Best Meal Delivery Services of 2024
A reliable meal subscription makes dinnertime hassle-free. Sounds good, right? We've tested all the top services to find the best meal delivery in 2024.
What to consider
Meal kit versus prepared meal delivery
Cost
Healthiness
Number of meals per week
Why You Can Trust CNET
Our experts have logged more than 5 years of cooking more than 75 meal kits and tasting more than 100 prepared meals from various services to help land on our list of the best in 2024.
What's the best meal delivery service?
A meal kit or prepared meal delivery service is a great way to add convenience to your day-to-day life. With over a decade of experience and fine-tuning, Blue Apron tops our list as the best overall meal delivery service in 2024.
But there are cheaper meal kit services with ever-changing weekly menus, vegan meal delivery to satisfy a plant-based eater and others that work best for those keeping to a keto, paleo or low-calorie diet. If you're on the hunt for the very best meal subscription to simplify life, we've tested 30 of the most popular meal delivery services, ranging from budget-friendly meal kit subscriptions to premium fresh food cleanses.
With so much to choose from, you may be wondering what's the best meal delivery service for you and your family in 2024. The answer depends on your eating habits, schedule and budget. To help you find a perfect fit, we've compared all the top meal subscriptions in several categories. And if you want to try before you buy, this sly hack lets you try them all for cheap, and these meal kit signup offers will bestow weeks of meals on you for as little as $2 or $3 a serving.
Below you'll find the best meal delivery services of 2024, as tested and reviewed by CNET.
Best meal delivery services of 2024
Best meal kit service: Blue Apron
Best prepared meal delivery service: Fresh N Lean
Best meal kits for vegans and vegetarians: Purple Carrot
Best prepared meals for vegans and vegetarians: Mosaic Foods
Best meal kits for kids and families: HelloFresh
Best organic meal kits: Green Chef
Best meal delivery for weight loss: Factor 75
Best meal delivery for variety: CookUnity
Best gluten-free meal delivery: Pete's Real Food
Best cheap meal kit delivery: EveryPlate
Why we picked Blue Apron: With tasty, premium entrees such as steak and seafood at some of the best prices in the meal kit category, Blue Apron represents the best overall value for any meal delivery service we tried.
Blue Apron is the granddad of meal kit programs in the US and the brand still manages to deliver excellent meals with easy-to-follow recipes all at a fair price. Weekly menu choices available range from simple pasta dishes to inventive global cuisine, with high-end recipes including those for steak and seafood at no extra cost. Read our full review of Blue Apron here.
Best prepared meal delivery service
Fresh N Lean
Why we picked Fresh N Lean: With extremely high-quality meals, tons of healthy options and fair pricing, this service was an easy pick for best prepared meal delivery service.
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.
Best plant-based meal kit service
Purple Carrot
Why we 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.
Best for prepared plant-based meal delivery
Mosaic Foods
Why we picked Mosaic Foods: This plant-based service was one of the best prepared meal services we tried, and not just among vegan options. Every recipe was at least good, often better, and family meals start at just $6 a serving when you choose a family plan.
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.
Best meal delivery service for families
HelloFresh
Why we 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.
Best for organic meal kits
Green Chef
Why we 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.
Best meal delivery service for weight loss
Factor
Why we picked Factor: With plans that cost as little as $11 a meal and options for a variety of diets and eating plans, Factor is a solid option for those looking to eliminate cooking from the to-do list.
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.
Best meal delivery with a variety of recipes
CookUnity
Why we 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. Use promo code CNET30 for a 30% discount on your first purchase. Read our full review of CookUnity here.
Best for gluten-free meal delivery service
Pete's Real Food
Why we 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. Read our full review of Pete's Real Food here.
Cheapest meal kit service
EveryPlate
Why we picked EveryPlate: At just $5 per serving -- even cheaper with a sign-up offer -- and an emphasis on delicious, hearty meal options and generous portion sizes, EveryPlate is the best cheap meal kit service we've tried.
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. Best of all, you can score meals for as low as $1.49, with free shipping on your first order.
