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Nov 06, 2024

13 Best Meal Delivery and Meal Kit Delivery Services of 2024 - Reviewed

Products are chosen independently by our editors. Purchases made through our links may earn us a commission. Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you

Products are chosen independently by our editors. Purchases made through our links may earn us a commission.

Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

HelloFresh offers affordable meal kits with big portions and straightforward recipes. Some may take longer to prepare than the recipe states. Read More

An affordable meal kit brand under Martha & Marley Spoon, Dinnerly offers low-cost meals with big flavor. But packages tend to be disorganized. Read More

Home Chef delivers meals with fresh, high-quality ingredients and well-written recipes that break down the cooking methods into digestible steps. Read More

Hungryroot is the ideal combination of grocery delivery service and meal kits, plus its branded products are high-quality and delicious. Read More

The meal kit delivery service provides quick, easy, creative dinners thanks to pre-prepped ingredients and sauces. Read More

Updated November 1, 2024

Meal kit delivery services are a saving grace for so many people who want fresh home-cooked meals without having to think about recipes, quantities, and a precise grocery list. ​​However, with so many options on the market, it can be tough to choose the right one.

Unlike many products we test at Reviewed, a meal delivery service isn’t something you buy once and use for years. It’s a subscription service that asks you to make choices each week from different menu options. It changes how you cook—and it needs to align with your needs.

Luckily, after years of testing more than a dozen meal kits, we're here to guide you through choosing the best meal delivery service for your family. Our pick for the best meal kit delivery service is HelloFresh. It delivers big flavor and consistently excellent recipes with fresh ingredients, and enough variety to satisfy most diets. For a more affordable option, Dinnerly delivers tasty, fuss-free meal kits starting at just $4.99 per serving.

EXCLUSIVE DEAL ALERT: Get 10 free HelloFresh meals and free dessert for life when you sign up today, plus your first box ships free. Use code USAT10.

For specially curated kitchen deals, cooking and hosting tips, and product recs, follow us @reviewedkitchen on Instagram!

HelloFresh is the best meal delivery service we've tested, thanks to its versatile and tasty recipes.

EXCLUSIVE DEAL: Get 10 free HelloFresh meals and free dessert for life when you sign up today, plus your first box ships free. Use code USAT10.

The wallet-friendly HelloFresh has become one of the most recognizable names in meal kit delivery services, and it’s easy to see why. Big portions, affordable prices, and straightforward recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner make the service our top recommendation.

HelloFresh also offers a large variety of add-ons from desserts and snacks to side dishes and charcuterie boards. The service has expanded over the years and we've tried many of the offerings with great success.

For those who are uncertain in the kitchen, we found that meals marked 'Quick & Easy' delivered the kind of frustration-free experience people look for in a meal kit delivery service.

If you're looking to learn new recipes or kitchen skills, there are many classic and premium choices, but they'll require a bit more time in the kitchen (so choose them if you enjoy the cooking process). We were especially impressed with the variety of international flavors on offer.

Recipes we've requested multiple times include the za'atar-crusted grilling cheese served with lemony couscous and roasted veggies, and the bánh mi burger, which puts an American twist on the classic Vietnamese sandwich with lightly pickled veggies and sriracha mayo.

Our main gripe about HelloFresh is the relative inaccuracy of the recipe timing—we found that HelloFresh recipes were rarely on the table in the amount of time the recipe cards promised. However, we were consistently impressed by the flavor, which often made the extra time worth it.

While HelloFresh offers a wide variety of dishes, it still lacks many vegan offerings. But it does offer a variety of meal options for other specialty diets, like vegetarians and pescatarians. HelloFresh has made strides over the years to improve its variety as well as its ordering interface. With so many choices, meals are categorized effectively and you can use either the website or the app to change your meal selections, add items, skip deliveries, and manage your account.

Our only ongoing complaint with the ordering process is that you have to pay close attention to your email, or schedule your own reminder, so you don't miss the deadline to customize your order each week. If you do miss it, HelloFresh sends you its selections for you according to the preferences you set in your account.

