When scrolling through top online food delivery platforms like Grubhub and Uber Eats, the lure of convenient pizza and ice cream may be enough to have you throwing your healthy diet out the door.
If you want to keep your veggies on your plate instead of between two greasy burger buns, you’ll want to choose a healthy food delivery service that helps you achieve your goals.
As nutrition and meal delivery services increasingly become a part of mainstream culture, your options are only growing.
Whether you’re looking to make home-cooked meals easier to manage or you want a professionally cooked meal right at your door, you’ll be able to get healthy meals at your doorstep any day of the week.
Keep reading to learn about the seven best healthy food delivery services across the country.
1. Green Chef
Green Chef is a meal kit service that helps you easily craft homemade meals by sending prepared, organic ingredients to your door — all customized based on your preferred meal plan.
No matter what your dietary preferences are, one of Green Chef’s five diverse, health-forward menus will likely cover your needs:
- Keto: For anyone following a ketogenic, low-carb, or gluten-free diet.
- Paleo: For people following paleo or gluten-free diets. This menu is also free of dairy, grains, and soy.
- Balanced Living: A generally nutritious menu, with some vegetarian options.
- Plant Powered: Plant-based meals for vegetarians and vegans.
- Family Plan: Another generally nutritious menu, designed for families of four.
This healthy food delivery service offers the first USDA-certified organic meal kits, each wrapped in eco-friendly packaging, proving its commitment to both natural foods and sustainability.
Each of your meals should take no more than 30 minutes to complete.
Cost: At least $9.99 to $12.99 per serving, plus $7.99 shipping.
Shipped in six- to eight-serving boxes.
Availability: Anywhere in the United States except Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of Louisiana.
2. Freshly
If you’re looking for a direct alternative to the extra convenient meals that Postmates and DoorDash deliver, Freshly is a great option for you.
Your meals are professionally cooked, never frozen, and ready to eat after three minutes in your microwave.
Every single week, Freshly offers a large selection of over 30 meal options that often include healthy alternatives, like cauliflower-based rice, pasta, and mash.
Your menu will always include dairy-free, paleo, and vegetarian options, as well as many options with under 500 calories and 35 grams of carbs.
If you have celiac disease, a peanut allergy, or a gluten intolerance, Freshly’s entire menu is gluten-free and peanut-free.
Pro Tip: Looking for fresh produce at a discount? Check out Misfits Market to save on produced delivered to your door
Freshly is also particularly great for anyone who only needs meals for one.
While healthy meal kits are usually designed for two people or more, Freshly offers serving quantities fit for both families and individuals who want to achieve their health or weight loss goals — and you can always freeze your meals if you don’t finish.
Cost: $8.99 per meal (for 12 servings per week) to $12.50 per meal (for four servings per week), with free shipping.
Availability: Anywhere in the continental United States.
3. Sun Basket
Sun Basket is perhaps the best service for people with complex dietary needs and little time to manage them.
Whether you need a dairy-free breakfast delivery, a low-calorie snack, or a diabetes-friendly dinner, this meal service allows you to quickly narrow down your search for the perfect homemade dinner kit.
You can even view all the fresh ingredients provided, find each meal’s estimated calories, and sort by meals with a prep time of under 20 minutes before you start ordering.
While accommodating all of these diets, Sun Basket still ensures your meals will be high-quality and diverse.
Your recipe selections — ranging from salmon alla puttanesca to ginger-chickpea soup — come with seasonal ingredients, sustainably sourced animal products, and USDA-certified organic products.
Wrapping all of these quality ingredients up is environmentally friendly packaging.
If flavor is the most important factor for your healthy food, Sun Basket allows you to select a Mediterranean or chef’s choice meal plan, too.
Cost: At least $10.99 per serving, plus $5.99 shipping for each weekly delivery.
Shipped in four- to 16-serving boxes.
Availability: Anywhere in the United States except Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, and parts of New Mexico.
4. Sakara Life
If a high-end healthy food delivery service focused on plant-based clean eating sounds like exactly what you need, Sakara Life is the only way to go.
The Sakara Signature Program creates a meal plan that aims to help you improve digestion and energy, lose weight, improve your skin, and more — all within a week.
Sakara Life fully creates your meal plan for you, which means no menu customization, but lots of fast-paced results.
This is because their meals are carefully designed to get the best out of superfoods, teas, and supplements, while remaining totally free of gluten, dairy, GMOs, and refined sugar.
The plus side is that foods in this meal plan are completely ready to eat, so there’s no need to set aside meal prep time.
The Sakara program is definitely not cheap and its second-level Detox meal plan is even more expensive, but the company does provide non-recurring meal plans for anyone seeking a one-time detox expense.
Plus, you’ll get a ton of perfect Instagram posts out of Sakara Life’s beautiful, natural meals.
If you know someone already using Sakara Life, ask them for a referral so you both get $50 off.
Cost: $239 per week (for three-day subscriptions) to $420 per week (for five-day subscriptions), or $255 (for a three-day program) to $1,760 (for a 20-day program).
