Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – The Best of Both Worlds

We’re finally ending the debate between Snap Kitchen and Freshly is a very close contest. Where one offers greater price variety, better user interface and customer service, and more meal plan options, the other excels at providing higher-quality, more traditional (read “crowd-pleasing” or “comfort”) meals.

So, which of the two has the upper hand when we talk about important factors like freshness, quality, flavor, taste, etc.?

What are your specific concerns such as your dietary needs and preferences? After all, meal deliveries are mostly about the food, even more so when the food is a fully prepped and cooked meal!

Meal Delivery Services – What to Like and Dislike About Them

While it’s true that cooking your own meals is the healthiest hack to stay fit, what nobody tells you is how time-consuming that can get!

With meal delivery services, you can skip buying groceries, prepping the ingredients, and cooking completely. It’s just like online shopping, but instead, you order delicious and nutritious premade meals once a week for your entire week’s diet.

Meal delivery services like Snap Kitchen and Freshly offer plenty of diet options. Based on your selections, the ingredients are prepped and cooked for you. The meals, once packed, are delivered with ice packs and insulated liners to keep the meals fresh during transit.

The more meals you order, the less you have to pay per serving – that’s for sure! Here’s a quick, informative breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of subscribing to a meal delivery service.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – What’s the Cost?

Price is the first factor of consideration between Snap Kitchen and Freshly. Price is what decides which is the more budget-friendly choice for first timers.

If you’re exploring your options, you’re better off starting with something that won’t burn too big a hole in your pocket.

With Snap Kitchen, ordering more servings per week will save you a lot of money. Their basic order starts from 6 meals per week. For this, you pay $13.84 per serving. Were you to double the number of meals per week, 12 meals per week cost $11.34 per serving.

Very quickly, here’s what your entire week’s expenditure with Snap Kitchen looks like:

• Cost per week with 6 meals – $83
• Cost per week with 12 meals – $136

You save approximately $30 per week if you order 12 meals. To make things even better, Snap Kitchen does not charge a shipping fee on any order, small or big.

Moving on to Freshly, you have more options for meal customization as far as the size of the meals is concerned. This means you can order anywhere from 4 to 12 meals per week. The prices differ for each meal order starting from 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, to 12. Just like with Snap Kitchen, you save more when you order more meals per week.

Here’s the approximate price per serving for every meal order:

• 4 meals per week – $12.50 per serving ($50 per week)
• 5 meals per week – $12.40 per serving ($62 per week)
• 6 meals per week – $11.33 per serving ($68 per week)
• 7 meals per week – $10.71 per serving ($75 per week)
• 8 meals per week – $10.37 per serving ($83 per week)
• 9 meals per week – $10.22 per serving ($92 per week)
• 10 meals per week – $10 per serving ($100 per week)
• 11 meals per week – $9.81 per serving ($108 per week)
• 12 meals per week – $9.59 per serving ($115 per week)

The least you can pay Freshly for your weekly order is $50 for 4 meals per week, and the cost is $115 for 12 meals. On a larger order, you save up to $35 because you pay less per serving when you order more meals.

The flaw in Freshly’s affordable prices is that it charges a shipping fee based on the size of the order as well as the delivery location. The shipping fee starts from $3.99 to $12.11 per order. It’s different for every order and you will only know the exact fee during checkout.

As a final verdict, Snap Kitchen’s meals are slightly more expensive than Freshly. For 6 meals, Snap Kitchen charges you about $83, while with Freshly, you have to pay only $68. When you add up the shipping fee of Freshly, the cost per order for 6 meals per week comes up to a tie between both brands.

For 12 meals, Snap Kitchen charges $136 weekly and Freshly charges $115 per week. Again, in addition to the shipping fee, there isn’t much price difference between both premade delivery services.

However, considering the meal plan customization options that Freshly provides, letting you choose from 4 to 12 meals per week gives Freshly an advantage over Snap Kitchen. With Snap Kitchen, you can only order 6 or 12 meals weekly, so there is a size restriction that most people may not like.

Freshly wins this round based on price-per-serving affordability and flexibility concerning the size of each week’s order, and it offers different prices by size. Snap Kitchen is a better option for those of you who do not want to spend on shipping fees because Snap Kitchen charges none.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – How Customizable Is the Menu?

Snap Kitchen features many different dietary options starting from the basic nutrition-focused customizations including low-carb, high-protein, low-calorie, and low-sodium meals. Then, you can view more restricted diets such as gluten-free, keto-friendly, soy-free, paleo, and Whole30 meals.

