10 Best Meal Delivery Services 2023: Ranked By Our Experts

Deciding on a meal delivery service can feel overwhelming. There are dozens of options out there, from quick and easy prepared meals to DIY meal kits. There are also countless options for different dietary and budget needs, making it even harder to choose.

My colleagues and I have spent the year eating our way through the most popular meal kits and prepared meals to help you find the perfect match for your palate. I’ve used our combined experience and in-depth research and reviews to pick the top 10 meal delivery services for 2023.

Blue Apron comes in at #1 thanks to its gourmet meals. High-quality recipes and optional wine pairings make you feel like you’re at a restaurant from the comfort of your own kitchen. Plus, it has options for meal kits and prepared meals.

I included a range of services on my list to ensure there’s something for everyone. Whether you need help sticking to a diet, feeding a picky family, or just want to save time in the kitchen, you’ll find your ideal meal delivery service on this list.

The Best Meal Delivery Services Reviewed

1. Blue Apron – Best Overall Meal Delivery Service

Blue Apron is one of my favorite meal delivery services thanks to its quality ingredients and wide variety of unique, gourmet recipes. The dinners are a cut above most other meal kits with exciting flavor combinations and restaurant-quality flavors.

Despite its gourmet menu, Blue Apron’s meal kits are accessible and easy to make. Look for dishes marked with the Fast & Easy tag for low-prep recipes. To save even more time and energy, the Ready to Cook tag highlights dishes that come oven ready in a recyclable baking tin.

In their detailed review of Blue Apron, my colleague was particularly impressed with the service’s unique flavors. Blue Apron’s menu has elevated takes on classic American dishes like cheeseburgers and roasted chicken as well as international flavors like truffle pasta and shakshuka.

Unfortunately, Blue Apron doesn’t cater to many specialized diets. It’s not a great choice for dietary needs like keto, vegan, or allergies. Other services on my list, like Factor and Green Chef, are better suited for these diets.

Blue Apron has a decent vegetarian menu, as well as a Wellness menu with carb-conscious dishes, though there are only around 4 recipes for either on any given week. This is great for an omnivore like me who likes to have some vegetarian recipes or the occasional low-carb meal.

My favorite feature about this service is its add-ons. For any weekly order, you can choose from à la carte appetizers, desserts, snacks, sides, and even microwaveable Heat & Eat prepared meals to add no-effort, single-serving lunches and dinners to your shipment.

Blue Apron’s most unique feature, however, is its wine delivery service. Whether or not you have a meal subscription, you can order high-quality wines from around the world. Blue Apron’s recipe cards even include guidelines for you to choose the perfect wine pairing for each dish.

Overall, Blue Apron has many features that earn it the top spot on my list. Almost anyone will find meals to enjoy, and the recipes are exciting from week to week so you’ll never get bored.

The more you order, the lower your cost. Pricing starts at $5.74 per serving for the maximum order. You can order 2-4 meals for 2 or 4 people each week.

2. Factor – Best Prepared Meal Delivery Service

Factor specializes in prepared meals that are delivered fresh and ready for you to heat and enjoy. These single-serving lunches and dinners come in a range of cuisines, from Thai-inspired tofu dishes to Italian-style pasta dishes and many more.

Unlike most prepared meals, Factor’s dishes are never frozen. This explains why my colleague’s review raves about the flavor of Factor’s meals. More than flavor, though, Factor’s real mission is to provide healthy meals for all lifestyles.

Every dish on Factor’s menu is designed to be nutritionally balanced. You’ll get lean proteins, large servings of vegetables, and limited starches and sugars. The dishes taste great, but don’t be surprised when your burger comes without a bun!

The majority of Factor’s menu is catered to the needs of keto dieters. This means high-protein, low-carb dishes. A smaller portion of the menu is dedicated to vegan and vegetarian meals. The balance used to be 50-50, but now there are only around 5 plant-based meals each week.

Factor also offers online meetings with dietitians and nutrition coaches. This is a unique feature you won’t find with many other meal delivery services. If you need help forming healthy eating habits, you can schedule a free introductory session with a Factor subscription.

In addition to an impressive 35 dishes on the menu each week, Factor has a number of à la carte items that you can add to any shipment. These add-ons include breakfasts, smoothies, snacks, and protein packs to round out your weekly nutritional needs.