Meal delivery services compared
| Service | Options per week | Service type | Good for | Cost per serving | CNET rating (out of 10) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Apron | 16 | Meal kits | Vegetarian, low-calorie, gluten-free, pescatarian | $8-$12 | 8.2 |
| Fresh N Lean | 18 | Prepared meals | Keto, paleo, Whole30, gluten-free Mediterannean, vegan, vegetarian, high-protein | $10-$15 | 9.2 |
| Purple Carrot | 8 | Meal kits | Vegan, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free | $11-$13 | 8.6 |
| Mosaic Foods | 80 | Prepared meals | Vegan, vegetarian, healthy, low-fat, families | $6-$12 | 9.2 |
| HelloFresh | 80+ | Meal kits | Vegetarian, keto, paleo, gluten-free, diabetic, pescatarian | $9-$12 | 8 |
| Green Chef | 30 | Meal kits | Vegan, vegetarian, organic, gluten-free, diabetic, pescatarian, Mediterranean diet | $12-$14 | 7.8 |
| Factor 75 | 30+ | Prepared meals | Healthy, low-calorie, pescatarian, vegetarian, keto, paleo, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, Whole30 | $11-$13 | 8 |
| CookUnity | 100+ | Prepared meals | Healthy, gourmet, low-calorie, pescatarian, vegetarian, keto, paleo, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, Whole30 | $11-$14 | 8.8 |
| Pete's Real Food | 25+ | Prepared meals | Healthy, paleo, keto, low-calorie, diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, Whole30, high protein | $14-$16 | 9 |
| EveryPlate | 25+ | Meal kits | Family-friendly, comfort food, picky eaters, healthy quick and easy | $5-$7 | 8.8 |
How we test meal delivery services
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.
Factors to consider when choosing a meal delivery service
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. Meal kits will demand more of your time and energy but they'll also cost a little less per serving. Prepared meals require almost no time and energy, other than what it takes to actually eat the food, but typically run a few bucks more per serving.
Cost
After you've picked between meal kits or meal delivery, you'll want to find a service within your budget. There are meal kits with recipes for as cheap as $5 a serving with basic menus and no-frills recipes. More expensive services include recipes with more exotic ingredients, high-end cuts of meat and organic produce but can cost as much as $15 or $20 a serving. Here we've outlined all the best cheap meal delivery services for 2024.
Healthiness
While most meal delivery services have healthy options, some are much healthier than others. If you're keen on eating low-calorie, low-carb, plant-based or pescatarian food, certain meal kits and meal delivery services will be better than others. Our list of the healthiest meal delivery services for 2024 is a good place to find all the most nutritious options.
Number of meals per week
Lastly, you'll want to hone in on exactly how much food you'll want sent to you per week. If you can't imagine yourself cooking more than twice per week, don't order more than two meal kits because they typically won't last more than a week in the fridge.
Most prepared meals either arrive frozen or can be frozen after unboxing. That means it's less of an issue if you order too many meals on your first go around. 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.
How we tested meal kit services
Meal kits are judged on several factors as we cook our way through a box of recipes.
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.
How we test prepared meals
We carefully tested every meal delivery service on this list.
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.
Other meal delivery services we tested
- Sunbasket: This service has high-end meal kits, but the bloated cost keeps it off our list.
- Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon: This is another meal kit service aimed at foodies. While the quality is high, the prices are too.
- Home Chef: This meal kit service is good for families, but there's too much waste and plastic packaging, and many of the recipes I tried were boring.
- BistroMD: These meals are intended to promote weight loss, but the cost is high, and the flavors weren'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.
- Splendid Spoon: If you want premade smoothies, this is a good service to try, but be prepared to pay about $9 for each one.
- 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. Ultimately the cost -- meals starting at $16 -- kept it out of the top.
- 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.
- Snap Kitchen: Snap Kitchen has solid prepared meals, mostly under 450 calories. The portions were a bit small, and some meals were underwhelming.
- FlexPro Meals: These frozen keto meals were some of the worst I tried.
- Nutrisystem: Though it's affordable, I disliked most of the meals I tried from this frozen meal subscription.
Who are meal kits good for?
- Families seeking an easier way to make home-cooked meals. Meal kits help you avoid the nightly debate about what you're going to make for dinner and save a trip to the grocery store if you're missing breadcrumbs or flour.
- Those trying to eat healthier. Meal kit services all offer in-depth nutritional information, including carbs, calories, sugar, sodium, and protein. Many meal kit services even offer specific diet plans that filter out foods that don't fit a dietary preference or restriction, such as gluten-free, diabetes-friendly, keto or carb-conscious and paleo meals.
- Anyone who wants to learn to cook. With all the ingredients sent along and easy recipe instructions, meal kits are a low-pressure way to learn to cook.
Not all meal kits are created equally. Some services are much better depending on your dietary preferences, budget and culinary skill level.
Who is prepared meal delivery good for?
- Those looking to save time. Meal delivery is great for anyone who wants easy meals and fewer evenings spent cooking but doesn't want to pony up the dough for expensive takeout.
- Those looking to eat better. Many prepared meal delivery services cater to Whole30, keto, paleo, vegan, vegetarian and organic eaters and can help you regulate fat, sugar, carbs and calories on a weekly basis.
- Families, in some cases. Certain meal kits with larger serving sizes are good for families. Mosaic Foods, for instance, has family meals that net out to just $6 a person. Meal kit services also have family plans that cost less per serving than buying meal kits for one or two people.