Cheapest Meal Delivery Kits in 2024

Last Updated : February 23, 2024

Cheapest Meal Delivery Kits

The best meal kit delivery service makes it possible for you to spend less time in the kitchen and the supermarket. With meal kits, you get the right amount of fresh ingredients and cooking instructions without having to come up with recipes on your own. Isn’t that such a huge relief?

You might think it can’t get any better than this but think again –opting for the best meal delivery service means spending over budget for healthy weekly meals. Luckily, you don’t necessarily have to do that because cheap meal kits that are just as healthy and deliver top-quality, affordable food are now available on the market.

The cheapest meal delivery service offers meals that cost $5–$9 per serving. And if that isn’t budget-friendly, then I don’t know what is!

Subscriptions to top meal kit delivery services are great, but some of these are a bit more expensive than we can afford. How expensive? Over $15 per serving! In that case, why not choose services like EveryPlate and Dinnerly that ensure the price per serving of almost all of their meals is under $6–$7?

Home Chef and Blue Apron, on the other hand, are mid-range options since they allow you to customize recipes depending on your dietary needs and preferences. Their meal kits are specifically designed to cater to specialized diet plans such as gluten-free, paleo, keto, etc.

Bottom line – the truth about meal kits is that there are affordable meal delivery services out there that would suit your lifestyle!

What Are the Benefits of Meal Kits?

Affordable meal kits make life so much easier and, at the same time, ensure that you don’t spend a lot on your weekly meals. So, the benefits here have a lot to do with not just convenience but also alleviating your financial burden.

Listed below are the top advantages of choosing a meal delivery service.

Meal Kits Eliminate Time-Consuming Meal Planning, Prepping, and Post-cooking Cleanup

  • No meal planning means not having to decide what to cook for dinner throughout the week.
  • No meal prepping means no cleaning, slicing, or dicing ingredients.
  • No post-cooking cleanup means less time spent in the kitchen after your meals are cooked.

Meal Kits Come from a Broad Range of Menu

More likely is the case that the menu also includes salads, soups, smoothies, full meals, snacks, desserts, and more.

Multiple servings per meal are also an option if you’re not just looking for the cheapest meal delivery service for singles, meaning couple-friendly and family-friendly portion sizes are available too.

Some of the Top-Ranking Meal Kit Services Also Have Prepared Meals on Their Menu

This means you can create a weekly box with both meal kits and premade meals.

Less Food Is Wasted Because of the Premeasured Portion Sizes

There are single-serve meal kits and meal kits with serving size options. Hence, no guesswork is involved, unlike when you cook from scratch and end up overestimating or underestimating the amount of food that needs to be prepared for just yourself, you and your spouse, or the entire family.

Food wastage is reduced as a result of the serving size strategy. This means less food waste and spoilage too since the meals are portion-controlled.

Nutritional Meals Become a Part of Your Daily Diet

Healthier choices in the form of nutritionally balanced meals are a part and parcel of meal delivery services – no preservatives, additives, or the like. At the same time, there are meals with very little amounts of fat, sodium, and sugar.

Meal kits consist of a healthy, delicious blend of fresh veggies and grains. These are all the best-quality ingredients (sometimes organic too) that make up a vast variety of highly nutritious meals.

Specialized Meals for Unique Dietary Preferences

Keto-friendly meals, organic foods, plant-based meals, premium cuts of meat, pescatarian meals, and so much more – all of this is a part of the diverse menu of the best meal delivery services.

Another fitting example is the meal kit delivery service also offers gluten-free recipes. The meal kits can be gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, etc.

Meal Kits Let You Expand Your Cooking Skills

Now, this might sound like great news if you’re a noob at cooking who’s also interested to learn how to cook different recipes. Since cooking instructions are provided, you get to try out various cooking techniques. You also get to try out new recipes you may have never prepared in the past.

What Is the Cheapest Meal Kit Delivery Service?

