We Tested Over 50 Healthy Meal Delivery Services — These Are the 8 Most Affordable Options

EveryPlate is a budget-friendly meal-kit delivery service that makes cooking accessible and convenient. Meals cost around $5.99 per serving, which is generally lower than most other meal-kit options. The menu changes weekly and always includes at least 26 meal options. EveryPlate is also great for students on a budget — they offer a discount for students with a UniDays account, where students pay $1.99 per serving for the first box, which ships free. Students also get 15 percent off for the next 52 weeks.

By focusing on straightforward recipes, minimal packaging, and digital recipe cards, EveryPlate is able to keep costs down, making it a great choice for people looking for a simple and affordable way to prepare home-cooked meals.

EveryPlate also comes with everything you’ll need to make the meal, including pantry staples, which is another way the service may save money (no dashing to the store to buy olive oil or mustard). However, to keep costs low, EveryPlate does not currently cater to special diets like gluten-free, paleo, low-carb, or vegan. EveryPlate is also one of the few services that cater to more than four people (you can choose two, four, or six people as part of your plan), which makes it extra family-friendly.

Revive Superfoods is a subscription-based service that delivers frozen, nutrient-dense, and ready-to-blend smoothies that are quick to make. This is a great option if you’re used to grabbing a smoothie out of the house or always having lots of fruit and protein powder on hand to make your own.

There are 30 different smoothies to choose from, and you can pick each in your box, so if there’s one you like, you can load it up, or if you prefer variety, there are plenty of choices. “I was impressed with all the different smoothie flavors offered for various tastes and dietary preferences,” says Caitlin Beale, RDN, owner of Caitlin Beale Wellness in San Francisco, who tested Revive Superfoods. “You can choose from classic combos like Strawberry Banana or Blueberry and Cacao, or try unique flavors like Sweet Peach and Yuzu. Dragon Fruit and Strawberry was my favorite in this category, something I wouldn’t usually make myself at home.”

Each smoothie is tagged with information, like how many grams of plant or whey protein it has or if it’s keto-friendly. “These smoothies are heavy on fruit and sneak in vegetables like cauliflower and zucchini, with 1 ½ to 2 cups of fruits and veggies in most options,” adds Beale. “Overall, I like the simplicity of the ingredients. These smoothies are low in sodium, and many have healthy fats from nuts and seeds.”

The smoothie menu changes occasionally, but not weekly. The website remembers your preferences for your next order, which makes it easy to place the exact same order weekly, but you’ll always have the option to customize if you’d like. You’ll receive 50 percent off your first box and free shipping. After your first order, shipping costs $9.99 per box.

To make the smoothies, you’ll need a blender and whatever liquid you prefer. The smoothies come packed in a cardboard box and dry ice, both recyclable. If you’ve used Revive Superfoods in the past, you may remember other food options like acai bowls and soups, but the brand now solely offers smoothies, cereal, bars, and snacks.

Marley Spoon offers over 100 meal options per week to keep things exciting. You can choose vegetarian, low-calorie weight-loss options, quick, gluten-free, low-carb, or kid-friendly (“picky-eater approved,” as the website says). “Some dishes looked like they could be found at a fancy restaurant, while others are classic comfort foods,” says Lindsay Modglin, who tested Marley Spoon. “I was honestly surprised by the variety — including Korean, Thai, and Middle Eastern cuisines — and several dishes also had new-to-me ingredients, like lamb and Castelvetrano olives.”

Marley Spoon's menus can accommodate two or four people with two to six weekly meals. Each recipe is clearly outlined with what they’ll send, what you’ll need, how easy or difficult the recipe is, nutrition information, and allergens. “The recipe cards provided me with step-by-step instructions with full-color photos. I appreciated the inclusion of almost all the needed ingredients: I only needed to grab salt, pepper, oil, eggs, and sugar from my cabinet,” says Modglin.

When signing up, you’ll input details, including your email address and ZIP code, plus what kind of meals you’d like. One of the potential downsides is that you can’t easily navigate the website to view meals until after payment (choosing meals is the final step after payment), so it can be difficult to know for sure that the meals will be to your liking.

“The Tortelloni Florentine was my favorite because I love pasta; the flavors all worked well together; my husband loved the Carne Asada and Fresh Salsa dish,” says Modglin. “We were satisfied with the portions, but it’s possible that some families might want to supplement or add sides to make the portions stretch.”

