Green Chef vs Sunbasket – A Detailed Comparison

Green Chef offers a total of $130 off spread across the first 4 boxes. Here’s what the discount distribution looks like:

Other than this discount, Green Chef does not eliminate shipping costs of $10 per order. Even on larger orders, the added shipping fee can burn a big hole in your pocket. This is because Green Chef doesn’t waive off shipping costs on any order, no matter how many meal boxes you get.

With Sunbasket, you get $90 off with free shipping and some free gifts on your first 4 boxes. The free shipping applies to the first delivery only, while the $90 discount applies to the first few orders.

The discount depends on the total amount of the bill. For example, if you order above $120 on your first order, you won’t get a direct $90 discount on the bill. You’ll only get a few dollars off during check-out.

What’s left of the $90 discount offer will carry forward to the second order along with a free gift. Again, the free shipping is just for the first order you place on Sunbasket.

The free gifts vary from snacks, healthy drinks, dessert items, bottled juices, etc.

The minimum order with Sunbasket is 3 meals and 2 servings each, which comes up to 6 servings in total. Ideally, you pay around $11.49 per serving. Owing to the newcomer discount, you pay as little as $9.99 per serving.

A major difference between Green Chef and Sunbasket is that since Green Chef is pricey, their discount offer is higher. A $130 off looks more tempting than just $90 off, right?

Sunbasket gives you free gifts from their Market which cost approximately $2-$4 each. Get free delivery on the first order! That’s a bonus that Green Chef does not partake in.

When you factor in all of these little discounts, there’s not much difference in value between these two meal kit delivery services. It’s plain to see that the final decision relies on your personal preferences as a first-timer and what you think is the best discount offer for you.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Pricing Plans

Green Chef is visibly more expensive than Sunbasket. Likewise, a good thing to note is that Sunbasket offers more meal customizations than the former.

With Green Chef, you can order 6 servings at a time which comes at a more affordable cost per serving than the other 2- and 4-serve meals.

Now, Sunbasket does not offer a direct 6-serve meal package, but you can order 2, 3, and 4 meals per week, each with 2 or more servings per meal on a weekly basis. If you’re ordering just for yourself, you can opt out of their meal kits and order their single-serve kits at a reduced cost.

The single-serve meal kits and 2-meals-per-week package are missing from Green Chef’s menu.

However, these prices are the standard prices on both Green Chef and Sunbasket. I didn’t factor in the discount as we’ve already discussed what you get and how much they are in the Discounts section above.

The prices listed below are what you pay after you’ve exhausted the discount code that these amazing meal kit delivery services offer to first-time customers.

For 3 meals per week:

For 4 meals per week:

Sunbasket also offers 2 more meal plans which Green Chef does not. This is for adding 2 meals per week to your weekly plan and/or including single-serve meal kits if you want delicious and healthy meals for one.

This contributes to Sunbasket’s appeal as it makes it more affordable and highly customizable for solo eaters. You don’t have to pay a lot to get your hands on this incredible meal kit delivery service.

For 2 meals per week:

The cost of each single-serve kit reduces as you increase the number of meals you order per week:

• 4 meals – $11.99 per serving
• 5 meals – $11.99 per serving
• 6 meals – $9.99 per serving
• 7 meals – $9.99 per serving
• 8 meals – $8.99 per serving

As you can see, there is a big price jump from $12 to $13.5 per serving when you switch from Sunbasket to Green Chef. Plus, the latter costs you $10 for shipping, while the former charges $8.

The lowest price “per serving” on Sunbasket belongs to their single-serve meal kits at $8.9 per serving for 8 meals per week. If you’re looking to save more money in the long run, this is what you can pay for. It has the most value and you can eat a variety of healthy meals.

Consequently, the lowest price “per serving” on Green Chef is $12 – that’s not very affordable if you ask me! When you factor in their delivery charges, I found that Green Chef is quite expensive for most people. It costs way more than Sunbasket as a long-term investment.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Meal Plans

Green Chef Plans

In Green Chef’s weekly menu, you have 3 options to pick from the drop-down feature:

1. Keto + Paleo
2. Balanced Living
3. Plant-Powered

All the recipes in their menu have other dietary labels such as low-carb, gluten-free, vegetarian, Fast & Fit, vegan, and Mediterranean.

