Food

When you're tired of grocery shopping, let these meal subscription services for families do the work...
VioletaStoimenova/E+/Getty Images
11 Of The Best Meal Subscription Services For Families

Let’s face it, grocery shopping is overrated.

by Ashley Jones
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

When you have kids, weekdays (and even weekends) can feel overwhelmingly busy. Anything that saves time and energy is super helpful for parents, and these 10 best meal subscription services for families do just that.

When things get chaotic at home, meal planning and shopping are some of the first things I throw out the window. (Why not just Door Dash some McDonald’s, right?) The thing is though, I actually enjoy cooking. Like, I want to do it, but only if someone else does the planning and prep for me. Meal delivery subscriptions are the perfect solution. Everything I need to make dinner delivered straight to my door, preportioned with instructions, and ready for me to whip up after work.

Choosing to use a meal subscription service for your family isn’t cutting corners, it’s cutting the stress of having to plan, shop for, and prep meals on top of cooking them. No matter what your life looks like — wrangling toddlers or shuttling older kids to school and activities, working from home or not — life with kids is hectic.

Let these meal subscription services for families do their part to streamline your life. Simply choose which one works for your family’s dietary needs and budget and you have dinner covered.

1Best Chef-Inspired Meals: Hello Fresh

Pricing starts at: $8 per serving

Average cook time: 25 to 50 minutes

Dietary needs: Pescatarian, vegetarian, calorie-smart

With Hello Fresh’s personalized family-friendly plans, you can make chef-inspired meals at home that your kids will actually eat. With entrees like BBQ cheeseburgers and pork tacos, they’ve got picky eaters and foodie parents alike covered. You can customize your meals, change delivery options to work for your schedule, and they almost always have some sort of promotional offer happening, so you can try this service out with little risk.

2Best Customizable: Home Chef

Pricing starts at: $12 per serving

Average cook time: 5 to 30+ minutes

Dietary needs: Vegetarian, carb-conscious, calorie-conscious

With Home Chef, you can build your meal delivery box however works best for your family. Swap out different recipes, go meat-free, edit the number of servings, and completely customize your meals. You can even add items a la carte to your boxes like extra servings of proteins like chicken or fish, or some banana bread for dessert. Whether you want something quick and simple or a gourmet treat for the family, Home Chef gives you the power to choose.

3Best Organic: One Potato

Pricing starts at: $7 per serving

Average cook time: 12 to 30 minutes

Dietary needs: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, nut-free

One Potato was founded by two parents, so they really do understand what life with little ones is like. Their meals are made with all-organic ingredients and take less than a half-hour to make from start to finish. Parents can customize their delivery based on how many mouths they need to feed and have the option to select kid-sized portions. One Potato not only has dinner covered, but you can choose to order desserts and smoothies, too. Subscription prices vary based on how many meals and servings you choose.

4Best Plant-Based: Purple Carrot

Pricing starts at: $10 per serving

Average cook time: 10 to 50 minutes

Dietary needs: Gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian

Health-conscious families will love the variety of plant-based meals that Purple Carrot offers with their meal subscription service. The majority of their creative plant-based meals take about a half-hour to make, so they’re great for busy weeknight dinners. In addition to easy-to-make dinners, Purple Carrot has breakfast, lunch, and grocery items available to order with your plan. It’s easy to customize your plan and change your delivery options as needed.

5Best Variety: Sunbasket

Pricing starts at: Less than $9 per serving

Average cook time: 3 minutes for heat and serve meals, 15 to 40 minutes for meal kits

Dietary needs: Paleo, vegetarian, gluten-free, pescatarian, diabetic-friendly, low carb, low calorie

With Sunbasket, you can choose when you want to spend time cooking dinner and when you want to just have a meal on hand that you can heat and serve. Unlike many subscription services, in addition to dinner meals, Sunbasket offers a variety of breakfast, lunch, and snack options to add to your plan. You can mix and match their entire menu and choose from a variety of fresh and healthy meal options that fit your family’s needs.

6Best For Dietary Needs: Green Chef

Pricing starts at: $12 per serving

Average cook time: Approximately 30 minutes

Dietary needs: Keto, paleo, vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free

Green Chef’s meals are made with all-organic ingredients and they have a variety of meal plans that cater to specific dietary needs. All ingredients come pre-measured and pre-packaged with an easy-to-follow recipe card. Choose from a variety of healthy, chef-inspired meals that fit your family’s needs and change your meal selections as needed to fit your schedule.

7Best Quick Dinners: Freshly

Pricing starts at: Less than $9 per serving

Average cook time: Approximately 3 minutes to heat

Dietary needs: Low calorie, high protein, gluten-free, low sodium, nut-free, low fat

Structured differently than most other meal subscription services, Freshly offers a variety of individual serving meals that you can heat up when you need them with no prep or cooking required. If you have older kids, the ability for them to grab a single-serving plate out of the fridge and heat up an entire meal in about 3 minutes is a life-saver. Stock your fridge with a variety of grab-and-go dinners that your whole family can enjoy on even the busiest days.

8Best Cost-Conscious: Every Plate

Pricing starts at: $5 per serving

Average cook time: 10 to 45 minutes

Dietary needs: None

Every Plate offers homestyle lunches and dinners that are easy to make, affordable, and family-friendly. While they do not have options for special dietary needs, subscribers can choose from a variety of delicious meal choices with simple ingredients like chicken and gravy, tomato linguine, and herb-butter steak. Every Plate’s plans only include options for 2 or 4 adult-sized servings per meal, so bigger families may need to consider adjusting their orders accordingly.

9Best Quality Ingredients: Blue Apron

Pricing starts at: Less than $8 per serving

Average cook time: 20 to 55 minutes

Dietary needs: Vegetarian, Weight Watchers approved, diabetic-friendly

Blue Apron delivers everything you need to make their chef-designed recipes right to your door. Their meals feature responsibly sourced, quality ingredients that are pre-measured and prepped for you, and can be customized to fit your family’s needs. Blue Apron’s signature plans have 4 adult-sized portions per meal, so they work well for families. They also run promotional offers often, so it’s fairly easy to save a few bucks when ordering.

10Best Kids-Only Meals: Little Spoon

Pricing starts at: Less than $5 per serving

Average cook time: Less than 5 minutes to heat per plate

Dietary needs: Nut-free, vegetarian, dairy-free

When you need to prep a quick and easy lunch or dinner plate for your baby, toddler, or big kid, Little Spoon has you covered with a rotating menu of 100+ items. Their kid's meals feature clean ingredients that are free from preservatives, hormones, antibiotics, or artificial sugar, so you can feel good about what you’re feeding your little ones. Plus, they “hide” superfoods in kid-friendly favorites like mac and cheese and chicken nuggets (or blended baby food) to help your kids stay healthy. Their meal plans are completely customizable, so you choose which plates to order, how many, and how often.

11Best Efficient Dinner: Gobble

Pricing starts at: $12 per serving

Average cook time: 15 minutes

Dietary needs: Gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian, low-carb

Not only can you customize your Gobble box, but these meals are made with fresh ingredients that come to your door already chopped, simmered, marinated — you name it. All you have to do is throw it together and each meal takes just 15 minutes to complete. And the best part? One. Pan. Talk about efficiency.

This article was originally published on