EveryPlate vs. Blue Apron 2023: Budget or Gourmet Meals?

The question of EveryPlate vs. Blue Apron seems easy to answer on a surface level. But I don’t personally believe that EveryPlate’s affordability is the only variable. Yes, it’s definitely more affordable, but there’s a lot more to the story than price. Both competitors bring some interesting things to the table – so find out about all the key differences in this article.

I’ve thoroughly researched and compared both companies to deliver my verdict to you. I took a lot of factors into consideration. For instance, I’ve looked at the overall variety of meals, ingredient quality, pricing, prep time, customization options, ease of use, and even customer service. No stone has been left unturned, so to speak.

My findings have revealed EveryPlate as the winner. It has 3 great things going for it: a larger overall menu, much quicker meal kits, and more affordable pricing than Blue Apron. The service will better cater to families with kids who enjoy mainstream meals. But some people may still prefer Blue Apron’s premium meal kits and prepared meals – so let’s dive right in.

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety

Winner: EveryPlate

EveryPlate wins this category since it offers 25+ choices each week. This is compared to Blue Apron’s 20-ish options. It may not offer the most interesting cuisines or meals, but the sheer quantity of family-friendly classics makes up for that.

The meals are all kits, which take around 15 to 50 minutes to prepare. Most fall somewhere in the middle – so make sure to check out my Meal Prep section for details about that. What I can tell you for certain is that the meals are super easy to prepare and require only 6 steps each.

Aside from that, you’re looking at mostly classic American fare with some other cuisines sprinkled in. Examples include Italian, French-inspired, Japanese, Latin American-influenced, Mediterranean, Caribbean (Cuban), and a few others. 

Since it’s mostly classic American fare, I’d say that around 90% of the menu is kid-friendly. You’ll find options like Baja Shrimp Tacos, Cowboy Beef Mac ‘N’ Cheese, Monty Jack Burgers, and others.

You’ll also find a decent range of extras, add-ons, and sides to complement your meals. Examples include Caesar salad, Asian-inspired sesame salad, mac and cheese, Gumbo, soups, and different garlic breads. There are also some protein add-ons like ground beef, steak, shrimp, chicken breast strips, or entire chicken breasts.

However, don’t expect to find any desserts at EveryPlate. It’s a budget-oriented service, after all – so if you want those kinds of things, you’re better served by Blue Apron! Speaking of which, here’s what Blue Apron offers.

Blue Apron doesn’t offer as many menu options, but that’s not to say it’s not a great option. Quite the contrary, actually. If you prefer higher-quality meals, premium ingredients, exotic recipes and cuisines, a literal ton of extras, add-ons, sides, snacks, desserts, wines, and market items, Blue Apron is a fantastic choice.

You only get about 20 or so weekly meals, which isn’t as many as EveryPlate, but the meals certainly have a few tricks up their sleeves.

But unlike EveryPlate, Blue Apron offers different styles and categories of meals. These include Ready To Cook (oven-ready), Premium, Craft, Wellness, and a few more. It does have a vegetarian tag as well, but the options here are somewhat limited. You can read more about dietary preferences in the Meal Customization section.

The meals tend to be much more exotic than EveryPlate’s. When you consider dishes like the Glazed Pork Belly & Ramen Noodles from the Craft menu category (pictured), you’ll see what I mean.

I found that less than half the menu comprises kid-friendly options. Examples here include the Poblano Pork Sausage Quesadillas and the Bacon & Tomato Grilled Cheese. The rest of the meals comprise ingredients that may just be a little too “spicy” or “exciting” for children under the age of around 14 to 16, in my opinion – but that’s certainly up to you and your kids to decide!

Aside from the main meal kits, Blue Apron offers more prepared meals than before. In the past, you could expect around 6 prepared meals per week, but that number seems to have increased to 8. When you visit the Blue Apron website, click on the Add-Ons menu to see the prepared meals.

The prepared meals take around 2 to 3 minutes to heat up in the microwave, so they’re more convenient than the meal kits. But 8 meals isn’t really all that many, if you ask me. You can find options like the Spicy Cavatappi & Beef Bolognese and Spanish-Style Beef & Rice.

These prepared meals also don’t seem to rotate very frequently, if at all. I’ve seen the same handful of prepared meals on the menu over the last year, at least. Therefore, I wouldn’t get too excited about that.