The average number of recipes per meal plan is around 9. The menu features 27 recipes in total that change every week.

You will find a single recipe that has multiple labels such as Keto, Fast & Fit, Gluten-Free, etc.

With regard to customization, you can filter the recipes by these options:

Keto + Paleo

This meal plan includes all gluten-free, quick, and low-carb meals. Some of the meals have fewer than 50 grams of carbs and are also high in fat.

I also found that these recipes are the quickest to make. You should be able to prepare them in less than 30 minutes!

Balanced Living

This meal plan offers a good mix of proteins, healthy fats, and carbs. If you’re not picky about what you eat daily but still need a good dose of healthy nutrients and fats, the balanced diet is for you.

Ingredients such as fish, chicken, turkey, beef, and shrimp offer a healthy dose of protein. Nuts such as almonds and cashew give you healthy fats which are good for heart health and stamina.

The recipes under Balanced Living look very different from the Keto + Paleo meal plan. This includes more carb-friendly meals such as pasta, burrito bowls, and rice.

Plant-Powered

If eating meat is not your priority or if you’re vegan and are looking for 100% plant-based diets, this meal plan is perfect for you. It includes recipes that are meat-inspired but made from plant-based protein sources, such as kidney bean “meat” balls, sweet potato bowls, roasted cauliflower salads, bean soup, pesto sandwiches, etc.

You can make quick recipes that take less than 30 minutes. Most of the recipes in this category are vegan. They’re not just vegan because they are plant-based, but you’d be impressed to know that Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic company- so is Sunbasket!

Speaking of which, there are major differences in how the menus of Green Chef and Sunbasket are structured. In fact, Sunbasket has more food options for you to choose from than Green Chef.

The only similarity between Sunbasket and Green Chef is that both offer meal kits with pre-measured ingredients and proper cooking instructions. You order the meals you want, and everything arrives at your doorstep.

Sunbasket Plans

Sunbasket menu goes a little further and offers other interesting food items that Green Chef doesn’t. Here’s what they are:

More Dietary Selections

Where Green Chef offers only keto, paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and balanced diets, Sunbasket features a whole host of dietary choices. Apart from the ones that Green Chef also offers, Sunbasket includes diabetes-friendly, pescatarian, soy-free, dairy-free, low-calorie, and meals that cook just under 20 minutes.

Prepared Meals

This is different from meal kits where you have to individually cook the premeasured ingredients in each kit. Instead of following the recipe instructions, with prepared meals, you can simply heat the food in the microwave and eat it hot and fresh!

Apart from the 21-something meal kit recipes on Sunbasket’s menu, you can select from 10 Fresh & Ready meals which you can heat or bake for less than 5 minutes.

These include meals like grilled chicken with cauliflower rice, pasta, healthy mac and cheese, Mexican food, and a few others.    

Special Breakfast & Lunch Menu

The Breakfast menu includes add-ons such as egg bites, pies, yogurt, oatmeal, granola bars, waffles, etc. These are add-ons you can quickly put in your cart for an extra fee. It also includes a few healthy drink options like coffee, fruit juices, and smoothies.

The Lunch menu has ready-to-eat proteins, freshlybaked pizzas, empanadas, noodle bowls, soup, and other deli items. Sunbasket treats their Lunch menu as a light meal – nothing too intense like their Dinner recipes but just enough to fill your tummy without cooking!

Pasta & Sauces

Purchase freshly rolled pasta in different forms as well as healthy homemade pasta sauces. The sauces are all vegetarian, easy to make, and free of preservatives and sugar such as pesto, marinara sauce, and rose sauce.

Proteins

If you want an extra serving of protein in your weekly meals, you can purchase meat by the ounce just like in a meat shop. If you’re a vegetarian, you can pick from their plant-based meat section.

