Gobble vs. HelloFresh 2023: Are Prepped Ingredients Better?

Gobble and HelloFresh are great options for speedy and exciting meal kit recipes. So if you love the idea of cooking up a storm in the kitchen but find yourself short on time, one of these services may help you solve the problem. 

When I compared dinner and lunch options, it became clear that HelloFresh was the better option. I can attest that Gobble is certainly the quickest service and features 15-minute meal kits and a variety of options from breakfast to dessert. 

HelloFresh features a bigger menu with family-friendly dinner, lunch, and breakfast options. You also have more freedom when it comes to meal customization and more flexible meal plans.

To learn more about HelloFresh and Gobble and see what sets them apart, make sure to keep reading!

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety

Winner: HelloFresh 

In terms of numbers, HelloFresh’s menu offers more than double the number of recipes. HelloFresh welcomes you each week with around 70 meal kit options, while Gobble only has 14 main meal recipes. 

Moreover, HelloFresh has a huge Marketplace where you can add variety to your box by purchasing sides, desserts, breakfasts, ready-made meals, and more. This is much more extensive than the small selection of desserts, salads, breakfasts, and soups from Gobble.

Even though HelloFresh’s meal kits need some prep work, most recipes are easy to prepare. The menu includes a wide variety of recipes suitable for families with fussy eaters (children or adults). There’s a good mix of lean meat, seafood, red meat, fish, and veggie-forward recipes.

Most of HelloFresh’s recipes are quite simple, ranging from burgers to pasta dishes. Still, if you want a fancy meal, you won’t be short of recipes like Pepita-Crusted Salmon or Honey Miso Broccoli Donburi. Just because a dish is simple doesn’t mean it has less flavor. HelloFresh is focused on using the freshest ingredients to improve taste.

HelloFresh also excels when it comes to cuisine variety. The menu offers international dishes, including Italian, Indian, French, Asian, and Mexican dishes. Still, more than half of the menu is made up of American classics, like Crispy Buffalo-Spiced Chicken.

Vegetarian and vegan options are also available, but vegetarians have more options. You’ll find around 10 veggie-forward dishes each week and only 4 vegan ones. So if you’re not on a strictly vegan diet, you can enjoy a wide range of plant-based meals.

In addition to regular kits, HelloFresh offers speedy kits like 10-min and 15-min lunches. These rival Gobble’s 15-minute kits, but there are only about 4 options each week. Overall, cook times vary from 25 minutes to up to 55 minutes, with most recipes falling into the easy category of difficulty.

If you feel like HelloFresh’s humongous menu isn’t enough, you always have the Marketplace. This section includes anything and everything you may want from an online store, such as ready-made meals, smoothies, desserts, bundles, and so on.

Gobble offers 14-16 entrees, 6 salads and sides, 2 soups, 3 desserts, and 6 breakfasts. The company focuses on speedy, low-calorie meals that fill you with nutrients in no time. Most of the ingredients come pre-prepped, so there’s less peeling, chopping, and dicing than with HelloFresh’s meal kits.

Gobble’s menu is also varied, with internationally-inspired recipes. I found that around half the dishes are Italian, and the rest come from Thai, Korean, Mexican, or Argentinian cuisines. Unlike HelloFresh, there’s less reliance on classic American dishes.

With dishes like Petite Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche for breakfast, Gobble is best suited for adults. Even though the weekly menu includes several salad and soup recipes, there are few veggie-forward dishes and almost no vegan recipes. I do like that you can find options for breakfast and dessert.

Gobble’s recipes are designed to be turned around in 15 minutes or less. Still, you may need to reserve 20 to 25 minutes for more complex recipes. Overall, Gobble is a great meal kit service for when you want easy-to-make dinners that are nutritious and don’t load you up with calories.

Sample Meals

HelloFresh uses tags and labels to smooth out browsing its massive weekly offer. The labels indicate a dish’s popularity or special characteristics (Premium Picks or New Veggies), while the tags indicate dietary preferences and prep speed.

HelloFresh has a truly interesting menu, so choosing only a few dishes was difficult. But alas, it needed to be done, so here are my top choices:

• Best kid-friendly recipe: One-Pan Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Melts with Chicken Thighs, Green Pepper, and Spicy Cream Sauce

• Best Asian-inspired recipe: One-Pot Thai Coconut Curry Turkey Soup with Sweet Potato, Bell Pepper, Ginger, and Garlic

• Best flavorful recipe: Indian-Style Chicken Curry with Chicken Thighs, Rice, Bell Pepper, and Cilantro

• Best gourmet recipe: Balsamic & Fig Beef Tenderloin with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Rosemary Panko Brussels Sprouts

Gobble’s menu is smaller and a lot easier to browse (not just due to its size). Gobble divides its recipes into 9 categories and displays them on the left side of the menu page. These categories also act as menu filters, so if you want soup (for example), you click on the Soups category, and you’re there!

