If the smoke is backdrafting into the house, whether open fireplace or insert, your issue is one of draft, not type. Either your house is too tight or your chimney is not drafting correctly, or both.
Even with an insert, the smoke should not puff back into the house if the draft is working well. You either need to add more fresh air to the fire (via a second pipe/flue. Or the more expensive route of an air/heat exchanger)
An easy test for this is to slightly open a window in the room with the fireplace. If there is no puff back during operation while the window is open, you have a draft/air issue. Clearly not a method to use as a permanent fix.
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