There are now so many options for meal kit companies on the market that it’s difficult to know which service is the best match for you if you are interested in trying one.
Blue Apron and HelloFresh are two of the most well-known companies in the meal kit industry. They have a lot in common, but there are a few important differences that we would love to share with you.
The Meal Kit Review team re-tested each service in 2024 to ensure our comparison and information about both kits are up-to-date to help you decide which one to choose.
Let’s dive into a comprehensive HelloFresh Vs. Blue Apron comparison right now!
Short On Time? Our winner is HelloFresh. Here is why…
Blue Apron and HelloFresh offer delicious, high-quality foods that encourage customers to cook healthy meals at home. Our winner is HelloFresh due to these qualities:
- Greater variety of meals each week
- More crowd-pleaser recipe options
- Great add-on options
- Supporting more diet needs like low-carb, low-calorie, and more
What is HelloFresh?
HelloFresh is one of the most recognizable meal kits on the market and is the most popular service in the US. They offer weekly delivery of healthy, straightforward meal kits with easy-to-follow recipes. Ingredients come pre-measured and portioned for each meal, and recipe cards are printed to walk you through the cooking process.
HelloFresh offers an extensive weekly menu with a variety of meal options to satisfy most tastes, making it an excellent fit for individuals, couples, or larger families. In addition to their traditional meal kit offerings, they have a market where you can shop add-ons, including extra protein, snacks, and breakfast items.
What is Blue Apron?
Blue Apron is another highly recognizable meal kit service – in fact, it was the first to operate in the US! As one of the longest-lasting meal kit brands, Blue Apron continues to provide high-quality, chef-designed meals with pre-portioned ingredients. In addition to traditional meal kits, Blue Apron offers fully prepared meals.
The Blue Apron meal kit service includes a variety of recipes to fit different skill levels and dietary preferences, and they also have an extensive market where customers can add on breakfast, lunch, snacks, and more.
Pros and Cons
HelloFresh Pros
- Great variety of delicious, easy-to-prepare meals
- Recipes to suit many dietary needs, including vegetarian, pescatarian, and low-calorie
- Competitive prices and generous promotions for new customers
- Includes option for market add-ons
HelloFresh Cons
- Doesn’t cater to specific dietary restrictions like gluten-free and allergen-friendly
- Some meals may require specialized tools
Blue Apron Pros
- Good variety of chef-designed meals on the weekly menu
- Uses high-quality, sustainably sourced ingredients
- Offers oven-ready options and market add-ons
- Recipes to satisfy many diets, including vegetarian, keto, and carb-conscious.
Blue Apron Cons
- Less variety in weekly menu options than in some other meal kit services
- Fully prepared oven-ready meals are only available in single servings
The Meal Plans
HelloFresh Meal Plans
HelloFresh offers plans for 2 or 4 people, with the option to receive anywhere from 2 to 6 meals per week. You can also add items from the HelloFresh market, including breakfasts, snacks, and more.
When selecting your plan, you can specify preferences to get recommendations for your dietary needs and goals. Options include high-protein, low-carb, veggie, pescatarian, low-calorie, and plant-based menus.
Blue Apron Meal Plans
Blue Apron offers plans for 2 or 4 people, with the option to receive between 2 to 5 meals in your weekly meal kit delivery.
You can personalize your weekly recommendations with a few options: Chef Favorites, wellness, family-friendly, fast and easy, and veggies. In addition to the weekly menu, Blue Apron customers can shop add-ons, including breakfast, snacks, and more.
The Meals Style
When comparing HelloFresh vs. Blue Apron, it’s important to consider how well the weekly menu options align with your dietary needs and preferences. Both kits offer a good variety of meals, but there are some differences to be aware of when deciding between them.
HelloFresh offers 100+ options on their weekly menu. Among those dishes, you can find options for different needs and lifestyles – family-friendly, calorie-smart, protein-smart, seasonal, vegetarian, and even a few premium options every week! The menu is very flexible, and you can mix and match between different categories.
Blue Apron, on the other hand, offers its customers around 15 recipes to choose from per week. Their weekly recipes include vegetarian options alongside high-protein, low-calorie, and carb-conscious dishes. You can also choose from their microwavable and oven-ready meals and market add-ons each week.
With both companies, you can change your weekly plan or skip a week as needed. Also, the diversity in both companies’ menus is great, with dishes including vegetables, beef, poultry, seafood, and pork and cuisines like Mexican, classic, Italian, and more.
HelloFresh menu:
Blue Apron Menu:
Is It Tasty? Our Experience
At Meal Kit Review, we’ve had over six years of experience with Blue Apron and HelloFresh delivery services. To ensure our comparison has the most current info, we re-tested both services for two weeks in 2024.