The good thing about buying your proteins from Sunbasket – and not from an actual meat shop – is that Sunbasket delivers them cleaned and cut. You can select the cut you want, be it seafood, poultry, beef, or sausages.

Snacks

This is the second favorite food option other than the meal kits and prepared meals on Sunbasket. You can choose from so many snack items starting with cracks and crisps, cheese, sweet treats, and healthy bars and nutty bites.

Mind you, these “snack” items are in no way unhealthy and loaded with preservatives. These are healthy snacks like cauliflower chips, rosemary garlic crackers, keto bars, superfood cookies, etc.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Ingredients and Nutrition Clarity

There are some meal kit delivery services that want you to sign up first before you can view the recipe details. You can’t see what’s inside each meal box, nutritional information, allergy information, etc.

Thankfully, that’s not the case with either Green Chef or Sunbasket. They let you know everything you need to make an informed decision about the recipes.

On Green Chef’s recipe page, you can quickly download the recipe card in a PDF file. For a quick glance, they have listed the important nutritional information such as calories, fat, protein, and serving sizes. You’ll know exactly what you’ll get in the meal box as well as the cooking time for each serving.

The recipes on Sunbasket follow the same format. The nutritional information, cooking instructions, and ingredients list are highlighted on every recipe page.

You can view this information for their meal kits, prepared meals, and all other food options such as snacks, proteins, pasta, etc. If the food item contains any common allergy-causing ingredients such as wheat, soy, pine nuts, tree nuts, shellfish, etc., it’s written directly under the recipe title along with other important nutritional values.

However, you cannot swap ingredients in either Green Chef or Sunbasket – a huge bummer if you ask me, especially for some with severe allergies or dietary restrictions.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Ease of Preparation

By the looks of it, none of the recipes I found seemed unrealistic to cook at home. Green Chef and Sunbasket are beginner-friendly. Someone who doesn’t know how to cook beyond the basic stir-fried recipes won’t feel too intimidated by the recipes available here.

Sunbasket is perhaps easier than Green Chef because they do feature the Fresh & Ready option. These are prepared meals that do not require you to chop any vegetables or cook any protein from scratch.

Green Chef tries to minimize as much effort on your part for their recipes. Not all the vegetables need to be chopped or shredded by you, so they come prepped in the form that you have to cook them in. I’m talking about delicate ingredients like shredded cabbage, riced cauliflower, thinly sliced veggies, etc.

Green Chef makes things easier with the help of picture recipe cards rather than just written instructions. They have both, so you can refer to the pictures as well as the words on each recipe card to cook each meal faster.

While Sunbasket doesn’t have picture cards, every ingredient in their meal kits has proper labels. They include written instructions that are kept short and direct. If you prefer, you can also log into their app to read the recipes easily on the phone.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Organic Labels

Green Chef and Sunbasket are equally committed to bringing you organic and non-GMO ingredients. Both meal kit delivery services are USDA-certified which means they follow organic and eco-friendly practices.

Green Chef emphasizes bringing you ingredients from local and family farms. Having said that, outside of their USDA certification claim, I did not find any other supporting evidence for their practices.

It appears that Sunbasket has taken special, very specific steps to back up its USDA claim, starting with the high-quality ingredients they offer, which are organic, pasture-raised, non-GMO, hormone-free, and antibiotic-free.

100% of all vegetarian and nonvegetarian ingredients in Sunbasket’s arsenal come with multiple sustainable labels. You can also read about their animal welfare standards in detail on their website.

I found more transparency in general in the way Sunbasket handles its sustainable and eco-friendly food-sourcing methods. Green Chef is organic too, but not much else is mentioned about how their organic produce and meat are sourced and processed.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Packaging and Delivery

On the topic of eco-friendly labels, food packaging is important to consider as well. It’s not realistic to pack all the ingredients in a single meal box without organizing it in smaller packaging. That’s why you need to rely on a company that makes as little use of packaging materials as possible.

