Dinnerly vs Purple Carrot (2026): Budget Kits vs Vegan Kits

Updated June 2026

Dinnerly vs Purple Carrot: The Short Version

Dinnerly and Purple Carrot are both meal kits, but they serve households with fundamentally different priorities. Dinnerly is the cheapest mainstream meal kit available at $5-$7 per serving, with simple omnivore and vegetarian recipes. Purple Carrot is a 100% plant-based meal kit at $9-$12 per serving for vegan households who want creative, committed plant-based cooking. The diet commitment drives this decision: if your household is vegan, Purple Carrot is designed specifically for you and Dinnerly cannot serve you in the same way. If your household eats meat or is budget-first, Dinnerly wins on cost by a significant margin.

Price vs Vegan Commitment

Dinnerly's advantage is pure price. At $5-$7 per serving, it undercuts Purple Carrot by roughly $4-$5 per serving. For a couple ordering four meals per week, Dinnerly saves about $32-$40 per week compared to Purple Carrot - more than $1,500 per year. The savings are real and meaningful for budget-conscious households. What Dinnerly doesn't offer is a true vegan menu: its vegetarian options include dairy and eggs, and it's primarily built around meat-based recipes.

Purple Carrot's advantage is total vegan commitment. Every recipe, every ingredient is plant-based with no exceptions. The menu of 8-10 weekly options is smaller than Dinnerly's 15-20, but each recipe is developed specifically for plant-forward cooking with whole-food, plant-based ingredients that vegan households actually want. The recipes are more creative than what budget meal kits typically offer, reflecting real investment in plant-based culinary development.

Recipe Quality

Both services occupy a similar quality tier when judged fairly. Dinnerly's simplicity (5 ingredients, basic techniques) is a feature for beginner cooks and busy households. Purple Carrot's moderate complexity (more ingredients, plant-based techniques) produces more interesting food. Purple Carrot also scores very slightly lower overall (7.9/10 vs 8.0/10) largely due to the limited weekly menu size rather than any quality deficiency in the recipes themselves.

Bottom Line

Dinnerly (8.0/10) wins for non-vegan or budget-first households who want cheap, simple meal kits. Purple Carrot (7.9/10) wins for vegan households who want 100% plant-based cooking and don't mind paying roughly double per serving for that commitment. These services barely compete for the same customers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dinnerly or Purple Carrot better?

Dinnerly scores slightly higher overall (8.0/10 vs 7.9/10) and wins on price at $5-$7/serving. Purple Carrot wins for vegan households - 100% plant-based with 8-10 creative vegan recipes weekly at $9-$12/serving. The deciding factor is diet: non-vegans should choose Dinnerly for the price; vegans should choose Purple Carrot for the full plant-based commitment.

Is Purple Carrot fully vegan and Dinnerly isn't?

Yes. Every Purple Carrot recipe is 100% plant-based with no animal products. Dinnerly is primarily an omnivore service with vegetarian options that include dairy and eggs. Fully vegan households cannot use Dinnerly as a vegan meal kit without significant filtering, and the filtered options are limited.

How much cheaper is Dinnerly than Purple Carrot?

About $4-$5 per serving cheaper. Dinnerly runs $5-$7/serving; Purple Carrot runs $9-$12/serving. Both charge $9.99 shipping. A couple ordering 4 meals/week saves $32-$40 per week with Dinnerly - roughly $1,500-$2,000 per year. But the comparison is primarily relevant for non-vegan households since Purple Carrot is designed for vegan eating and Dinnerly isn't.

Cancel Guide Links

• How to Cancel Dinnerly
• How to Cancel Purple Carrot

Browse Meals from Each Service

• Dinnerly This Week's Menu
• Browse All Meals on MealFan

Looking for Alternatives?

• Dinnerly Alternatives
• Purple Carrot Alternatives

Menu Variety: Budget Meal Kit vs. Premium Vegan Cooking

Dinnerly and Purple Carrot occupy opposite ends of the meal kit market in terms of both price and dietary focus, which makes the comparison particularly useful for shoppers trying to decide between affordability and specialized plant-based cooking. Dinnerly is a budget-optimized omnivore meal kit with a weekly menu of 25 to 30 recipes spanning American, Italian, Mexican, and Asian-inspired cuisines. The format is traditional: you receive raw, pre-measured ingredients and access recipe instructions via a digital QR code card rather than printed paper cards. Recipes lean toward familiar, crowd-pleasing flavors rather than adventurous cuisine.

