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Whether you’re following a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, or you’re looking to incorporate more greens in your diet, eating your fruits and vegetables is vital in a healthy diet. Having enough fruits and vegetables in your diet has been linked several times to reduced risk of chronic disease and help with weight management, according to an October 2015 review1.
There are quite a few plant-based meal delivery services available that can ensure you’re getting enough fruits and veggies into your diet. Two such meal services are Daily Harvest and Sakara Life, offering plant-based whole foods and meal options designed for healthy eating.
Which of these is the best meal delivery service for you? We’ve tested these two services (along with about 40 others) and our testers gave an honest assessment of each service. In our comparison of Daily Harvest vs Sakara, we’ll look at these two plant-based meals in aspects of customer service, packaging, cost, taste, ingredient quality, and more—all so you can decide which meal service is right for you.
Daily Harvest
Daily Harvest
Product Highlights
- Frozen plant-based meal delivery service
- Smoothies, grain bowls, flatreads, and soups
- Plant-based milk options available
- Recyclable packaging
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Frozen, nutrient-dense food
- High fiber content
- Free shipping
- Ability to skip a week and modify delivery schedule
- Manage your account on the iOS app or website
Cons
- Will not satisfy high-protein diets
- Some meal are under 300 calories
Bottom Line
Daily Harvest is a plant-based frozen meal delivery service that will provide you wholesome, nutrient-dense meals and snacks. The menu is made up of low-calorie smoothies, grain bowls, flatbreads, and soups. If you’re looking for a meal delivery service that supports high-protein diets, this is not the subscription plan for you.
Sakara Life
Sakara Life
Product Highlights
- Meal delivery service
- Plant-based meals
- Meals are preselected, and you decide which plan to order from, and for how many days (2, 3, or 5 days)
- Supplements are also available, including greens powder and probiotics
- Sourced from trusted organic farms that use sustainable farming practices
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Vegan friendly
- Variety of plans
- Sourced from organic farms with sustainable farming practices
- Ships across the continental U.S.
Cons
- Many plans get pricey quick
- Unable to change meals in plans
Bottom Line
Sakara Life is a meal delivery service and nutrition program designed to help fuel your body. With the slogan, “Feed Your Spirit,” Sakara Life provides several meal plans, all focused on plant-based meals. You can order up to three meals a day over a span of two, three, or five days each week.
Comparison Chart
| Daily Harvest | Sakara Life | |
| Price per meal | $5.99 to $11.99 | $26 to $33.50 |
| Meals per week | 9, 14, or 24 | 2 to 15 |
| Meal kit or prepared? | Prepared meals | Prepared meals |
| Diet options | Vegetarian, keto or low-carb, plant-based, paleo, organic, low-calorie, Whole 30 | Plant-based, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, organic |
| Fresh or frozen | Frozen | Fresh |
| Delivery area | Most of the continental U.S. | Contiguous U.S. |
Quick Look: Daily Harvest vs Sakara Life
Founded in 2014, Daily Harvest is a New York-based company that began with selling smoothies, but has expanded their meals to include plant-based soups, flatbreads, oats and grains, harvest bowls, and more.
In addition to providing organic meals and healthy food to customers, Daily Harvest has an emphasis on sourcing their organic produce from farms practicing sustainable farming. Their website cites a 2021 review2 that says a small commitment of eating more fruits and veggies and less meats and other foods can lower your carbon footprint by a third.
Another company based in New York, Sakara Life was founded in 2011 and provides plant-based meals through a pricey weekly subscription service. Made with high-quality ingredients, Sakara has a “food as medicine” approach to their meal program. According to their website, these meals are designed by nutritionists and doctors, plus the Sakara Science Council, and the meals can improve gut health, reduce bloating, lose weight, and improve your skin, too.
Along with their signature meal plan packed with superfoods, Sakara also offers coaching, supplements, and other focused plans to help with specific goals…although Sakara does lack a little bit of transparency in nutrition information (more on that in a bit).
