15 Best Meal Delivery Services 2025, Tested by Bon Appétit Editors

You might be wondering why a website that prides itself on offering readers an endless archive of quick and approachable recipes is interested in finding the best meal delivery services. But while I’d love to tell you that each of us BA staffers get home after work every night and whip up artfully-composed meals using ingredients selected from our consistently well-stocked fridges, the truth is there are some weeks (well, a lot of weeks) when that is far from the case. That’s where meal delivery services come in: The best ones make the cooking process seamless, stress-free, and fun, while introducing us to new techniques, ingredients, or hacks that inform our approaches to home cooking more broadly.

All that said, not all meal kits are created equal. With so many options on the market these days, there’s a broad range when it comes to both quality and best use-case. The best meal kit for me may not be the best meal kit for you, which is why we’ve spent years rigorously testing the top players in the field in order to make recommendations that are best suited to your specific needs. You can go directly to our top picks to order your weekly meals, or skip down to learn more about how our editors tested these kits.

Our picks for the best meal kits…

• The Best Meal Kit for Variety: Shop Home Chef ($10/serving)
• The Best Meal Kit for People Who Hate Grocery Shopping: Shop Hungryroot ($8/serving)
• The Best Meal Kit for People Who Love to Cook: Shop Marley Spoon ($21–$26/serving)
• The Best Prepared Meal Delivery Service: Shop CookUnity ($11–$14/serving)
• The Best Meal Kit for Quick Meals: Gobble ($12/serving)
• The Best Affordable Meal Kit: Shop Dinnerly ($8/serving)
• The Best Plant-Based Meal Kit: Shop Purple Carrot ($14/serving)
• The Best Meal Kit for Whole Foods Devotees: Shop Green Chef ($13/serving)
• The Best Meal Kit for Health and Wellness Heads: Shop Sakara ($23–$31/serving)

In this article…

• Other meal kits we tested
• How we tested meal kits
• How to choose the right meal kit for you
• More meal kit stories

The best meal kit for variety: Home Chef

Tester: Emily Johnson
Favorite meal tested: Pork chop with mashed sweet potatoes

Home Chef offers a wider variety of meal options than competitor kits and is particularly great at catering to dietary restrictions—overall this delivery service offers a lot of great customization opportunities. For this reason, this kit could work well for home cooks whose dinner needs change day to day and week to week. Some of the recipes can feel a little bit dated, but I found in testing this kit that I was given meal options that I wouldn’t have thought of myself and learned techniques that I genuinely wouldn’t have tried on my own. You’ll cover chicken breasts in pre-made pastry, which will feel a little ‘90s, yes, but also be delicious, and remind you that there’s an arsenal of meals from your mom that you might want to tap more, because they’re delicious.

For weeks where you’re particularly busy, there are oven-ready meals that come with their own tin and grill-ready meals that arrive in a foil bag. There are the more traditional preportioned 30-minute meal kits, prepped 15-minute meal kits, and the Fast & Fresh option, a fully prepared meal you just have to stick in the oven or microwave.

But on weeks where you have more time to spare, and are genuinely looking to gain recipe inspiration and even learn some new cooking skills, Home Chef’s “Culinary Collection” offers some more advanced recipes. I liked pounding a pork chop thin and covering it in breadcrumbs—the result was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside—and the kind of thing I’d never think to do for dinner on my own. You’ll get a lot of repeat vegetable side options, but I found that even as an experienced cook, I learned new protein cooking techniques, and even discovered flavor combinations I had either long forgotten—or never thought to use before.

I also liked that Home Chef also offers snack, dessert, and breakfast options like maple brown sugar oatmeal bites from GoOats.

The best meal kit for people who hate grocery shopping: Hungryroot

Tester: Emily Farris, senior commerce writer
Favorite meal they tested: Kevin’s Bulgogi Beef with Broccoli, almond chickpea cookie dough
Click here for our full review of Hungryroot

If you hate grocery shopping or meal prep, Hungryroot is a great option. It’s more of a grocery delivery service than a meal kit service, but if you choose to add “recipes” to your weekly order, your box will include a recipe card with suggestions for how to easily combine some of the provided ingredients into quick-and-easy meals. I can often have something from fridge to table in 10 minutes and I feel like I’ve cooked even though I’ve really just, like, dumped some semi-homemade stuff in a pan and microwaved some par-cooked rice.

For example, the chicken nuggets and steamed broccoli “recipe” has two ingredients/grocery items: Hungryroot’s breaded chicken nuggets and Church Brother’s broccoli florets. In your box, you’ll get these items along with a recipe card detailing the steps and cook time. This particular dish has only two steps and takes 25 minutes—which is on the long side for a Hungryroot recipe, but that’s because the nuggets need to cook in the oven. When I don’t want to think about dinner, I use the recipe card to throw together meals like that, and when I’m feeling more creative I can use the ingredients in other ways—that’s one of the many reasons I love this meal delivery service.

