We Got Our Hand on All Versions of the Ninja Creami, and Here's What We Think (2024)

You might already be familiar with the Ninja Creami — especially if you're on TikTok. It's an ice cream maker that went viral this past summer and sold out in many stores and online. It comes in two different sizes: the seven-in-one version and the deluxe, 11-in-1 version. A third model, the Ninja Creami Breeze, is now discontinued, but we've tested all three models in the Good Housekeeping Institute.

How is the Ninja Creami different than a regular ice cream maker?

The Ninja Creami works differently than most of our top-tested ice cream makers. With many traditional ice cream makers, you freeze an insulated freezer bowl, pour in your ingredients and churn the mixture into ice cream and then freeze that ice cream (or eat it straight away like soft serve!). The Creami flips the script by having you first freeze your ingredients overnight — or longer — in the provided containers and then blend them whenever you're ready to enjoy. It's similar to a Pacojet, a high-end micro-pureeing appliance that's commonly found in restaurants and can cost upwards of $7,000.

The Ninja Creami also makes smaller batches of ice cream than you typically can make in a traditional home ice cream maker — that's one of the things that excited us most when we tested it the first time. The seven-in-one version comes with two 2-cup containers; the 11-in-1 version comes with two 3-cup containers. In contrast, almost all traditional home ice cream makers include a half-gallon freezer bowl that can make up to four cups of ice cream at a time. If you want to make two different flavors with a traditional ice cream maker, you need to empty, wash and re-freeze the bowl. The Ninja Creami allows you to make at least two different ice creams in a row — and even more if you buy additional containers.

Another detail that makes the Ninja Creami so desirable is that it can make different styles of ice cream. The seven-in-one version can make ice cream, lite ice cream, gelato, sorbet, smoothie bowls and milkshakes; the 11-in-1 version can make all of those plus frozen yogurt, creamiccinos, frozen drinks, slushies and Italian ice. Both versions can blend mix-ins, and both allow you to use different types of ingredients so you can customize your recipes based on your dietary needs and preferences (i.e. dairy-free, just frozen fruit, etc).

How the Ninja Creami performed in our tests

In the Good Housekeeping Institute's Kitchen Appliances Lab, we test all sorts of products related to cooking, drinking and eating. Over the years, we've tested nearly 20 ice cream makers, and our team of food experts and recipe developers use them often at home.

When we tested the Ninja Creami, we were impressed with its performance. The seven-in-one version won a Kitchen Gear Award in 2021 for being so innovative compared with ice cream makers we'd used in the past and that were on the market. The first time we tried it in the Kitchen Appliances Lab, we used a vanilla ice cream base to make ice cream and gelato. Both came out creamy and delicious, and they both had surprisingly different textures. As one would hope and expect, the gelato was lighter and creamier than the more dense ice cream. Neither required freezing after processing as most batches from traditional ice cream makers do to make them less soft and more scoopable.

We also used the Ninja Creami to make two of the recipes included in the accompanying booklet: Cookies 'n Cream and Death by Chocolate. These recipes have similar bases (milk, heavy cream, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract), and each used the machine's mix-in feature. The frozen ingredient mixture processed nicely, but once it was time to add the mix-ins, it was a little hard to create a divot in the center of the ice cream to fill with the mix-ins as instructed. When we re-processed the mixture, the mix-ins didn't distribute as evenly as we'd expected, but the final result still tasted delicious!

In addition to running tests in the Lab, we sent eight Creamis home with some very excited consumers and several editors from our Test Kitchen. They made an array of recipes from ice cream and milkshakes to sorbets, margaritas and "nice cream" made with just bananas as the base. Each tester agreed that the Ninja Creami was easy to use. One said that they "loved having total control over the ingredients." Several commented on its speed — a traditional ice cream maker can take around 20 minutes to churn while the Ninja Creami can blend a container in about four minutes.

One thing to note is that the Ninja Creami is loud when it's processing. It can be compared to the volume of a blender. In addition, some people didn't love having to wait a full 24 hours for the base to freeze before blending, and a few mentioned that they sometimes had to blend the ice cream a couple of times to get a good consistency.

The takeaway: Is the Ninja Creami worth it?

Yes, we think the Ninja Creami is a unique appliance that performs well. It's fun for parents, college students and anyone looking to experiment with their own ingredients. It's also great for entertaining and makes a great gift.

We'd recommend buying the Ninja Creami if you enjoy trying new appliances and recipes and are looking for a quick, customizable snack or dessert (even though you do have to prep the ingredients in advance). We particularly liked how many different styles of desserts and snacks we could make with it. It's easy to use and feels like a product we'll continue having fun with even after owning it for a while.

If you'd rather churn ice cream the old-fashioned way, are looking to make big batches or don't plan to make ice cream often, consider a traditional ice cream maker, which is typically less pricey.

Why trust Good Housekeeping?

Ice cream lover Nicole Papantoniou tested each version of the Ninja Creami for this review. As director of the Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, she has also tested numerous traditional ice cream makers. She is a recipe developer trained in classic culinary arts and culinary nutrition.