Snap Kitchen lets you customize and select all your meals via filters on the menu. The menu has the following filters that you can select to view your ideal meal preferences.

By calories:

• 250-399 calories per serving
• 400-499 calories per serving
• 500+ calories per serving

By carbs:

• 31g-40g per serving
• Less than 30g per serving
• More than 40g per serving

Protein amount:

• 25g-45g per serving
• Less than 24g per serving
• More than 35g per serving

By sodium levels:

• Moderate sodium
• Sodium-conscious

You can also filter your meals depending on the ingredient you want to exclude:

• Egg
• Fish
• Gluten
• Milk
• Peanuts
• Pork
• Sesame
• Shellfish
• Soy
• Tree nuts

These were the extensive list of filters that you can select your meal preferences with on their menu,but there’s more!

Snap Kitchen also features sub-menus for different times of meals and diets, such as the following:

• Breakfast
• Lunch & Dinner
• Sides & Proteins
• High Protein
• Low Carb
• Keto
• Paleo
• Whole30

Meals that are ordered, rated, and made popular by customers are also given a separate subcategory on Snap Kitchen’s menu.

You can view meals depending on their quality and ratings:

• New Recipes
• Favorites Recipes

In this manner, all the meals that Snap Kitchen has to offer are organized and easier to navigate through. The recipe pages are full of essential facts and information about nutrition, ingredients, and preparation tips and tricks.

Freshly’s meals have fewer dietary customizations than Snap Kitchen. For starters, all the meals served by Freshly are gluten-free and nutritionally balanced. No matter which meal you select, vegetarian or nonvegetarian, it is calorie- and carb-conscious with more proteins and fiber.

Besides that, you can select from the following categories on the drop-down filter on the Freshly menu:

• Purely Plant – all ingredients are plant-based and vegetarian. Some vegan options are available.
• Signature Collection – a mix of veg and non veg recipes with balanced nutrition.
• FreshlyFit – Meals with less than 500 calories and 35g carbs per serving with some chicken and fish options.
• Proteins & Sides – extra portions for proteins like grilled chicken breasts and baked turkey meatballs for multiple servings.

All the meals are single serve with the calories and gluten-free labels mentioned on the menu itself. You can click on any meal card and view the ingredients, nutrition facts, and extra information.

On the recipe page, you will get a few more dietary labels under the recipe’s title:

• High Protein
• Soy-Free
• Vegetarian
• >500 Cal
• <35g Carbs
• Spicy

Nutrition-wise Freshly’s menu is balanced and free of any preservatives, GMOs, and processed ingredients. The entrees, proteins, and sides on the menu are designed with fewer carbs, no artificial sugar, balanced calories, and most importantly, loads of healthy veggies and healthy fats.

If you have a gluten allergy, Freshly is certified by the Gluten Intolerance Group, so all their meals are cooked without gluten ingredients. Plant-based alternatives are used instead of gluten. For example, gluten-free flour is made from scratch with quinoa, beans, potatoes, and soy.

If nutritious and delicious meals are your forte, with well-portioned servings of proteins, healthy carbs, healthy fats, fiber, and other essential nutrients, Freshly meals are worth the investment.

The drop-down filters on Freshly’s menu help you find certain dietary preferences easily and you can swap nonveg with veg if you want to make your meals lighter but filling at the same time. The plant-based ingredients are full of proteins and fewer carbs, which makes Freshly’s meals very nutritious and satisfying to eat every time.

The final verdict: Snap Kitchen’s meals are more customizable and diet-focused than Freshly. With Snap Kitchen, you can eat different varieties of meals such as keto, paleo, Whole30, and meals with more or fewer macros of your choice.

On the other hand, with Freshly, you have to select from their restricted drop-down menu as they do not have dietary filters that are as nutrient-based as Snap Kitchen.

When you factor in the intricate customizations of Snap Kitchen, the menu is more extensive and diet-focused than Freshly. Freshly’s meals are the ideal choice for someone who wants a more well-rounded and nutritionally balanced meal plan. Snap Kitchen lets you select the nutrition of the meal as well as the type of cuisines such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, and favorites.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – How to Order for the First Time

With Snap Kitchen, you can order either 6 or 12 ready-to-heat meals every week. Select the meals of your choice with the help of different dietary filters and cuisine types displayed on Snap Kitchen’s menu.

