Trying to choose a meal kit service? These 2 are the best value, according to our calculations

Meal kits are convenient, which means you’ll typically pay more per pound for these recipe packets than if you made the list and did the shopping yourself. Meal kits offer hidden value beyond saving time and energy, as they often generate less food waste, given that they only send you what you need for that night’s meal, and nothing more.

Within the broad categories of meal kits, you’ll find a number of options ranging in price from $6 to $15 per serving. Premium services offer high-end cuts of meat and more complex recipes with gourmet ingredients. Budget services keep it simple with recipes that typically only contain four or five ingredients.

Among the choices, you may be wondering which meal kit services offer the best overall value in 2026. Well, so are we.

To find out, we calculated how meal kit delivery services compare to grocery store prices. Here’s what the math says about meal kits and their value in 2026.

And even if these represent the best-value meal kits, we also searched through them to find the cheapest meal kits available in 2026.

• Cost: $11.99 per serving
• Cumulative savings on this Home Chef box to make yourself: 35%
• Home Chef Full Review

• Cost: $11.49 per serving plus additional fees for premium items
• Cumulative savings on this DIY HelloFresh box: 35%
• Full HelloFresh Review

• Cost: $12 to $16 per serving
• Cumulative savings on this Blue Tablier box to make it yourself: 37%
• Full Blue Apron Review

Note that Blue Apron recently changed its pricing structure and moved away from a subscription model. Each dish now has a specific price per serving and you can purchase meal kits whenever you want without having to follow a recurring weekly delivery.

• Cost: $6.99 per serving plus additional fees for premium items
• Cumulative savings on this EveryPlate box to make it yourself: 40%
• Full EveryPlate Review

• Cost: $12.99 per serving
• Cumulative savings on this Marley Spoon box set to make it yourself: 42%
• Full Marley Spoon Review

• Cost: $12 per serving
• Cumulative savings on this DIY Green Chef box: 45%
• Full Green Chef Review

• Cost: $11.49 per serving
• Cumulative savings on this Sunbasket box to make it yourself: 48%
• Full Sunbasket Review

How I did the calculation

Using weekly menus available online for each of the seven meal kit services, I selected two standard offerings from each, making sure to mix up the type of protein: a premium steak or red meat dish, a shrimp dish, or a chicken or poultry option. (Sometimes the sandwich took the form of a burrito, wrap, or taco.)

Armed with in-store grocery prices from a Kroger in suburban Michigan (roughly the median for current grocery prices in the United States), I added up the prorated amounts for the specified quantities of each ingredient, then calculated the savings between the price of the meal kit and what you would pay to make the same recipe by sourcing the ingredients yourself.

To show my algebra, here is an example from one of the kits:

• Meal kit cost: $11.99 per serving for two servings: $23.99
• Cost to prepare two servings through the grocery store: $12.14
• Savings to make this recipe yourself: 49%

Note that the only cost I was calculating here was the cost of food for a traditional meal kit model. I haven’t taken into account delivery costs or promotional offers (which many meal kits offer at startup, or for lapsed customers returning to the service)

I had to make estimates for some ingredients (for example, about 6 teaspoons per fluid ounce or the weight of a medium-sized potato), but these estimates remained consistent across all meal kits. I chose the cheapest available brand for the ingredient, except when a particular brand or standard (such as organic) was specified.

I listed the savings percentage per item for DIY purposes, but to get the overall savings per box, I added up the total value of all the ingredients in the box and divided it by the total price of the box, rather than taking the average of each of the three savings percentages.

Some observations on value

“Value” can be difficult to quantify, because your personal values ​​shape how you perceive cost. Organic produce, more responsible packaging, or a wider variety of recipes to choose from may play a bigger role in your decision-making than the actual food costs calculated here.

That said, the biggest disparity in value between the meals I calculated was indeed for the organic options: Green Chef and Sunbasket, as the organic produce and highest quality store-bought proteins were closer to the price of their conventional items than the higher prices of these meal kit brands would have you believe. Oddly enough, Sunbasket has a pretty low cost per serving, but my calculations showed that you get less in these boxes than in ones with conventional ingredients.

I also calculated the cost of each ingredient, but your perception of the cost may depend on whether you already have certain items in stock. For example, if you already have garlic powder on hand, you might not really consider it a cost because you won’t have to fork out for it when shopping for groceries this week. (That 11 cents worth of garlic powder probably doesn’t make a huge difference in the bottom line anyway.)

On the other hand, a specialty ingredient that is not a staple – truffle dust, for example – will seem more expensive to you because you will have to buy it directly to use only part of it, even if there is more left for other recipes. (This particular specialty ingredient is going to hit you particularly hard at purchasing time, because they’re truffles.)

Another consideration to note is that each recipe here calls for 10 ounces of shrimp. If your supermarket doesn’t have a seafood counter that allows you to buy in bulk, you may find that packaged frozen shrimp is only available in 12 ounces. I calculated the price only for the 10 ounces requested, but the actual expense is higher and chances are you will use up all 12 ounces and not save 2 for the future.

Getting the most for your money with any meal kit

Given these calculations, I’ve found that the best value, regardless of which service you choose, is for high-end items that don’t carry a premium markup. Meat and seafood dishes will almost always have higher DIY costs than vegetarian or pasta meals, which are cheaper to prepare yourself, so the difference between preparing these meals yourself or preparing them via a meal kit is much greater.

The value of this really depends on the availability of cheap protein in your area. The availability of shrimp in suburban Michigan in January has inflated DIY costs, which may not be the case on the coasts or in other seasons. To get the most bang for your meal kit buck, no matter which brand’s menu you prefer, check local protein prices and choose your meals accordingly.

What more? Here is seven ways to maximize your meal kit service and the best meal kits to stay healthy in 2026.