Purple Carrot is entirely plant-based. The entire menu, every single week, is 100 percent vegan with no meat, dairy, or eggs. The weekly rotation typically includes 20 or more recipes and skews toward globally-inspired, technique-forward plant-based cooking. Expect dishes like Korean-style tofu bowls, roasted cauliflower with harissa and tahini, lentil dal with naan, and cashew cream pasta. Purple Carrot does not simply sub tofu for chicken in otherwise conventional recipes - the menu is designed by chefs who specialize in plant-based cuisine, and the flavor profiles reflect that intentionality. The service is owned by HelloFresh, which has brought supply chain stability and delivery reliability to what was previously a smaller, independent operation.

Pricing Breakdown: The Cheapest Kit vs. the Vegan Premium

Dinnerly starts at 4.99 per serving, which makes it one of the two most affordable major meal kits alongside EveryPlate. A two-person plan with three weekly recipes costs approximately 35 to 40 dollars plus around 8.99 in shipping. Dinnerly achieves this price point in part by using digital-only recipe cards, simpler packaging with fewer individual ingredient wrappers, and a supply chain that prioritizes cost over premium sourcing. New subscribers frequently receive first-box promotions bringing the per-serving cost to under 3.00.

Purple Carrot starts at 11.99 per serving, putting it in the premium tier alongside Green Chef. A two-person plan with three recipes per week runs approximately 72 to 78 dollars before a 9.99 shipping fee. The per-serving cost is more than double Dinnerly's base price. This premium reflects the cost of sourcing specialty plant-based ingredients - unusual produce varieties, high-quality plant proteins, organic components - rather than the conventional meat and produce that budget meal kits use. Purple Carrot also offers a meal prep plan with larger portions per recipe at a slightly reduced per-serving rate, which lowers the effective cost for subscribers who batch cook.

Cooking and Delivery Experience

Dinnerly delivers fresh refrigerated ingredients in a standard insulated cooler box. The digital recipe card format is functional once you are accustomed to it - the QR code links to a photo-illustrated guide on your phone or tablet, and the steps are clear and well-organized. Most recipes require one or two pans and 25 to 35 minutes of active cooking. Packaging is light by design, which means less waste but also less cold-chain protection than premium services provide. Produce arrives fresh and proteins are adequately sealed, though premium meal kits generally edge Dinnerly on ingredient quality consistency.

Purple Carrot invests meaningfully in ingredient sourcing and presentation. Each delivery includes specialty items that are genuinely difficult to source at a conventional grocery store - lacinato kale, miso paste, za'atar, tahini, Japanese sweet potatoes, black garlic - all pre-measured to recipe specifications. Recipes take 35 to 45 minutes and often involve multiple techniques in sequence: roasting, pan-searing, sauce reduction. The recipe cards are clearly written and include plating guidance. Packaging is well-insulated, and ingredient quality is consistently high. The cooking experience is more involved than Dinnerly but also more skill-building and the results are distinctly restaurant-quality.

Who Should Choose Dinnerly

Dinnerly is the right choice for budget-conscious households that eat meat and want the meal planning and grocery shopping removed without paying a premium. It is especially good for families of two to four where the per-serving cost advantage compounds meaningfully. If you want a reliable, affordable weeknight dinner solution with a broad range of conventional recipes and are comfortable with a no-frills digital format, Dinnerly delivers strong value. It is also a sensible starting point for anyone new to meal kits who wants to test the model at minimal cost before deciding whether to upgrade to a pricier service.

Who Should Choose Purple Carrot

Purple Carrot is the clear choice for vegans, aspiring vegans, or anyone significantly reducing animal product consumption who also wants to improve their plant-based cooking skills. The menu quality and recipe creativity genuinely exceed what mainstream meal kits offer on their vegetarian options - Purple Carrot is built entirely around plant-based cooking, not as an afterthought. If the cooking experience itself is part of the appeal and you want to expand your repertoire of plant-based dishes beyond basic stir-fries and pasta, Purple Carrot's weekly menu provides consistent culinary education alongside excellent meals. The price premium is justifiable for this audience.