If you’re primarily looking for prepared meals, I highly recommend Factor. It only offers prepared meals – and they happen to be some of the best on the market right now. By the way, I recently tried Factor for myself and was blown away by the quality.

Speaking of prepared meals, the meal kits are also more complex to prepare than those from EveryPlate. Each meal has more preparation steps, and each tends to take longer, on average, than those from EveryPlate. Blue Apron’s meals take around 20 to 50 minutes to prepare.

That covers the main meals – but Blue Apron is known for having a huge selection of extras. For example, you can find some food-related add-ons like muffins, quick salads, soups, and desserts like tiramisu bread pudding and tropical fruit bars.

However, when it comes to protein add-ons, there aren’t as many compared to EveryPlate. Examples include bacon, shrimp, pulled chicken, and chicken breast pieces. The EveryPlate menu has more of these.

But that’s not all – remember the Blue Apron market I told you about? It’s chock-full of various kitchen utensils, devices, tools, spices, wine bundles, and even meal kit bundles. You’ll also periodically find seasonal holiday boxes from Blue Apron for Christmas and Thanksgiving, as 2 examples.

I couldn’t possibly list all of Blue Apron’s market items here, so I highly recommend checking out the site for yourself. Some brief examples include pots, pans, aprons, tongs, knives, cutting boards, garlic presses, recipe binders, baking trays, cheese graters, and tons more.

Sample Meals

EveryPlate

EveryPlate doesn’t have any filters on its menu, but each recipe has tags on it that help you identify suitable dishes. Each recipe also tells you the cooking time. The add-ons menu is separate from the main menu, so you can browse this without having to scroll through the entire entree menu first.

• Best Premium meal: Hotel Butter Steak with Green Beans Amandine & Crispy Potato Rounds

• Best 30 Minute Or Less meal: Jammin’ Fig Pork Chops with Broccoli & Crispy Potatoes

• Best Customer Fave: Monty Jack Burgers with Potato Wedges, Caramelized Onion & Garlicky Horseradish Sauce

• Best veggie dish: Roasted Zucchini & Bell Pepper Penne in Tuscan-Spiced Cream Sauce

Blue Apron

Similar to EveryPlate, tags help you identify the recipes that align with your dietary needs when you browse the full menu. If you click on 1 of the menu plans, such as Wellness, at the top of the main menu, this will show you just the recipes that fit that menu.

• Best Ready To Cook meal: Three Cheese Lasagna with Pesto & Spinach

• Best Premium recipe: Southern-Spiced Duck & Corn Sauté over Smoked Gouda Grits

• Best meal with 600 calories or less: Sweet & Spicy Shrimp over Cilantro Rice, Carrots & Green Beans

• Best carb-conscious recipe: Chicken & Mushroom Agrodolce with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes & Broccoli

Meal Customization

Winner: Blue Apron 

Blue Apron offers some basic customization swaps. You’ll find a drop-down box on the recipe page where this is available. This option is focused on making a slight change to the protein in the meal, for example switching Bistro Steaks for Flank Steaks or swapping salmon for shrimp. You can also add meat or fish to some veggie recipes. 

There isn’t an easy way to filter the menu for allergies with either service. Instead, you’ll have to look up a full breakdown of the ingredients by clicking on each individual recipe you’re considering.

Neither service has much in the way of options for niche diets such as keto, paleo, or gluten-free. Both services have vegetarian options, but nothing in the way of vegan meals. An advantage of meal kits is that you can make swaps at home. Many of the vegetarian recipes can be made vegan by swapping the dairy ingredients for vegan alternatives.

On the Blue Apron website, you can find meals under different plans using the small tags underneath the name of the dish. Hovering over the tags doesn’t tell you what they mean, but thankfully they’re self-explanatory (a green leaf for vegetarian meals, and the Wellness tag helpfully just says “Wellness”).

That said, Blue Apron offers 4 main plans: Wellness, Family Friendly, Fast & Easy, and Veggies. You’re free to mix and match these at any time. It’s a bit odd to me that the Plans section of the site shows different names than the primary menu, so make of that what you will.

If you’re looking for a simple, well-balanced plan, you can take advantage of the Signature plan for either 2 or 4 people. Once you select your meals, you can’t customize the specific ingredients, but everything does come individually wrapped if you want to omit a certain item from a dish.