Dinnerly and EveryPlate are the cheapest meal kit delivery services because their cost per serving is sometimes less than $6. Then we have Blue Apron and Home Chef which charge $7–$8 per serving.

What about the cheapest meal delivery service for families? For more servings per meal, it’s feasible to pay around $5 per serving, which is what you get when you pick the cheapest meal kits.

The biggest benefit of meal delivery services is that the greater number of servings you order, the less the cost per serving becomes.

Cost-effective meal options, at least the ones put together by top brands like Dinnerly, EveryPlate, Home Chef, Blue Apron, and Purple Carrot, are also healthy with fresh, quality ingredients.

Are Meal Kits Cheaper Than Takeout?

For many, the one important factor when it comes to food is price, be it for meal kits or takeout. Subscription service to meal delivery usually costs less when you compare them to dining out. Weekly meal boxes are not only more affordable but also healthier than takeout.

In comparison to eating out or buying takeout, meal kits are certainly the more budget-friendly option. Also, meal delivery services are even more appealing for couples and large families. The higher the servings per meal, the lower the cost per serving!

Opting for meal kits is definitely cheaper than takeout as well as purchasing weekly groceries at the supermarket, especially for 3- or 4-person households.

Also, choosing meal kits over takeout is even more affordable when following a particular diet plan. Trying new recipes and eating styles or simply just wanting to consume healthier meals becomes so much easier and more cost-effective when you subscribe to a cheap meal delivery service.

These companies allow you to filter recipes based on your diet. Now, this could be any one of the following diet plans:

  • Plant-based
  • Keto
  • Paleo
  • High-protein
  • Low-carb
  • Low-calorie
  • Low-fat
  • Gluten-free
  • Dairy-free
  • Soy-free
  • Pescatarian
  • Mediterranean

There’s a meal kit service for all sorts of diets and eating habits or preferences. These are just perfect especially if you end up with takeout or fast food more than just a few times a week.

If you take a closer look at restaurant meals, you’ll see how they’re not the most nutritious option for your body and dietary needs. First of all, takeout is loaded with high calories, fat, sodium, and sugar. This includes popular cuisines like Chinese, Italian, and American. 1,500 calories in a single meal only – now that’s a lot!

It’s important to note that higher number of calories is not the outcome of larger portion sizes. Restaurant food, more often than not, doesn’t offer oversized servings. Rather, the overload of calories comes from high-calorie ingredients, such as butter.

Even high sodium is another concern as long as we’re talking about restaurant meals. The average content of sodium per meal here is 1,500 milligrams (65% of your maximum daily intake).

So, when you prepare meals at home, including meal kit cooking, you know what type of ingredients are going into your food and body.

How to Find the Best Cheap Meal Kit Delivery Service?

You need to find a meal delivery service with a menu that features high-protein and plant-based recipes. Lots of fresh vegetables and lean sources of meat/protein should be a part of the service if you want to consume food with high nutritional value.

A meal delivery brand that offers a wide range of cuisines, meals, plans, etc. is always a way better option than one that doesn’t. For example, if the meal kit delivery service has on its menu vegetarian or vegan recipes, then you’re certainly more likely to try them out.

Adding different types of cuisines to your weekly order is another very effective way of keeping your weekly meals more enjoyable, such as mixing meat dishes with grain bowls, pasta, and other kinds of recipes.

Purple Carrot

Those on a 100% vegetarian or plant-based diet are most likely to choose Purple Carrot. Even if you want to infuse more meat-free and veggie-based meals into your weekly plan, you can opt for Purple Carrot. It’s the best meal delivery service for vegans!

Purple Carrot is all about using high-quality, fresh ingredients, and the list includes legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, spices, sauces, and herbs.

To make the experience more holistic for their customers, Purple Carrot’s non-produce food items are organic (tofu, tempeh, beans, nut milk, etc.). Plus, their organic vegetables and fruits are GMO-free.

Preparing Purple Carrot meals do not take more than 30–40 minutes to prepare. But if you don’t have that much time to expend, prepared meals and less-prep meals are also available.

