Home Chef offers many dishes, including carb-conscious, calorie-conscious, and vegetarian options. Each Home Chef meal can take anywhere from 5 — 30 minutes to make, depending on the option you choose.

They deliver their meal kits in coolers with insulated linings, so the food stays cold until it arrives at your doorstep.

If you prefer to get Home Chef from the store, you can find several Home Chef products at Kroger-owned grocery stores across the country. Each Daily Harvest item is ready to enjoy in minutes and made with organic ingredients, non-GMO fruits, and vegetables.

The great thing is that there is no shopping, chopping, or prepping needed. You can customize your order to include as many vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free items as you like. Freshly is a meal delivery service that focuses on fresh, healthy food.

With the Freshly app or website, customers can choose from over 30 meal options for all-natural delicious meals cooked by chefs and sent to their door.

These meals are prepared with quality ingredients and have a refrigerated shelf life of about 3 — 5 days before they need to be eaten or frozen for later use. Each meal is perfectly sized for one person to enjoy and is ready in about three minutes.

If you like comfort food, this may be the service for you! There are no contracts, and you can cancel your subscription at any time.

Blue Apron is one of the first names people think of for cheap meal delivery services. You can choose between two and four recipes per week. Each meal takes between 35 — 45 minutes to cook. There are three meal styles to choose from: Signature, Wellness includes WW options , and Vegetarian.

All ingredients are responsibly sourced and of high quality. Other services include wine delivery, gift cards, and an impressive inventory of kitchen items available on Blue Apron. Little Spoon offers healthy, pre-cooked meals for children. The meal kit service offers three meal kit plans: The Baby Stage, The Toddler Times, and The Big Kid Years.

Meals are sealed on colorful plates with thoughtful dividers for picky eaters. Each meal can be refrigerated for up to 14 days or popped into the freezer for 2 months or less. Revive Superfoods is a company that provides healthy, plant-based meals and snacks.

Revive Superfoods offers three meal kit plans each week with an option for 9, 12, or 24 meals a week in each delivery.

The fully prepared meals are packaged and delivered frozen right to your door and ready in minutes. You can easily skip weeks or be charged. Or, if you need to cancel for any reason at all, shoot them an email, and they will take care of it! Which meal kit delivery service is the cheapest?

I also love that they source their ingredients responsibly and offer a good variety of delicious food made from high-quality ingredients, including vegetarian options.

That way, you can find the best service for your needs. Here are some of the pros and cons of the most popular services:. Eat at home more, less typical, or unhealthy take-out. A cheap meal delivery service can be better on your wallet and for your body. Try new dishes. You can set menu preferences and get a wider variety, including things you may never have made otherwise.

The prep work is done for you. Most send you fresh food with pre-portioned ingredients, which takes out all guesswork. More time for you. You can spend more time with your family cooking meals or doing other things that you enjoy.

We do it all for you: create recipes and plan meals delivered. Our chefs create amazing, easy to prepare meals to be delivered to you.

They make it interesting yet simple. We're on a mission to prove that healthy can taste good. We offer food to suit your lifestyle-you would think it's custom-made.

We are certain that after your first bite, you'll stick to our menu. There's no looking back. For the first time, you can shop with confidence.

We've done all the hard work and planning so that you don't have to. Our qualified and trained staff members are also at your disposal in rare cases that you are unsatisfied with your meals or when something goes wrong.

We keep our staff freshly equipped with facts you may need to know about your meal delivery. Our proven timeliness has seen us experience unimaginable growth.

It's when our customers enjoy our food that we are most motivated. Trust is also important to us when it comes to the meal delivery. It gives us untold joy to know that you depend on us to stay healthy.

com will help you rediscover meal delivery like never before. You don't need a silver spoon to eat good food. Click for review. Toll-free info magickitchen. International Toll-free www. com info magickitchen.

