HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – Which Meal Delivery Service is Best?

Last Updated : February 23, 2024

hellofresh-vs-daily-harvest

Between HelloFresh and Daily Harvest, HelloFresh is a family favorite, while Daily Harvest is designed for a strictly plant-based diet and solo eaters. HelloFresh has meals prepared by expert chefs and are nutritionally balanced with filling and delicious homemade meals.

Daily Harvest has plant-based and naturally gluten-free meals like smoothies, bowls, energy bites, soups, and flatbreads that are relatively limited in quantity but are packed with proteins, fewer calories, and fewer calories carbs.

Daily Harvest takes meal prepping and planning to a whole new level with creative plant-based recipes. The food items are frozen and delivered straight to your door.

You can place an order every week or month and add from 9 to 24 different food items from their versatile menu. The menu includes creative and protein-packed smoothies, salads, bowls, breakfast bowls, ice creams, energy bites, coffees, and Daily Harvest’s own plant-based milk.

On the other hand, HelloFresh works as a weekly meal kit for 4 to 24 meals per week and offers 30+ recipes in every week’s menu.

You can easily pick homemade and restaurant-style meals for every day of the week and still pay a considerably less amount per serving than takeout food! Plus, the meals are very easy and effortless to prepare since they are precooked by HelloFresh’s expert chefs.

5 Reasons Why Meal Delivery Services Are Worth It

#1 Convenient, Time-Saving, and Affordable

Don’t most of us feel that sometimes 24 hours a day are not enough, especially when the week is packed with projects to complete, errands to run, and the daily hustle-bustle? Living such a life is hectic as it is, so how are you possibly going to make time to cook healthy meals?

In scenarios like these, you have to feed yourself and your kids. So how about getting that done without going through the whole cumbersome and time-consuming cooking process?

When meal kit delivery services supply you with all the groceries needed to prepare gracious servings of a yummy, healthy meal, why choose otherwise unless you’ve got the luxury of time on your hands?

Whoever has said that meal kits are a waste of money surely didn’t choose the best meal delivery service. If, for example, you check out Daily Harvest’s cost per week, you’ll see how budget-friendly and reliable top-rated meal delivery companies have become. They handle meal planning, grocery shopping, and also crafting delicious, new recipes.

All you have to do is cook, which is relatively much less tiring and time-hogging.

Also, meal kits seem like a more money-saving option compared to how extravagantly we spend on fancy dinners and takeout food.

#2 They Reduce Food Waste

Think about when you go grocery shopping and how you often end up purchasing more groceries than is required only to see them rot away in your refrigerator eventually.

Doesn’t the entire concept of having just the right amount of groceries delivered to you seem a better option? You get to choose how many servings per meal you want. Therefore, you can save on both money and food wastage!

Minimizing food waste is likely the least of your worries. So, look at it from a different perspective – when you waste the food you purchased from the supermarket, aren’t you also wasting the money you spent on those ingredients? In that case, wouldn’t you be spending less if you bought only what was needed for your weekly meals?

Hence, there’s no need to stress about dealing with leftovers when you opt for meal kit delivery. Each serving is well-portioned.Thus, food waste is reduced and money is saved. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone!

#3 They Support Your Diet Plan and Meal Preferences

Adjusting meal plans based on your health and diet is one of the most important benefits of choosing food delivery services like HelloFresh and Daily Harvest. These companies hire only professional nutritionists, dieticians, and chefs who design the menu and cook the food accordingly.

All types of meal options are available, such as the following:

  • Gluten-free
  • Dairy-free
  • Organic and/or vegan
  • Low carb
  • Low calorie
  • High protein
  • Keto
  • Paleo
  • Mediterranean

And so much more!

A growing trend of the twenty-first century so far has been organic produce. Now,the best meal delivery services offering organic, plant-based foods exist. So, meat-free ingredients that don’t contain antibiotics, pesticides, preservatives, fillers, additives, etc. are easily available.

You can select highly nutritious meals that are way healthier for your body and also less likely to trigger common food allergies or sensitivities.

#4 They Add More Meal Diversity and Options

How many times in the past few weeks have you repeated the same meal once, twice, or even thrice? The same food every week – now that’s how mealtime becomes dull. So why not infuse a little more adventure, excitement, and flavor into your weekly meals? With a good meal delivery service, you get new recipes every week.

