Fellow Drops is a unique coffee subscription service that texts you a new coffee to try every week, which is convenient and low-pressure. But there are serious limitations in terms of variety and customization, plus it requires action on your part to place an order within just 12 hours. A nightmare for bad texters like myself.
If you love the convenience of Fellow Drops but want more variety, personalization, or something more specific, there are plenty of incredible alternatives out there. Here are the six best Fellow Drops coffee subscription alternatives.
How Does Fellow Drops Work?
First, let’s talk about why people love Fellow Drops and why it may, in fact, be for you.
Fellow Drops functions in a different, more casual way than other coffee bean subscriptions. Their tasting panel of Q Graders (coffee sommeliers) and baristas with combined decades of experience finds a new roast every week.
Subscribers receive a weekly text with the beans of the week and respond within 12 hours with how many bags they want to order. Fellow Drops will then charge the card on file and ship to the address given during sign-up.
You can skip any drop by simply not responding to the text. This is different from other subscriptions where you need to manually choose to skip a month, as you have to actively order (or not order) every single time.
The timeline is pretty quick, with beans debuting on Tuesday, processing on Wednesday, and shipping out Thursday or Friday that same week. Once shipped, your coffee will arrive within three to five business days.
What People Love About Fellow Drops
People love the convenience and curation of this subscription.
Not being beholden to any automatic charges and having the freedom and ease of texting when you’re interested in the weekly drop is incredibly convenient. You can opt in whenever you want without worrying about any recurrent charges. The frequency of ordering opportunities is also a plus for daily coffee drinkers who want to experiment every week.
The curation from coffee professionals is the other big sell here. They provide guides for each of the coffees, explaining their reasoning for picking this particular bean from that particular roaster, sharing fun facts about the product, and giving tips on how to best brew each batch.
The price varies by roaster, usually from around $17 to $34 per bag, with varying shipping rates (beans are shipped directly from the roasters). The shipping cost for that week’s beans is cited in that week’s text.
What Fellow Drops Could Do Better
Of course, there are some good reasons why Fellow Drops isn’t for everyone.
First is the model itself. The weekly cadence can feel limiting or add pressure for those of us who are already terrible at texting back. A monthly subscription or the option to set a subscription up and not have to worry about taking action after that are appealing to many coffee drinkers with busier schedules.
Another drawback is the lack of personalization and customization. Their weekly selection is based on the team at Fellow’s editorial picks, rather than personal taste. Love blonde roasts? This week is espresso, so you’ll have to wait. Picky drinker? It’s a gamble every time.
While there’s a lot to love about Fellow Drops’s alternative model, the limitations on control, variety, and personalization don’t work for everyone.
Fellow Drops Alternatives at a Glance
| Best For | Subscription Model | Price | Variety of Coffee/Roasters | |
| Trade Coffee | Best overall | Three-bag trial, delivery every two weeks, but frequency is adjustable | From $16.99/bag; free shipping and free bag with three-plus bag prepay, otherwise $3.99 for shipping | 500+ coffees from 55+ top roasters |
| Mistobox | Most customizable | One bag every three to 31 days | $22–$35/bag; free shipping | 500+ coffees from 60+ roasters |
| Bean Box | Superior variety | Multiple bag number/size options delivered every two to six weeks | From $25 per bag; $5.45+ for shipping | 600+ coffees from 64 roasters |
| Atlas Coffee Club | Best single-origin | One to four bags or one half-bag per month | From $13 for one half-bag; $5.95 shipping | From 50+ different regions globally |
Trade Coffee
Best overall
What many love most about Fellow Drops is that you have coffee professionals introducing you to new roasters that you may not have heard of before. Trade’s subscription does the same thing but better.
How It Works: You can pay per month as you go, and you have the option to get three or six bags with your first delivery to get free shipping—plus one (for the three-bag option) or two (for the six-bag option) free bag(s) of beans with the first order
Each batch is roasted fresh to order and delivered straight to your door in a cute red bag. You can select delivery every one to four weeks, with the option to skip a shipment or cancel at any time.
Price: For the three-bag starter, you’ll be paying $33.98 for three 10.9-oz bags, with biweekly delivery. For the six-bag starter, you’ll pay $67.96 for six 10.9-oz bags, with biweekly delivery.
After the trial, or if you select the “pay-as-you-go” option, you’ll pay $16.99 per bag plus $3.99 for shipping.
Variety of Roasters and Coffees: Trade offers 500+ coffees from 55+ independent roasters nationwide, including single-origin beans as well as blends.
Customization: What sets Trade apart is that they act as a personal guide to connect you with beans you’ll probably like based on your personal preferences. You start with an intake quiz, where you let them know what kind of roasts and flavor notes you like, and they’ll save this in your personal profile to get you started with a three- or six-bag trial. They’ll show you what they think you’ll like, and you can swap out any of the beans if you disagree.
After that, you get to rate each bag as you explore new beans every month, noting what you do and don’t like, so your next shipment is even better suited to your taste based on personal feedback. You can update your preferences any time as they change.
Selection Process: You won’t sacrifice quality here. The team of coffee-obsessed baristas, Q graders, and roasters on the Trade curation team have 10+ years of experience tasting, evaluating, and building relationships with hidden-gem roasters across the U.S. to select only the highest-quality beans for each delivery.
