You love the idea of cooking, but hate the prep and cleanup. You don't want to go to the grocery store, but still want to eat inventive meals. You're learning to cook, but don't want to buy a $9 jar of sauce you've never heard of for just one recipe (especially in this economy!). You have zero time to shop, prep, or make meals, but you still want nutritious options. Meal delivery services are the answer to these dilemmas, and many others.
But which meal delivery service is the best for you? We've eaten our way through many services to help you decide. Read on for our top picks, followed by what to look for when selecting a service.
Blue Apron Meal Delivery Service
Best for Novice Chefs
Why We Picked It
Blue Apron is an Editors’ Choice service that fills your belly and educates you about food. Beyond walking you through recipes, the instructions teach you about cooking and encourage you to become more creative as a home chef.
Who It’s For
Blue Apron is for anyone who wants to learn how to cook, not just receive easy meals. The service even lets you buy groceries and cookware to help you make meals from scratch.
PROS
- Great range of flavors
- Detailed instructions for cooks who are learning
- Wine and grocery add-ons available
- All-vegetarian subscription available
- Speedy attention to customers
- Shipping included with most plans
CONS
- Not suitable for anyone with food allergies, or vegan, keto, or paleo diets
Green Chef Meal Delivery Service
Best for Fresh, Vegetable-Forward Meals
Why We Picked It
Want to eat healthier? Green Chef is a delivery service that makes it a breeze to eat more fresh vegetables. You can rest easy knowing that the plant-focused meals you cook will be as healthy as they are delicious.
Who It’s For
Green Chef is an Editors’ Choice pick for vegan and vegetarian diets. Meat eaters will find a few keto and paleo offerings, but vegetables are the real star of this excellent food service.
PROS
- Delicious vegetable-heavy menus
- Appeals to all manner of healthy, plant-focused diets
- Superb quality
CONS
- Watch out for unwanted ingredients in sauces
- Unnecessary plastic in packaging
HelloFresh Meal Delivery Service
Best for Omnivores
Why We Picked It
HelloFresh is an overall Editors’ Choice winner because it embodies everything that makes meal kits so enticing. Receiving weekly boxes of tasty food that’s easy to make is extra convenience in a busy life.
Who It’s For
HelloFresh is the meal kit for just about everyone. The vast, varied menu constantly rotates in exciting new items for virtually all diets. Quick delivery times and sustainable packaging round out the top-tier service.
PROS
- Wide-ranging menu
- High-quality ingredients
- Vegetarian, low-calorie, and family-sized meal options
- Few prepared sauces and dressings (you make them fresh)
- Good packaging
CONS
- Not ideal for vegan, keto, or paleo diets
- Two-step process to review allergens
Hungryroot Meal Delivery Service
Best for Groceries With Recipe Suggestions
Why We Picked It
Hungryroot meal kits use a slightly different system than competing services. Instead of selecting specific meals from a menu, you tell Hungryroot the groceries you want. Hungryroot then sends you those groceries along with suggested recipes.
Who It’s For
Hungryroot is for shoppers who want the ease of meal kits along with the option to buy their own groceries. Ultimately, it’s all just food. Eat it however you like!
PROS
- Does all the work of grocery shopping for you
- Includes suggested recipes
- Excellent variety of foods
- Caters well to dietary requirements
CONS
- First delivery takes a leap of faith
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Hungryroot | $59/per delivery | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Fresh N Lean Meal Delivery Service
Best for a Variety of Prepared Meals
Why We Picked It
Fresh N Lean is an Editors’ Choice for prepared meals. That means the food arrives fully cooked, waiting for you to heat and eat. Its well-rounded menu appeals to all diet types. Other prepared meal services target certain groups with specific dietary needs, but Fresh N Lean is an excellent option for everyone thanks to its varied, high-quality menu.
Who It's For
Fresh N Lean is for everyone curious about prepared meals, regardless of diet. It's one of the best gateways to this particular meal-kit category. What you lose in freshness, you gain in sheer convenience. Fresh N Lean also lets you create custom subscriptions with a la carte items, which is a nice touch.
PROS
- Meals delivered fresh
- Varied, rotating menus for vegan and paleo diets
- Low price for prepared meals
- Lets you create custom subscriptions
CONS
- Limited control over the meal plans you receive
- Generic à la carte meals
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh n' Lean | $7.93/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
MisenBox Meal Delivery Service
Best for Food Straight From Restaurants
Why We Picked It
Instead of creating its own meals, MisenBox partners with restaurants for its meal kits. As a result, people all over the world can eat high-quality restaurant food that would've otherwise been inaccessible.
