This head-to-head comparison of CookUnity Vs. Factor will take an in-depth look at both meal delivery companies. From their high-quality ingredients to the dietary options and customer service team, we’re comparing everything that impacts your meal delivery experience so you can choose the right company for your prepared meal needs.
CookUnity
CookUnity has a team of chefs around the USA who work together to build a unique rotating menu with dishes so tasty you’d be thrilled to order it in a restaurant! Meals are prepared in kitchens close to you by local chefs and then delivered to your doorstep with a flexible subscription plan that includes as few as four meals per week or as many as sixteen meals.
Factor
Factor Meals is one of the most popular options for freshly prepared meals. This health-centric delivery service makes it easy to find meals that promote a healthy lifestyle with macros that can help you meet specific health goals.
CookUnity
Pros
- Restaurant quality, chef-prepared meals
- Huge variety of flavors and recipes
- Every CookUnity meal is fresh, never frozen
- A chef collective allows meals to be made in small batches in your area
- New menu every week
- Dedication to sustainable practices and minimizing food waste
- Regional menus allow chefs to create a menu using the freshest, in-season, and local ingredients
- Free shipping
- Filter by many diet plans and preferences
Cons
- Some meals have smaller position sizes
- Meals are more costly than some other meal delivery services
- An adventurous menu may not appeal to picky eaters
Factor
Pros
- Online nutrition coaching
- Gluten-free options made in a GF facility
- Multiple meal plans to choose from to accommodate specific dietary preferences
- Option to add-on snacks, breakfast, juices, wellness shots, and desserts
- Meals are fresh, never frozen
- Free shipping
- New menu of 30+ dietitian-designed meals every week
- Delicious, healthy meals are ready to eat in minutes
- Ingredients are sustainably sourced in the USA and mostly organic
Cons
- Factor meal plans can be costly, starting at $11 per meal
- Vegan and vegetarian menu items can feel repetitive
- Some customer reviews note bland or boring recipes
Dietary Options
CookUnity
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Factor 75
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Factor is a meal delivery service that has gained a reputation for its healthy, diet-friendly meals. Their dietary options include keto, calorie-smart, flexitarian, protein plus, vegan, and vegetarian plans. While these options sound great in theory, the number of meals per week you have to choose from can feel underwhelming, especially if you have vegan or vegetarian dietary preferences.
CookUnity offers similar dietary options with the ability to filter the menu to view vegan, vegetarian, low-calorie, low-carb, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-sodium, keto, and paleo meals. You can also filter your preferred main ingredient with choices like seafood, poultry, vegetarian, or meat.
Dietary Options Winner
Factor Meals has always been praised for their selection of meal plans, but CookUnity has gone a step further to create a menu that truly has something for everyone.
The best part of the dietary options with CookUnity is that you don’t have to select a specific meal plan; you can simply filter the menu to match your dietary restrictions/preferences and choose the items you want from there. That means if you want to mix low-calorie and high-protein meals or paleo and keto meals in the same delivery, you can do so!
Meal Variety
CookUnity
- 247
- 4 meals per week
Factor 75
check - 30
- 4 meals for 1 person
There are at least 30 Factor meals on the menu each week, with most weeks being closer to 35 meals. As we mentioned above, the meal variety with Factor can be especially lacking for people who choose vegan or vegetarian diets.
A lot of customers report some meals sharing similar flavors with other meals, even if they’re technically different recipes. This makes the variety feel even more lacking, so all around Factor could improve in this department.
CookUnity
Factor 75
On the other end of the spectrum, CookUnity has hundreds of meals on a rotating menu to choose from every week! Yes, you read that right – hundreds.
The incredible variety with CookUnity goes beyond the number of options per week, too. Since CookUnity is a chef-collective, there is a never-ending supply of new recipes with globally inspired flavors to choose from.
Meal Variety Winner
While Factor offers better meal variety than some meal delivery service competitors, their weekly menu can’t compete with the hundreds of dishes CookUnity brings their customers.
Ingredients
CookUnity
- Non-GMO
grass Organic- Grass Fed
- Wild-Caught
Factor 75
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Factor and CookUnity deliver well-balanced meals with high-quality ingredients. Both companies are dedicated to sustainable ingredient sourcing with organic ingredients whenever possible, but neither company is certified organic.
The CookUnity menu features a better selection of delicious food from around the world that professional chefs cook perfectly. Factor features more “standard” ingredients that you’re probably familiar with, but the ingredient quality is still good.
Ingredients Winner
CookUnity came out on top when we compared these two companies head to head. CookUnity builds its menu around in-season ingredients throughout the year, which ensures peak freshness when the meals arrive at your door.
This doesn’t mean Factor ingredients are bad, but CookUntiy is just a little bit better.
Taste & Sample Meals
CookUnity
- Mexican-Style Beef Stew
- Tonkotsu Ramen with Chashu Pork Belly
- Lemon Baked Tilapia with Cajun Cream Sauce
Factor
- Honey Mustard Chicken
- Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Fusilli
- Ground Pork & Cheddar Chili Mac
There’s no point in buying prepared meals if you don’t love how they taste! Ultimately, this can lead to wasted food and money, so it’s essential to find a meal delivery service with delicious meals that appeal to your palette.