Since these are ready-to-heat meals, no chopping, dicing, or prepping is necessary. Maybe you might feel the need to add some seasoning to the meal or heat it on a skillet instead of in the microwave, but that’s more of a personal preference than a necessity. Snap Kitchen’s meals heat up perfectly well in a microwave, as long as you follow the heating instructions printed on every container label.

While ordering the meals, you can select from more than 35 different options, and the menu changes weekly. Once you add the meals to your cart, you can enter your delivery details and payment and add any optional delivery instructions like leaving the delivery parcel at your doorstep or having it delivered at a certain time of the day.

If you want to know whether Snap Kitchen delivers to your area, just type in your zip code before signing up to find out ahead of time!

Freshly’s Get Started page immediately tells you whether they can deliver to you or not.

After placing an order, skipping delivery once, twice, or more times is possible without any hidden charges. You can even easily pause or cancel the membership after an active order has been processed.

Daily updates regarding the shipment and delivery of an order are automatically carried out after you place the order. You can opt to get updates via text and/or email. Even though there is no option to select the day of delivery, Snap Kitchen prioritizes a speedy and convenient delivery, regardless of the size of your order.

Freshly has a similar meal selection and ordering process. The meals are delivered in single-serve containers with proper labels. The meals are cold because of gel ice packs, not flash-frozen. You can either store them in the freezer for prolonging their shelf life or heat and eat them right away if you’re ordering for more than just yourself.

After navigating the menu and adding meals you like to the cart, you can choose how many meals you want to order. One thing I find very helpful about Freshly is that they give you plenty of meal options with regard to size. You don’t have to order as many as 6 or 12 meals if you don’t want to.

To start, you can order as few as 4 meals per week. If you like their meals and want to continue ordering with them, you can increase your meals to anywhere between 4 and 12 meals per week.

Freshly’s meal selection process is simple and quick with a seamless menu page. They have over 30 meals per week with the menu changing on a weekly basis.

You can skip, pause, edit, and cancel the order even after placing them. Likewise, you will be notified when the cutoff period ends for an active order. Adding the payment details, delivery address, and other important information takes no time at all. The interface is seamless, fast, and user-friendly.

You can also have your orders delivered right to your doorstep if you aren’t at home at the time of delivery. You will be notified immediately regarding any updates on delivery time and day.

The final verdict: Both are incredibly convenient and consistent meal delivery services to fall back on. Whether you’re working from home or not, your meals will arrive safe and sound on your doorstep. Most importantly, the meal selection process feels just like shopping online. It’s fast, smooth, and exciting because both Snap Kitchen and Freshly offer plenty of meal options for different taste and dietary preferences.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – Where Do They Deliver?

Snap Kitchen delivers to most areas of the continental United States, including Texas. You can enter your zip code before signing up to find out whether they deliver to your region or not.

For delivery, Snap Kitchen uses courier services like UPS, FedEx, OnTrac, and a few more to get your orders delivered based on the location. Order tracking and timely updates are a part of the package, so you don’t have to email customer support to get live updates regarding your orders.

On top of all that, Snap Kitchen charges no shipping fee, unlike Freshly which has a small shipping fee on all orders.

Snap Kitchen does offer some adjustments concerning the delivery of any order. For example, you can select the day of delivery. Snap Kitchen also delivers to your office if you want them to, just as long as it’s eligible for delivery in that location. Enter the zip code of your office address to find out!

One minor inconvenience with regard to this is that Snap Kitchen does not specify the time of delivery, but it’s all during business hours, so you shouldn’t face any problems with delivery especially because you will get notified prior to it.

And even if you’re not at home during delivery, the parcel will be safely placed at your door. The meal box can stay outside for a couple of hours because insulated liners and cold packs keep the meals fresh and cold for a long time. Make sure you refrigerate or freeze the meals as soon as you take them inside.

Freshly does not deliver to Texas, unfortunately, but they do deliver to the lower 48 United States. You can quickly enter the zip code and email address without signing up to know more information about your area.

For any doubts or delivery requests in inaccessible locations, you can drop an email to Freshly, and they will revert back to you ASAP.

With Freshly, you can also change the delivery address and add any special delivery instructions without contacting customer service separately. The meals can be delivered all 7 days of the week. However, the delivery day and time depend on the location. What’s good is that you can add your preferred delivery days while placing an order.

More importantly, if you’re not at home at the time of delivery, that’s won’t be a problem either. The meal box will be safely deposited to your doorstep without any signature required.

Certain things like changing the delivery day after placing an order or canceling the order once it has been shipped are not possible. However, if you’re really in a hurry or need immediate assistance, Freshly is available via live chat during working hours.