Meals We Tried Curry vegetables with pineapple and brown rice, string cheese, vanilla pudding Cheeseburger and seasoned mixed vegetables, whole wheat bun, orange Chicken and stir fry vegetables with teriyaki sauce, white rice, applesauce Sweet and sour chicken with stir fry vegetables, white rice, grape juice, ginger spice cookie BBQ chicken with potato medley, seasoned green beans, applesauce Beef goulash over whole wheat pasta, seasoned carrots, orange Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy, potatoes, seasoned vegetables, whole wheat dinner roll, gelatin Mushroom risotto, seasoned peas and carrots, whole wheat roll, grape juice Korean-style BBQ meatballs with white rice, seasoned broccoli, ginger spice cookie Creamy macaroni and cheese, seasoned vegetables, mandarin orange cup, blueberry applesauce.

A meal delivery service is a subscription plan that delivers meal kits or fully prepared meals to your home based on your preferences. Meal kits include portioned ingredients and instructions for you to prepare the recipes, while fully prepared meals just need to be heated before serving.

Prices depend on a number of factors, including the company, type of meal, and quantity. Often, the more meals you include in your plan, the cheaper your plan typically becomes. There are also usually sign-up promotions that offer a significant discount off the standard price. Most meal delivery services are commitment-free.

All of the options in our list allow you to skip a week, pause your subscription, or cancel any time before a weekly deadline. We researched 40 different meal delivery services and narrowed them down by price. We also considered menu options, plans, and other factors.

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. Buying Guides. The Cheapest Meal Delivery Services Can Help You Save and Simplify Your Dinners Dinnerly and EveryPlate offer the least expensive meals for home delivery.

By Kalisa Marie Martin Kalisa Marie Martin. Kalisa Marie Martin a is classically trained chef, content creator, and travel entrepreneur of Jamaican heritage.

Learn about Simply Recipes' 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. Continue to 5 of 8 below.

Daily Harvest, prepared EveryPlate and Dinnerly are the cheapest meal kits with most plans clocking in at under $6 per serving. HelloFresh and Home Chef are in the next Blue Apron is an affordable meal kit delivery service with prices that start at just $ per serving. Subscription: weekly delivery; three

Affordable lunch subscription plans - Dinnerly, meal kit Daily Harvest, prepared EveryPlate and Dinnerly are the cheapest meal kits with most plans clocking in at under $6 per serving. HelloFresh and Home Chef are in the next Blue Apron is an affordable meal kit delivery service with prices that start at just $ per serving. Subscription: weekly delivery; three

Fresh N Lean ran away from the competition, ticking more boxes than any other with healthy food that is thoughtfully prepared, tastes great, looks appetizing and is fairly affordable depending on the plan you select. Fresh N Lean has five meal plans to help keep folks on track with their specific nutrition goals including low-carb, vegan, paleo and protein-plus options.

The food was all made exceptionally well using simple, whole ingredients. Why our testers picked Pete's Real Food : While it's more expensive than other prepared meal services on our list, the quality of food doesn't get much higher than Pete's.

The cuisine is designed to fuel those following the precise paleo diet, but even those not keeping to the plan should enjoy this grub. Pete's Real Food formerly Pete's Paleo won me over in a week-long taste test of its healthy organic and paleo meals, earning a spot as one of the best healthy, organic meal delivery services.

Pete's meals are all fully prepared and ready to heat and eat. The dozen or so Pete's Real Food meals we've tested were all cooked well: meats were tender, vegetables mostly cooked to proper doneness and all the flavors worked.

If you're in training or keeping to a paleo plan and looking for lots of protein, healthy fats and nutrient-filled carbs such as sweet potatoes and beets, Pete's should hit the spot.

Pete's Real Food formerly Pete's Paleo is an excellent meal service if you're adhering to a paleo or whole foods eating plan. Read our full review of Pete's Real Food here. Why our testers picked CookUnity : This is a prepared meal service aimed at those with refined tastes and an adventurous palate.

The best thing about CookUnity is the sheer volume of meal options you can choose from, all originating from chefs -- some famous and some not -- of different backgrounds and culinary styles.

I liked almost everything I tried, with recipes ranging from very healthy to more comfort-style food. There are plenty of options for vegetarians, too, but note that the menu will vary depending on where you live since they pull from local chefs to create the weekly offerings.