Meals are carefully crafted for micronutrients and macronutrients. Perry Nix, RD, explains, “Sakara Life strives to create colorful meals to ensure they’re packed with vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients. Each meal includes plant-based protein to promote satiety, build lean muscle, and enhance metabolism.” You can read more about this premium meal service in our Sakara Life review.
Who Should Buy Daily Harvest
- Vegans or vegetarians wanting inexpensive plant-based meals
- Those wanting the freedom to choose their meals each week
- People with allergens to avoid, or dietary needs to adhere to
- Anyone wanting transparency in the nutrition information for meals
- Those wanting to support a company making efforts on sustainability
Who Should Buy Sakara Life
- People wanting a premium meal delivery service with a “food as medicine” approach
- Customers looking for plant-based meals
- Those wanting quality, organic ingredients in their meals
- People wanting less customization in favor of structured meal plans
- Anyone looking for coaching for their nutrition and eating habits
Key Similarities Between Daily Harvest and Sakara
- Both services offer only plant-based meals with veggies and grains
- Both are prepared meal delivery services
- Both services will save time at the grocery store
- Both have slightly smaller portion sizes from our experience
- Both have great choices for vegan meals
Important Differences Between Daily Harvest and Sakara
- Daily Harvest has much more nutritional information available for meals
- Sakara is a more expensive meal service
- Sakara Life offers nutrition coaching with their meal subscription service
- Daily Harvest lets you choose meals each week, while Sakara offers no deviation from meal plans
- Sakara has a rotating weekly menu providing decent variety of meals, while Daily Harvest has an a-la-carte menu that doesn’t rotate
Cost
When it comes to price, Daily Harvest is the clear winner here between it and the luxury-priced Sakara meals. If you’re looking for the cheapest meal delivery service, however, there still may be better alternatives for inexpensive plant-based or vegan options.
Daily Harvest: Daily Harvest’s cost will depend on what meals you choose and how many, since the service is a la carte with no specific weekly meal plans. However, you can expect around $10 a meal, which makes it a middle-of-the-road cost for a meal service.
GGR senior staff writer and certified nutrition coach Amanda Capritto rated the price a 3 out of 5, explaining that she docked points “because the portions seem quite small. $10 feels like a lot for what you get and the level of satiety that follows.”
Sakara Life: Sakara is one of the most expensive meal services we tested out, and therefore received a 1 out of 5 for this category. The price will vary based on the number of weekly meals you request, but even with a subscription discount, the lowest price will be $26 a meal.
Ease of Preparation
Both meal services are prepared meals, meaning the amount of meal prep involved and clean up afterward will be minimal, especially when compared to the best meal kits. However, in the case of Daily Harvest, prep time will vary depending on the type of meal.
Daily Harvest: Amanda gave the preparation a 3.75 out of 5. Although Daily Harvest is primarily a prepared meal service, the amount of preparation varies between the type of meal you have. “Smoothies, by nature, are annoying to make and clean up,” says Amanda. “You still have to use a blender, obviously. However, the fact that all the fruit and such is already cut up and you don’t have to deal with any waste (peels, etc.) is a big bonus.”
Other meals are easier however; flatbreads are baked in the oven, soups and forager bowls are microwaved after adding water to them, and oat and grain meals are cooked in a skillet. The amount of clean up will also vary depending on the meal.
Sakara Life: GGR editor Frieda Johnson tried out Sakara’s meals, and gave them a 5 out of 5 for ease of the preparation. Out of all the breakfast foods Frieda tried, none had to be heated—although the cinnamon rolls and tea cake had the option to be heated. She adds, “Their lunches are mostly all salads, so no prep is required there, either. Some of their dinner meals require heating, but there’s definitely minimal prep involved.”
Ingredient Quality
While both meal services use organic ingredients, Sakara Life had better ingredient quality, more than likely due to Daily Harvest’s meals being frozen.
Daily Harvest: “The ingredients are OK,” says Amanda. “Everything is frozen, so you’re obviously not getting the freshest quality.” The smoothies impressed her most out of the types of meals Daily Harvest provided, while the flatbreads were disappointing. The skillet meals were alright when some spices were added, and the oat bowls were decent. Overall, Amanda ranked the ingredient quality a 3 out of 5.
