What are you choosing between?
Kettle or kamado. Pellet smoker or offset. Brisket or short rib. Every difference on these pages is read out of what BBQHQ actually holds about each thing — and none of them declares a winner, because for most of these pairs there is not one.
What you get instead of a verdict is a condition: choose this one if you want to do that specific thing, and the condition is only offered where the evidence actually supports one. Where two things are not different enough to be worth a page, there is no page — which is why there are 70 of these rather than every pair multiplied by every other.
The ones people actually ask about
Ordered by how often people ask these questions, which is an estimate rather than a measurement. It is not a count of what anybody clicked; nothing on this site is measured that way.
57 cm charcoal kettle or Three-burner hooded gas grill
The buying decision most people are actually making, and the one where the honest answer is that the two are good at different things rather than that one is better.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken thigh, bone-in
The most-asked meat comparison on a barbecue, and one where the structural difference genuinely decides the cooking rather than only the flavour.
Baby back ribs or Pork spareribs
Two racks from different parts of the same animal, cooked the same way and not for the same length of time — and BBQHQ's evidence on how long is contested for one of them.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken drumsticks
White meat against dark, with different endpoints for different reasons, on a bird where both come off at the same moment if you plan it.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken wings
A large lean piece against a small structural one. Almost everything about the cooking differs, including how much of it is skin.
Chicken drumsticks or Chicken thigh, bone-in
The two dark-meat portions, frequently treated as interchangeable and differing in shape in a way that changes the timing.
Which barbecue? (20)
The most expensive decision here and the one you make once, usually before you know what you are going to cook on it. These pages set two architectures against each other on what each can actually be made to do — not on which is better, because that depends on whether you want to tend a fire or set a number, and nothing in the evidence answers that for you.
57 cm charcoal kettle or Three-burner hooded gas grill
The buying decision most people are actually making, and the one where the honest answer is that the two are good at different things rather than that one is better.
57 cm charcoal kettle or Pellet grill
Charcoal against a fuel that behaves like a thermostat. The comparison turns on how much of the fire you want to be responsible for.
Ceramic kamado or 57 cm charcoal kettle
Two charcoal cookers with very different thermal mass, which is the single fact that explains almost every difference between them.
57 cm charcoal kettle or Offset smoker
A general-purpose cooker against a specialist. The kettle does most things adequately and one thing awkwardly; the offset is the reverse.
Which way of cooking? (12)
The decision you make every time, and the one most likely to be the difference between the food you wanted and the food you got. Direct or indirect, sear first or sear last, lid up or lid down — each of these pairs is two answers to the same question, and each is right for a different piece of food.
Grilling or Indirect roasting
The first technique decision in any cook, and the one that most often goes wrong: it is settled by the thickness of what you are cooking rather than by preference.
Grilling or Low-and-slow smoking
Two techniques that share almost nothing but a cooker. What separates them is which tissue you are trying to change.
Grilling or Reverse searing
Both end with a seared surface. They differ in the order, and the order is what decides whether a thick cut works.
Reverse searing or Searing
The same final minute, reached from opposite directions. Thickness decides which is right, and there is a threshold.
Which cut? (36)
Standing in front of a counter with two things that look interchangeable and are not. These pages put the weight, the cooking window, the safety rules and the things that commonly go wrong side by side — and where one really can stand in for the other, they say what has to change about the cook.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken thigh, bone-in
The most-asked meat comparison on a barbecue, and one where the structural difference genuinely decides the cooking rather than only the flavour.
Baby back ribs or Pork spareribs
Two racks from different parts of the same animal, cooked the same way and not for the same length of time — and BBQHQ's evidence on how long is contested for one of them.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken drumsticks
White meat against dark, with different endpoints for different reasons, on a bird where both come off at the same moment if you plan it.
Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken wings
A large lean piece against a small structural one. Almost everything about the cooking differs, including how much of it is skin.
Which fuel? (2)
The argument people have had for fifty years, and the smallest section here because BBQHQ only publishes a comparison where it holds real differences to point at. What it can compare is how each fuel behaves: how it lights, how long it holds, what it does to the food, and what it demands of you.
Charcoal briquettes or LPG (bottled gas)
Almost nobody asking this is choosing a fuel. They are choosing a barbecue, and the fuel is the part of that decision with the loudest opinions attached — so the useful version of the question is what actually changes about the cooking, and what does not change at all.
Lump charcoal or Wood
The question underneath this one is usually about smoke rather than heat, and those are separate dimensions in BBQHQ's model for a reason: a cooker can take its heat from one source and its smoke from another, and several do.
Everything, if you already know what you are looking for
All 70 of them, grouped the same way and in the same order. Nothing above is missing from here.