On top of that, these new dishes can also be customized to suit your dietary preferences/restrictions. Most meal kit companies are very accommodating of special diet-specific demands. Therefore, you are provided with greater menu diversity and options without messing with your diet plan.

#5 They Encourage Healthy, Controlled Eating

When ingredients are fresh and nutrient-dense, you can also expect your meals to be healthy. So, a weekly subscription to meal kit delivery means you’re choosing to eat healthy, delicious meals on a more regular basis. This includes vegetarian/vegan and meat-based meals.

Even the portion sizing bit of the whole meal delivery service experience is healthy. Each serving is well portioned, so you don’t end up overeating or eating very little.

For example, if you’re on a weight loss diet plan, a meal plan consisting of carb-conscious or low-calorie recipes can be beneficial.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – How to Get Started

It takes only a few minutes to sign up on HelloFresh, but you don’t have to do it right away if you don’t want to. You can first view HelloFresh’s meal plans and menus to find out whether HelloFresh is a good fit for you or not.

HelloFresh features several different meal plans based on ingredients, dietary preferences, and cooking time. Pick from the following choices to get a more personalized menu every week.

You do have access to the entire HelloFresh menu, including the meal plans that you don’t probably like, but by selecting your top preferences, HelloFresh does favor these more for you than the rest:

  • Meat & Veggies
  • Veggie
  • Family Friendly
  • Fit & Wholesome
  • Quick and Easy
  • Pescatarian

Moving on, the next step is to customize your plan size by the number of people and recipes per week in your diet plan.

You can select from 2 to 4 servings for each meal and any number of weekly recipes from 2, 3, 4, 5, to 6. The minimum order is 4 meals per week, and the maximum is 24 meals per week.

The cost for each diet preference is the same, whether you pick Meat & Veggies, Veggie or Family Friendly, etc.

The cost differs, however, according to the number of recipes you select per week. The more meals you add to your weekly box, the less you pay for each serving.

The average cost for HelloFresh’s meals is between $11.99 and $7.99 per serving.

Once you add the recipes to your cart, you can mix and match the different dietary preferences you like. All you have to do is enter your delivery details and payment information.

HelloFresh’s menu features more than 30 delicious recipes that change every week. This is so you don’t have to eat the same recipe twice in a row.

Daily Harvest’s sign-up and meal selection processes are also easy, fast, and consistent.

There is a difference between HelloFresh and Daily Harvest in the frequency of delivery. Daily Harvest gives you the option to choose from a weekly and monthly delivery package, while HelloFresh is for weekly deliveries only.

With Daily Harvest, you can pick preassembled weekly or monthly boxes that you can freeze for even longer. The service is closer to HelloFresh in terms of quality and freshness of ingredients.

To get started, you have to enter your zip code and email address to confirm the delivery location of your order. For starters, you can order a Single Box with Daily Harvest, pick your favorite meals, and choose more fruit- and veggie-dense meals for the next order.

Daily Harvest’s meals are sorted by the number of meals or cups, and the price for each serving decreases the more you order.

Unlike HelloFresh, you don’t have to commit entirely to Daily Harvest. You can order as many boxes as you want, so it’s not a week-to-week commitment like most other meal kit delivery services.

Note that you can only order the large box as a monthly delivery, which includes 24 meals/cups at a time. For the weekly order, you can only order the small and medium boxes, which are 9 and 12 meals/cups, respectively.

Choose from 9-, 12-, to 24-cup boxes, and those include smoothies, dinners, soups, juices, salads, and other freshly prepared meals. The average cost per cup starts from $6.99 to $7.75.

Daily Harvest features various dietary preferences you can mix and match with:

  • Gluten-free
  • High protein
  • Keto
  • Low calorie
  • Low carb
  • Low sugar
  • Keto
  • Paleo

Daily Harvest is more diet-specialized than HelloFresh. It even features a vegan meal plan with a rating feature that lets you rank your most favorite meals and even view other people’s to find newer recipes.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – Are Their Menus Creative and Healthy?

HelloFresh has a menu with the current week’s recipes as well as the 5 week’s upcoming menus on display. Along with the menus, it even has a cookbook with recipes from a variety of cuisines and ingredients that you can filter to try out new meals every week.

The cookbook even features the Most Popular recipes chosen and rated by customers and chefs. HelloFresh even goes so far as to filter their meals by occasion and personal preferences. You can pick by ingredient, meal type, cooking equipment, dietary lifestyle, and difficulty level.

