In our busy daily lives, meal planning, trips to the grocery, and cooking dinner can quickly become a chore. Meal delivery services can help take some of that work off your plate, but with so many options, it can be hard to choose one!
You’ve probably heard about HelloFresh, Home Chef, Blue Apron, or Green Chef, but today, we want to look at two lesser-known but stellar meal kits: EveryPlate and SunBasket. In 2024, we took a fresh look at both of these meal delivery services by ordering boxes from both services and tasting meals from each.
Now, we’re bringing you our updated comparison with information about both EveryPlate and Sun Basket to help you decide which service is right for you!
Short on Time? Here’s why we think EveryPlate is Better
- Affordable meal kits, great for students & young families
- Meals are quick and easy to prep
- Many great add-on options for breakfasts and snacks
- Recipes are crowd-pleasers that suit most preferences
What Is EveryPlate?
Every Plate is part of the HelloFresh meal kit group. This service emphasizes simple meals at an affordable price point. It uses scaled-back recipes and simple packaging to pass the savings on to its customers.
EveryPlate offers many crowd-pleasing recipes that are quick and easy to make, perfect for an affordable and nutritious dinner. Though they offer a discount, their pre-measured ingredients are still impressive.
What Is SunBasket?
Sun Basket is a meal kit company that provides organic, clean ingredients. Their menu offers options to suit many specialty diets, including Paleo, gluten-free, soy-free, vegan, and more.
The meals from SunBasket tend to have a newer, healthier food flavor that might not suit all tastes. They are best suited for those focused on healthy eating who prioritize organic ingredients.
Pros & Cons
EveryPlate Pros
- Affordable menu with simple, accessible recipes
- Many family-friendly, crowd-pleaser meals
- Offers add-ons for extra proteins and sides
- Meals are designed to come together quickly and easily
EveryPlate Cons
- Fewer weekly selections than many meal kits
- It is not ideal for those with dietary needs and allergies
SunBasket Pros
- 100% organic, clean ingredient meal kit
- Options to suit many dietary needs, including gluten-free, soy-free, and more
- Offers some fully prepared meals as well as traditional meal kits
- Add-ons include healthy breakfasts and quick lunches
Sunbasket Cons
- More new-age flavors might not suit all tastes
- It tends to be pricey compared with other meal kits, especially EveryPlate
Variety of Meal Plans
When it comes to picking the right meal kit for your needs, it’s important to consider the meal plans available. Here’s a breakdown of SunBasket vs. EveryPlate meal plans.
EveryPlate Meal Plans
EveryPlate offers meal plans for 2, 4, or 6 people. Your weekly box can include 3, 4, or 5 meals.
When you sign up, you can choose a plan to get recipe recommendations for your needs. EveryPlate’s tailored plans include Meat & Veggie, Veggie, Family Faves, Quick & Easy, and Calorie Smart. No matter which you pick, you can view and choose meals from the full menu of 26 recipes every week.
EveryPlate also offers add-ons for extra proteins, sides, and even quick-prep lunch options like salads and soups.
SunBasket Meal Plans
With SunBasket, you can choose plans to serve 2 or 4 people and receive between 2 and 5 dinners in your weekly box.
When signing up for SunBasket, you can specify many dietary preferences to help them assign your meals each week. Options include Carb-Conscious, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Diabetes-Friendly, Keto, and more. You can also let them know if you’re looking for meals high in protein or fiber and even note specific foods that you want to avoid, such as beef or dairy.
You can browse their full menu of meal kits, fresh and ready meals, and fully prepared microwavable meals each week. SunBasket also offers add-ons like breakfast, smoothies, salads, and other quick lunches.
Meal Variety
When it comes to variety, Sun Basket does take the upper hand. Their menu has around 30 weekly options, including traditional meal kits and fully prepared meal options.
The Sun Basket subscription service offers high-quality meal kits for those with specific dietary needs, including vegetarian, paleo, vegan, Mediterranean, gluten-free, and lean and clean nutritional choices. Their menu makes browsing for your specific needs easy, with helpful filters to see only recipes that fit your diet.
