Best Food Subscription Boxes (2025): 9 Top Picks for Less Time at the Grocery Store

Home Chef is one of the most highly rated meal delivery services across the board. It scored a perfect 5 out of 5 for taste, with our tester Emily Chidester remarking that of the many meal delivery services she’s tried, Home Chef is “by far the best.” 

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“My husband and I love these meals, frequently getting more than the three we typically order because they are so easy to make and are delicious,” she says. “They send you the recipes [on cards], so we’ve definitely made some of the meals on our own without the meal kits because we love them so much. Many of the meals have wonderful sauces that just make the dish absolutely perfect. We’ve learned a lot about cooking just from making different recipes.”

As you might expect, the wonderful complexity of these meals means prep and cleanup aren’t easy. Emily rated Home Chef with just 2 out of 5 points for ease of preparation because most meals require multiple dishes to cook, mix, and chop up ingredients. Still, it’s a small price to pay if culinary excellence is important to you.

Registered dietitian Perry Nix says, “Eating home-cooked meals, whether using food from a meal kit or the grocery store, is linked to improved diet quality. Home Chef is a good option for those wanting to learn how to build balanced meals and acquire new cooking skills. Even if you only use the meal kits short-term, you can mimic the recipes using store bought ingredients.”

The main downside to this service is that it doesn’t offer allergy-friendly meal plans or specific diet tracks, such as keto or paleo. If you’re an omnivore without any dietary restrictions, Home Chef could be your perfect match, but those with allergies or sensitivities may want to look at other options. 

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You can read more in our full Home Chef review.

Hungryroot is a two-fer if I’ve ever seen one. This service provides both meal kit delivery and grocery delivery, potentially saving you hours of time week after week. Admittedly, GGR head of content and certified personal trainer Kate Meier found this a bit confusing during ordering, rating the ordering process a 3 out of 5…although she ended up loving Hungryroot in the end. 

“The first thing you do is take a quiz, and you get to pick a free gift,” Kate says. “You talk about your goals, dietary restrictions, and how much you like (or don’t like) cooking. You choose what style of cuisine you like (Thai, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc.) and flavors you dislike.” 

Then, Kate says you pick generic meals that look ideal for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks (like “tacos” or “eggs”) and how often you want them to send you those meals. “You then check out, and after you pay, it takes you to your cart, where you can see what they are going to send you, and you have six days to edit it,” she explains. 

As mentioned in our Hungryroot review, groceries are available in categories, including: Bread & Bakery, Snacks, Sweets, Pantry, Beverage, Ready-to-Eat, Dairy & Eggs, Grains & Pasta, Meat & Seafood, Plant-Based Proteins, Sauces & Condiments, and Product.

Hungryroot’s minimum order price is $65, which you can fulfill entirely via snacks, sweets, and pantry items if you wish. This makes it a great option for people looking for a service to easily restock their cupboards with healthy treats and go-to items. 

And if you want to add meal kits, you can do that, too. In fact, we recommend it. Kate rated Hungryroot with 5 out of 5 points for taste: “Everything is so fresh, and you don’t need to do any seasoning because most foods are prepared already for you with spices,” she remarks. “For example, one meal I received was for a chicken burrito bowl, and the chicken was already marinated in the spices, so I could just throw it in the skillet.”

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Losing weight is a really hard thing to do, and it’s made even tougher when you don’t have a lot of time to shop, prep for, and cook healthy meals at home (not to mention the cleanup). Plus, if you’re just getting started, you may not even know where to begin to build a healthy, balanced plate. 

While there are other physiological factors involved in weight loss¹, creating a calorie deficit, or burning more calories than you consume, is vital in any weight loss journey. Diet-to-Go makes weight loss easier with calorie-controlled single-serving meals that you can simply heat in the microwave.

And these aren’t your average TV dinners from the frozen aisle at your grocery store: Diet-to-Go meals are cooked by real chefs before being packaged and sent off. It’s one of the best meal deliveries for weight loss in our book. 

Our tester, GGR video reviewer Lindsay Scheele, admits that she found the taste of the meals to be “super hit or miss,” rating Diet-to-Go meal plans 3 out of 5 points for taste. “Some meals were amazing and perfectly seasoned, others were really bland and fell short,” she says. 

Lindsay mentions that the portions were often too small for her as an active person, too, although she wasn’t surprised given it’s a diet plan. She gave Diet-to-Go 3.5 out of 5 points for portions.

What Diet-to-Go may lack in flavor, it certainly makes up for in convenience. Lindsay says it’s super easy to prepare the meals; you just have to microwave them or pop them in the oven. That said, they do arrive frozen, so some planning ahead is necessary to dethaw and ensure they cook well in the microwave. 

