Home delivery meal services are a convenient way to put dinner on the table with minimal meal prep. The healthiest meal delivery services provide nutrient-dense, flavorful ingredients you can throw together in a flash. Whether you’re a kitchen maven or beginner home chef, you can find a service that best fits your lifestyle. With so many great options on the market, how do you choose the best one for you? Here’s what you should consider:
Allergies
The risk of cross-contamination is serious business for those with severe food allergies, so stay on the lookout for meal delivery services that package and prepare their meals without common allergens like seafood, gluten, and tree nuts.
Accessibility
Not all meal delivery services ship to every location. In fact, most only ship to the contiguous United States (sorry, Alaska and Hawaii). Fortunately, most services offer an availability checker so you can make sure they deliver to your area before starting an order.
Most delivery services offer meals you can make in 30 minutes or less. Other services offer fully prepared meals, so you’ll have a healthy, delicious breakfast, lunch, or dinner in the time it takes you to zap it in the microwave or heat it over the stovetop.
Dietary needs
If you’re vegetarian or vegan, it can be difficult to find meal delivery services that offer delicious, healthy meals that fit your diet. This is especially true if you’re trying to stick to a budget–specialty services tend to cost more than their traditional counterparts. Luckily, there are plenty of options these days, with some services catering specifically to plant-based, keto, and paleo-friendly meals.
Price
While meal delivery services can be costly, the benefits are often worth the price. Because they provide all the ingredients you need, you can cut back on your Trader Joe’s run and reduce your normal grocery bill. Certain plans can become pricey quite quickly, so consider what works best for your budget.
Now that we’ve gone over a few things to consider when choosing a meal delivery service, let’s take a look at some of our favorites. 
Freshology
Freshology has four different programs to choose from: Balance, Balance D (a diabetic plan created with doctor approval), Keto-Carb30, and Vegetarian. Each kit is made immediately prior to shipping and provides a ton of fruits, veggies, and healthy proteins.
This service provides portion-controlled meals and is available to all of the continental United States. Unfortunately, there isn’t flexibility in the meal selection within your chosen plan.
More expensive than other options on this list, each meal is $12.20, and you have to order a minimum of 10 meals each week. This amounts to $121.99 plus a $9.99 delivery fee per week.
Blue Apron
Blue Apron was one of the first national, DIY meal delivery services. They offer a variety of plans, including Plant-Forward, Carb Conscious, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, Diabetes-Friendly, and more.
Blue Apron is great for beginner chefs, including step-by-step instructions created by professional recipe curators. It also has a wide variety of meal plans, with each shipment containing perfectly portioned meals.
This service also offers more complex recipes, so be aware that some meals may take longer to prepare than others.
Pricing starts at $60 per week for a two-person, three-meals-a-week plan.
HelloFresh
If you don’t have much experience in the kitchen, HelloFresh may be your best bet. You can choose from 15 different recipes each week, available in servings for two or four people. Their standard, easy-to-make meals come with meat, but there is also a vegetarian option. A feature that sets HelloFresh apart is Dinner 2 Lunch, which provides a few extra ingredients and additional recipes to revamp your leftovers.
HelloFresh offers one of the widest selections of vegetarian options among non-specialty services, but it has not expanded the vegan options yet. Available across the continental U.S., these meals require minimal steps to prepare and are less expensive than some other services.
The basic service provides three meals with two servings each for $55 per week.
Purple Carrot
Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, or simply trying to incorporate more vegetables into your diet, Purple Carrot offers three different meal plans. Chef’s Choice centers seasonal ingredients, Quick & Easy features dishes you can prepare in 30 minutes, and High Protein packs whopping 20-plus grams of protein into every meal.
This program is perfectly suited for vegans, offering a wide variety of plant-based meal plans. However, like most specialty plans, this service is a bit expensive than traditional ones. Two-person servings cost $12 per plate with a minimum of three dinners per week, totaling $72 per week.
Home Chef
Perfect for die-hard foodies, Home Chef offers up to 38 meal choices each week. You can choose between Omnivore, Carnivore, Pescatarian, and Vegetarian meal plans with the option to avoid certain ingredients and allergens like milk, nuts, and shellfish.
Each delivery includes everything you need to cook the dishes, right down to the seasonings and oils. Home Chef doesn’t deliver everywhere yet, so make sure your address is available before starting your order. You can get three five-star meals for $59, with each meal serving two adults.
Sakara Life
If you’re looking for meals packed with superfoods, look no further than Sakara Life, a vegan meal delivery service that offers a new menu every week. You’ll find seasonal vegetables as well as staples like sandwiches, salads, and parfaits.
The plans are flexible, so you can choose between two, three, and five-day plans. This can become very costly with the five-day, three-meals-per-day plan costs $420 per week.
A meal delivery service is a great way to ensure you’re eating a balanced, nutritional diet. Finding a meal plan that suits your needs and your budget is only a few clicks away, so what are you waiting for?
BlissMark provides information regarding health, wellness, and beauty. The information within this article is not intended to be medical advice. Before starting any diet or exercise routine, consult your physician. If you don’t have a primary care physician, the United States Health & Human Services department has a free online tool that can help you locate a clinic in your area. We are not medical professionals, have not verified or vetted any programs, and in no way intend our content to be anything more than informative and inspiring.