This is also a great service for snacks. I love that I can try so many different kid-friendly snacks without committing to a big box from Costco, and there’s always something new for my kids to try.

The best meal kit for people who love to cook: Marley Spoon

Tester: Alaina Chou, commerce writer
Favorite meal they tested: Chicken Parm Meatballs, Masala-Spiced Pork Kebabs with Cauliflower Rice & Cilantro
Click here for our full review of Marley Spoon

As someone who was skeptical about how a meal kit could fit into my personal cooking routine and preferences, I was seriously impressed by my experience using Marley Spoon. In a sea of similar meal delivery services, Marley Spoon’s “thing” is its partnership with Martha Stewart. Its weekly offerings revolve around Stewart’s most popular recipes, but there’s a lot to love about this kit beyond that if you’re not a full-on Martha stan. For starters, I appreciated the flexibility when ordering (which you can read more about below). I also found that the produce was fresh—never wilted—and ingredients were often in (relatively) minimal packaging, a common gripe with meal delivery services.

But most importantly, cooking from this box actually felt like cooking. I love to cook but often don’t have the time to meal plan and grocery shop, so I really appreciated that my experience using Marley Spoon felt much like my normal cooking experience—you know, if some kind soul had taken the time to collect all of the ingredients for me and portion my spices beforehand. Vegetables come whole, not pre-chopped; a recipe might have you searing a steak, or roasting a couple of chicken thighs. What’s more, my boxes introduced me to new techniques and clever recipe riffs (like chicken parm made simpler with meatballs instead of cutlets), the order of operations always made logical sense, and the ingredients were consistently well thought-out (i.e. if a recipe uses cilantro leaves as garnish, chances are it’ll have you use the stems elsewhere in the dish).

While Marley Spoon does offer some heat-and-eat options that can be a good add if you’re in the market for an easy office lunch, that’s not necessarily where this service excels—which is why I’d reserve my recommendation for people who are actually interested in cooking, but want to make the process of doing so easier and more attainable.

The Best Prepared Meal Delivery Service: CookUnity

Tester: Megan Wahn, contributor
Favorite meal they tested: Organic chicken breast with farro and spinach topped with sun-dried tomatoes; Sichuan grilled pork; Al pastor pork burrito bowl; sweet and spicy General Tso’s chicken; Middle Eastern pulled chicken chili; BBQ chicken burrito bowl; “tbh all of them”
Click here for our full review of CookUnity

I enjoy cooking at home and trying out new recipes, but sometimes I just don’t have the time or energy to try making some of the more adventurous or involved recipes. CookUnity’s chef-crafted, ready-to-heat frozen meals give me the opportunity to try the innovative, restaurant-worthy dishes I might not always feel like making myself. Each meal came with a very clear entree, side, and occasional garnish. I was very impressed in particular with the quality of the meat. Oftentimes I feel frozen meats can come back a little stringy or tough, but each bite of these dishes tasted fresh and delicious. I did notice that if the meal came with a sauce, that sauce would sometimes fail to maintain the right consistency due to the freezing and storage process. Each meal takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook in the oven, though I would occasionally leave the food in for a bit longer than recommended just to be safe. CookUnity does provide instructions to make each of their meals in the microwave if you want to bring one to the office for a work lunch, and while I did do this on occasion, the oven heating method tended to produce a better result.

Overall, CookUnity doesn’t make your average frozen meals. These are restaurant-quality dishes packed with plenty of unique flavors that don’t lose their taste after you heat them up, and a great option for anyone who’s easily bored by eating the same thing on repeat but lacks the time to constantly be cooking up a new and exciting (but involved) recipe.

The Best Meal Kit for Quick Meals: Gobble

Tester: Emily Johnson
Favorite meal they tested: Chicken burger with srirach aoili and yuca fries

While many food delivery services emphasize 30-minute home-cooked meals, Gobble advertises entrées that take half that amount of time to prepare from start to finish. And they make do on that 15-minute promise. While I found that meals took more than 15 minutes to prepare generally, they were also quicker to prepare than almost every other meal kit. Gobble does a lot of the prep work for you—sauces arrive fully made, and vegetables arrive already broken down.

With meals like Tuscan pork sugo with peppers and aloo matar with marble potatoes, I’d say this is the best meal kit service if you want hearty dishes with bigger portions. In my experience with other meal kit services, portions tend to be small, so you really get your money’s worth here. My favorite meal was the chicken burger with sriracha aioli and yuca fries. The recipe was easy to follow; the sauces, dressings, and spice blends were premade; and the burger was juicy with lots of flavor thanks to the Cajun seasoning, spicy aioli, and honey-Dijon slaw.