If you set those preferences with intent, you should always get meals you'll like, but it's still nice to tailor your selections to your mood or plans for the week.

Its packaging is some of the most sustainable on this list in that it’s largely recyclable, which is a plus. We love the clearly labeled, recyclable paper packaging used to contain each meal. But you'll still have to dispose of the large ice packs and cardboard boxes each week.

Favorite meal: Za’atar-crusted grilling cheesewith sumac roasted veggies over couscous

Cost: Visit HelloFresh for updated pricing. When we tested, meals ranged from $7.99 to $11.99 per serving depending on the number of meals and servings selected per week. You can choose your combination of desired servings and recipes each week. There is also a $9.99 shipping fee for each delivery.

Large variety of appealing dishes and extras

Big portions

Straightforward recipes

Recipe timing can be inaccurate

Vegan offerings are limited

Dinnerly offers the best value-friendly meal kit delivery service we've ever tested.

DEAL ALERT: Save 37% on your first box and get free shipping when you sign up for Dinnerly this May.

The valuable convenience of most meal kit delivery services come at a price—but not at Dinnerly. This meal kit service offers meals that start at just $4.99 each, which is less than half the price of most competitors.

But cutting down on price doesn't mean cutting down on quality. When we tested Dinnerly, we were taken aback by the flavor and portion sizes of each meal. Dishes with global flair like chicken satay and Moroccan-spiced chicken soup felt akin to ordering takeout from an international restaurant.

Better yet, Dinnerly is devoted to simple, fuss-free prep. That means every recipe has just five steps or less, and uses minimal pots and pans so post-dinner clean-up is a breeze. And a lot of the dishes we tested were actually ready faster than the estimated recipe time.

There are a few minor downsides we found, though, like disorganized packaging and fewer included ingredients. The ingredients are not organized according to each recipe, which means you'll have to sift through a pile of produce and packaged spices before cooking each meal. Dinnerly also doesn't deliver printed recipe cards, so you'll have to refer back to your email as you cook.

We also found that you may need to have some staples on hand before your package gets delivered, like fresh garlic and apple cider vinegar. But don't worry: Dinnerly will send you a list of ingredients via email before the box arrives.

Despite these minor hiccups, we think Dinnerly delivers major value for the price, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a better meal delivery service with such excellent value.

Read our full Dinnerly review

Favorite meal: Soy-ginger pork tenderloin with garlic rice and green beans

Cost: Visit Dinnerly for updated pricing. When we tested, meals started at just $4.99 per serving, depending on the number of meals and portion sizes selected. Subscriptions can serve two or four people, and you can choose anywhere from two to six meals per week.

Affordable meals

Easy prep and clean-up

100+ meal options to choose from

Organization is lacking

Navigating the website can be challenging

Home Chef has great flavors and plenty of options when it comes to meal kits.

FOR OUR READERS: Get your first 18 Home Chef meal kits for free when you sign up through our link.

Like its name suggests, Home Chef provides customers with the tools necessary to become true masters of the kitchen.

From Home Chef’s fresh, high-quality ingredients to well-written recipes, everything about this service made us feel like we were preparing restaurant-worthy (or at least guest-worthy) meals without too much fuss.

Home Chef also offers oven-ready meals (which come with their own cooking trays) and the option to swap out proteins, making it appealing to an even wider swath of busy cooks.

Aside from classics like the farmhouse fried chicken with mashed potatoes, green onion gravy, and corn, Home Chef also offerings meals that are diverse enough to include healthy meal options.

It also accommodates almost any dietary preference, including vegetarians and vegans. The menu offers at least 25 dinner options per week, as well as a handful of oven-ready meals. There are also some lunch and snack choices as add-ons to its main menu.

What we love most about Home Chef is its organization. Ingredients are divided per meal into labeled bags that easily slide into the fridge, recipe instructions are consistently clear, and time estimates are always accurate. Plus, the website is easy to navigate, allowing you the freedom to choose what you want and skip delivery weeks at will.

