The Best Muffin Pans of 2026

The Anolon Advanced Muffin Pan carries a premium price, but you can immediately feel the quality. It's a heavy-duty pan with silicone grips on the ends that make it comfortable to grasp.

Everything we baked in it came out perfectly. Muffins and popovers had dark golden crusts, and when we taste-tested the popovers, we were happy to find them moist, eggy, and hollow inside.

Although the manufacturer recommends hand washing this pan, its nonstick finish makes it easy to clean.

The OXO Good Grips Nonstick Pro 12-Cup Muffin Pan has a golden nonstick finish that promotes even browning and prevents an overly thick, dark crust from forming.

It turned out crispy but tender blueberry muffins, delectable cupcakes, and popped-up popovers with tunnels inside.

This hefty pan has a wide rim with plenty of room to grasp it from all sides. But the large rim also means it takes up extra storage space.

The GoodCook Sweet Creations Bake-Take-Serve Nonstick Cupcake Pan Set with Tiered Stand gives you a lot for your money. The pan itself is fairly basic, with a light-gray nonstick finish. But it includes a securely latching lid with a handle for carrying your goodies to a bake sale or potluck. Five pieces stashed in the lid easily assemble into a three-tier stand to display your creations.

This pan is dependable for muffins and cupcakes. However, although our popovers rose high above the pan, they had the texture of muffins.

Thanks to a rim that extends slightly at the ends, the GoodCook is easy to grasp when you're popping it in or out of the oven.

The USA Pan 12-Cup Muffin Pan feels solidly built and has a light, silvery silicone nonstick coating that gives baked goods a beautiful golden color. However, it baked less evenly than other pans, and the popovers barely puffed and had a muffin-like interior.

A large rim, particularly at the ends, makes this pan easy to maneuver. Although it's hand-wash only, the nonstick finish means it cleans up quickly.

The Chicago Metallic Professional 12-Cup Nonstick Muffin Pan is a sturdy pan with a dark silicone-based nonstick finish. Both cupcakes and muffins came out perfectly, but popovers barely rose and lacked the characteristic hollow interior.

A slightly extended rim on either end gives you something to grip when moving the pan. The manufacturer calls for hand washing.

Although it's a plain Jane, the AmazonBasics Nonstick Carbon Steel Muffin Pan does a solid job of baking. Things cook a bit less evenly than in some of our top-rated pans, and muffins tend to come out darker, but they brown without burning and have a moist, tender texture.

Popovers puffed up well, too, with the custard-like hollow centers that make them so beloved.

The cups in this pan are slightly smaller than standard, which barely affected cupcakes and popovers but caused muffins to spread out, forming a cap. If you love muffin tops, there's more crusty goodness to pull off and munch on.

The pan has no handles or extended edges to grip, but with care, you can manage to get it in and out of the oven. Plus, that slim profile means it takes up minimal storage space. You'll have to hand wash the AmazonBasics, but the nonstick finish makes it practically effortless to clean.

This pan comes in a set of two.

Rather than metal, the Trudeau Structured Silicone Muffin Pan is made of silicone—a material that doesn't retain heat as well as metal. Our baked goods browned less than the ones we made in nonstick metal pans. The straight-sided cups also make removing items after baking slightly more difficult.

The pan is reinforced with steel, so it doesn't wobble when you carry it. However, the silicone cups still make it a bit unstable, so you'll need two hands to maneuver it. Grips help you hold it securely. When it comes to cleanup, you can pop this pan in the dishwasher without a second thought.

I wanted to love the classic Nordic Ware Naturals 12-Cavity Muffin Pan, which looks a lot like the one my mother used. It's made of aluminum and is the only one I tested without a nonstick finish. Unfortunately, no matter how well I greased the wells, everything stuck badly, leaving me with messy-looking baked goods and gunk to scrub off the pan.

In this pan, everything took about five minutes longer to bake—yet browned less. That said, muffins and popovers did have a delectably thin, crispy crust.

Because the Nordic Ware's rim is small, take care when handling it. You'll need to hand wash it to keep the aluminum from discoloring. On the plus side, this pan is small, easy to store, and comes with a handy plastic storage lid.