Daily Harvest delivers premade vegan meals and snacks and focuses on (mostly) organic ingredients with no preservatives or added sugars, making it popular among those seeking quick, health-conscious meal options. “I was impressed with the ingredient lists for all my meals. Real food without preservatives — and primarily ingredients I’d bring into my own fridge,” says Beale.

The brand is often associated with smoothies, but they also offer oat-based breakfast bowls, grain and grain-free harvest bowls, soups, pasta, grains, and the popular flatbreads. They also have snacks like superfood bites, frozen fruit pops, and alternative milks. “The Cacao Mint was an instant standout. The fresh mint smell reminded me of mint chocolate chip ice cream,” says Beale. “I used the Almond Mylk “wedges” for my liquid base ─ a convenient preportioned frozen almond milk concentrate that you mix with water. The result was refreshingly minty (thanks to peppermint oil) without an artificial aftertaste.”

With Daily Harvest, you don’t have to commit to a certain plan with a set price. Instead, you pay by item. You can add up to 52 items to your cart, with a minimum purchase of $50. It’s a subscription, however (which you can pause or skip at any time), and your order will repeat each week unless you change it.

Daily Harvest also offers preselected bundles. Although these boxes aren’t customizable, they include a variety of options, like Easy Family Favorites, The Breakfast Box, and more, with prices ranging from $99.99 to $199.99. Daily Harvest also has a curated GLP-1 Support bundle, which may be attractive to people who want to supplement their health goals with medication.

“It's ideal for anyone who wants to incorporate more produce into their diet but struggles to find the time to prepare meals from scratch,” says Beale.

Hungryroot is a meal delivery service that offers prepared meals, ingredients, and recipe cards. It’s also an online grocery store where you can stock up on fresh and pantry items.

When you live with food allergies, it can be scary to eat food that you haven’t personally selected yourself. Hungryroot helps to alleviate that concern. As part of the sign-up process, Hungryroot asks if you have any dietary needs, and you can choose from one or more of the following:

• Dairy-free
• Gluten-free
• Soy-free
• Tree nut–free
• Peanut-free
• Egg-free
• Shellfish-free

In addition, you can also choose from various nutrition preferences, such as low sugar, high protein, carb-conscious, and more. Their intake process is one of the most robust on our list, which allows the meal recommendations to be personalized to your dietary needs and tastes. “I found the filters worked very well at showing options based on what you want,” says Ashley Brafman, MPH, RD, who reviewed Hungryroot. “For example, adding the peanut-free filter removed all the recipes and groceries with peanuts.”

After taking the quiz and signing up, you can choose a free gift, like a fresh veggie of the week or a special snack. You’ll also receive 30 percent off your first order. Before the discount, an order including two lunch servings, 12 dinner servings, three to five snacks, and two to four sweets came out to $176.79. Hungryroot is also the only meal delivery service on this list that offers free shipping after a certain threshold ($70). When your food arrives, it feels more like getting curated groceries (with recipes) than a meal delivery service with bags of tiny portioned ingredients. “The meals all left me full and satisfied. The portion sizes for the “protein with a side dish” meals (such as Steak and Sides or Salmon and Sides) were hefty for the two-serving meals. It was enough for both my husband and me to feel full,” says Brafman. “With more than 1,000 recipes to choose from, the massive selection of meals every week really wowed me.”

Dinnerly keeps prices around $6 to $9 per serving by cutting back on things you may not even notice. For example, recipes have fewer ingredients, they send digital recipes instead of printed ones, and packaging is minimal, which also helps reduce waste. There are also “saver” meals that cost less than $6 per meal. The website also mentions customizable recipes where you can swap out proteins.

While the meals are said to feed between two and four people, there are Family Friendly Big Batch Meals (tagged “Family Friend”) that can feed double that; for those meals, the two-person plan yields four servings, and the four-person plan serves eight. Even if you don’t always choose family-friendly meals (there aren’t a ton), the four-person serving size will likely feed two adults and three young children. “We received four servings of each meal, and the portions were more than enough. Since our two young kids only tasted the meals, we had plenty of leftovers,” says Ashley Ziegler, who reviewed Dinnerly. “If we had older kids with larger appetites, we would have needed extra sides to ensure there was enough food for everyone.” The Dinnerly app displays full details about which ingredients in each recipe contain an allergen. “So if you accidentally selected a recipe with an allergen, you can see which ingredients you need to avoid and could still use the rest,” says Brafman.

