When you think of meal delivery services, the first thought that comes to your mind is fast food. Although the fast-food culture has been prevalent in our lives, there is a major shift with more people trying to be healthier and choosing meals that fulfill daily nutritional requirements.

Two of the most popular meal delivery systems that promote healthy meals are Home Chef and Dinnerly. If you’re someone who’s looking to switch to a healthy diet (read: more than just salads!) then go through these Home Chef vs Dinnerly features and subscribe to a meal plan that works best for you.

Home Chef vs Dinnerly sign-up process and how it works

For starting any meal kit program, you will have to sign-up with the company. The sign-up process is very basic, and simple for both, but Home Chef has more preferred ingredients to choose from.

For Home Chef, you must start with:

• Your email address.
• And then move on to your preferences. They ask some questions like – how many people are you cooking for? How many times a week do you want to cook? Do you prefer meat, seafood or vegetables? Your dietary preferences, any foods that you want to avoid in your meals.

For Dinnerly, the first step is:

• Select a box which comes with two options – a two-person box or a family box. You can also choose the number of meals per week. There is also an option to choose vegetarian meals. Once you have selected your preferred box, you select your location, and enter your email address.
• You then continue to give your preferred delivery details like day and address.
• Make the payment and choose your meals!

What’s on the menu ?

While both the delivery services give recipes and preparation instructions, Home Chef has a more visual approach. The recipe page is really interactive, allowing the reader to “check” some steps off the instruction list. There are also meal options to choose from filters like – adventurous, quick and simple, low-cal, carb-conscious, and vegetarian which help you decide on the kind of recipe you want to cook.

On Dinnerly, the meal recipe comes with tags like “low calorie”, “fast”, “no added dairy”, “no added gluten” which gives the reader a filter on the kind of dish they are preparing. It also comes with simple prep instructions, like Home Chef, making it convenient for the readers to follow the recipe.

Home Chef vs Dinnerly pricing

Meal kits start at around $7.99 per serving on Home Chef. There is an extra shipping cost added to this price. You pay for weekly meals.

On Dinnerly, one adult-sized serving costs $4.99, which is cheaper than the Home Chef pricing, but they have an extra shipping charge of $8.99. This would still cost lesser compared to Home Chef. Like Home Chef, you pay for all the meals in the week.

Discounts and loyalty program

While Home Chef is priced higher, it also comes with some discounts. They specifically mention student discounts on their website, which gives you 55% off on your first box. They also have a loyalty rewards program that gives you various discounts depending on the number of boxes ordered. You can also earn credit through their referral program.

On Dinnerly, there aren’t any specific discounts, but they do come up with temporary vouchers or discount codes from time to time.

Gift cards

Dinnerly has no gifting option available for their customers; however, Home Chef does have this option. You can choose from a $60, $120 or $240 gift card and either deliver the gift card to yourself and personally present it to the receiver, or you can email it to them directly. There is also an option to send gift cards to groups of people, which may get you further discounts.

Home Chef vs Dinnerly – who’s more eco-friendly?

Home Chef does not specifically mention any eco-friendly delivery practice, but Dinnerly makes sure that their produce is delivered in an eco-friendly box.

Dinnerly delivery boxes are made from paper that is sourced from sustainably-managed forests. Other items like ice packs, box liners, cool pouches, foil pouches, ingredient packets, are all recyclable and they even give you instructions on how you can manage your plastic waste after using the product. When it comes to sustainability, Dinnerly definitely gets brownie points.

Blogs and stories

Both the services come with content that is engaging and keeps the reader hooked and informed about cooking styles, recipes, trends, and food around the world. Home Chef has more categories in their content, making the filtering process easy for the user. They have categories like – in-season, cook, drink, learn, and how-to’s.

Dinnerly, on the other hand, has two categories of content – recipes and stories, that keep the user engaged.

Home Chef vs Dinnerly – which is the best choice?

While both are efficient and popular healthy meal delivery services, they have some unique features which may be exciting to different set of people.

Home Chef—the pricier option—comes with a wide variety of options and offers that may be preferred by some people. Their loyalty program is enticing and can be beneficial to regular customers.

If you are someone who wants affordable home-cooked meals, Dinnerly prices will be more attractive to you. They also come with eco-friendly delivery services which makes this a preferred choice among those who support sustainable practices.