Meal kit delivery services have become a popular dinner choice for many American families. These dinner boxes are a great way to eat healthy in a quick and non-wasteful manner, and there are options for every taste and budget. Here we examine the most popular services and provide an overview of why a meal kit delivery service might be right for your family.
Best Meal Kit Delivery Service
One of the tasks that can be difficult to maintain when you’re busy raising tiny humans, is meal planning. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day to plan meals and groceries for the week, let alone the high-quality, fresh meals that we may envision feeding our families. This makes take-out an attractive yet often un-healthy option many families choose often.
Meal kit delivery services were created as an answer to the struggles of busy home cooks. Everything is delivered to your door, you don’t have to meal plan or grocery shop, and the result is a beautiful and nutritious meal for your family. There’s no food waste since you receive the correct amount of ingredients for each recipe, and it gives you a chance to serve your family new and interesting dishes you might not think to try otherwise.
Deciding upon the best meal kit delivery service is highly objective since all families have unique needs, so we’ve done a comparison of many of the most popular services to help you decide. There are so many options on the market today that if you’re interested in trying it out you’re sure to find one that’s right for your budget and dietary considerations.
Meal Kit Delivery Comparison
Here’s a look at some of the most popular meal kit delivery options and how they compare. Note that the starting prices listed are generally for the plan with the most servings per week, and they go up for fewer people/servings. Almost all options allow you to pause delivery when not wanted or needed and most are easy to cancel. Unless otherwise noted, the meals come with individual recipe cards for each meal. Most of the services offer great deals for your first several deliveries, making them even more affordable.
Amazon Meal Kit
Prices start at $15.99/meal kit (2 servings)
With the launch of Amazon Meal Kits, Amazon has begun to compete in the meal kit delivery world. Each kit serves 2 people and the meal is ready in about 30 minutes. Unlike their competitors, you can order just one kit, instead of having to buy multiple meals for the week. If you’re a member of both Amazon Prime and Amazon Pantry, you can have your order delivered at a time of your choosing for free (minimum purchase $40 or $9.99 shipping if under). You can also pick them up at select Whole Foods Markets. Check out some Amazon Meal Kit options HERE.
Blue Apron
Prices start at $8.99/serving
Blue Apron offers a variety of plans for 2-4 people (including a vegetarian option). The Blue Apron menu is vast and includes a good selection of ethnic dishes and unique flavor combinations. They also offer a WW (formerly Weight Watchers) menu that includes the Smart Points value for each dish. These meals are just as filling and flavorful as the full-calorie choices and the portions are not decreased. Check out the Blue Apron menu HERE.
Daily Harvest
Prices start at $6.99/cup (9 cup minimum order)
Daily Harvest delivers fresh-frozen ingredients in individually portioned cups to make smoothies, soups, harvest bowls, lattes, oat bowls, and chia bowls. Daily Harvest may be pricey, but the cups contain a large number of superfood ingredients that pack a nutritional punch. The best value is to order 24 cups and keep them frozen, using them as needed for a quick meal or snack. The smoothies are delicious and kids love them as well. It’s a great way to feed them veggies in disguise! Check out Daily Harvest HERE.
Dinnerly
Prices start at $4.99/serving
Dinnerly meal kits are incredibly affordable. To make it so cost-effective they provide digital recipe cards and use fewer ingredients, which also makes for quick meals. Their straight-forward crowd-pleasing menus are perfect for kids and inside their menu-choices, you can even see which ones are the most kid-friendly. Check out Dinnerly HERE.
EveryPlate
Prices start at $4.99/serving
Another affordable option is EveryPlate. Compared to more expensive options, their meals include smaller recipe cards and less packaging (everything is in one box and not labeled individually for each recipe). But their portion sizes, ingredients, and quality are equal. Their menus are simple and family-friendly, and they have several meals to choose from each week, along with a premium option that costs a little bit more but usually includes steak or shrimp. Check out EveryPlate HERE.
Freshly
Prices start at $8.99/serving
Freshly is unique in that their healthy meals come fully prepared, and you just have to heat them up. This is a great option when you have little time to prepare a meal, but you still want something high-quality, fresh, and healthy. This could also be a good option for taking your lunch to work rather than eating out. Depending on where you normally eat, this plan could be a money saver. The meals are ready in just 3 minutes and if you find you cannot eat them fresh, they can be frozen to eat at a later time. A box of individual, easy to heat meals would be a nice gift idea for new parents! Check out Freshly HERE.
