24 Food Subscription Boxes That Make Cooking—and Life—Easier
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
We are always tired. In fact, we never stopped being tired. Maybe the answer is some new bedding—like a mattress, some down pillows, some sheets, or even a sunrise lamp. Maybe the answer is a better gym routine, maybe an at-home gym routine. Maybe the answer is less alcohol, or maybe (probably) the answer is to only drink the best alcohol... Who am I kidding. The answer is easier meal planning.
What most of us are sick of is meal planning, grocery shopping, packing school lunches, and eating the same two eggs for breakfast every day. Let me be the first to say: That’s okay. Cooking a meal after a long day of work, childcare, the same four walls, or your newly five-days-a-week office walls is a daunting task. Daily take-out is just not an option. So, now more than ever, it feels like a good time to finally try out a food subscription box service. Something's gotta give, and they’re a great way to ease up on one of your daily stressors and give yourself a small break. There’s an option for every need, whether you prefer getting pre-made meals delivered, want just the ingredients and recipes, or wish to support local businesses.
The dietary options are endless, too: You can get healthy, veg-forward meals, specialty meats, or just straight candy regularly delivered to your door. There's stuff for the whole family, like kid-friendly kits, and meals for one that help to minimize food waste. Use it to try out something new, support that local business, or outsource the time and energy you spend feeding yourself to somewhere else for a change. Ahead, we uncovered the best subscription boxes for you to try, no matter your palate or budget.
Misfits Market
From $40 per week, misfitsmarket.com
The one version of these boxes I will recommend to anyone and everyone is Misfits Market. The amount of food that goes to waste in America is absolutely insane. Donating it is a legal minefield, and people in supermarkets won't buy anything that doesn't look pristine (meaning, pumped full of preservatives.) If you don't have a nice local grocer, Misfits Markets sells outcast produce—the stuff that got tossed because it didn't look perfect enough for the supermarket shelves. It's all perfectly good produce, it just might look a little funky. For the frugal, the prices are great. For the foodies, the seasonal selection challenges you. And for the parents, it's all high-quality organic produce. Plus, the subscription is flexible, and the customer service is helpful.
Sun Basket
From $59 per week, sunbasket.com
Sun Basket offers 18 recipes for you to choose from each week, and it can accommodate paleo, vegan, dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and diabetes-friendly diets. It also offers grocery add-ons, so it’s like a food subscription box and an online grocery store rolled into one.
Daily Harvest
From $48 a week, daily-harvest.com
When you want to ditch your daily bodega bagel and get into healthier breakfast eating, look here. As long as you own a blender, Daily Harvest's smoothies are an easy and nutritious choice. Beyond that, it also makes bowls, soups, lattes, and even ice cream options—all dairy free. Take your pick from a number of items and delivery frequency.
Freshly
From $50 per week, freshly.com
Freshly provides over 30 gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and all-natural meal options each week. But it also does all the work—all you have to do is heat it up. This one is for lazy (or busy) people who still like to eat healthy.
Green Chef
From $60 per week, greenchef.com
This one is for the healthiest eaters. Choose from keto, paleo, balanced, plant-powered, omnivore, and carnivore menu options, and receive organic, sustainably sourced, pre-prepped ingredients every week.
Mosaic Foods
From $80 a week, mosaicfoods.com
Mosaic Foods does one thing only: vegetarian bowls. Whether that's an oat bowl for breakfast or a noodle bowl for dinner, though, its bowls are healthy, filling, and tasty. If it's a meatless health kick you're on and you're looking for pre-made and delicious, this is a great place to start.
Eat Sunny
From $295 per week, eatsunny.com
If you're looking for a meal subscription kit that will provide you with healthy, fresh food, Eat Sunny is your go-to. This diet-friendly service includes meals that are made with high-quality and organic food options that will fuel you for hours. You'll notice mouthwatering meals like banana kale waffles for breakfast; kale, chickpea, and amaranth salad with tahini dressing for lunch; and herb-roasted salmon with zucchini mash for dinner. To order, simply choose between three plans (you can order a la carte, one-time, or subscribe and save 10 percent). Then, pick your delivery date. (Eat Suny delivers on Mondays and Wednesdays every week, so be sure to keep that in mind when meal prepping.) Then, customize your meals. You can choose to forgo dairy and/or gluten, which makes this great for anyone with a specialized diet. Eat Sunny will deliver your meals, and you can eat them whenever.
Blue Apron
From $40 per week, blueapron.com
Blue Apron is like the Netflix of food subscription boxes—a pioneer in a presently crowded market. It offers signature, vegetarian, and Weight Watchers menu options, all comprised of sustainable, non-GMO ingredients.