Who It’s For
MisenBox’s unique system means that its menu and pricing can dramatically change at any moment. However, if you're looking for truly restaurant-grade food, there’s no other option.
PROS
- High-quality food
- Delivers wide variety of local restaurant food nationwide
- No subscription required
- Informative website
- Hosts virtual cooking events
CONS
- Available restaurants subject to change
- Price and food depends on individual restaurant
- Few search options
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| MisenBox | Price Per Serving Varies By Meal Kit | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Balanced Bites Meal Delivery Service
Best for Prepared Keto and Paleo Meals
Why We Picked It
Balanced Bites carefully crafts high-protein meals that are so good you would never believe they come fully prepared. Boxes are more expensive than many competing services, but you have many options for customizing your food deliveries.
Who It’s For
Balanced Bites is for people who want weekly keto and paleo boxes (each meal contains meat, so it’s not for vegetarians). If you are okay with the company's focus, you'll find a lot to like with this low-carb meal-kit service.
PROS
- Hearty, tasty, pre-made meals
- Prepared, frozen, and shipped within days to maintain quality
- Convenient for keto and paleo diets
- Build your own a la carte box or choose a subscription plan
CONS
- Expensive
- No vegan or vegetarian options
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced Bites | $16.99/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Factor Meal Delivery Service
Best for High-Quality Prepared Meals
Why We Picked It
Factor is a prepared meal delivery service owned by HelloFresh, and it's similarly excellent, selling delicious rotating dishes that are incredibly convenient to prepare.
Who It’s For
If you want more variety in your prepared meals, Factor is another great overall option. You have to subscribe (it lacks an a la carte option), but the menu should accommodate all diets. Plus, you can purchase add-ons for your weekly meals to round out your deliveries.
PROS
- A wide variety of high-quality prepared meals
- You can pick meals from a rotating menu
- Optional add-ons
CONS
- Requires a subscription
- Seasoning is occasionally a little off balance
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Factor | Visit Site | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Mosaic Meal Delivery Service
Best Variety for Vegans and Vegetarians
Why We Picked It
Mosaic offers surprising variety, despite focusing on vegetarian diets. Its prepared meals include everything from soups and bowls for individuals to pies designed to feed an entire family.
Who It’s For
People who want choice in their healthy, prepared vegetarian meals. This flexibility also extends to the service; it lets you choose between cheaper, smaller items and larger, more expensive ones as you craft your subscription.
PROS
- Tasty vegan and vegetarian meals
- Variety of sizes and price points for individuals and families
- Flexible subscription
- Easy prep
CONS
- Soups could use more substance
- Larger meals have lengthy cook times
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Mosaic Foods | Visit Site | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Purple Carrot Meal Delivery Service
Best for Vegans Who Cook
Why We Picked It
Purple Carrot is a vegan meal kit service that teaches you to appreciate the ingredients you’ve harvested from the earth. It’s another great company that helps develop your skills as you prepare tasty meals.
Who It’s For
Purple Carrot is for vegan home chefs who want to feel good about the entire cooking process. Learning how to cook delicious, healthy meals that don’t come from animals checks off many sustainability boxes.
PROS
- Varied, delicious, vegan meals
- Good for hands-on cooking and learning new skills
- Helpful customer service
CONS
- Packaging could be more eco-friendly
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Purple Carrot | $11.99/per serving - 2-Person Plan | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Ramen Hero Meal Delivery Service
Best for Restaurant-Quality Ramen
Why We Picked It
College students know that instant ramen is an absolute lifesaver when it comes to quick and easy meals. But Ramen Hero’s meals are far superior versions while being just as easy to prepare. You simply warm and combine the various components to enjoy wonderful ingredients swimming in flavorful broth.
Who It’s For
As the name implies, Ramen Hero is for ramen lovers. There's a lot of variety in that category, as you start mixing various meats, vegetables, and spices.
PROS
- Restaurant-quality ramen, made at home
- Simple instructions
- No subscription required
- Vegan options
- Ample portion size
CONS
- Pricey
- Slightly modest menu
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Ramen Hero | $17.49/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Veestro Meal Delivery Service
Best for Easy Vegan Meals
Why We Picked It
Prepared meals are especially useful for vegan and vegetarian diets, as they remove the hassle that makes it so hard to form healthier eating habits. Veestro offers many vegan meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that taste great, and don't require much prep time.
