We Tested All the Ninja Creami Machines to Find the Best One

Tested by Beth Lipton, Jessica Harlan, Rachel Trujillo and Chelsea Collier

Ninja first took kitchens by storm in 2009 when it introduced a blender meant to rival Vitamix and BlendTec, but at a fraction of the price. Since then, the company has expanded to offer affordable, thoughtfully designed countertop appliances to hit every hot product category, from air fryers to multicookers to soda makers.

The Ninja Creami line, Ninja's line of countertop ice cream makers, first hit the market in 2021 with the Ninja Creami Breeze that went viral on TikTok, selling out products nationwide. While that model has since been discontinued, the company still has three ice cream makers in its assortment: the Ninja Creami, the Ninja Creami Deluxe and the Ninja Swirl by Creami. We've tested all three models to see which one could make ice cream that rivaled that of our favorite scoop shop and found one to be a clear winner for ice cream lovers. Read on for our reviews.

What Is the Ninja Creami?

The Ninja Creami ice cream makers promise to make a variety of frozen desserts and drinks. The Ninja Creami has seven preset functions: Ice Cream, Sorbet, Lite Ice Cream, Smoothie Bowl, Gelato and Milkshake.

The Ninja Creami Deluxe has 10 preset functions divided between Scoopable and Drinkable options. Scoopable programs include Ice Cream, Lite Ice Cream, Sorbet, Gelato, Frozen Yogurt and Creami Italian Ice. The Drinkable programs include Creamiccino, Frozen Drink, Slushi and Milkshake, plus a Mix-In option. It's worth noting that the Deluxe version lacks the Smoothie Bowl program that the Creami model has.

The Ninja Swirl by Creami has 13 preset functions divided between Scoopable and Soft Serve options. Scoopable programs include Ice Cream, Lite Ice Cream, Sorbet, Gelato, Frozen Yogurt and Milkshake, plus a Mix-In option. The Soft Serve programs include Ice Cream, Lite Ice Cream, Fruit Whip, Frozen Custard, soft Frozen Yogurt and Creamifit.

How Does the Ninja Creami Work?

Most conventional ice cream makers come with a bulky freezer bowl that must be frozen before use. The chilled ice cream base is poured into the freezer bowl, and a paddle churns the mixture until it's frozen to the desired consistency, which often takes as long as 30 minutes.

The Ninja Creami models work a little differently: The ice cream base is prepared and frozen for 24 hours in one of the two provided containers. (It's worth noting that while the company calls them "pints," these containers actually hold 24 ounces each.) When it's time to make ice cream, the container fits inside a larger container, which is covered with a lid that holds a metal blending blade called a Creamerizer Paddle.

After the appropriate program is selected, the appliance gets to work. The rapidly spinning blade shaves and mixes the frozen-solid contents, boring its way to the bottom as the ice cream becomes creamy, and then reverses to blend the ice cream mixture as it returns to the top.

Chocolate chips, fruit, nuts and other mix-ins can be added to the churned ice cream by making a well in the center of the finished ice cream with a spoon and using the Mix-In setting to combine them. You can even make two different flavors by processing the mix-ins in just the top part of the ice cream, scooping it out and adding a different ingredient to the bottom half.

The Ninja Creami Deluxe has a digital countdown timer and lights that indicate when the bowl isn't assembled correctly and what program is being selected. A spinning dial is used to select the setting, and the dial is pressed to begin the program.

What's the Difference Between the Ninja Creami and Ninja Creami Deluxe?

The biggest difference between the Ninja Creami and Ninja Creami Deluxe is the settings. The Ninja Creami contains a Smoothie Bowl setting, and the Ninja Creami Deluxe does not. The Ninja Creami Deluxe has frozen drink settings that the Creami lacks. Overall, the Ninja Creami has fewer settings, with only seven, and the Creami Deluxe has 11.

How We Tested the Ninja Creami

We acquired a Ninja Creami and evaluated how simple it was to set up (very) and whether there were recipes included (there were). We made three recipes: vanilla ice cream (with egg yolks), a smoothie bowl and an ice cream from the included recipe booklet. We also noted how simple the parts are to clean.