The weekly menu includes roughly 15 easy-to-make dinners, but I especially appreciated all the optional add-ons. Gobble offers various à la carte salads, soups, and flatbreads that make it easy to plan a meal with multiple courses. I recommend getting one of the soups to have on hand for a quick lunch—I particularly loved the chicken tortilla soup. They even have the option to add on breakfasts (like Belgium waffles and bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches) and desserts (like premade chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate lava cake). While Gobble does offer meals for more specific diets—including low-calorie, dairy-free, plant-based, and vegan—that’s not the primary focus. This is the place to go when you’re just looking for tasty, satisfying meals that pretty much anyone would enjoy.

The best bang for your buck meal kit: Dinnerly

Tester: Elise Portale, contributing social media manager
Favorite meal they tested: Beet and Roasted Carrot Salad
Click here for more of the best affordable meal kits

Owned by the same company as Martha Stewart’s Marley Spoon, Dinnerly is marketed as a budget friendly meal kit service for unfussy weeknight dinners. They also have an extensive marketplace full of prepared meals, cook-and-eat options, and their “meal shortcuts,” which consist of a couple of ingredients easily combined into a meal or snack without the need of a recipe.

For each recipe I ordered, I received the core ingredients (proteins, produce, unique spices, etc.) and a recipe card. Things like cooking oil, basic vinegars, and even garlic are not provided, so I had to make sure I had those on hand. The instructions are incredibly basic and easy to follow, though judging the complexity was a little tricky. While none of the recipes were particularly hard technique-wise, some required multiple pans or unintuitive cooking methods. One particular recipe, Chicken and Stuffing Waffles, seemed fun, tasty, and unique. However, upon arrival, it became clear that the aforementioned Stuffing Waffles required me to have a waffle maker, which surprised me given that Dinnerly recipes tend to be geared towards basic or new cooks. Luckily, they did include a little tidbit on how to make baked stuffing if you don’t have the waffle maker, but had I known that, I might not have ordered this recipe. (For the record, this recipe of pan-seared chicken breast, stuffing, cranberry relish, and simple pan gravy was delicious, though it probably used half the pans in my kitchen to make.)

Overall, consistency seems to be a bit of an issue for Dinnerly—one of the main tradeoffs for the service’s low price tag. The Cheesy Ravioli Enchilada Bake, for example, delivered on the promise of an easy, one-pan meal, but at the cost of quality. The recipe’s core enchilada-inspired sauce was a gloopy and flavorless concoction of tomato paste, water, and Tex Mex spices thickened with flour. There were some real winners among the recipes I tested, though: While some meals I was excited for ended up lacking (One-Pot Tortelloni Florentine), others that seemed a little dubious came out surprisingly delicious (Creamy Chicken Taco Soup). My favorite recipe, to my utter surprise, was a spinach salad with lentils and roasted carrots—I plan on making that recipe again without any hesitation! All that to say, you can absolutely use Dinnerly as an affordable way to make delicious weeknight dinners achievable—I’d just recommend choosing your weekly recipes wisely and metering your expectations, as you do get what you pay for in a sense. A basic sense of cooking intuition will also help you get the most out of your meals.

The place I think Dinnerly truly shines is in its marketplace, which sits somewhere between a meal kit and a grocery delivery in the best way. It has a wealth of selections that suit the “busy professional on a budget” that I am: The Mediterranean Falafel Wrap was a cheap, flavorful, and filling lunch I could just pop in the oven and eat. The Bacon and Egg Breakfast Sandwich “Meal Shortcut” was just a package of Lopaus waffles, sous vide egg bites, and a tiny pack of bacon, but with the smallest effort, I had a couple of pretty tasty breakfast sandwiches. And the pre-packaged apple kouign-amann from KRMA Foods was flaky and satisfying with my afternoon coffee.

The best plant-based meal kit: Purple Carrot

Tester: Carina Finn, commerce editor
Favorite meal they tested: Crunchadillas Supreme
Click here for our full Purple Carrot review

Purple Carrot is one of the most user-friendly meal kits I’ve tried. The process is incredibly simple: just pick how many meals you want per week, click on a few appealing recipe photos, and have everything you need to recreate them delivered to your house a few days later. The meals are 100% vegan, and while my household is solidly omnivorous, we do make an effort to eat more plant-based foods. I never missed the meat in a Purple Carrot meal. I even found myself getting legitimately excited about my “healthy dinner at home” nights—especially since I didn’t have to grocery shop. All of the meal kits I tried took 30 minutes or less to put together, and they kept me from ordering takeout on more than one occasion. Purple Carrot offers a lot of variety: I could have West African Peanut Stew one night and their (extremely delicious) Crunchadillas Supreme the next. In fact, that riff on a crunchwrap supreme was so good, I ate it three days in a row. I’m not normally a mushrooms-as-meat-replacement person, but the Fable mushrooms in this kit were unreal in terms of both flavor and texture. This meal fell solidly into the deeply satisfying category of “healthy junk food.”