With EveryPlate, the menu itself is broken down into a few different categories. The main menu is the standard offering, with a little bit of everything included. Like Blue Apron, there are some tags to help you understand what you’re looking at. Tags include Veggie, Customer Fave, 30 Minutes Or Less, Easy Cleanup, and more.

The Our Plans section shows 5 categories: Meat & Veggie, Veggie, Family Faves, Quick & Easy, and Nutrish & Delish. Again, none of these companies seem to be masters of naming conventions. But at least you’re free to mix and match plans at any time, just like with Blue Apron.

Ingredient Quality and Nutrition

Winner: Blue Apron 

Again, Blue Apron wins this category. The ingredients Blue Apron uses tend to be much more premium than EveryPlate’s, and it makes sense. Since EveryPlate is a much more affordable service, compromises are to be expected.

Blue Apron is all about the “humane treatment of animals raised for meat and poultry”, whatever that means. It’s pretty difficult to quantify such ambiguous statements with data or facts. Any company is free to use any marketing buzzwords in its website copy.

But what I can say is that the company claims a few things that might interest you. For instance, the website says that “none of the suppliers use any growth promoters, such as added hormones, sub-therapeutic antibiotics, or beta-agonists”. Also, Blue Apron mostly uses pasteurized dairy products. Okay, that’s great to know!

On the other hand, EveryPlate’s ingredient information is even more ambiguous. For instance, it just says that the company makes it its first priority to get to know its suppliers and that it ensures “the highest quality of all ingredients”. High quality to EveryPlate may not mean high quality to you, however.

In terms of nutrition, each company offers different information. You’ll find more information on the site about each meal’s exact ingredients. This includes a comprehensive nutritional label similar to what you’ll find on foods in your local supermarket. EveryPlate’s labels aren’t as in-depth or complete.

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing

Winner: It’s a tie

Blue Apron makes ordering and selecting meals easy on its website. You can update your amounts and dates each week using the account features. Plus, Blue Apron offers a minimum order of 2 meals with 2 servings each week.

Both services offer delivery based on your zip code. Each order will arrive in a nicely packaged box that can stay cool if you aren’t home when it arrives.

Packaging is recyclable in most municipalities, but there does seem to be quite a bit of plastic used in the Blue Apron boxes. Both services wrap the ingredients individually.

It’s hard to avoid completely, but EveryPlate uses paper in some spots where it can. Both services offer extensive recycling information on their respective websites about how to recycle different packaging materials.

EveryPlate offers delivery 7 days a week, but you aren’t able to choose exactly which day your food will come. It depends on your zip code and availability. You can update your personal options on your account on the website.

The minimum order for EveryPlate is 3 meals each with 2 servings per week (which is a little higher than Blue Apron.) Once your box arrives, everything is packaged in recyclable materials and labeled to make it easy to find and organize when it’s time to prep and make dinner.

EveryPlate recommends consuming meals with seafood first, and everything else within 5 days. Meals containing seafood should be consumed within 2 days. In terms of freezing, the site simply says “do not freeze ingredients”.

Blue Apron, on the other hand, has in-depth food storage and safety guidelines. But summed up, it states that seafood should be consumed within 2 days. Cheese, dairy, and eggs should be stored below 40°F, and meat and poultry should be stored according to the label printed on the package.

Meal Prep

Winner: EveryPlate

EveryPlate wins here because its meals, on average, take less time to prepare than Blue Apron’s. Yes, Blue Apron does offer prepared meals as well, which take less time – but I’m mostly talking about “on average”.

For instance, most of EveryPlate’s meals are ready in about 30 minutes. Some take longer, and some take less. Blue Apron’s meals, on the other hand, generally take over 30 minutes to prepare thanks to its complex meal prep and fancy ingredients.

Now, I’m not here to tell you to go with EveryPlate or Blue Apron – I’m simply here to share my findings with you. If you want meals that are faster, go with EveryPlate. If you want meals that are more exciting, go with Blue Apron.

Each service’s meals come fresh, and never frozen, which is great to see. To me, that signifies high-quality meals from both companies.

Blue Apron also provides some great resources for new cooks. You can find videos on the website that walk you through each step if you’re struggling to figure out the right technique for something.

