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Meal delivery services are part of the modern amenities that have come about as technology advances us into the future. These services allow companies to send pre-prepared meals straight to your doorstep.
They’re already portioned and allow many different packages to be chosen from to best suit your dietary needs. Why bother slaving over an oven all day when you can have all the work done for you?
Of course, you’ll still need to pay for these meals. Which begs the question, what is the cheapest meal delivery service? We explored the cheapest meal delivery services out there to bring you a true comparison.
Let’s dive in.
EveryPlate
CHEAPEST MEAL DELIVERY SERVICE
EveryPlate is, by far, the best tasting of the inexpensive meal delivery services on the market. From only $4.99 per serving to great tasting meals, you get the best of both worlds with EveryPlate.
While they don’t offer meals for special diets, most people love the taste, especially for a family with kids.
Key Benefits
- Only $4.99 per serving, and $8.99 for shipping
- Fresh food delivered to your door for meal prep
- No special dietary options like paleo, keto, diabetic-friendly, or similar
- With 11 meals to choose from each week, there’s always something you’ll like on offer.
Home Chef
CHEAPEST FOR BIG FAMILIES
Home Chef is another great option for those with large families. While it’s not the absolute cheapest meal delivery service on the market, you’ll be able to receive a large amount of food that’s best suited for those with a lot of mouths to feed.
If you have a family of five or more or have larger appetites for Dad and teenagers, Home Chef is going to be your best bet, since they are the only company offering meals to feed a family of eight.
Key Benefits
- Priced between $6.99 and $9.99 per serving depending on the meal
- Includes options for one-pan meals and 5-min prep meals
- Larger portion sizes are available for those who need more calories
- Meal sizes extend up to 8 people
- A total of 13 different options are available each week to keep a variety of meals in your dinner rotation
MamaSezz
CHEAPEST VEGETARIAN
Mamasezz is the most budget-friendly meal delivery service for those who lead a vegetarian lifestyle at $4 to $6 per serving.
You’ll also find that they have an emphasis on providing meals for those with dietary restrictions. Both gluten-free and salt-free options are available.
Key Benefits
- Only $4 to $6 per serving and shipping is free
- No salt and gluten-free meals are available
- Fully-cooked: Meals come with simple ‘heat and eat’ instructions
- Always fresh – never frozen
Dinnerly
Dinnerly is the choice for you if you’re interested in having a large number of meal options available to you at a low cost. Coming in with 16 meal options as well as a slew of other benefits, it’s no wonder they’ve made it onto the list. Plus, it all comes under $5 per serving.
Key Benefits
- Only $4.29 to $4.99 per serving
- A vast array of options available to you each week – 16 in total
- Lots of Kid-friendly meals available
- Both dairy-free and vegetarian options are available
Buying Guide
Cost Matters
Having meals delivered to your home is similar to going out for food each night. It’s not as expensive, but it does add up over the month. This is especially true if you’re having meal kits for more than one meal per day.
EveryPlate, Dinnerly, and Mamasezz boast meals under $5 per serving.
Meal Deliveries and Taste
A common misconception is that meal delivery services sacrifice the quality of their ingredients, and thus their taste, to deliver prepped meals to you. While it’s true that not all meals are going to be able to have the freshest ingredients, that doesn’t mean you can’t have both taste and ease of use with a meal delivery service.
EveryPlate and Home Chef are the best-liked for their taste. Dinnerly is probably ranked last on the taste scale.
Ingredient Quality is Important
We’d all love to serve meals to our family with organic produce, grass-fed and hormone-free meats, and sustainably caught fish, but it’s not usually affordable. Likewise, these meal delivery services cannot promise that quality of ingredients, but they do make an effort to provide you with fresh food straight to your door.
While all the meals on our list are delivered fresh, Mamasezz pays the most attention to healthy meals with all their meals being oil-free, gluten-free, meat-free, egg-free, non-dairy, sugar-free, preservative-free, peanut-free, and sesame-free. And some meals are salt-free and soy-free.
Weekly Meal Variety
If you’re worried about getting bored with the same meals, fret not. The companies on this list all have between 11 and 24 meal options each week, so you’ll never run out of options.
Dinnerly and Mamasezz have the most variety with 16 and 24 meals each week respectively. We chose Dinnerly as the most varied given that their meals include meat and therefore will serve the average American family. But, Mamsezz technically has more choices.
Meal Prep vs Precooked
Cooking your own meals will be cheaper in the long run, so most of the traditional prepared meal services didn’t make this list.
However, Mamasezz is the only service that offers fresh fully-prepared meals for under $6.
Dietary Options
Meal delivery services have become well adapted to the many dietary restrictions that people have including diabetic-friendly, dairy-free, paleo, keto, and vegetarian options. While not all services cater to these needs, many do.
Mamasezz does the best at addressing special diets and allergies. But Home Chef and Dinnerly tie for second place here, offering a few meals each week that are dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and vegetarian.
Customer Service
As with all businesses, customer service is important. From shipping to mishandled ingredients, errors occur. It’s important to be able to correct them as easily and quickly as possible.
Being able to skip meals, pause or cancel the service are all important aspects of a weekly meal delivery service.
Key Takeaways
At the end of the day, EveryPlate is the best overall option for those looking for the cheapest meal delivery service. It has everything you’d want in quality service without sacrificing any of the highlights of eating a great meal.
From their high quality of ingredients to highly-praised dishes, to excellent customer service, EveryPlate does it all.