Who It’s For
Veestro is for people who want to really commit to eating vegan. You must buy many meals up front, but they last a while in the freezer. A la carte and subscription plans give you plenty of flexibility when choosing meals.
PROS
- A la carte and subscription plans
- Easy prep, with pre-made meals
- Healthy, without sacrificing taste
- Breakfast and entrée options
CONS
- Meals aren't always filling
- Steep initial commitment
| Sold By | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Veestro | $11.70/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Which Meal Delivery Service Is the Best?
Meal delivery (also referred to as meal-kit delivery) is a type of subscription service in which a company sends you a box of fresh ingredients in the right amounts for a few recipes that you can make at home. It's a rapidly growing sector of the food industry, with one report projecting the global market for meal delivery to be worth $8.94 billion by 2025(Opens in a new window).
Cook-from-a-kit boxes, such as Green Chef and HelloFresh, are just one style of meal delivery. Some throw the "kit" element to the wind and instead provide heat-and-eat meals that require minimal effort. Sunbasket, for example, provides the ingredients for a family dinner already mixed and assembled in an oven-safe container.
Splendid Spoon specializes in ready-to-eat meals for one person, such as smoothies, soups, and bowls. It also has prepared plates that are more akin to a microwavable TV dinner. Factor, Freshly, Balanced Bites, Fresh N Lean, and vegan services Mosaic and Veestro fall into this pre-made category. Conversely, Blue Apron is a service committed to helping you learn to cook—to the degree that it also sells chef's knives, meat thermometers, and other equipment you might need as your skills progress.
Best Meal Delivery Services for 2020
The service diversity is remarkable. We haven't had an opportunity to test them all, but if their unique hooks sound appealing to you, consider doing some more research. Yumble specializes in kid-friendly foods in kiddie portion sizes. Sakara Life’s pricey subscription sets you up with a highly curated wellness plan and includes meals that purportedly improve whatever issues you have, such as making your skin clearer or increasing your energy. You can find kosher or halal meal kits. There's even a ramen delivery service called Ramen Hero, which we have reviewed, that sends pre-measured ingredients in heat-safe pouches that you warm in boiling water to make your own Japanese noodle soup.
Some services, such as Snap Kitchen or Vegetable and Butcher, only deliver to their local communities. Housemade, which we've reviewed, depends on you being near a physical Just Salad restaurant, although the service plans to expand in the future. However, most other services deliver anywhere in the United States, except for Alaska and Hawaii, in about one week. MisenBox partners with local restaurants to deliver their food as meal kits nationwide.
How to Choose Food From a Meal Delivery Service
Before you sign up for a meal delivery service, you should preview the menu for the upcoming week and future weeks. In our experience, this is the most important part of choosing a service. Looking at the weekly menus for a few services and comparing them tells you a lot about what makes each one unique.
It's a little like choosing a restaurant. Both the menu and presentation, including pictures of the food and how the company describes it, determine whether it speaks to your taste buds. Just look at the difference between Daily Harvest's stark images of vegetables in a bowl, compared to HelloFresh's colorful plates brimming with warm meals and a scattering of fresh herbs or toasted breadcrumbs on top.
When previewing menus, be sure to check two things: 1) Are there enough menu options each week that meet your dietary requirements, including allergen concerns? 2) Can you see the recipe and instructions, and do they line up with how much work you're willing to do? The recipes indicate what equipment and ingredients you need. It might be nothing more than a skillet, wooden spoon, and salt and pepper. It helps to have olive oil, vegetable oil, and sometimes butter on hand, too. Depending on the service, you might see recipes that call for a slow cooker, though it's easy to avoid them if you don't have one.
In a few rare cases, companies make it hard to see detailed recipes until after you pay. We like companies that show you everything in advance so there are no surprises after payment.
Once you sign up, you choose which meals you want each week from a rotating selection. If you forget to pick meals, the company automatically selects some for you.
A few companies let you pick substitutions, or offer add-ons and upgrades. Some Home Chef meals let you substitute, say, chicken for shrimp, or pay extra for organic or antibiotic-free meat. Sunbasket sells snacks, breakfast items, and other standalone groceries that you can add to your order. Hungryroot is a slightly unusual meal delivery service that's part online grocery store and part meal-kit service, letting you choose both kits and groceries in every order. Gobble sells add-ons, too, like a two-pack of cookie dough or an extra container of marinara sauce.
How Many Meals Do You Get From a Meal Delivery Service?