The main thing to know and understand about Purple Carrot is that they prioritize plant-based meals. Purple Carrot has very clearly explained, on their Why Plants page, that consuming healthy plant-based meals helps with weight loss along with lowering bad cholesterol in the body.

The meal kits always include interesting ingredients, and the food is always prepared using interesting techniques too. Even a 30-minute meal feels hands-on the whole time.

Furthermore, Purple Carrot uses recyclable packaging materials, and every meal kit is wrapped in a separate recyclable plastic bag. Even the cardboard inserts that are used are curbside-recyclable.

Purple Carrot Pricing

The cost per serving is between $9.99 and $11.99. The first time you order weekly meals, you get a $20 discount on the total bill. You can choose 2 or 4 servings per meal and 3 or 4 meals per week (more on that in the table below).

Purple Carrot’s pricing, compared to that of other affordable meal kit delivery services, does seem a bit higher, but the shipping fee is nullified. Not many meal delivery companies offer free shipping like this!

Meals per week 1 serving 2 servings 3 servings 4 servings
2 meals $80 per week
3 meals $72 per week $120 per week
4 meals $96 per week
6 meals (prepared meals) $78 per week
8 meals (prepared meals) $104 per week
10 meals (prepared meals) $130 per week

As for Purple Carrot’s add-ons like breakfast, Plantry items, and more (apart from lunches and dinners, of course), you have to pay extra for those. The cost here is somewhere between $4 and $15 per item.

Moreover, because of the easy, user-friendly interface, there are no problems with editing or skipping your weekly orders.

Once you open Upcoming Deliveries, you’ll see the “skip” button. On Account Settings, you can even cancel your Purple Carrot subscription altogether. But whatever changes you wish to make, just do them on the Tuesday before the scheduled delivery date.

Purple Carrot Meal Options

Purple Carrot has separate pages for meal kits, prepared meals, and less prep meals.

Pictures of the meals, along with the recipes’ preparation instructions, prep time, ingredients list, and nutrition facts, are provided. The meals are labeled accordingly. Here are some examples:

  • High-Protein
  • Nut-Free
  • Soy-Free
  • Gluten-Free
  • <600 Calories
  • Chef’s Choice
  • Quick and Easy

The menu features Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Plantry. The “Plantry” items are sauces, side dishes, snacks, etc.

Vegan meals are the highlight of the Purple Carrot show here. Animal products like eggs, butter, and milk are not a part of the meals.

It’s a weekly rotating menu, which is one of the primary reasons why so many people pick meal delivery services as meal rotation offers something new and exciting every week. All of the Purple Carrot dishes are highly nutritional too!

There are meal kits and oven-ready meals, both of which can be combined in a weekly order.

Some mouth-wateringly delicious examples are listed below:

Purple Carrot meal kits:

  • Tofu Peanut Stir-Fry
  • Buffalo Cauliflower Quesadillas
  • Romesco Chickpea Sandwiches
  • Grape Leaf Mezze Bowls
  • Loaded Avocado Toasts

Purple Carrot prepared meals:

  • Cavatappi Alla Norma
  • Gochujang Fried Rice
  • Quinoa Burrito Bowl
  • Thai Peanut Noodles
  • Mac N’ Cheese

Add-ons in the form of pantry staples (called “Plantry”) are also on the Purple Carrot menu, like the following:

  • Black Bean Burgers
  • Whoa Dough Variety Pack
  • MMMLY Simply Almond Soft & Chewy Cookie Box

These snack options are very easy and quick to prepare (only 5–15 minutes required), with a price range of $4–$15 per item.

Purple Carrot Pros

  • Plant-based meals and organic ingredients.
  • Flavorful recipes and satisfying portion sizes.
  • Lunch, dinner, breakfast, and snack options are on the menu.
  • Mostly recyclable packaging is used.
  • Seasonal produce adds meal diversity.
  • No shipping cost.