As you can see, HelloFresh provides very many options to customize the weekly menu. Whether you crave classic recipes or need recipe inspiration, HelloFresh is fully equipped to help you choose your recipes more efficiently.

Different menu tags are used for the recipes, such as Hall of Fame, Calorie Smart, Veggie, Spicy, Quick, Premium Picks, Seasonal Faves, and Easy Prep. This help when it comes to narrowing down your search and picking proper meals.

Each week’s menu, including the upcoming ones, has more than 30 recipes across a variety of dietary lifestyles and a balance of healthy and wholesome meal options for people who love eating exciting meals.

Here’s a quick breakdown of their most common dietary preferences:

Meat & Veggies

Ingredients with lean proteins, such as chicken, meat, and vegetables, dominate the menu.

Veggies

Meals with more plant-based ingredients, but not necessarily vegan, are included in this meal plan. If you want vegetarian meals with more proteins and balanced calories, Veggies has the perfect nutritionally balanced menu for you.

Family Friendly

If you’re cooking a family-sized portion daily, the Family Friendly meal plan has both traditional and classic favorites that are kid-friendly, nutritious, and delicious.

The meals are also quick to prepare with easy prep, so even if you’re cooking for multiple people, it doesn’t feel like a lot.

Fit & Wholesome

Nutrition is given more importance in this meal plan. The meals are not very calorie-heavy, say fewer than 650 calories per serving. Plus, they are more nutritionally varied, with more vitamin- and fiber-rich foods than carbs.

Quick & Easy

When meal prep is one of your main concerns, choosing meals that aren’t very complex to prepare is necessary. Quick & Easy meals serve dishes that take less than 30 minutes to prep and eat.

Pescatarian

There are no other nonvegetarian ingredients other than seafood, such as salmon, shrimp, trout, and lobster. The seafood is paired with rich and delicious seasonal produce only to elevate the palate of each meal.

Daily Harvest’s meals are more gourmet and inventive, focusing more on fruits and vegetables. I would recommend Daily Harvest to people who like trying new things and are primarily looking for a meal delivery service for themselves. Most of Daily Harvest’s recipes may not be family- or kid-friendly.

You can either browse their entire menu in one go to casually glance over what they have to offer and what type of ingredients they use. Daily Harvest first shows you the best-selling items on their menu. Since all the recipes are rated and reviewed, you’ll know exactly how well a recipe is doing and what others love.

A major difference between HelloFresh and Daily Harvest is that Daily Harvest is a plant-forward meal delivery service which includes only vegetarian and vegan food options. HelloFresh serves both meat and vegetarian meals, but I did not find any vegan-forward meals on HelloFresh’s menu.

Moving forward, you can select from individual menus as follows:

Smoothies

The smoothies in Daily Harvest’s palate are creatively layered and nutritionally optimized for maximum effect. The chefs behind Daily Harvest use high-quality and seasonal produce to create the most delicious smoothies that are nutritionally charged with proteins, vitamins, fiber, minerals, and antioxidants.

Each smoothie comes with a separate nutrition page laying out all the important information you need, such as How To Blend, Ingredients List, Key Ingredients, and Nutrition Facts.

All you need is a high-powered blender to blend the smoothie cups you receive in your weekly or monthly box. There are over 25 different smoothies on Daily Harvest’s menu.

Harvest Bowls

Clean eating involves meticulous planning and meal prepping, so when a service like Daily Harvest comes along, it’s a blessing because everything is prepped and delivered to you.

The Harvest Bowls of Daily Harvest are plant-based bowls consisting of vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds. The meals require less than 2 tablespoons of water to heat in a microwave or stovetop. Once the meal reaches the optimal temperature, you can enjoy it as if you’ve made it all from scratch.

The Harvest Bowls are portion-controlled. Even still, they are satisfying and very nutritious to eat.

Harvest Bakes

The Harvest Bakes menu has vegetarian dishes that are cooked in a traditional, homemade manner. So, you have fewer salad-specific dishes and more hot and steamy baked dishes such as curries, rice dishes, and pastas.

The portion size of Harvest Bakes meals is slightly larger than Harvest Bowls. Plus, they require a longer time to prepare in the oven – a typical Harvest Bakes dish takes around 20-25 minutes to bake in the oven.

Flatbreads

You can think of this type of recipe as mini pizzas, healthy toasts, or even open-faced sandwiches with delicious and creative toppings. The flatbreads work as appetizers, side dishes, or a healthy snack anytime or at night.