Snap Kitchen
From $25 a week, snapkitchen.com
Snap Kitchen is a great option for picky eaters or those with strict food restrictions—it accommodates diets like paleo, keto, and vegetarian, and is totally customizable if you don’t fit into just one of those buckets. The meals come pre-packaged, meaning there’s zero cooking involved on your end.
Hello Fresh
From $14 per week, hellofresh.com
HelloFresh is another O.G. in the subscription box arena. It allows you to choose from 20 meals each week, and it’s an affordable option, albeit slightly less accommodating for picky eaters or certain dietary restrictions.
Goldbelly
From $45 a month, goldbelly.com
Try one of Goldbelly’s monthly offerings when you’re looking for the fun of food tourism without leaving your own kitchen. Whether you opt for pizza or BBQ or sandwiches, Goldbelly rounds up the best the country has to offer, and ships you a different one from a different restaurant in a different city each month to try out. Makes at least one of your monthly at-home dinners a pretty exciting event, which is no small feat.
Veestro
From $216 a month, veestro.com
Veestro is a no-nonsense, all-vegan meal delivery. All you have to do is pick your meals, receive them in the mail, and get them into the oven or microwave. It accommodates a variety of additional dietary needs such as gluten-free, nut-free, soy-free, and Kosher, but its entire offering is completely free from meat, chicken, fish, dairy, eggs, and honey from the get-go. With breakfast foods as well as more lunch and dinner options, this is the service if you’re looking to go all-in vegan and never look back.
Raw Generation
From $109.99 a month, rawgeneration.com
If you want to consume more fruit and vegetable juices on your health journey, we just have the thing for you. Raw Generation will ship delicious frozen veggie and fruit juices or smoothies to you once a month—you just pick the number of bottles and type you’re after, such as cleansing, protein, or immunity.
Gobble
From $56 per week, gobble.com
Gobble has customizable, pre-prepped lunch and dinner plans available for the champions who make their own lunch every day. All its recipes boast 15-minute cook times, but most are heavy on gluten and dairy, so it might not be the best choice for those with dietary restrictions.
Home Chef
From $20 per week, homechef.com
Home Chef wins for the most variety, with up to 26 customizable mix-and-match meal choices sent your way every week. If you’re a hard-to-please eater, this one’s for you.
Dinnerly
From $38.93 per week, dinnerly.com
Dinnerly is one of the more budget-friendly options of the pack. There’s not as much selection as some of the other players, the chopping part is up to you, and recipes are online instead of inside your box (which helps save the planet).
Purple Carrot
From $72 per week, purplecarrot.com
Purple Carrot is entirely vegan, so meat lovers can stop reading here. The menu is plant-based and high in protein, and you can add on one breakfast or lunch per delivery, too.
Martha & Marley Spoon
From $49.99 per week, marleyspoon.com
Martha & Marley Spoon is a meal kit box that offers you 20 recipes to choose from each week. You pick which Martha Stewart-approved meals you want, and they arrive pre-portioned and sorted by recipe, with six-step instructions to follow.
Food Stirs
From $26 every other month, foodstirs.com
Foodstirs is a baking subscription kit service that delivers all-natural, seasonally themed dessert recipes to you every other month. This one is fun to do with kids, but we won’t judge you if you get it just for yourself.
Love with Food
From $8 per month, lovewithfood.com
Love with Food is for serial snackers. It’s a clean-ingredient snack subscription service that sends you between seven and 15 surprise snacks to try a month, depending on the option you choose. You can also feel good about your snacking habit because Love with Food donates one meal or more to an American family in need with every snack box delivered to you.
Butcher Box
From $129 per month, butcherbox.com
Get high-quality meat shipped to your door each month, if that's all you need to be happy. Choose between a mix of beef, chicken, and pork (they pick the cuts), or customize your box entirely. Not for the budget-conscious carnivore.
The Fruit Company
From $99 per month, thefruitcompany.com
And if your idea of candy is nature's candy—or if you're just looking for a way to balance out that sweet tooth—The Fruit Company has a few fruit-centric subscription boxes for nutrient-dense eating. You can go traditional, exotica, or certified organic.
Hungryroot
From $65 per month, hungryroot.com
Maybe a planned-out meal delivery service is perfect for you and maybe there is not a chance in hell you actually make the meals they give you the groceries for. That's fine. Just cut the part where you waste any food and get Hungryoot instead, which is a subscription grocery service with proteins, produce, and all the pantry goods you desire.
Candy Club
From $30 per month, candyclub.com
If you’re serious about your candy and don’t enjoy the silent judgment of the bodega clerk when you run out to grab some at 11 p.m. every other night, sign up for a monthly shipment from Candy Club. Choose mostly sweet or mostly sour, and the size of your box, and six new candies will arrive each month for you to sample. Just don’t tell your dentist.
Get Unlimited Access to Esquire's Food & Drink Coverage
You Might Also Like