Meanwhile, the EveryPlate menu includes 26 delicious options each week. Each week also consists of a few premium options at a slightly higher price for protein choices and high-quality ingredients.
EveryPlate’s commitment to keeping things simple means they don’t have recipes to suit many special diet needs but do have easy-to-find veggie and Calorie Smart options. You can also clearly see meals that are Quick Prep, Customer Faves, and Easy Cleanup.
Our Experience – Is It Tasty?
At The Meal Kit Review, we have extensive experience with Every Plate and Sun Basket over the past six years. In 2024, we re-tested both services for two weeks to help us update and verify our past reviews.
In both cases, we were pleased with how the box arrived. EveryPlate and SunBasket both ship in clearly labeled, insulated boxes. With SunBasket, meals came packaged per recipe, making unpacking the box quick and easy. EveryPlate ingredients are pre-measured but not sorted per recipe, so you need to sort them yourself. We found this was easy to do, and the inner box let us quickly pop the ingredients into the fridge.
Ingredients were high-quality and packaged with ice packs to stay fresh. Overall, we were pleased with the produce and proteins we got from both meal kits.
But how did our experience compare when it came time to cook the meals?
SunBasket
From SunBasket, we tried the Chicken Larb Lettuce Cups With Carrots And Fresh Mint. We thought the dish was okay, but it didn’t quite match up to similar meals from other services. The chicken blend was a bit dry, and the lettuce and carrots didn’t help with the lack of creaminess. We found ourselves wishing for a bit of extra juice or cream with this dish. The flavors were a bit new-age, not a taste everyone would enjoy.
EveryPlate
In our recent EveryPlate box, we enjoyed the Crispy Buffalo Ranch Chicken with Honey Roasted Carrots and Roasted Potatoes. This recipe was simple and easy to make yet full of flavor. The chicken cutlets were high quality and cooked well, with the perfect amount of moisture to complement the crispy breadcrumb coating. The carrots and potatoes were a great side dish, and the drizzle of ranch dressing helped cool off the heat from the hot sauce seasoning.
Other Top Meals To Try
Every Plate Meals to Try
- Creamy Mushroom Soup with Turkey plus Pearl Couscous, Thyme, & Scallions
- Soy-Sesame Broccoli & Cabbage Bowls with Rice & Sriracha Mayo
- Beef Bolognese with Fresh Fettucine plus Italian Herbs
- Pepper Jack ‘Shroom Quesadillas with Caramelized Onion, Lime crema, &Spicy Pico
- Italian Pork Sausage Marina Subs with Monterey Jack, Garlic Butter & Potato Wedges
- Tray-to-Table Mushroom Ravioli Bake with Peas & Garlic Herb Breadcrumbs
- White Cheddar Mac in a Bread Bowl
- Buffalo Chicken Dip with Crostini
Sun Basket Meals to Try
- Chickpea And Kale Stew With Poached Eggs And Za’atar
- Salt-and-pepper Tofu Stir-fry With Glass Noodles, Edamame, And Spinach
- Garlic-rubbed Steak And Kale Salad
- Sicilian Shrimp Pappardelle With Olives And Orange
- Miso-ginger Ground Pork And Squash Donburi Over Steamed Rice
- Black-eyed Pea Pits With Crunchy Salad And Red Pepper Baba Ganoush
- Artisanal Belgian Waffles With Maple Syrup, Butter, And Pecans
- Portobello & Spinach Empanadas
Style and Complexity of Dishes
With SunBasket, most meals come together in around 30 minutes, though some take as long as 45 minutes. The meal kit service also offers Speedy meal kits ready in around 15 minutes, plus “Fresh and Ready” oven-ready meals and fully prepared Prepared & Ready meals.
In terms of flavor, most meals have a unique, new-age twist, with ingredients like tamari, green curry, and more. There are many Asian-style meals and other regional cuisines to choose from. Recipes often include many ingredients, including fresh produce, proteins, sauces, and garnishes.
On the other hand, Every Plate is focused on creating easy and simple recipes using no more than seven ingredients. Each meal comes together in no more than six easy steps. Most recipes can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, though some have slightly longer cook times of around 40 minutes.
