Home Chef vs. EveryPlate 2024: Is Price Everything?

Home Chef and EveryPlate are popular meal-delivery services with family-friendly menus. If you’re looking to feed a hungry household, both have a great deal to offer in terms of ingredient quality and selection. But which is the right choice for you?

I compared factors like meal variety, dietary options, and pricing. I scanned ingredient lists, studied shipping rates, and examined EveryPlate and Home Chef menus. I put all my years of experience in meal delivery service reviewing to work to help you make an informed choice.

I gave Home Chef the first place trophy.  There’s great variety in the meals and lots of choices for quick meals too. Home Chef’s Customize It feature also gives you a lot of flexibility to choose exactly the recipe you want.

EveryPlate is the more budget-friendly option and offers some excellent meals, so it’s great if you're trying to save some money on food and don’t mind making some compromises. But I think Home Chef, which is also on our list of the best meal delivery services, would be a better choice for most people.

Read on to find out all the information you need on both services, including pricing, delivery options, and so much more.

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety

Winner: Home Chef

Home Chef wins here, but EveryPlate put up a good showing. EveryPlate’s menu is almost as large as Home Chef’s, and both services offer add-ons and other options. But Home Chef offers more adventurous recipes and cuisines amidst its family-friendly entrees, while EveryPlate keeps its food simple and affordable.

Home Chef offers traditional meal kits, split into a few different categories. The Chipotle Pork Lettuce Wraps pictured above are in the 15-Minute Meal Kits category. Home Chef also offers oven-ready meals that are prepped and ready to cook, as well as salad and bread bundles.

Pick from a weekly selection of globally inspired cuisines, including Asian, Mexican, and more. There are also great add-ons, like different dessert choices, breakfast options, and select appetizers.

Each week EveryPlate offers 30 different meal options and a selection of 10 to 13 add-ons. While it has a slightly smaller menu, you still get options for different dietary preferences. EveryPlate meals are generally simpler and use fewer ingredients but are still tasty and satisfying.

The EveryPlate menu sticks to simple and recognizable ingredients. You’ll usually see at least 1 Mexican-inspired dish, like tacos or quesadillas, 1 Asian dish, and sometimes different Mediterranean dishes sprinkled in as well. And EveryPlate also offers 6-8 VeggiePlate meals each week, including meals like the Mushroom Biscuit Pot Pie pictured above.

Neither Home Chef nor EveryPlate are particularly good for niche diets like paleo. Nor are they a good fit for people with serious allergies. However, Home Chef has a few meals each week – around 6 – with either a Gluten-Smart or Keto-Friendly tag (or sometimes both simultaneously).

While both services provide ingredient information, they don’t let you filter out recipes containing problematic items. I recommend those with severe sensitivities check out our list of the best allergy-friendly services.

Sample Meals

Home Chef lets you pick from a weekly selection of globally inspired cuisines, including Asian, Mexican, and more. There are also great add-ons, like different dessert choices, breakfast options, and select appetizers.

Home Chef

Home Chef changes its menu every week. I like that it offers separate menus for different styles of cooking, including regular kits, Express Plus kits, Fast & Fresh ones, Oven-Ready ones, and Bundles. Here are some of my favorite picks:

• Best quick meal kit: Steak Tostadas with Orange-Lime Salsa and Guacamole (20 to 30 mins prep time)

• Best meal kit for families: Golden BBQ Pulled Pork and Pickle Sandwich with Ranch Slaw (20 to 30 mins prep time)

• Best breakfast bundle: Sausage, Egg & Cheese Croissant & Vanilla Latte breakfast duo (5 to 10 mins prep time)

• Best meal from the Culinary Collection: Haystack Burger with Comeback Sauce and BBQ fries (40 to 50 mins prep time)

• Best vegetarian meal kit: Hatch Chile con Queso Sweet Potato Enchiladas with Black Beans and Green Onions (10 to 15 mins prep time)

EveryPlate

EveryPlate’s menu changes weekly on Saturdays. If you’re looking to switch things up, it’s easy to do that. The company doesn’t offer as extensive a range as Home Chef. However, there are still some great categories like 30 Minutes Or Less, Veggie, Easy Cleanup, Premium, Add-ons, and some others. Here are my top meal kit picks:

• Best Easy Cleanup meal kit: Arugula & Roasted Pepper Flatbreads with Red Pepper Hummus & Feta (30 minute prep time)

• Best 30 Minute Or Less meal kit: Chicken Sausage & Tomato Linguine with Parmesan (30 minute prep time)

• Best Premium meal kit: Herb Butter Steak with Roasted Broccoli & Parmesan Potatoes (35 minutes prep time)

• Best Veggie meal kit: Coconut Garden Curry with Carrot & Green Beans over Rice (35 minute prep time)

• Best breakfast items add-on: Turkey Sausage & Cheddar Egg Bites (1 minute to heat in the microwave)

Meal Customization

Winner: Home Chef

Home Chef offers Customize It options on most of its meals, which makes swapping ingredients to better fit your diet easy.