Smoothie Bowls Were the Standout

Smoothie bowls were the standout of this machine. To say we were impressed with the smoothie bowl feature would be an understatement: The texture was thick and creamy (similar to the gelato and sorbet feature), and the recipe was simple but beyond flavorful. If you're experiencing homemade smoothies that taste watered down or smoothie bowls with texture more closely resembling a smoothie, this machine is your new must-have.

Our only caveat was that we did have to run the smoothie bowl setting twice to get our desired texture (after one pass, it was slightly crumbly). In our opinion, this machine is worth it solely for making smoothie bowls, which we have served for both breakfast and dessert.

After a few rounds of trial and error, we found that the standard ice cream setting wasn't giving us as good results as the smoothie bowl setting. While the flavor was there, and the process of mixing the ingredients, freezing overnight and selecting a one-touch setting was equally easy, the resulting texture was a little drier and more crumbly than smooth and creamy, almost resembling Dippin' Dots.

We tested out the mix-in feature with the ice cream and were surprised by how well it incorporated the cookies and chocolate evenly throughout the bowl. For a fun activity, it gave results that would pass as dessert, but not something that would replace buying ice cream at the store.

How We Tested the Ninja Creami Deluxe

We wanted to see if the Ninja Creami Deluxe worked as well on recipes developed by Ninja for its products as it did on other ice cream recipes. We chose two different vanilla ice cream recipes to try out with the Ninja Creami Deluxe.

The first recipe, Food Network Kitchen's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, is a traditional recipe using heavy cream, milk, sugar, vanilla,and egg yolks in a cooked custard. The second recipe we used, from Ninja's website, was Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips. The recipe is also in the booklet that came in the box, but the recipe in the booklet has different ingredient measurements and seems to be scaled up to make a larger quantity. It includes heavy cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla extract, and a little cream cheese whisked into the mixture, which acts as a binder to reduce the formation of ice crystals.

Smoothie bowls continue to be having a moment, and the Smoothie Bowl program was one of the big selling points for Ninja's first two ice cream maker models. While the Deluxe doesn't have a Smoothie Bowl setting — and doesn't offer smoothie bowl recipes compatible with this model — we wanted to see if one of the Ninja smoothie bowl recipes would work using the Ninja Creami Deluxe. We used the Strawberry Banana Protein Smoothie Bowl recipe, which has instructions for use with both the Breeze and the basic Creami model, but not the Deluxe model.

With all three recipes, we evaluated how easy and convenient the recipe was to prepare, and evaluated the finished texture, mouthfeel and flavor. We also reviewed the instruction manual and other materials to see how easy it was to use the model in general, and evaluated whether the machine and all its parts are easy to clean.

Recipes Turned Out as Promised (With a Caveat)

We tested both ice cream recipes by freezing the bases for a full 24 hours as directed and then processing using the ice cream setting, which takes two minutes. Both ice creams turned out delicious, but there was definitely a favorite. Food Network Kitchen's cooked-custard vanilla ice cream churned up super-thick and creamy right off the bat. It was easy to scoop, had no ice crystals and had a similar lush mouthfeel to premium ice cream brands. It also didn't melt quickly and was still fairly scoopable when it was refrozen and checked a day later.

The Ninja recipe, which was quick and easy to mix up and required no cooking and cooling, had a pebbly, crumbly appearance when it was scooped with a spoon, though it did coalesce into a smooth, creamy scoop. The pebbly texture is a common enough result that Ninja has included a Re-Spin function on the touchpad. (The manual explains that the crumbly consistency is often the result of a very cold base.) This function will churn the ice cream again for a few moments, and sure enough, it made the Ninja recipe smooth and creamy. The recipe had a lighter, thinner texture than the Food Network recipe and wasn't quite as flavorful. Despite the inclusion of the cream cheese, it also had a bit of iciness. However, this recipe was so much less involved and laborious, and is certainly appealing for beginner home cooks.