Read our full review of CookUnity here. Why our testers picked Mosaic Foods : This plant-based service was one of the best prepared meal services we tried, and not just among vegan options.

I sampled more than 10 of Mosaic Food's plant-based prepared meal offerings and the vegetarian prepared meal delivery service had an astoundingly high hit rate.

Mosaic uses global flavors and employs creative use of meat substitutes such as tofu, jackfruit, cauliflower and vegan sausages to create tasty and satisfying vegetarian meals.

While everything I ate from Mosaic was at least good, some standouts included the bean and jackfruit chili, tomato olive and feta ragout and a tangy Thai noodle dish.

Why our testers picked HelloFresh : HelloFresh combines, convenience, selection and family-friendly options for an all-around excellent meal kit experience.

HelloFresh has the most recipes per week of any meal kit service we tried making it a good pick for families and homes with picky eaters.

This meal kit service's portion sizes are generous and there are meals to fir eating plans and diets of all sorts. It's also affordable, especially if you order larger meals. Ya know, for a family. HelloFresh recipes are mostly fast and easy to follow, even for beginner cooks.

Plus, they'll allow you to make substitutions so you can always find a recipe that suits your taste. Factor is a healthy prepared meal service and had some of the best meals I tried in all my testing of prepared meal services, including a zesty pesto salmon and a divine keto cheesecake.

Among the hits, however, were the occasional misses, so you may have to learn the menu over time. Factor puts a focus on healthy meals with plenty of low-carb options, and all the nutritional information is listed on the website before you choose your meals each week.

With all the keto and paleo meal options, it's certainly a solid choice for people keeping to either of those plans. Read our full review of Factor here. Why our testers picked Purple Carrot : For authentic, organic, plant-based cooking, Purple Carrot delivered big with a bounty of interesting recipes and fresh ingredients.

Out of all the vegan meal kits I've tried, Purple Carrot's provided me with the best base for cooking vegan cuisine and its ingredient mainstays such as lentils and grains. There are about eight recipes to choose from each week. I tested a full week's worth of meals and enjoyed all of them.

Read our full Purple Carrot review here. Why our testers picked Green Chef : This meal kit service uses almost all organic meats and produce, and offers interesting and healthy recipes for the discerning home cook. While it may be one of the pricier options, we like Green Chef for its versatility in the different specific diet plans available.

The healthy meal kit service also boasts the most organic ingredients of any meal kit service including produce, meats and fish. Green Chef also offers paleo, keto, pescatarian, vegan and vegetarian meals as well as gluten-free meal kit recipes and meals.

Read our full review of Green Chef here. EveryPlate keeps overhead costs low by offering just eight easy meal kit recipes to choose from weekly, which mostly excludes vegetarians and those on special diets, but the eight available meals are full of variety and flavor otherwise. You can expect a lot of comfort food from this meal kit service such as meatloaf, burgers and pasta dishes but everything I made was solid.

Why our testers picked Home Chef : Home Chef is a meal kit service with a sprawling menu that includes tons of low-carb options.

Even if you're not going full keto, but just want to curb your carb intake, Home Chef offers 15 recipes per week with less than 15 grams of net carbs in each. On balance, Home Chef meal kits weren't the best we tried, but the bulk of meals we made took less than 25 minutes and the portions were more than satisfying.

That, coupled with its slew of easy, healthy low-carb options, makes Home Chef the best meal kit service for keto eaters. The first big decision you'll make is whether you want meal kits, which require some prep and cooking, or a prepared meal service that sends fully cooked meals that are ready to heat and eat.

After you've picked between meal kits or meal delivery, you'll want to find a service within your budget. Here we've outlined all the best cheap meal delivery services for Our list of the healthiest meal delivery services for is a good place to find all the most nutritious options. Lastly, you'll want to hone in on exactly how much food you'll want sent to you per week.

Most services allow you to change the number of meals or servings in your plan even after you've started. With nearly every service, the more meals your order per delivery, the cheaper it is per meal.

All the meal delivery services may look delicious in their website glamour shots, but that's certainly not enough to convince me. To settle on this list of the best meal delivery service I tried as many as we could get our hands on, noting everything about them from freshness and flavor to ordering, packaging and delivery.