One of its only downsides is the lack of variety on the weekly menu. We would describe most of Home Chef's recipes as American-style, with a few Italian or Mexican-inspired options each week. HelloFresh, on the other hand, offers a wide range of dishes with international flair every week, like Peruvian chicken and Indian-inspired curry. Home Chef would be also wise to incorporate more biodegradable packaging into its existing model.

Read our full Home Chef review

Favorite meal: Farmhouse fried chicken with mashed potatoes, green onion gravy, and corn

Cost: Visit Home Chef for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $11.25 per serving, including the shipping fee. Subscriptions can serve two, four, or six people, and you can choose anywhere from two to six meals per week.

High-quality ingredients

User-friendly recipes with accurate timing

Large variety of options and extras

Lots of packaging

Hungryroot is the ideal combo of grocery delivery and meal kit service.

Hungryroot brings together grocery delivery and meal kits into one streamlined service. Whether you want quick and easy meals with most of the prep already done, or you need groceries to make lunches and dinners for a family, Hungryroot can accommodate.

The meal kit section is well-organized and easy to navigate to select meals that work for your tastes or dietary restrictions. And the grocery section makes shopping through the app quick and easy. You can search for what you need, or browse by category.

Every meal kit we ordered through Hungryroot was truly quick and easy to make, usually with less than 20 minutes of prep or cooking time. Many of the ingredients come prepared, which saves so much time when you need to get dinner on the table.

Hungryroot makes many of its own products, and we can't get enough of the sauces, pantry staples, and fresh-cut veggie blends. You can choose meals that include the ingredients you like best, or load up your cart with individual items to create your own meals.

We also love that Hungryroot doesn't repackage most of the food for meal kits into branded packaging. The service simply creates meals based on available groceries, and gives you the quantity you need for the recipe in its original packaging.

Hungryroot uses a credit system when you add items to your cart, and this can be a bit confusing. Credits don't easily translate to dollars because the amount of credits you get depends on the amount you're signed up to spend each week. You can do the math, but it's not as easy to keep track of how much you're spending on products as when they have an actual dollar amount attached.

Still, we feel that Hungryroot is an excellent value for the high-quality products it offers and the ease of having meal kits and groceries delivered in one weekly box. It's also incredibly easy to skip or modify orders in the app or on the website.

Delicious products

Easy ordering system

Wide variety

No excessive packaging

Uses a credit system instead of displaying costs

Paneer Tikka Masala was our favorite dish we tested from Gobble, our pick for best pre-prepped meal kit.

EXCLUSIVE DEAL: Use our coupon code REVIEWED to get free shipping and $120 off your first four weeks of Gobble meals.

Unlike Home Chef, which can require chopping, the ingredients in Gobble’s meal kits are almost entirely pre-prepped.

That means your box will contain pre-portioned ingredients, pre-made sauces, and partially-cooked starches that require simple reheating, plus pre-sliced, -diced, and -minced veggies. We were pleasantly surprised by the ingredients' freshness, and found that everything survived a day or two in the fridge before cooking.

Every Gobble meal we tested came together in 15 minutes or less, as promised by the brand’s website. The recipe cards for each dish include fun facts about the dish, supplies to gather, what’s included in your dinner kit, calorie information, and easy-to-follow cooking instructions. We appreciated how the ingredients are bolded within the instructions, so it’s easier to spot these at a glance if you’re reading whilst cooking.

Our biggest qualm with Gobble is that not all recipes are created equally. While some dishes were inventive, balanced, and super flavorful, others had us wishing we tweaked some of the ingredients ourselves. That said, most of what we tried was very tasty and we would definitely make most of the dishes again.

Gobble’s packaging is almost entirely recyclable, which is amazing! But because Gobble preps most of the veggies for you, there's unnecessary (albeit recyclable) packaging for things like chopped onions, which means more stuff for you to dispose of.

Read our full Gobble review.

Favorite meal: Paneer and cauliflower tikka masala with garam masala basmati rice

Cost: Visit Gobble for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $12.99 per serving for two people, $11.99 per serving for four people, for four meals per week. Different plans are available, including Classic, Vegetarian Only, and Lean & Clean.