We tried the Mix Ins function, following the directions to add chocolate chips to the Ninja ice cream recipe by making a well in the middle of the mixture. The process was a little fussy, but it worked: The chips were distributed evenly throughout the mixture.

For the smoothie bowl recipe, we opted for the Lite Ice Cream program, which is suitable for mixtures that don't have a high fat content and seemed to be the closest program to the Smoothie Bowl program on the original Creami machines. On the Lite Ice Cream setting, the motor sounded like it was straining, and there was a slight burning smell, but the machine powered through and began processing the frozen mixture. It took two cycles of the four-minute program for the machine to process the ingredients completely, and even then, some unblended fruit could be seen near the top. It took one more cycle, using the setting to process just the top of the blending jar, to blend the smoothie bowl base completely, but it was worth the extra time: The mixture had a luscious texture: smooth, thick and creamy, although it started melting quickly.

Overall, we think the Ninja Creami Deluxe is a versatile appliance for anyone who loves frozen treats. In addition to the variations on ice cream and sorbets, the machine can make frozen drinks, ranging from slushies to Frappuccino dupes to frozen alcoholic drinks like margaritas. The process is like a hybrid between a blender and an ice cream maker: The base ingredients are frozen for 24 hours in one of the pint containers, then a liquid is added to the container and processed using one of the drinkable settings.

What Is the Ninja Swirl by Creami?

The Ninja Swirl by Creami is the newest frozen dessert machine from Ninja, and it builds on the brand's original Creami technology. The key difference between other Ninja Creami machines and the new Swirl model is the addition of soft serve functionality. While other Creami machines focus solely on traditional scoopable desserts, the Swirl expands possibilities with six new soft-serve specific processing presets and allows users to dispense directly from the machine into bowls or cones. The Swirl also introduces the new CreamiFit setting, which caters specifically to those seeking lower-calorie or protein-rich dessert options.

The right side of the Swirl by Creami is like that of the original, where users can load pre-frozen pints into the machine to be processed using the creamizer paddle at the touch of a button. After processing, pints can be loaded directly onto the Swirl-specific left side of the machine, which, at the pull of a lever, presses frozen treats through built-in nozzles on the pints to create a swirled soft serve consistency.

How We Tested the Ninja Swirl

We tested the Ninja Swirl by making several recipes across different categories: soft-serve ice cream, fruit whip, CreamiFit ice cream, frozen yogurt and mix-ins. We began by thoroughly reviewing the included quick-start guide, which made initial setup intuitive and straightforward. The Swirl comes out of the box with sticker labels on all its key parts, which we found helpful. The machine came fully assembled and ready to go.

Versatile Functions and Settings Are Great for Small Gatherings

To test the machine's classic soft serve capabilities, we prepared a classic vanilla ice cream base following Food Network Kitchen's recipe and froze it in the provided pint for a full 24 hours as recommended by Ninja. We then loaded the pint and processed it on the soft-serve ice cream function, running the machine through a single two-minute cycle. The soft serve came out smooth after processing; however, it did melt quickly. We tested again by processing on the scoop ice cream setting, which yielded a much firmer and more desirable texture when dispensed through the soft serve press.

We tested the fruit whip using Ninja's tropical fruit recipe. Prep time was less than five minutes, and we froze it for 24 hours before processing. (Ninja recommends all recipes be frozen for 24 hours prior to processing to ensure they are frozen solid, though we noticed some recipes freeze faster.) The processing on this cycle lasted around two minutes, producing a mostly smooth texture with minor pineapple chunks. A second cycle on the "re-spin" setting was needed to fully smooth out ice crystals and achieve a consistent, soft texture ideal for dispensing.

CreamiFit is the Swirl's protein ice cream setting. For our recipe, we used a store-bought whey protein shake, though one scoop of any protein powder combined with any milk works for CreamiFit recipes as well. We used Ninja's chocolate recipe from the included recipe booklet, which called for added pudding mix, cocoa powder and vanilla. We processed it once on the CreamiFit setting, which took approximately five minutes per cycle. The result was creamy, although we noticed slight unevenness and ice crystals around the pint edges. A brief re-spin helped achieve complete smoothness.

