Fornello, PizzaBlab or PizzApp+: which pizza dough calculator actually explains its numbers?

The short answer

PizzaBlab (website, free with ads, in English) is a mature calculator, fed by a decade of practice, with yeast prediction by time and temperature, preferments, a separate sourdough calculator and a substantial troubleshooting guide. Its yeast model is credited to a member of the pizzamaking.com forum and refined by trial, but the formula is not published, and the schedule is either cold or room temperature, not both. PizzApp+ (iOS and Android app, free with ads, Italian) is the most widely installed of the three, simple and fast, with two rising stages (room then cold) and five yeast types including stiff and liquid sourdough; its method is described nowhere. Fornello (website, free, French, English, Italian) is the only one of the three to name its temperature model, cite its sources, show a confidence rating per flour and a range on the yeast, and model gluten-free; it has no native app, and its Canadian flour values are estimates.

The grid, criterion by criterion

Each line was checked on an official page on the day of writing (addresses in the sources). "Not found" means the feature appears neither in the tool, nor in its documentation, nor on its store listing; it does not mean it does not exist in a version we did not see.

Checked on 6 November 2026. PizzaBlab: calculator page updated 11 August 2026. PizzApp+: iOS version 1.9.7 (February 2026), Android updated 31 August 2026.

PizzaBlab, up close

PizzaBlab is the work of Yuval Weinberg, who presents himself as neither chef nor pizzaiolo, but as someone who has baked almost every day for about ten years and built "the resource he wishes he had". It shows: the calculator guide, the page on the factors that affect fermentation and the troubleshooting guide are among the most complete on the English-language web. The calculator accepts ball weight or thickness factor, round or rectangular, three yeast types, additional ingredients, and a preferment whose yeast is computed then subtracted from the final dough.

Its limits are written in black and white on its own pages, to its credit. The schedule is cold (4 to 9 °C, durations of 12 to 96 hours in steps) or room temperature (14 to 30 °C), not both in one calculation; the cold doses are "optimised for the Lehmann method", that is, balling and fridge right after mixing. The preferment is room temperature only. The yeast model was "developed by TXCraig1 from pizzamaking.com" and "refined through trial and error"; the formula itself is computed server-side and published nowhere. The long-form article on fermentation cites no scientific reference. The site is English only.

PizzApp+, up close

PizzApp+ is an app by NFP Software, a small Italian company, published in 2017 and updated regularly since (1.9.7 on iOS in February 2026, Android at the end of August 2026). It is free with ads, and by far the most installed: over 500,000 downloads on Google Play, with 4.2 from 2,184 reviews, and 4.4 from 186 ratings on the US App Store. Two tabs, Neapolitan and Roman pan, a number of balls, a weight, water, salt, fat, then two rising stages, room and cold, each with its duration and temperature, and five yeast types: fresh, active dry, instant, stiff sourdough, liquid sourdough. A tool computes the dough weight for a round or rectangular pan.

The official description fits in two sentences: the app "computes the ingredients needed to obtain a dough with the selected features and suggests the amount of yeast to be used", and lets you save, reload and share your recipes. Neither the listing, nor the publisher's site, nor the app explains the yeast model or cites a source. Poolish and biga are marked "experimental function, any feedback is welcome" in the settings. The App Store listing declares identifiers and usage data linked to you and used for advertising. For someone who wants a fast answer on their phone in Italian, it is the most direct tool of the three.

Fornello, with the same grid

Fornello starts from a documented style (twelve, from Neapolitan TSG to Detroit, each with its windows and its source), a number of pizzas and a three-stage schedule at any temperature. The temperature model is CTMI (Rosso et al., 1993), named and cited, with the cooling of the ball in the fridge modelled, which neither of the other two indicates doing. The yeast comes out as a range, every flour carries a confidence rating, the bake journal recalibrates the constants, and the gluten-free mode models the psyllium gel, builds in eleven published doughs (fourteen formulations) and accepts sourdough. All of it in French, English and Italian, without an account, and the full method is explained in an article on this site.

What it does not have, with the same candour: no native app (it is a web page designed for the phone), far fewer years of user feedback than PizzaBlab and far fewer installs than PizzApp+, no fifty-problem troubleshooting guide, and Canadian flour values that are estimates rated C as long as no mill publishes an alveograph. Its sourdough inoculation law is also at confidence C. Those are the lines the bake journal and the next versions must move.

The calculator below is the one just described, open at the advanced level: the fermentation load in hour-equivalents and the yeast range are shown under the weigh-out.

The other tools you come across

• Stadler Made (web): six styles including a gluten-free one, instant yeast, fresh or sourdough, schedule at room temperature, fridge or both. Limited free version, "Plus" at €3.90 a month to set time and temperature. No formula or source published.
• Ooni app (iOS and Android, free): 1 to 100 balls, cold proof from 0 to 72 hours between 1 and 10 °C, room proof from 1 to 72 hours. Method not described.
• Lehmann calculators on pizzamaking.com (web): the ancestors, by ball weight or thickness factor, with a preferment calculator. No yeast model by temperature; the expanded version still asked for Flash at the time of checking.
• Pizza Dough Calculator Basic and Doughy (iOS, free): baker's percentage calculations, with or without preferment, no time-and-temperature model.

How to choose

• You want an app on your phone, in Italian or English, and an answer in ten seconds: PizzApp+.
• You read English, you follow the Lehmann method (balling then fridge right away) and you want a troubleshooting guide next to the calculator: PizzaBlab.
• You want a tool in French, a three-stage schedule at your real temperatures, to know where every figure comes from, or to make gluten-free: Fornello.
• You want to check for yourself: all three are free. Make the same dough with the three doses and note what happens. That is exactly what Fornello's bake journal is built to record.