Factor is ideal if you don’t want your busy lifestyle to get in the way of a healthy diet. It’s also great for anyone who wants support from a registered dietitian. Vegans and vegetarians will likely find the selection a little too limiting for a full week of dinners, but meat-eaters have plenty of options on Factor’s menu.

Prices start at $6.19 per single-serving meal, but you have to commit to the maximum order size to get the best value. Subscription sizes range between 6-18 meals per week.

3. HelloFresh – Best Family-Friendly Meal Kits

HelloFresh’s broad menu has something for just about everyone. More than its competitors, this service tries to be a one-stop shop for anyone in the market for a meal kit. No matter your dietary needs or preferences, there’s almost certainly something on the menu for you.

The massive menu has more than 50 recipes, and HelloFresh’s customization options expand it even further. For example, the popular Beef and Black Bean Quesadilla dish can be upgraded to include organic beef or made vegetarian by omitting the meat altogether.

HelloFresh also has unique recipe categories on its menu. Keep an eye out for Premium Picks, which offer gourmet recipes with ingredients like steak. These come with a variable upcharge of a few dollars per serving. Other recipe tags include Fast & Fresh, Brunch, 10-Min Lunch, and Hall of Fame. The cuisine is largely American with some international flavors.

There are usually 2 vegan dishes on the menu each week. Many services don’t offer vegan meals at all, so it’s great to see these offered. However, that doesn’t leave much choice or flexibility for strict vegans who want more than 2 meals per week.

HelloFresh excels at making easy, family-friendly meal kits. It claims to test each recipe 200 times to ensure quality. I can’t say how true that number is, but I can tell you our HelloFresh reviewer found the recipes they tried really easy to follow.

The Family Friendly menu is best for easy, kid-approved flavors. The company’s other menus include Fit & Wholesome, Pescatarian, and Quick and Easy.

HelloFresh lets you order from the full menu at any time, regardless of what plan you choose at signup. This makes HelloFresh a great service for anyone who craves variety or simply wants a large selection of meal kits.

Price per serving drops the more you order. Prices start at $3.32 per serving, but the exact rate depends on the size of your order. HelloFresh lets you order anywhere from 2-6 meals for 2 or 4 people each week..

4. Green Chef – Best Certified Organic Meal Delivery Service

Green Chef stands out for its commitment to organic, ethically sourced ingredients and sustainable practices. Organic produce contains fewer synthetic chemicals, organic beef and chicken are raised with high animal welfare standards, and organic products in general are held to a higher standard of quality.

This makes Green Chef a great meal kit option for anyone striving to eat cleaner and healthier. Our tried-and-tested review goes into more detail on the ingredients, recipes, and everything else that makes Green Chef our favorite organic meal kit delivery service.

Green Chef’s 30 weekly menu items are divided into categories based on dietary preference, like Fast & Fit, Gluten-Free, and Vegetarian. You have access to the full menu every week, though, so don’t worry about having enough choices.

Green Chef is a good choice for larger households. You can order for as many as 6 people per week (and up to 4 meals). You can change the size of your order whenever you want – just make sure to do it before the next week’s cutoff date.

Green Chef doesn’t currently offer prepared meals, so you’ll still have to do some chopping and slicing. However, its meal kits are accessible to all skill levels, and they’re easier than other services thanks to the pre-made ingredients like spice blends, sauces, and dressings.

Rounding out Green Chef’s menu is a selection of add-ons. These extra menu items change weekly, but generally include organic proteins as well as light lunches and a variety of breakfasts like vegan oatmeal and keto-friendly egg bites.

Overall, Green Chef is one of the best meal kits for ingredient quality. Being certified Organic makes it one of the pricier meal delivery services on my list, but the quality is worth it if you can fit it into your budget.

Prices for this organic meal kit vary depending on the order size and start at $5.99 per serving. You can order 3-4 meals for 2, 4, or 6 people each week. There’s also an option to get just 2 meals per week, but only on the 4-person plan.

5. Home Chef – Best Meal Delivery Service for Customization

Home Chef’s protein customization feature is the best thing about this service. Most services don’t offer customization at all, and those that do usually just give you the option to add or upgrade a single ingredient. With Home Chef, you’ll have multiple protein options for most dishes.