Testing meal kits for CNET means rolling up our sleeves and cooking at least one week's worth of meals from each service, often more. How each meal kit tastes, how easy it was to prepare and the portion sizes are all considered.

We also evaluate the website and how easy it is to navigate along with determining how easy it is to pause, cancel or change your order at any given time. To learn more, we have an in-depth look at how we test meal kits here at CNET.

To test each meal delivery service, we tried at least five and sometimes as many as 10 meals from any given service. I choose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings and took note of the ordering process, recipe variety and information available.

I reheated meals according to the instructions. If there were none, I heated them the way I would if left to my own devices. Often that meant warming gently in a nonstick skillet or reheating in my air fryer. Many of the meal delivery services offer a microwave heating option, but I almost always found that produced worse results than my trusted methods, even if they typically take a few seconds longer.

Not all meal kits are created equally. Some services are much better depending on your dietary preferences, budget and culinary skill level. If you're looking to cut some of the legwork out of dinner, meal kits and prepared meal services are definitely worth it.

The most budget-friendly services cost about the same as buying all the groceries you'd need to make the same meal, with the convenience of having all the ingredients or a box of fully prepared meals sent to your home each week. That's definitely cheaper than eating out or getting restaurant food delivered, and about the same cost as buying the groceries needed to make the same meals.

In a previous story, we crunched the numbers to find out how much meal kits cost versus buying the same groceries. In reviews and best lists, Blue Apron and HelloFresh are two of the most popular meal kit services for Fresh N Lean and Factor are some of the most popular options for prepared meal subscriptions.

Wellness Nutrition. Best Meal Delivery Services of We've tested and reviewed more than two dozen meal delivery services. Written by David Watsky. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks.

If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement. David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips.

Food ships to your door cold and fresh with delicious flavor pairings like beet, banana, and mango; pitaya, pineapple, spinach, banana, and coconut oil.

The meals are protein-heavy, though there are a few vegetarian options, including dishes like a bean burrito casserole and tahini noodles with broccoli. You can subscribe to a two-person box, or a family box which serves four. Both are available in weekly boxes of three to six meals.

Availability: Available in most areas of the continental United States; input your zip code on the site to see your delivery options. Daily Harvest. All ingredients are fresh, organic, and vegan, making it a perfect vegan meal delivery service. Plus, the more you order, the more you save.

The meals range in difficulty on a scale of one to three, with gourmet dishes such as mahi mahi piccata and butternut squash agnolotti with kale. And if your kid is on a dairy-free or gluten-free diet, Yumble has options for that too. Availability: Most of the East Coast, Texas, and parts of the West Coast and Midwest.

Home Chef. You choose from around a dozen meals each week with menus set five weeks ahead of time , and those fresh ingredients and recipe cards ship to your door. In about 30 minutes or less, you can whip up delicious dishes that cater to picky eaters and anyone with dietary restrictions including vegetarian, dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free, and more.

The service offers gourmet meals such as tomato risotto, shrimp scampi pasta, farmhouse fried chicken, and more. And if you love the sound of these meal kits but want to skip the meal prep, Home Chef has five-minute oven-ready lunches and dinners too.

Blue Apron. Developed to keep cooking and prep time for meals down to an average of 45 minutes, the recipe card directions are easy to follow and ingredients are sourced from sustainable farms. Splendid Spoon. Mosaic Foods. 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:.

Obviously, one of the biggest factors we accounted for on these meal delivery services was the price that these meal services brought to the table pun intended. There are more benefits to an inexpensive meal service besides the money.

You can still have many of the benefits of meal services while staying on budget. Finding a meal delivery service that fits in your budget will help you save money.

You buy just the meals you need at affordable prices, and can save on the cost of a grocery run in many cases. Meal prep for the week can take up a lot of time, which is a huge perk of meal delivery services. Meal kits provide just the right amount of ingredients for your meals, with many ingredients prepared already, so it minimizes the time needed to prepare and cook meals.

Additionally, prepared meals can just be put in an oven or microwave to heat up, virtually eliminating prep time completely. Many meal services provide plans and options for people with specific dietary restrictions or needs.