Purple Carrot Cons

  • Cooking times are long for some meal kits.
  • No room for meal customization.
  • Food allergies and dietary restrictions are not included.
  • Very few prepared meal choices.

Blue Apron

Let me get straight to the point here – who is Blue Apron good for? Needless to say, Blue Apron is the best for busy men and women who want to ease up the process of cooking healthy meals at home. Blue Apron meal kits are the most suitable for weeknight dinners. Even if you’re new to cooking, the instructions are simple to follow.

The best part about Blue Apron is that its menu features gourmet recipes, which makes this top-rated meal delivery service worth it. It’s surely a more affordable and healthier alternative to takeout.

Healthier means fresh ingredients that are packed with the goodness of delicious flavors. Every week, there are new meal kits that include vegetables, meats, and meat alternatives. The option to narrow down recipes that fit into your diet plan is available too (more on this later).

Another best thing about Blue Apron is that it allows meal customization based on your dietary preferences. For instance, you can swap protein sources from meat to meat-free without any extra charges levied on your weekly bill. Proteins come in the form of chicken, turkey, seafood, and tofu.

Every meal has proper cooking instructions, be it for a meat-based or meat-free recipe. Speaking of which, traditional food and upscaled versions of these classic dishes are found on the Blue Apron menu, with creamy sauces and tasty combinations of spices and herbs. It’s like introducing your taste buds to a wide range of flavors!

Blue Apron meals, almost every one of them, are filling with generous serving sizes. If you order 2 servings per meal, you can devour one for lunch and the other for dinner. All their meals (Fast & Easy, Family Friendly, Ready to Cook, and more) are very delicious right from the first bite down to the final one.

Overall, cooking the meals demands no expert or professional skills. Although the cooking times are relatively longer (45–60 minutes), every effort you make is worth it if you select Blue Apron as your weekly meal delivery service – thanks to the unique flavors present in every dish.

However, if you don’t want to spend an hour in the kitchen, you can choose meals labeled Fast & Easy or Ready to Cook. These involve quick prep and easy cleanup. They’re equally delicious as the main meal kits, no denying.

What’s disappointing, on the other hand, is the excessive use of packaging materials. Each ingredient is wrapped individually, which is both convenient and wasteful. The ingredients are grouped by recipe and also clearly labeled.

Blue Apron Pricing

The service is known for its cheapest meal kits, so expect the Blue Apron price points to be in your favor as a budget-friendly customer.

2 servings per meal 4 servings per meal
2 meals per week = $11.99 per serving 2 meals per week = $9.49 per serving
3 meals per week = $9.99 per serving 3 meals per week = $8.49 per serving
4 meals per week = $9.49 per serving 4 meals per week = $7.99 per serving

See how the price per serving reduces as you increase the servings per meal and/or meals per week? This means the higher the number of items in your weekly order, the more you save money.

Blue Apron also has premium dishes, which cost more since they come with higher-quality ingredients such as specialty fish, steak, etc. The price per serving, in this case, can go over $20.

Unfortunately, there is a shipping fee, but it’s a one-size-fits-all charge of $9.99 per weekly order. However, for your first Blue Apron meal box, you don’t have to pay any shipping charges.

In terms of editing orders, once they’ve been placed, you’re free to make changes before the order gets processed – the deadline is 6 days prior to the scheduled delivery date.

Blue Apron Meal Options

On the Blue Apron menu, the first thing you see is the menu categories:

  • Signature (2 servings)
  • Vegetarian (2 servings)
  • Wellness (2 servings)
  • Signature for Four (4 servings)
  • Add-Ons

Every weekly Signature menu has about 12 meal kits. Of these 12, only 1–2 are marked “premium,” and they come with premium quality which is more expensive meat and seafood.

As for plant-based options, of the 12 meals, 3–4 are plant-based. These are the ones that also come under the Vegetarian meal plan category.

Healthy meals equipped with fresh veggies, hearty grains, and lean proteins is the format of almost each Blue Apron recipe. Low-cost, mid-range, and expensive options are a part of the Blue Apron menu, which means there’s something for everyone.