On those measures, Green Chef and Sunbasket are solid choices. Green Chef uses reusable, recyclable, and compostable materials. Every material comes with a label that tells you what kind of plastic it is. There’s also a small booklet that has the right information about basic recycling practices.

Shipments from both Green Chef and Sunbasket are easy to unpack. You can also reuse or repurpose some of the plastic containers they have for pantry items. Sunbasket might use denim for insulation during summer which is reclaimed denim material fit for recycling.

Green Chef vs Sunbasket – Nutrition and Protein Sources

A well-balanced diet is what protects your body against diseases. Isn’t that the main reason why we all come up with diet plans and health-related goals? Eating healthy, wholesome, nutritious homemade meals, at such times, is a must.

In that context, meal kit delivery services like Green Chef and Sunbasket come the closest to clean, well-balanced home-cooked food. Time to find out how much nutrition is actually a part of their menu!

I have chosen random meals from Green Chef and Sunbasket’s menus and compared them side by side so you can get an idea of what to expect in terms of not just what the protein sources are or how much protein is available but also other nutritional information as well.

Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes

On Green Chef, there’s the “Plant-Powered” meal plan that consists of both vegetarian and vegan options for nonmeat eaters. You get a host of new, colorful, yummy, and highly nutritious veggie/vegan dishes to choose from every week.

So, when it’s not the protein-rich cauliflower-based recipe listed below, it can be a meal packed with white beans, broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, kale salad, and so much more!

As for Sunbasket, their vegan/vegetarian menu is not as varied as that of Green Chef. Limited choices here do seem a bit disappointing and even more so if your diet plan includes no meat at all.

The Sunbasket menu does have the “vegan” category. However, when that section displays only 1-2 or even 2-3 meals per week, you’re most likely to find the lack of options a bit inconvenient.

Chicken Recipes

There’s no shortage of chicken dishes on both Green Chef and Sunbasket. In both scenarios, chicken, the primary protein source proven to be highly nutritional for the body, is accompanied by loads of veggies too.

For instance, Green Chef’s Chicken In Cajun-Spiced Tomato Sauce is also packed with bell peppers, cheesy cauliflower “grits,” and green beans with pecans. Another most fitting and delicious example is Sunbasket’sChicken and Pesto Penne with avocado, peas, and Parmesan.

Also, let’s not forget that the Sunbasket menu includes premade, meaning “Fresh & Ready,” microwavable meals as well. The Thai Green Curry Chicken recipe has on its list of ingredients not just high-protein chicken but also a plethora of delightful veggies like zucchini, yellow squash, bell peppers, carrots, and more. Please note that all vegetables are organic – USDA-certified organic!

Quite surprisingly, it doesn’t end there with Sunbasket. The meal delivery service also includes raw chicken cuts, such as boneless, skinless chicken breasts, ground chicken, and a few more options. Once again, the chicken is responsibly raised with no hormones or antibiotics.

Beef and Pork Recipes

Even beef- and pork-based dishes on both Green Chef and Sunbasket are equipped with the protein power of meat and the much-needed healthy nutrition of vegetables.

Compared to Sunbasket, Green Chef’s weekly menu offers a better and greater variety of beef and pork recipes. However, the upper hand that Sunbasket exerts over Green Chef is that they offer add-on proteins like pasture-raised beef hot dogs, organic ground beef, organic fresh loose mild Italian pork sausage, and more.

Seafood Recipes

Unfortunately, there’s no shrimp-based meal kit or premade meal on Sunbasket. They have only 2 salmon recipes, both under the “Meal Kits” category. Along with that, Sunbasket also includes antibiotic-free, hormone-free, wild-caught smoked Atlantic salmon, skin-on Alaskan salmon, Faroe Islands salmon, and skin-on Pacific king salmon.

On the other hand, Green Chef’s salmon dishes take on many forms. For example, there’s the Salmon Caesar Salad and Sesame-Ginger Salmon with cauliflower “rice,” roasted green beans, and sesame seeds or the shrimp-based recipe listed in the table below.

You should know that you’ll find 1-2 salmon-based and at least 1 shrimp-based meal on every weekly menu of Green Chef.