Registered dietitian Perry Nix gives Diet-to-Go high remarks, too. “Diet-to-Go aims to simplify weight loss by delivering calorie-controlled, pre-made meals to your doorstep,” she says. “They take the effort out of eating healthy by eliminating prep time, cook time, and cleanup.” 

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You’re not alone if you think grocery prices are out of hand these days. Luckily, there are still some companies out there trying to help consumers who feel in over their heads, and one of those is EveryPlate. 

“EveryPlate is one of the most affordable meal kits available,” says registered dietitian Perry Nix. 
In today’s financial climate, groceries are expensive, and EveryPlate could help you save money on food.” The price per meal starts at an impressive $4.99 (although it can get pricier if you don’t order a lot of meals at once).  

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On top of the affordable price tag, the food is actually good. Perry, who uses EveryPlate herself, says, “Most ingredients are delivered fresh in their whole-food form with some pre-made sauces and seasonings. I find that the fresh ingredients really improve the aroma and taste of the meals.” Perry says that EveryPlate also helps her cook with new ingredients and expand her palate, which is often tough to do on one’s own.

Erin Chancer, GGR editor and certified nutrition coach, also enjoyed EveryPlate meals, giving the company 4 out of 5 points for taste. She mentions that the seasoning is sometimes minimal—just salt and pepper—but some meals come with seasonings that don’t seem to have a store equivalent, which can be fun. 

Erin was less impressed with the variety, saying, “The meals update weekly but do repeat, so if you use EveryPlate for several months, the variety may become stale. I used the service for over 6 months and did start to become bored with the meals being offered.” Still, she gave EveryPlate 4 out of 5 stars in this category since there are 26 meals to choose from each week with available add-ons to spice things up. 

Get our full thoughts in our in-depth EveryPlate review.

Whether you only care about organic produce or you want everything from your sauces to your seasonings to be organic, Green Chef has you covered. This is the only meal delivery service we tried that is completely USDA Certified Organic, which registered dietitian Perry Nix says is unique.

“In addition to being certified organic, Green Chef’s paleo and keto meal plans are also certified gluten-free,” Perry said after reviewing the company’s offerings. “This means they’re safe for people with celiac disease and anyone with gluten sensitivities.” 

However, she adds, “Green Chef doesn’t offer meals tailored to support heart health or diabetes, which many other meal services provide.”

GGR senior editor and certified personal trainer Nicole Davis tried Green Chef and was happy with the service overall, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars for taste and the same for ingredient quality. She tried four dinners and the breakfast bundle, which included oatmeal, egg white bites, muffins, and two recipes to make (French toast and breakfast sandwiches). 

Green Chef didn’t score quite as high for ease of preparation, earning 3 out of 5 points because the meals all take about a half hour to cook, which Nicole says is the most she’d want to spend making dinner on a weeknight. “You will have used multiple pots, pans, and other pieces of small kitchen equipment, so there is definitely cleanup involved,” she adds.

Nicole wasn’t impressed with the portion sizes, finding them a bit small and rating Green Chef a 3 out of 5 in this category. However, she appreciates the three different meal plans offered (Balanced Living, Keto+Paleo, and Plant-Powered) and points out that everything was packaged in a neat, organized way and arrived on time. 

Learn more about the company in our Green Chef review, and read our guide to the best organic meal delivery for other options.

Despite what carnivore diet enthusiasts may have you think, vegan diets are not as boring or devoid of protein as they are often portrayed to be. In fact, registered dietitian Perry Nix says her first impression of Purple Carrot is that it “strives to make plant-based eating accessible and enjoyable.” 

Our product tester, GGR performance editor and certified nutrition coach Anthony O’Reilly, would say that Purple Carrot is not just striving, but actually doing this. “The ingredients were fresh and I thought everything tasted really good! My favorite was the sloppy Joe with tofu instead of meat,” Anthony says. “Considering this was a plant-based meal service, I was quite happy with how everything came out and the portions were quite good.”

In the end, he rated Purple Carrot 5-out-of-5 in the taste category. Coming from an omnivore who does not shy away from cheese or steak, this is significant! It’s no surprise that Purple Carrot ended up on our guide to the best plant-based meal delivery.

Anthony expressed that most meals were very simple and easy to make, though he thought the instructions on the recipe cards could have been more detailed for beginner cooks. Because of this and the fact that most meals require some chopping and the use of multiple pieces of cookware, Anthony gave Purple Carrot 3 out of 5 stars for ease of preparation.

Perry likes Purple Carrot as an option for those who follow a strict vegan diet as well as people who are just interested in exploring more plant-based options. “Whether you’re eating less meat or eliminating it completely, Purple Carrot has recipes to support your dietary preferences. The company uses seasonal ingredients so you can add new foods into your rotation without ever getting bored.”

One big bonus: “A plant-based diet can help reduce inflammation and decrease your risk of developing a chronic disease,” Perry says.

Check out our Purple Carrot review for more information on this plant-based meal delivery service.

