Splendid Spoon vs. Daily Harvest 2023: Healthy, Flexible Plans!

If you’re looking for healthy, plant-based, vegan, naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, 100% non-GMO foods – look no further. Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest offer easy-to-prep, tasty, plant-based meals in completely customizable plans.

Overall these two services are super similar down to their plan format and ingredient quality, so choosing a winner wasn't easy.

Splendid Spoon meals offer bigger portions and are better for on-the-go lifestyles, while Daily Harvest offers a wider variety of menu items and better customer service.

Since convenience is one of the main reasons people start using meal delivery services, having customer support to ensure seamless ordering and delivery can make or break your overall meal delivery experience.

Daily Harvest wins this comparison because its customer service is one of the best I’ve seen of those available.

Read on to discover more about these top-quality meal delivery services.

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety

Winner: Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest wins this category because it offers more total menu items in more categories than Splendid Spoon does. Daily Harvest offers ten categories of foods totaling 100+ items, while Splendid Spoon offers five categories totaling 65+ items.

From Daily Harvest, you can choose from 30+ smoothies, 20+ “Harvest” salad bowls, 14 grain “Forager" bowls, ten flatbreads, ten soups, six oven bakes, nine ice creams, seven snack bites, four lattes, and two cartons of almond milk.

If you can’t decide what you want for your first order – or any order – Daily Harvest offers the option to fill your box with a variety of items from the “Best Seller” list.

From Splendid Spoon, you can choose from 20 to 25 smoothies, 20 to 25 soup or grain bowls, nine noodle bowls, four fresh-squeezed juices, and five power shots.

While neither menu offers great options for low-carb, high-fat, or high-protein eaters, both menus offer excellent options for vegan, plant-based, high-fiber, and low-calorie eaters.

The cuisine variety within both menus is super similar. Both offer primarily Mediterranean recipes for the soups and bowls, with hints of Mexican, Indian, Thai, and Asian-inspired flavors.

Smoothies, juices, ice creams, and snacks obviously don't have a cuisine – they're mixes of tart, tropical, or sweet fruits; greens, chocolate, and some spicy ingredients.

Daily Harvest offers a wider variety of meal preps than Splendid Spoon with prep times ranging from 0 to 30 minutes. Smoothies, soups, and bowls require adding liquid before blending or heating. While this is an additional prep step, you can add liquid to achieve your desired consistency.

If you want to stay in and dine or add a fun side to a group meal, you can choose an oven-ready option like the Bakes or Flatbreads. Bakes are two servings, and Flatbreads are considered a big serving for one, not quite for two.

Daily Harvest is a vegan meal delivery service, but it doesn’t add vegan cheeses to items like Flatbreads or Bakes. The service prioritizes using wholesome, minimally processed ingredients as close to their original forms as possible – and the same is true for Splendid Spoon.

Splendid Spoon prioritizes on-the-go convenience and doesn’t offer oven-ready options. While you can't order oven-ready flatbreads, bakes, bites, or desserts, you can order fresh-squeezed juices and power shots for extra nutrients or a diet detox.

Daily Harvest is good for anyone! Whether you're an individual on the go and want something you can throw in your work bag, a family hoping to add more healthy sides to your daily dinners, or a couple wanting to explore plant-based foods or add a fun side to an upcoming dinner party menu – there's something for you on Daily Harvest's menu.

Splendid Spoon is similar but only offers fully-prepared options. It's great for anyone wanting to incorporate more plant-based eating into their diet in the easiest way possible. Individuals, couples, or families will find Splendid Spoon's meals easy to incorporate into their daily diets since everything arrives ready to thaw and drink or heat and eat.

Each 16 oz bowl or smoothie is meant for one meal or two snacks for one person, so listen to how you feel rather than aiming to finish the whole meal. Each portion should satisfy you after a hard workout, or your growing kids’ hunger pangs.

You can always easily save the remainder in the fridge for later as each meal comes individually wrapped so you won’t have to re-package.

Both services source fresh produce mostly from the US with a few international exceptions to ensure produce freshness. While neither service is 100% organic – yet, they use as many organic ingredients as possible.

Daily Harvest even has a program in which it supports the farms from which sources ingredients to transition into 100% organic food production.

Meal Customization

Winner: It’s a tie!