Soups

Plant-based soups are made whole and fresh without any preservatives, artificial flavors, or colorants. Interesting soupy ingredients like mushrooms, lentils, butternut squash, miso, coconut, lemongrass, and sweet potatoes are included in the diet.

Forager Bowls

Forager Bowls are superfood-dense bowls with seasonal fruits and veggies alongside an abundant serving of nuts and seeds. Each forager bowl has different textures, from soft fruits with sweet and savory toppings like chia seeds, cinnamon powder, dark chocolate, crunchy almonds, etc.

Forager bowls work as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and desserts. They are quick to prepare and are freezer-friendly, so you don’t have to worry about freshness and flavor quality.

Scoops

Scoops are ice creams made with zero fillers, preservatives, and unhealthy sugar. Daily Harvest includes gluten-free and dairy-free ice creams with the most interesting blends of fruits and toppings, like pistachio with hazelnut, chocolate with coconut, and espresso with cashews.

Scoops are all natural, packed with natural sweetness, and creamy down to the last bite. Some are made with cashew cream, some with coconut cream, and some with oats.

Bites

If you’ve ever heard of energy bites, then Daily Harvest has a treat for you. They’re made with interesting ingredients like matcha, coconut, lemon, berries, cacao, figs, vanilla, hazelnut, and more.These energy-boosting treats are mini superfood-rich bites that work great as snacks.

Daily Harvest serves 7 per cup, and you don’t have to prep them at all.They taste delicious right out of the freezer.

Lattes and Mylk

Plant-based coffees are made with different delicious and creamy ingredients like matcha, chocolate, coconut, almond, and immune-boosting ginger and turmeric. You can drink hot or iced lattes easily by following the recipe instructions.

You can also pair the Lattes with Daily Harvest’s own plant-based milk that is uniquely packed with nutrition and flavor. Daily Harvest skips the artificial gums, fillers, salt, sugar, and other processed ingredients commonly found in store-bought packaged milk.

Their plant milk comes in tightly sealed chunks that you simply have to blend with water. This plant-based milk can be added to smoothies, coffee, or even their forager bowls for extra protein boost and flavor!

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – Are the Ingredients Organic?

HelloFresh does serve high-quality and superior ingredients, including vegetables, fruits, meat, nuts and seeds, and spices. However, there is no verified mention of HelloFresh being an organic meal kit delivery service.

In fact, among the best vegan meal kit services, the name HelloFresh does come up, even though their meals are basic, nonorganic, and non-vegan -all thanks to their wide-range menu that features super-delicious vegetarian and meat-based recipes.

The definition of organic is the use of natural soil without any synthetic fertilizers and pesticides present. The fruits and vegetables are grown in naturally replenished soil in the correct environment.

On the other hand, organic meat includes animals raised more conscientiously without antibiotics and hormones. They are farm-raised and grass-fed, which is also organic.

Disappointingly, none of the HelloFresh meals is certified organic. HelloFresh focuses more on reducing the high costs of healthy veggies and fruits so people can prioritize healthy eating in their daily lives without spending a lot of money.

Daily Harvest uses sustainably-sourced, organic ingredients in all their meals, smoothies, ice creams, and snacks. It’s a 100% plant-based meal kit delivery that doesn’t use any artificial ingredients, preservatives, or colorants. Instead, all meals are cooked with wholesome fruits and vegetables.

Daily Harvest makes it clear that while not all 100% of the fruits and vegetables are organic, almost all of their ingredients are. To reduce the price of transportation, some ingredients are not organic, but they support organic farming to switch to a more eco-friendly and healthy food sourcing standard.

Unlike HelloFresh, Daily Harvest is part of many other diet labels in that their meals are dairy-free and naturally gluten-free. Some of the ingredients are soy-free, although ingredients like miso and tamari are made with fermented soy. However, Daily Harvest mentions which of their recipes are soy-free and which are not on the meal’s nutrition page.

There is a risk of cross-contamination for allergies since Daily Harvest processes all the ingredients in the same facility as nuts and soy.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – What’s the Cost of Weekly Deliveries?

HelloFresh makes it super easy to understand their cost and meal plans. What works in HelloFresh’s favor is that it’s a very family-friendly and comfortable meal kit to subscribe to.

