The 10 Best Meal Kits and Prepared Meal Services Out of 31 We Tested
Blue Apron has been our top-rated meal kit service for more than a year. Just this summer, the brand revamped its menu and eliminated the subscription requirement . With this big shakeup in the meal delivery universe, we decided to test all of the services again, including Blue Apron, and see where the chips land.
If you're wondering why meal kits have become so popular, the answer lies in a recent CNET survey . The sweeping inquiry found that US adults spend $4,300 on restaurant dining and takeout every year. Grocery inflation is also causing folks to seek budget-friendly alternatives, and meal kit prices have stayed mostly stable as supermarket stickers skyrocket.
After testing more than two dozen meal kits and prepared meal delivery services over 100 hours as CNET's kitchen, food, and subscription expert, I've developed exacting standards. I expect quality, affordable food and have little patience for companies that fail to deliver. These considerations are top of mind when we test meal kits at CNET. The goal: to find the absolute best meal kits and meal delivery services in every category.
For 2025, I've enlisted two colleagues to help: our vegan wellness editor, Anna Gragert , and CNET's flex editor, Corin Cesaric , who is a self-proclaimed amateur cook. For even more analysis, we had our full New York office taste every prepared meal service to crowdsource opinions.
What's the best meal kit delivery service overall?
With high-end recipes and no subscription requirement, Blue Apron is the best meal kit service out of the more than 30 we tested.
After the latest round of testing, Blue Apron holds the top spot on our list of best meal kit delivery services for 2025. Prices range from $8 to $14 per serving and no subscription requirement as of 2025. It's not the cheapest option out there, but the brand consistently delivers flavorful, easy-to-make meals -- including tender steak and salmon. While others on our list impressed for special diets and recipe variety, my fellow editors agree that Blue Apron is the best meal kit service for most.
According to our group, MealPro has the best-tasting prepared meals but its high cost keeps it from the top spot on our list.
For those who don't care to cook, there are services that send fully cooked meals ready to heat and eat. CookUnity earns the top spot as the best prepared meal service thanks to its huge selection of excellent and interesting meals. If money is not a concern, MealPro earned the best overall marks from our group of testers but the price of meals -- between $15 and $22 each -- keeps it out of the top spot.
We've tested more than 30 options to bring you the 9 best meal kits and meal delivery services for 2025.
Best meal kit delivery services right now
Recent updates
July 2025
MealPro was tested and added to the list as best gourmet prepared meal delivery service
Gardencup was tested and added to the list as best salad delivery service
HelloFresh was retested and recategorized as best meal delivery for recipe variety
Meal kits and prepared food services compared
Factors to consider when choosing a meal delivery service
Meal kit vs. prepared meal delivery
Meal kits or prepared meals? It's the first decision you'll have to make. Some services offer both, however.
The first big decision you'll make is whether you want meal kits, which require some prep and cooking, or a prepared meal service that sends fully cooked meals that are ready to heat and eat. Meal kits will demand more of your time and energy but they'll also cost a little less per serving. Some meal kits can actually save you money over groceries . Prepared meals require almost no time and energy, other than what it takes to actually eat the food, but typically run a few bucks more per serving.
Cost
Our testing editors rated Green Chef meals well but the healthy meal kit service is pricier than most.
After you've chosen between meal kits or meal delivery, you'll want to find a service within your budget. There are meal kits with recipes for as cheap as $5 a serving with basic menus and no-frills recipes. More expensive services include recipes with more exotic ingredients, high-end cuts of meat and organic produce, but can cost as much as $15 a serving. Here I've outlined all the best cheap meal delivery services for 2025 .
Healthiness
We made sure every ingredient was accounted for before starting a recipe.
Most meal delivery services have healthy options, and some are much healthier than others. If you're keen on eating low-calorie, low-carb, plant-based or pescatarian food, certain meal kits and meal delivery services will be better than others. Our list of the healthiest meal delivery services for 2025 is a good place to find all the most nutritious options.
Daily Harvest is one of the healthiest meal delivery services we tried.
Number of meals per week
Some meal delivery services offer big value if you order more meals.
Lastly, you'll have to decide exactly how much food you'll want sent to you per week. If you can't imagine yourself cooking more than twice per week, don't order more than two meal kits because they typically won't last more than a week in the fridge. Most meal kit services offer plans as small as two meals per week and as many as six.
Most prepared meals either arrive frozen or can be frozen after unboxing. That means it's less of an issue if you order too many meals on your first go around. However, some fresh food delivery services, including Gardencup, Thistle and Sakara Life, are not meant to be frozen.
Most services allow you to change the number of meals or servings in your plan even after you've started. With nearly every service, the more meals you order per delivery, the cheaper it is per meal.
How we tested meal kits: A trio of CNET editors tried every service
Meal kits are judged on several factors as we cook our way through a box of recipes.
All the meal delivery services may look delicious in their website glamour shots, but that's certainly not enough to convince us. To settle on this list of the best meal delivery services, three CNET editors cooked at least three meal kits from every service. Our trio included a meal delivery expert who has been reviewing meal kits for more than five years, a vegan editor from our wellness team to evaluate healthiness, and an editor who is new to cooking to gauge ease of execution for those at the start of their home cooking journey.
We cooked our way through every meal kit service we could get our hands on.
After completing the meal kits, we compared notes and married our opinions on each to curate this list of the best services for every type of cook and eater. We consider how each meal kit tastes, how easy it is to prepare and the portion size. We also evaluate the website and how easy it is to navigate, along with determining how easy it is to pause, cancel or change your order at any given time.
