Shears, Knife or Rocker? The Pizza Cutter Alternative for You

The pizza is out of the oven, the cheese is still bubbling and the pizza wheel is nowhere to be found. Or you never bought one, because a tool that only cuts pizza seemed like one gadget too many. Either way, you don’t have to tear the pie apart by hand. Several tools you may already own will cut it cleanly, and one or two of them do some jobs better than a wheel.

This guide covers the pizza cutter alternative that suits each kitchen: kitchen shears for clean slices that leave the toppings in place, a long chef’s knife pressed and rocked across the pie, a small mezzaluna, a bench scraper for thin crusts and a long serrated knife for thick pan pizza. For each one we say how well it cuts, which pizzas it suits and what it gives up.

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Why people cut pizza without a pizza cutter

• No wheel in the drawer. A pizza wheel does one job. Many kitchens manage with what they have.
• Wheels drag toppings. A wheel rolls over the cheese and can pull it along with it, especially on a loaded pie. Shears and a straight-down knife cut without that drag.
• Square and pan pizzas. Luke Field, writing for Food Republic in 2023, recommends scissors for square pies such as Sicilian and Detroit-style, the way al taglio pizza is cut in Rome.
• Pans you don’t want scratched. A metal wheel run across a nonstick pan can mark it. Lifting the pizza onto a board first, or using shears above the pan, avoids that.

A sharp wheel or rocker made for pizza is still the quickest way to cut a big round pie into even slices. Our guide to the best pizza cutter covers wheels, rockers and pizza scissors, and the best cheap pizza cutter guide covers simple restaurant-supply wheels. This page is for the tools that are not pizza cutters but do the job.

Quick verdict: the best pizza cutter alternative

Five ways to slice pizza without a cutter, side by side

Our five picks, one per kind of pizza night, with what each maker or listing states. All five are reviewed in full below.

Which tool for which pizza

The crust decides more than the tool does. This is how the alternatives line up.

• Thin, New York or Neapolitan-style. Shears give the cleanest result, because they cut from above and below at once and don’t push the toppings around. A long knife pressed straight down works too.
• Square pies: Sicilian, Detroit, sheet-pan. Shears, as Food Republic’s Field suggests, or a long serrated knife for a thick, crisp-bottomed crust.
• Cracker-thin and flatbreads. A bench scraper or a mezzaluna, pressed straight down, cuts a crisp crust in short sections without shattering it across the whole pie.
• Big party pies. Here a knife shorter than the pizza is slow, because you cut each line in two or three sections. Mashed’s Abby Tariq, reporting chef Ann Kim’s advice from Food & Wine, notes that a chef’s knife is a good substitute as long as it spans the pizza’s full width. For 16-inch pies, shears or a proper rocker from our pizza cutter guide are easier.

Five tools to use instead of a pizza cutter

Getting clean slices with whatever you have

A few habits make any of these tools work better. They come from the sources named, or are labeled as general kitchen sense.

• Cut soon, but not instantly. Field’s Food Republic piece says professional chefs cut within seconds of the pie leaving the oven, while the cheese and crust are still pliable, and Mashed reports Ann Kim’s advice that pizza “starts to toughen up” once it settles. Our pizza cutter guide suggests a short rest so molten cheese doesn’t slide. A minute or so is a fair middle ground.
• Move it to a board. Cutting on a hot stone or steel dulls blades, and metal on a nonstick pan can scratch it. Slide the pizza onto a wooden board with a peel or spatula; that is general kitchen sense, and our parent guide says the same.
• Press, don’t saw. Field advises pressing a knife in and rocking it rather than slicing. The exception is a thick pan crust, where a serrated knife’s sawing is the point.
• Keep the edge sharp. Field recommends sharpening at home every two to three months and professionally every year or two, and notes that dull tools raise the risk of injury.
• Cut in halves first. On a round pie, cut it in half, then quarters, then eighths, so each cut lines up with the center. General kitchen sense, and it hides a short blade’s limits.

How we chose these five tools for slicing pizza

We started from the tools a kitchen is likely to own already, shears, a long chef’s knife, a mezzaluna, a bench scraper and a bread knife, and chose one from an identifiable maker for each, matched to a style of pizza. We left out pizza wheels, pizza rockers and pizza scissors, which are pizza cutters and live in our pizza cutter guide, and we did not repeat any product from our kitchen shears, chef knife, bench scraper or bread knife guides. Every pick was listed in stock and sold new when we checked.

Specifications come from each maker’s Amazon listing. For the cutting methods we read Luke Field’s piece on cutting pizza for Food Republic (2023) and Abby Tariq’s report for Mashed (2022) of James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim’s advice, which Mashed sourced from Food & Wine. Where a statement is general kitchen sense rather than a sourced fact, we say so. We have not used these products ourselves. We also searched the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s recall database for each brand and found no recall covering any of these five products.

Pizza cutter alternative questions, answered

What can I use instead of a pizza cutter?

Kitchen shears give the cleanest slices and keep the toppings in place. A long chef’s knife pressed and rocked across the pie works well, as does a mezzaluna on smaller pizzas. A bench scraper suits thin crusts, and a serrated bread knife suits thick pan pizza.

Is it better to cut pizza with scissors or a knife?

For most home pizzas, scissors: they cut from both sides at once, so the toppings don’t slide, and they work on any shape. A knife is faster on a round pie if it is long enough to cross the whole pizza in one press.

How do you cut pizza with a knife without dragging the cheese?

Use the longest straight knife you have, press it straight down and rock it from tip to heel rather than sawing. Food Republic’s Field compares the motion to a mezzaluna. A sharp edge matters more than the type of knife.

Can I cut pizza in the pan?

Shears are the safest tool for that, because the blades do the cutting above the pan. Running a knife or a metal scraper across a nonstick pan can scratch the coating; for anything else, slide the pizza onto a board first.

Can I use a bench scraper to cut pizza?

Yes, on thin and cracker crusts. Press it straight down in sections. It can’t cleanly cut a thick, bready crust.

Our pick for pizza night without a cutter

Kitchen shears are the alternative worth owning: they cut cleanly, work on every shape of pizza and spend the rest of the week on herbs and chicken. A long chef’s knife is the backup, and a serrated knife takes over for thick pan pizza. If you make pizza every week, a dedicated wheel or rocker from our best pizza cutter guide will still be quicker.

And if the pizza can wait for another night, see the menu or call to order.