Each day includes three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Availability: Anywhere in the continental United States.
5. Daily Harvest
A more affordable alternative to Sakara Life is Daily Harvest, healthy meal delivery service that offers organic clean eats for anyone seeking a vegan and nutrition-forward option.
Every product you can add to your weekly delivery is marked with a list of benefits it provides, from anti-inflammatory and energizing properties to ingredients that boost your immunity.
While Daily Harvest is best known for its smoothies, the company also offers hearty soups and healthy lattes, making it perfect for anyone on a liquid diet.
With these options, all you need to do is add water and blend.
Of course, the healthy food delivery service also offers nutritious bowls that just need to be heated up, as well as chia pudding, oatmeal, and snacks that you can munch on without feeling guilty.
Daily Harvest does act as more of a supplement to your weekly diet, as its main goal is to keep fruits and vegetables prominent in your diet, but it’s a convenient way to add healthy food into your routine.
Cost: $6.99 per item (for 24 items per week or per month) to $7.75 per item (for nine items per week), with free shipping.
Availability: Daily Harvest is available in more than half of all U.S. states, but you’ll have to input your zip code and email on the subscription page to be sure it’s available in your area.
6. Purple Carrot
If you want a vegan diet that still feels hearty and substantial, Purple Carrot delivers plenty of American favorites with a plant-based twist.
By helping you eliminate excess meat consumption with easy meal kits, the company states that you can actually improve or reverse chronic disease, while also helping the environment.
Every week, you’ll have eight new recipes to choose from.
These include vegan meals with familiar flavors, such as Kung Pao cauliflower, black bean pumpkin quesadillas, and lime quinoa salad.
Many of these are highlighted as protein-packed or gluten-free options, as well.
If you’re crunched for time before and during work, Purple Carrot breakfast and lunch option can actually be prepared in a matter of minutes, so you can keep earning money faster.
This low time commitment makes Purple Carrot a great way to get introduced to a balanced, plant-based lifestyle without hiring a nutritionist.
Cost: $7.99 per serving (for 12 weekly servings) or $11.99 per serving (for six weekly servings), with free shipping.
Availability: Anywhere in the continental United States.
7. HelloFresh
While Blue Apron may have dominated the world of meal kits for quite some time, HelloFresh is now the industry leader that’s growing five times as fast.
Since its acquisition of the previously listed Green Chef, HelloFresh has been doubling down on the healthy marketplace, as well.
Although HelloFresh may not be as health-focused as the other food delivery services on our list, it still meets the nutrition factor by providing balanced meals, partially thanks to the fact that the company has registered dietitians on its team.
It also offers vegetarian and low-calorie meal plans with seasonal ingredients.
Another plus of selecting HelloFresh as your first meal delivery service is the fact that it’s incredibly helpful for beginner cooks to get the hang of healthy cooking.
Within your eco-friendly package you’ll receive recipe cards that walk you step by step.
HelloFresh is also affordable and almost always has generous offers available for first-time customers.
At the same time, you get the power to cancel as early as right after you make your first order.
Cost: At least $8.99 per serving, plus $6.99 shipping.
Shipped in four- to 24-serving boxes.
Availability: Anywhere in the continental United States.
HelloFresh also operates in Germany, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Healthy food delivery services are pretty much everywhere nowadays, whether you’re seeking a convenient meal kit or a completely prepared meal for your weeknight dinners.
Here are our answers to some frequently asked questions as you’re determining which one is right for your needs:
1. Do I need to be at home when my healthy food delivery arrives?
Most food delivery services allow you do not require you to be at home to receive your delivery, as most services are packaged with gel ice packs, dry ice, or similar cooling agents to keep your food fresh.
You’ll typically be given a delivery time frame, or be able to select your preferred delivery date, to ensure your food isn’t left outside for too long.
Still, we recommend contacting your selected company if you’re unsure about delivery etiquette.
2. Can I cancel my food deliveries at any time?
While most healthy food delivery services are based on a subscription model, the vast majority now allow you to cancel or pause your plan at any given time, as long as you do so before your next week or month’s orders.
Your plan’s cancellation policy will likely be listed on your company’s website, upon checkout, or in your terms of service, but you can always contact the company if needed.
3. Can I get healthy food from traditional food delivery apps?
Healthy options are definitely available on traditional food delivery platforms like Grubhub and DoorDash.
Healthy food delivery services primarily aim to make nutritious meals more accessible, less time-consuming to search for, and more diverse.
Commit to Your Healthy Diet
Starting a keto diet, becoming a vegetarian, or simply retaining a balanced diet can be difficult when you have little time and tempting offers on your food delivery apps.
However, new healthy food delivery services are making it easier for you to commit to nutritious meals and even ethical buying habits.
Plus, with many easy-to-cancel plans, they can help you get your feet wet to inspire your personally created healthy meal plans in the future.
If you’ve got the meals down, but just don’t have time to shop for high-quality ingredients, learn about on-demand grocery delivery services like Instacart to get fresh ingredients straight to you.