HelloFresh and Blue Apron both offered high-quality produce and proteins, and we were impressed overall with the boxes from both companies. The boxes were easy to sort through, and the ingredients looked fresh and delicious. Both kits also included helpful recipe cards with all the steps needed to prepare the meals.
Best Meal We Enjoyed From Blue Apron
From our most recent Blue Apron experience, we especially enjoyed the Chipotle Chicken Tostadas. This meal is a creative twist on tacos, with many familiar flavors like black beans and chipotle chicken. We loved the addition of the tomato-radish salsa, which added a freshness to the dish. The tostadas had a nice crunch, making this a truly satisfying meal.
Best Meal We Enjoyed From HelloFresh
With HelloFresh, we enjoyed the Chicken Sausage Zucchini Flatbreads from our recent box. The crispy flatbreads paired well with the roasted garlic sauce, and we loved the topping combination of zucchini and chicken sausage. These might not be the first flatbread toppings you think of, but they were a truly delicious meal that feels fancy but comes together easily.
Other Popular Meals To Try
HelloFresh Meals
- Lemony Spaghetti with Brussels Sprouts sprinkled with Toasted Panko & Scallions
- Moo Shu Chicken Bowls with Cabbage, Scallions, & Buttery Rice
- Honey Thyme Beef Tenderloin with Roasted Potatoes & Green Beans
- Cajun Blackened Tilapia with Red Beans & Lemon Rice
- Crispy Cheddar Chicken with Roasted Broccoli & Loaded Bacon Mashed Potatoes
Blue Apron Meals
- Cheesy Chipotle Gemelli Pasta with Spinach & Tomatoes
- Spicy Pork Belly & Coconut Curry Ramen
- Southern Pork Roast & Corn Cakes with Green Beans & Creamy Honey Mustard
- Cilantro Corn & Black Bean Tostadas with Guacamole & Cotija Cheese
- Shawarma Chicken & Couscous with Marinated Vegetables & Honey-Tahini Sauce
The Ingredient Quality
Blue Apron and HelloFresh provide high-quality ingredients in their meal kit boxes, which are designed to ensure that food stays fresh until it reaches your doorstep.
Blue Apron works to source its ingredients responsibly, partnering with local farmers and experts to ensure high food standards. They state that all meats have no added hormones and all seafood is sustainably sourced. Some ingredients are USDA-certified organic, but they focus on supporting farmers using sustainable practices and providing high-quality produce.
HelloFresh uses primarily domestic meats. They also promise that all poultry and pork are hormone-free and all seafood is sustainably sourced. It is important to note that the vegetables provided by HelloFresh are not always organic, but they focus on peak freshness and quality. HelloFresh states that their focus is not on whether or not the produce is organic but instead on supporting customers by including more fruits and vegetables in their daily lives.
Diet and Lifestyle Support
Both Blue Apron and HelloFresh meal kits can help cultivate better eating habits by cooking at home more often. Both offer many family-friendly, crowd-pleasing meals that can work well for larger households.
Blue Apron offers several meals with 600 calories or less on their weekly menu to support a low-calorie diet, and they also have carb-conscious offerings suitable for people with diabetes or individuals on a low-carb diet. Their menu also includes some vegetarian options. This service doesn’t offer specific plans or meals for certain specialty diets, such as vegan, gluten-free, or keto. Their pre-prepared, oven-ready meals come in single-servings and are an excellent option for busy people on the go.
HelloFresh offers more variety in recipes and can support more types of diets. When selecting a plan, customers can opt for low-calorie and low-carb options to help with diet support. You can also choose to get recommendations for great veggie, pescatarian, and plant-based meals or meals with high protein. Recipes on the website are clearly labeled for easy browsing to find quick and easy meals and those that suit other dietary needs. HelloFresh does not offer meals explicitly tailored to specialty diets like gluten-free or keto.
Our Dietitian Take on It
“HelloFresh surpasses Blue Apron in terms of variety and likely nutrition as well. HelloFresh has a specific plan for pescatarians, allowing you to swap proteins on any diet. Additionally, the vegetable servings with HelloFresh are more varied and larger, giving you more nutrient bang for your bucks”, highlights Kathryn Drakeford, MA, RD, CSP, LD, CLC.
Optional Add-ons
Replacing the weekly grocery trip with meal kit delivery is getting more popular, and many services now offer a market with add-ons to supplement your meals. HelloFresh and Blue Apron have add-ons you can choose from when picking your box.
HelloFresh lets customers shop at the HelloFresh Market with each weekly delivery. The market features a curated selection of quick breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and other essentials like desserts and drinks. Specific offerings vary by week and location.
Blue Apron offers “Prepared & Ready” meals to add to your weekly box. Their service also features optional add-ons each week, including appetizers and sides, quick lunch items like salads and soups, desserts, breakfast items, and additional proteins.
HelloFresh Market:
Pricing
Price can be a big factor when choosing the right meal kit service. Here are the current 2024 prices you can expect from HelloFresh and Blue Apron.
