Meal delivery services can be a big help in the kitchen, but they can put a big dent in your wallet. It can be difficult to find a balance, but there are options. We’ve found and researched some of the most affordable meal delivery services available, and you don’t have to worry about the quality of the food—they still offer delicious recipes for comforting, healthy meals. If you’re looking for the cheapest meal delivery service, we’re here to help.
It’s no secret that the best meal kits or meal prep services reduce your workload in the kitchen. But what do they do for your wallet? If you want to enjoy a meal delivery service on a budget, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve found some of the cheapest meal delivery services available today — and they still offer delicious recipes from comfort food favorites to organic, healthy meals.
Meal kits experienced a serious increase in the number of customers during the pandemic. Meal kit subscriptions from companies such as Blue apron, Green Chef and Sunbasket they’re not new, but most of them are expensive, with recipes costing as much as $12 or $13 per serving. Dinner and EveryPlateboth of which cost $5 a serving, are the most budget-friendly outfit.
Over the past few years, we’ve tested almost everything meal kit delivery and prepared meal delivery service we could put on our oven mitts and that includes the best cheap meal delivery services. Many of the meal delivery service menu options we’ve listed include nutritious food plant food or high protein recipes with lots of vegetables and lean meats.
There are also some mid-range options to consider, such as HelloFresh and Home cook. They may cost a few dollars more per serving, but they allow for more customization and have more recipes to choose from. Most of these meal delivery services also offer vegetarian options or customization for non-meat eaters. There are meal kits for specialized diets, such as keto, paleo, low-calorie or gluten-free.
Regardless of your budget, tastes, or schedule, there are affordable and delicious meal delivery services that will make cooking easier for you or your family. We’ve tested all of the cheapest meal kits and meal services on this list to help you decide which one is best.
Read more: Are meal kits more expensive than grocery shopping? I did the math
EveryPlate
EveryPlate is the cheapest meal kit service, with recipes starting at $5 per serving — sometimes less if you catch a sign-up offer. I recently tested EveryPlate and was pleasantly surprised. You won’t find a lot of silly, fancy cuisine or complicated recipes, but you will get plenty of satisfying, stick-to-your-ribs dishes like hoisin meatloaf with mashed potatoes, cheeseburgers, umami pork chops, and sweet potato quesadillas.
EveryPlate meal kits are easy to make and I’ve loved everything I’ve made, making it my pick for the best budget meal kit of 2022. For more, read my full EveryPlate review.
Price: $5 per serving.
Read our EveryPlate review.
Dinner
Dinnerly is Dinnerly, another great budget dinnerware set. Similar to EveryPlate, Dinnerly has a lot of comfort foods like ravioli with spinach parmesan sauce, carne asada tacos, and chicken pad thai.
I tried the affordable meal kits from Dinnerly, and they were all easy to prepare, although — on average — they involved more work than EveryPlate’s recipes. Among the hits there were also a few big misses. But Dinnerly is a bit more dynamic than its budget counterpart, letting you add protein packs of chicken breast, ground beef, or shrimp to meal planning, along with a small market of snacks and desserts that you can eat at an additional cost.
Price: Starts at $5 per serving, plus $9 shipping.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh is slightly more per serving than EveryPlate or Dinnerly — $8 per serving if you order meals for four — but this low-cost meal delivery service gives you more recipe options, and I’d argue that the recipes and ingredients are higher quality, too. HelloFresh has as many as 25 dinner sets per week, so it’s almost impossible not to find something you’ll love. HelloFresh also has five or six plant-based recipes a week, making it the best low-cost meal kit service for vegetarians.
When I tried HelloFresh’s meal kits recently, I made meatloaf a la mama, barramundi with corn and potatoes, and pork chops with honey butter. I liked all three. Check out my full HelloFresh review for everything you need to know about the meal delivery service.
Price: Plans start at $8 per serving.
Home cook
Just one step cheaper than HelloFresh is Home Chef. I tried Home Chef a few months ago and loved the flexibility and customization that a meal kit subscription allows. For example, you can swap out the protein in any recipe or double the portion if you’re expecting company or want to eat leftovers for lunch during the week. Home Chef also has affordable oven-ready meal kits that just need to be assembled in a pan and cooked – no chopping or preparation required.
A few Home Chef recipes I tried and loved were the moo shu pork tacos and the shrimp bruschetta risotto which had a ton of garlic but was far easier to make than I expected. Read my full review of Home Cook.
Price: Most meals cost $9 per serving. New customers will receive $100 off their first few deliveries.
Read our Home Chef review.
Mosaic Foods
I tried about nine of Mosaic Food’s plant-based meal offerings, and the vegetarian meal delivery service had a surprisingly high hit rate. Mosaic uses big and interesting global flavors and creatively uses meat substitutes like tofu, jackfruit, cauliflower and vegan sausages to create delicious and satisfying vegetarian meals – even for this omnivore. There are some vegan meals, but many of them use dairy, so vegans need to choose their Mosaic meals more carefully.
Mosaic Meals is also easy to order with a clear, concise website and no overly complicated plans. You simply select the meals you want with a minimum order of $70 (about eight meals), then decide how often you want them delivered – weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. You can change meals, pause or cancel your subscription at any time.
Price: Most mosaic meals are $10 for one person, with soups for $6 and oatmeal bowls for $6. Mosaic also recently added family meals designed for three or four people, which cost just $5 per serving.
Fresh
If you don’t want to cook anything at all, but want delicious meals delivered at an affordable price, Freshly is where it’s at. Freshly delivers ready meals (fresh, not frozen) to your door in a one-time order or subscription. While this low-cost meal delivery service has plenty of options for healthy recipes, Freshly is one of the better options if you want the occasional cheat meal or serving comfort food.
Penne bolognese, corned beef with mashed potatoes, and chicken casserole are just a few of the heartier choices you can make and have ready to go. But there are healthier fresh meals with fewer calories to keep you honest.
Price: Freshly is only $9 per meal when you order 12 meals per week.
Read our Freshly review.
Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest isn’t a traditional flatware company, but sends you healthy plant-based smoothies, soups and grain bowls, starting at $7 per serving. While the other options on our list are dinner-focused, Daily Harvest is the best way to have affordable (and easy) breakfast and lunch meals ready to heat up and eat.
When I tried Daily Harvest, I loved the interesting smoothie combinations like the Blueberry Chocolate Smoothie with Greens, Banana and Almond Butter. Heartier meals are also great, like cauliflower rice and a cashew spinach pesto harvest bowl. You won’t need more than a crock pot, a toaster or a blender to make most meals, and most can be made in just 5 minutes. Read my full review of Daily Harvest here.
Price: Meals are between $7 and $12 and no subscription is required.
Read our Daily Harvest review.
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health care professional with any questions you may have about your health condition or health goals.