They have fairly basic but all-encompassing diet preferences such as Calorie Smart, Family Friendly, Vegetarian, and Meat & Veggies. You won’t get bored of the meals they offer because it changes from week to week, and each week, you have more than 30 different meals to select from in total.

The price per serving on HelloFresh starts from $11.99 per serving and ends at $7.99 per serving. HelloFresh also charges a shipping fee of about $8.99 per order, despite the size of the order you place.

For 2 people
(2 servings each)
For 4 people
(4 servings each)
2 meals per week $11.99 per serving $9.49 per serving
3 meals per week $9.99 per serving $8.49 per serving
4 meals per week $9.49 per serving $7.99 per serving
5 meals per week $8.99 per serving $7.99 per serving 
6 meals per week $8.49 per serving $7.99 per serving

With Daily Harvest, the meal plans are structured differently. Daily Harvest makes you feel like you’re shopping for the meals rather than creating your own personalized weekly plan, which is a good thing since Daily Harvest lets you pick from either a weekly or monthly meal box.

Having said that, Daily Harvest has three different meal options for you to pick from:

  • Small has 9 cups/food items per box.
  • Medium has 14 cups/meal items per box.
  • Large has 24 cups/meal items per box.

The order of each box varies depending on the type of food item you select. Here’s the average breakdown for each food item on Daily Harvest’s menu:

  • Smoothies: Starting from $8.49 per smoothie
  • Harvest Bowls: Starting from $9.79 per bowl
  • Harvest Bakes: Starting from $11.99 per dish
  • Flatbreads: Starting from $9.79 per serving
  • Soups: Starting from $8.49 per soup
  • Forager Bowls: Starting from $6.79 per bowl
  • Scoops: Startingfrom$8.99 per pint
  • Bites: Starting from $7.99 per 7 bites
  • Lattes: Starting from $5.99 per 2 lattes
  • Mylk: Starting from $7.99 per 8 cubes/serving

In addition, you get a discount per meal box from $5 off on a small box, $10 off on a medium box, and a whopping $25 off on a large box.

You will also be happy to know that Daily Harvest does not charge a shipping fee on weekly or monthly orders.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – Where and How Fast Do They Deliver?

HelloFresh delivers to everywhere in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. They, too, deliver right to your doorstep, just the way Daily Harvest does, but the difference is that HelloFresh does not deliver frozen meals but freshly prepared meals that are packed with gel ice packs to keep the meals fresh and spoilage-free.

Since HelloFresh uses delivery services like FedEx, UPS, and other regional delivery services, you may not have the option to select your preferred delivery time. However, all deliveries come with live updates and tracking via text and email. Plus, your order will get delivered weekly, any time between 8 am and 8 pm.

You can choose your preferred delivery day from Wednesday to Friday and some weekend deliveries for people living in specific areas. Once you add your ZIP code, you will be informed immediately of customizable delivery days and when your order will reach you.

Once you place your order with HelloFresh and the order gets shipped, it takes around 1 or 2 days for the delivery to reach you. You can track your HelloFresh order by logging into your account.

Daily Harvest delivers to 95% of the continental United States. To reconfirm your delivery location, you can very quickly enter the ZIP code before signing up. If you live in an area where Daily Harvest does not deliver, you will not be able to become a member. You can leave your email address, and Daily Harvest will notify you as soon as they can ship to your location.

Currently, Daily Harvest does deliver through apps like UberEats, DoorDash, Seamless, and Grubhub in areas of Baltimore, DC, Austin, Miami, Philly, LA, and New York. Daily Harvest coming very soon to Atlanta, so if you live in any one of these areas, you can sign up on the abovementioned apps to look up Daily Harvest meals.

Once you add the meals to your cart and place an order, Daily Harvest delivers frozen meals to your home within a few days. Text and email updates regarding the delivery will be sent.

The meal box is packed with dry ice for maximum preservation. Once the dry ice completely melts away, you can take the meal boxes out and store them in the freezer.

When preparing a meal, just take the food item out of the freezer and follow the preparation instructions on the label. Each food item, like the Harvest Bowls, Smoothies, Harvest Bakes, and Forager Bowls, needs to be prepared individually, so make sure you read the food label before proceeding any further.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – What Should Vegetarians/Vegans Expect?

From the HelloFresh menu, you get a host of various meals, variety-wise. This includes both vegetables and meat. There are plant-based meal kits full of fresh, healthy veggies, although not all of these plant-based meals are necessarily vegan.