This one was also a tie as both services offer plenty of filter options and are completely dairy-free, gluten-free, plant-based, vegan, and offer 100% non-GMO foods. Most Daily Harvest recipes are also soy-free except for a few with miso and tamari, and there are plenty of soy-free options on Splendid Spoon’s menu.

For both services, the whole meal will be removed when you filter to exclude an ingredient. There are no ingredient substitutions or portion upgrades available. If you don’t want chocolate – all items with chocolate in them will be removed from your ordering options.

Splendid Spoon filters include seven filters for dietary needs like low sodium and low carb, ten filters for ingredient avoidances like tree nuts and caffeine, and a filter for blood sugar-friendly recipes.

I almost chose Splendid Spoon for this category simply because the menu and filtration process is easier to navigate. Splendid Spoon filters are more easily accessible and changeable since they’re always visible on the left side of the screen when you’re browsing the menu. Once you select your filters, results are immediately viewable – including the number of options in each food category.

Daily Harvest’s filter menu disappears after you apply your filters, and the number of options for each category isn’t visible. So if you want to compare customization options between menus, Splendid Spoon makes it much easier.

Daily Harvest filters include 14 ingredient likes and dislikes, and 11 dietary options. One feature I like about DH’s filter menu is that you can choose to filter for ingredients you like in your recipes.

I haven’t seen this menu feature in many other meal delivery services, so I thought it was fun! I love avocado, so I filtered to include it, and the menu showed me every recipe including avocado. Yum.

Both offer filters for low-carb and high-protein items, but you won’t find many options. Plus, the high protein option isn’t as high protein as one might hope. The definition for high protein for Splendid Spoon is >6 g protein per serving, and DH’s high protein definition is >10 g protein per meal. That equates to about 12 g per Splendid Spoon meal or >10 g per Daily Harvest meal.

There are a few options for people who want higher protein, and you must read all the Nutrition Facts labels to see protein content.

Some of Daily Harvest’s dietary options include AIP, FODMAP, and Keto, but there are sparse options for each. Splendid Spoon also includes a Blood Sugar Friendly filter, but again – there are sparse options for this diet.

Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest also offer rating systems for each menu. Splendid Spoon has a personalization algorithm that learns to suggest recipes based on your rating of each item you’ve tried.

Daily Harvest has a public rating system which is super helpful in deciding what to order before you sign up. You can leave a review of a recipe once you’ve confirmed your first order. Each recipe has a rating out of four stars with feedback from customers.

Overall, customization options are super similar for both services. Both offer plenty of ingredient filtration options which are handy if you have a particular palate, but just be aware that there aren’t always great amounts of options for each ingredient filter. Test out the filters to see what’s available for your taste!

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing

Winner: Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest wins this category because it has an app through which you can manage every detail of your ordering and delivery.

The app is free and is compatible with iOS and Android. You can change your order contents for the following week, cancel an order, or even pause your deliveries indefinitely through the app.

For orders, I found Daily Harvest’s app easier to navigate than its website. The app seamlessly moves you through four steps of ordering – zip code entry, plan selection, item selection, and checkout.

Both services offer super simple, flexible plan formulas and shipping options, and ship your food frozen. Plans for both services allow you to choose items from the entire menu for each order. Plans are based on the number of items in a box.

Daily Harvest offers three plans – Small (9-13 items), Medium (14-23 items), and Large (24-26 items). The maximum number of items allowed for weekly orders is 24, while the maximum for monthly orders is 26.

Daily Harvest’s order minimum is nine items – with free shipping on all subscription orders and gift boxes! If you want a one-time order with no shipping, simply say that you’re subscribing and then pause your next order.

Splendid Spoon simply adds items to an order and adds a box discount based on the size of the order. The order minimum is seven of any item on the menu and the maximum order is 28. To get free shipping you need to order 10 items.

For both services – whatever you choose in your order will auto-recur each week, unless you choose bi-weekly, monthly, or pause your next order.

Both services deliver to the lower 48 states.

Choosing a delivery day is mildly flexible for both services. Daily Harvest delivers Tuesday through Friday, and you can choose from delivery days that are available for your zip code.

Splendid Spoon only delivers on Tuesdays or Fridays depending on your zip code. If it delivers on both days you can choose which day you’d like your weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly order to arrive.

To change order contents, pause your account, or cancel your next order, both services require that you do so before the cutoff days.