Side dishes and flavorful ingredients are heavy, and that’s something very special about this very popular, healthy meal delivery service. Sandwiches with broccoli, pan-seared steak with crispy gnocchi, and other such dishes replace old, boring, conventional recipes.

The culinary experience at Blue Apron also incorporates different types of sauces and spices that taste both familiar and unique. Meaning, the menu features classic and new, global-inspired meals to make your lunches and dinners more enjoyable.

On top of that, no amount of fancy cooking is required in the case of Blue Apron. Some of the more complicated recipes may take around 45 minutes to prepare, while the easier ones take only about 25–35 minutes to complete.

Also, discover Blue Apron’s dinnertime pairings – WINE!

Blue Apron Pros

  • Comfort foods and world cuisine.
  • Fresh, high-quality ingredients.
  • Very affordable 4-serving meals.
  • Meals can be customized depending on your diet.
  • Recipes are easy to follow, plus heat-and-eat meals.
  • Good for vegetarians and nonvegetarians.
  • Meats are hormone-free and GMO-free.
  • Wine delivery service is also included.

Blue Apron Cons

  • Too much plastic is used for packaging.
  • There is a shipping fee of $9.99.
  • Dietary accommodations are limited.

Home Chef

On Home Chef, after you create your account, you have to choose the delivery day that’s most convenient to you and then browse through the menus (upcoming menus included), select the meal kits, and that’s about as simple as it gets.

You can choose Monday as your delivery day, which means you’ll be starting your week with fresh, healthy, preportioned, homemade-style meals. Weekly meal boxes for as far as 6 weeks can be ordered – tasty dinners without any meal planning, prepping, or grocery store shopping!

These are filling, high-quality meals. Thus, they meet high standards with regard to taste and nutrition. Everything comes very neatly and properly packed to preserve quality and freshness, thanks to ice packs and insulation (all packaging is recyclable).

The servings of the meals are large enough to satiate hunger and appetite, be it for one- or two-person sizes. There will be no leftovers. At the same time, there will be no lingering hunger either.

Anyone who’s fed up with the lack of food variety in their weekly rotation of meals should be picking Home Chef because they offer great variety every week. There are new, delicious flavor combinations and different kinds of ingredients to maximize the variety factor each week. You’ll never have the same meal more than once with Home Chef.

Every meal kit arrives with helpful labels and instructions for cooking. The lifespan of each recipe is also mentioned, so you know how soon the meals need to be prepared before their ingredients go bad.

Home Chef is absolutely worth it, and this is no exaggeration. You’re more likely to subscribe if you’re super bored of having the same meals every week. Stepping out of your comfort zone here by choosing a meal kit delivery service might feel a little tricky. But with Home Chef, the opportunity becomes fruitful and also practical if you’re a busy person.

Home Chef meals are incredibly delicious. Think of them as restaurant-quality meals but cheaper, more filling, and healthier.

Home Chef Pricing

The cost depends on which meal plan you choose and on the number of servings per meal.

In most cases, meal kits are priced at about $8.99 per serving. Then there are family-friendly meals that are more affordable – $6.99 per serving. Meanwhile, premium meals, labeled Culinary Collection, are a bit more expensive though – $13.95 per serving.

It’s a moderately priced meal delivery service that offers add-ons too, such as protein packs (poultry, meat, and seafood). You have to pay extra for these.

The shipping cost is between $9.99 and $13.99 per meal box depending on the meal plan you select. Simply put, shipping is not free.

If you order 4 meals with 2 servings each, the total bill can be anywhere between $55 and $95. If you settle on $75, that would be around $9.38 per serving. Certainly, this is so much more budget-friendly than takeout.

Lastly, if you wish to make substitutions, modify meals, or do anything of the sort, Home Chef lets you adjust your weekly meals. The changes for next week’s order should be done on the Friday before the scheduled week, Friday noon (Central Time).