Gobble
Prices start at $5.99 for lunch and $11.99 for dinner
Gobble provides meal kits that require just 15 minutes and 1 pan. All the ingredients come pre-measured and chopped, which is different than other services. This could be a great option for families that don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking but still want a homemade meal. At $11.99 per serving, this is one of the more pricey options. Gobble also has a unique lunch prep plan, that includes all of the ingredients needed to prep 6 individual lunches for the week. It takes about 90 minutes to get it all done on the weekend and then you have healthy meals to enjoy all week. It’s a nice departure for stay-at-home-moms eating whatever their children are eating, or worse, just their child’s leftovers! The lunch plan is on a monthly basis, and you receive your box at the end of each week. Check out Gobble HERE.
The Good Kitchen
Prices start at $11.00/serving for adult, and $6.99/serving for child
The Good Kitchen offers fully-prepared, microwavable meals for kids and adults, made with all clean and healthy ingredients. They offer keto and paleo dishes and you can add on some extras like snacks to your delivery. At $11.00 per adult serving (and that’s if you order at least 15 meals) it’s a pricey option. The kid’s meals are $6.99 per serving with a minimum weekly order of 7 meals. Check out The Good Kitchen HERE.
Green Chef
Prices are $9.99/serving for 2-person plan and $10.99/serving for family plan
Green Chef meal kits are organic, GMO-free, and the ingredients come prepped and ready to go. They offer a wide variety of diet preferences in their plans. On the 2-person plan, you can choose from keto, paleo, omnivore, plant-powered, gluten-free, and pescatarian. For the family plan, you can choose either omnivore or carnivore. All meals are designed to be cooked in 30 minutes. Check out Green Chef HERE.
HelloFresh
Prices start at $7.49/serving
HelloFresh was one of the first meal kit delivery services and remains one of the most popular and most affordable. They offer a variety of dishes, increasingly with more dietary preference options (including a new low-calorie option). They even launched their own wine club and have in-person meetings for HelloFresh enthusiasts. Their plans include calorie smart, classic (which can be vegetarian), or family-friendly and you can order 2-4 meals per week. HelloFresh also has a unique dinner2lunch option where you prep the next days lunch using some of the ingredients from the dinner before. This costs a little bit more for the extra ingredients but is still a good value. Check out HelloFresh HERE.
Home Bistro
Prices start at $12.29/serving
Home Bistro is one of the more expensive options and specializes in frozen gourmet meals that are 100% natural and ready to eat in minutes. They offer overnight shipping and over 50 meals to choose from. You can also select a diabetic, paleo, heart-healthy, or vegetarian plan. Unlike many of the other companies, you can choose a single delivery without signing up for an ongoing subscription, or receive a 5% discount if you subscribe for multiple weeks. Check out Home Bistro HERE.
Home Chef
Prices start at $9.95/dinner serving, $7.99/lunch, and $4.95/smoothie
Home Chef has a large selection of meals to choose from and instead of choosing a certain diet, you can mix and match from all the different meals offered that week (up to 38 choices!). They have a variety of meals including easy prep options that are oven-ready with a pan included, and unique ad-ons like grilling packs of meat, smoothies, and easy 5-minute lunch options. Check out Home Chef HERE.
Hungryroot
Prices start at $69/week
Hungryroot offers a one-of-a-kind food delivery system, in that they send you fully-prepped ingredients that you can put together any way you like. You can choose from foods like fully-prepped veggies, meats, pastas, sauces, and desserts. Everything is fresh and healthy and can be ready to eat in around 10 minutes. This is a great healthy lunch option for making filling “buddha bowls” or for an easy dinner. Hungryroot is expensive, as their lowest priced option starts at $69 a week and is meant to serve 1. Check out Hungryroot HERE.
Martha &Marley Spoon
Prices start at $8.20/serving
Marley Spoon is the meal kit delivery service that brings you Martha Stewart’s best recipes. They offer 20 recipes each week and 5 categories to choose from: health & diet, vegetarian & vegan, meat & fish, under 30 minutes, and family-friendly (you can mix and match these options). The family-friendly options look a little more picky-eater proof than some of the other brands, with dishes like breaded chicken tenders. They offer one of the best prices for getting started, with $20 off each of your first 4 boxes. Check out Martha & Marley Spoon HERE.