Also, anyone following keto, low-carb, paleo, vegan, or pescatarian diets will often find options through meal delivery services.

This takes out a lot of the hassle of having to find the right meals for your exact needs. Often at the grocery store, you may have to purchase more food than you want or need for the week, like purchasing a bag of onions when you only need one. Plus, many meal services source their ingredients sustainably through local organic farmers, which also impacts the environment in a positive way.

With trying to be frugal with your money, here are some things to look out for:. Many meal delivery services offer a first-time discount, which can vary depending on the company.

These discounts can be substantial, although prices may jump back up after a bit of use. Here are a few of our best picks for meal services that offer consistently inexpensive meal options:.

Many meal delivery services have smaller minimums and meal plans to cater for just one person. The cost of HelloFresh varies depending on the number of meal portions you order each week. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.

The CrossRope Jump Ropes are the best option for weighted jump ropes currently available. After testing all of the various cable weights and handles in various workouts from double unders to speed skips, we are confident in recommending these ropes.

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Affordable lunch subscription plans - Dinnerly, meal kit Daily Harvest, prepared EveryPlate and Dinnerly are the cheapest meal kits with most plans clocking in at under $6 per serving. HelloFresh and Home Chef are in the next Blue Apron is an affordable meal kit delivery service with prices that start at just $ per serving. Subscription: weekly delivery; three

To learn more, we have an in-depth look at how we test meal kits here at CNET. To test each meal delivery service, we tried at least five and sometimes as many as 10 meals from any given service.

I choose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings and took note of the ordering process, recipe variety and information available. I reheated meals according to the instructions.

If there were none, I heated them the way I would if left to my own devices. Often that meant warming gently in a nonstick skillet or reheating in my air fryer.

Many of the meal delivery services offer a microwave heating option, but I almost always found that produced worse results than my trusted methods, even if they typically take a few seconds longer. Not all meal kits are created equally. Some services are much better depending on your dietary preferences, budget and culinary skill level.

If you're looking to cut some of the legwork out of dinner, meal kits and prepared meal services are definitely worth it. The most budget-friendly services cost about the same as buying all the groceries you'd need to make the same meal, with the convenience of having all the ingredients or a box of fully prepared meals sent to your home each week.

That's definitely cheaper than eating out or getting restaurant food delivered, and about the same cost as buying the groceries needed to make the same meals. In a previous story, we crunched the numbers to find out how much meal kits cost versus buying the same groceries.

In reviews and best lists, Blue Apron and HelloFresh are two of the most popular meal kit services for Fresh N Lean and Factor are some of the most popular options for prepared meal subscriptions.

Wellness Nutrition. Best Meal Delivery Services of We've tested and reviewed more than two dozen meal delivery services.

Written by David Watsky. Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement. David lives in Brooklyn where he's spent more than a decade covering all things edible, including meal kit services, food subscriptions, kitchen tools and cooking tips.

Since earning a BA in English from Northeastern in Boston, he's toiled in nearly every aspect of the food business, including as a line cook in Rhode Island where he once made a steak sandwich for Lamar Odom.

Right now, he's likely somewhere stress-testing a blender or researching the best way to make bacon. Anything with sesame is his all-time favorite food this week.

Expertise Kitchen tools, appliances, food science, subscriptions and meal kits. See full bio. Why You Can Trust CNET. Table of Contents Top. Best Meal Delivery Services of What's the best meal delivery service?

Best meal delivery services of Home Chef. Meal delivery services compared. Factors to consider when choosing a meal delivery service.

How we tested meal kit services. Other meal delivery services we tested. Meal delivery service FAQs. See at Blue Apron. Best for meal kits. See at Fresh N' Lean. Best prepared meal delivery service. See at Pete's Paleo.

Best for gluten-free meal delivery service. See at CookUnity. Best meal delivery with a variety of recipes. See at Mosaic Foods. Best for prepared plant-based meal delivery. See at HelloFresh. Best meal delivery service for families.