Using store-bought yogurt, we added honey and froze it for 24 hours before running the frozen yogurt setting, which lasts about four minutes. After the first cycle, the texture was crumbly, so we conducted an additional spin, which achieved the desired creamy texture.

What we love most about the Swirl by Creami is that it's undeniably fun. With countless recipes to try, making your own ice cream doesn't get old. That said, the Swirl is nearly double the size of the original Creami, making it tough to store and a big commitment for your countertop. For smaller kitchens or simpler needs, we'd steer you toward the Ninja Creami or Creami Deluxe.

What the Ninja Creami Machines Could Do Better

There are a few things that kept us from completely loving the Ninja Creami machines.

First of all, they're a little daunting and confusing to use right out of the box. There are three separate documents with instructions: a glossy quick start guide, a recipe booklet with tips, and a black-and-white paper pamphlet that at first glance seems like just safety instructions, but actually contains valuable information about features, usage and care.

This is definitely not a product you can unbox and use right away, especially since every recipe except a milkshake requires a 24-hour wait for the ingredients to freeze. With a few uses, the Ninja Creami Deluxe gets easier to use confidently, and buying a few extra pints makes it possible to always have an ice cream base ready to make.

Finally, this thing is bulky! At nearly 7 inches wide, 12 inches deep, and nearly 17 inches tall, the Ninja Creami Deluxe is slimmer but deeper than a traditional ice cream maker like Cuisinart's, and much taller. This makes it too big to store in a cabinet or a pantry, so it'll have to live on the counter, where it will just barely fit under most upper cabinets.

What's the Best Ninja Creami?

Big fans of frozen treats will truly appreciate the versatility of the Ninja Creami Deluxe. As a hybrid between a blender and an ice cream churn, this product can make so many delicious ice creams, frozen cocktails, fruity sorbets, custom milkshakes and concrete-style treats. It's great for families with kids or folks who love to come up with the most creative flavor combinations.

Families and those with dietary restrictions might also love this product with some trial and error to come up with the best frozen treats to meet their needs, whether that's dairy-free, celiac or other specific allergies. With dishwasher-safe parts and short processing programs, the Ninja Creami Deluxe is a great way to have homemade ice cream treats on hand with a little advanced planning.

If you're a serious fan of smoothie bowls, you might find the Ninja Creami to be a useful kitchen tool; however, we don't recommend it for ice cream treats.

If you can't get enough of swirled soft-serve ice cream in a cone, then we recommend the Ninja Swirl by Creami. However, it does come at a higher price tag that some may deem unnecessary.

Why You Should Trust Our Testers

A graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, Jessica Harlan has been a cooking equipment reviewer and recipe developer for more than 20 years. She has written nine cookbooks.

Rachel Trujillo is an experienced shopping editor and writer with more than five years of product testing experience. She started her testing at FoodNetwork.com and has reviewed numerous categories of kitchen products from ice cream scoops to popcorn makers.

Beth Lipton is an expert product tester, freelance journalist and recipe developer. She has experience testing products in numerous product categories, including blenders, ice cream makers, food processors and more.

Chelsea Collier spent two semesters working as a commerce editorial intern for Food Network. She has hands-on experience teaching and assisting youth cooking classes and is an avid home cook.

Why You Should Trust Food Network Shopping Experts

Food Network Shopping Experts believe the best method for testing products is based on how our fans are going to use them in the real world. In each of our Tested and Reviewed stories, products are tested in real home kitchens that reflect real-world use cases. Our testers follow rigorous testing rubrics designed by our expert editors and take copious notes during the testing process. When choosing the best products, our testers evaluate all of the testing data and take into consideration many factors, including ease of use, price, product availability and practicality. The products covered on FoodNetwork.com are chosen completely independently by our editors without any outside influence. Our editors do not accept products in exchange for a positive review or promised coverage.

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