EveryPlate even offers a family-friendly meal plan geared toward creating recipes that both kids and adults will like. Most recipes are designed to be ready in about 30 minutes.

Learn More: Read Our EveryPlate Review. EveryPlate offers a plan for two or four servings a week with an option to select three to five recipes a week.

With nearly different menu options, Daily Harvest offers single-serving frozen meals and snacks that are ready to enjoy in minutes. Daily Harvest was founded in New York City in with a mission of offering nutritious and organic frozen, whole, plant-, and fruit-based foods.

Foods and meals are frozen and arrive on dry ice. Some foods need basic assembly, such as smoothies. Other foods such as harvest bowls, forager bowls, oat bowls, chia bowls, flatbreads, and soups can be heated on the stovetop or in the microwave.

Customers can order weekly or monthly and can select up to 24 items. Learn More: Read Our Daily Harvest Review. Plans include a weekly or monthly subscription with options for a small box nine items , medium box 14 items , or large box 24 items.

Pricing depends on the cost of each item selected, with volume-based discounts applied the more items you order. Per-Item Pricing. Volume Discounts. Home Chef offers a weekly menu of crowd-pleasing comfort foods that feed the whole family for an appealing price point. Home Chef features filling and flavorful family-friendly comfort foods at wallet-friendly prices.

Meal kits come with pre-prepped ingredients and are designed to be ready to hit the table in 30 minutes. There are also options for minute meal kits, as well as Oven Ready meals that only require assembling a handful of ingredients in a tin before cooking.

With servings that feed up to six people, Home Chef is a great inexpensive option for busy families. Learn More: Read our Home Chef Review.

Weekly order costs will depend on how many meals you order and which menu options you select. Some foods require liquid during the preparation phase. Bowls and soups can be heated on the stovetop or in a microwave-safe bowl.

Foods can be kept in the freezer for up to two months. The meals are vegan and paleo-friendly as well as dairy-free. Learn More: Read Our Revive Superfoods Review. Pricing will depend on what you order. First, select a box size of either nine, 12, or 24 items, then fill it with whatever foods you want.

Per-item pricing is as follows:. With its menu of family-friendly comfort foods, HelloFresh is sure to please even the pickiest eaters.

HelloFresh is one of the most well-known meal kit services out there, and it's easy to see why. The company's weekly menus boast a variety of hearty, flavorful meals that are sure to please the whole family. Each recipe includes easy-to-follow instructions, and most can be put together in around 30 minutes.

Order up to six meals each week, with either two or four servings each. Learn More: Read our HelloFresh Review.

Blue Apron is the ultimate meal delivery service for gourmet food lovers. Choose from multiple meal preferences, including chef favorites, family-friendly, and vegetarian, with dishes like togarashi tilapia, chickpea shakshuka, and pan-seared duck on the menu.

In certain areas, customers can also add on pantry essentials, kitchen tools, and even wine. Learn More: Read Our Blue Apron Review. Meal Kits. Heat and Eat. The service offers prepared, refrigerated meals that include comforting and nutritional foods that can be reheated in the microwave for 90 seconds.

Meals arrive pre-packaged and can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 14 days. Users have a plethora of dietary options to choose from, including pureed foods, renal-friendly, low-sodium, cancer support, and gluten-free.

Customers can even choose an auto-ship program to make ordering easier. Learn More: Read Our Mom's Meals Review. We sampled the individual plan, which has an option for 10, 14, or 21 meals per delivery. Users can also choose from an a la carte meal menu or have the chef-curated menu, in which the chef selects your order.

Feeding yourself and others can be expensive, timing-consuming, and challenging. Fortunately, there are many meal delivery services that offer affordable options. Finding affordable meal delivery services can help make life a little easier.

Identifying reliable and continuous meal delivery services can alleviate a financial burden as well as time-consuming meal planning , cooking, and cleaning up. Does the service offer larger portions designed for a bigger family that may have a picky eater?

You'll also need to decide whether you want meal kits, which require prep and cooking, or prepared meals that only need to be warmed. When selecting a meal delivery service, here are a few factors to consider:. After researching over 40 meal kits, we ranked them all by the lowest cost per serving.

Cheap meal delivery services have more to offer than just inexpensive food. Fortunately, for customers and consumers, there is a bevy of intriguing, cost-effective, and healthy options for at-home meal delivery kits. Some meal kits create flash-frozen meals and snacks that need to be prepared with at-home ingredients, such as frozen smoothies or soups that require water or a desired milk.