Just like Snap Kitchen, Freshly uses courier services like FedEx, CDL, UDS, OnTrac, and Vehi for fast deliveries depending on where you live.

The final verdict: Nothing about Snap Kitchen and Freshly feels restricted when it comes to delivery. The shipments are packed immediately after cooking and are delivered fresh and cold.

Snap Kitchen and Freshly let you select your preferred day of delivery. You’ll have plenty of time to decide on any last-minute edits like skipping a week, adding or removing meals, swapping ingredients, or boosting the protein sides of your order before the meal box is out for delivery.

Before finalizing your order and delivery details, you can review all the information on your account related to your next order.

One point of difference, however, between Snap Kitchen and Freshly is that Freshly charges a shipping fee between $4 and $12 per order, while Snap Kitchen’s shipping is absolutely free, regardless of the size of the order.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – What Are Their Vegetarian/Vegan Meals Like?

Now, how about dietary accommodations for vegetarianism and veganism? That’s a bit of a slippery slope with both Snap Kitchen and Freshly. The former has on its menu low-carb, paleo, and keto ready-to-eat meals, but unfortunately, there are no vegan or vegetarian options. So, I would recommend those looking for plant-based dishes to look elsewhere.

But then you have Freshly with its Purely Plant and even FreshlyFit categories. These feature delicious, albeit limited, vegan, vegetarian, and keto-friendly choices. That said, both meal delivery services are not suitable if you’re vegetarian or vegan. Freshly, however, does offer a few plant-based options (thanks to its Purely Plant selection of meals).

Freshly’s Purely Plant recipes are usually low-calorie, and some are even dairy-free, gluten-free, and low-carb. But as you know, Freshly’s basic meat-based meals, for example, the herb-grilled chicken is supplied with a load of healthy vegetables. Nonetheless, plant-based options are insufficient for those on a vegan/vegetarian diet.

Snap Kitchen vs Freshly – How Much Protein Do the Recipes Have? (Nutritional Value of Meals)

Snap Kitchen

Snap Kitchen’s weekly rotating menu covers all types of different cuisines – French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, and Indian. There are basic traditional American meals as well, such as grilled lean meat with lots of healthy veggies on the side.

So, there’s no doubt that Snap Kitchen is a healthy prepared meal delivery service that offers a good number of weekly picks. For the most part, the calorie count range is anywhere between 300 and 600.

As for the general nutritional value of Snap Kitchen meals, the lion’s share of the menu consists of lean animal proteins combined with vegetables. You get options like pasta (gluten-free), grains, and legumes. Every meal has its own macronutrient breakdown, andfull nutritional information can be accessed through both the website and the app.

On the menu, you’ll find high-carb recipes too, such as Baked Ziti with Italian Beef Sausage, Turkey Meatloaf, Korean BBQ Meatballs, and more. But then, even these meals have calories that mostly come from proteins and fats.

Now, here are the most delectable items from the Snap Kitchen menu:

What I liked the most about the abovementioned chicken-based meal is the wonderful flavor brought on by lemon-tahini sauce, even though the chicken felt slightly dry.

It’s most likely that this particular dish will become your favorite because of the tasty, tender meatballs cooked in yummy barbecue sauce, then there’s the addition of utterly delicious and also nutrient-dense classic sesame carrots and broccoli.

This low-calorie, low-sodium recipe contains fresh salmon seasoned and roasted to perfection and paired with classic basmati rice and creamy dill cream sauce.

Freshly

What should you expect from Freshly’s menu with regard to nutrition? Most of Freshly’s prepared meals have meat and vegetables. Potatoes, pasta, or rice are provided in each meal.

Let’s take, for example, the three dishes mentioned below – chicken (there are different types of chicken meals) with rice, turkey with mashed potatoes, and steak with green pea risotto.

It’s high protein and gluten-free!

Reheat this Indian cuisine-inspired chicken-based meal on the stovetop, and savor every bit of the very tasty and tender chicken with the fluffy rice and creamy sauce.

It’s gluten-free, soy-free, and under 500 calories!

When the meatloaf is nicely flavored and tender, you have no complaints at all, nor is the turkey-based meal excessively salty or greasy. It’s comfort food that doesn’t leave your stomach feeling heavy post-mealtime.

This one’s also gluten-free, soy-free, and high-protein!

The entire meal here is supposed to be very filling, and it’s highly advisable to prepare the steak on a stovetop instead of the microwave.

Overall, Freshly’s meals, if you check their nutrition labels, are a bit on the salt-heavy side. Many also contain an excessive bit of saturated fat as well.