EveryPlate’s recipes tend to be quite familiar and comforting, suited to family and crowd-pleaser meals, perfect for kids-friendly meal kits. They do throw in a few different cuisines, including Mexican-style meals and unique fusion twists like Banh-Mi-style tacos.
Quality of Ingredients Used In The Meals
Both Every Plate and Sun Basket services offer high-quality produce and proteins. However, their specific promises about ingredient sourcing differ.
Every Plate focuses on affordable, in-season produce and high-quality produce from trusted suppliers. Not all produce is organic, as they prioritize freshness and quality. You save because the recipes have fewer ingredients – not because they aren’t high quality.
SunBasket commits to providing organic, sustainably sourced ingredients for its recipes to support its promise of clean, healthy meals. It works directly with farmers, ranchers, and fisherpeople to ensure sustainable practices.
The Delivery Box
Both EveryPlate and SunBasket ship in insulated boxes that are 100% recyclable and use many recyclable components. Both companies have a well-noticed commitment to reducing waste.
Every Plate has fully recyclable boxes, separators, and liners. Their gel packs can be recycled but must be thrown in the trash. Because EveryPlate does not sort ingredients per recipe, they use less packaging overall than many meal kits on the market.
SunBasket uses paper insulation, reusable ice packs, and fiber trays and sleeves that can be composted or recycled. The meal bags for the ingredients that arrive pre-sorted per recipe are paper and can be recycled, except for the label sticker.
Subscribing & Managing Your Account
With Every Plate and Sunbasket, you can easily sign up, pick your preferences, and order your first box from their user-friendly website or app. Sunbasket asks many questions during sign-up, which can take longer, but it is geared toward giving you more personalized weekly meal recommendations.
Once you sign up, managing your account is easy and intuitive. Both meal kits make it easy to skip weeks, pause, or cancel your subscription right from the online account page.
What Do Customers Say About EveryPlate and Sun Basket?
What Customers Say About Every Plate
EveryPlate customers love the affordable price point and the simple, straightforward recipes that are easy to cook and great for pickier eaters.
Reddit user @essgeedoubleyou says EveryPlate “saves so much money for me because having the meals in the fridge commits me to cooking instead of just ordering out.”
On a post asking for honest Every Plate feedback, Redditor @montanagrizfan says, “I really like it. The recipes are more family friendly and good for people like my husband who prefer meat and potato type meals,” adding, “I’ve never made anything we didn’t like.”
What Customers Say About Sun Basket
SunBasket customers enjoy the unique flavors and premade sauces that come with this meal kit and that they cater to many diets. However, some say the meals are bland, or the flavor offerings are too “out there.”
On Reddit, @ItsThatOysterGirl recommends Sunbasket, saying, “The meals are very tasty! The premade sauces that came in every kit were delicious.”
On the other hand, Reddit user @ApplePie_Mom says SunBasket meals are bland, adding, “I’ve been trying various meal kits for over a year, and these are so disappointing.”
Customer Support
Both Every Plate and Sun Basket have great FAQ pages with answers to many common customer questions about shipping, ingredients, and more.
If you need to contact customer support, both services offer phone customer support and 24/7 chat with their virtual assistant. In our experience, customer service is quick to respond and easy to work with.
Delivery Areas
When it comes to delivery areas, EveryPlate has the upper hand. They deliver to most of the continental United States, excluding Hawaii and Alaska.
SunBasket delivers to most zip codes in the United States, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, and some parts of New Mexico.
With both services, you’ll enter your zip code during the sign-up process to confirm that they can deliver meal kits to your location.
Bottom Line- Our winner Is EveryPlate!
While both Every Plate and Sun Basket have something to offer, we felt that Every Plate ultimately came out ahead. They have more affordable prices and crowd-pleaser recipes that suit a larger variety of taste preferences and picky eaters. Plus, their simple recipes are quick and easy to make!
Sun Basket is more suited to people with a new-age taste or who need recipes catered to specific diets. They may not appeal to every customer, but they are an excellent service for those looking for clean, organic meals to meet their needs.