By and large, I found all of the meals to be really well-seasoned, which was a nice change from some other meal kits. Every once in a while I’d zhuzh things up with condiments, but for the most part I was happy to eat them as-is. There were some weeks where I wasn’t particularly excited about many of the options, but I was always able to find something I wanted, and it was often better than I expected.

Looking for more vegetarian meal kits? Right this way

The Best Meal Kit for Sustainability: Green Chef

Tester: Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor
Favorite meal they tested: Italian Turkey Stuffed Squash Boats with bulgur, kale, creamy parsley-basil pepita pesto

Green Chef is owned by another popular meal kit company, Hello Fresh, but offers (mostly) organic, seasonal produce, with an emphasis on lean (sustainably-sourced) protein, whole grains, whole fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, and low to no-added sugars. It’s the kit to try if buying organic is important to you, and/or if you want to incorporate recipes that meet the criteria for certain diets (keto, Mediterranean, high protein, etc.). They ship all of their sauces, stocks, and herb blends pre-mixed, and some of their veggies precut, to cut down on prep time. They also offer “Quick & Easy Lunches” with precooked proteins, and sell add-ons to their meals, like meat and seafood sampler packs, ready-to-blend smoothie kits, frozen desserts, canned coffees, protein shakes, additional side dishes, packaged ramen, and dumplings. They even emailed me an offer to include fresh dog food in my order (in partnership with The Pets Table).

The meals were very easy to cook: simply grab the labeled bag of the meal you’d like to make and the included full-color recipe sheet (printed on a nice, durable cardstock paper) and go. The recipe instructions were well-written and easy to follow, and included color pictures of every major step. They’re very clear about what they don’t include: salt, pepper, sugar, butter, and oil. Everything else you need is in the box. I am confident that a beginner cook could easily follow the instructions and make a delicious meal, but the cook times might vary based on experience and confidence in the kitchen. Most of the meals used at least 2 pans (a sheet pan and a skillet, for example) and prioritized smart, simultaneous cooking techniques (e.g. boiling the bulgur while the squash was roasting in the oven so you can focus on the pork filet on the stovetop). These are not (for the most part) one pan meals.

The food was, in general, good. I had favorites and a few misses, but nothing was truly terrible. My favorite meal (Italian Turkey Stuffed Squash Boats) consisted of well-seasoned ground turkey, bulked up with nutty bulgur and tender kale before getting spooned over golden brown roasted zucchini and topped with a creamy riff on pesto. The “boats” description is a bit funny because one zucchini was tiny and one was huge, so the filling overwhelmed the vessel, but the taste was great and presentation just didn’t matter that much to me in the end.

What I didn’t like mostly came down to personal preferences, rather than flawed recipes or bad ingredients. My least favorite meal was the Spiced Salmon with Mango Salsa with roasted purple sweet potatoes, bell pepper & black beans, and Cotija cheese. The salmon filets were fresh, high-quality, and delicious. They cooked perfectly per the recipe instructions and were well-seasoned with a delicious cumin-coriander-oregano spice. But the rest of the meal just didn’t work. I received two very large purple sweet potatoes, one can of black beans, and about ¼ of a small bell pepper for the hash. The ratio was just entirely off—we barely got any bell pepper and felt like we were eating an unending pile of potatoes. I did not enjoy the Cotija with the fish either—it felt like an odd pairing, but that’s just my personal taste.

Overall, I think this kit would work well for people who would still like to cook (but not for hours after work or school), and prioritize ingredient sourcing but just don’t want to or cannot dedicate time to grocery shopping each week. The recipes were reliable if a bit repetitive and the food was always fresh.

The best meal kit for health and wellness heads: Sakara

Tester: Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking
Favorite meal they tested: All of the salads
Click here for our full review of Sakara

Founded by Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle, who were seeking solutions to their own health issues, Sakara specializes in plant-based, gluten-free prepared meals that prioritize nutrient-rich foods. The brand truly is all about wellness, and touts “9 Pillars of Nutrition” that range from “eat the rainbow” and “eat your water” to “leafy greens” and “good fats.”

I tested the brand’s Signature Nutrition Program, which allows you to choose between three or five days of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, or just lunches and dinners. All of the meals I received were straightforward and quick to prepare. A lot of them required no heating at all (for example, a parfait for breakfast or a salad for lunch). Some were marked as heating optional. There were a few heating recommendations that I adjusted to speed things up; for example, instead of reheating a taco in a 350° oven for five minutes as suggested (my oven takes forever to get to temperature), I just zapped it in the microwave for a minute and that worked great.