See at Factor. Best meal delivery service for weight loss. See at Purple Carrot. Best plant-based meal kit service. See at Green Chef. Best for organic meal kits. See at EveryPlate. Cheapest meal kit service.

See at Home Chef. Best meal kits for eating keto. FILTER BY all Meal Kit Prepared Meal. Showing 11 of 11 Results. Show less. Pros Steak and seafood options are included in a standard meal plan Affordable if you choose more than two recipes per week.

Cons Fewer recipe options than other services Doesn't allow for much customization. Type Meal kit. Recipes per week Good for Vegetarian, pescatarian, diabetes-friendly, low-calorie, picky eaters, quick meals.

Diet types: Vegetarian, diabetes-friendly, wellness, family-friendly, fast and easy. See at Blue Apron Best for meal kits Blue Apron. Show expert take Show less. Editors' choice. Pros Most of the food we tried was good or great Healthy options to service many eating plans.

Cons On the pricey side of average No family-sized meals making it expensive to feed a crew. Type Prepared meal. Meal options per week Good for Keto, paleo, Whole30, gluten-free, Mediterranean, vegan, vegetarian, high-protein.

Full Review Read full review. See at Fresh N' Lean Best prepared meal delivery service Fresh N Lean. Pros Quality ingredients including mostly organic meats and produce Great for those avoiding gluten or empty carbs No subscription required.

Cons No real discount for ordering a larger volume of meals The website isn't the best. Good for Healthy, paleo, keto, low-calorie, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, Whole30, high protein.

See at Pete's Paleo Best for gluten-free meal delivery service Pete's Real Food. Pros Tons of healthy menu options per week Healthy food to service most diets and nutrition plans. Cons Expensive if you only choose a few meals per week Quality was somewhat inconsistent.

Good for Gluten-free, dairy-free, keto, paleo, vegan, low calorie, low carb, plant-based. See at CookUnity Best meal delivery with a variety of recipes CookUnity.

Pros Nearly all the meals I tried were good or better Interesting use of global recipes and flavors Affordable, especially for the family plan. Good for Vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, low-calorie. See at Mosaic Foods Best for prepared plant-based meal delivery Mosaic Foods.

Pros More than 50 weekly recipes Good for keeping to specific diets or eating plans. Good for Vegan, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free, low-calorie, Whole30, families, picky eaters. See at HelloFresh Best meal delivery service for families HelloFresh.

Good for Healthy, low-calorie, pescatarian, vegetarian, keto, paleo, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, Whole See at Factor Best meal delivery service for weight loss Factor. Pros Interesting and filling vegan recipes Extremely fresh and high-quality ingredients.

Cons Limited to eight recipes per week Expensive. Recipes per week 8. Good for Vegan, vegetarian. See at Purple Carrot Best plant-based meal kit service Purple Carrot. Pros Healthy recipes and mostly organic ingredients Allows you to swap the protein in certain recipes.

Cons On the expensive side Premium recipes incur major upcharges. Good for Organic, healthy, low-calorie, pescatarian, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free, Whole30, gourmet. See at Green Chef Best for organic meal kits Green Chef. Pros The most affordable meal kit service Most recipes were either good or better Not a ton of plastic waste.

Cons Some produce was past its prime Recipes are somewhat basic Very little customization allowed. Good for Healthy, family-friendly, comfort food, picky eaters, quick and easy. See at EveryPlate Cheapest meal kit service EveryPlate. Pros Good selection of keto-friendly meal kits Recipes are simple and fast Budget-friendly if you choose a larger plan.

Cons Some recipes were clunky and bland Too much plastic used in packaging. Good for Keto, low-carb, healthy, families, picky eaters, low-calorie, vegetarian. See at Home Chef Best meal kits for eating keto Home Chef. Meal kit versus prepared meal delivery The first big decision you'll make is whether you want meal kits, which require some prep and cooking, or a prepared meal service that sends fully cooked meals that are ready to heat and eat.

Cost After you've picked between meal kits or meal delivery, you'll want to find a service within your budget. Sunbasket : This service has high-end meal kits, but the bloated cost keeps it off our list.

