We tested over a dozen meal kits — these are our top picks

If your weekly routine involves struggling with dinner recipes or feeling overwhelmed by meal prep, you might want to consider exploring a meal delivery service. These services provide either pre-made meals or portioned ingredients with step-by-step recipes directly to your door. They can help reduce grocery spending, make meal planning less stressful, and improve cooking skills while catering to dietary needs like pescatarian or gluten-free, according to experts.

To determine the best option for you, I consulted chefs, nutritionists, and recipe developers on what to look for in a meal delivery service. I also highlighted NBC Select editor favorites that we’ve tested and reviewed, along with expert-recommended options.

How I Picked the Best Meal Delivery Services

I spoke with our experts about the key features to consider when shopping for meal kit delivery services. Here are the most important ones:

• Serving Size: Consider how many people you’re feeding and ensure the service offers multiple servings if needed. A single-serve pre-prepared meal is ideal if you're only feeding yourself. For families or partners, look for customizable plans with serving sizes ranging from two to eight.

• Dietary Restrictions: If you follow a specific diet such as gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, or another, look for services that offer a variety of options to meet those needs.

• Customizability: If you're a picky eater or get bored easily, choose a service that provides a rotating menu with several meal options and customizable features like portion size and protein type.

• Pricing: The cost of meal kits depends on the quality of meals, frequency of deliveries, number of people, and the specific plan. Budget-friendly services may not cater to all dietary needs, while specialized options tend to be pricier.

• Delivery Dates and Times: Ensure the service allows for flexible delivery schedules to avoid waste. Most services offer customizable plans and the ability to pause or skip weeks as needed.

How We Tested Meal Delivery Services

We evaluated nearly a dozen meal delivery services, considering the following factors:

• Serving Size: We looked at whether the service accommodates multiple servings based on the number of people being fed.

• Prep Time: We assessed how long it took to cook or heat up meals, and whether it was worth it for a busy schedule (all recommended services have easy-to-follow recipes and take under an hour to make or under 10 minutes to heat up).

• Price: We tried options across various price points, though most fell within the $10-$12 per meal range.

• Dietary Restrictions: We tested services that catered to different diets, including gluten-free and pescatarian, and evaluated how the food tasted.

• Shipping and Packaging: We considered how meals were packaged, how that packaging helped or hindered meal preparation, and the ease of shipping.

Best Meal Delivery Services of 2025

Below are some of the top meal delivery services that NBC Select staff have tried and loved. Chefs and nutritionists also provided their recommendations for the best meal kit delivery services to try across a variety of budgets, tastes, and diets. This includes both meal kit services (which send out individual ingredients) and pre-made meal services.

Best Prepared Meal Delivery Service Overall

CookUnity is a favorite among several members of our NBC Select team. You can choose from multiple plans depending on how many meals you want each week, with subscriptions ranging from four to 16 meals. The service provides a rotating menu of ready-made options, or you can let CookUnity pick them out for you based on your preferences, like your choice of protein or any dietary restrictions like vegetarian, vegan, low-carb, and gluten-free. You can also flag any allergies or foods you don’t like, and the service will notify you if they appear in any meals on the menu.

Best Meal Kit Overall

Home Chef offers a rotating weekly menu with over 30 meals to choose from. You can also select from a variety of menu options tailored to your preferences, including 15-minute meal kits, grill- and oven-ready kits, and special occasion meals. Before ordering, you’ll take a quiz that personalizes your menu based on your tastes, serving size, and delivery preferences. Each meal shows the estimated time it takes to make, making this a standout service for our experts due to its customizability.

Best with Variety

Factor is another favorite that I've used regularly and love for its varied meal options, quick and easy prep time, and detailed nutritional information cards. The service provides a rotating weekly menu of over 30 pre-made meals and caters to a number of dietary needs and preferences, including keto, paleo, low-carb, vegetarian, plant-based, and high protein. You can choose from five plans, ranging from four meals to 18 meals per week.

Best for Healthy Eaters

Splendid Spoon offers over 50 healthy ready-made meals and snacks, including smoothies, soups, noodle bowls, and dishes—all gluten-free. Your cart automatically fills with the service’s bestsellers, or you can manually swap in your favorites.