Factor’s meals have some mixed reviews. The general consensus seems to be that the meals don’t taste bad, but they could be better.
Customers have noted a better variety of flavors, ingredients, and textures could make the meals more exciting to eat, and we have to agree. Factor meals may be a better fit if you consider yourself an unadventurous eater, but we were left wanting something more unique and flavorful to keep every meal exciting.
CookUnity meals are universally praised by everyone who tries them. The gourmet meals feature flavors from all around the globe. CookUnity’s meals taste like something you’d get at a high-end restaurant, which can’t be said for many prepared meal delivery services!
Taste Winner
When it comes to taste, the chef-prepared meals on CookUnity’s menu are truly the best of the best. Most people would struggle to cook meals that taste that good on their own, so it makes mealtime feel like an indulgent experience.
We credit the incredible flavor of CookUnity meals and their ability to offer more meals on the menu per week to the unique chef-collective structure. This goes to show that sometimes trying something new can seriously pay off in every delicious bite.
Pricing and Coupons
CookUnity
MEALS PER WEEK | PRICE PER SERVING |
4 | $13.59 |
6 | $12.29 |
8 | $11.69 |
12 | $11.19 |
16 | $11.09 |
Factor
MEALS PER WEEK | PRICE PER SERVING |
6 | $12.49 |
8 | $11.49 |
10 | $10.99 |
12 | $10.49 |
14 | $9.99 |
18 | $9.99 |
One of the primary concerns for people looking to buy prepared meals is the cost. Finding healthy meal options that fit into your budget is a challenge, but both CookUnity and Factor have similar pricing per meal.
Both companies base their pricing on how many meals per week you receive. The more meals per week, the lower the cost per meal. Factor meals start at $11 per meal and go up to $13.49. CookUnity meals range from $11.09 to $13.59, so the difference is barely noticeable in the total cost per delivery between the two companies.
Both CookUnity and Factor offer free shipping, no matter what specific diet or meal plan you choose.
Pricing Winner
Factor wins this category by a slight margin, but the two companies will affect your budget in a similar way. Another reason that pushed Factor to win is their online nutrition coaching services, which add to the total value you’re getting for what you’re paying.
CookUnity has smaller portion sizes with some of their meals, but the price remains the same per serving, which is frustrating for people on a tight budget.
Packaging & Recycling
CookUnity
Factor
Packaging is one area where the CookUntity VS Factor conversation gets a bit confusing. This is mainly because what a company claims and what customers experience are two very different things. CookUnity prides itself on eco-friendly packaging, but customer reviews aren’t nearly as positive.
Many CookUnity customers have experienced issues like not enough ice packs or leaks in the box and improper seals on the prepared meals.
The further the meals have to be transported, the worse condition the packaging seems to be in when it arrives. More ice packs in all boxes and better quality control on the meal packaging would make a big difference!
Factor meal packaging is recyclable or reusable, similar to CookUnity, but it’s much more consistent. The factor is generous with padding, insulation, and gel packs in every delivery. They’ve also mastered the art of consistent meal packaging, so there are no customers complaining about damaged seals that could impact the food inside.
Packaging Winner
Factor Meals is the obvious winner for this category because their packaging is all around better for the customer and the food inside. Having eco-friendly packaging is great, but it has to be functional too! CookUnity gets more complaints in this area than any other, so it’s clear there’s lots of room for improvement.
Customer Service
CookUnity
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Factor 75
Customer service is a tricky topic to review because it’s impossible for companies to make every customer happy. At the end of the day, there will always be a few people who find something not to like about customer service interactions. That being said, there are some things a company can do to improve the customer service team.
Quick replies and friendly interactions seem to be the norm with Factor, while CookUnity has more reports of long wait times and inconsistent replies after talking to different people from their customer service team.
Customer Service Winner
Factor is the winner for customer service because it’s easier to contact them, and the replies are quicker. Factor can be reached via email, online chat, or over the phone, while CookUnity can only be connected via phone or email. The addition of an online chat option is a game-changer for busy customers!
Winner
CookUnity
In the conversation of CookUnity vs. Factor, there are a lot of benefits to both companies, but CookUnity wins by a small margin. With a more diverse menu, better-tasting meals, and almost identical pricing to Factor, CookUnity offers a better customer experience overall. They also offer more options for different dietary preferences, like a vegan diet.
While there are some mixed reviews on CookUnity packaging, it’s not an issue for the vast majority of customers and doesn’t impact their winning status in our minds.
Choose Cook Unity if:
- Exceptional menu variety is an essential factor for you
- You have adventurous taste buds and like a diverse range of flavors
- You have various dietary preferences
- You want fresh, never-frozen individual meals.
Choose Factor Meals if:
- You’re looking for health-centered meal delivery, especially with calorie-smart options.
- You prioritize nutritionally balanced meals
- You want larger portion sizes
- Reliable customer service is important for you.