Air fryers are a cool concept, but are they worth the price?

Air fryers promise to make crispy snacks like french fries or mozzarella sticks without having to dunk them into a vat of hot oil.

And while they are quite popular, some can be very expensive. We take a look at several models out there in order to help you decide whether this appliance is worth a spot in your kitchen.

The T-Fal Actifry FZ7002 made the best french fries that we cooked up of all the air fryers we tested. But its high $200 price makes it hard to recommend for anyone that isn't a fry fanatic. Other foods like wings did not cook as well, and the risotto we attempted came out bad.

The T-Fal also has a very simple control set, in which you can only turn the cooker on or off. You do not have control over its temperature like you do with other air fryers.

This $300 air fryer has several preset cooking modes for foods like french fries.

This air fryer was good with heating frozen fried foods, but stumbled with fresh items like chicken wings.

This air fryer is easy to use and clean. At $250, it's the least expensive Philips model that we tested.

A glorified countertop toaster oven, this single trick gadget does too little and costs too much.

Simple Chef's air fryer was the most affordable cooker we tested, and one of the easiest to keep clean, too. It never undercooked our food.

The Simple Chef HF-898 is a perfectly respectable air fryer, but like other air fryers, it doesn't offer much more than the common toaster oven.

The Fry Delight makes sense as a second oven, or as a dedicated appliance for frozen apps and sides, but doesn't do anything we haven't seen with a toaster oven.

The DeLonghi MultiFry 1363 isn't as flexible as an Instant Pot, but air-fries food well with less oil.