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The 15 Best Meal Kit Delivery Services for Every Kind of Cook

Even the world’s best home cooks need to call in the cavalry sometimes.

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By Tyler Chin and Johnny Brayson

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If your Grubhub receipts are piling up, you might want to consider a slightly more hands-on food delivery experience: meal kits. Since Blue Apron pioneered meal kit delivery services, companies have cropped up all over the internet touting great meals that even the most amateur chefs can easily make. Each of these services promises something different — whether it be diet-specific meals or pre-prepped ingredients. And with the new year upon us, it’s time to start thinking about your health.

Whether you’ve made a new year’s resolution to get in better shape or not, adding a meal kit delivery service to your arsenal can make it easier to get the nutrition you need — especially with the abundance of health-conscious options available on the market today. They also give you back your time. By pre-measuring out your ingredients and giving you easy-to-follow instructions, meal kits make cooking less of a chore. Or, if you’re even more pressed for time and are looking to ramp up productivity in the new year, then you can even opt for a meal kit delivery service that offers pre-cooked meals that require only a quick zap in the microwave.

We looked into some of the best meal kit delivery services and narrowed it down to the 15 best.

Products in the Guide

What to Consider When Choosing a Meal Kit Delivery Service

Your Lifestyle: These services typically deliver every week. If your weekly routines are varied, you’ll want to find a delivery service that makes it easy to pause and resume delivery (and doesn’t charge you for changes).

Your Tastebuds: All of these services are going to deliver solid ingredients and meals. Some of them may put a premium on expanding customers’ palates, while others might prioritize easy-to-make staples. Browse each option’s sample menus to get a sense of how varied the meals can be.

Your Fridge Space: These meal kit delivery services send out pre-portioned ingredients for each meal. That means you end up with a lot of packages and a limited amount of space in your fridge. The same can be said for services that offer pre-made food.

Your Budget: These delivery services do make getting food on the table easier, but it’s important to note that most kits, from a cost-per-serving perspective, work out to about as much as ordering takeout would, but with the added benefit of cooking the food yourself, thus knowing what you’re eating. Let these services jumpstart your passion for cooking, but they’re not the be-all-end-all for meal prep.

Your Diet: There are meal kit delivery services that cater to all sorts of dietary restrictions now. If you’re vegan, gluten-free, have specific food allergies or all of the above, you’ll be able to find a meal kit delivery service that will cater to your needs (and deliciously).

Best Meal Kit Delivery Services

Blue Apron

Blue ApronBlue Apron

Best Meal Kit for Adventurous Eaters

Blue Apron

  • Cost: $70/week for three meals for two people; $112/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $9 – $11

Blue Apron is a true OG in the meal kit delivery game. Its chef-designed dishes are simple to make and easy to follow. Plus, the whole cooking process can usually be done in under an hour. If you’re looking to try out new flavors in the kitchen, Blue Apron might be your best bet. Expect dishes like coconut curry wonton noodles and za’atar white beans and kale sauté. Where cost is concerned, its meals fall in the upper-middle price bracket.

Our tester has used Blue Apron for years, and he appreciates the amount of global food options offered in any given week. He considers himself an adventurous eater, and Blue Apron makes it easy to try something new and unexpected often. A lot of the recipes look like they wouldn’t work in a million years, but somehow the varied flavors offered by Blue Apron always end up tasting great. Our tester also appreciates how Blue Apron has vastly increased the amount of recyclable packaging they use over the years, as it’s far less wasteful than it used to be. His only real gripe is that the produce could stand to be fresher, as he sometimes has to repurchase vegetables in the supermarket before he has the chance to use them.

Dinnerly

dinnerly gear patrolCourtesy

Best Affordable Meal Kit

Dinnerly

  • Cost: $54/week for three meals for two people; $86/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $7 – $9

Dinnerly goes bare bones for its meal delivery kits to keep prices per serving low for customers. The company uses digital recipe cards, fewer ingredients, minimal packaging and word-of-mouth marketing so you’re just paying for meals. Its menu isn’t innovative — staples include lasagna rollups, carne asada tacos and shrimp scampi — but it gets the job done.