With 30+ unique recipes each week, Home Chef already has a pretty big menu. The potential customizations greatly expand these options. For example, you can order an enchilada dish with steak, shrimp, or chicken. Meatball dishes can come with ground beef, turkey, or pork. Whatever protein suits your taste buds.

Despite all these customization options, however, Home Chef isn’t great for vegetarians. As we discovered in our tried-and-tested Home Chef review, plant-based protein swaps are rarely available, and there are only 1-2 vegetarian dishes on the menu each week.

Vegans will have an even more difficult time finding suitable dishes. Ultimately, Home Chef is really only suited for people whose diets include animal protein. Green Chef is a much better choice for plant-forward dishes, with dedicated veggie and vegan plans. 

Home Chef’s dietary options are more varied for omnivores. The main menu lets you filter for carb-conscious and calorie-conscious dishes. There aren’t menus for specialized diets like keto or paleo, but you may find suitable dishes for these diets by checking each recipe’s ingredients and nutritional breakdown.

There are additional filters to exclude certain ingredients like nuts and shellfish, whether for an allergy or simply a matter of taste preference. Home Chef doesn’t claim to be an allergy-friendly service, however, and it can’t guarantee against cross-contamination.

Home Chef’s menu is also full of fun extras, bundles, and other add-ons each week. These include breakfast items, snacks, soups, salads, breads, desserts, protein packs, beverages, and more. There are even bundles, like a breakfast duo of croissant sandwiches and canned lattes, for easy meal ideas.

Overall, Home Chef’s extensive menu and customization options make it a great choice for anyone who doesn’t have particular dietary needs.

Pricing is lowest for the largest order and starts at $7.99 per serving, and you can order anywhere from 2-6 meals for 2, 4, or 6 people. Each item on the menu is individually priced, however, so what you pay depends on what you order.

6. Fresh and Easy – Fastest Meal Kits

Fresh and Easy is a collection of Home Chef’s speediest meal kits for people who never want to spend more than 30 minutes in the kitchen. The fact that it’s actually part of Home Chef’s service makes it a unique entry on my list.

This service is also special because of its recipes. Most services offer microwavable prepared meals or cook-it-yourself meal kits. Fresh and Easy sits somewhere in between, offering shortcuts and simple recipes that are quick to prepare in the microwave, oven, or on the stovetop.

The menu has tags that categorize each style of speedy prep. Express recipes are quick and easy meal kits. Oven-Ready meals require almost no prep and include a recyclable oven-safe tin. Fast & Fresh recipes take advantage of the microwave to get meals on the table in minutes.

Like Home Chef, Fresh and Easy also comes with customization options for many dishes, so you can pick your protein. On the negative side, Fresh and Easy isn’t suitable for vegetarians or most other diets. Just like Home Chef, the menu relies on animal proteins too much to be a reliable option for vegans or vegetarians. It also has limited support for food allergies.

If you don’t have serious allergies or strict dietary needs, however, Fresh and Easy can be a game changer. In my Fresh and Easy review, I discovered that this service really delivers on its promise of convenience.

To clarify, Fresh and Easy isn’t a standalone meal delivery service. It’s a line of easy prep meal kits on Home Chef’s menu. When you sign up, you can access all the meals from either service.

Pricing for Fresh and Easy starts at $7.99 per serving, and you can order 2-6 meals for 2, 4, or 6 people. As with Home Chef, every menu item is individually priced.

7. BistroMD – Best Meal Delivery Service For Weight Loss

BistroMD is the only service on my list specially designed for dieting and weight loss, though other meal delivery services offer low-calorie, low-carb or other plans that can help you lose weight.

The Signature Program includes 150+ breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks to help you lose weight. These frozen prepared meals are nutritionally balanced and intended to replace most of your weekly food.

Dishes on the weekly rotating menu are chef-prepared to be as delicious as possible. My colleague had some great things to say about the food in their BistroMD review, but keep in mind these are still frozen diet meals.

The dishes are all recognizable, but you’ll find some with more complex and creative flavors like Jerk Spiced Tilapia and Stuffed Grape Leaves. There are also breakfast options like omelets and waffles as well as healthy snacks like bars and crackers.