HelloFresh caters to special diets such as vegetarian, apart from pescatarian, low-calorie, and more. To be honest, there are quite a few meal kit delivery services, such as Daily Harvest, which are 100% vegan and plant-based. HelloFresh, unfortunately, isn’t one of them. Nevertheless, on their new weekly menu, you’ll find 4-5 vegetarian options.

That said, HelloFresh seems like a good choice if you want to add some plant-based or vegetarian/vegan recipes to your weekly meal routine.

What about Daily Harvest? What are Daily Harvest vegetarian/vegan meals like? First of all, this is a completely vegan, plant-based food company. So, you should expect a well-rounded vegan or plant-based diet. The meals contain tons of fresh fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains. It’s finally time to eliminate unhealthy “processed” vegan alternatives!

Those on a vegetarian-only diet are more likely to prefer these types of uncomplicated, meat-free meals. Daily Harvest, in that regard, has done really well. This is no typical meal kit delivery service – the plant-based food company has vegan smoothies, baked items, soups, flatbreads, low-calorie bites, and more on its menu.

Daily Harvest lets you filter their meal kits on the menu through various dietary preferences/restrictions,for example, gluten-free, low calorie, low carb, high protein, paleo, keto, low sugar, and vegan.

Daily Harvest meals also have zero preservatives, additives, fillers, or other “artificial” and “processed” ingredients. They serve simply superfoods, vegetables, fruits, beans, greens, grains, nuts, berries, etc.

You can choose from a range of specialty diets like vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and more. This accommodation of so many dietary needs and requirements, combined with the high quality of ingredients, delightful flavors of the food, and health benefits of fresh vegetables and whole fruits, attracts positive feedback from many.

So, if you aim to infuse more veggies and fruits into your daily diet without adding artificial ingredients, your chances of choosing Daily Harvest and not regretting this decision are super high -thanks to the wide range and generous amounts of whole foods they incorporate into their meals and snacks.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – Nutritional Value

HelloFresh

HelloFresh meals, no doubt, are very healthy. Now, how nutritious they are actually depend on your own dietary inclinations. However, every recipe of this best meal kit delivery service comes with a complete list of nutritional details and information. If you click on any recipe, you’ll be able to view its full nutritional profile (proteins, carbs, fats, sugars, etc.), which includes its calorie content.

Speaking of nutrition, HelloFresh offers over 20 new meal kits every week. Out of these, around 8 options are typically categorized as low-calorie. To be more specific, these are the Calorie Smart meals. For sure, they are both healthy and tasty (i.e., not bland in any way!). So, eating healthy doesn’t become repetitive!

HelloFresh meals this week and for the upcoming weeks consist of different textures, delicious flavors, and exciting recipes! HelloFresh could just as easily become your go-to healthy option for hard-to-resist meals that you might add to your weekly meal box over and over again,for instance, Creamy Dill Chicken, Steakhouse-Style Pork Chops, and Curried Turkey Bowls!

HelloFresh also has Carb Smart meals where each serving of meal contains carbohydrates not more than 50 grams. You would have to check your daily diet, which includes watching how many carbs you consume daily. With that in place, HelloFresh’s Carb Smart option can really be very helpful.

What might also be relevant to mention here is that HelloFresh is great for those on a weight loss journey. One of its priorities is portion control, which implies that every meal serving is pre-portioned and properly controlled to prevent overeating. It goes without saying that this applies only if you don’t add any extra servings!

The per-serving size is generous, although this does mean no leftovers or extras!

What I also really liked about HelloFresh is that it makes the tedious process of tracking calories, fats, carbs, etc. much easier. That’s because the meal kits come with recipe cards that provide all the nutritional information you might need. Each recipe can be viewed individually before you add it to your weekly meal plan.

Daily Harvest

The Daily Harvest menu is not just plant-based-focused but nutrient-rich too. It’s ideal for those who want their meals to be assorted with more vegetables and fruits. Thus, it’s perfect for a purely committed plant-based diet plan.

As for the calorie count of Daily Harvest recipes and extra items, it’s generally low. Many of their add-ons have under 150 calories. But then, even those that provide a higher calorie count are healthy,for example, flatbreads, which are quite filling and contain approx. 8-10 grams of protein (plant-based, of course), 50 or fewer grams of carbohydrates, and 380-400 calories.

And that leads me to the next, very important section.