The breakfasts were typically sweet—think muffins, scones, parfaits, or granola. That said, these were not sweet sweets—they were super balanced, which I appreciated. But it’s something to keep in mind if you prefer fully savory breakfasts. I especially enjoyed the pumpkin pie parfait with a maple-cinnamon granola and the coconut praline granola with cacao mylk.

Sakara’s salads are excellent—a reliable delight to dig into in the middle of a busy workday. They’re generously portioned, so you have enough fuel to power you through the afternoon. And they’re thoughtfully designed with a range of textures (so many leafy greens and crunchy veg!) and colors (Would I ever dye quinoa with turmeric and blue spirulina myself? No! That’s why it’s so thrilling when someone else does it for you). Just about every dressing I wished I had a full bottle of to keep in the fridge for future meals. I especially enjoyed the beet salad with cashews and carrot-ginger dressing, and the technicolor quinoa salad with pumpkin-seed tofu and cashew-tamari dressing.

I also enjoyed the dinners on the whole. I’m still thinking about their “chile-kissed” pinto beans and wishing I had them canned. Do know that some portion sizes here lean small depending on what type of eater you are.

I’m someone who bakes with wheat flour often, so I found the gluten-free baked goods—such as a “chocolate love muffin” or “power pita”—more hit or miss. These dishes are creatively approached to both avoid gluten and pack in additional nutrients (think: applesauce in a cookie), but that often means it’s a liberal departure from the inspiration. If you’re gluten-free, this aspect of the meal kit is a plus, and there’s a wide range of items delivered.

The main downside to Sakara is the price. At $140–$465 per week (per person!) depending on your plan, it’s the priciest option on this list. But if you’re someone who prioritizes wellness and sees food as a source of nourishment and healing, you’ll like what you get. It’s also a great option for people who are gluten free or vegan.

Other meal kits we’ve tried…

Blue Apron

Tester: Noah Kaufman, senior commerce editor
Favorite meal they tested: Chickpea and paneer curry

Blue Apron is the first meal kit company I have any recollection of and I used it for quite a while about a decade ago. In a world of increasingly niche products, it was then and is now a proud generalist. You can pick meals by category: vegetarian, healthy (called “wellness” here), fast, or family friendly. You can also pick individual meals that are low in carbs, low calorie, high in protein, or take 15 minutes to prepare (I found this last claim to be a little ambitious). The meals tend to span cuisines and flavors in a 10,000 foot kind of way, with things like fairly simple curries or stir fries, or basic proteins dressed up in a sauce. The brand has also expanded over the years and now includes prepared meals (heat and eat), as well as breakfasts, lunches, and desserts.

I found that using Blue Apron made cooking dinner easier, but not necessarily more convenient. It was easier in the sense that I had three consistently good recipes planned out for me already each week, but the experience of preparing a Blue Apron recipe is almost exactly as it would be if I had chosen it myself; I just had to open a lot more plastic bags to do it. None of the recipes were overly complicated, but I also found that, even though I have a lot of cooking experience, the meals all took 10-15 minutes longer than the recipe cards said they would.

The standard ingredients were high quality (the eggs, for example, are the Vital Farms ones you may have seen for $8 a dozen at the grocery store), although some of the produce was on the back half of its lifespan.

The biggest plus for me of using Blue Apron was that it gently eased my small kids into new flavors. I was able to go easy on an included habanero honey spice blend to acquaint them with a little more heat than they’re used to; the chickpea curry was mild and turned out to be a favorite of my three year old; and the pomegranate dressing on the farro salad is the first non-ranch dressing either of my children have ever wanted to eat. I will note that the portions were much bigger than I needed for two adults and two kids. We had leftovers every time.

I did try some of the extras. The lunches, which tend to be salads and wraps, are a nice way to avoid eating out at the office, but they still require quite a bit of prep—I had to cook the chicken for the BBQ chicken wraps, for example. The heat and eat truffle cavatappi I tried had nice flavor. Surprisingly, the texture came out better in the microwave than in the oven.

Overall, Blue Apron is a very safe choice if you’re looking to try out a meal delivery service. I might not seek out the recipes to remake them on my own, but they resulted in reliably decent meals every night I prepped them.

Hello Fresh

Tester: Maria Paz Mendez Hodes, director of creative development
Favorite meal they tested: Burgers with Onion Jam and Potato Wedges

HelloFresh is likely the brand most people think of when they think “meal kit.” It’s aimed at a wide audience, but allows you to choose plans geared towards different requirements: meat and veggie, veggie, family-friendly, fit and wholesome, under 20 minutes, and pescatarian. There are optional premium add-ons for ingredients like beef and shrimp, as well as pre-made items.