Gobble is more focused on gourmet meals, so it’s even harder to choose your favorites. But if you don’t know where to start, here are a few options I love:

• Best kid-friendly recipe: Southern-Style Pimento Mac & Cheese

• Best Asian-inspired recipe: Miso-Portobello Mushrooms with Corn Cakes and Umami-Marinated Tomatoes

• Best flavorful recipe: Shrimp Scampi with Linguine in Lemon Garlic Butter Sauce

• Best gourmet recipe: Lobster Street Tacos with Guacamole and Citrus Slaw

Meal Customization

Winner: HelloFresh

When it comes to dietary preferences, HelloFresh has a slight edge. It offers 6 meal plans – 3 of which are tailored to specific diets (Veggie, Fit & Wholesome, and Pescatarian). You can also find a good selection of meals for low-calorie and high-protein diets. These are marked with Calorie Smart and Protein Smart tags.

Some of the meals fit vegan and Mediterranean dietary needs, but the offer is limited. You also have the option to personalize 12+ recipes due to the HelloCustom feature. However, unlike the similar feature available on Home Chef, this one only lets you swap or upgrade sides or proteins.

To make it easier to find recipes, HelloFresh uses tags and labels. I would’ve loved a more advanced filtering system, but this is all you get. Overall, it’s less time-consuming than having to browse the entire menu week after week.

HelloFresh provides information about allergens in each recipe but doesn’t offer removal options. Ingredients can only be swapped if they’re proteins or side dishes, and this option isn’t available for every meal. You can choose to remove allergens while cooking, but there’s still a risk of cross-contamination since HelloFresh prepares all meal kits in the same facility.

Gobble offers only 3 plans – Classic, Lean & Clean, and Vegetarian. Similarly to HelloFresh’s Meat & Veggies plan, the Classic plan doesn’t really count as a specific dietary offering. Also, Gobble doesn’t offer that many vegetarian meals, even with the available customization options.

Gobble lets you personalize some of the meals by swapping the protein. Unlike HelloFresh, you have the possibility to choose between 2, 3, or even 4 options. For instance, the Chicken Fajitas recipe can have diced chicken breast, sustainably raised ocean shrimp, or sustainably sourced wild snapper fillets.

Each week, you’ll find a selection of meals that fit gluten-free or dairy-free dietary needs. You’ll also find dishes that can be prepared dairy-free or nut-free by removing the dairy or nuts from the recipe. The ingredients are packed separately in the box, but Gobble doesn’t guarantee there’s no risk of cross-contamination.

Gobble uses tags to showcase the spice level, bestsellers, and allergens. But, just like with HelloFresh, you can’t remove any of the ingredients. You can filter out a small list of ingredients when you place your order.

Ingredient Quality and Nutrition

Winner: HelloFresh

HelloFresh is more transparent about its suppliers and sustainability practices. The company openly names its most important suppliers, so you can do your own research if you want to learn more about ingredient quality and agricultural and farming practices.

Based on the information available on the website, HelloFresh prioritizes high-quality ingredients. All the animal proteins are obtained from farms that respect animal welfare policies for meat production. Also, the fish is ocean-farmed and Fair Trade.

In addition, HelloFresh provides detailed nutritional information for each recipe. This way, you know the exact amount of macros, calories, saturated fat, sugar, cholesterol, and sodium in each meal.

Gobble doesn’t offer supplier details, but it’s clear about the quality of the ingredients. The 2 available plans, Classic and Lean & Clean, feature dishes with quality lean proteins and healthy fats rich in omega-3.

The Classic meal plan features entrees between 700-900 calories. The Lean & Clean plan features entrees that are under 650 calories per serving and low in carbohydrates. Each dish provides details about its ingredients and full nutritional details, although you need to sign up to see this information, unlike with HelloFresh, which is much more transparent

Overall, Gobble’s meal kits include fresh, seasonal ingredients that are full of nutrients. However, since there aren’t many details on suppliers, you can’t check the farming practices or make sure the food you’re enjoying is obtained through sustainable methods.

