Comparing top Cosori and Ninja models
With an air fryer on your kitchen counter, you can cut down on cooking times and enjoy french fries, chicken wings and other “fried” favorites with less guilt. But choosing the right model can be tricky because there are so many options. If you’re trying to decide between the top Cosori and Ninja air fryers, it can be even harder to pick since these brands offer similar features and air-frying performance.
The BestReviews Testing Lab put several Cosori and Ninja air fryers to the test, including the Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, Ninja Air Fryer Max XL and Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer, to help us identify the best models for every kitchen. We prepared some of the most commonly air-fried foods like french fries, chicken wings, hot dogs and bacon in each model and compared the cooking times and crispiness of the finished foods. We also considered factors like versatility, capacity and smart features that can make cooking a little easier.
Ultimately, Cosori stands out for its large air fryer ovens that can prepare enough food for entertaining, while Ninja’s compact models are ideal for small households and snacks. The Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven and the Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer are our favorite models because they’re versatile enough to earn a permanent spot on your counter and provide excellent air-frying results.
What they do well
Both Cosori and Ninja make excellent air fryers that can work for many kitchens. But your personal preferences can help determine which of their benefits are most important.
Cosori benefits
- Beginner-friendly: Cosori air fryers generally have a simple interface with buttons and/or dials that make air-frying easy even for those new to this cooking method. They also have a built-in preheating feature for air-frying and other cooking functions, and a shake reminder that beeps to let you know that it’s time to shake or flip the contents of the basket to ensure even cooking.
- Versatility: Cosori makes many air fryer ovens that offer not only air-frying capabilities but also all the functions you’d expect from a toaster oven. Some, like the Cosori Smart Air Fryer Oven, even have dehydrating and/or slow-cooking functions that allow them to replace multiple appliances. Even Cosori’s basket-style air fryers offer additional functions or cooking presets for foods like veggies, steak and seafood.
- Generous capacity: While Cosori makes compact, basket-style air fryer models that hold 4 to 10 quarts, the brand also offers a wide range of air fryer ovens that can accommodate up to 30 quarts. The Cosori Smart Air Fryer Oven has a 26-quart capacity that can fit six slices of toast, a 12-inch pizza, 2 pounds of french fries or a 5-pound chicken, making it ideal for cooking for groups.
- Smart features: Many Cosori air fryers are Wi-Fi enabled, so they can connect to the VeSync app. The app provides access to recipes that can help inspire you in the kitchen and allows you to control the air fryer’s settings from your smartphone or tablet even from another room.
- Price: Cosori air fryers provide plenty of bang for the buck, particularly when it comes to its air fryer ovens. They offer many of the same features as models from higher-end brands like Breville and Cuisinart but at a much more affordable price.
Ninja benefits
- Compact design: Like Cosori, Ninja offers some air fryer ovens and multicookers, but the brand excels at compact, basket-style air fryers, such as the Ninja Max XL Air Fryer, that don’t require much space on your counter. In fact, most don’t take up any more space than a coffee maker, which makes them ideal for smaller homes and apartments.
- Ceramic basket: Ninja air fryers utilize high-quality materials, especially for its baskets. Instead of nonstick treatments that can pose potential health risks, these air fryers have a ceramic coating that prevents food from sticking and makes cleanup easier.
- Intuitive controls: Most Ninja air fryers, like the Ninja Speedi Cooker and Air Fryer, have push-button controls that are simple and easy to use. They provide quick access to every feature and are organized in an intuitive layout. The buttons are responsive, so you don’t have to press too hard to choose your settings.
- Even cooking: Because most Ninja air fryers are smaller and more compact, they don’t tend to have any hot spots, which ensures that food cooks evenly. They get food super crispy on the outside while still keeping it tender and juicy on the inside.
Where they could improve
While Cosori and Ninja air fryers can crisp foods quickly and easily, they also have some issues that may not make them the best fit for your kitchen. Factors like the number of people you cook for and how much available counter space you have also play a role.
Cosori drawbacks
- Less responsive controls: Most Cosori air fryers have touch controls or a combination of touch controls and dials. However, the buttons aren’t as responsive as those on other air fryers, including Ninja models. As a result, you might have to press pretty hard to get your selection to register. Over time, there is some concern that the controls could break under this increased pressure.