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Sakara Life: Although she couldn’t find information on where food was sourced from, Frieda notes that the food is all organic, plant-rich, gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO, and made without refined sugar. “I was impressed by how fresh the food seemed,” Frieda remarks, giving Sakara a 4.5 out of 5.
Taste
Similar to other aspects of Daily Harvest’s meals, the taste depended on the type of food or meal. Sakara had much more consistency in their meals’ taste, though.
Daily Harvest: Amanda had used Daily Harvest before when they only offered smoothies, so she was excited to try their expanded menu. Afterward, she was left a bit disappointed, giving the meal service a score of 3 out of 5 for taste.
“The smoothies are still yummy, and one flavor of oats that I got was pretty good—the mulberry dragon fruit harvest bowl,” Amanda says. “However, the flatbread that I ordered wasn’t good; I could have made a better flatbread with store-bought ingredients. The rice bowls are OK, but nothing special. Overall, the flavors are pretty bland and I had to spice up every meal with additional ingredients…except the smoothies.”
Sakara Life: Frieda gave Sakara a 5 out of 5 for taste, saying, “The food is really good, especially for being gluten-free and dairy-free. The baked goods especially impressed me, but the dairy-free parfaits were really good, too. I was less impressed with the ‘metabolism latte’ coffee substitute drinks, but they were OK.” Portion sizes were consistently small though, leading Frieda to rate the portion size a 1 out of 5.
Ordering
In our testing, both services were incredibly easy to place an order with, receiving top marks in this category—a 5 out of 5.
Daily Harvest: Daily Harvest offers their menu a la carte, in orders of at least nine, 14, or 24 meals. Larger plans provide more savings per meal. Simply make an account and start adding meals to your order.
Sakara Life: Also easy to order, Sakara Life is simple to use. You can pick your number of meals, select any add-ons, and you’re ready to go. You can subscribe to weekly meals, but there is also an option to purchase these healthy meals on a one-time order.
Customization
When it comes to customizing your meals, Daily Harvest has the edge here over Sakara.
Daily Harvest: Unlike other meal delivery services, Daily Harvest doesn’t have set plans, but instead you choose the meals, smoothies, or bowls you want. There aren’t any apparent meal plans, but it’s fairly easy to filter out entrees based on dietary restrictions. Amanda gives the customization a 4 out of 5 and explains, “You can filter by your likes, dislikes, allergens, diet type, and meal type. It makes it very easy to find what you want.”
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Sakara Life: Frieda rated the customization of Sakara Life a 3 out of 5, as the main thing to customize to your order is the number of meals and whether they are breakfast, lunch, or dinner meals. Aside from that, each plan comes with extras like detox teas, “beauty water drops,” supplements, and snack bars.
“As far as I can tell, the meals are all from the same menu, regardless of which “program” you choose,” Frieda says about their meals. Sakara bases meals on their Signature Nutrition Program, and other meal plans—The Metabolism Reset, The Fresh Start Cleanse, The Gut Health Reboot, and The Performance System—primarily add additional items to the signature plan.
Sustainability
Both Daily Harvest and Sakara Life emphasize caring for the environment and sustainable practices, but Daily Harvest seems to do a bit more of practicing what they preach in this regard.
Daily Harvest: When eating meals from Daily Harvest, you can rest assured that your quinoa bowl, sweet potato meal, or smoothie is sustainably sourced. Amanda gave the company a 5 out of 5, due to the company’s sourcing with sustainable farming practices, as well as limited waste from weekly meal deliveries.
“By using dry ice, that eliminates a lot of waste alone,” Amanda says. “There is some packaging waste—plastic that housed the dry ice, the boxes, and the actual packaging that the food is in. Even for the waste, Daily Harvest provides a comprehensive recycling guide online to let you know what is and isn’t recyclable, as well as how to best dispose of each item.”
Daily Harvest has an ultimate goal to use 100% recyclable and compostable materials, and we can’t help but respect that goal.