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing

Winner: HelloFresh

Both companies offer similar ordering, delivery, and unboxing experiences. However, HelloFresh wins this category due to its commitment to creating a sustainable and eco-friendly business. Also, HelloFresh’s delivery network is more extensive.

The ordering process for both companies is straightforward, and the first order only takes a few minutes. Both Gobble and HelloFresh require you to sign up, choose your subscription plan, and input your details (including payment details) before selecting meals for your first box.

Gobble will get you to add your email and sign up before you can see the plans and pricing. With HelloFresh, the Personalize Your Plan page is the first step of the signup process, so you can get an idea of prices before adding your email address and registering with the service.

Both companies allow you to build a box for 2 or 4 people and order a number of meals per person. With HelloFresh, you can order between 2 and 6 meals per person, which is why it’s so great for families. As a side note, HelloFresh’s most popular plan is 3 meals for 2 people per week. 

Gobble only lets you order between 2 and 5 meals per person, depending on the plan. The Classic plan is the most generous, with between 2 and 5 servings per person, and the Lean & Clean and Vegetarian ones only let you order 2, 3, or 4 servings per week.

You can adjust an order or make any other changes to your plan with both HelloFresh and Gobble. HelloFresh lets you make adjustments from your online account as long as you do so by 11.59 pm (PST) at least 5 days prior to your next delivery.

With Gobble, the cutoff date is 11.59 pm, the Wednesday before your meals are scheduled to be delivered. Both companies let you view menus 4 or 5 weeks in advance, so you can manage your meals ahead of time. This way, there’s no risk that you'll forget to choose your meals before the cutoff date.

The minimum order for both companies is 2 recipes that serve 2 people per week. HelloFresh delivers to all states in the contiguous United States, but the exact delivery days depend on your zip code. For example, my location (northeastern NY State) offered delivery Tuesday through Saturday.

Likewise, Gobble delivers across the contiguous US, except for Montana. There’s also limited delivery in Nebraska, New Mexico, Kansas, and several other states. Like HelloFresh, your choice of delivery days is dependent on your zip code.

For ultimate convenience, HelloFresh has an app. This way, you can manage your account, track your delivery, and amend your meal selections right from your phone. Gobble doesn’t have an app, but its online Delivery Calendar allows you to keep tabs on your order.

When it comes to unboxing, both companies organize their ingredients well. HelloFresh packages the ingredients for each meal kit in labeled paper bags and adds the recipe cards inside the box. This way, all you have to do is choose the recipe card and find the paper bag with the ingredients.

HelloFresh uses some plastic wrapping, but only where it is deemed necessary. For instance, the meat and seafood come individually wrapped in sealed plastic packages. Also, the sauces and marinades are pre-made and come in plastic bags or containers. The veggies and other shelf-stable ingredients are often not individually wrapped (only placed in a paper bag).

Gobble, on the other hand, uses quite a lot of plastic to pack each ingredient separately. Now, considering the fact that each ingredient is either peeled and/or chopped and even marinated ahead of time for convenience, the plastic wrapping makes sense for freshness purposes.

Both companies use recyclable packaging materials, but HelloFresh is more committed. HelloFresh is actively working on reducing the amount of plastic used in its packaging, and all the other materials involved are recyclable. Also, the company is focused on running a sustainable and eco-friendly business.

Gobble’s order arrives in a cardboard box insulated by a liner and cooled down with gel packs. All of these materials can be recycled, including some of the leftover plastic (depending on your community’s rules).

Both HelloFresh and Gobble send you fresh ingredients that you store in the fridge. Each meal kit has a Best By date, so make sure to check everything out. For instance, most of the ingredients will stay fresh for 5 to 7 days, but any seafood dishes must be consumed within 2 days.

Gobble also recommends eating dishes that contain fragile herbs and leafy greens first. This way, you can make sure you get the best cooking and eating experience. And if you have any leftovers, you can freeze pasta, soups, or sauces and keep them for about 3 months.

Meal Prep

Winner: Gobble

Both companies deliver fresh, pre-portioned ingredients, but Gobble takes it one step further. Most of the ingredients are peeled, chopped, or sliced, and all the sauces and marinades are pre-made. This way, you can actually put together a delicious dinner in about 15 minutes!

Gobble’s recipes are super easy, cooked in a single pan, and on the table within 15 minutes. This saves you time before cooking, and there’s no more washing, peeling, or chopping the ingredients. There are also very few dirty dishes at the end.

HelloFresh also sends out perfectly portioned ingredients for each recipe. However, the chefs don’t do much prep work. The veggies and fruits are delivered whole, and the meat or other protein will need some dicing or chopping.

