If you ever use your oven—and we’re guessing you use your oven—you need a good sheet pan. Baking batches of cookies? Sheet pan. Roasting vegetables or a chicken? Sheet pan. Cake for a crowd? Sheet cake… which you make in a sheet pan. Need an easy meal that isn’t an air fryer or Instant Pot meal? Hellooo, sheet-pan dinner.

Our top pick

With so much versatility, there’s a good chance you’ll use this piece of bakeware more than any other in your kitchen, so you want to get the right one. We did the heavy lifting, testing popular baking sheets so you can choose the one that’ll be a perfect partner through years of Thanksgiving hosting, weeknight dinner scrambling, and emergency cookie-making.

New in this update: We’ve added testing information on nonstick baking sheets, and an explanation as to why we don’t recommend them.

The best baking sheet overall: Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Half-Sheet

Several rounds of testing have proven the Nordic Ware pan to be the best out there—and one of the most affordable. It’s this mix of quality and value that earns it a top spot on our list.

What we love: It’s made of 20-gauge uncoated light aluminum, which means it gets hot quickly but also evenly, producing crispy, golden brown results—whether you’re roasting veggies for a sheet-pan dinner or baking cookies.

The rolled edges help the pan resist warping when subjected to high temperatures. Most sheet pans will start to bend at some point during their lifespan, but the Nordic Ware stays flat for longer than its competitors. When it does warp, it tends to bulge in the middle rather than fold in on the sides, which we find easier to work with.

Generally, we try to avoid recommending products that you know you’ll have to replace. However, aluminum is one of the easiest and most efficient materials to recycle on earth, so we think it’s okay here.

What we’d leave: The surface of this aluminum sheet pan will stain and discolor over time, though this won’t impact the quality of your food and isn’t itself a cause for replacing the pan. The warping that will inevitably happen after several years of consistent use, however, is your sign to recycle the old pans and get a new pack. Generally, we try to avoid recommending products that you know you’ll have to replace, but aluminum is one of the easiest and most efficient materials to recycle on earth.