Suppose your weekly routine consists of struggling with dinner recipes or getting overwhelmed by meal prep times. In that case, you may want to explore a meal delivery service, which either sends pre-made meals directly to your door or provides perfectly portioned ingredients with step-by-step recipes. A meal delivery service can decrease the amount of money you spend on groceries, make meal planning less stressful and help improve your cooking skills — all while catering to dietary needs like pescatarian or gluten-free, experts say.
To determine the best one for you, I spoke to chefs, nutritionists and recipe developers about what to look for in a meal delivery service. I also highlighted NBC Select editor favorites that we’ve tested and reviewed, plus expert-recommended options.
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How I picked the best meal delivery services
I talked to our experts about important features to remember when shopping for meal kit delivery services. Here are the most important ones to consider when making your decision:
- Serving size: Keep in mind how many people you’re looking to feed, and make sure the service offers multiple servings (if you need). A single-serve pre-prepared meal is likely best if you're only feeding yourself. If you’re feeding a family or partner, look for a customizable plan with multiple serving sizes (typically ranging from two to eight servings).
- Dietary restrictions: If you’re gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan or follow any other specific type of diet, look for services that offer a variety of options to fit those dietary needs.
- Customizability: Are you a picky eater or someone who gets easily bored of eating the same meals? Look for meal delivery services that provide a weekly rotating menu with several meal options, as well as customizable features like portion size and the amount and type of protein in each meal.
- Pricing: The price of meal kit delivery services are based on the quality of meals and ingredients, the frequency of your deliveries, how many people you’re cooking for and the specific meal plan. Keep in mind that more budget-friendly services might not cater to all dietary restrictions or needs, while diet- and lifestyle-specific options typically cost more.
- Delivery dates and times: Consider when you’re available to receive your meals to ensure they don’t go to waste. Most services will offer customizable delivery plans to choose what days you want to receive your kit. Most will also let you pause plans or skip weeks as needed.
How we tested meal delivery services
We’ve tested nearly a dozen meal delivery services, many of which are listed below. To pick the best ones, we looked at the following factors:
- Serving size: We considered how many people we’re feeding, and whether the service accommodates multiple servings. For example, a few editors are feeding themselves plus a partner or families, while others are only cooking for one.
- Prep time: We looked at how long it took to cook or heat up meals, and whether it was worth it for a busy schedule (all of the services we recommend have easy-to-follow recipes and take less than an hour to make, or under 10 minutes to heat up).
- Price: We tried options across various price points, though most fall within the $10-$12 per meal range.
- Dietary restrictions: We tried services that catered to different diets, including gluten-free and pescatarian, and how that food actually tasted.
- Shipping and packaging: We considered how meals are packaged, how that packaging helps (or hinders) meal preparation and whether the shipping is quick, easy and painless.
Best meal delivery services of 2025
With these above features in mind, I included NBC Select staff-favorite services that we’ve tried and loved. The chefs and nutritionists I spoke to gave us their recommendations for the best meal kit delivery services to try across a variety of budgets, tastes and diets. I separated them into two categories: meal kit services that send out individual ingredients and pre-made meal delivery services.
Best prepared meal delivery services
These expert-recommended and staff-favorite meal delivery services are pre-made and ready to eat. Experts say you can heat them up for an easy and quick meal during the week.
Best prepared meal delivery service overall: CookUnity
CookUnity is a favorite among several members of our NBC Select staff. You can choose from multiple plans depending on how many meals you want to receive per week, with subscriptions ranging from four to 16 meals. The service provides a rotating menu of ready-made options each week, or you can let CookUnity pick them out for you based on your preferences (like your choice of protein) or any dietary restrictions like vegetarian, vegan, low-carb and gluten-free. You can also flag any allergies or foods you don’t like, and the service will notify you if they appear in any meals on the menu.
“I started using CookUnity because I felt like I was spending so much money on groceries but still eating boring food everyday like sandwiches and salads,” says NBC Select social commerce editor Sadhana Daruvuri. “Now, I can enjoy a variety of delicious meals while still spending about the same amount I’d spent on groceries before.”
NBC Select SEO editor Nikki Brown is also a CookUnity fan and gets six meals delivered each week, so dinner is taken care of most days. “I’m sure there will be a time in my life when I am able to cook dinner every night but that’s not the case right now — I’ve tried switching up how I shop, rearranging my kitchen and meal prepping, all in hopes of cutting down on how much I spend on takeout but nothing worked until I got CookUnity,” she says. Brown loves browsing and picking her meals each week: “It feels like grocery shopping, except I don’t have to push a cart or carry bags,” she says.
It’s also a favorite of Zoe Malin, NBC Select associate updates editor: “The convenience is unbeatable — the meals show up at my door at the beginning of the week, and knowing all I need to do to cook dinner is pull the wrapper off a meal and warm it up makes my evenings totally stress-free,” she says. However, Malin notes there is some more prep work involved than other services she’s tried. “I did have to take out some components of meals before I microwaved them, like a kale salad or coleslaw, which was a bit tricky and caused me to do more dishes — normally, I’d reheat and eat meals out of the same disposable containers they came in,” she says.
The meals also come in a small reusable bag that you can send back to the company instead of having to break down boxes every week. The meals come fresh and have a refrigerated shelf life of about four to seven days.
Cost: Starting at $11 per meal with free shipping | Serving size: Single-serve | Number of meals: 4 to 16 meals per week
Best for most dietary restrictions: BistroMD
If you’re looking for healthy, ready-to-eat meals, BistroMD lets you choose from over 150 chef-prepared meals based on your dietary needs. “BistroMD prides itself on being ‘doctor-designed’ and therefore is more medically therapeutic than most other companies,” says Lisa Moskovitz, a registered dietitian and CEO of NY Nutrition Group.
You can choose from seven plans: signature (which includes chef-prepared meals for those with limited dietary restrictions), gluten-free, heart healthy (which offers meals containing less than 600 milligrams of sodium and 3.5 grams of saturated fat), keto, vegan, diabetic-friendly and menopause-friendly. Once you choose your plan, BistroMD gives you multiple selections for the number of meals you get per week. The service also offers an EATS (Essential and Tasty Snacks) program that provides healthy snacking options for an additional charge.
Cost: Starting at $7 per meal for the 7-day plan and $8 per meal for the 5-day plan, with an additional $20 for shipping | Serving size: Single-serve | Number of meals: 5 or 7 meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner per week