We followed the recipe cards to the letter.
To learn more, I have an in-depth look at how we test meal kits here at CNET.
How we test prepared meals
The inside of our wellness editor's freezer was packed with Mosaic Foods meals.
In this latest round, to test each prepared meal service, we ordered at least seven meals from each to our New York office and had 10 designated testers try them. We logged their ratings and any hot takes or consensus opinions about the meals in general. I tried at least five from each service on my own and weighted the group results against my own ranking. We chose a range of meals from the various menu and meal plan offerings and took note of the ordering process, recipe variety, portion size, taste and healthiness.
CookUnity's Slow-roasted kalua pulled pork with green beans and garlicky rice was cooked well but was very salty.
We reheated meals according to the instructions. If there were none, we would have heated them the way we would if left to our own devices. Often that meant warming gently in a nonstick skillet or reheating in the office air fryer." target="_self Many of the meal delivery services offer a microwave heating option, but we almost always found that it produced worse results than my trusted methods, even if they typically take a few seconds longer.
Other meal delivery services we tested
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Sunbasket : Sunbasket's meals were solid, but the high price keeps it off our list for 2025.
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Home Chef" target="_self : This meal delivery service has a huge selection of recipes, and we liked many of them, but some kits arrived disheveled, and the food was hit or miss.
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Factor : This was a previous pick on our best list, but in 2025, we found the meals bland, salty and often dry or overcooked.
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Eat Clean Bro : This healthy prepared meal service offers high-protein meals for the fitness-minded. It wasn't bad, but we liked other options at this price range better.
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Eat Clean : Not to be confused with Eat Clean Bro, this healthy prepared meal service had meals that were excellent and others that tasted so strange, we didn't finish them.
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Martha Stewart & Marley Spoon :This is another meal kit service aimed at foodies. The quality is high, but so are the prices.
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BistroMD : These meals are intended to promote weight loss, but the cost is high and the flavors aren't good enough to justify the price.
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Daily Harvest : Daily Harvest's semi-prepared smoothies, bowls, and soups are good and fairly affordable, but the meals are inconsistent and contain a lot of sodium.
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Thistle : This fresh meal delivery service is great for flexitarians who prefer fresh food over frozen, but the cost per meal keeps it off our list.
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Gobble : This meal kit service sends mostly prepped ingredients to save even more time making dinner.
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Splendid Spoon : This is a good service to try if you want premade smoothies, but be prepared to pay about $10 for each one.
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Dinnerly : This meal kit service is one of the cheapest, but the recipes were inconsistent.
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Territory Foods : The food was some of the best we tried, and I found the recipes diverse and interesting. Ultimately, the cost -- meals costing $12 to $23 -- kept it out of the top.
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Spoonful of Comfort : This ready-to-eat service is a great gift option to send to someone who is sick. It's chock-full of soups to choose from, and it's so simple to heat them up and enjoy. The meals were simple, but tasty.
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Sakara Life : This fresh food service was tasty and good for a cleanse, but it's also one of the most expensive meal subscriptions we've come across.
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Trifecta Nutrition : Trifecta's vegan meals are healthy and tasty, but also very expensive.
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Hungryoot : We really liked this hybrid service, but it leans more toward grocery delivery than meal kit.
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Snap Kitchen : Snap Kitchen has solid prepared meals, mostly under 450 calories. The portions were a bit small, and some meals were underwhelming.
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FlexPro Meals : These frozen keto meals were some of the worst we tried.
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Nutrisystem : Although it's affordable, we disliked most of the meals we tried from this frozen meal subscription.
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Rootberry : This vegan meal delivery service is reliable, but the food is not to the level of others on our list.
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ModifyHealth: This low-FODMAP prepared meal service is designed to help those with GI issues. The meals we tried were tasty and well prepared, but they're expensive, and this niche service is not an obvious pick for the average person.
Who are meal kits good for?
Meal kits are best for those seeking truly fresh food.
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Families seeking an easier way to make home-cooked meals. Meal kits help you avoid the nightly debate about what you're going to make for dinner and save a trip to the grocery store if you're missing breadcrumbs or flour.
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Those trying to eat healthier. Meal kit services all offer in-depth nutritional information, including carbs, calories, sugar, sodium and protein. Many meal kit services even offer specific diet plans that filter out foods that don't fit a dietary preference or restriction, such as gluten-free, diabetes-friendly, keto or carb-conscious and paleo meals.
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Anyone who wants to learn to cook.With all the ingredients sent along and easy recipe instructions, meal kits are a low-pressure way to learn to cook.
Who is prepared meal delivery good for?
Prepared meals are great for those uninterested in cooking.
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Those looking to save time. Meal delivery is great for anyone who wants easy meals and fewer evenings spent cooking but doesn't want to pony up the dough for expensive takeout.
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Those looking to eat better. Many prepared meal delivery services cater to Whole30, keto, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, and organic eaters and can help you regulate fat, sugar, carbs, and calories every week.
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Families, in some cases. Certain meal kits with larger serving sizes are good for families. Mosaic Foods, for instance, has family meals that net out to just $6 a person. Meal kit services also have family plans that cost less per serving than buying meal kits for one or two people.
Blue Apron is CNET's best meal kit delivery service.
What's new in the meal kit industry right now?
This summer, Blue Apron announced that for the first time in the company's history you'd be able to order their meals à la carte with no subscription necessary. This was huge since almost every meal kit we've tested requires a subscription. Granted they are usually extremely simple to skip or cancel, but ordering à la carte means never forgetting to pause a subscription.