Home Chef Meal Options

The Home Chef menu features the following types of meals:

  • Culinary Collection – Premium dishes like steak, salmon, and more. These have higher-quality ingredients and require a bit more advanced or complicated cooking techniques. The preparation time is also longer – about 60 minutes or so.
  • Meal Kits – Classic recipes that come with preportioned ingredients where the cooking time is under 40 minutes.
  • Express Meal Kits – Even faster to prepare, Express Meal Kits also have preportioned ingredients, but these ingredients are pre-chopped rather than whole. These meals don’t take more than 15 minutes to put together.
  • Family Meals – Home Chef knows how tough and time-consuming it is to cook family meals, such as meaning meals with 4 servings. In such scenarios, their family-friendly meal kits are perfect. These are one-pot recipes, easy and quick to prepare, which feed more people.
  • Oven-Ready – You’ll find the best prepared meals on the Home Chef menu. These premade meals just have to be heated in the oven (they come in oven-friendly trays). However, there might be a few such ready-to-cook meals that need to be prepared in the oven for around 20–40 minutes.
  • Fast & Fresh – Everything is diced and sliced, so all you have to do is combine all the ingredients and place the meal in the microwave or oven and your delicious meal will get ready in less than just 10 minutes.

Bulk purchases of seafood, meat, and poultry are also available, known as Protein Packs, along with premade breakfast meals, snack items, salads, pizzas, bread, and more.

On the Home Chef menu, you’ll see three filter options:

  • Calorie-conscious
  • Carb-conscious
  • < 30 minutes

See how a few dietary preferences are also accommodated?

As for < 30 minutes, on the whole, Home Chef meals are very easy and quick to prepare, and they don’t even need a lot of “chef” experience. Largely, the meals appeal to a broad range of diet plans. This includes those on an American diet and world cuisine. Classic recipes, familiar flavors, and creative meals – all are a part of the Home Chef experience.

Many of Home Chef’s seafood-based meals are tagged Culinary Collection, for example, this Macadamia-Crusted Mahi Mahi and Sweet Chili Sauce or this Low-Country-Style Scallop Risotto. The same goes with higher cuts of beef, such as Filet Mignon Steak Frites with Truffle Aioli.

Home Chef Pros

  • Customizable weekly menus and meals.
  • Plenty of choices for quick, easy recipes.
  • Protein substitutions are also available.
  • Great value for money.

Home Chef Cons

  • Too much (recyclable) packaging waste.
  • Very limited options for dietary restrictions.
  • Not enough plant-based food.
  • Extra shipping cost.

EveryPlate

EveryPlate meals are varied and ideal for every taste, diet, and budget. Being one of the cheapest meal kits, they don’t exceed the cost of individual grocery shopping if you go to buy the groceries yourself. Only a handful of such meal kits are this affordable.

None of the meals seem bland or repetitive, that’s for sure. EveryPlate adjusts the meal palette based on a variety of factors affecting taste and nutrition. So, even though they offer the cheapest meal kits, they are very flavorful and healthy.

After doing quick research into what makes EveryPlate a dependable choice, I found that their meals are comforting to eat and boast of balanced nutrition. For other meal kit services, you may pay between $7 and $15 per serving. Meanwhile, EveryPlate costs you around $5–$6 per serving, which is a big surprise!

If your intention for the coming weeks is to eat healthy, balanced, and satisfying meals, there’s nothing more affordable than EveryPlate. The recipes are simple, home-inspired, and fairly straightforward to cook and eat.

They even offer some meal customization features for swapping proteins, adding side dishes, and planning a completely vegetarian diet. They offer several different meal options with versatile diet types affecting time, nutrition, and taste.

Though there are limited varieties of plant-based meals every week, they’re all family-friendly and healthy to eat. EveryPlate serves premium-quality ingredients including seafood and beef. These ingredients cost a bit more than the average meal, but they’re all lively and comforting meals to eat.