Our tester loved Dinnerly’s low prices, along with the freat assortment of meals to choose from and good portion sizes. But what she loved the most was the learning experience she got from the service, saying she learned so many little tricks about how to whip up sauces and dips, and add veggies into dishes to make them healthier. But she disliked how the boxes didn’t stay cold as long as boxes from her co-op or other meal kits she’s tried, and she didn’t consider Dinnerly’s “healthy” options to be up to her usual standards. Most of all, she disliked the amount of single-use plastics provided by Dinnerly, along with the lack of control over where the brand sources its meat and produce.

EveryPlate

  • Cost: $39/week for three meals for two people; $66/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $5 – $6

EveryPlate makes it easy for those with tight budgets to make delicious and different meals at home. At $5 a serving, it offers one of the cheapest plans in the category. Despite the lower price, the menu options are vast and the food quality is solid — a bit like a more adventurous Dinnerly.

EveryTable

  • Cost: $15 minimum per order
  • Price Per Serving: $6 – $8

EveryTable is hoping to replace McDonald’s in your diet. The company’s goal is to make nutritious food more accessible to everyone, and it offers its nutritious, chef-prepared, ready-to-eat bowls, salads and wraps at fast-food level prices. Expect tasty, crowd-pleasing meals like turkey taco bowls, buffalo chicken wraps and chopped Greek salads.

Factor

  • Cost: $78/week for six meals, $138/week for 12 meals (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $11 – $13

If you’re all about macros, meal prep and going to the gym, then Factor is the meal kit for you. The brand crafts ready-to-eat, microwavable portions with a focus on whole foods and gym-fueling nutrition. Options are available to make your plan keto, vegan, low-calorie or protein-packed, and all of the meals — which range from Indian butter chicken to Louisiana shrimp and broccoli — are dietician-engineered.

Freshly

Editor’s note: As of January 21, 2023, Freshly has discontinued their meal delivery service. You can learn more at the brand’s FAQ page.

  • Cost: $50/week for four meals for one person and goes up to $115/week for 12 meals for one person (shipping costs vary)
  • Price Per Serving: $10 – $13

Freshly meals arrive fully cooked, so all you have to do is microwave and eat. Freshly accommodates a wide range of dietary restrictions, and 100 percent of its menu is gluten-free and peanut-free. A sample menu may include anything from turkey meatloaf to chicken tikka masala. Plus, all of Freshly’s meals come in recyclable packaging. Yay for less guilt.

Gobble

GobbleCourtesy

Best Meal Kit for Saving Time

Gobble

  • Cost: $90/week for three meals for two people; $144/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $12 – $15

Gobble is the meal kit delivery service for those who can’t find their way around the kitchen, but don’t want to get something pre-made. Because the company does most of the prep work for you, meals take around 15 minutes to complete. Ingredients, sourced from local farms and specialty purveyors, come chopped and peeled and ready to handle. Expect dishes like shakshuka with swiss chard and potatoes and Sicilian-style balsamic glazed ahi tuna. Check out Gobble’s Lean & Clean meals for under-600 calorie dishes made with lean meats and healthy fats.

Green Chef

Green-Chef-Gear-PatrolGreen Chef

Best Organic Meal Kit

Green Chef

  • Cost: $81/week for three meals for two people; $104 per week for two meals, served family style, for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $13 – $14 (varies by dietary options)

Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic company with meals like roasted sausages and sauerkraut, streak frites and buttermilk-brined chicken. When selecting a plan, you can choose from keto, paleo, vegan and vegetarian and carnivore menus. Most meals can be completed in under 30 minutes, so a fresh, healthy meal can end up on your table faster than getting delivery.

HelloFresh

  • Cost: $71/week for three meals for two people; $125/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $12

HelloFresh’s meal plans center around flexibility for its subscribers. The company makes it easy to cancel, change meals and delay delivery to accommodate your lifestyle. Each box comes with step-by-step recipe cards, which include nutritional facts. Even if you’re not a subscriber, you can still use HelloFresh’s recipe page for meal inspiration.