HelloFresh Pricing
Per Meal Cost: $11.49-13.29
Shipping: Around $10.99 per box
Blue Apron Pricing
Per Meal Cost: $7.99-12.49
Shipping: $10.99 per box (first box ships free)
The Delivery Box
The boxes our team received from both companies were aesthetically designed and clearly labeled with the company name. Both boxes are insulated to keep food fresh and use recycled materials to improve sustainability. However, once you open the box to check your delivery, there is one major difference between the companies: how the ingredients are packed.
HelloFresh sends the ingredients of each dish individually organized in separate, labeled bags. With HelloFresh, it simply stores the separate meal kit ingredients appropriately and sorts them for you.
This is opposed to Blue Apron, which does not organize your ingredients – they’re all in one big box. The only items packaged separately are small ingredients for each dish, like spices, vinegar, etc. This means that you must sort and match the ingredients of each recipe, which can be time-consuming. This is an important consideration when making your selection, but it takes only a few minutes and saves on extra packaging.
Subscribing and Managing Your Account
Signing up to either HelloFresh or Blue Apron is easy and straightforward. Both companies offer well-organized, user-friendly websites and apps so you can easily sign up and manage your account on the go.
With your online account or app, you can register, specify your eating preferences, select and change plans and dishes, change your payment method, etc. You can also see past recipes and future menus, including the recipe, ingredients list, and nutritional information for each dish.
What Do Customers Think Of It?
To help provide the most information for you to choose between these meal kits, we’re looking at online reviews from the forum website Reddit, along with app store reviews for each service.
What Customers Think of Blue Apron
Blue Apron customers appreciate the high-quality ingredients and consistently delicious recipes. However, some have noted issues with deliveries missing items or arriving late.
Redditor @Alternative_Basis611 is a longtime Blue Apron fan, stating, “I’ve been cooking Blue Apron’s for nearly 2 years now and I love them. Great portions, diverse cuisine.”
Blue Apron is the favorite meal kit for @Blixtwix, who says: “I don’t feel like I have to rush to cook the meals the first few days after I get them… because the produce is almost always in good conditions…”
Blue Apron App Score & Reviews
Blue Apron has an average App Rating of 4.7/5 stars in the Apple Store, with 40K ratings. Here is a snapshot of what users have to say about the Blue Apron app:
What Customers Think of HelloFresh
HelloFresh customers love the service’s convenience, though they note the pricing isn’t the best for a budget. Customers also like the variety of recipes and how the meal kit can help them learn to prepare new foods.
From their experience with HelloFresh, @MrsChickenPam says: “The quality was good, lots of variety in recipes, etc. Instructions are clear. All in all, I’d rate the FOOD an A.”
Meanwhile, @GensandTonic raves about their experience, saying, “It has helped me get into cooking without the added stress of meal planning and grocery shopping weekly. Love it.”
HelloFresh App Score and Reviews
The HelloFresh app has over 193K ratings on the Apple App Store, with an average score of 4.7/5 stars. Here’s what some recent reviewers had to say about their experience:
Customer Support
HelloFresh and Blue Apron both have extensive FAQ sections on their websites to answer basic questions about ingredients, shipping, and more. If you have more questions, here is how to contact customer support for both services.
HelloFresh offers an online chat with their AI virtual assistant service, Brie. You can also call them at their customer service number or use a quick online form to report an issue with ingredients or recipes.
Blue Apron offers an online chat with its customer service team and an asynchronous form where you can submit a request for an answer to your question or concern. It also offers phone support during business hours.
Delivery Area
HelloFresh offers delivery throughout the continental US and to select zip codes in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska. Customers can choose from available delivery days in their area and skip or reschedule deliveries as needed.
Blue Apron delivers to the 48 contiguous United States, excluding Hawaii and Alaska. Customers can skip or reschedule their weekly delivery as long as they do so before the cutoff time.
Bottom Line
When choosing a meal kit service, both HelloFresh and Blue Apron have a lot of great qualities to offer, from delicious food to meal variety and more. Both services can promote better eating habits by helping you enjoy dinner at home.
That said, HelloFresh is our overall winner in this comparison. This meal kit service offers the most variety and has many crowd-pleaser dishes on the menu that will satisfy any palate.
Whichever meal kit service you choose, you’ll enjoy the convenience and ease of fresh food delivered right to your door.
Why Trust Us? Our Review Methodology
The Meal Kit Review team consists of seasoned professionals who have been using meal kit services for many years. We are well-versed in both the pros and cons of each meal kit delivery service and work to provide you with the most relevant feedback collected from in-depth, first-hand experience.
Our review process includes a hands-on approach where our team orders the product, cooks it according to the provided instructions, and uses that experience to review each service. We sample various recipes for each meal kit we review and keep our expertise up-to-date with new offerings.