HelloFresh also offers a good selection of Easy Prep and Sheet Pan recipes. These usually take between 20 and 30 minutes to prep and cook, but on the whole, the ingredients require a lot more care and attention on your part. The recipes are also divided into difficulty levels, so you can choose meals to suit your schedule.

Customer Support

Winner: HelloFresh

HelloFresh wins this category thanks to its great app. It also offers a highly effective chatbot (with a live chat option if you ask for it) and a customer service phone number where someone is always happy to help.

To test the system, I decided to ask about allergens. When I approached the HelloFresh chatbot, it pulled up the information I needed almost immediately. It effectively scours through the FAQs to pull out the relevant information – and it did so here.

HelloFresh has always provided excellent customer service whenever I’ve needed to contact them. I’ve spoken to the company on the phone many times and found the team courteous, professional, and helpful.

Gobble offers a chatbot (with a live option), a phone number, the option to text, and a contact form. The customer support team is courteous and will try to reply as soon as possible if you reach out during working hours – Monday to Friday from 5 am to 8 pm PT and Saturday to Sunday from 5 am to 1 pm PT. Also, text support is available 24 hr.

While trying to find out how Gobble handles questions about allergens, I didn’t find the chatbot too useful. The articles it pulled up didn’t contain much information, so I sent an email and was pleasantly surprised to get a response the same day.

Both companies have detailed FAQ sections that offer lots of insightful answers. Moreover, both HelloFresh and Gobble have blogs where you can learn more about the service and recipes.

HelloFresh takes it one step further and offers an entire site section dedicated to recipes called Cookbook. You also get a lot of information on sustainability, the company’s social impact, the recyclability of packaging materials, and more.

If you want to cancel your account with either service, you can do so easily. HelloFresh lets you do this from your online account or app. At Gobble, you need to log in to your account. Make sure to make any changes before the weekly cutoff.

Pricing

Winner: HelloFresh

HelloFresh prices start at $3.32 per serving. In comparison, Gobble’s meal kits begin at $11.99 per serving, which is quite a big difference.

The best price for HelloFresh is for 4 people ordering 6 meals per week. But even if you order the most popular plan, which is 3 meals for 2 people, you’re still under Gobble’s starting price. Of the 2 companies, HelloFresh is definitely the most budget-friendly choice for busy families.

If you want to enhance your weekly delivery, HelloFresh’s Market offers a wide range of products. However, keep in mind that each product is priced individually, so your total amount can grow quite fast. Prices on the HelloFresh Market start at $7.99 for ready-made meals, and snacks or sweets cost around $4.99 per item.

With HelloFresh, you pay for the shipping separately. The fee will be calculated based on your location, but it shouldn’t be more than $11 or $12 per order (as long as you’re in the contiguous US). With Gobble, shipping is free for your first order and $8.99 thereafter.

Gobble vs. HelloFresh – Quick Overview

And The Winner Is: HelloFresh

HelloFresh takes the lead in this comparison. While Gobble excels in speedy meal preparation, HelloFresh offers a better user experience through its website and app, combined with a favorable price point.

The service caters to various household sizes. The offer is varied enough so both couples and large families can enjoy it. HelloFresh's offerings are diverse, ensuring a broad appeal.

HelloFresh has earned a spot on our top list. It's noteworthy that HelloFresh is included in our selection of the best meal delivery services. Check it out to find out more.

Your ultimate decision hinges on several key factors. If convenience, speed, and variety are paramount for you, HelloFresh emerges as the top choice.

I believe HelloFresh stands out for its overall value. Given the multiple advantages it offers, I recommend considering HelloFresh when choosing a meal delivery service.

FAQ

Is Gobble a good food delivery service?

Yes, if you want to cook gourmet, speedy meals at home and are willing to pay for such convenience. Gobble is an excellent choice as every ingredient is prepped and ready to cook – no chopping or peeling required – and cleaning up afterward is easy, too.

What is the best healthy meal delivery service?

HelloFresh may be the healthier option due to its Calorie- and Carb-Smart options. However, Gobble also has the Lean & Clean meal plan, where you can find low-calorie options. But HelloFresh is more transparent about the type of ingredients used and its suppliers, so it’s easier to see that their ingredients are better.

Why is Gobble so expensive?

Gobble is more expensive due to its focus on convenience and gourmet meals. This requires a lot of work on Gobble’s part. The chefs have to measure, peel, chop, and create sauces from scratch, so you can easily throw everything together.