Meal kit delivery services are designed to make it easier to get dinner on the dinner table, regardless of your cooking skill level. In the last few years, there are so many options, it can be difficult deciding which meal box service is the best fit for you.
At the Meal Kit Review, our mission to test and rank all meal kits available on the market. Our experienced team tries first-hand all the companies that we review to provide full details of our experiences.
In this article, we will compare two of the biggest and most known competitors: Hello Fresh and Home Chef.
Home Chef is a company that is all about delicious new versions of classic meals. Hello Fresh is a German-based company known as the most popular meal kit service in the US.
So, let’s get started – Hello Fresh Vs. Home Chef. Who will be your winner in this meal kit battle?
Home Chef Vs. HelloFresh- Meal Plans Comparison
Home Chef offers two very flexible subscription plans, with the option to deliver weekly meals for 2, 4, or 6 people. The first Plan is the classic plan, which includes regular diet options and vegetarian, low carb, and low-calorie recipes. The second plan is the Fresh & Easy plan – designed for short cooking or no-cooking needed at all.
There is a minimum order requirement of 2 dishes per week, with no maximum order limitations.
In comparison, HelloFresh offers four plans. Each plan caters to two or four people with 2,4 or 6 recipes per week: Meat and Veggies Plan, Family Plan, Veggie Plan, and Calorie smart plan.
HelloFresh Vs. Home Chef Meal Variety and Style
Home Chef offers an impressive selection of 25+ meals per week. The weekly menu includes a few vegetarian, low calories, and low carb dishes. There is also a special section of fast cooking 15 min meals, oven-ready meals, and grill ready meals.
Home Chef also offers a unique “Customize It” feature in most meals. This gives customers the option to change, double or upgrade the protein in those meals.
The number of meal options offered by Hello Fresh is 20. The menu includes options to cater to many different lifestyles. Choices include family-friendly meals, low- calorie, vegetarian, and pescatarian options. They also have some great options like gourmet meals, hall of fame meals (their most popular dishes), and changing weekly specials such as craft burger meals!
Both Hello Fresh or Home Chef focuses on relatively classic meals that take you on a trip around the world, with meals ranging from Mexican, Asian, Italian, American, and more.
At the Meal Kit Review, we make sure to cook and taste a selection of meals from each company we review! And we have to say in simple words – Both offer delicious meals with great tastes!
Some of the meals that we tried and loved from the Home Chef menu were: Corn and Black Bean Burrito, Salmon Tacos with Queso Fresco and Crispy Jalapeños, and the more classic dish Steak au Poivre.
Meals we tried from Hello Fresh offered menu are the Tropical Fish Tacos, Classic Beef Chilli, and Speedy Shrimp.
Quality of Products: HelloFresh Vs. Home Chef
Both Home Chef and Hello Fresh use consistently high-quality ingredients, in many cases, with better quality than the regular grocery stores.
Home Chef has partnered with some first-class food suppliers such as Paysan Breton Butter, ‘World Wide farms’ for farm-fresh herbs and vegetables, and ‘Sea to Table’ for sustainably sourced seafood.
Hello Fresh uses meats that are primarily domestically sourced with no added hormones. They state that their poultry is both antibiotic and hormone-free. Their pork is certified to be hormone-free, and the seafood is naturally and sustainably sourced. The vegetables are not always organic, but the quality is still excellent.
Nutritional Values pf Home Chef and HelloFresh
Both Hello Fresh and Home Chef, we noticed that the meals are packed with nutritious ingredients. Not only that, but they seem to be balanced in terms of carbs, healthy fresh vegetables, and portion sizes.
The calorie count is quite different from meal to meal with both companies and can range from around 500 for the low-calorie meals to 800 calories or higher for the more calorie-rich dishes. Home Chef also offers some great 5-minute salad options that are very low on the calorie count and can drop as low as 250 calories per serving!
It is important to note that both companies fully detail each dish’s calorie count and other essential nutritional facts in their online menu.
Home Chef Vs. Hello Fresh – The Delivery Box
Both companies provide their deliveries in carton boxes that are labeled with the company logo. Inside the box, each meal kit ingredients are bagged and tagged. This makes unpacking stress-free. The boxes also contain recipe cards for each meal kit.
Both companies place any ingredients that need to be refrigerated at the bottom of the box with ice-packs. This ensures that elements stays at the appropriate temperature during the delivery process and can also be left outside for some time without concern.
Both companies appear to be committed to ensuring that their meal kits reach customers in the best condition while doing as much as possible to reduce packaging waste and to embrace eco-friendly practices.
Their boxes, plastic bags, and plastic containers can be fully recycled. The Ice-packs are non-toxic and can be easily rinsed off and reused at your home. If you prefer to dispose of them, you will need to throw the contents in the trash and recycle the plastic bag.
Hello Fresh and Home Chef Flexibility
Both companies are only available as a subscription service. However, they give customers the flexibility to skip weeks or pause the account at any time. Canceling your account can be completed online.
Both companies offer the option of a refund if you are not satisfied with a meal or received some bad ingredients. If you are not happy with any element of your delivery, the company urges you to contact customer support within a few days via email, chat, or phone.
Home Chef goes the extra mile in terms of flexibility, and they offer the added option to customize most of their meals. That means you can change, upgrade, or double the amount of protein in your selected meals to best suit your needs.
The Home Chef and Hello Fresh Delivery Area
Hello Fresh or Home Chef currently delivers to 98% of the United States. To check if Home Chef provides to your area, you can enter your zip code at the beginning of the sign-up process, and their system will confirm if you are in the delivery zone.
Benefits of Using Home Chef or HelloFresh
Both Home Chef and Hello Fresh are long-established meal kit companies that excel in providing delicious recipes combined with high-quality ingredients. The most obvious benefit of using a meal kit delivery service is the convenience. These companies do your meal planning, recipe writing, grocery shopping, and portion control for you.
When it comes to quality companies like Home Chef or Hello Fresh, you will also find yourself eating very well. Meal kits include ingredients that are nutritionally well-balanced and portion-controlled.
As these types of companies also ensure to use only the best ingredients, often organic, sustainably sourced, and hormone-free, you know that you are consuming the best ingredients for your body.
Why Use Our Meal Kit Comparison?
Our team at the Meal Kit Review are 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 with our attention to detail, we ensure that we are providing you with the most relevant feedback collected from in-depth first-hand experience.
The world of meal kits is rapidly expanding over the last ten years. Finding a service that perfectly suits you can be a confusing and overwhelming process.
We are very proud of our processes, and our mission is to be the one-stop-shop when it comes to meal kit information.
Bottom Line – Our Winner Is Home Chef!
Both Hello Fresh and Home Chef are top meal kit options ranked among our most favorite companies. Both are ideal for people who want delicious home-cooked favorite meals at dinner time.
For us, the results were very close, but Home Chef is our winner!
The Home Chef meals we have tried in the past three years never failed us – and were just delicious every time! And at an affordable price per serving!
We also appreciate the flexibility Home Chef offers with the ‘customise it’ feature, the oven-ready and express meal kits, and the fantastic amount of meals to choose from every week.
If you haven’t tried Home Chef yet – we highly recommend it!