EveryPlate operates in a similar fashion to the meal kits from Blue Apron. You’ll receive a box of the ingredients along with a recipe card that includes a step-by-step instruction guide to make each of the meals. All ingredients should be refrigerated and used within a week of delivery.

There’s some prep work required to chop vegetables, but you’ll receive all the necessary information. The options and instructions are a bit more simplistic than Blue Apron and the recipes are simple and perfect for beginners.

Customer Support

Winner: EveryPlate

EveryPlate wins this category. It offers phone and live chat support, but the live chat support is available 24/7. Phone support is available from Monday to Friday from 6 am at +1 (973) 210-4915.

Additionally, EveryPlate has an in-depth and searchable FAQ database. It answers most questions that you might have. However, I always enjoy speaking to an agent directly in case some of the FAQ information is outdated.

Blue Apron also offers several ways to contact the support team. Phones and live chat are available from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 9 pm ET and+ Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm ET at (888) 278-4349.

However, I couldn’t get Blue Apron’s live chat feature to load, sadly. I tried on 3 separate browsers on my Mac (Firefox, Chrome, and Safari), to no avail. It doesn’t make much sense to me, though, since I’ve tried it many times in the past with no issues. When it does work, live chat is actually super helpful. Most of the time, the agents were very friendly.

And, just like EveryPlate, you can always check out the FAQ section, which is searchable. It answers many questions that may arise. But just like with EveryPlate, I still always prefer contacting someone from the live chat team (when it decides to work properly!).

Both services can be canceled directly from your account page. If you’re not totally sure about canceling, both have the option to skip several weeks or pause your account, which allows for easy reactivation should you change your mind.

Pricing

Winner: EveryPlate

Simply put – EveryPlate is the most affordable meal delivery service on the market. The meals start at $1.49 per serving. Virtually no other service even comes close.

Shipping is always $9.99 per week with EveryPlate, but the starting prices do vary a little depending on the number of servings you order. The lowest price is available for any 4-serving box, but it goes up a little for the smaller 2-serving boxes. EveryPlate also offers a discount for new customers – Try Everyplate at $1.49/Meal.

Blue Apron is priced a little higher at $5.74 per serving. The starting price is for the maximum amount of servings, which is 4 servings of 4 meals in the box. The per-serving price goes up a bit when you order fewer meals or if you make an order for just 2 people.

Shipping costs a bit more at Blue Apron, at $10.99 per box. There are also add-ons like wine and market items that you can shop for on the website. These will appear as separate pricing and shipping structures that you’ll see before you check out. There’s always a great promotion when you sign up as well that can help save money – Enjoy $150 off across your first 6 orders.

EveryPlate vs. Blue Apron — Quick Overview

And The Winner Is: EveryPlate

Overall, EveryPlate is my winner. It not only offers more affordable pricing than any other meal delivery service, but it also has a wider range of meals than Blue Apron. Its meals are easier to prepare with only 6 simple steps, they’re more family and kid-friendly, and they take less time than those from Blue Apron.

But please don’t take this as me suggesting that Blue Apron isn’t worthy of your time. Quite the contrary. Some of you may prefer premium ingredients, more exotic cuisines, and more complex and tastier meals and recipes (albeit, less kid-friendly). In that case, you might just be fine with the higher prices at Blue Apron.

You may also want to add some extras to your order that EveryPlate doesn’t offer. Examples include kitchen gadgets, tools, utensils, spices, prepared meals, and even wine boxes and seasonal holiday boxes. If that’s the case, I recommend Blue Apron.

FAQ

Why is EveryPlate so cheap?

It’s more affordable because it does some basic things very well. For example, its meals are simpler, quicker to prepare, and only require 6 simple steps. You won’t find high-end, fancy, or exotic ingredients here that could inflate the prices. What you do get is a solid collection of meals that are simple to make, kid- and family-friendly, and easy on the wallet.

Do premium meals cost more on EveryPlate?

Yes. There are a handful of meals in the Premium category that have a small upcharge. You can expect to pay around $4 to $5 more per serving for these. For all other meals, pricing starts at $1.49 per serving.

Are meal delivery services good for people who never cook?

Yes and no. If you’re not interested in cooking and just want to heat your meals and eat them, there are services for that. For those who want to learn to cook, EveryPlate, for example, offers an abundance of meal kits that only take around 30 minutes on average. Each recipe requires 6 simple steps that anyone can complete – and that includes even the most green beginners.