Other meals may arrive pre-cooked and need to be heated up on the stovetop or in the microwave. And some companies focus on larger-portion ingredients that are geared toward cooking and feeding the whole family.

Several of the cheapest meal delivery services are conscious of allergens and have meals designed for specific dietary needs. For example, Daily Harvest and Revive Superfoods both offer dairy-free and vegan foods. Our testers ordered from, cooked, and rated 40 different meal delivery services.

We carefully scored each one based on meal selection, nutritional information, sustainability, and customer service, as well as the flavor, freshness, and quality of each meal and ingredient.

For this roundup, we ranked the companies based on the lowest price per serving, which generally means customers must order the highest amount of meals available. Our Spruce Eats tester panel includes dietitians, chefs, and longtime food writers who are all passionate and knowledgeable about food.

Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance.

Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. EveryPlate is an affordable meal kit company focusing on simple comfort food recipes that are easy to make and tasty.

These meal kits are cheaper than takeout and often groceries, and half the price or less of other meal kit delivery services. To keep costs low, EveryPlate uses simpler ingredients, recipes, and packaging. You can order three, four, or five meals per week for two or four people.

Each week, you choose from a menu of different dishes, which includes vegetarian meal options. You can customize many meals for free or a modest fee by swapping the protein or side. EveryPlate meals are fuss-free and familiar, not fancy. If you want to kick your dinners up a notch, you can pay extra for premium meals.

This costs extra per serving for ingredients like seafood and steak and slightly more sophisticated dishes. I tried EveryPlate for myself and found the meal kits to be practical and delicious.

The recipes were easy to follow and most of the ingredients looked and tasted good. And while the meal options are more limited than other services, there are still plenty of tasty dishes on the menu, especially if you love comfort food and classic flavors. If you love cooking as much as you love eating and you have an adventurous palette, Blue Apron is the meal delivery service for you.

Blue Apron offers both meal kits you prepare yourself and heat-and-eat meals that are already fully cooked.

Ingredients are sourced directly from family-run farms to ensure freshness and quality and recipes are curated by a team of professional chefs. Blue Apron offers about 19 different meals per week including usually 14 meal kits, three prepared meals, and two ready-to-cook meals that you just put in the oven.

Compared to the price of other meal kit services, Blue Apron is on the higher end of average. When setting up your account, you choose two to five meals per week at two or four servings each.

When I tried Blue Apron, I was impressed by the variety. There were so many different globally inspired, gourmet, and nutritious meals to choose from. The quality of ingredients was excellent and the food was restaurant-quality fantastic. Overall, this meal kit service made me feel like a pro and saved me a lot of time.

Blue Apron would be one of my first choices for people watching their weight too since so many meals are WeightWatchers approved and under calories.

This meal kit delivery service is also great for people who want quick prep or prepared meals. Also, it helps if you have more experience in the kitchen because the recipes can be a little vague, which beginners might find frustrating.

One of the first meal kit delivery services ever and the most popular still today, HelloFresh has meal kits figured out. Fun recipes that are easy and educational make this the best meal delivery service for beginners. The recipes are easy to prepare with simple step-by-step instructions that anyone can follow, and the pre-portioned ingredients provided are always fresh.

HelloFresh offers six different meal plans to choose from, including a vegetarian option, a family-friendly option, and a pescatarian option. Each recipe includes a difficulty rating and nutrition facts.

HelloFresh is better than many meal services at catering to different dietary needs. You can order anywhere from two to six recipes per week — way more options than other meal delivery services — for two or four people each.

I tried three meals from HelloFresh and I loved the whole experience. My favorite things about this company were the packaging and the recipe cards. HelloFresh boxes contain surprisingly little plastic and the meals are separated into individual paper bags, which was way more convenient than sorting through a box full of ingredients.

The recipes, another huge strength, included large pictures of each step and helpful tips. The recipes are easy to follow and there are several kid-friendly dishes on the menu. Plus, HelloFresh lets you customize to your liking.

HelloFresh has some balanced meals, but a lot of recipes can be high in fat and calories. outside their health-forward options. HelloFresh will save you time grocery shopping but might not save you money or might cost more than you spend on dinner now.

Sunbasket is a meal delivery service that caters to people valuing sustainable business practices and healthy, organic ingredients. Sunbasket is the meal kit to choose if you're looking for the freshest ingredients and the healthiest recipes.

Although more expensive than competitors, Sunbasket has menus for every diet and lifestyle, whether vegan, paleo, gluten-free, keto-friendly and more. This service prioritizes quality, first and foremost. Sunbasket has a variety of meals for those who are paleo, vegetarian, gluten-free, and more.

