Cheapest Meal Delivery Services For 2024

We compared prices & reviewed the cheapest meal delivery services for 2024. Browse & find the best value meal service for you!

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Last Updated: November 2024

Choosing A Meal Delivery Service That Best Suits You

Choosing the right meal delivery service can seem a bit overwhelming at first, which is why we’ve spent hours identifying unique options that each service provides. In order to get started, you’ll want to identify the type of food you’re looking for, what diet-restrictions you want to follow, and whether or not you want premade meals or something that you can cook.


Once you have this information, you can always refer to our reviews so that you can make an informed decision that suits you best. The best part? All of the meal delivery services that we've picked have flexible subscriptions allowing you to skip or cancel anytime! With the vast amount of meal delivery services and recipes available, we can guarantee you will find the best choice for you or your family.

Why Sign Up for Meal Delivery?

The most common question that comes to mind when people are debating if delivery services make sense for them is whether or not meal delivery kits are purely a luxury, or if they can really save you time and money in order to be a justifiable weekly expense. Our answer? Meal delivery services can be an excellent way for people to save time, money, and can easily give you the ability to get in the kitchen and cook more.

Today, there are so many options for you to choose from making it extremely easy to find the delivery service that best suits your lifestyle. Whether you’re vegan or vegetarian, have specific dietary-restrictions, or just overall too busy to spend time planning and cooking every week, we are going to go through why meal delivery services are a great place to start. 

How Do Meal Delivery Services Work?

We’ve done our research and chose the best meal delivery services that provide an easy way for you and your family to provide home cooked meals with little to no stress. With all of our meal delivery services, you are able to choose the type of meal and amount that you want each week. Then, they ship you all of the ingredients you need to prepare the meal right at your doorstep. You even have the ability to skip a week if needed.

All ingredients are pre-packaged and portioned, and the box that is delivered to you has the ability to keep your food fresh for a couple days, never mind the couple of hours until you get home from work. To ensure your food has the best taste, all ingredients are fresh and come sealed. Each meal delivery service provides recipes that are extremely easy to follow; with step-by-step instructions, photos, and some even provide digital copies in the same format.

Being able to walk out your front door and access all of your meals for that week makes dinner time fun, delicious, and easy. Some services even give you the ability to schedule the time, re-route to a different address, and give detailed instructions on the delivery. Bottom line, meal delivery services are a great way for you to put healthy and delicious food on the table while reducing effort on your end.

Meal Delivery Services Save You Time and Money

  • Spend less on fresh ingredients. It can be expensive to find high-quality, sustainable ingredients from the grocery store. With a meal delivery service, you can simply select the meals you want for the week and have fresh ingredients included right in the offer price.
  • Access promotions and deals. To save at the grocery store, the burden of bargain hunting is pushed onto the consumer. Instead of searching for deals or cutting coupons, meal delivery services offer frequent promos and deals for first-time and returning customers.
  • Eliminate food waste. Everybody’s been there: you buy expensive, fresh ingredients from the grocery store, only to throw them out a week later. With vegan meal delivery services, you only get the ingredients you’ll actually use.
  • Avoid trips to the grocery store. A trip to the grocery store is a drain on your gas tank and your free time. With vegan meal delivery services, you can get ingredients and ready-made meals delivered directly to your door.
  • Ease cooking and cleaning. Shopping for ingredients, prepping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards: it can take several hours to put one meal together. You can save yourself multiple hours each week with vegan meal delivery services that show up right to your door.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

There are a lot of great new meal delivery options available in the market, with each meal service putting their unique twist on an otherwise tried and true model. If you are looking to maximize convenience, you should consider prepared meal plans such as Factor or Tempo, with meals ready to eat in just 3 minutes. If you enjoy cooking but are tired of food waste and grocery shopping, you should consider meal kits such as Home Chef or Hello Fresh, where you can cook recipes from carefully packed, fresh ingredients within 30 minutes. Most services are accommodating, but meal delivery services aren't made equal when it comes to dietary restrictions. Green Chef and Purple Carrot stand out with the widest range of keto, vegan, and organic options. Other factors you will want to consider include cost per serving, delivery fees, cancellation policy, and menu size and flexibility.
There is a tremendous amount of customization you can make to the meal plans available in the market, which creates an almost endless number of options to choose from. The first decision you will need to make is whether you prefer a meal kit plan, where you cook with fresh ingredients, or a prepared meal plan, where your meal prep starts with a partially or fully cooked meal. The next factor you will want to consider is the diet type, with common options including meat, seafood, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free, and more. After you have chosen your meal plan and diet, your plan will be customized based on the number of mouths to feed, the number of meals you want per week, shipping dates, and more.
Prepared meals come in pre-packaged, individual servings that can be popped into the oven or microwave for a quick meal. Meal kits come with pre-measured ingredients and recipe instructions that are simple to follow. In both cases, your meals will be shipped in a well packaged box with an ice pack to keep ingredients fresh until they make it into your fridge.
Meal kits will provide you with pre-measured ingredients that you can quickly cook into a fresh meal. Ingredients will come in individually packaged bags or containers and a recipe card with detailed cooking instructions. Most meal kit recipes can be cooked from start to finish in 30 minutes. On the other hand, prepared meal delivery services will have done some, or all, of the prep work for you to make your cooking as efficient as possible. Some prepared meals can be cooked in the microwave and some will require a few minutes in the oven or stove. In any case, prepared meals are generally ready to eat in less than 5 minutes. Whether you choose a meal kit or a prepared meal, you can expect chef-inspired dishes made with fresh ingredients.