- Uneven cooking for some functions: While Cosori models offer consistent air-frying results, they don’t always cook evenly with other functions, such as toasting, baking and roasting. We noticed that some foods, such as London broil, were overcooked along the edges, so there could be a learning curve to determining the proper cooking times and temperatures for different foods.
- Large footprint: Cosori makes many larger-capacity air fryers that require quite a bit of space on the counter. In particular, their height might pose an issue in kitchens with overhead cabinets because these appliances can be up to 15.5 inches tall.
Ninja drawbacks
- Limited capacity: While Ninja makes some air fryer ovens, many of its models are smaller basket-style models. Even those with two baskets for preparing two foods at once usually top out at 8 quarts, while the Speedi Cooker and Air Fryer has a 6-quart capacity. Most feed about three to five people, so they might not be the best choice for entertaining or larger households.
- Lack of smart features: Unlike air fryers from Cosori and other brands, many Ninja air fryers aren’t Wi-Fi enabled, so they don’t offer much in the way of smart features. You can’t set the air fryer with an app or use voice commands to start preheating.
- Price: Ninja air fryers tend to be fairly pricey, especially when you consider their limited capacity compared to Cosori models.
Top Cosori models
Our top Cosori models include a large-capacity air fryer oven and a traditional basket-style model, providing options for both small and large households. Both air fryers make crispy, delicious fries and are easy for beginners to use.
The Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven impressed us with its overall performance and functionality during testing, offering many of the same features as high-end air fryer ovens at a fraction of the price. In particular, its air-frying results were top-notch, turning out super crispy french fries, chicken wings, hot dogs and bacon. Its efficiency was also a pleasant surprise. It air-fried french fries perfectly in just 10 minutes, making it the most efficient air fryer oven of all the models we tested.
This air fryer oven also boasts a 26-quart capacity that can accommodate up to a 5-pound chicken, so we easily fit a 2-pound bag of french fries in its air-frying basket with room to spare. We also fit a 1.75-pound London broil on its food tray for broiling. Offering 11 additional cooking functions besides air-frying, the Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven’s versatility is another advantage. It can replace an air fryer, toaster oven, dehydrator and slow cooker in your kitchen to help maximize counter space.
It also has many features that make it easy to use. It is a Wi-Fi-connected model, so you can use the VeSync app to access recipes and adjust the oven’s settings. If you choose a recipe from the app, you can have it automatically set the time and temperature for your food. It has a shake reminder that alerted us when it was time to shake or flip the food halfway through cooking to ensure it was air-fried evenly. We also loved the nonstick interior that made cleanup quick and easy.
The Cosori Air Fryer Pro LE is a traditional basket-style air-fryer that provides 5 quarts of cooking space, making it ideal for one to three people. Its compact design doesn’t require much counter space, so it can work well for smaller kitchens. The Pro LE has a nonstick, BPA-free basket that’s easy to clean.
It offers nine cooking functions, with presets for popular foods like french fries, chicken, steak, seafood, veggies and bacon. It also has a warming feature that keeps food warm and ready to eat. The Pro LE also has a user-friendly design. The tempered glass display has one-touch button controls and is ergonomically angled to make it easy to read and use. It is one of the quieter basket air fryers on the market, too, registering as low as 55 decibels, which is lower than normal conversation.
This air fryer has a Shake function that reminds you to shake or flip the food halfway through cooking. That ensures french fries, onion rings and chicken nuggets cook evenly, so the exterior is crispy and the inside stays tender. We also appreciate the Pro LE’s safety features. The controls are inactive until the basket is properly inserted in its housing, so you can’t accidentally turn it on. Finally, this air fryer has a sleek black design that looks great sitting on the counter.
Top Ninja models
Ninja offers many excellent basket-style style air fryers, as well as ovens and multicookers with an air-frying function. This multicooker air fryer can speed up your cooking process by combining cooking functions, and our favorite basket-style model boasts its own feature to reduce your cooking times.
Like the Cosori Smart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, the Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer does more than simply air-fry. This countertop multicooker offers 11 cooking functions besides air-frying, including bake/roast, steam, broil, dehydrate, sous vide and proof. We were impressed by its versatility, especially because it can perform steaming and other functions simultaneously, allowing you to make foods with different components in the same pot. Its air-frying performance was also excellent. In just 15 minutes, it made some of the tastiest golden-brown french fries of all the air fryers we tested. Overall, we were pleased with how evenly it cooked foods across all of its cooking functions.