In addition to their many creative dishes — like the Moroccan-spiced salmon with jeweled couscous and lemon yogurt or the triple-mushroom quinoa with watercress, scallions, and peas — Sunbasket has an online market, similar to Blue Apron, where you can purchase everything from breakfasts to snacks, to quick lunches and even specialty meats.

The catch with Sunbasket is the price tag. The meal kit portion includes ingredients you follow recipes and cook yourself or options for ready-to-eat meals. The actual price is personalized to how much food you order. Most meals with Hungryroot you prepare yourself are ready in about ten minutes.

Hungryroot mixes in some Walmart and Instacart by also offering a grocery delivery service to its meals. Options include healthy snacks, sweets, fresh fruit, breakfast items and more. Hungryroot uses a credit-based system that assigns grocery items and recipes a credit value when ordering your plan that corresponds to the number of servings selected.

Exclusive to Northeastern U. Outside normal grocery and prepared meal delivery, those in Brooklyn, Manhattan or other delivery zones in New York can also have alcohol delivered with FreshDirect. Deliveries with FreshDirect can be made up to a week in advance or if you want your groceries quick they can be scheduled for same-day or next-day delivery in selected two-hour windows subject to availability.

Alright, food lovers! Enter the modern marvel: Home Meal Delivery Kits! Most services offer flexible subscription models. You can usually choose how many meals you want to be delivered each week and for how many people.

One of the coolest things about these kits is the variety. Many companies rotate their menus regularly, offering a mix of classic favorites and global dishes that might be new to you.

Some companies even offer breakfast, dessert, and snack options. The cost per meal can be higher than if you sourced the ingredients yourself. Also, while companies are making efforts to reduce packaging, there can still be a fair amount in each box, which could be a concern for the eco-conscious among us.

Before we even thought of tasting anything the fun part! From popular blogs to user reviews on various platforms—think Trustpilot, Yelp, and even Reddit—we dug deep to understand what customers truly want. We prioritized services that offered a range of options. Once we had our list, it was time for our favorite part: taste-testing!

We sampled dishes from numerous services, rating them on flavor, freshness, portion sizes, and overall satisfaction. Yes, it was as delicious as it sounds! We analyzed the cost per meal, looking for services that provided value for money without compromising on taste.

An overlooked but super crucial aspect! And of course, we made some cheeky calls to their customer service to see how responsive and helpful they were. We favored services that used eco-friendly packaging, had recycling options, or showcased any efforts towards sustainability.

Armed with all this data, our team sat down for some serious discussions and maybe a food coma or two! We debated, discussed, and sometimes even passionately argued to whittle down our choices to the final list. Gone are the days when ordering food was a rare treat. With the advent of meal delivery services, a plethora of culinary delights are just a click away.

Imagine getting gourmet dishes or even simple home-cooked style meals delivered right at your door, without the hassle of grocery shopping or meal prepping. But with the vast sea of options available, how does one pick the right service?

Enter meal delivery services! They cater to a range of preferences, from health-focused meals to indulgent treats. Before you get overwhelmed with options, take a moment. Think about what you really need. Are you aiming to lose weight? Maybe you need high-protein meals. Or are you a gourmet at heart, seeking new and exotic flavors?

Pinning down your priorities can narrow the field significantly. From those avoiding gluten to vegans, and from keto enthusiasts to pescatarians, the spectrum is vast. Check if your prospective vegan meal delivery service can cater to your specific dietary needs.

We all dream of eating like royalty, but the wallet does have its limits. While exploring, keep an eye on the price tag. Some services might seem affordable at first but can rack up costs with add-ons. Find one that offers the best bang for your buck.

Look into how your chosen service packages its food. Do they use excessive plastic? Or have they adopted eco-friendly alternatives? Your choices can make a difference. Food can be an adventure.

While local delicacies are comforting, sometimes the soul craves exotic flavors. Scour through reviews. Consistent complaints about a particular issue should raise eyebrows. If multiple customers talk about tardy deliveries or poor food quality, take note.

But for those who find solace in cooking, meal kits can be therapeutic.

Also, these services can provide high-quality ingredients along with options for those with specific dietary needs or restrictions.

Still, some of these services can be expensive. Read on to see our favorite affordable meal delivery services. Medical disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice.

For health advice, contact a licensed healthcare provider. Good for: People looking for an inexpensive meal kit service with quality ingredients.

Skip the food shopping and the chopping—Dinnerly is a meal kit service that sends you fresh ingredients right to your door with most of the food preparation already done. Our pick for best overall cheapest meal delivery service goes to Dinnerly.