Two kinds of barbecue (20)
- 57 cm charcoal kettle or Three-burner hooded gas grill 8 differences
- 57 cm charcoal kettle or Pellet grill 10 differences
- Ceramic kamado or 57 cm charcoal kettle 8 differences
- 57 cm charcoal kettle or Offset smoker 10 differences
- Three-burner hooded gas grill or Pellet grill 10 differences
- Ceramic kamado or Three-burner hooded gas grill 9 differences
- Three-burner hooded gas grill or Offset smoker 10 differences
- Bullet water smoker or 57 cm charcoal kettle 10 differences
- 57 cm charcoal kettle or Electric outdoor grill with wood-pellet smoke box 9 differences
- Electric outdoor grill with wood-pellet smoke box or Three-burner hooded gas grill 9 differences
- Ceramic kamado or Pellet grill 8 differences
- Offset smoker or Pellet grill 4 differences
- Ceramic kamado or Offset smoker 8 differences
- Digital electric cabinet smoker or Pellet grill 7 differences
- Electric outdoor grill with wood-pellet smoke box or Pellet grill 7 differences
- Ceramic kamado or Digital electric cabinet smoker 9 differences
- Ceramic kamado or Electric outdoor grill with wood-pellet smoke box 7 differences
- Bullet water smoker or Offset smoker 6 differences
- Electric outdoor grill with wood-pellet smoke box or Offset smoker 7 differences
- Bullet water smoker or Drum smoker 7 differences
Two ways of cooking (12)
- Grilling or Indirect roasting 4 differences
- Grilling or Low-and-slow smoking 4 differences
- Grilling or Reverse searing 4 differences
- Reverse searing or Searing 4 differences
- Indirect roasting or Low-and-slow smoking 4 differences
- Indirect roasting or Reverse searing 4 differences
- Indirect roasting or Searing 4 differences
- Indirect roasting or Skewer grilling 4 differences
- Low-and-slow smoking or Searing 4 differences
- Low-and-slow smoking or Skewer grilling 4 differences
- Low-and-slow smoking or Reverse searing 3 differences
- Reverse searing or Skewer grilling 4 differences
Two cuts (36)
- Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken thigh, bone-in 5 differences
- Baby back ribs or Pork spareribs 6 differences
- Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken drumsticks 5 differences
- Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken wings 5 differences
- Chicken drumsticks or Chicken thigh, bone-in 5 differences
- Chicken thigh, bone-in or Chicken wings 5 differences
- Baby back ribs or Pork shoulder 5 differences
- Pork shoulder or Pork spareribs 6 differences
- Chicken drumsticks or Chicken wings 3 differences
- Rib eye steak or Sirloin steak 4 differences
- Beef burger or Lamb burger 4 differences
- Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken breast, boneless 5 differences
- Chicken breast, boneless or Chicken thigh, boneless 3 differences
- Chicken thigh, bone-in or Chicken thigh, boneless 7 differences
- Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken thigh, bone-in 5 differences
- Beef short ribs or Baby back ribs 6 differences
- Beef burger or Plant-based burger 3 differences
- Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken drumsticks 4 differences
- Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken wings 4 differences
- Chicken drumsticks or Chicken thigh, boneless 5 differences
- Chicken thigh, boneless or Chicken wings 6 differences
- Cod fillet or Whole sea bass 7 differences
- Brisket or Picanha, whole 6 differences
- Chicken breast, bone-in or Chicken thigh, boneless 6 differences
- Peeled king prawns or King prawns in the shell 4 differences
- King prawns in the shell or Scallops 4 differences
- Lamb loin chop or Lamb leg steak 5 differences
- Pork belly slices or Pork shoulder 6 differences
- Salmon fillet or Tuna steak 5 differences
- Picanha, whole or Rib eye steak 6 differences
- Cod fillet or Salmon fillet 4 differences
- Aubergine slices or Courgette slices 3 differences
- Peeled king prawns or Squid 3 differences
- King prawns in the shell or Mussels in the shell 3 differences
- Whole mackerel or Whole sardines 5 differences
- Whole sea bass or Whole trout 4 differences
Two fuels (2)
- Charcoal briquettes or LPG (bottled gas) 4 differences
- Lump charcoal or Wood 3 differences
Why none of these picks a winner
Ranking two cookers means deciding whether portability matters more than capacity, and nothing in the evidence answers that — it depends on whether you have a car boot or a patio. So a comparison here returns a condition instead of a verdict, and the condition comes from a capability the model actually holds.
The same discipline decides which pairs exist at all. A comparison needs at least three genuine dimensions of difference before it gets a page, because any two things differ in name, and a page whose only content is “these are not the same” is filler with a URL.
Where to go next
More than two to choose between
Six questions, eleven kinds of cooker, and the reason each one that does not fit was dropped.
Already know what you are cooking?
Timings, resting and when to light the fire, for your food on your cooker.
126 of them, grouped by what they are and by how long they take.
The three things worth owning before you light anything, and the ones you can ignore.