Splendid Spoon’s cutoff day is six days before your next delivery day. Since delivery days are different for different zip codes, your cutoff day will be noted under the Manage Deliveries tab in your account.

Daily Harvest’s cutoff day is Sunday at 6 pm ET for all orders. Super easy to remember! You can use the app, live chat, text, or call to adjust your order before that time.

Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest’s foods are fresh and perishable, so they’re shipped  frozen and arrive frozen or cool to the touch. Since all Splendid Spoon foods are heat-and-eat or grab-and-go, you can pop everything into the freezer, or thaw it in the fridge if you plan on consuming them soon.

Splendid Spoon recommends consuming all foods within seven days of thawing. Use-by dates are labeled on each container.

All Daily Harvest foods arrive partially prepped and require some addition of liquid, heating, or blending. Instructions are also included on the website just in case you hastily recycle your packaging before you prep your meal!

Daily Harvest recommends different storage options for each category of food, all the details of which are clearly labeled on each item container. One of Daily Harvest’s strengths is how much information is available for each food item from the sourcing of each ingredient to how you remove the plastic film covering some of its meals.

Between the intricately detailed recipe cards on its website, super responsive live chat customer service, and detailed packaging on each item, Daily Harvest really leaves no room for questioning how to optimally enjoy its meals.

Where Splendid Spoon almost won this category is with its recycling. Splendid Spoon’s shipping and food containers are 100% recyclable! You can even reuse the bottles or soup containers for storing other food. 

While Daily Harvest doesn’t offer 100% recyclable materials, you can view clearly detailed instructions about how to properly recycle each different piece of container and shipping material on its website.

Meal Prep

Winner: Splendid Spoon

If minimizing prep is your priority – Splendid Spoon is the better option for you. All of Splendid Spoon’s meals arrive fully prepped and frozen or cool to the touch. No prep or clean up necessary! Smoothies are already blended, and soups, noodle and grain bowls are all microwave-ready.

Daily Harvest has prep times ranging from 0 to 30 minutes and most meals require some prep. However, prep is still minimal as all ingredients arrive fully prepared. Thorough directions are written on each item’s packaging as well as on the app and website.

Smoothies, soups, lattes, and “Harvest” and “Forager” bowls all require adding water, broth, milk of choice, and or blending before consuming or heating in the microwave or pre-heated oven for several minutes.

Bakes are oven-ready and can be cooked in a preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes in the trays they arrive in. This is the same for Flatbreads, except that these need to be placed on an oven-safe tray. Snack “Bites” are ready to eat out of the freezer, and ice cream just needs 10 minutes to soften.

Customer Support

Winner: Daily Harvest

This is the one category that Daily Harvest wins by a landslide because it offers super responsive live chat, an app compatible with iOS and Android, texting, email, and calling. Daily Harvest really holds your hand through the ordering process by offering all the tools necessary to seamlessly manage each of your orders.

Live chat, texting, and calling are all available seven days per week from 9 am to 9 pm ET. Emailing is available 24/7. I reached out to customer support several times via call and live chat and was connected to an agent in under one minute each time. Daily Harvest agents were all helpful and quickly provided the information I needed.

The best part of Daily Harvest’s service is that it offers an iOS- and Android-compatible app through which you can manage any detail of your account – including cancellation!

If you can’t figure out how to manage a certain feature of your order through the app, don’t sweat it – check out the FAQs to find any information you need about managing your account, or simply chat to a friendly agent.

Pro tip: You can’t see the live chat window when you navigate away from the FAQ pages. You have to stay on the FAQ pages to continue chatting with an agent. If you leave and return, the agent will still be there! They only leave the chat if you become unresponsive.

Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon both have updated, easy-to-navigate FAQs, though Daily Harvest’s is more detailed. The company also provides plenty of information about ingredients, nutrition facts, prep process, etc., throughout its entire menu.

Splendid Spoon offers live chat as well, but only through Facebook Messenger. You can click the Contact Us link at the footer of most pages, then click Send us a Message, and you’ll be navigated into Facebook Messenger.

While many people have Facebook accounts, this is a problem if you don’t have one or rarely use it and frequently need to reset your password (like me…). The advantage of using Facebook Messenger is that it’s mobile-friendly if you have the app on your phone.

Although agents answered my questions thoroughly, they took anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours to respond, with an estimated average of 30 minutes between responses. I wouldn’t qualify this customer support contact option as “live chat”.