Additionally, Dinnerly provides a market where you can purchase premade meals and food groceries, as well. Within that time frame, meals rotated to new selections already. The meal kits were a hit for Nicole, who tried the turkey taquitos and pastrami-crusted steak with an everything bagel potato; they were both delicious to her.

It has better ingredient quality and definitely less sodium than a TV dinner, but with very similar taste vibes. Our expert dietitian Perry Nix, RD, likes that Dinnerly provides affordable meals to avoid going out to eat, which improves our diet as well as saving money.

Good for: Those wanting an inexpensive prepared meal delivery with organic ingredients. Fresh N Lean is a prepared meal delivery service that has a variety of meal plans to choose from. In addition, you can select exact meals from their A la carte section.

I was surprised! What stood out to dietitian Perry Nix was the protein amounts provided in each prepared meal. Additionally, the one issue Kate ran into was that it was a hassle to cancel her meal subscription.

She actually had to call customer service…who does that anymore? Customers can choose between 10 and 21 weekly healthy meals geared toward weight loss. You can eat meals after just microwaving them for a few minutes. Meal plans include options for specific diets, like keto, mediterranean, plant-based, or low carb diets.

RELATED: Best Weight Loss Programs. Unfortunately, eating too few calories for a prolonged time can actually damage your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight.

HelloFresh is a subscription meal delivery service that provides ingredients and recipes for weekly meals. They provide six different plans, including plant-based, pescatarian, and quick and easy meals.

Additionally, 40 different recipes are available each week, and proteins and sides can be swapped out as needed. The subscription is flexible, as you can skip a week, pause, or cancel your account at any time.

Meal kits include ingredients and recipe cards, and you prep and cook your meals for two people or four. Our product tester, Ashley Little, has used HelloFresh for several years, and enjoys the ease of ordering and customizing your weekly meals.

There is quite a bit of customization, an aspect that appealed to dietitian Perry Nix, RD, as well, particularly for family-friendly options. Also, since you cook these meals at home, the kids can help prepare their meals, which inspires them to taste new foods. Still, with its low price and discounts, this meal service is worth a shot.

Good for: Meal kits that have variety up to par with grocery shopping. Hungryroot offers a unique take on meal delivery, in that you find a recipe you like, and the company will send you all of the ingredients to make it.

There are many options for types of food to choose from, and you can even order extra groceries that you might need as well. You do have to cook though, so if that's not interesting to you, this won't be the right plan.

This feels less like a meal service and more like grocery shopping, according to GGR head of content and certified personal trainer Kate Meier, who tested out Hungryroot.

The ease of prep was fantastic for a meal kit service, according to Kate. But it was so easy—not a lot of chopping, because everything is prepackaged and ready to throw in a skillet. There is an abundance of variety with Hungryroot, particularly for those with dietary restrictions. Also, Kate was a bit overwhelmed by the initial quiz at the start—asking lots of questions before you even get to see the meal options.

Nevertheless, this is a solid service that provides high-quality ingredients for a relatively inexpensive price. Mosaic is a frozen meal delivery service that offers plant-based options for vegetarians, vegans, and omnivores alike. Mosaic has a wide selection of frozen veggie bowls, family meals, pizzas, smoothies, soups, and oat bowls.

Dishes vary from smoothies to pizzas and flatbreads, and even soups and oat bowls. Family-friendly meals were also available, which dietitian Perry Nix, RD, enjoyed.

Vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals that promote immune health, improve vision, and support strong bones and a healthy metabolism. Make sure to check if they deliver to you though, as their delivery is limited to certain parts of the U.

RELATED: Plant-Based Protein Powder Benefits. Good for: Families needing meal kits with options for all family members. Blue Apron is a meal kit delivery service that sends you everything you need for a fun, tasty meal right to your door. Blue Apron is our favorite budget-friendly meal delivery service for families.

With wellness and veggie plant-based options available in their preferences, Blue Apron also provides family-friendly options for kid-friendly meals, as well as a fast and easy quick prep option. RELATED: Blue Apron Vs HelloFresh Vs Home Chef. Our tester, Sarah Carlton, enjoys the meal kits overall, although some meals shine brighter than others.

On the other hand, the Salmon was packed with flavor and so good. The quality of the ingredients impressed Perry Nix, RD.

These ingredient standards support the environment, farmers, and animal welfare. A fault that Perry notes is that Blue Apron is fairly limited when it comes to dietary preferences. RELATED: Best Meal Delivery for Weight Loss. There are no subscriptions, you can order at the frequency to like.