The Speedi can hold up to 6 quarts, so it works best for households of four or fewer. We found we could only fit two burgers at a time, but it held more food for recipes like rice that didn’t require air circulation for crisping. It has a somewhat large, bulky design, though we still found it smaller than most air fryer ovens. Additionally, because it performs so many functions, it can replace other appliances, including an air fryer, countertop oven, slow cooker and dehydrator.
We loved the Speedi’s simple, user-friendly controls. It has just a few buttons that allowed us to easily access all of the multicooker’s features. The control panel is laid out intuitively, and we liked the satisfying feel of the buttons when pressed. Cleanup by hand was quick and easy, but the nonstick pot and crisper are dishwasher-safe for even faster washing.
The Ninja Air Fryer Max XL is a basket-style air fryer that can hold up to 5.5 quarts of food, so we found it was ideal for two to three people. It didn’t require too much space on the counter, so its compact design would work well in smaller kitchens. The smaller size also helped it heat up and cook food more quickly. It needed only 13 minutes to cook french fries and 18 minutes to make chicken wings. It also has a Max Crisp function that can cook foods up to 30% faster.
We were very pleased with its air-frying performance, making crispy, evenly cooked fries, chicken wings and hot dogs. In addition to air-frying, it also bakes, air roasts, air broils and dehydrates, so it is more versatile than other basket-style air fryers we tested. In addition to fries, chicken and hot dogs, we also made other proteins, vegetables and sweets that were all cooked perfectly.
We found that the Max XL’s control panel is intuitively laid out, so we could easily figure it out at a glance. We accessed all of the features with the press of a button, and each was clearly labeled, making it easy to operate with only a quick skim of the instruction manual. Cleanup was also easy. We used warm water, dish soap and a sponge to wipe out the basket and crisper. However, both items are dishwasher-safe if you want to save on cleaning time.
Cosori Smart Air Fryer Oven vs. Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer
The Cosori Smart Air Fryer Oven and Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer are more than simply air fryers. Both models offer 12 cooking functions, making them versatile enough to replace multiple countertop appliances. The Cosori combines the traditional functions of a toaster oven with an air-fryer, so it can also toast, bake, broil, roast, slow cook, warm and reheat. It can also cook pizzas, dehydrate and ferment. The Ninja Speedi offers steam cooking options, including steaming, steaming and crisping, steaming and baking and proofing, as well as air-frying, baking/roasting, broiling, dehydrating, searing and sauteing, slow cooking and sous vide.
When it came to air-frying performance, the Cosori Smart Air Fryer Oven and Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker were both impressive. They made crispy, delicious french fries and chicken wings, but the Cosori stood out for its efficiency. It took just 10 minutes to make golden-brown french fries with a tender interior, while the Ninja needed 15.
With a 26-quart capacity, the Cosori can hold substantially more food than the 6-quart Ninja, making it a better choice for large households and entertaining. Both models are pretty large, though, and take up quite a bit of vertical space. At 15.5 inches tall, the Cosori is taller than similar air fryer ovens, and the Ninja’s lid opens from the top, requiring clearance on top to add and remove food. Both models were fairly easy to clean, but the Ninja gets the edge for its dishwasher-safe components. We also preferred the Ninja’s control panel because its buttons responded more quickly than the Cosori’s.
Cosori Air Fryer Pro LE vs. Ninja Air Fryer Max XL
The Cosori Air Fryer Pro LE and Ninja Air Fryer Max XL are both basket-style air fryers. They have similar capacities: the Cosori can hold up to 5 quarts while the Ninja can accommodate 5.5 quarts, making them ideal for two to three people. They both have a compact design, so they don’t require much counter space and can work well even in a smaller kitchen.
The Ninja’s basket also boasts a ceramic coating that keeps food from sticking, while the Cosori has a BPA-free nonstick basket. Thanks to their nonstick surfaces and dishwasher-safe baskets, both models are easy to clean. The Cosori is quieter than the Ninja, operating at a decibel level below normal conversation. The Ninja wasn’t very loud, though, so we could chat without raising our voices.
The Cosori Pro LE and Ninja Max XL both have user-friendly designs. The Cosori’s tempered glass display is easy to figure out at a glance, and the one-touch buttons respond to a gentle press. The Ninja’s control panel also has an intuitive layout that we found easy to master. Both are ideal for beginners, but we give the edge to the Cosori because it also has a shake reminder that alerts you halfway through cooking to shake or flip your food to ensure it cooks evenly.