Balanced flavors

Quality ingredients

Quick and easy

Creative recipes

Some recipes fall short

Purple Carrot is the best vegan meal delivery service we've tested.

WELCOME OFFER: Use promo code ROUTINE100 to save $100 on your first month of Purple Carrot.

Although we found some flaws with this fully vegan meal delivery service a few years back, our second time testing proved most (if not all) of our issues had been remedied.

We tried Purple Carrot for two weeks—trying meals from both the meal kit menu and the prepared meals section—and were impressed by the results.

Previously, we found the brand to suffer from confusing recipes, bland flavors, and unsatisfying portions. This time around, we were excited by the menu's international variety, protein-packed ingredients, and overall tastiness.

Standout plant based meals included the tamarind cauliflower with gingered fried rice and cashews, which was addictively tasty, and the buffalo tempeh quinoa bowl, which had a satisfying balance of heat and freshness.

We also tried the brand's single-serve prepared meals, which arrive ready to eat after a few minutes in the microwave. These meals weren't to the same level of deliciousness as the freshly made stuff, but they were still hearty, balanced, and decently tasty.

Subscribers to Purple Carrot can choose between either two or four servings a week for a meal kit subscription, or three or four meals a week for a prepared meal subscription. (You can also add prepared meals to your meal kit subscription for an additional cost—that's what we did.)

There are about a dozen meals to choose from each week, and several are conveniently labeled for folks with dietary restrictions, like Gluten-free or Nut-free. There are even a few Less Prep options, which feature pre-mixed sauces, pre-cut veggies, and recipes that require fewer pots and pans.

The service also offers breakfast and lunch dishes, plus add-ons (think snacks and pantry staples) from the cleverly named Plantry.

There were still a few minor hiccups during testing, like an unusual recipe card format and slightly inaccurate cook times. But once you get used to this learning curve, it's not a dealbreaker.

Whether you're a longtime vegan or just someone looking to add more plant-based ingredients into their life, we recommend subscribing.

Read our full Purple Carrot review

Favorite meal: Tamarind cauliflower with gingered fried rice and cashews

Cost: Visit Purple Carrot for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $13.25 per serving for two people, $11 per serving for four people, for three meals per week. Prepared meals were $13 per serving.

Fully plant-based

Tasty , unique meals

Premade meals offered

Learning curve with recipe cards

What A Crock delivers healthy meal kits that just require a slow cooker and minimal prep.

A favorite of our Accessibility editor, Sarah Kovac, What a Crock meals makes cooking incredibly easy.

What a Crock sends vacuum-sealed frozen meals of all kinds that can simply be dumped into a crock pot and left to cook. That’s it. Cut open a bag, dump the contents in the crock pot, turn it on, and there’s dinner (in a few hours).

There’s a good variety of food types, from soups and meatballs to dips and desserts. Most meals also have instructions for alternate cooking methods, so many can also be cooked in the Instant Pot, boiled in the bag, grilled, or microwaved.

Meals can be filtered by dietary preferences, so folks who eat gluten- or lactose-free won’t have trouble finding safe meals at What a Crock. Meals are sold in generous portions, so four portions of the Spanish chicken and rice fed Sarah’s family of five (including a teenage boy) with plenty of leftovers.

The only downside we found during testing was that the plastic packaging can be tricky to open—especially if you have limited mobility —as it often sticks to the food. But this was easy to remedy with a little extra effort.

If you’re looking for convenience in your meal subscription, What a Crock is right up your alley.

Favorite meal: Spanish chicken & rice

Cost: Visit What a Crock for updated pricing. Most dishes serve 1-2 people and start at $8.99 per meal. You don't even need a subscription to order; you can order individual meals or sign up for regular deliveries.

Great for limited mobility

Wide variety of meals

Generous portion sizes

Packaging can be difficult to remove

CookUnity is the best premade meal delivery kit we tested.

CookUnity has taken over Freshly's previous title as the best pre-made meal kit delivery service, after our Kitchen & Cooking staff writer fell in love with its chef-crafted meals. Unlike the other services in this roundup, CookUnity offers fresh, fully premade meal delivery right to your door—no cooking required.