Our favorite prepared meal delivery on a budget is Clean Eatz. Clean Eatz allows you to pick six meals from their meal plans—including keto, high-protein, and gluten-free plans—and then a quantity of these six-meal packs. Only being able to choose six meals at a time with limited variety might not be what some are looking for; still, with a decent amount of protein in each meal and delicious ingredients, Clean Eatz provides good value at a pretty low price.

Busy parents will rejoice in picker-eater approved menu items with hidden vegetables and wholesome ingredients from Little Spoon, a kid-specific meal delivery service. Little Spoon has meal options for babies who are not yet eating solid foods, little ones moving to bite-size pieces, toddlers eating finger foods, and smoothies for on-the-go snacks.

Subscription plans offer biweekly delivery cadence that can be skipped, paused, or canceled at any time. For the picky eaters in your household, we suggest Little Spoon. Providing meals for all age ranges, from infants to toddlers to young kids, Little Spoon exposes kids to a variety of flavors and ingredients at a young age.

Dietitian Perry Nix, RD, speaks on the importance of diversifying the foods a child is exposed to early on. Senior editor and certified nutrition coach Nicole Davis tested out these meals directly with the source: her two oldest children. The kids, being moderately picky in their foods, had mixed reactions to some meals.

Whether or not Little Spoon is right for you and your children will mostly depend on how your children like it. However, with organic ingredients that are non-GMO, this is a great meal service for kids.

You can read our in-depth thoughts in our Little Spoon review. Not every meal service we tried made our top picks; here are a few honorable mentions we tested:. Each recipe includes easy-to-follow instructions, and most can be put together in around 30 minutes. Order up to six meals each week, with either two or four servings each.

Learn More: Read our HelloFresh Review. Blue Apron is the ultimate meal delivery service for gourmet food lovers. Choose from multiple meal preferences, including chef favorites, family-friendly, and vegetarian, with dishes like togarashi tilapia, chickpea shakshuka, and pan-seared duck on the menu.

In certain areas, customers can also add on pantry essentials, kitchen tools, and even wine. Learn More: Read Our Blue Apron Review.

Meal Kits. Heat and Eat. The service offers prepared, refrigerated meals that include comforting and nutritional foods that can be reheated in the microwave for 90 seconds.

Meals arrive pre-packaged and can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 14 days. Users have a plethora of dietary options to choose from, including pureed foods, renal-friendly, low-sodium, cancer support, and gluten-free.

Customers can even choose an auto-ship program to make ordering easier. Learn More: Read Our Mom's Meals Review. We sampled the individual plan, which has an option for 10, 14, or 21 meals per delivery. Users can also choose from an a la carte meal menu or have the chef-curated menu, in which the chef selects your order.

Feeding yourself and others can be expensive, timing-consuming, and challenging. Fortunately, there are many meal delivery services that offer affordable options. Finding affordable meal delivery services can help make life a little easier.

Identifying reliable and continuous meal delivery services can alleviate a financial burden as well as time-consuming meal planning , cooking, and cleaning up. Does the service offer larger portions designed for a bigger family that may have a picky eater? You'll also need to decide whether you want meal kits, which require prep and cooking, or prepared meals that only need to be warmed.

When selecting a meal delivery service, here are a few factors to consider:. After researching over 40 meal kits, we ranked them all by the lowest cost per serving. Cheap meal delivery services have more to offer than just inexpensive food. Fortunately, for customers and consumers, there is a bevy of intriguing, cost-effective, and healthy options for at-home meal delivery kits.

Some meal kits create flash-frozen meals and snacks that need to be prepared with at-home ingredients, such as frozen smoothies or soups that require water or a desired milk.

Other meals may arrive pre-cooked and need to be heated up on the stovetop or in the microwave. And some companies focus on larger-portion ingredients that are geared toward cooking and feeding the whole family.

Several of the cheapest meal delivery services are conscious of allergens and have meals designed for specific dietary needs. For example, Daily Harvest and Revive Superfoods both offer dairy-free and vegan foods. Our testers ordered from, cooked, and rated 40 different meal delivery services.

We carefully scored each one based on meal selection, nutritional information, sustainability, and customer service, as well as the flavor, freshness, and quality of each meal and ingredient. For this roundup, we ranked the companies based on the lowest price per serving, which generally means customers must order the highest amount of meals available.

Our Spruce Eats tester panel includes dietitians, chefs, and longtime food writers who are all passionate and knowledgeable about food. Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising.

Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content. Measure advertising performance. Measure content performance. Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources. Develop and improve services. Use limited data to select content.

List of Partners vendors. What to Buy Food. The Cheapest Meal Delivery Services to Save Both Money and Time Dinnerly tops the list of least expensive meal delivery companies.

By Marisa Olsen. Marisa Olsen. Marisa is a food writer in Massachusetts with a background in marketing and communications for the arts and restaurant industries.

Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process. and Kayleigh Drake. Kayleigh Drake. Kayleigh is an associate food editor for the Performance Marketing team at Dotdash Meredith. She has nearly a decade of combined experience in both the media and culinary industries. Fact checked by Elizabeth Berry.

Elizabeth Berry is a writer and fact-checker with a background in food journalism and two years of experience editing lifestyle content. The Cheapest Meal Delivery Services to Save Both Money and Time View All. The Cheapest Meal Delivery Services to Save Both Money and Time. Final Verdict.

Compare the Cheapest Meal Delivery Services. Guide for Choosing. Sign Up Now. Why You Should Try It. Pros and Cons. Pros Very affordable Simple and quick meals Few ingredients and steps.

Pricing and Plans. Meals We Tried. BBQ cheeseburger with sautéed onions and smashed potatoes Low-cal veggie drunken noodles with broccoli, peppers, and cilantro Grass-fed ground beef and cheddar quesadillas with corn Caramel chicken stir-fry with snow peas and jasmine rice.

Pros Affordable and consistent pricing for all plans Easy, flavorful meals Offers family-friendly meals options. Cons Limited weekly menu Contents are not well organized in delivery box Lots of plastic packaging. Crispy Caesar chicken Steak frites Blackened shrimp salad Hotel butter barramundi.

Pros Many meal and snack options Nutritious, healthy foods Free shipping. Cons Not a great option for large families Deliveries can get expensive Some meals may not be filling. Mint and cacao smoothie Mango papaya smoothie Hazelnut and chocolate bites Tomatillo and pepper flatbread Portobello and pesto flatbread Sweet potato and wild rice hash Brussels sprouts and tahini harvest bowl Spinach and shiitake grits Tomato and zucchini minestrone soup.

Pros Menu changes every week Recipes feed up to six people minute meal options available.

There are also plans that are family-friendly, and plans with meals all designed to be prepared in under 30 minutes.

All meals from the Gobble meal delivery service are designed to take 15 minutes to prepare. Gobble was voted the number one meal delivery kit by Parents magazine thanks in part, no doubt, to its quick prep time.

Dinner kits are available in a two- or four-person plan that each include three different recipes. Dinnerly, a branch of Marley Spoon, launched in early , offers greater simplicity than its parent service, with fewer ingredients and steps in its recipes.

The delivery service allows customers to choose up to six weekly meals. This is a super budget-friendly option, and one of the least expensive on a per meal basis meal kits on the market.

However, it does require a minimum order: Customers must order at least two portions per recipe and at least three recipes per week. Dinnerly is best for: Someone who wants a one stop shop for both meal kits and groceries. Whether you're looking for Paleo, keto, pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan meals, Green Chef has you covered.

The recipes are designed to be whipped up in 30 minutes or less. Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic company that works to use high-quality, sustainable, clean ingredients. Availability: All over the United States, except for Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of Louisiana. The Sakara meal delivery service was co-founded by Whitney Tingle, a certified yoga instructor, and Danielle DuBoise, a holistic health coach.

The service aims to provide fresh, plant-based healthy meals made with organic ingredients. Sakara is best for: People who eat a lot of salads and organic meals, and want to save time.

Purple Carrot offers vegetarian meal kits. There are a few different plans. The Quick and Easy plan has simple dishes designed that can serve as a good introduction to basic skills. Purple Carrot also offers a Performance Meals plan. Purple Carrot is best for: Someone who thinks their vegetarian and plant-based meals are stuck in a rut.

Availability: Currently ships to most zip codes in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. The easy-to-follow recipes are inspired by unique, seasonal, or hard-to-find ingredients and everything comes pre-measured and precut—a plus for super busy cooks.

The weekly box can be tailored for two or four people, and customized based on your dietary needs. All the recipes are beginner-friendly thanks to the picture-heavy, step-by-step instructions.

Calorie counts for each recipe are included as well. And Blue Apron has add-on programs for wine delivery and a market feature to shop for kitchen tools. In addition to their weekly box, they also have seasonal boxes for events like an entire Thanksgiving dinner or holiday roast for six to eight.