Some meal delivery services offer a la carte purchases, but most require a subscription. When you sign up, you agree to regularly receive a shipment of meals or meal kits, usually weekly. On average, you must commit to a minimum of three meals per week that serve two people each, or six servings total. A few companies let you scale down to as few as two meals for two people per week.
All plans let you can skip a week at any time or indefinitely pause your subscription. You typically have the option to skip multiple weeks at a time. The best companies let you do this directly from your account.
When you first sign up, the meal delivery service's site will typically ask for a few details about you and your food needs. How many people will be eating with you? Do you have allergies or dietary restrictions? A top-notch service only shows you the meals that meet your needs. Watch out, because not all companies do this. For some services, you must vet each meal as you choose your orders.
What Is the Cheapest Meal-Kit Delivery Service?
The going rate for a meal delivery service is between $8.99 and $12.99 per serving. Delivery fees typically hang in the range of $7.99 per shipment.
Note that meals are priced per serving. Most (but not all) companies calculate the price of your kits on a sliding scale, based on how many servings you order. It's the old "the more you buy, the more you save" idea. A box of three meals per week with two servings each has a higher per-serving price than a box containing four meals per week with four servings each—even though the larger box has a final higher cost.
Dinnerly and EveryPlate are two notably low-cost services. Both charge $4.99 per serving, and Dinnerly's prices dip by another $0.50 per serving if you order a large box of meals.
$7.99 is the standard shipping rate, but you can often find better deals. Blue Apron charges $0 in delivery fees for all but the smallest orders. Hungryroot's shipping is free if you qualify for ground delivery from its New York City location; air shipments cost $10. Purple Carrot charges more for big boxes (up to $11.99) and less for small ones ($5.99). Veestro charges $10 for one-time purchases, but waives shipping fees for subscribers.
Which Meal-Kit Delivery Service Has the Best Packaging?
You heard right. When you receive a meal kit order, you must deal with the packaging, and sometimes there's a distressing amount of it. Some services reduce the amount of material used (EveryPlate does a fair job) or have moved toward compostable materials (Daily Harvest). That said, no nationwide company is a paragon of environmentalism.
In our testing, we noticed two options for keeping the shipment cold. The most common is a gel pack. It's a frozen block of non-toxic liquid wrapped in heavy-duty plastic. They are a pain to dispose of properly. You can reuse them by refreezing them, or you can let them thaw out, snip a corner of the plastic, and then dump the watery contents into the trash. The gel is not suitable for your plumbing. Then, you must thoroughly rinse the remaining plastic and hope that your recycling center accepts it.
Option two is dry ice. Dry ice works well with fully frozen items, but not fresh produce. If it evaporates before you open the box, that's ideal. If the ice is still intact, you must be extremely careful not to touch it, as dry ice can burn your skin. You might not want to risk it around curious children and pets.
Can I Send a Meal Kit as a Gift?
If you want to convert your friends to the meal kit lifestyle (without sending them a mysterious box of raw food), you're in luck. Many services let you purchase gift cards. Referral programs can even make your own subscriptions cheaper if you tempt friends to sign up.
What Is the Healthiest Meal Delivery Service?
The main draw to any meal delivery service is convenience. Many meal kits also have a health angle, but most home-cooked meals are going to be better for you than the average delivery meal (if only because you can control the amount of salt that goes into them). Certainly you can use them to get more plant-based meals into your diet, too. If you subscribe to WW (formerly Weight Watchers), you can find some meal plans that tell you how many points your meals are worth. Blue Apron displays the menu options that are WW approved, and Splendid Spoon has a help page that highlights its meals' point values. Veestro offers its own weight loss subscription plan. Trifecta pairs its healthy meals with a free fitness app and a food-logging database.
If you're looking toward meal delivery for health reasons, you might also consider a fitness tracker, fitness apps, and other helpful tools, such as a smart bathroom scale or a heart rate monitor to steer your workouts to be more effective.
Variety Is the Best Meal-Kit Spice
There are far, far more meal delivery services than these top picks, including choices for nearly every cuisine, specialized diet, or cooking skill level. We'll be looking at more services from time to time, too. For more information on meal delivery services, please visit our dedicated meal kits page, our guides to the best vegetarian and vegan meal kit delivery services, and the best prepared meal delivery services. Read our Blue Apron vs. HelloFresh comparison to see two of the best meal-kit delivery services face off.
For even more on improving your culinary life through tech, check out the best meal planning apps and best grocery delivery services.
