Home Chef vs HelloFresh 2023

HelloFresh offers 6 meal plans: Meat & Veggie, Veggie, Family Friendly, Calorie Smart, Pescatarian, and Quick and Easy. The names clearly indicate what type of recipes you can find in each plan. You can customize your plan size by choosing between 2 and 4 people and 2 to 5 recipes per week. For 2 people and 2 recipes per week, you need to pay $12.49 per serving. If you order 3 or 4 recipes per week for more people, you only pay $7.49 per meal. 

Home Chef only offers two meal plans: Home Chef and the Fresh and Easy plan. The first contains fresh, pre-portioned ingredients, and meals that are easy to prepare. The second plan might be the best choice for busy people as it contains tasty low or no prep meals. Even if there aren’t any custom plans for vegans, vegetarians, or other diets, there are several labels you can select when you make your order to customize your plans: calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, shellfish, pork, poultry, tree nuts, beef, fish, mushrooms, peanuts. The prices start at $6.99 per serving. However, most meals that cost this little are salads. For a main course dish, the average price is $9.99 per serving. You can order for 2,4, or 6 people and choose between 2 to 6 meals per week. 

It’s a tie. Both services offer similar pricing, if you order for more people, Hello Fresh is more affordable. If you order for two, Home Chef is a better option.

HelloFresh offers a variety of more than 25 meals per week. The menu is constantly changing. For those who eat a regular diet, the Wellness and Family Friendly plans offer balanced and nutritious meals. The recipes in the calorie smart menu have around 650 calories. Most recipes are easy to prepare and require around 30 minutes. Each meal is accompanied by detailed instructions and nutritional information. This company gets its ingredients from a trustworthy network of farmers. The fruits and vegetables are freshly picked. They use some organic ingredients but not many. 

Home Chef’s detailed step-by-step recipes easily walk you through the preparation process. Some meals can be prepared in less than 15 minutes, others require around 45 minutes. There is a wide array of recipes for vegetarians, carnivores, or people who want to lose weight. Home Chef uses natural, fresh, and safe ingredients that are obtained following the highest quality standards. They partner with local farms to ensure the meat they use is safe and hormone-free. They also include organic ingredients whenever possible. 

Both services offer high-quality ingredients and detailed instructions. However, in this HelloFresh vs Home Chef battle, we choose Home Chef because you can prepare the meals faster.

HelloFresh offers a simple and straightforward order process once you create an account. You can skip or cancel meals at any time before 23:59 PST, five days before the next scheduled delivery. The company focuses on eco-friendly packaging. They even have a dedicated section on their website where you can learn how to recycle each element. The kit bag and separators are 100% approved for curbside recycling. 

Home Chef sends you by email a weekly menu with the 20+ meal options available for the next 7 days.  You need to select your meals by Friday at noon CST that week, or you can simply choose the meals Home Chef recommends. The Customize It feature allows you to upgrade, swap, or double up your protein sources. It’s easy to skip an order, just make sure you do this by Friday, 12:00, the week before your scheduled delivery. Once you place an order, you get an online tracking link that allows you to check where your delivery is. The company uses some recyclable materials in its packaging. All the boxes and dividers are made of partially recycled cardboard and all the plastic containers are curbside recyclable. There is comprehensive information on their website on how to recycle the packaging. 

Both services are easy to use and flexible, however, we choose HelloFresh as it seems to focus more on recycling compared to Home Chef, which uses many plastic containers.

You can reach out to HelloFresh by phone or live chat. After you’ve signed up and you place an order, based on your zip code, you’ll get a list of delivery date options you can choose from. You can later change the delivery day. Hello Fresh meals typically arrive between 8 AM and 8 PM. You’ll get by email the order tracking information. The company delivers across the US, except for Hawaii and Alaska. Shipping costs $9.99. 

You can contact Home Chef by email, phone, or live chat. However, except for the live chat option, the rest of the contact methods are difficult to find on the website. The company delivers to 98% of the United States. The shipping fee depends on the size of the order. For orders over $49.99, the fee is $7.99. For orders under $49.99, it is $13.99. 

Both companies offer excellent customer support and deliver in most states. We choose HelloFresh this time for its standard shipping fee. 

HelloFresh offers a vast array of tasty and healthy recipes, some of our team’s favorites are included in the table above. The preparation time varies between 25 to 40 minutes. Many meals are easy to prepare, but some require a bit of skill and patience. Each recipe contains detailed preparation instructions and nutritional information 

Home Chef offers detailed and easy-to-follow recipes. Their meals are inspired by a variety of cuisines including Asian, Italian, Greek. Some of the tastiest meals our foodies have tried are listed above. While some recipes require around 45 minutes of preparation, others can be completed in 15 minutes.