Best for Families

HelloFresh is one of my favorite no-frills meal kit delivery services. The recipes are easy to follow, the meal options are varied, and the food ends up tasting great. The popular service offers a great mix of dishes in its weekly rotating menu, which can appeal to everyone in the family, including kids.

Best Gluten-Free

Sunbasket offers both ingredient-based meal kits and pre-made meals, all made with high-quality ingredients and organic produce. You can choose from 10 meal plans, including chef’s choice recipes and pre-made Fresh & Ready meals, as well as paleo, gluten-free, vegetarian, and diabetes-friendly options.

Best for Beginners

Blue Apron has a number of weekly menu items based on your selected meal plan. Meal plan options include a signature plan with top chef-favorite recipes, a vegetarian plan, and a wellness plan with nutritionist-approved, carb-conscious recipes. While Blue Apron does require some cooking chops, it's recommended for beginner cooks who hope to hone their basic skills.

Best Budget-Friendly

EveryPlate is an excellent option for those looking for affordable, home-cooked meals. The service has a weekly rotating menu with over a dozen options, including vegetarian, low-calorie, and quick meals that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less.

Best for Most Dietary Restrictions

BistroMD lets you choose from over 150 chef-prepared meals based on your dietary needs. It prides itself on being “doctor-designed” and is more medically therapeutic than most other companies.

Best Vegan

Purple Carrot offers both prepared meals and meal kits, so you can choose whether you want to cook or simply heat up your dinner or lunch. In addition to plant-based meals, Purple Carrot provides several gluten-free recipes to choose from.

Best for Adventurous Cooks

Hungryroot isn't a traditional meal kit service but functions similarly. It offers personalized grocery plans based on your preferences and dietary needs, along with specific recipes for the groceries you order. You can also edit your delivery every week in case you want a specific ingredient or food item.

How to Shop for a Meal Delivery Service

The biggest factors to consider when shopping include the price per meal/serving, the quality of the ingredients, the amount of time you're willing to dedicate, and your own cooking ability.

Pricing

The price of meal kit delivery services varies based on several factors, including the quality of meals and ingredients, delivery frequency, number of people you're cooking for, and the meal plan you choose. More budget-friendly services like EveryPlate and Dinnerly typically cost around $5 per serving, while most other popular services like HelloFresh will cost anywhere between $8 and $11 per serving. Premium or diet-specific services like Sunbasket and Green Chef will cost approximately $12 to $15 per serving.

Time

The time you’re willing to allocate to preparing, cooking, and plating your food can help determine which meal delivery service is right for you. If you’re choosing a plan that sends you all the ingredients, you should be prepared to take the time needed to prepare each dish. You’ll also need to ensure you’re cooking the meals as soon as possible since the ingredients can be easily perishable, she adds.

For those who don’t have as much time during the week, ready-to-eat meal delivery services are typically the best option.

Quality of the Ingredients

Generally, meal delivery services have specific rules and procedures in place to ensure their ingredients are high-quality and trustworthy. However, if you’re extremely particular about the freshness and origin of your ingredients, you should likely skip these services and shop on your own.

For those looking to meet specific nutritional goals, Moskovitz recommends paying attention to the individual ingredients in each meal plan, the nutrition facts, and the portion sizes. “Don’t just assume that because it’s homemade or marketed as ‘healthy’ that it’s the healthiest option for you,” she says.

Dietary Restrictions

Certain meal delivery services will offer a variety of options for those with dietary restrictions. However, Resnick notes there’s one caveat: Those with medical issues, such as shellfish allergies or celiac disease, should be mindful of possible cross-contamination.

“Companies are usually forthright about shared equipment, but eaters with food intolerances should exercise caution,” she says. “That said, for special diets that are usually choice-based, such as veganism or low carb, I think these services are an excellent choice.”

Delivery Dates and Times

Before committing to a specific plan, you should consider when you’ll be able to receive these meals to avoid ingredients spoiling or not getting delivered. Most services will offer customizable delivery plans to choose what days you want to receive your weekly delivery—if you know you won’t be there, most services will let you skip a week (but keep in mind there is usually a cutoff time to select this option).