BistroMD offers 7 weight-loss programs, all designed to help people with different dietary needs. The programs include Heart Healthy, Gluten Free, Keto Flex, Diabetic Friendly, and Menopause as well as separate plans for men and women. A vegetarian plan is possible, but you have to sign up for the Signature plan and contact customer service to omit meat dishes.

These specialized programs let you choose the right plan for your particular dietary needs. However, the menus are all much smaller than the basic Signature Program. Most offer around 100 rotating recipes compared to the Signature Program’s 150+.

BistroMD offers a rotating menu, which means it rarely adds new dishes. Instead, your weekly meals are selected from a static collection of 150+ recipes. This means that you’ll eventually end up repeating meals after a few months.

Overall, BistroMD isn’t going to be the best choice for everyone. It caters to the specific needs of certain kinds of dieters. If you’re a picky eater or aren’t trying to lose weight, you’ll likely prefer something else on my list.

BistroMD is, however, one of my top recommendations for people trying to lose weight with a meal delivery service.

Prices start at $8.24 per serving on the largest plan, which includes all your meals for a week. Plan options include 2-3 meals a day for 5 or 7 days.

8. Purple Carrot – Best Vegan Meal Delivery Service

Several services on my list offer vegan meals, but most have only a limited selection. Purple Carrot offers a purely plant-based menu, making it suitable for strict vegans or anyone who simply wants to enjoy some plant-powered meals.

Purple Carrot celebrates vegetables rather than relying on processed meat substitutes. Though it may not be the top choice for most meat eaters and omnivores, I’m really fond of this service and found it a great way to eat more veggies. And to clarify: I’m very much an omnivore!

My Purple Carrot review walks you through my experience testing the service for myself. I tried several weeks’ worth of meal kits, and I found many dishes that I plan to make again. Each week’s recipes come in a reusable booklet, making it easy to revisit your favorites.

Though I only tried the meal kits, Purple Carrot also offers prepared meals. These microwavable vegan dinners can help you save time on busy weeknights or when you’re on the go. The service also has a Less Prep menu with speedy features like pre-made sauces and pre-chopped produce.

Beyond dinner, Purple Carrot’s menu includes breakfasts and lunches. These lighter meal kits are in the Less Prep category and ready within 15 minutes. Check out the Plantry for à la carte snacks, desserts, and grocery items like black bean burgers to add to any order.

Purple Carrot doesn’t guarantee organic produce, though most of this service’s non-produce items (like tofu and nut-based products) are organic. It also claims to source the highest possible quality of ingredients and to be seeking consistent sources of organic products.

Purple Carrot is a great way to get a taste of quality, veggie-forward recipes. I’m a firm believer that everyone should try eating plant-based meals on occasion – or at least be open to trying new ways to enjoy delicious vegetables. It would also be a great choice for people just starting a vegan diet.

Purple Carrot’s pricing starts at $8.50 per serving, but the number and type of meals you order will affect this. You may order 3-4 meal kits for 2 people or 2-3 meal kits for 4 people each week. You can also subscribe for 6, 8, or 10 single-serving prepared meals per week.

9. Dinnerly – Best For Meals on a Budget

Even though many meal delivery services help you save money compared to buying groceries or dining out, it can still sometimes feel like you’re spending a lot of money. This isn’t the case with Dinnerly, which offers some of the most affordable meal kits around.

Despite the low price point, Dinnerly actually has an impressive menu of 100+ recipes. This includes everything from breakfasts and desserts to easy lunches and, of course, dinners. There are also some unique items like a BBQ Chicken Sliders appetizer and a small selection of prepared, heat-and-eat meals.

My favorite thing about Dinnerly is its many diet options. You’ll find around 5 vegan dinners and 25+ vegetarian-friendly recipes on the menu every week. Our reviewer loved that Dinnerly also has handy tags to note which recipes are low-carb, kid-friendly, and other useful categories.

On the downside, there’s a trade-off for such low prices. The dishes are simple and rarely contain more than 6 or 7 ingredients. This makes them easy to prepare, but don’t expect gourmet meals.

With the money you save, you may consider splurging on Dinnerly’s PremiYUM meals, which offer slightly more complex recipes at a small, per-serving upcharge. (The amount of the upcharge varies by meal.)

Overall, I think Dinnerly is a great choice for households who want a low-budget meal kit. The simpler flavors and basic recipes are a small sacrifice for the affordable price you pay.