CookUnity wowed us from the moment we created an account and started browsing the hundreds—yes, hundreds—of meal options that are offered in any given week. Each dish on the website is curated by one of CookUnity's featured chefs, who typically specialize in a certain style of cooking.

Subscribers can choose to filter the overwhelming number of offerings by anything from diet type (think vegan and keto), ethnicity (think Mexican, African, or Mediterranean), or by featured chef (once you become familiar with them).

When we tested these meals, it felt like we were dining at a restaurant. Each dish was flavorful, fresh, and enticing; they felt like they had been cooked fresh—but the prep took mere seconds.

The meal packaging prompts you to choose between a typical pre-made meal preparation (read: microwave) or a chef-suggested preparation. The latter requires popping the tray into the oven or transferring the food into a pan. (We opted for the chef's suggestions—and it was worth it.)

A few of the dishes we tried had smaller portions and left us craving more of a balance of protein, carbs, and veggies. But this issue can easily be avoided by reading the in-depth meal guides on the website to see what's featured in each dish and what its nutritional information is.

Read our full CookUnity review

Favorite meal: Sesame-ginger tofu poke bowl

Cost: Visit CookUnity for updated pricing. When we tested, meals ranged from $11.09 to $12.29 per meal.

Tasty meals

Countless options

Personalized menu

Ranging portion sizes

Blue Apron has tasty meal kits, but packaging and time estimates fall short.

WELCOME OFFER: Get 40% off your first four weeks of a new Blue Apron subscription.

Despite the success of its competition, the original meal kit service still has some fight left in them. Time and experience has allowed Blue Apron to keep prices low, perfect time estimates on recipes, and offer fun wine-pairing and gift options.

When we originally tested this service, we had problems with flavors and ratios being off. Oregano overpowered orecchiette, jalapeño overwhelmed peach salsa, and my polenta was in desperate need of salt, spice, or anything to make it more than a bland mush.

But when we tested it again in 2022, we found that the menu offered much more variety. Flavorful meals like Mexican-spiced shrimp bake and shawarma chicken and currant rice had us enjoying every last bite.

A few details continue to fall short, though, like disorganized packaging and inaccurate time estimates. There's also a lack of vegan offerings with this meal kit.

But if you're someone looking for dietician-approved meals, tasty recipes, and options for wine and breakfast, you might be very satisfied with this kit.

Read our full Blue Apron review

Favorite meal: Crispy skin salmon with salsa verde and farro salad

Cost: Visit Blue Apron for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $9.99 per serving for two people, $8.49 per serving for four people ordering three meals a week. Different plans are available.

Affordable

Accurate cooking time estimates

Quick and easy

Flavors and ratios sometimes off in recipes

Disorganized packaging

Limited menus

EveryPlate meal kits are super affordable, although their menu is limited.

WELCOME DEAL: Try EveryPlate and pay just $1.49 per meal for your first box of tasty dishes.

If you’re looking to dive into meal kits for the first time or take a break from your usual routine, EveryPlate is a solid option—especially if cost is your primary concern. Other companies can become prohibitively expensive, and EveryPlate’s affordable, no-frills approach is certainly refreshing.

The HelloFresh-owned brand offers meals priced at just $4.99 per serving. Those are remarkably low prices—most other services in this roundup cost anywhere from $7.99 to $11.99 per serving for two people.

Each dish we tested, from hibachi-style steak and rice bowls to apricot dijon chicken legs, was quick and easy to prepare and used high-quality ingredients. While we were disappointed by the recipe for creamy peppercorn chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots (chicken breast can easily dry out when baked, and the sauce was overwhelmingly peppery), we found the other meals satisfying.

However, EveryPlate is focused on affordability and not specific diet plans, which means its recipes may not suit everyone. Its weekly menu has 21 rotating options to choose from, with three or four “premium” options included, at least five vegetarian options, and limited vegan options.

In testing, we found that EveryPlate’s portion sizes are sometimes too small for people who need more than the average calorie intake, and the vegetarian options especially can be lacking in protein value. But if you're looking to subscribe to a meal kit on a budget, EveryPlate just might do.