EveryPlate Pricing

Before signing up, you can immediately view the meal plans and pricing structure of each meal category on EveryPlate’s menu. Though there isn’t a significant drop in price between a meat-based meal kit and a vegetarian meal kit, the cost per serving is very flexible and affordable.

The box size is divided by the number of servings you want per meal and the number of meals you want per week. It is as follows:

Meals per week 2 servings per meal 4 servings per meal
3 $6.49 per serving $5.49 per serving
4 $5.99 per serving $5.29 per serving
5 $5.79 per serving $4.99 per serving
6 $5.49 per serving $4.99 per serving

Premium ingredients like seafood and beef cost a few dollars extra per serving – between $2 and $3.

If there is a special promotion or discount on the website, you can pay much less on the first order by avoiding the $9–$11 shipping cost that is charged on every order, regardless of the box size.

EveryPlate offers several student discounts as well which lets students pay as little as $1.99 per serving for the first box followed by a 20% discount on the next two meal boxes.

EveryPlate reduces its cost per serving by minimizing the use of packaging to cut costs. The ingredients are all sourced from local farms, and they’re all easy-to-follow and homemade-inspired recipes.

EveryPlate Meal Options

EveryPlate’s weekly menu features two distinct subcategories: Meals and Add-ons. You can also tailor the menu according to specific meal preferences such as Meat & Veggie meals, Veggie, Family Friendly, Quick & Easy, and Nutrish& Delish meals.

EveryPlate offers plenty of tempting, affordable options for meat, veggie, and seafood meals. The more premium ingredients cost $2–$3 more per serving than vegetarian options.

Even if you’re new to the world of meal kits, EveryPlate’s menu palate would suit your taste. They are not diet-focused in the way that some meal kit services are like Home Chef. It does not offer dietary categories like low-carb and low-calorie meal options.

For a beginner looking for a blend of budget-friendly and healthy meals, EveryPlate is great. The meals are the easiest and quickest to prepare, most taking less than 30 minutes to cook.

You don’t need to possess any special cooking skills to cook the meal kits. EveryPlate encourages the use of basic cookware and simple ingredients that are preportioned and packed in every meal kit.

You’ll mostly find meals that are meat-based like chicken, beef, pork, meatloaf, and seafood. Some plant-based meals with loads of vegetables paired with rice or pasta are included. The recipes are vegetarian, not vegan, and they’re quite home-inspired which includes menu options that you’re most probably already familiar with.

The Add-ons menu features sweet dishes, snacks, starters, soups, salads, and sandwiches. Most importantly, you also have the option to pick extra portions of protein like ground beef, shrimp, chicken breast, chicken strips, etc.

They cost much less than the per-serving cost of the lunch or dinner meals, and you can add as many add-ons as you want.

EveryPlate Pros

  • Affordable meal pricing from $5 to $7 per serving.
  • Hearty, delicious meal options for nonveg and veg.
  • You can add extras like desserts, salad, proteins, or snacks.
  • Best meal kit delivery service for amateur cooks.
  • The meals take less than 30–45 minutes to prepare.
  • Some premium ingredients like seafood and beef are included.
  • Minimal packaging and easy recipes to reduce costs.
  • Sign-up and meal selection processes are user-friendly.

EveryPlate Cons

  • Not diet-focused with low-calorie or low-carb meals.
  • The shipping fee of $9–$11 per order is not optional.
  • Not a lot of plant-based or vegetarian meal options.
  • Not a suitable choice for severe food allergies or picky eaters.
  • It does not cater to special diets like keto, paleo, Mediterranean, etc.

Dinnerly

Dinnerly is about making recipes simple and affordable for people who don’t have a lot of time for grocery shopping and meal planning. Their meals are easy to cook and simply delicious. Dinnerly’s prices compete with the prices of EveryPlate because both are very similar.

If you want to eat more delicious and healthy meals that don’t take longer than 30–45 minutes to make, Dinnerly is another great option alongside EveryPlate. Dinnerly does rank above EveryPlate concerning meal variety. They have more meal options for you to pick from every week than EveryPlate.