Dinnerly’s meal kits start at just $2.12 per serving, which makes it easily the cheapest service on my list. However, you have to sign up for the maximum order size to pay the lowest price per serving. You may order anywhere from 3-6 recipes for 2 or 4 people.

10. Marley Spoon – Most Sustainable Meal Delivery Service

Marley Spoon has an obvious marketing angle thanks to its partnership with Martha Stewart. To be honest, I was originally expecting this to be its only draw. However, I quickly found a lot more to love about this service.

Marley Spoon has an unmatched dedication to the environment. It’s the only meal delivery service I’ve seen to include a “climatarian” tag on recipes. This highlights dishes that use only ingredients with a low carbon footprint.

The service also provides detailed information on its packaging, including the sustainably sourced cardboard it uses for its shipments. There’s also information on how Marley Spoon reduces its emissions to decrease its carbon footprint.

Marley Spoon isn’t just eco-friendly – it also offers really tasty meal kits. My colleague tested out Marley Spoon for themself and enjoyed all their dishes.

Martha’s premade signature sauces and spice blends help bring each meal kit to life. These flavorful shortcuts make it possible to cook internationally-inspired dishes like kofta, bibimbap, and Cajun-style dirty rice.

Marley Spoon’s menu includes breakfasts, appetizers, snacks, and desserts in addition to more typical lunch and dinner meal kits. There’s even a small number of microwavable prepared meals and a selection of premium dishes that come with fancier ingredients for a variable upcharge.

Marley Spoon has a huge menu, but this can feel like more of a con than a pro. Despite the useful tags, there’s not actually an easy way to filter and sort the menu. This makes it more time-consuming for anyone with particular dietary needs or preferences.

Prices start at $2.99 per serving, with higher prices for smaller orders. You can sign up for anywhere from 2-6 meals per week for 2 or 4 people.

Quick Comparison Table

Tips for Choosing the Best Meal Delivery Service

Based on my team’s experiences testing and writing about meal delivery services, I’ve narrowed down what to look out for in a high-quality meal delivery service:

• Flexible plans: You don’t want to get penalized for skipping a week if you’re going out of town, right? The best services make it easy to tailor your subscription to your needs.

• Menu variety: Nobody wants to eat the same thing every day. The best meal delivery services offer large, varied menus with plenty of choices or dynamic menus that offer new recipes every week.

• Support for dietary preferences: Whether you’re gluten-free or pescatarian, you should be able to order meals that cater to your needs without stress or uncertainty.

• Affordability: Meal subscriptions work out much cheaper than regular takeout, but in order for it to remain a long-term solution, it should fit within your budget. Make sure to factor in recurring shipping costs, too.

• Ingredients: Everything in your box should be fresh and ethically sourced. Many services also make it easy to get organic and non-GMO options, too, either as standard or as an upgrade.

• Stress-free prep: Whether you’re following a recipe or reheating a prepared meal, you should be able to enjoy your food within a set time frame (usually a few minutes for ready meals and up to 30 minutes for meal kits).

FAQ

What’s the highest rated prepared meal delivery service?

Blue Apron is my top-ranked service thanks to its impressive, gourmet meals and optional wine pairings. Its add-ons, which include microwavable prepared meals, helped give it the edge to earn the top spot.

Which meal delivery service is easiest?

Prepared meal delivery services like Factor are the quickest and easiest to enjoy. You can order up to 18 single-serving meals each week, and all that stands between you and your meal is 3 minutes in the microwave!

What’s the healthiest meal delivery service?

Purple Carrot’s “food as medicine” philosophy makes it one of the most holistically healthy meal delivery services on my list. Its veggie-powered recipes rely on natural flavors rather than processed ingredients.

Is there something better than HelloFresh?

Blue Apron came out on top of HelloFresh on my list. The two services are neck-and-neck in many ways. Blue Apron has more gourmet meals with optional wine pairings, but HelloFresh has a bigger selection of family-friendly recipes.

What is the most affordable prepared meal delivery service?

Dinnerly is the most affordable meal delivery service on my list. It specializes in meal kits, but there are a number of easy prep options available. Factor is my top choice for microwavable prepared meals, but expect to pay more per serving.

Best Meal Delivery Services in 2023 — Final Score