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – The Breakdown of Recipes

HelloFresh Plant-Based Recipes

Shawarma-Spiced Chickpea Bowls with Pistachio Rice & Garlicky White Sauce Salsa Verde Enchiladas with Green Pepper, Black Beans & Monterey Jack
Veggie, Mediterranean – 40 mins prep time Veggie, Spicy – 35 mins prep time
680 calories per serving 750 calories per serving
97 grams of carbs per serving 93 grams of carbs per serving
19 grams of protein per serving 23 grams of protein per serving
25 grams of fat per serving 33 grams of fat per serving

HelloFresh Chicken Recipes

Creamy Lemon-Butter Chicken with Parmesan Zucchini Rounds & Scallion Couscous Smoky Chicken Caesar Sandwiches with Slaw & Roasted Potato Wedges
Calorie Smart – 40 mins prep time 30 mins prep time
650 calories per serving 840 calories per serving
59 grams of carbs per serving 86 grams of carbs per serving
42 grams of protein per serving 37 grams of protein per serving
27 grams of fat per serving 39 grams of fat per serving

HelloFresh Beef Recipes

Beef Flautas Supreme with Pico de Gallo & Lime Crema Sweet Chilli Beef & Cabbage Stir-Fry with Crispy Fried Onions
30 mins prep time Easy Prep, Quick – 20 mins prep time
910 calories per serving 800 calories per serving
61 grams of carbs per serving 77 grams of carbs per serving
42 grams of protein per serving 28 grams of protein per serving
58 grams of fat per serving 40 grams of fat per serving

HelloFresh Pork Recipes

Steakhouse-Style Pork Chops with a Creamy Pan Sauce, Roasted Potatoes & Lemony Broccoli Hoisin-Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Scallion Rice, Ponzu Roasted Green Beans & Sriracha Mayo
Calorie Smart – 35 mins prep time Spicy – 35 mins prep time
520 calories per serving 660 calories per serving
50 grams of carbs per serving 62 grams of carbs per serving
35 grams of protein per serving 29 grams of protein per serving
23 grams of fat per serving 33 grams of fat per serving

HelloFresh Seafood Recipes

Shrimp Spaghetti with a Kick with Garlic Herb Butter & Zucchini Mustard Soy Salmon with Pickled Scallions, Ginger Rice & Zesty Carrots
Easy Prep, Quick – 20 mins prep time 40 mins prep time
730 calories per serving 900 calories per serving
74 grams of carbs per serving 86 grams of carbs per serving
34 grams of protein per serving 33 grams of protein per serving
31 grams of fat per serving 46 grams of fat per serving

Daily Harvest Recipes

Harvest Bowls

1. Tomato Sweet Potato Wild Rice Great Northern Bean Avocado Maitake:

  • 330 calories per serving
  • 51 grams carbs per serving
  • 11 grams protein per serving
  • 11 grams fat per serving

2. Black Beans Avocado Buckwheat Tomato Cilantro Pickled Pepper:

  • 290 calories per serving
  • 40 grams carbs per serving
  • 11 grams protein per serving
  • 12 grams fat per serving

Harvest Bakes

1. Cremini Plantain Bell Pepper Tomato Green Olive Smoked Paprika:

  • 540 calories per serving
  • 67 grams carbs per serving
  • 17 grams protein per serving
  • 24 grams fat per serving

2. Chickpea Cauliflower Sweet Potato Cashew Madras Curry Moringa:

  • 560 calories per serving
  • 78 grams carbs per serving
  • 20 grams protein per serving
  • 19 grams fat per serving

Flatbreads

1. Broccoli Artichoke Spinach Cauliflower Tahini Thyme:

  • 360 calories per serving
  • 48 grams carbs per serving
  • 8 grams protein per serving
  • 17 grams fat per serving

2. Sweet Potato Red Cabbage Kale Cauliflower Spinach Coriander:

  • 370 calories per serving
  • 52 grams carbs per serving
  • 7 grams protein per serving
  • 16 grams fat per serving

Soups

1. Zucchini Tomato Chickpea Kale Black Garlic Basil:

  • 210 calories per serving
  • 29 grams carbs per serving
  • 9 grams protein per serving
  • 8 grams fat per serving

2. Butternut Squash Kabocha Squash Coconut Leek Maitake Rosemary:

  • 200 calories per serving
  • 32 grams carbs per serving
  • 4 grams protein per serving
  • 8 grams fat per serving

Smoothies

1. Strawberry Banana Peach Raspberry Oats Goji Berry:

  • 140 calories per serving
  • 32 grams carbs per serving
  • 3 grams protein per serving
  • 5 grams fat per serving

2. Mango Pineapple Acerola Papaya Macadamia:

  • 150 calories per serving
  • 23 grams carbs per serving
  • 2 grams protein per serving
  • 5 grams fat per serving

HelloFresh vs Daily Harvest – FAQs

How are HelloFresh and Daily Harvest orders packed/shipped?