Thus, it’s very important and even necessary at this point to have a look at the nutritional value while making a decision (based on your dietary preferences/restrictions). Nevertheless, Freshly offers tons of comfort food options that are too irresistible to turn down.

In a few scenarios, you also get to pick alternatives such as cauliflower-made pasta in place of high-gluten semolina pasta.

Furthermore, comparatively speaking, Freshly offers the Purely Plant menu category for vegetarian and vegan meals. As for these recipes, the number of calories is below 500. In addition to that, low-calorie, low-carb, dairy-free, gluten-free, etc. options are also available.

Most Commonly Asked Questions About Snap Kitchen vs Freshly

How Are Snap Kitchen and Freshly Meals Packed?

As far as packaging goes, Freshly doesn’t disappoint in any way. In fact, Freshly’s packaging department receives the most attention, and it’s because of one too many reasons.

First of all, there’s no wastage of packaging materials. Let’s assume you ordered 6 weekly meals, so all 6 are packed in one single cardboard box equipped with ice (gel-based) packs and paper insulation liners.

The cold packs that keep the fully cooked meals fresh inside your weekly box are just frozen liquid blocks wrapped using plastic. These can be reused, of course!

As for the meals themselves, they’re packed in plastic containers with a plastic seal/film. Every meal or container is then wrapped with thin cardboard and labeled accordingly. The latter consists of writing down the name, expiration date, and nutritional information of the meal.

Moving on to Snap Kitchen, meals here are also packed simply and minimally. The big weekly meal box is all cardboard with ice packs stored inside to preserve freshness. Cardboard liners are used as well, along with plastic containers/trays in which the meals are placed.

Is the Packaging Environment-Friendly?

Snap Kitchen’s packaging is mostly recyclable, while Freshly packaging is completely recyclable.

In comparison to other top contenders, Snap Kitchen has a very minimal approach to packaging. At the same time, everything from cardboard boxes and liners to ice packs and meal containers or trays is recyclable, although you might be left with labels which you have to take off before you recycle food containers or trays.

The ice packs used by Snap Kitchen are non-toxic and safe for the environment, and you can easily reuse them if you like.

Freshly, too, is just as good as any of its competitors when it comes to the recyclability of its packaging materials. If you check out their Packaging & Recycling page on the website, you’ll see how every item of the order can be successfully recycled.

Even Snap Kitchen has a Help/FAQs page, although it’s shorter and less informative and helpful than Freshly.

Can You Make Last-Minute Changes to Your Snap Kitchen or Freshly Order?

Both Snap Kitchen and Freshly are open to making changes provided you do the alterations before the deadline.

• Snap Kitchen Cutoff Time: The date depends on the scheduled delivery day, and it’s different for every customer. The cutoff time, however, is 12 a.m. (CST) before the lock (deadline) day.

Up until the cutoff time, you can make changes such as editing ingredients, payment method, delivery address, and more.

• Freshly Cutoff Time: Once again, the deadline for Freshly is based on other factors, such as your delivery location and preferred delivery day. Normally, you get to make account or order changes only 5-6 days before the scheduled delivery date. Just check the confirmation email (for the exact deadline) Freshly sends after you place an order with them.

With Freshly, you can edit your weekly orders as soon as 3 weeks in advance!

As for account management, both meal delivery services let you tweak details, and in both cases, the mobile app experience is much better (i.e., less limited) than the website. Skipping weeks, changing dietary preferences, and even canceling your account altogether are more conveniently done on the smartphone.

For instance, Snap Kitchen’s website won’t provide you with the option of skipping multiple weeks in advance, but the app does.

Snap Kitchen

Freshly

Conclusion

Snap Kitchen and Freshly are both incredible premade delivery services, but Snap Kitchen is tailored to a single person’s needs more than a family’s. Freshly, on the other hand, even with their single-serve meals, is suited for families and large groups.

The idea is to find what works for you, diet- and size-wise. Snap Kitchen’s meals are more weightloss-friendly, while Freshly is for the balanced diet enthusiast.

When it comes to all else like menu, flavor, freshness, delivery, and customizations, Snap Kitchen and Freshly are superior in their own unique ways. With weekly rotating menus, you can try new recipes and include more protein-forward meals to your diet.

Some sides and add-ons are also included, especially with Snap Kitchen, as they have a different menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, and proteins. Freshly offers more plant-based meals than Snap Kitchen, prioritizing more calorie- and carb-conscious meals for everyone.