Read our full EveryPlate review

Favorite meal: Apricot dijon chicken legs with roasted carrots and lemon garlic couscous

Cost: Visit EveryPlate for updated pricing. When we tested, most meals were $4.99 per serving regardless of frequency, with $9.99 for shipping on all boxes. Different plans are available.

Affordable

High-quality ingredients

Quick and easy recipes

No recipes for special diets

Limited meal options

Marley Spoon is an eco-friendly and unique meal delivery service, but portions are small.

DEAL ALERT: Get 40% off and free shipping on your first Martha and Marley Spoon delivery, plus additional discounts for the next four boxes after that.

The oddly named Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon is a partnership between the German company, Marley Spoon, and lifestyle mogul Martha Stewart—and her influence over the brand is evident. Meals like chipotle-spiced steak with potato salad were simple, sophisticated, and downright American, just like the homemaking queen.

While we were consistently impressed by the flavor and inventiveness of Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon’s side dishes, we found less to celebrate in the mains, which were typically plain animal proteins.

The service is also far from ideal for those with dietary restrictions—in typical American fashion, every recipe revolves around an animal protein or heavy carbs. (Since we originally posted our review, Martha and Marley Spoon has added more vegetarian and low-carb options, but we haven't tested them yet.)

The service did score points with us for its eco-friendly packaging, made almost entirely from biodegradable materials. Most of its recipes were also easy to follow for new cooks.

If you’re looking for classic American flavors and high-quality ingredients, Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon might be a good option for you. Want to learn more?

Read our full Martha and Marley Spoon review

Favorite meal: Chipotle-spiced steak with potato salad and charred snap peas

Cost: Visit Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $10.99 per serving for two people ordering three each week, $9.49 per serving for four people ordering at least three each week. Different plans are available.

Plenty of customization

Helpful communication

Tasty meals

Family-friendly

Disorganized packaging

Timing estimates not always accurate

Green Chef's meal kits are healthy, but ingredients can often be wilted at delivery.

WELCOME SAVINGS: Get 50% off your first box of Green Chef meals and 20% off the next eight boxes.

Like Sunbasket, Green Chef promises organic ingredients and a variety of different diet-based meal plans (think keto, paleo, and vegan) at different price points, with about eight options to choose from per week.

What sets Green Chef apart from other services is its commitment to organic and ethically sourced ingredients. The company is USDA-certified organic, meaning that customers are buying certified ingredients from suppliers that follow strict standards.

When we tore open our bags for dishes like red-miso steak stir-fry and chicken with harissa apricot sauce, we were surprised to see that many of the ingredients were pre-prepped. The carrots and cabbage were already chopped, the miso sauce was already prepared, and there was a baggie of finely minced garlic and ginger that was almost a paste.

All these pre-prepped ingredients made preparing our food very speedy and simple. Most were plated and ready to eat in 30 minutes, and we only dirtied a handful of prep bowls, one pan, one pot, and a cutting board.

However, convenience has its drawbacks. Many of the pre-chopped veggies were brown or wilting by the time we went to cook with them. This, of course, is what happens when ingredients (especially organic ingredients) are chopped well before they’re prepared.

Read our full Green Chef review

Favorite meal: Red-miso steak stir-fry with udon noodles, carrots, edamame, pickled ginger and carrots

Cost: Visit Green Chef for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $11.99 to $13.49 per serving, depending on your plan.

USDA-certified organic ingredients

Offers different diet-based meal plans

Includes some pre-prepped ingredients

Limited weekly menus

Higher prices

Sunbasket has a large menu, easy recipes, and organic ingredients in their meal kit offerings.

This meal delivery service offers a wide variety of recipes that will satisfy omnivores and vegan customers alike with its certified organic produce.

Fresh pappardelle verde with sweet pea pistou and sugar snap peas and crispy tempeh tenders with barbecue sauce and lemon-shallot green beans were among its standout offerings when we tested.

We were impressed by how easily our Sunbasket dinners came together, relying on just a few key ingredients and spice blends to do most of the heavy lifting. That meant spending less time cooking and more time enjoying the food.

