So let's start with the difference between grilling and smoking foods. Grilling foods is direct heat, and the food is cooked over a short period of time. Smoking foods is done via indirect heat over a longer period of time compared to grilling foods.

Now, all pellet grills are also smokers. However, not all pellet smokers are also pellet grills.

There are horizontal models, these look similar to a gas grill. The horizontal models are pellet grills and they also have the ability to be a pellet smoker as well.

However, there are also vertical models that look like a small cabinet on wheels. Now, vertical models are purely pellet smokers, they don't have any grilling capabilities as they cannot get hot enough to grill.

Now, there are certain horizontal pellet grills/smokers that max out at 450/500 degrees, which many people will argue is not hot enough to properly grill as temperatures north of 650 degrees are desired by many people. 

Therefore, this has led to comments such as 'pellet grills aren't grills!' etc. However, it really depends on the pellet grill in question, as there are many pellet grills that can provide temperatures of 650 to 700 degrees at their grates, which you can find with our Database, link below.