Home Chef features 4 different filters on the menu page. This will help you find recipes that are calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, less than 30 minutes to prepare, and vegetarian, quickly and easily.

In addition, the Customize It feature allows you to swap out the different proteins based on your dietary needs. Most options include different types of red or white meat depending on your diet.

EveryPlate has 5 different plans, but you can always order any item on the menu.

• ClassicPlate: The full menu, which includes meat, seafood, and veggie options

• VeggiePlate: Vegetable-forward meals

• FamilyPlate: Kid-friendly meals perfect for picky eaters

• EasyPlate: Meals ready in 30 minutes or less with minimal cleanup

• Nutrish and Delish: Meals with 650 calories or less

Both Home Chef and EveryPlate give you a good selection of vegetarian meals, but neither service offers vegan entrees. Strict herbivores will do better with a provider on our list of the best vegan meal delivery services.

Once you’ve selected your EveryPlate plan, you can’t customize the specific meals. It’s important to check the ingredients list for any allergens or things you need to avoid in your food.

Ingredient Quality and Nutrition

Winner: Home Chef

Overall Ingredient Selection & Quality

Home Chef wins by a very tiny margin here thanks to its Customize It feature. For example, the Chicken Saltimbocca can be had with either regular boneless skinless chicken breast or with antibiotic-free boneless skinless chicken breast. 

The company also offers higher-quality meats like filet mignon, NY Strip Steak, and more. These are the types of ingredients that increase Home Chef’s pricing. You can expect to pay slightly more, but you’re getting far superior ingredients. 

Home Chef also offers the Culinary Collection, which contains meals with premium ingredients. It also sometimes offers organic ingredients – but this is on a case-by-case basis. It doesn’t guarantee that all its ingredients are always organic.

Since EveryPlate is a budget-oriented service, its ingredients aren’t as premium as Home Chef’s – but that’s certainly not to say that EveryPlate is a bottom-of-the-barrel service that you should disregard. Quite the contrary.

You still get fresh produce, meats, and carbs with EveryPlate that match grocery store quality. Imagine shopping at your favorite store, getting regular non-organic food, and coming home to cook it. That’s the experience you’ll get with EveryPlate. 

It also still does offer several meals from the Premium category every week. One such example is the Herb Butter Steak, which comes with 10 ounces of ranch steak. This certainly isn’t filet mignon or ribeye, but it gets the job done if you’re craving a great-tasting steak.

Nutritional Information & Values

Home Chef is also the clear winner when it comes to providing nutritional data. It shows you everything from calories, total fat, protein, carbs, fiber, sugars, and micronutrient content like Vitamin D, calcium, and more.

On the other hand, EveryPlate is somewhat anemic in terms of nutritional information. You really only see total calories, total fat, saturated fat, carbs, protein, sugar, fiber, cholesterol, and sodium. EveryPlate doesn’t provide macronutrient breakdowns for its meals like Home Chef.

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing

Winner: It’s a tie!

This one could go either way. Home Chef’s packaging is a little bit more convenient, but EveryPlate’s is much more environmentally friendly as it uses less plastic wrapping. Both send fresh ingredients to your door in insulated boxes that keep them cool, and both provide recipe cards you can consult while you are cooking your meal kits.

Both services send you tracking information by email, and once the box arrives, the ingredients should be moved to the fridge. All the packaging can go into the recycling, so make sure to empty the contents and break down the box.

EveryPlate delivers 7 days a week, while Home Chef only delivers on weekdays.  Your available delivery days will depend on your zip code with both services. You can update your delivery date via your account.

Home Chef makes ordering each week simple. You can even download the app and manage your deliveries that way. You’ll select a delivery date when you order, and that day can be changed in the future if your schedule shifts.

Home Chef’s minimum order is 2 meals of 2 servings, so it’s a great option for singles as well as families. But since you can also order up to 6 meals of 6 servings, Home Chef also works well for big households.

Once your delivery arrives, you’ll find all the ingredients labeled so you can put them away in the fridge. Just grab what you need when it’s time to prepare. Recipe cards will give you all the information necessary. Everything’s recyclable, so you can dispose of the packaging easily with your curbside pick-up.

EveryPlate’s packaging is simple and efficient. Unlike other services, EveryPlate doesn’t sort ingredients by recipe. This may be an inconvenience for those who like all ingredients at hand when you start cooking, but it saves money and is better for the environment.

Your EveryPlate order arrives in eco-friendly packaging. The box is curbside recyclable and the EveryPlate FAQ provides clear instructions on how to recycle other materials like the insulated liner. Boxes range from 3 meals of 2 servings to 5 meals of 6 servings each, so you can select the option that’s best for your household.