Blue Apron is best for: Someone who wants help learning foundational cooking skills and repeatable recipes. For each recipe you can substitute items for example, if a recipe uses beef, you can swap in turkey, chicken, or a meatless alternative. You can also swap out types of noodles and other ingredients.

Their fresh ingredients come chopped, sauces come pre-made, and all the easy meals are designed to come together in a matter of minutes.

Hungryroot also offers a grocery section and with organic produce, meat, seafood, plant-based proteins, breads, bakery items, sauces, dips, dressings, grains, pasta, sweets, dairy, eggs, beverages, and plenty of snacks.

Hungryroot is best for: People who hate tedious prep like mincing garlic and want really fast food. Availability: Most zip codes throughout the contiguous U. and the District of Columbia. These fresh, ready-made meals arrive in an insulated box with ice packs.

Additionally, all the meals are certified organic. If you want to outsource the effort it takes to create heathy, nutritious meals, Methodology is a worthy partner. They offer a rotating, plant-based menu they say is healthy and designed to optimize gut health by maximizing plant variety, nutrient density, and fiber, minimizing saturated fat, and avoiding processed food altogether.

The entire menu of premade meals is free of gluten, dairy, and refined sugar. Methodology also takes steps to be sustainable and a more environmentally-friendly meal kit. The food is packaged in glass jars or recyclable plastic, and you can even arrange to have your packaging picked up and reused.

Factor is another meal delivery service that does all of the cooking and prep work for you. Factor meals include grass-fed meat and pasture-raised eggs, as well as items that are gluten-free, antibiotic- and hormone-free, soy-free, non-GMO, and have no added sugars.

Meals can also be catered to the Paleo or keto diet. HelloFresh offers three plans: classic, vegetarian, and family-friendly.

All plans include complete nutritional information. Choose between meal kits that feed between two and four people. Omnivores get to choose from 15 menu options; vegetarians options are preset. HelloFresh is best for: Someone in any stage of life interested in learning to cook.

CookUnity gives you access to meals from a variety of chefs around the world like Jose Garces or Esther Choi. Availability: CookUnity delivers to most of the United States. Check to see if they ship to your city here. This doctor-designed program incorporates high-quality, nutrient-dense ingredients that are grown on an organic, sustainable farm in New Jersey.

As the name suggests, this meal kit aims to provide food that can help to keep you healthy for the long run. There are a variety of weekly menus to choose from, including vegan, pescatarian, kosher, and flexitarian weekly meal plans.

Each meal is designed by Chef Luigi Fineo. Food for Longevity is best for: Busy people looking for morning and mid-day meals while they work. One of the best meal delivery services for the smoothie enthusiast, Daily Harvest sends you the ingredients to blend both smoothies and soups.

It also has bowls, flatbreads, and even family-size bakes. This is an easy way to work more fruits and vegetables into your diet with minimal cleanup afterwards.

All of its meals are guaranteed to be GMO-free and gluten-free. The extensive menu features more than 40 meals. If you have food restrictions or nutrition preferences, you can filter your menu choices to eliminate beets, cilantro, mushrooms, soy, tree nuts, caffeine, coconut, sesame, and spiciness.

Splendid Spoon is best for: Vegans and vegetarians who currently utilize the freezer aisle of their local grocery store. Revive Superfoods prides itself on its nutrient-dense smoothies, but has other offerings as well.

In addition to creamy smoothies, it also has oatmeal, dairy-free desserts, soups, burrito bowls, açaí bowls, falafels, and more. The smoothies, which are the real focus of this meal delivery kit, are rounded out with filling ingredients like seeds and pea protein and in addition to fresh fruit and vegetables.

Revive also has a wide selection of oatmeal, like its best-selling banana and chocolate overnight oats.

To prepare the oats you just have to add your liquid of choice and allow the cup to soak overnight. It can also be heated in the microwave if you want something faster same-day. They all come precooked, and need to be heated for 4—5 minutes in the microwave. Revive Superfoods is best for: People who are too busy for breakfast but should really be eating it.

All meat ingredients are antibiotic- and hormone-free and the eggs are organic. When it comes to fish, Sunbasket uses wild-caught seafood recommended by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

With more than 20 weekly recipes, you can choose between oven-ready meals, prepped servings, and classic meals that still require you to do all the chopping; servings vary between two and four. Sunbasket is best for: A new home cook looking to experiment with new ingredients or techniques.

Availability: Currently ships to most zip codes in the United States, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, and parts of New Mexico.