While I love to cook and enjoy browsing grocery stores, doing so is a lot of work. It was frankly relaxing to enter the pre-portioned, hand-holding world of HelloFresh. Sauces, spices and condiments arrived in cute little packets—no running around the kitchen gathering everything together. It was fun to cook this way, kind of like being inside a cooking simulator video game.

Beyond that, HelloFresh had me trying some new techniques and taught me a few tricks—things like baking a chicken breast with a panko and cheese crust, or cooking ground meats flattened and undisturbed in the pan to get a nice sear.

I loved the clarity of the Hellofresh instructions, which came on nicely laid out recipe cards containing lots of pictures to demonstrate what each step should look like. The prep steps were timed perfectly, so I’d be done with one task as soon as it was time to take something out of the oven. The whole process took exactly 30 minutes—a real 30 minutes, not the unrealistically optimistic timings you see on a lot of recipes. They even give you plating suggestions, and I was surprised to see how attractive the components looked when they came together.

Given how much I enjoyed cooking the HelloFresh dishes, I really wanted to enjoy eating them. But there was a glaring issue shared by all the recipes: Every single dish tasted overwhelmingly, cloyingly sweet. The sugar comes largely in the form of condiments—honey, jam, chili sauce—that you combine to make sauces or glazes. I learned to use just a fraction of the ingredients supplied, but the dishes still came out too sweet for my taste.

While every meal contained a carb, a protein, and a vegetable, I definitely felt like I was eating a lot less fresh produce than usual. I missed the variety of my usual weekly grocery shop, and craved crunchy, flavorful salads and crisp vegetables. There also can be repetition if you’re not careful. By the end of my test, I was sick of the roasted carrot side dish that accompanied half the meals.

The produce supplied by HelloFresh is generally unblemished, clean, and stays almost suspiciously fresh even if left for a few days too long in the fridge. In comparison to what I get at my local supermarket, the HelloFresh green beans and cabbage tasted bland and woody when raw, although they were fine when cooked.

I was also generally disappointed in the proteins. The vacuum-packed ground meat and chicken leached a lot of liquid, so I suspect they had been previously frozen. Additionally, the butchering was sloppy and inconvenient. The chicken breasts they sent were inexpertly halved, resulting in two ragged cutlets that had uneven cooking times and portion sizes.

Overall I loved how easy HelloFresh made it to cook a multi-faceted meal. Even as a confident home cook, I learned a few tips about how to streamline meal prep. It was also nice to try different ingredients that I might not normally cook with, for fear they’d go to waste in my fridge—things like cherry jam or sour cream, for example. Unfortunately, I didn’t love the taste of the final dishes, and the quality of the produce and meat was poor for the price.

Territory

Tester: Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor
Favorite meal they tested: Mocha Overnight Oats

Territory pitches itself as a healthy meal delivery service that works with local chefs and restaurants to supply individually packaged meals. The meals come fully pre-cooked, with reheating instructions included on the label. According to the website, none of the options contain gluten, dairy, or refined sugars.

Each meal arrives arranged inside shallow plastic trays, which you will have to reheat in the microwave with the lid either off or peeled back halfway. As someone who has never ordered a meal kit before, it tickled me to no end to think there was precooked, pre-portioned food in the fridge that I could reheat and eat on a whim with no real cleaning up after. But my curiosity quickly fell off when I realized the food tasted mostly the same (underseasoned) and felt mostly the same (something stewy with something dry, like rice or quinoa, plus a few token vegetables).

The meal I enjoyed most were the mocha overnight oats, which had a great texture—not too runny, and with none of the slippery feel that overnight oats are susceptible to. The coconut yogurt I dolloped on top was sweet and creamy, providing a good foil to the oats.

The second best thing was the Beef Burger with Mushroom Topping and Sweet Potato Wedges. I dumped it all in a hot skillet with a bit of olive oil instead of following the microwave directions. It tasted strongly of rosemary, and the bits with the mushroom sauce were tasty—I just wished there was three times more sauce. I hit the sweet potatoes with a bit of kosher salt and squeezed a generous glob of mayo and ketchup on the side to cover the fact that the beef puck was a bit…well done. I will say, this was very filling. I had a big glass of water right after and I was full for a few hours.

Some meals were less successful. I liked the idea of the Butter Chickpeas with Cauliflower and Squash—a vegetarian version of butter chicken, essentially—but the execution was off. Think dry rice, chewy cauliflower, a measly amount of green beans, and an underdeveloped sauce that tasted mainly of clove. The Red Lentil Soup with Apricot was also pretty bland. Too smooth, too plain, too predigested. The Chipotle Black Bean bowl sounded like a sleeper hit—quinoa, black beans, corn salsa—but it was shockingly flavorless. Serves me right for ordering anything with corn in the middle of winter, I guess.