Registered dietitian Perry Nix is also a fan of their sustainable practices, saying, “When you order from Daily Harvest you’re getting sustainably-sourced fruits and vegetables. The company values organic farming and biodiversity, which promotes more nutrient-rich soil and is better for the planet.”
Sakara Life: Sakara Life emphasizes sustainable practices on their website, but it’s a little difficult to determine how they practice sustainability in their company, leading Frieda to rate their practices a 3 out of 5.
To preserve freshness, Sakara ships two separate boxes a week for orders, but this delivery option ends up using about double the material to ship meals—although all meals are packaged in recycled containers.
Frieda does add, “Their website says they ‘care deeply about Mother Earth and are committed to making the right choices for the health of our clients and the environment,’ but I can’t find any specific info about what action they’re taking…besides having recycled containers.”
Customer Reviews
Daily Harvest: As of this writing, Trustpilot has 1,207 reviews on Daily Harvest, with an average score of 3.6 out of 5 stars. Reviews are a little mixed, with several reviews reporting that their meals arrived thawed out. One such review explained good customer service, saying, “My first order was delivered completely unfrozen. However, customer support was quick to respond and fix the issue! The second order arrived frozen and the food has been awesome since.”
Sakara Life: Sakara has 296 reviews on Yelp, averaging out to a score of 3.6. Reviews are mixed, with most complaints stemming from delivery issues and bad customer service in resolving the issue. One such complaint states, “First order came with packaging all destroyed (the box itself was fine). Food was not edible. The second order never arrived, and after three emails and two phone calls, still no refund.”
With that said, even negative reviews talk about the high-quality ingredients of the meals provided by Sakara.
Customer Service
Daily Harvest: There are plenty of ways to contact Daily Harvest: email, phone, text, and even a live chat on the website. Additionally, the site has an FAQ section for any pressing questions. With that said, Daily Harvest doesn’t seem to have any return policy, which is fairly normal for a meal delivery service. Amanda gives the brand a 4 out of 5 here.
Sakara Life: Sakara Life has a couple of ways to contact them, either by phone or email—as well as a contact form on the website. Sakara also doesn’t have any return policies, but this also includes their extra add-ons like supplements and snacks. There are also some negative customer reviews on bad customer service, leading Frieda to rate the customer service experience with Sakara a 3 out of 5.
Daily Harvest vs Sakara Life: Final Thoughts
Although both of these prepared meal services provide plant-based meals, they are very different services. If you’re looking for an inexpensive meal service to increase your plant-based food intake, then Daily Harvest is the better choice here.
Still, if you’re looking for some nutrition coaching on your weight loss or fitness journey, and budget is not a limit, then the luxury option Sakara may be the meal plan you’re looking for, with its high-quality ingredients but matching price for the premium quality.
Daily Harvest vs Sakara Life: FAQs
What is comparable to Sakara Life?
There are quite a few plant-based meal deliveries on the market, which all could be a viable alternative to Sakara. A couple quality services with plant-based meals are Mosaic, Purple Carrot, Splendid Spoon, or HelloFresh.
What is the difference between Daily Harvest and Sakara?
Although both companies focus on plant-based meals, the main difference between Daily Harvest and Sakara is price, with Daily Harvest being much more inexpensive. Each service has pros and cons, though, as Daily Harvest has less consistency in its quality ingredients, and Sakara has far less customization than other meal deliveries.
What is the cost of Sakara?
The cost of Sakara will depend on the number of weekly meals you order, as well as whether or not you subscribe to a meal plan or not, but prices will typically range from $26 to $33.50 per meal.
References
- Pem D, Jeewon R. Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Benefits and Progress of Nutrition Education Interventions- Narrative Review Article. Iran J Public Health. 2015 Oct;44(10):1309-21. PMID: 26576343; PMCID: PMC4644575.
- Stylianou KS, Fulgoni VL 3rd, Jolliet O. Small targeted dietary changes can yield substantial gains for human health and the environment. Nat Food. 2021 Aug;2(8):616-627. doi: 10.1038/s43016-021-00343-4. Epub 2021 Aug 18. PMID: 37118177.
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