We particularly loved the flavorful veggies and non-meat protein options, making Sunbasket perfect for people who avoid eating meat.

You can easily skip weeks, adjust delivery frequency, pause your account, or cancel your subscription entirely by easily navigating the Sunbasket website.

The biggest downside to this meal subscription as it stands is that the portions aren’t big enough to have leftovers for eating later.

Favorite meal: Fresh pappardelle verde with sweet pea pistou and sugar snap peas

Cost: Visit Sunbasket for updated pricing. When we tested, meals were $11.99 per serving for two people, $10.99 per serving for four people, regardless of frequency. Different plans are available.

Great for vegetarians

Wide variety of meals offered

Easy recipes

Portions not big enough for leftovers

There's a lot to consider before subscribing to a meal delivery service.

There are several options to choose from when it comes to buying a meal delivery kit. To help make your selection a little easier, here are some of the most important factors to keep in mind before you subscribe to a delivery service:

As with any subscription service, the price is one detail that should not be overlooked, especially since you'll be paying for the delivery on a weekly or monthly basis. Meal kit delivery services tend to cost about $7 to $13 per serving, with some dishes going significantly higher for premium meals.

As a rule of thumb, stick to the basics when you first start out with a meal delivery service. See what it has to offer at a price point that matches your budget, and then weigh your options if you decide you want to switch things up.

Not everyone is a connoisseur in the kitchen, and some folks may want their dinner to be prepared more quickly or easily than others. Certain recipes can take longer to prepare, while some may be less labor intensive. Before ordering your meal kit, check to see how long each recipe is intended to take, as well as how much additional chopping, cutting, or prepping you may have to perform.

If you find yourself having little to no time to cook, then a pre-made meal kit like CookUnity could be your best option.

Meal delivery services tend to offer a variety of options to meet a wide range of dietary needs, whether it be low calorie, vegan, or gluten-free dishes. There's also the benefit of customization, which allows consumers to change some of the ingredients within the meal kit to suit their needs. This is particularly useful when it comes to protein options or excluding a particular ingredient due to an allergy or taste preference.

Before you select your meal kit delivery service, check to see what delivery days or times it offers. Some may vary based on your location, but you'll typically be able to select a delivery date for Monday-Friday, with some services offering weekend availability. This is important to keep in mind as you sign up for your first delivery to ensure you are receiving your meals at the most convenient time for you.

We’ve been testing meal delivery services for several years, trying out everything from well known meal kit companies that have been around for a while to new entries on the market.

For each service, we order at least one box of three or four meals worth two-to-four servings each. Using the service's website, we choose a diverse variety of meals when available.

We prepare the food on a weeknight for ourselves and our partners or families, evaluating the quality of ingredients, recipe accuracy and variety, difficulty, speed, cleanup, taste, and more.

We also consider cost, how eco-friendly and user-friendly the kit’s packaging is, and how easy (or difficult) it is to navigate the website and cancel the service after we're done testing. We score and compare each meal and keepf detailed notes like true food nerds.

Meal prepping and grocery shopping can feel overwhelming. Meal kits are a great way to expand your tastes and eat healthier, bringing you through the cooking process one step at a time and slicing the time it takes to prepare your food in half. We found many recipes that only took 15 or 20 minutes, and oftentimes less!

If you’re overworked and frequently grabbing fast food after late nights at the office, a meal delivery service may be for you. One study found that popular restaurant meals can have a whopping 1,500 calories on average per serving. Using a meal kit service can help you better manage your portions and ingredients to eat more nutritious meals and lead a healthier lifestyle.

Meal kits can also be a good option if you’re following a specific diet, whether it’s for weight loss, diabetes, or personal preference. They can also help you control grocery costs because you won't have excess food going bad in your fridge before you can decide what to do with it.

There's some things you should know about meal kit delivery services before choosing one for you.

Even if you’ve already decided which service is right for you, chances are you’re still confused about what your first box actually entails. While each service has different approaches to ordering, packaging, and delivery, we’ve found that most services have some baseline similarities.

