Signing up for a meal delivery service can be a great way to avoid the stresses (and time-sucks) of grocery shopping, meal prepping, and recipe-seeking. And, depending on the brand, the benefits can extend beyond convenience: Your meal kit of choice might even help level up your cooking skills and broaden your palate. There’s a wide variety of meal delivery options to consider, but SELF’s stalwart home cooks are here to narrow the field.
How to choose the right meal kit delivery service for you
On the most practical level, the meal kit you choose should suit your budget and schedule. Luckily, the majority of services make it easy to skip and pause deliveries and to change the quantity of meals you receive every week. Other factors to consider are your preferences and any potential dietary restrictions. You can find brands that spotlight vegetarian and vegan meals, remove allergens, use seasonal ingredients, and offer on-the-go items like soups, smoothies, and frozen meals. Beyond that, it’s a matter of, well, taste. You may need to try out a couple brands before you find the one that works for you.
You can also shop with your idea of healthy eating in mind: Though what this means is super individualized, it could look like prioritizing nutritious ingredients, satisfying servings, or even delicious, joyful dishes. So whether you’re incredibly busy, exploring a more plant-based diet, interested in eating local, looking to find more pleasure in your meals, or some combination thereof—you can likely find a meal kit that’ll satisfy your needs.
Finally, you can make your meal kit pick by simply perusing our curated list below for some options. All of the meal delivery services featured here have been tested and reviewed by SELF staffers, who followed our meal kit shopping guide to make their assessments. Kits that receive at least a rating of 7 out of 10 are considered SELF Certified (i.e., exceptional and definitely worth a try)—whereas ones that scored in the mid-range offered some advantages, along with a few drawbacks. Read on for our top meal kit picks and to perhaps find your new favorite way to get dinner on the table with minimal fuss.
All products featured on SELF are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
1. Home Chef
Rating: 9/10
Why it’s worth it: Every week, Home Chef allows you to choose from nearly a dozen delicious meals that cater to your needs and skill level. Their cooking difficulty ranges from easy to advanced, and they offer the option to omit ingredients like dairy, nuts, soy, wheat, and more. You can also select your recipes based on goals like eating more fresh ingredients or saving time in the kitchen. The menus are set five weeks ahead, so you can plan for dinner well in advance.
Meal examples: Shrimp scampi pasta, farmhouse fried chicken, tomato risotto.
Review: Our commerce editor, who tried Home Chef firsthand, praised how easy and satisfying the service was to use: “I don’t have to do the shopping, ingredients are precisely measured so that I can toss them in without fuss, and when I’m done, a magazine-worthy meal is left on my plate in its sweet, savory glory.”
Cost: Meals start at $10 per serving. The weekly order minimum is $51.
Availability: Nationwide.
2. Sunbasket
Rating: 6/10
Why it’s worth it: The folks behind Sunbasket prioritize their ingredients above all else and it shows. The produce is organic, the meat is antibiotic-free with no added hormones, and the seafood is fresh-caught or raised sustainably. Sunbasket has a variety of dinner options for people who eat vegan, vegetarian, and pescatarian. (You can opt to mix and match recipes from all of these different menus in a single order.)
And for the people who are really short on time, Sunbasket also offers single-serving prepared meals on its Fresh & Ready menu—they arrive precooked and oven-ready, so you just have to reheat and serve.
Meal examples: Chicken Milanese with charred lemon; braised chickpeas and carrots with quinoa and yogurt; farro risotto with zucchini, tomatoes, and soft-cooked eggs.
Review: In SELF’s own Sunbasket review, our commerce writer noted that these plant-forward meals always arrived fresh and their recipes were “blissfully easy to follow.”
Cost: Fresh & Ready meals start at $10 per serving; meal kits start at $11 per serving.
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, and parts of New Mexico.
3. Green Chef
Rating: 6/10
Why it’s worth it: For the environmentally conscious diner, Green Chef offers USDA certified–organic meal kits, which feature sustainably sourced ingredients from traceable farmers and suppliers. They also provide useful guides to show you how to reuse, recycle, and compost its packaging whenever possible.
The company offers a number of meal options, including carnivore, omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan plans—plus gluten-free weekly menus. The recipes are easy to follow and designed to take just 30 minutes to make.
Meal examples: Thai red curry with chicken, beef and sweet potato taco skillet, mezze-inspired tossed salad.
Review: In SELF’s Green Chef review, our associate health director wrote that this brand’s meals can definitely help you break out of a cooking rut, but they tend to require a lot of cookware (which means more cleanup later). She also noted there was a lack of variety in some of the dishes—for instance, a lot of the meals she tried relied heavily on rice.
Cost: Plans start at $81 per week for three meals for two people (including shipping, though some dietary options cost more).
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
4. Gobble
Rating: 6/10
Why it’s worth it: Meal kits inherently solve a common problem in any busy person’s life: the lack of time to plan and shop for dinner. But Gobble takes it a step further by doing all of the prep work for you. That means each kit includes already peeled vegetables, minimal to no chopping, and a process that goes from pan to plate in only about 15 minutes. It’s almost as low-effort as food delivery and often even quicker.