Ultimately, this is not a meal kit for someone who wants to eat with flavor in mind—speaking personally, I wouldn’t order this particular service again. That said, it may be a good option if you have very particular nutrition goals, like high-protein, gluten-free, or paleo. The ordering process makes it easy to set filters for such things, and all of the macros for each meal are clearly labeled on the site. I thought the portions were enough, but my husband found them lacking.

Factor

Tester: Gunsel Pehlivan, video director
Favorite meal they tested: Cavatelli with Pork Ragu and Chimichurri Chicken

Factor is another meal delivery service offering pre-made microwavable meals geared towards the health and wellness-minded. I appreciated that there was a good variety of dishes to choose from, all of which are never frozen, and that I could choose meals based on my dietary preferences (with options like vegan, keto, chef’s choice, calorie smart, and extra protein).

The meals are mostly your typical American fare, with some Italian, Mediterranean, and Latin American flavor profiles to choose from as well. They tend to follow a similar formula of a main plus one or two sides. The portions aren’t huge, but I found them mostly satisfying and tasty.

Suggested microwave times varied, but the general directions for reheating meals were all the same: Take the plastic container out of its cardboard sleeve, poke a hole in the plastic film, microwave it, open it to stir the contents, microwave it some more, and enjoy. It was undeniably convenient, but eating microwave meals for lunch and dinner multiple weeks in a row does get tiring.

I was pleasantly surprised at how moist the chicken breast was, and how balanced the flavors were in almost all of the mains. Certain sides (like the green beans, zucchini, or broccoli) fell flat, retaining too much moisture and taking on a soggy or squeaky texture after microwaving. All of the sauces and any potato-based sides were excellent.

One thing to note is that you have to skip or cancel your meals five days before your scheduled delivery date in order to avoid an unwanted charge (and a whole new box of food).

Factor is a solid option for anyone who doesn’t have time to cook and wants a convenient, hot meal. It’s far cheaper than ordering in, but more expensive than grocery shopping and cooking. If you’re able, I would suggest breaking it up with some real home cooked meals in between.

Cumin Club

Tester: Joe Sevier, senior editor, cooking and SEO
Favorite meal they tested: Masala Bhindi with Cumin Rice

Cumin Club isn’t your typical meal delivery service. It specializes in shelf-stable plant-based Indian meals like curries and lentils or rice-based dishes. All of them come dehydrated, so all you need to do is add water (technically—more on that below). You can mix and match packets at will to make a dinner that comes together, in most cases, in less than 10 minutes.

For a simple vegetable curry, the process is simple: Boil water, empty the packet, let it sit for 3-5 minutes, then serve. I added their optional Soy Protein Chunks (the name could use some work), which Cumin Club suggests rehydrating separately in boiling water before adding to the curry. I also separately cooked cumin rice using a similar process: cook for two minutes, steep for two minutes. On subsequent cooks with the protein chunks, I just cooked them in the sauce and thought it turned out fine.

The cumin rice was hands-down the best product in the line up—I would absolutely buy it again if it was available in stores. I’m shocked that an instant rice product had such great texture, plus a wonderfully buttery and cumin-forward flavor.

In general, I would call these meal starters, rather than meal kits. I did not care for them as meals on their own—I found that I needed to bulk them up with extra ingredients, and that many of the curries seemed wildly lacking in heft. But once I started using them as the base around which to build a full meal, I quite enjoyed them. I did this in a couple ways: Sometimes I’d brown some ground meat, deglaze the pan with water, add the dehydrated powder and some veg, and simmer until tender. To bulk up the paneer butter masala pack, I browned some chicken legs in a pan, transferred them to a baking dish, whisked cold water with the dehydrated pack, and poured it around the chicken before roasting until it was all cooked through. The packs made light work of putting together a sauce—though I will say, I still felt the need to season and spice the meat itself.

If you’re into the idea of these packs as a foundation on which to build the rest of your meal, you may want to give Cumin Club a shot. In my mind, it feels geared towards college students or parents who need meals kids can prepare themselves.

Sunbasket

Tester: Alaina Chou
Favorite meal they tested: Chicken Pozole Verde with Tomatillos and Green Chiles

Sunbasket is a meal delivery service that operates similarly to most of its competitors: You’ll pick your weekly meals (narrowing down the search by dietary preferences if you so choose), receive a box of pre-portioned ingredients organized by dish in the mail, and cook your meals as directed by their recipe pamphlets.

While words like “clean” and “healthy” feature prominently in Sunbasket’s website copy, the thing that really sets them apart from most other meal delivery services is a focus on high-quality, certified-organic produce. I also found their typical weekly menu offerings more exciting than plenty of other meal kit fare I’ve tried, featuring a broad range of cuisines and ingredients—think Afghan-Style Butternut Squash Stew with Garlic Yogurt, Chicken Breasts with Olive-Leek Sauce and Sautéed Kale, or Mexican Street Tacos with Tomatillo Chicken, Salsa, and Lime Yogurt. I appreciated that I could see the steps for any of these dishes before I placed my order—including which steps would be suitable for kids to help with.

