HelloFresh alternatives: Have you considered these great options?

Everyone loves a good meal delivery service. They’re wonderful for those long, exhausting days when you’re too frazzled for a chaotic grocery store run or a never-ending search through your cookbook collection, trying to decide what to make for dinner. And while there are a number of meal kit delivery services widely available these days, HelloFresh still seems to be leading in the popularity contest. But what about the others? How do they compare?

Meal kit delivery services deliver pre-portioned ingredients and instructions to make different recipes each week. Subscribers can usually select one of several — like vegetarian or classic meals — and the number of servings and meals they want per week. Each week, prior to the delivery day, you choose the meals you want to prepare, and the ingredients will arrive in a refrigerated box on your designated day. In this way, meal kits eliminate the need to find recipes and shop for ingredients, and they cut down on meal prep time and food waste.

HelloFresh is certainly among the most recognized names in the home meal kit delivery market. They are known for their high-quality ingredients and a wide variety of wholesome, palate-intriguing recipes. But, is there a good HelloFresh alternative or HelloFresh competitor? Or is HelloFresh the best meal kit? Are there cheaper meal kits than HelloFresh? Are there healthier meal kits? After thoroughly researching nearly two dozen of the most popular meal kit delivery subscriptions, we found the best HelloFresh alternatives and have reviewed them below.

The gold standard: HelloFresh

To compare anything, you have to have a baseline. All of the meal kits we chose as veritable HelloFresh competitors that have similar policies in terms of flexibility with choosing meals and skipping an order, changing or canceling your plan, as well as what you get in each box (ingredients and the detailed recipes). Therefore, we will mostly note the primary differences.

HelloFresh is undeniably a reputable meal kit delivery subscription service with tasty meals. Here are the fast facts:

Meal plan sizes: Customers can choose to get two or four servings of each recipe in the plan they prefer, and enough ingredients for anywhere from two to six recipes each week.

Meal plans offered: HelloFresh offers quite a few meal plans — more than many alternative meal kit delivery subscription services. The HelloFresh meal plans include the following:

• Classic Meat & Veggie: A standard omnivore diet with recipes featuring meat, poultry, fish, and fresh vegetables from a variety of cuisines.
• Veggie: Recipes feature vegetables and are meat-free.
• Family Friendly: Recipes that are specifically tailored to appeal to young palates.
• Pescatarian: While these recipes do not contain meat or poultry, they do use fish and seafood.
• Calorie Smart: This plan includes dietitian-approved recipes that are all under 650 calories per serving.
• Quick & Easy: For those short on time, these recipes can typically be made in under 20 minutes.

Menu options: Like all meal kits, the HelloFresh recipes change each week, but they have a particularly robust menu of options. The Classic meal plan has over 50 chef-created recipes to choose from each week. More restrictive plans offer fewer choices, but still plenty of options each week.

Cooking time: Most HelloFresh recipes take under 30 minutes and can be done by home cooks of any level. That said, when selecting your recipes, you can filter by difficulty and total time. The Quick & Easy meal plan involves specifically curated recipes that take 20 minutes or less.

Example meals: Examples of HelloFresh recipes include firecracker meatballs, apricot and chickpea tagine with almonds, and chicken and Tex-Mex stuffed peppers.

Nutritional value: HelloFresh offers healthy options along with richer choices, and they post the nutritional information for each recipe to better help you meet your dietary needs. The Calorie Smart meals are specifically designed for those watching their caloric intake and are created in collaboration with dietitians. That said, HelloFresh does not cater to specific dietary needs like gluten-free, vegan, keto, or paleo. Customers have to review the recipes themselves and adjust them as necessary.

Cost: HelloFresh boxes work out to $9 per serving plus a $10 shipping fee, but can be as low as $7.49 per serving for larger plans. There is no membership fee. New customers can usually get a promotion with up to 14 free meals.

More nutritious than HelloFresh: Sun Basket

If you’re looking for a healthier alternative to HelloFresh, you can’t go wrong with Sun Basket. They have beautifully fresh and seasonal ingredients and several healthy meal plans to choose from. All of Sun Basket’s meal kit plans are nutritious, but they also have plenty of specific plans that cater to certain dietary goals and needs. Sun Basket uses 100% organic produce and ingredients, as well as non-GMO and hormone-free products, and the recipes are designed to contain between 400-800 calories and include the freshest produce, lean proteins, healthy fats, and plenty of fiber.

Meal plan sizes: Sun Basket meal kit plans can be ordered two or four servings per recipe, and you order two, three, four, or five meals per week.

Meal plans offered: Sun Basket offers nearly 10 different meal plans, including the following:

• Vegetarian: Healthy plant-based recipes free of poultry, fish, meat, and seafood.
• Pescatarian: Nutritious meals that feature fish, produce, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.
• Paleo: Includes meals that are high in protein and free from dairy, gluten, grains, soy, corn, antibiotics, and hormones. In accordance with the paleo diet, only natural sweeteners like honey, molasses, maple syrup, and coconut sugar are used, and sparingly at that.
• Gluten-Free: The gluten-free meal plan offers five to eight gluten-free menu options on the menu every week free from wheat, rye, barley, and other sources of gluten.
• Lean & Clean: For the calorie-conscious individual, this meal plan contains curated weekly options that contain less than 600 calories per serving with only lean, whole foods like organic, fresh produce, and lean proteins. Sweeteners and used sparingly but the flavor isn’t compromised.
• Diabetes-Friendly: These recipes are all approved by the American Diabetes Association. They are free from simple sugars and have complex carbohydrates from whole foods like whole grains, beans, and lentils. Each serving contains only 400-700 calories and has at least 10 grams of protein and 5 grams of fiber for satiety and less than 700 mg of sodium.
• Carb-Conscious: Tasty recipes featuring a maximum of 25-35g of net carbs with plenty of protein and healthy fats.
• Chef’s Choice: Fresh, seasonal recipes.
• Fresh & Ready: Pre-made meals that you simply heat up.