The number of meals you order each week and the cost per serving are directly linked to one another. So, you pay less per serving if you order more meals each week.

The delivery is smooth and consistent with some meal customization benefits like select meals that are kid-friendly, meat-based, one-pot meal, poultry, vegetarian, low calorie, dairy-free, gluten-free, and so on.

Every meal kit recipe comes equipped with several dietary labels, and you have a good balance of veggie and meat recipes to try for the first time.

On the recipe page, you get to read the nutrition, ingredients list, allergens, serving time, and cooking instructions. This makes it easy for you to browse diverse recipes in under 10 minutes tops before subscribing to the meal kit. All the information is accessible and free for all, even if you’re browsing and looking for better meal options.

Dinnerly Pricing

Here’s what Dinnerly’s meal cost when you order their meals for the first time.

Before that, if you’re new to Dinnerly, you are eligible for a discount offer that gives you approximately $132 off on your first few meal boxes. The discount gets automatically added during checkout.

The pricing is straightforward and concise, starting with $4.99 per serving on larger orders and $7.04 per serving on smaller orders. The shipping fee is $10 for every order.

Recipes per week 2 servings per recipe 4 servings per recipe
3 $7.04 per serving $6.14 per serving
4 $6.54 per serving $5.89 per serving
5 $6.44 per serving $5.59 per serving
6 $6.24 per serving $4.99 per serving

Dinnerly Meal Options

Each week, Dinnerly gives you new recipes to pick from that are family-friendly, healthy, quick and easy, vegetarian, low-carb, low-calorie, and so on. You can even set up your taste profile based on different meal preferences, and Dinnerly recommends you the best recipes.

The Dinnerly menu has over 40 different recipes starting with the basic, home-inspired recipes that are easy to prepare and taste delicious. There are a few more complicated recipes with a longer cooking time better suited to people who don’t mind taking out the extra time to cook.

You can easily mix and match several different meals to create your custom meal plan. The majority of the recipes take less than 5 steps to prep and cook. The ingredients are all preportioned and packaged which makes meal prep a lot easier than doing it yourself from scratch.

Here are a few interesting examples of recipes you can cook at home:

There are more meat-based recipes on Dinnerly’s menu than vegetarian ones. Though it’s not too less, I counted over 20 different vegetarian recipes on the menu.

Even if you’re a vegetarian, you have plenty of different options to choose from. Dinnerly does not serve vegan or organic meal kits. However, they source all the ingredients from local farms and are packed without preservatives, additives, and other harmful ingredients.

You can select diet-specific meals based on the dietary labels on each recipe. Low-calorie, healthy, kid-friendly, gluten-free, and nutritious are some of the labels you can pick from.

The recipes are straightforward to understand with proper recipe instructions, ingredients list, allergen information, and nutrition. The meal kits do not include a recipe card, but you can download the recipe card from their website – this is to save paper and packaging costs!

Dinnerly Pros

  • Dinnerly serves plenty of healthy and tasty vegetarian meals.
  • Each recipe card has helpful dietary tags and nutrition info.
  • Low-calorie and gluten-free meals are included.
  • A balanced portion of carbs, calories, proteins, and healthy fats.
  • More than 45 different meal options every week.
  • The cost per serving on larger orders is much less.
  • The ingredients are sourced from local suppliers.
  • Dinnerly doesn’t use a lot of plastic in packaging.

Dinnerly Cons

  • The shipping fee of $10 is applied after the discount offer.
  • You cannot customize the meals.
  • No snacks or add-ons on the menu.
  • Not the best pick for allergy sufferers.

Conclusion

Cheapest meal kits or affordable meal delivery services should do more than just provide the convenience of no meal planning and prepping. These have to offer high-quality ingredients without burning a hole in your wallet.

Once you figure out what your dietary needs and preferences are, the next important step is to scan the menu to check which options suit your diet plan the most. And remember, the higher the number of servings per meal or meals per week, the lower the cost per serving.