Dietary Suitability: Which Service Fits Your Eating Style

Dinnerly's menu is designed for omnivores. The weekly rotation is dominated by meat and seafood recipes, with vegetarian options representing a smaller portion of the available choices. There are no dedicated keto, paleo, or plant-based tracks - dietary filtering is available at the recipe level but is not a structural feature of the service. For households that eat everything and prioritize affordability over dietary specialization, this broad, conventional approach is perfectly functional. Vegans and strict vegetarians will find the selection limiting, however - with only a handful of plant-free options each week, menu fatigue can set in quickly for plant-focused households.

Purple Carrot is entirely vegan without exception. The entire weekly menu of 20 or more recipes is 100 percent plant-based, which means that for vegan subscribers, every recipe in the weekly rotation is immediately available without filtering. The service also offers labeling for gluten-free and soy-free options within its vegan menu, giving subscribers with additional dietary restrictions useful guidance. The HelloFresh ownership has brought consistent labeling standards to the service, making ingredient transparency reliable. For households with multiple dietary restrictions that include veganism as a baseline, Purple Carrot's fully vegan catalog eliminates the friction of filtering a mixed-diet menu.

Flexibility and Cancellation

Dinnerly operates on a weekly subscription model with the ability to skip individual weeks through the account portal. The skip cutoff typically falls a few days before your scheduled delivery date, and managing your account is straightforward through the app or website. There are no cancellation fees, and the process for canceling is handled entirely online. Like all fresh-ingredient services, Dinnerly requires some weekly attention to avoid shipping boxes during weeks when you do not need them - skipping proactively is more important with a fresh service than with a frozen one, because unused fresh ingredients create direct waste.

Purple Carrot, under HelloFresh ownership, uses a polished account management system that allows you to adjust serving sizes, change recipes, skip weeks, pause, or cancel entirely through a clean app and website interface. Delivery frequency and recipe preferences can be saved to your profile to make week-to-week management require minimal effort. Cancellation is fee-free, but like most meal kit services, the promotional pricing for the first box requires continuing the subscription for at least one additional delivery. New subscribers who plan to cancel after trying the service should note the cancellation window to avoid being charged for an unwanted second box.

Bottom Line: Which Service Should You Choose

The comparison between Dinnerly and Purple Carrot is most useful as a dietary decision rather than a purely economic one. On pure price, Dinnerly wins decisively - it is one of the cheapest major meal kits available, and for omnivore households that enjoy cooking, it is hard to argue against the value it provides. The 4.99-per-serving starting price, 25 to 30 recipe weekly rotation, and reliable delivery make Dinnerly a strong default for budget-focused households without specialized dietary requirements.

For anyone who is vegan or actively transitioning to a plant-based diet and wants a premium cooking experience, Purple Carrot is simply the best option in the meal kit category. No other major meal kit service comes close to its weekly plant-based menu depth or recipe creativity - the comparison is not even close when evaluated on the specific dimension of high-quality vegan cooking instruction. The 11.99-per-serving price is a premium worth paying if plant-based cuisine is genuinely a priority for your household. If you are choosing between these two services, the decision is essentially: conventional omnivore cooking at the lowest market price (Dinnerly) versus premium plant-based cooking that actively develops your skills and palate (Purple Carrot). Neither service overlaps meaningfully with the other's strength.

Key Differences: Dinnerly vs Purple Carrot Summary

Dinnerly and Purple Carrot represent two fundamentally different approaches to meal kit value. Dinnerly optimizes for price: it delivers pre-measured, fresh ingredients with digital recipe guidance at the lowest per-serving cost among major services. The format is traditional, the recipes are approachable, and the target customer is a budget-conscious household that eats conventionally and values cooking-at-home without paying a premium for it. Over many months of testing meal kits, Dinnerly consistently delivers on that specific promise - affordable, reliable, weeknight-appropriate home cooking for households that prioritize cost over culinary adventure.

Purple Carrot optimizes for plant-based culinary quality. The service charges more than twice what Dinnerly charges per serving, and it delivers something genuinely different in return: weekly recipes developed by plant-based cuisine specialists, specialty ingredients sourced for maximum flavor and nutritional quality, and recipe instruction thorough enough to build lasting cooking competence. For vegan households, the comparison with Dinnerly is not really a price comparison at all - Dinnerly's menu is not designed for them, and Purple Carrot's is. The decision is whether the quality of the plant-based cooking experience that Purple Carrot provides is worth the premium, and for subscribers who are serious about vegan cooking, the answer is consistently yes.

Where to Order in Your City

Both services deliver to most major US cities. Find local availability and the latest deals in your area:

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