Menu options: Sun Basket offers about 20 meal kit recipes per week, but not all are suitable for some of the diet plans, so options are somewhat limited.

Cooking time: Most meals take 30 minutes to prepare.

Example meals: Example Paleo recipes include Thai turkey lettuce cups and green goddess steak salad with roasted carrots. Example Gluten-Free recipes include salmon with roasted new potatoes and green beans and steak and sweet potato frites with kale and mushrooms. Lean & Clean recipes include dishes like salmon with cilantro-lime sauce and pear-cashew salad, chipotle turkey chili with cucumber-sumac salad, and Thai green chicken curry. Examples of the Diabetes plan recipes include turkey black bean tacos and seared pork with blueberry-apricot sauce and sautéed greens. Chef’s Choice meals include tomato-braised chicken with sweet potato and chard, Korean beef bibimbap with spinach and fried eggs, and barbecue salmon and Southern-style rice salad with cabbage and cranberries.

Nutritional value: Sun Basket meal kits are quite nutritious and make a great HelloFresh alternative if nutrition is your goal. The Diabetes-Friendly Plan is particularly healthy, and also great for those with high blood pressure since it limits sodium to 700 mg. Many meal kit meals are quite salty, so this is something to be mindful of. As indicated by the sheer number and variety of specialty meal plans offered, Sun Basket is an excellent HelloFresh alternative for those with specific dietary needs.

Cost: Depending on the order size, each serving ranges from $11.49 to $14.49 plus $7 per box for shipping.

Cheaper than HelloFresh: Dinnerly

If cost is your biggest concern, the best HelloFresh alternative to consider is Dinnerly. Both Dinnerly and EveryPlate have options that can bring the per-plate cost down to under $5 plus shipping, but Dinnerly has more options so we felt it edged out EveryPlate.

Meal plan sizes: You can choose a two-person box or a family box (four servings) of three, four, five, or six meals per week.

Meal plans offered: Dinnerly offers only a Vegetarian box or a Classic box.

Menu options: Subscribers can select from 28 recipes each week.

Cooking time: All Dinnerly meal kit recipes contain five steps or fewer, and take at most 30 minutes to prepare.

Example meals: Examples include popcorn chicken katsu with roasted broccoli and jasmine rice, grass-fed cheeseburgers with salt and vinegar oven fries, and falafel pitas with tzatziki.

Nutritional value: Dinnerly meal kits use fresh ingredients and follow generally healthy recipes, but the ability to customize or cater to specific diets is minimal aside from choosing vegetarian meals.

Cost: Here is where Dinnerly shines. Meals cost at most $5.89 per portion (for the two-person, three-meals-per-week plan) with $9 shipping per box and as little as $4.69 per serving for larger plans.

Quicker and easier than HelloFresh: Gobble

Where Gobble shines is in the ease and short prep time of their meals. This HelloFresh alternative meal kit delivery subscription is a great option for busy people who don’t want to order fully prepared meals, yet don’t have 30 minutes to spend cooking every night. Gobble meal kits are designed to be prepared in just 15 minutes or less.

Meal plan sizes: You can choose to get enough ingredients for two people or four people for either three or four nights per week.

Meal plans offered: Until recently, Gobble only offered two meal plans (Classic or Lean & Clean), but they’ve recently added Vegetarian as well.

• Classic: Delicious omnivorous meals with seasonal ingredients.
• Lean & Clean: Healthy, grain-free, low-carb meals containing 600 calories or less that feature lean proteins, seasonal produce, and healthy fats.
• Vegetarian: Nutritious, plant-based recipes with seasonal ingredients.

Menu options: Gobble offers about 20 recipes per week, many of which can be customized.

Cooking time: All recipes across all meal plans can be prepared in 15 minutes or less because ingredients are pre-prepped (cleaned, chopped, etc.).

Example meals: Examples of Classic meals include butter chicken with basmati rice and naan bread, Tuscan sirloin steak with mushrooms, and fettuccine in three peppercorns sauce, garlic pesto salmon with rosemary mashed potatoes, and sauteed spinach. Lean and Clean dinners include options like white bean turkey chili verde and balsamic glazed pork tenderloin with cherries and baby carrots. Certain meal kits in each of the meal plans can be personalized as well. For example, with the pork tenderloin dish, you can select pork tenderloin, or swap it for Mt. Cook king salmon fillet or organic boneless skinless chicken breasts.

Nutritional value: The Lean & Clean plan is quite healthy. Also, Gobble does a better job catering to food allergies and preferences because many of the recipes are customizable at the time of order. You can also prepare dairy-free, nut-free, or gluten-free meals by withholding certain ingredients found packaged separately in the meal kit.

Cost: Meals cost $12 per serving plus $7 shipping. The first week of shipping is free.