“I also appreciated that each meal was tagged with labels like ‘kid-friendly’ and ‘under 30 minutes,’ which helped me filter out what would not work for my family,” adds Ziegler. However, Brafman notes that Dinnerly may not be the best fit for people who follow a special diet for health reasons, like those who have blood pressure or heart disease, or those on low-sodium or low-fat diets.

One of the nice things about Dinnerly is that the meal kits come with printed recipe cards, but you can opt out of receiving paper cards if you prefer to look online. The recipes clearly state what will be included in your package, what you’ll need that’s not included (things like butter, olive oil, and common spices), and what equipment you’ll need. You can see these ingredients plus the full recipe online before you make your weekly choices, which is helpful in meal prepping for the week.

Once the kit arrives, you’ll still have to do a little prep (think shredding cheese or zesting a lime), but Dinnerly does most of the hard work for you, and the recipes are quick and easy to follow.

Mom's Meals is a meal delivery service that provides nutritious, ready-to-eat meals for people with specific health needs or conditions, including seniors, people managing chronic health conditions, and those recovering from illness or surgery. Mom’s Meals offers nine condition-specific meal plans (including gluten-free, lower sodium, pureed, diabetes-friendly, or general wellness) and over 60 meal options per week. Chefs create the meals with the dietitian's input. There are an additional 16 pureed meals for those with dysphagia, the medical term for difficulty swallowing.

You’ll find things like Chicken Parmesan, Pasta and Meatballs, or Salisbury Steak With Rice and Vegetables. Mom’s Meals also offers gluten-free, dairy-free, and tree-nut-free options, but currently, there are no vegan options. “I particularly liked the protein-plus option, since older adults often need to increase their protein intake,” says Julie Cunningham, RDN, CDCES, in Hendersonville, North Carolina, who tested Mom’s Meals. “Extra protein is particularly beneficial for older adults recovering from surgery or illness. This is often when people have the least energy to cook for themselves, so Mom’s Meals would come in very handy during those times.”

The meals are delivered fresh, not frozen. Once your meals arrive, all you need to do is heat it in the microwave; specific heating instructions are found on each meal. “The barbecue chicken was designated as a ‘fan favorite’ on the website, and I agree; it was the best entrée I tried. I also thought the Southwestern chicken was tasty,” says Cunningham. Meals also come with sides like fig bars, whole-wheat bread, string cheese, or juice for no extra charge. Mom’s Meals is unique because you don’t have to subscribe; there’s also a pay-as-you-go option. This can be helpful if your loved one only needs meals for a set period of time. The website is easy to navigate, with clear, colorful photos of each meal.

Factor is a meal delivery service that provides fresh, not frozen, chef-prepared meals focused on health and convenience. Factor meals are fresh but ready-made, so all you have to do is pop them in the microwave. “I liked the overall variety of vegetables. There were surprising vegetables, too, such as celery root, which isn’t typical in other prepared meal delivery services,” says Kristy Del Coro, RDN, in Portland, Maine, who tested Factor. “[But] if you don’t eat chicken or beef, your options will be significantly fewer since those are the two main proteins used most on all menus.”

There are eight meal preferences to choose from, including keto, flexitarian, and “Fiber-Filled.” Each week, you can choose from 35 meals, plus add-ons. The food is delivered fresh and should last seven days in the refrigerator. Factor adds various tags to each meal, and many people wonder what the difference is between the “keto” and “carb-conscious” tags. According to Factor’s website, “For our meals to be deemed ketogenic, the meal must contain at least 60 percent of calories coming from fat, around 20 percent of calories coming from protein, and 10 percent or less of calories coming from carbohydrates.” Factor’s add-ons for “carb-smart” or keto diets include keto cheesecake, cookies, sides like cauliflower mash, or breakfast options. There are also bars and shakes designed to support keto diets.

“The meals seem to be designed with adults in mind, but there were certainly some dishes that my school-age children enjoyed, such as the Shredded Chicken Taco Bowl, Cavatappi and Italian-Style Pork Ragu, and Herbed Greek Chicken and Tomato Penne,” says Del Coro. “Factor meals stand out for flavor, texture, and appearance.”

However, Del Coro notes that it’s important to read the ingredient labels, as she found some discrepancies between Factor’s claims around being healthy and the actual healthfulness of the meals in general. There were examples of entrées that met high-protein goals or high-fiber goals or had reasonable levels of sodium, she explains, but those same meals would also be excessively high in saturated fat or contain unexpected added sugar.