While the quality is high, the prices are too. BistroMD : These meals are intended to promote weight loss, but the cost is high, and the flavors aren't good enough to justify the price. Daily Harvest : Daily Harvest's semi-prepared smoothies, bowls and soups are good and fairly affordable, but the meals are inconsistent and contain a lot of sodium.

Dinnerly : This meal kit service is one of the cheapest, but the recipes were inconsistent. Territory Foods : The food was some of the best I tried, and I found the recipes diverse and interesting. Sakara Life : This fresh food service was tasty and good for a cleanse, but it's also one of the most expensive meal subscriptions we tried.

Trifecta Nutrition : Trifecta's vegan meals are healthy and tasty but also very expensive. Hungryoot : We liked this hybrid service but leans more toward grocery delivery than meal kit.

Revive Superfoods offers three meal kit plans each week with an option for 9, 12, or 24 meals a week in each delivery. The fully prepared meals are packaged and delivered frozen right to your door and ready in minutes.

You can easily skip weeks or be charged. Or, if you need to cancel for any reason at all, shoot them an email, and they will take care of it! Which meal kit delivery service is the cheapest? I also love that they source their ingredients responsibly and offer a good variety of delicious food made from high-quality ingredients, including vegetarian options.

That way, you can find the best service for your needs. Here are some of the pros and cons of the most popular services:.

Eat at home more, less typical, or unhealthy take-out. A cheap meal delivery service can be better on your wallet and for your body. Try new dishes. You can set menu preferences and get a wider variety, including things you may never have made otherwise.

The prep work is done for you. Most send you fresh food with pre-portioned ingredients, which takes out all guesswork. More time for you. You can spend more time with your family cooking meals or doing other things that you enjoy.

Learn new cooking techniques. They offer cooking tutorials and recipes to expand your culinary skills with family-friendly menu options. There is less food to waste. Any meal delivery service cost can be expensive.

It can be cheaper than ordering take-out, but the meals plus shipping costs may not be affordable for everyone. You have a membership to watch each week.

These delivery services usually require a membership or subscription fee. Meals also need to be chosen and ordered in advance. There can be a lot of packaging in the boxes. Since most meal delivery services send you fresh ingredients in their meal kit, there is usually a lot of packaging that includes insulated bags, dry ice, and the box.

You still have to get other groceries. Delivery services are delivered to your door, but you still have to go grocery shopping at some point. You still have other meals every day you need to think about! Planning your meals is self-explanatory- you create a meal plan and grocery list for the week, then cook all of your meals at home.

Buying groceries is usually cheaper than eating out or having your meals delivered. Savvy Tip: Like the convenience of having your meals delivered to your home but not the price of the meal kit services?

It has more great tips and ideas! Want to batch cook for the month and freeze the dishes? My Freeze Easy can help you get started with their free Quick Start Guide. Meal delivery is a great alternative if you eat out more or grab to-go meals from the grocery store.

However, if you cook at home more and are very frugal about grocery shopping, it could cost more than getting groceries yourself and meal planning. As a busy mom, I say these are most worth the cost when your family is really busy; meal kits help prevent food waste or eating out.

Prepared meals are literally all put together for you, and just need to go into the microwave, govern, or skillet to heat up. Meal kits are all the ingredients for a recipe delivered to you with a recipe and directions so you can whip up the whole meal yourself.

It may be cheaper because it specifically offers kid meals rather than meals for adults or families. I like this service because it offers a family plan to make sure you have enough food to go around.

In my opinion, HelloFresh offers the most variety of meals, including great vegetarian options that could fit your weight loss plan. But check out the other meal delivery services to see other meal plans and see what fits best with your visions.

Cheap meal delivery services are a great way to get dinner on the table without any hassles and at a reasonable price. Most have easy-to-follow recipes, take the guesswork out of shopping for ingredients, and are easy to use.

Most meal delivery services are also super convenient. Delivery services offer a wide variety of meal kits and prepared meals that make dinner times go faster. All in all, meal delivery services are a great way to spend less time cooking and more time enjoying your family! Hi, I'm Brittany Kline!

A organization, productivity, and home systems expert. With my master's degree in education and life experience as a mom I help other moms simplify and organize their entires lives.

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