Our tester loves the meal options offered by HelloFresh, as well as the fact that the brand runs deals pretty much all the time, making it easy to get a bargain. She also noted that the company lives up to its name — the ingredients generally are very fresh. On the downside, she noted that the portions are a little small, and said that the meals can feel complicated at times — there’s always an extra sauce or something that she wouldn’t have made on her own that can make the meals take longer to prepare than expected.

Home Chef

  • Cost: $50/week minimum order
  • Price Per Serving: $9 (more for customizations)

Rather than paying for a set number of meals per week, Home Chef subscribers choose which dishes they want for the week and pay $7 per meal. Users have the option to customize their meals with upgrades, swapped ingredients or extra helpings of protein, for an added cost. Previous meals have included garlic-parmesan-crusted filet mignon and hot honey salmon. It’s easily the most granular of any meal kit company.

Martha & Marley Spoon

  • Cost: $78/week for three meals for two people; $126/week for three meals for four people (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $10 – $13

Martha Stewart will never prepare you a meal in your own kitchen, but you can subscribe to Martha & Marley Spoon, which will likely be the next best thing. Every week, subscribers choose from 22 recipes to have sent to their door. Meals utilize seasonal ingredients and curated spice blends to create unique flavor combinations. The Martha & Marley Spoon menu runs the gamut in cuisine with dishes like pork katsu, gnocchi and enchiladas. Better yet, these meals are ready in under 30 minutes, all requiring six steps or fewer.

Our tester loved the wide variety of options offered by Marley Spoon, and she said that the meals and ingredients felt *fancier* than other meal kit delivery services she’s tried. Of course, with those fancier ingredients, she also felt the sting of having to pay a bit more out of pocket for Martha’s touch.

Purple Carrot

  • Cost: $80 per week for three meals for two people; $132 per week for three meals for four people (free shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $11 – $13

Vegans and vegetarians can turn to Purple Carrot for a meal kit delivery service that caters to plant-based diets. The company has meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and you can even add ready-to-eat snacks to your weekly box. Subscribers in the past have had kimchi tofu stew and black bean avocado melt kits sent to them. Even if you’re not on a plant-based diet, Purple Carrot is still a great option for those looking for a delicious meal.

Sun Basket

  • Cost: Varies — plans are customizable and start at $10 per serving
  • Price Per Serving: $10 – $16

Sun Basket’s meal kits center around quality ingredients — organic produce, antibiotic- and hormone-free meats and wild-caught seafood — to produce meals that taste great and are good for you. The brand caters to various diets, and all of its meals are approved by dietitians. Examples of what you can expect in a Sun Basket delivery include meals such as spicy Sichuan dan dan noodles and Mediterranean garlic shrimp.

A major criticism of meal kit delivery services is its heavy use of packaging, so Sun Basket went ahead and made its packaging recyclable and compostable. In its efforts to combat poverty, Sun Basket supports local food banks and the nonprofit organization Feeding America.

Thistle

  • Cost: $94/week for six dinners, $160/week for 12 dinners (prices include shipping)
  • Price Per Serving: $13 – $16

Thistle just wants to make you feel better, from the inside out. The brand, which delivers ready-to-eat portions — no prep work or cooking necessary — has a strong focus on highly-nutritious food. Their globally-inspired menu is designed by nutritionists and chefs to be healthy and delicious, and their recipes are plant-forward, superfood-heavy, high on nutrient diversity and free from things like dairy, gluten, refined white sugars and artificial sweeteners, artificial preservatives, additives and dyes.

Veestro

  • Cost: Varies — plans are customizable and start at $11 per serving. Shipping varies from $8 to $13 per delivery
  • Price Per Serving: $11 – $17 (plus shipping)

Veestro’s meal kit service caters to vegans and those with plant-based diets. Not only that, but they arrive to your door fully cooked, ready to be heated up in the microwave, in the oven or on the stove. Users can order meals a la carte, where they have the opt for a variety of dietary preferences such as kosher, gluten-free or high-protein. Choose Veestro’s meal plan service, called Chef’s Choice, to get a set number of meals delivered to your door every week, two weeks or four weeks. A sample menu includes meals such as chick’n shawarma, carrot osso bucco and veggie lasagna.

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