Both menus can be tailored to work with specific dietary preferences. FlexPro also has a Power Bakery with protein-packed cookies and brownies that you can add to any weekly order. In the meal prep box, you can order ready-made proteins, like sous vide chicken, prime rib, shrimp scampi, sirloin steak, pulled pork carnitas, and rotisserie chicken.

These are perfect for tossing into salads or bowls throughout the week. Elaheh Nozari. Emily Johnson. Well Equipped Cleaning Gear. Meal Kits. Home Chef. Buy at Home Chef. Photo by Linda Pugliese. Pros: Marley Spoon meals got our testers and their kids cooking and eating a bit outside their comfort zone—the harissa salmon salad was a big hit.

They are clearly labeled as such on the website. We had a couple things leak over a few weeks of orders. When choosing your plan, you can highlight your specific dietary and meal preferences, including veggie, quick and easy, and family-friendly.

Instead, the NBC Select editor-favorite service is a grocery delivery method that offers a lot of the same benefits and customizations as other meal kits on this list — you take an initial quiz on your preferences and dietary needs, and Hungryroot creates a personalized grocery plan.

In addition to delivering fresh food for the week, it also sends you specific recipes based on the groceries you order. You can also edit your delivery every week in case you want a specific ingredient or food item. Sunbasket offers both ingredient-based meal kits and pre-made meals, all of which consist of high-quality ingredients and organic produce, according to the service.

Both Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietitian and CEO of NY Nutrition Group , and Ariane Resnick , a special diet chef and certified nutritionist, recommend Sunbasket as their top choice for healthy meal kits. This popular service offers a great mix of dishes in its weekly rotating menu, which can appeal to everyone in the family including kids , according to Leonard.

The service also offers 14 veggie meals including up to two vegan meals in its Classic Plan each week. Purple Carrot offers both prepared meals and meal kits, so you can choose whether you want to cook or simply heat up your dinner or lunch.

In addition to plant-based meals, Purple Carrot provides several gluten-free recipes to choose from, as well as gluten-free pre-prepared meals.

After selecting whether you want meal kits or pre-made meals, you can customize the number of dinners you get per week — these range from two to four meal kits and six to 10 pre-made meals.

Deliveries take place on Mondays, Tuesdays or Wednesdays depending on your shipping location, and you can choose to skip a delivery on any given week. These expert-recommended meal delivery services are pre-made and ready to eat — experts say you can simply heat them up for an easy meal during the week.

Price is based on 10 meals per week. This service caters to a number of dietary needs and preferences, including keto, paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, plant-based and high protein.

You can choose from five plans, ranging from four meals to 18 meals per week. Factor also lets you schedule a complimentary consultation with a registered dietitian to answer nutrition questions or determine if a Factor subscription is the right choice for you.

Price is based on six meals per week. CookUnity lets you choose from multiple plans depending on how many meals you want to receive per week, with subscriptions ranging from four to 16 meals.

The service provides a rotating menu of ready-made options each week, or you can let CookUnity pick them out for you based on your preferences like your choice of protein or any dietary restrictions like vegetarian, vegan, low-carb and gluten-free. The meals come fresh and have a refrigerated shelf life of about four to seven days.

Price is based on 20 meals per week. You can choose from seven plans: signature which includes chef-prepared meals for those with limited dietary restrictions , gluten-free, heart healthy which offers meals containing less than milligrams of sodium and 3.

Once you choose your plan, BistroMD gives you multiple selections for the number of meals you get per week.

The service also offers an EATS Essential and Tasty Snacks program that provides healthy snacking options for an additional charge. Price is based on 14 meals per week. Splendid Spoon offers over 50 healthy ready-made meals and snacks that include smoothies, soups, noodle bowls and dishes — and everything is gluten-free.

She says she enjoys the selection of juices and smoothies and the convenience of thawing one at a time. Below, we highlight what to keep in mind. Daniel Shumski , a recipe developer and cookbook author, suggests taking advantage of trial offers.

Generally, meal delivery services have specific rules and procedures in place to ensure their ingredients are high-quality and trustworthy, according to the experts we talked to. For those looking to meet specific nutritional goals, Moskovitz recommends paying attention to the individual ingredients in each meal plan, the nutrition facts and the portion sizes.

Certain meal delivery services will offer a variety of options for those with dietary restrictions. We also take steps to ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and with no undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.

Mili Godio is an editor at NBC Select who has extensive experience covering meal delivery services, including prepared , gluten-free and vegetarian meal services. For this article, Godio spoke to six experts about what to consider when shopping for a meal delivery service and how to determine the best one for you.

They also shared their favorite meal delivery services to try out.