I’ve used Daily Harvest twice: Once in 2018, when the service offered smoothie cups and smoothie cups alone, and again more recently as part of meal delivery testing for GGR. I was interested to see how the brand had progressed, whether anything had changed with the smoothies, and if the new offerings were any good. 

I’m pleased to report that the smoothies are just as good as they were five years ago, and just as convenient. I love smoothies, but I never make them, because peeling and chopping fruit, storing the leftovers, and making a juicy mess of my kitchen just seems too daunting. Daily Harvest makes smoothies too easy—seriously. Just dump the contents of the cup into your blender, press a button or two, and voila, there’s your smoothie. 

The soups are also easy to make and yummy, although I did spice them up with hot sauce or add ingredients like sour cream for texture. I tried some of the oat bowls, too. I’m a fan of the mulberry dragon fruit oat bowl; it’s nice to have some more unique flavor profiles at my fingertips (I can’t say I know how to make any oat bowls other than a basic banana cinnamon one,so I welcomed the variety). 

I was not nearly as impressed with the other offerings; I found most of them bland, particularly the grain dishes. I would 100% recommend Daily Harvest for smoothies, soups, and oats, but not for full meals. As a whole, I rate the taste a 3 out of 5, although without the full meals, this score would be much higher.

I also find a the portions a bit lacking, and registered dietitian Perry Nix agrees. “Although packed with nutrients, most of their smoothies and bowls lack a sufficient amount of protein or calories,” Perry says. “Consider them snacks rather than meals, or you may find yourself feeling hungry again quickly.”

For that reason, I gave Daily Harvest 3 out of 5 stars for portion sizes. But as long as you go into it with your expectations set correctly, you won’t be disappointed. 

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Little Spoon is a unique meal delivery service catering to parents who need or want help providing their children with healthy, minimally processed meals that even picky eaters will like. Because who doesn’t need a little help sometimes? 

GGR senior editor and certified personal trainer Nicole Davis, mom of three girls, tried Little Spoon and really appreciated the convenience of the service. Her daughters are admittedly picky, she says, and had mixed reactions to the Little Spoon meals. 

“The meals are healthy and well-balanced, and it’s not much easier than popping one in a microwave, especially on days when you’re super busy,” she says. “Of the 12 meals we got the girls only really ate four of them, though—they didn’t care for the taste of the others.”

“If my kids had devoured these meals, I’d definitely order again,” Nicole said. She gave Little Spoon 3 out of 5 points for taste based on their feelings toward the food.

For portion, Nicole rated Little Spoon with 4.5 out of 5 stars, saying, “I think this is somewhat objective just because I find kids’ appetites to be wildly variable. Some days you can’t believe they’re asking for more food and other days they barely seem to eat anything. That being said, I  think the serving sizes are just fine. If they both liked something, like the chicken and dumplings for instance, they could eat the entire portion without trying very hard.”

Perry Nix, RD, LD, says her favorite part about Little Spoon is the diversity in ingredients. “It’s helpful to expose your child to many flavors and foods to diversify their palate early on,” she says. “As they grow, they’ll be more likely to try new foods, which makes meal times a lot easier for the whole family.”

Learn more about Nicole’s experience in our Little Spoon review.

HelloFresh is one of the most popular meal delivery services available. They’re well-known for their meal kits with recipe cards and large, rotating menu. 

According to Perry Nix, RD, LD, HelloFresh’s Family Friendly meal track can be a huge help for busy families. “I really like that HelloFresh offers family-friendly meal choices. As a mom of two young children it can be difficult to find nutritious meals that everyone will eat,” she says. “Also, since you cook these meals at home, the kids can help prepare their meals, which inspires them to taste new foods.”

The Family Friendly plan allows you to get up to four meals with six servings each (24 servings of food per week), and as few as two meals with two servings per week. The first box always ships free. 

Ashley Little, director of SEO for fitness at GGR, has used HelloFresh for years, which is a testament to her satisfaction with the service.

“I’m almost always satisfied with my meals,” Ashley says, adding that most meals are quite simple to make, with prep time usually taking five to 10 minutes and cook time typically taking 20 to 45 minutes depending on the complexity of the meal. Ashley gave HelloFresh 4.5 out of 5 stars for taste, noting that she sometimes has to add her own seasoning, and 4 out of 5 stars for ease of preparation due to the quick prep and cook times. 

Ashley also says that the portion sizes are sufficient to fill her up, and sometimes she can’t finish a whole serving, which can make great leftovers for lunch the following day. She did note some problems with ingredient freshness, namely veggies, that went bad before she could use them. For the most part, though, all ingredients were fresh, leading her to give HelloFresh 3.5 out of 5 stars for ingredient quality. 

You can learn the ins and outs of this service in our HelloFresh review, and check out our guide to HelloFresh alternatives for additional options.