Check out Trade Coffee’s subscription if you love trying hand-picked selections of coffee matched to your personal tastes, even as they change, acting as a partner and guide in exploration.
Mistobox
Most customizable
If you wish Fellow Drops offered something more customizable and tailored to your tastes, Mistobox is the best alternative for you.
How It Works: First, you’ll go through an eight-step quiz so they can get to know your taste. From there, they use an algorithm to match you with beans that match the flavor profiles you prefer. They give you their top pick plus some alternatives if you want to try those instead.
You can even customize your budget, setting the maximum amount of money you pay per bag with each delivery. They will match you specifically with coffees in your price range or lower.
Delivery frequency can be every three days, weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
Price: From $20 per bag with free shipping. Customers select a budget from $22–$35. You also have the option to prepay and save 30%.
Variety of Roasters and Coffees: Mistobox has 500+ coffees from more than 60 indie roasters, with different wash processes, origins, and flavor profiles, including some award-winning options.
Customization: You can choose your roast preference, frequency, type of roast, whole bean or ground, espresso, single-origin, or blends, and your price point. Like I mentioned before, Mistobox uses an algorithm to compare your preferences to their roasters and beans, then matches you with a new bag for each delivery.
While it’s not entirely clear exactly how the algorithm works, the quiz does seem pretty comprehensive, including roast preferences as well as preferred flavor profiles and preferences for single-origin, blends, or espresso.
Selection Process: Mistobox uses a team of coffee professionals to source their 500+ coffees from independent roasters across the country, though they don’t make their criteria clear on their site.
Take a look at Mistobox for some award-winning roasts tailored exactly to your palate and budget.
Bean Box
Superior variety
The antithesis of Fellow Drops and their one-bean-a-week model, Bean Box offers a regular subscription with the widest variety of roasts and roasters on the market today.
How It Works: Bean Box is less customizable up front, considering you only have a few different roast options to choose from. You can choose between one or two 12-ounce bags or one or two two-pound bags, depending on how much coffee you drink.
Select a frequency between two and six weeks, almost as frequent as Fellow Drops. Just like with most of these subscriptions, you still have the option to skip any time, but you do have to manually change your delivery, not just passively opt out.
Price: The 12-ounce bag subscription is $24.95/shipment ($19.50 for the beans plus $5.75 shipping), the duo plan with two 12-ounce bags is $43.50/shipment, the large solo plan with one two-pound bag is $52.50/shipment, and the big duo plan gets you two two-pound bags for $95.50/shipment. You do always have to pay shipping.
Variety of Roasters and Coffees: Bean Box partners with 64 independent roasters across the country to offer more than 600 specialty coffees.
Customization: You can choose the roast, style, and bean preparation, but it’s not quite as tailored or customized to your taste as Trade or Mistobox.
Selection Process: Every Bean Box is selected carefully by Bean Box’s in-house curation team that has experience judging beans at competitions, including the prestigious Cup of Excellence award. They source beans directly from independent roasters.
If you’d rather have access to a huge catalogue of beans every month than get sent one a week, Bean Box is the best Fellow Drops alternative.
Atlas Coffee Club
Best for single-origin
If you really want to dive deep into the history, land, and culture behind your cup of coffee, Atlas Coffee Club is a great way to honor where your coffee comes from and learn something along the way.
How It Works: Focused entirely on single-origin, micro-lot coffee beans, Atlas sources its coffee from all around the world, including Tanzania, Kenya, Colombia, and more. Each monthly box brings you a postcard from the region it’s sourced from plus a small coffee history lesson.
Beans are chosen based on preference, roasted to order, and shipped out once a month, with the option to increase your subscription delivery to every two weeks.
Price: Atlas is one of the more affordable options on this list, offering subscriptions from just $13 a month for a half bag of beans (plus shipping).
Variety of Roasters and Coffees: Atlas partners with more than 50 countries for single-origin Arabica beans.
Customization: The customization options here are limited, as you can only select your roast preference. You will receive a bag each month (or 2 weeks) of beans from a rotating country of the month, so, after a few years, you may have gone through all the beans Atlas has to offer.
Selection Process: Atlas connects directly with farmers and micro-lots to select the highest-quality beans to offer customers.
For an affordable single-origin alternative to Fellow Drops, give Atlas a try.
So, Which Fellow Drops Coffee Subscription Alternative Is the Best?
If you feel limited by Fellow Drops’ selection or just want to try something else, there are plenty of subscriptions offering a similar or superior experience.
If you want something more customized to your taste, Trade will bring you along an exploration journey to your new favorite coffees, while Mistobox will use an algorithm to match you with brews you’ll love.
Nobody offers the sheer variety and amount of coffees BeanBox has, so check them out if you feel held back by the limitations of Fellow Drops. For an affordable single-origin subscription with a rotating country of the month, Atlas Coffee Club is one of the earlier companies to offer such a service.
If you love having new, curated coffee shipped to your front door with little effort on your part, there are plenty of Fellow Drops alternatives for better variety and customization. Then the only thing left to worry about is brewing your beans.
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