10 Best Cookware Sets of 2025, Expert Tested and Reviewed
These top-performing nonstick and stainless steel cookware sets cook food evenly and are easy to clean
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Whether you’re an expert in the kitchen or just starting out, a full set of great cookware can expand your culinary range. You can build a set yourself, but researching compatible pots and pans takes time—not to mention that piecemealing a set often ends up costing you more. To help simplify your shopping, we’ve tested sets from well-known brands such as All-Clad, Caraway, Crate & Barrel, and GreenPan.
Cookware sets usually consist of five to 15 pieces. But be aware of the language manufacturers use. For example, a “12-piece set” won’t have a dozen pots and pans. “In boxed sets, manufacturers count a lid as a piece,” says Kelly Moomey, CR’s market analyst for cookware. “Even utensils and a cookbook may be counted as pieces.”
In our tests, we evaluate heating evenness, speed of heating, sauté performance, nonstick durability, handle sturdiness, and more. To evaluate how well various pieces perform in the kitchen, we fry eggs, boil water, and simmer tomato sauce.
We have nearly 100 cookware sets in our ratings, including nonstick and stainless steel. These are the two most commonly used types of cookware, according to a nationally representative CR survey (PDF) of 2,158 U.S. adults in April 2025.
Not sure which to choose? Nonstick cookware is exceptionally easy to clean but may contain harmful PFAS, often called "forever chemicals," including PTFE (Teflon). It’s an issue that 65 percent of home cooks we surveyed are at least somewhat concerned about. For those who wish to avoid PFAS, we note in our ratings which manufacturers claim their pans are PTFE-free.
While CR doesn’t currently test nonstick cookware for PFAS chemicals, testing lead Breann Chai says that preventive measures can limit your exposure. “Generally, it’s best to heat up the pan without cooking a few times before cooking food on it,” Chai says. “Additionally, if there are any chips or cracks in the nonstick surface, it’s best to stop using the pan and purchase a new one.”
Stainless steel cookware sets are an alternative to nonstick. They’re long-lasting, but can be tougher to clean. For more information, check out our comprehensive cookware buying guide, which includes a primer on different types of cookware and the materials they use.
If you do decide to build your own set, take stock of the basic pieces you might need, including a frying pan or two, a saucepan, and a Dutch oven.
CR members can read on to learn about the best nonstick cookware sets and the best stainless steel cookware sets in our ratings. And once you make your decisions, check out our tips on how to maintain your new pots and pans.
Best Nonstick Cookware Sets
In CR’s survey, a majority of people who recently used nonstick cookware say their top reasons for using it are that food doesn’t stick or the cookware is easy to clean. One in 4 of them (26 percent) say their top reason is that nonstick cookware allows them to use less oil. The pans below, listed alphabetically, earn our highest score for both nonstick food release and cooking evenness.
The Calphalon Premier Hard-Anodized Nonstick cookware set is pricey, but it excels in our performance tests for speed of heating, cooking evenness, and the ability to maintain a steady, even sauce simmer. Its handles are very sturdy and don’t get too hot to the touch without a potholder. Its ability to release food without it sticking is very good. On the downside, nonstick durability is just so-so. This 11-piece set is oven-safe to 450° F.
The Caraway Ceramic-Coated Cookware Set comes with 14 pieces, but only half are pots or lids. The rest are various racks, hooks, and other things you might not want or have space for. That said, this set excels in all four of our key cooking tests: cooking evenness, simmering, nonstick food release, and speed of heating. It also shows very good performance in our nonstick durability tests, though some other sets did better.
The Cuisinart GreenGourmet Hard Anodized GG-12 is a 12-piece set that includes a steamer insert that can make it easy to cook without oil, steam a whole fish, heat up frozen dumplings, and reheat leftovers that need a little moisture, like rice or other grains. It can help you turn out evenly simmered sauces and has an excellent score for nonstick food release. However, this set is only oven-safe to 400° F.
The top-scoring Figmint 12-piece Nonstick Ceramic Coated Aluminum Cookware Set aces our cooking evenness and nonstick food release tests. It’s induction cooktop compatible and, according to Figmint, it’s oven-safe up to 450° F. The set includes two frying pans, two covered saucepans, a sauté pan, and a stockpot. The biggest downside from our tests? A middling score for handle sturdiness.
The budget-friendly GreenPan Reserve Ceramic Nonstick is a 10-piece set with two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, a stockpot, and four lids. It receives top scores for all our major cooking tasks, including an excellent rating for speed of heating. Its handles are sturdy and stay fairly cool to the touch. The nonstick coating is durable, although some other nonstick pans we tested did better in that assessment.
Best Stainless Steel Cookware Sets
Stainless steel cookware is incredibly versatile. It can tackle everything from pickling to pasta sauce and is a good choice for browning and braising. The sets below, sorted in alphabetical order, earned impressive scores for cooking evenness and food release, but they can be more difficult to clean than nonstick cookware sets.
All-Clad pans tend to be pricey, but the All-Clad D5 Brushed 5 Ply 10-Piece might be worth it based on its performance in our lab tests. It receives excellent scores for cooking evenness, food release, and ease of cleaning. It can heat up quickly, simmer sauce evenly, and it has a sturdy handle that stays fairly cool to the touch.
The 10-piece Crate & Barrel Evencook Stainless Steel set comes with two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, and a stockpot. These pans aced our tests for cooking evenness, sauce simmering, speed of heating, and food release. We also found these pieces very easy to clean—only one stainless set gets higher marks in that test.
The eight-piece stainless steel Fissler Original-Profi Collection set earns a top mark for cooking evenness and excels in our test for heating water quickly. The handles stay cool to the touch and are sturdy, so this set should serve you well for a long time. The pans are excellent at releasing food but aren’t as impressive when it comes to holding tomato sauce at a steady simmer, earning a so-so score in that test.
Oxo may be a favorite brand for kitchen gadgets and baby gear, but the company also produces sturdy cookware. The Oxo Tri-Ply Stainless Mira Series set excelled in our tests for cooking evenness, speed of heating, and evenly simmering tomato sauce. Four eggs cooked consecutively with oil slid out easily. This set also showed excellent performance in our handle stress test.
This cost-conscious 11-piece stainless steel cookware set from The Cellar has two frying pans, two saucepans, a sauté pan, a stockpot, a silicone trivet, and four lids. The set, a Macy’s exclusive, aces our tests for cooking evenness, speed of heating, and food release. It’s also easy to clean, earning an excellent score. The handles stay safe and cool, but they aren’t so sturdy, earning a mediocre rating for that test.
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