Compared to other meal deliveries, HelloFresh performs exceptionally as far as its packaging standards are concerned. All the meal kits are neatly packed inside paper bags. Ingredients are carefully packaged without any excessive waste of packaging materials despite the use of plastic for wrapping a few ingredients separately!

Your HelloFresh weekly meals arrive a day or two after they’re shipped in well-insulated boxes equipped with ice packs that keep everything in there cool and safe for many hours. The paper bags are placed inside those insulated coolers.

As for the meats, these are stored below the paper bags, away from everything else, using cardboard liners. Needless to say, meats are also kept cool and fresh using ice packs.

As for the much-needed recipe cards, they’re placed outside the cooling insulation; hence, they remain dry.

Does Daily Harvest also package and ship its meal boxes the same way? With Daily Harvest, paper is the main packaging material used -more specifically, paper containers, but with thin plastic lids. However, the weekly Daily Harvest meal box is slightly bigger,but all items are kept frozen and fresh with the help of dry ice.

When you open the box, you’ll see how everything is properly organized and stored upright. This includes the meal kits and the packaging materials used, like the cardboard dividers, internal liners, etc. Plastic is also a part of the Daily Harvest packaging, along with food containers and bowls.

Is their packaging eco-friendly?

The first word that comes to mind right away when you talk about eco-friendly packaging is plastic, right? That said, even though HelloFresh uses plastic to pack some of the ingredients individually, there’s no amount of excessive waste.

A top meal delivery service like HelloFresh compensates for involving plastic by making almost everything else that’s part of the packaging recyclable. That means recyclable cooler bags, ice packs, etc. Get to know all about HelloFresh recyclable packaging right here, right now.

Daily Harvest also includes plastic in its packaging. But then here, in this case, plastic is found only on the individual cup films and dry ice bags. The rest are all recyclable – insulation, cups, boxes, lids, bowls, etc. Learn more about Daily Harvest’s efficient packaging!

Can you edit or cancel HelloFresh and Daily Harvest orders?

Using the HelloFresh app or website, you can cancel, change, or add meals to your weekly orders. Making such edits, however, is much more convenient and easier through the app.

As for the cutoff time for cancelations and changes on HelloFresh, that is 5 days prior to the scheduled delivery date, before midnight (Pacific Time).

With Daily Harvest, the deadline for editing their weekly orders and the editing bit entails canceling your order or subscription altogether and making changes to the order, which is 3 pm (Pacific Time) on Sunday before your scheduled delivery week.

HelloFresh Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Meal delivery service for recipes and groceries.
  • Easy-to-prepare, affordable meals for four.
  • HelloFresh menu has a huge selection.
  • Low-calorie, pescatarian, and vegetarian meal plans.

Cons:

  • Charges $10.99 as shipping fee.
  • Not suitable for specialty diet plans like vegan, paleo, keto, etc.
  • Not accommodating of food allergies, so no gluten-free options.

Daily Harvest Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Very healthy, very high-quality ingredients and meals.
  • Prep time is the quickest and easiest.
  • Works for various dietary plans and preferences.
  • Frozen food, thus, no worries about the loss of nutrients.
  • Organic, vegan, plant-based ingredients with no preservatives, additives, etc.
  • No extra shipping cost.

Cons:

  • Comparatively speaking, it is slightly more expensive.
  • Meals are not filling.
  • Single-serve portion sizes only.

Last Words

In Summary, HelloFresh has a wider selection of more crowd-pleasing meal kits, while Daily Harvest is popular for its more consistent, refined flavors -even the high nutritional value since Daily Harvest is a plant-based, vegan food company.

Where HelloFresh is big on more classic, albeit very delicious, recipes, Daily Harvest prioritizes using vegan ingredients only, hence targeting a different type of niche entirely.

Both have their charm, so it all comes down to your budget and what kind of meals you like/prefer.