My orders arrived neatly packed in an insulated box with ice packs to keep everything cold, and each meal’s components were packed in their own brown paper bags. Sunbasket reserves the right to replace ingredients depending on availability and quality in a given week, which they’ll alert you of with slips of paper packed into the applicable bag. In my first order, the organic butternut squash in my Red Lentil and Chickpea Dal got subbed for nonorganic. I didn’t necessarily mind this as someone who eats plenty of nonorganic produce, but I could imagine if that’s the reason you’re opting for this meal kit, you’d be disappointed—especially given that the price tag remains the same.

In my first order, I also found a piece of paper stating that they had printer issues and couldn’t print one of my recipe cards. Again, this was not something I minded much as the recipes can be easily found online or in the Sunbasket app, but it was a bit annoying given that this is a premium service you’re paying for.

The meals themselves were easy and fast to make. The Chicken Pozole Verde with Tomatillos and Green Chiles was one of my favorite meals I made, tied, perhaps, with that Red Lentil and Chickpea Dal (with the nonorganic butternut squash). Some dishes felt a bit all over the place, like the Green Beans Almondine and Zucchini with Your Choice of Protein (I opted for pork chops). The pairing of vegetables seemed random to me, as did the green goddess dressing that I poured over the meat and balsamic-dressed green beans. The dish tasted perfectly fine, but it’s not a combination I’d put together again on my own.

Sunbasket also offers heat and eat meals. I tried one, a take on chicken and dumplings that featured gnocchi instead of the usual dumplings, that just didn’t have a ton of flavor. It felt a bit like eating airplane food to me—it needed a good dose of salt. I also tried one of the more premium “Chef’s Table” offerings: a scallop dish with roasted sunchokes and caper-raisin tapenade that, while delicious, cost just as much as a restaurant main at $30+ per serving.

Overall, I wasn’t as wowed by Sunbasket as I wanted to be. And considering my (non-premium) meals were $13–$15 per serving before any promotional discounts, it just didn’t feel worth the price. But the meals were consistently tasty and felt nourishing, so it could be worth a shot if you’re intrigued by it.

How We Tested Meal Kits

At any given moment, BA editors are probably testing a meal kit—we keep this process going perpetually to ensure that we test the ever-changing meal options the kits offer and to monitor quality and consistency over time. For over a year, we’ve integrated meals from all of the companies above into our daily cooking repertoires. Editors select meals from the company, ensuring that they choose a wide variety of meal options that will really demonstrate everything this particular meal kit has to offer. We test and retest the kits, dividing them up among staff members, so that we get a variety of perspectives. We also periodically test meal kits that are new to the market, or ones we haven’t tested yet. Here are the factors we consider when we’re testing:

What kinds of meal kits are there, and how do you choose the best one for you?

When we talk about there being a variety of meal kits that serve a variety of home cooking needs, we mean that some meal kits, like Hungryroot, are designed to be curated grocery deliveries that come with recipes that you may choose to make, or not to make. Other meal kits come only with the specific pre-portioned ingredients designed to make one recipe for two to four people. And finally, there’s a burgeoning market of fully premade meals that essentially just need to be popped into the oven or microwave. Of course, some meal kits are designed specifically to fit certain dietary restrictions. Then there are meal delivery services that allow you to mix and match all of the above.

All of these styles of meal kits have their pros and cons, and the right one for you depends heavily on your lifestyle at the given moment that you’re shopping. So whether you’re looking for a subscription service that meets specific dietary needs, prioritizes high-quality ingredients and truly fresh meals, or offers a good selection of budget-friendly healthy meals, you’ll surely find your match in the options above—we tried to assess the meal kits against the problems they were trying to solve for home cooks, rather than straightforwardly pitting them against one another. Because a premade meal is never going to be as fresh as one you make from a kit—but it will be a lot easier, if that’s what you’re looking for. We have yet to find an affordable option that compares to the higher end meal kits on this list, but our top budget pick is still a good option for those who are budget-constrained but interested in trying out a meal delivery service.

If you’re looking for more specific meal kit requirements, read our list of the best vegetarian meal kits, the best healthy meal kits, the cheapest meal kits, and the best prepared meal kits.

More meal kit stories:

While the list you just read details our favorite meal kits across the board, we also do more specific testing to figure out the best meal kits for particular needs and lifestyles. Below, check out our coverage of the best vegetarian meal kits, the best fully prepared meal kits for those nights when you just need dinner on the table without thinking about it, and more.