Meal Prep

Winner: Home Chef

As Home Chef offers meal kits with a wide variety of prep options, it wins this category. When choosing meals, you’ll find both traditional meal kits and options like Oven-Ready or 15 Minute Meal Kits, where the prep work is a bit simpler.

Its line of Fast & Fresh meals just need a few minutes in the microwave, so especially if you’re short on time, it’s nice to have these on hand. You assemble the pre-prepped ingredients and sauces, toss them in the oven (conventional or microwave), and you have a hot meal ready in no time.

Each Home Chef recipe includes the prep and cooking time and the skill level rating, so you’ll know all the important information before you add it to your weekly menu.

EveryPlate sends a box of ingredients and recipe cards. The meals take an average of 30 minutes to prep and cook by following the simple recipe cards that come with the box. It’s a great choice for those with limited cooking experience.

As you can see above, the steps are pretty simple and suitable for beginners. However, while there are never more than 6 steps to follow, there are never only 6 things to do. Each step usually contains multiple tasks.

All EveryPlate meal kits require some preparation work on your part. One way EveryPlate keeps its prices low is by letting customers do the prep work.

EveryPlate’s recipes are available online, so you can browse them to choose the right ability level, just like with Home Chef.

Customer Support

Winner: Home Chef

Both companies offer a customer support line and an extensive customer support site, so it’s easy to find answers to many frequently asked questions.

Home Chef offers various ways for customers to get in touch with customer support. Its phone lines are open from 9 AM to 6 PM CT Monday to Friday and Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM CT, so you can quickly get answers to your questions or concerns.

It also offers a comprehensive FAQ section, as well as an online contact form and a chatbot. When I contacted its virtual assistant, I got the information I needed within seconds.

You don’t have to be a current customer to reach out, so you can get any answers you need before ordering. If you’re a customer and need to pause or cancel your subscription, it can be done right on the website without having to reach out to customer service at all.

EveryPlate customers can easily update their accounts via the website, and there’s no need to call the customer service team to pause or cancel orders. Their FAQ is very clear and helpful, and they’re generally comparable to Home Chef in terms of customer service.

But EveryPlate’s chatbot only provides information about shipping fees to customers. If you’re thinking about signing up EveryPlate but want to find out about shipping fees, you have to create an account with EveryPlate and provide personal info.

That’s an unnecessary inconvenience. I was able to get the information by creating an account, but I’m not sure what EveryPlate gains by making prospective customers jump through hoops to get shipping fee information.

Pricing

Winner: EveryPlate 

EveryPlate is best known for its affordable pricing. By keeping its options simple and streamlined, prices are able to stay low and budget-friendly at just $1.49 per serving.

In comparison, Home Chef meals start at $7.99 per serving. This price point covers the basic meals, but there are plenty of add-ons that can impact the price,  like the Customize It option or choosing the Culinary Collection recipes.

All the price increases are easy to see, so you can decide if different options are worth it. For example, the available protein upgrades are clearly marked with a breakdown of the additional cost per serving.

Shipping fees for Home Chef are a flat $10.99 which will be added to your order.

EveryPlate keeps the selection process and the pricing structure simple. It’s a great service for families on a budget, or if you just want easy options each week without having to grocery shop.

EveryPlate shipping fees are also $10.99 regardless of the size of the box or the delivery location. Even with the shipping fee, EveryPlate still beats the competition on overall price.

Home Chef vs. EveryPlate — Quick Overview

And The Winner Is: Home Chef

Home Chef triumphs when it comes to variety, flexibility, and customization. It curates diverse offerings tailored to suit various dietary preferences and lifestyle demands. When stacking Home Chef against EveryPlate, it's evident that the 2 services cater to different niches within the meal kit market. 

Home Chef's meal plans are really convenient. Its offerings include dishes that can be ready in a short span of 15 minutes, making dinner-time a breeze even on the most hectic days.

EveryPlate has its merits when it comes to budget-friendly options. Those prioritizing cost might find EveryPlate a more suitable pick due to its lower price per serving.

While both services have their strengths, Home Chef stands out as the winner. It has an unparalleled range of options tailored for diverse needs. Yet, if you are still unsure, I recommend exploring our full list of top meal delivery services to find your perfect match. 

FAQ

What is the best meal delivery service to try?

Home Chef is highly rated among meal delivery services due to its variety of meals and convenience. The traditional meal kits are noted for their use of high-quality ingredients.

Is Home Chef cheaper than eating out?

Home Chef meals start at $7.99 per serving, which is more affordable than the average price of a meal out at a sit-down restaurant. It also gives you the opportunity to cook as much as you want and enjoy the comforts of being in your own home.

Is EveryPlate the cheapest meal delivery service?

EveryPlate meals start at $1.49 per serving, making it 1 of the most affordable meal delivery services out there. EveryPlate scores highly on our list of the cheapest meal delivery services.