You’ll get a discount on your first box. Almost every service we tried offers a large discount on the first box. While this is an awesome benefit for new customers, don’t let it fool you into thinking one service is much cheaper than the others. Our price breakdown for each service reflects the price you’ll be regularly paying per meal, disregarding initial discounts.

Your box is good to sit on your doorstep until the end of the day. Because delivery windows for these services are as broad as a full day, they package ingredients to last outside your actual refrigerator until the end of the day. Most often, produce and dry ingredients will be grouped in bags above ice packs, and any meat will be fully insulated below ice packs.

The packaging is going to be bulky and cumbersome. As much as certain services pride themselves on eco-friendly boxes, there’s no way around the massive amounts of packaging.

Recipes are usually seasonal, but favorites are often repeated. Every meal kit service has a different approach to repetition, but most try to make recipes as seasonal as possible to keep you from getting bored and to guarantee fresh, sustainable produce. That being said, most companies make note of the most popular dishes and offer them many weeks a year, regardless of the season. If you really love one of your meals, hold onto the recipe card for future reference so you can request it again—or make it yourself using store-bought ingredients.

Cook your meals soon after receiving them. Meal kit ingredients are typically fresh and high-quality, but there’s nothing special preserving them—they’re just like what you buy from the grocery store. Because of transit times, they might actually be older than what you buy from the store. Use common sense when approaching certain dishes—seafood, fresh greens, and chicken should be prepared first, while red meat, pork, and harder produce can last a few more days. Freeze any meat you won’t be eating in the first few days after receiving your box.

Cancel at least one full week before you want your last box. Most meal kit companies have solid customer service and flexible cancellation policies, but it’s important to consider the long-term logistics that go into assembling your box. If you’re interested in canceling your subscription service, make sure to do it at least one full week before you want your last box. If you want to skip a week or take a break from deliveries, most services allow you to make those selections, too.

Many meal kits are now offered in grocery stores. To combat the high operational costs of delivery-only services, many companies have partnered with (or been acquired by) major food stores and are now offering its kits in the grocery aisles. While we only tested delivery services, many of the recipes we tried are also available in stores for equal or lower prices.

Some meal kit companies now offer prepared and heat-and-eat meals. We've noticed a recent trend toward speed and convenience in the meal kit world, both with traditional companies and with frozen and ready-to-eat brands. Home Chef now offers at least two oven-ready dishes per menu every week, and Sunbasket has introduced both oven-ready and pre-made options.

We recommend having a good cast iron pan or a Dutch oven handy.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

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Cassidy Olsen

Contributor

Cassidy covered all things cooking as the kitchen editor for Reviewed from 2018 to 2020. An experimental home chef with a healthy distrust of recipes, Cassidy lives by the "Ratatouille" philosophy that, with a few techniques and key tools, anyone can cook. She's produced in-depth reviews and guides on everything from meal kits to stand mixers and the right way to cook an egg.

Madison Trapkin

Contributor

Madison covered all things cooking as the kitchen editor for Reviewed in 2021. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Culture Magazine, Madison is the founder of GRLSQUASH, a women's food, art, and culture journal. Her work has also appeared in The Boston Globe, Cherrybombe, Gather Journal, and more. She is passionate about pizza, aesthetic countertop appliances, and regularly watering her houseplants.

She holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia and a Master's of Liberal Arts in Gastronomy from Boston University.

Monica Petrucci

Editor, Kitchen & Cooking

Monica is Reviewed's Kitchen & Cooking editor and an avid home cook; she's been testing a wide range of kitchen products at Reviewed for three years. Previously the Digital Editor at Culture Cheese Magazine (and a former barista), she's also had her work published in The Boston Globe, Modern Luxury, Boston Magazine, and more.

Danielle DeSiato

Managing Editor, Kitchen & Appliances

Managing Editor, Kitchen & Appliances. Danielle has a B.S. from Syracuse University and a AAS in Culinary Arts from Newbury College. Previously, Danielle was a Test Cook and Associate Editor at America's Test Kitchen, as well as a freelance recipe developer and food writer. She’s the mom of two boys and loves making pizza on Friday nights.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.