Plus we love that Gobble includes specialty menu options for gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian meals, and it also has family-friendly meals that cater to picky eaters.
Meal examples: Seared salmon with kale, Mexican squash flatbread with cotija cheese, Chinese five-spice tofu with lime coconut vegetable stew.
Review: In her review of Gobble for SELF, our food writer noted that her recipes “tasted like something from a cozy neighborhood restaurant.” They were comforting and quick, but light on veggies. She also found the lunch options to be limited and not super satisfying.
Cost: Plans for two people start at $68 for two dinners per week (two servings each); plans for four people start at $104 for two dinners per week (four servings each).
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Montana and with limited service in Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
5. Blue Apron
Rating: 6/10
Why it’s worth it: Blue Apron’s recipes are designed to keep cooking and prep time down to an average of 45 minutes. The company’s mission is to improve our country’s food system at large by focusing on sustainable farming, direct shipping, and less waste. Their chefs work directly with farmers to create the meal plans and provide stories behind the ingredients, so you can actually know where your food came from.
As an added bonus, the company offers a monthly wine subscription that pairs specially sized bottles with your meals. And if you’re not a meat eater, Blue Apron has a vegetarian option for the two-person plan and recently added Beyond Meat boxes to its roster, so you can whip up meatless burgers at home.
Meal examples: Oven-baked Korean eggs and rice, pan-seared duck breasts, yuzu and soy-glazed tilapia.
Review: In SELF’s Blue Apron review, our senior manager of analytics found the recipes simultaneously easy to follow with generally tasty results. However, she did find some of the meals on the bland side.
Cost: Weekly meal plans start at $48 for two meals for two people, plus shipping.
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
6. Hungryroot
Rating: 8/10
Why it’s worth it: Hungryroot is a meal kit that’s also kind of a grocery store. Your monthly subscription gives you a set amount of credits that you can use across its site on recipes, along with snacks and pantry items. The recipe section is similar to most other meal kit experiences: You choose a dish, then Hungryroot provides all the necessary ingredients and a recipe guide.
It also allows you to modify each meal to fit your tastes. For example, if you’d rather Beyond meat instead of turkey in a dish, you can make that swap. This easy-to-edit approach creates a customizable experience, with the ability to fully tailor meals to your liking.
Meal examples: Creamy polenta with Italian sausage and broccoli, plant-based chorizo and potato skillet, Mediterranean steak chopped salad.
Review: In our Hungryroot review, SELF’s commerce editor found Hungryroot to be the ideal all-in-one meal and grocery service.
Cost: Plans start at $65 per delivery.
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
7. Territory
Rating: 7/10
Why it’s worth it: If you’re looking for heat-and-serve dinners with bigger portions than typical premade meals provide, Territory is just the service to try. Its meals are filling and delicious, and the menus offer a ton of customization based on your dietary preferences or restrictions (including vegan, low-carb, plant-based, low-fat, and Mediterranean options).
Most meal services deliver once per week, but Territory allows you to get two shipments weekly if you prefer, so the meals are at their absolute freshest when they show up at your door. There are more than 35 dishes at your disposal—developed by registered dietitians and crafted by chefs.
Meal examples: Red coconut curry tofu, bo ssam lettuce wraps with kimchi, tagine chicken.
Review: One of our health editors tried Territory firsthand, saying, “The food was tasty, very aligned to my dietary needs, and filling. If you’re looking for a well-rounded, nutrition-packed takeout alternative, Territory is a very solid choice.”
Cost: Meals start at $13 each.
Availability: The East Coast, west Chicago, Texas, and select parts of the West Coast.
8. EveryPlate
Rating: 7/10
Why it’s worth it: With meals that clock in under $10 and take just 30 minutes to make, EveryPlate can suit a wide range of budgets and schedules. You can choose from 26 different meals each week and filter your options by family favorites, quick and easy dishes, and plant-based meals. There are also tasty add-ons like garlic bread and Caesar salad that you can include in your order.
Note, though, that EveryPlate doesn’t consistently offer meals for special diets or allergies, so be sure to read your recipes’ ingredient lists carefully if you’re avoiding anything specific.
Meal examples: Spicy black bean and beef enchiladas, banh-mi style chicken bowls, creamy lemon herb chicken.
Review: SELF’s tester described EveryPlate as a relatively “budget-friendly meal delivery service” with easy-to-follow recipes. Her main issue was with the packaging: The ingredients aren’t separated by recipe, which can make unpacking and prepping confusing.
Cost: Meals start at $5 each.
Availability: Nationwide, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
How SELF Tests Meal Kits:
We spoke with registered dietitians to help guide the criteria for choosing the right meal delivery service. Then we purchased all of the meal kits listed and tested each for customization, affordability, nutrition profile, delivery process, and overall taste and satisfaction before arriving at our rating.
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