A good quality saucepan is a kitchen essential. Whether you’re warming baked beans, boiling potatoes for creamy mash, making jam, or melting chocolate in a bain-marie, these humble little pans are not only versatile but essential.
If you’re like us and you love high-quality cookware, or even if you’re simply being practical as your old saucepan is on its last legs, there are myriad questions you need to ask yourself before you buy. How much space do you have? What size do you need? What hob type do you have?
We’d advise choosing the best saucepan you can afford as you’ll likely be using it daily and thin, cheap saucepans are not built to last. If you’re looking for a whole new collection, head over to our best pan sets review. We’ve tested a whole host of pans, including the best frying pans, best sauté pans, best casserole dishes and many more.
Best saucepans at a glance
- Best non-stick saucepan: Ninja Foodi Zerostick 16cm saucepan, £29.99
- Best stainless-steel saucepan: Samuel Groves stainless steel tri-ply saucepan, £98
- Best hybrid saucepan: Circulon C Series SteelShield saucepan, from £71.99
- Best investment saucepan: Le Creuset 3-ply stainless-steel saucepan, from £169
- Best saucepan for students: Judge Vista draining saucepan, £25
- Best microwave-safe saucepan: Kitchen Craft 900ml microwave saucepan, £12.99
How we test saucepans
When testing saucepans we look at four key areas:
- How efficient it is to cook with
- Whether its well built and built to last
- Nicely weighted and balanced on the hob
- Easy to store
Each saucepan was tested by cooking a variety of simple and commonly cooked foods. To test how easy the saucepan is to clean and its non-stick capabilities, we cooked porridge.
We tested how controlled the saucepan was when cooking at lower temperatures by slowly caramelising onions. And to check that the saucepan distributed heat evenly by boiling water for pasta, we boiled the pasta with the lid on to check that the saucepan wouldn’t boil over.
Best saucepans to buy in 2026
Ninja Foodi Zerostick 16cm saucepan
Available from Robert Dyas (£29.99)
Best non-stick saucepan
Sleek in appearance with an impressive non-stick coating, these Ninja pans thoroughly impressed us in our tests. They’re currently available in sizes 16cm and 20cm and are an absolute must-buy if you’re in the market for a new non-stick saucepan.
The handle is slim, making it comfortable to cook with, but be aware that it can get hot. For added versatility, the saucepan is oven safe to 260C and dishwasher-safe too.
Nothing stuck to this pan, it distributed heat evenly and we felt fully in control cooking with it. For a review of the full range, read our Ninja Foodi Zerostick saucepan set review.
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Samuel Groves stainless-steel tri-ply saucepan
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Best stainless-steel saucepan
Handmade in England, this saucepan from Samuel Groves is expensive but an absolutely worthwhile investment piece. This versatile and beautifully designed saucepan is oven-safe up to 260C and is metal utensil-safe.
Although it’s an uncoated saucepan, nothing stuck in test. We found it easy to control and maintained heat well on both high and low temperatures. Although the lid rattled a little, the saucepan did not boil over when cooking pasta.
These pieces are built to last and come with Samuel Groves’ ‘pan for life’ scheme. For a review of the full range, read our Samuel Groves stainless steel tri-ply three-piece set review.
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Circulon C Series SteelShield saucepan
Available from Circulon (from £71.99)
Best hybrid saucepan
You’ll notice our top two saucepans have two seemingly opposing qualities: one is non-stick, the other is uncoated. Both are desirable qualities in a saucepan and Circulon has managed to create a hybrid of the two. This saucepan cooks like non-stick but produces a stainless steel-like finish.
All in all, this saucepan cooked very well: it’s quick to come to temperature and cooks food gently and at a high-sear very well. Our one gripe with this pan is that it’s difficult to get foods super smooth as bits gather in the Circulon grooves at the base of the pan, so foods like custard have the potential to become lumpy.
But there are additional useful features, like the pans being oven-safe to 260C, as well as dishwasher-safe and metal utensil-safe. For a review of the full range, read our Circulon C Series Steel Shield three-piece pan set review.
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Le Creuset three-ply stainless steel saucepan
Available from Le Creuset (from £169)
Best investment saucepan
Combining good looks with second-to-none construction, this saucepan will be used in your kitchen for years to come. The triple-layer stainless steel ensures even, constant heat and the solid lid make cooking with less water possible, locking in steam and flavour.
Laser-etched measurements inside the pans and curved rims for no-spill pouring only made us love them more. The saucepan may be on the heavier side for some, but an extra ‘helper’ handle makes lifting easy, even when full.
For a review of the full range, read our Le Creuset three-ply stainless steel saucepan set review.
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Judge Vista draining saucepan
Available from Judge (£25)
Best saucepan for students
No student should start uni without a new saucepan. The Judge Vista saucepan comes with an inbuilt strainer, so you can take colander off the to-buy list. Additional useful features include pouring lips either side of the pan and volume markings inside.
This saucepan excels at basic cooking tasks that will be student staples, such as heating through sauces and cooking pasta. But if you’re a budding chef, you might need something more versatile as this pan is only oven safe to 150C and we did notice some sticking.
For a review of the full range, read our Judge Vista 3-piece saucepan set review.
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Kitchen Craft 900ml microwave saucepan
Available from Amazon (£12.99)
Best microwave-safe saucepan
Who says that you can’t use pans in the microwave? If you like to grab the first thing you can to warm up baked beans or that handful of frozen peas this may become your new favourite gadget!
It’s made from stain-resistant plastic (so hopefully won’t go bright orange the first time you cook carrots in it) and has the handy design of dual pouring spouts, which is a bonus for left handers. The two side vents open to cook in the microwave and close to store food in the refrigerator.
We bet that once you start using one of these you’ll be amazed at how much more efficiently your microwave works – it’s a great way of cooking frozen spinach for one.
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How to choose the best saucepan
For lots of detailed buying advice, head to our best pan sets review to find all the best information about materials, weight, hob suitability, oven proofing and cleaning preferences.
As a general rule of thumb, your saucepan should be ‘just right’ weight-wise; not too heavy that it causes your arm to strain, but equally not so light that it’s easily knocked or feels cheap.
If you like to put your pans in the oven to finish cooking, choose one that’s oven-safe to a high temperature – we’d suggest anything over 180C. Although we’d generally recommend always hand-washing your pans, life is busy for many of us, so dishwasher-safe pans are a real plus.
Many of the brands on this list offer saucepans in a range of sizes. Decide which size you need before you buy.
- 14cm: Great for heating up small quantities, like single servings of milk or heating through small sauce garnishes.
- 16cm: Still for small quantities, good for single soups or baked beans.
- 18cm: For two portions of pasta, a small portion of pasta sauce, also a good size for using a bain-marie for hollandaise or melting chocolate.
- 20cm: Ideal for three or four portions of pasta sauce, great for family-sized portions.
- 22cm and above: Here, you’re moving into stockpot territory.
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