Best Cooktop Brands of 2026

The question of which brand makes the best cooktops is tougher to answer. CR’s engineers test hundreds of cooking appliances in our labs each year, and currently, there are more than 70 cooktops in our ratings. If you’re shopping for a new cooktop, it’s smart to start with our ratings and look up the specific models you’re considering. But what if we haven’t tested the cooktop you’re considering? In that case, our overall cooktop brand scores can be a big help.

To determine which brands make the best cooktops, CR created a statistical model that incorporates the Overall Scores for every gas, electric smoothtop, and induction cooktop in our ratings. Our calculations reflect lab performance, available features, predicted reliability, and owner satisfaction scores. We also look at prices: Brands get credit for delivering high performance and reliability at a lower cost than their competitors.

Below, we list the best brands in two categories: gas cooktop and the combination of induction and conventional smoothtop electric cooktops. For each of those categories, we only included brands with at least three cooktops in our current ratings.