Cosori vs. Ninja air fryer functionality
The air fryers from Cosori and Ninja are fairly similar in features and performance. However, depending on your cooking needs and preferences, you might find that one brand is a better fit for your kitchen.
Cooking performance comparison
We were pleased with the air-frying performance of both the Cosori and Ninja air fryers we tested. Both were able to turn out french fries, chicken wings, hot dogs and bacon that were super crisp and evenly cooked.
However, the Cosori air fryer was a bit more efficient with frozen foods. It made crispy, golden-brown fries in just 10 minutes, while the Ninja air fryer required 15 minutes for similar results. Both brands got chicken wings crisp and juicy in just 18 minutes and produced evenly cooked hot dogs in 8 minutes. The Ninja was a little faster with bacon, needing just nine minutes to crisp it up compared to the Cosori’s 10 minutes.
Special features comparison
Cosori and Ninja both equip their air fryers with special features that improve their functionality in the kitchen.
Cosori has Wi-Fi-enabled air fryers that connect to the VeSync app. We easily connected the Smart Air Fryer Oven to our Wi-Fi network and used the app to search for recipes and adjust all the oven’s settings. We also loved that Cosori incorporates a shake reminder, so the air fryer beeped to remind us to shake or flip the food to help it cook more evenly. These air fryers also have preprogrammed settings for popular foods like fries, chicken, bacon and pizza that automatically set the time and temperature and take the guesswork out of cooking these foods.
Ninja offers special features to increase its cooking versatility. The Ninja Foodi Flex Basket Air Fryer has two zones with a setting that allows you to cook two foods in different ways and sync them to finish at the same time, so you can prepare an entire meal at once. The Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer has a special Speedi Meals function that allows you to create a meal in one pot for four people in as little as 15 minutes.
Ease of use
Cosori and Ninja both make beginner-friendly air fryers that are easy to use. Cosori air fryers have simple control panels with buttons or a combination of buttons and dials. We found the Smart Air Fryer Oven’s controls highly intuitive, so we could easily operate the air fryer after quickly skimming the owner’s manual.
Ninja air fryers also have user-friendly control panels. Nearly all of the models have buttons, which we found clearly labeled and laid out. These buttons are also more responsive than those on the Cosori, so we didn’t have to press very hard to choose our settings.
Pricing
Cosori air fryers are generally more affordable than Ninja models.
Cosori basket-style air fryers with a capacity of 2 to 4 quarts typically cost $50 to $100, while those that can hold 6 to 10 quarts usually range from $120 to $150. Large-capacity Cosori ovens generally cost $140 to $200.
Ninja single-basket air fryers range from $79 to $179, while larger, double-basket models cost $120 to $200. Large-capacity multicooker air fryers are the most expensive and range from $200 to $300.
Bottom line: Should you get a Cosori or Ninja air fryer?
Depending on your needs and cooking preferences, we’re fans of both Cosori and Ninja air fryers. Ultimately, we give the slight edge to Ninja, whose air fryers feature high-quality materials that enhance cooking performance and make cleanup easier. Ninja does best with basket-style air fryers generally only suited for cooking for groups of four or fewer. But if you need an air fryer oven that can cook for 10 or more people, we recommend Cosori because it packs its models with many of the same features as high-end air fryer ovens but at a fraction of the cost.
FAQ
Q. Is air-fried food healthier than deep-fried food?
A. Air-frying is healthier than deep-frying because it uses much less fat. Deep-frying typically requires between 6 and 20 cups of oil to cook the food, but air-frying can prepare food using just a light misting of oil or no oil at all. That reduces the calories, fat and inflammatory compounds, which may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Q. Do air fryers use a lot of electricity?
A. Most air fryers operate at between 800 and 1,800 watts, so they don’t require much electricity. In particular, they are more energy efficient than full-size ovens, which use between 2,200 and 5,000 watts.
Q. Can I use oil in my air fryer?
A. Coating foods like french fries, chicken tenders and vegetables with oil before air-frying can help them get crisper and develop a golden color. However, you only need a small amount of oil, so you can use an oil sprayer or pastry brush to apply it.
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Jennifer Blair writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