PeachDish
Prices start at $12.50/dinner serving
PeachDish partners with farmers to offer organic, southern-inspired meal delivery kits. They have about 15 meals a week to choose from and they also offer additional groceries in their online “Market”, including unique “pantry kits”($8.99 for 2 servings) that include dry ingredients, a recipe card, and a list of fresh ingredients that you’ll need to purchase in order to complete the meal. This is a great option if you enjoy doing some of the shopping yourself but would like fresh recipes with unique flavors. You can order just one box at a time, or become a weekly subscriber. Check out PeachDish HERE.
Plated
Prices start at $9.95/serving
Plated offers meal kits with 2-4 servings and high-quality ingredients like antibiotic-free and hormone-free meat, as well as organic produce when possible. In addition to 20 dinner options a week they also offer desserts which is something a little different than other plans. Like many, Plated requires a subscription where you can skip weeks or cancel at any time. Check out Plated HERE.
Purple Carrot
Prices start at $7.99/serving
Purple Carrot offers vegetarian, plant-based meal kits. They are one of the only services that offer up to 6 servings for large families or for meal-prepping, and they even offer breakfasts and lunches that are ready in just 5 minutes. You can also order “TB12 Performance Meals” which are gluten-free, high-protein, and low-soy, to help active individuals stay at their peak. Check out Purple Carrot HERE.
Sakara Life
Prices start at $80/week
Sakara Life meal service provides plant-based, organic meals, as well as herbal detox teas, beauty water concentrates, supplements, and lifestyle products. You can order from 3 to 15 meals per week, and you can even choose a plan that includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everything comes fully prepared and ready to eat immediately. Sakara Life has quite a celebrity following and also offers challenges like the 20-Day Wedding Prep Plan. Although highly nutritious, Sakara Life is one of the more expensive options. Check out Sakara Life HERE.
Sun Basket
Prices start at $10.99/serving
Sun Basket sends organic, globally-inspired meals in their meal kit service and offers paleo, gluten-free, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan, low carb, and several other options. You can add on salads, sauces, snacks, soups, and broths. All their meat ingredients are antibiotic-free and hormone-free. On the classic plan, you can choose from 18 different recipes weekly. Check out Sun Basket HERE.
Terra’s Kitchen
Prices start at $72/week
Terra’s Kitchen meal kit service offers pre-prepped healthy meals based on the Meditteranean cuisine that can be made in less than 30 minutes. The food is delivered in a cooler-like container that the delivery company will come and pick back up after you receive and unpack everything. In addition to dinner offerings, you can also add on snacks, breakfasts, lunches, desserts, and beverages. They have various dietary options including gluten-free, vegan, pescatarian, and more. Another plus is that you can place a single order with no on-going commitment. Check out Terra’s Kitchen HERE.
Veestro
Prices start at $9.90/serving
Veestro provides organic, non-GMO, plant-based meals with over 50 choices including breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Meals are freshly made, delivered frozen, and ready to eat in 5 minutes. They have 3 plans available: a la carte, chef’s choice, and weight loss. A subscription is not required to order. Check out Veestro HERE.
Food for Thought…
A few final ideas for using meal delivery kits for your family:
- When you have small children, it’s easy to make a 2-person serving work for a family, which is a money-saver. Or, if the particular dish is a little intense for young taste palettes, you could prepare something quick and easy just for the kids and still enjoy your own gourmet meal.
- It’s a good way to have an at-home date night with a fancy dinner after the kids go to bed.
- You can cook together as a family and help teach your children about preparing meals and kitchen safety.
- If you’re at home during the day you could prep some of the ingredients ahead of time (if the kit requires this) to make cooking even faster.
- Since everything is ready to go with easy to follow instructions, any adult in the family can get started on cooking the meal. This can be an advantage if the cooking is usually left to just one person.
Meal delivery kits are a great way to meal plan and have fresh, impressive dinners for your family in a short amount of time. They are increasingly affordable and can be customized to fit your family’s needs. If you enjoy cooking but are feeling the overwhelm of modern mom life, give meal delivery kits a try!
*Disclosure: Some of the links included in this post are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.