For Splendid Spoon, I recommend calling instead of using the live chat if you want to ensure you receive answers more expediently.

Pricing

Winner: It’s a tie!

Overall, both services offer similar pricing, order format, box discounts, and shipping. Daily Harvest has a cheaper starting price but ends up being about the same per serving for comparable items on Splendid Spoon’s menu.

Because Daily Harvest offers many more items than Splendid Spoon offers, I considered the prices of comparable menu items. Comparable items on Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon’s menu include smoothies, soups, and grain bowls.

Daily Harvest’s minimum order is nine items, with prices starting at $8.49 for a smoothie, $8.49 for a soup, and $6.79 for a grain or “Forager” bowl.

Splendid Spoon’s minimum order is seven items, with prices starting at $9.99 for a smoothie, $12.49 for a soup, and $12.49 for a grain bowl.

While Splendid Spoon has a higher per-item price for soups and grain bowls, portions are about twice the size of Daily Harvest. Soups and grain bowls on Splendid Spoons menu range from about 150 g to 250 g per serving with two servings per item. Daily Harvest has about the same per-serving range but only includes one serving per item. Hence the lower starting prices.

If you like having bigger meals throughout the day – Splendid Spoon might be for you! If you’re a light eater or want more variety for the same price — Daily Harvest might be the better option.

Both services also offer box discounts for orders of different sizes. Splendid Spoon’s box discounts start at 14 items but are better per item the more you order, while DH discounts start at nine items but are less per item than Splendid Spoon’s.

Prices even out further in shipping. Shipping is free for all Daily Harvest orders when you elect to subscribe or when you purchase a gift box. Splendid Spoon requires a minimum of 10 items to receive free shipping, (which is only one more than Daily Harvest’s minimum subscription order). Otherwise, you’ll pay $12.99 per order.

While Splendid Spoon allows you to choose any item from the menu to construct your box of items, add-ons don’t count toward your item total. Ordering only add-ons – freshly squeezed juices and power shots – will also result in a $12.99 shipping fee. You’ll also not receive the same box discount if you order only add-ons.

Both services offer corporate ordering options, and Daily Harvest offers gift boxes. You can order a gift box of nine items for $75 to send to that one friend who just has no time to find or prep a healthy meal. Or, you can order a "Scoops" box of any six pints on the menu for $55 – send to that friend with a sweet tooth, or teeth.

Features Comparison: Splendid Spoon vs. Daily Harvest

And The Winner Is: Daily Harvest

This was a close call as most features of these two services are evenly comparable, but Daily Harvest wins! 

Both give a great mix of recipes for similar menu items, price structures, and shipping choices. Both menus include healthy, plant-based, naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, 100% non-GMO foods to easily add more nutrient-packed, unmade-up ingredients to your meals.

While Splendid Spoon meal prep is easier and container materials are more recyclable, Daily Harvest's superior customer support tips the scales in its favor.

Customer support is perhaps the most important part of ordering from a meal delivery service in case anything comes up with your order contents, shipping, or delivery. Daily Harvest gets that.

Daily Harvest offers an iOS- and Android-compatible app, super responsive and friendly live chat agents, and an intricately detailed website that leaves no room for you to question how to optimally enjoy its meals.

Otherwise, all categories compare very evenly. You can’t go wrong with either service and their excellent food quality.

FAQ

What meal delivery service is comparable to Splendid Spoon’s?

Daily Harvest is the most comparable delivery service to Splendid Spoon’s. Both have super similar plan formats and menus with plant-based, vegan, naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, 100% non-GMO foods. Splendid Spoon meal prep is easier and food containers are more recyclable, but Daily Harvest's menu variety and customer service are better.

Are Splendid Spoon meals healthy?

Yes! All menu items are plant-based, naturally gluten-free and dairy-free, and 100% non-GMO foods. Ingredients are thoroughly labeled on the website and on each container you receive. You can even filter to exclude meals that contain ingredients you want to avoid, like caffeine or soy.

When does Daily Harvest deliver?

Daily Harvest delivers Tuesdays through Fridays and will determine your recurring delivery day based on your zip code. Deliveries arrive during regular business hours. You can’t choose your delivery day, but you can easily change your address and any other details of your order through Daily Harvest’s iOS- and Android-compatible app or super responsive live chat customer support.