new pellet grill and shopping around at the Big Box stores then it might have left you thinking that you only have two options: an expensive Traeger or a cheap Pit Boss.  It can be frustrating to want to spend some money on a really nice grill and feel like you only have the Traeger option.

Fortunately there are several companies that offer pellet grills which are excellent alternatives to Traeger. In this article I wanted to highlight three of these companies for very different reasons.

  • Z Grills: Budget Friendly and High Quality
  • Camp Chef: Increased Versatility
  • Yoder: Made in the USA

Let’s take a look at theses three alternatives to Traeger to see if any of them might be right for you.

Traeger Alternatives

Z Grills: Budget Option with History

Z Grills has quickly taken over the market as the best budget alternative to the Traeger brand. The brand had one goal when it entered the scene in 2017: to create a high-quality pellet grill that was much more affordable than what was currently available.

While Traeger’s grills range from the $600 to the $2,200 range, Z Grills offers grills and smokers starting as low as $400. The company’s most expensive grill, which includes Wi-Fi and a host of cool features, sits at just $1,400—an impressive $800 less than Traeger’s most expensive model.

As far as size options go, Z Grills is comparable to Traeger. Traeger’s larger model has slightly more space than Z Grills’ biggest selection, but not by much. Both company’s produce high-quality products with powder-coated, stainless steel materials.

Like Trager, Z Grills is a US-based company that offers a 3-years warranty on its products. Their budget-friendly prices are ideal for thrifty shoppers. Enjoy a 180 to 450-degree temperature range, Wi-Fi on select products, direct flame access, and two included meat probes with Z Grills products.

Click this link to see the latest great deals on Z Grills website.

Why is Z Grills On This List?

Budget products have a bad reputation for lacking the quality that more expensive products have. One of the reasons people shop for a Traeger is that they are worried about the quality of cheap grills like Pit Boss, so why am I bringing up another cheap grill?

What sets Z Grills apart from other inexpensive pellet grill brands is their history. For about 20 years they were the factory that made Traeger grills.

In fact, most of the current Z Grills are based on the exact design of the Traeger Generation 1 Pro Series.

Z Grills are cheap because they had 20 years to perfect the manufacturing process of a high quality product.

Click this link to see the latest great deals on Z Grills website.

Camp Chef: Greater Versatility

Camp Chef is a company full of outdoor enthusiasts and food lovers that has been around for just as long as Traeger, but it’s only recently branched out to include pellet grills.

When you are comparing Camp Chef to Traeger then you should be looking at the Camp Chef Woodwind series vs the Traeger Pro 575 and 780.

What you will see when you make the comparison is that while the grills are similar in size and cost, the Woodwind has a lot more useful features and accessories.  With the Camp Chef Woodwind you get:

  • An Easy Ash Cleanout System
  • Slide and Grill Capability for Direct Flame Access
  • Ability to Add a Propane Fired, Side Mounted Sear Box or Flat Top

These are some nice features and I strongly encourage you to check out the Woodwind series.  For a more detailed comparison of these brands check out this Camp Chef vs Traeger article.

Yoder: Made in the USA

If you’re interested in buying a darn good-looking grill, you can’t go wrong with the Yoder brand. Yoder grills look tough and perform hard. The US-based brand designed these grills and smokers for competition-level performance that fits in your backyard.

Right off the bat, Yoder has all three of the above brands beat in manufacturing. Camp Chef, Z Grills, and Traeger all outsource their manufacturing to China, but Yoder products are Made in America.

One of the benefits of Yoder making their grills in the USA is that they can use heavy gauge steel and not worry about how much it will cost to ship the heavier product from China.  As a result, even the smallest Yoder grill weighs over 200 pounds due to the heavy-duty, competition-grade steel components the company uses.

Yoder grills are not cheap products and are priced to be competitive with the top of the line Traeger Timberline Series with price tags in the $2,000 range. (See Traeger vs Yoder for more information.)

Yoder also offers an impressive 10-year warranty on all of their grills and smokers, along with unmatched quality, sturdy construction, Wi-Fi capability, adaptive control systems, and temperatures soaring to 700 degrees F.

If you want to see some great videos of Yoder grills in action then check out the All Things BBQ YouTube channel and see Chef Tom working some incredible barbecue magic on a Yoder.

Final Thoughts

Don’t get me wrong, a Traeger grill is a fine product and if you buy one then I suspect that you will be quite happy with it.  However, I don’t want you to go out and blindly buy a Traeger by default because that is all they have at Home Depot.

There really are some really interesting Traeger alternatives to consider and each of them brings a little something different to the table in terms of value, features and quality.

Traeger is a great brand to work with, but it’s crucial to do your research and make sure you’re picking the best product for your budget and your purposes.

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