The world of meal subscriptions has gotten pretty confusing. There are so many options to choose from at this point; it has become such a challenge to know which is right for you. To top it off, there are some companies that supply more than one meal subscription, which makes things even more complicated!
Having spent more than a decade working in hospitality, I’ve been privileged enough to enjoy some pretty extravagant restaurant meals. But at this stage of my life, I’ve found myself turning more toward the convenience of meal subscriptions.
While working my way through subscriptions (because you know I just have to try them all), I discovered that two of the most popular (and my favorite) subscriptions—Green Chef and HelloFresh—are actually run by the same company.
So then, what’s the difference? I compared Green Chef vs. HelloFresh to find out, and so that you can find out which subscription will work best for you.
Bottom Line Up Front
There are a lot of similarities between Green Chef and HelloFresh since they’re owned by the same company. The biggest differences between the two are their prices and their selection.
Green Chef’s meals are made with organic ingredients and are therefore more expensive than HelloFresh’s. They’re also better at catering to different dietary restrictions.
HelloFresh, on the other hand, is the more affordable and family-friendly option. You can’t go wrong with either—it just depends on what you’re looking for in a meal subscription.
Green Chef is a meal kit service that delivers boxes filled with fresh ingredients on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis to make chef-curated meals. Diet and allergen friendly options, are one of the reasons I love Green Chef. Save big with $250 off and enjoy free shipping using code VENT250
Main Differences
- Green Chef is a USDA-organic certified meal company, whereas HelloFresh is not.
- Green Chef’s meals cost around $12 to $14 per serving, whereas HelloFresh’s meals cost about $9 to $12.50 per serving.
- Green Chef caters to various dietary restrictions, whereas HelloFresh caters to families and people with busy lives.
- HelloFresh has a selection of prepared meals, whereas Green Chef does not.
- Green Chef has meals that feed up to six people, whereas HelloFresh’s meals are designed for two or four people.
Green Chef vs. HelloFresh Compared
Green Chef and HelloFresh are both owned by the same parent company (along with EveryPlate and Factor), but the two meal kit subscriptions are not the same. Let’s see how they stack up against one another.
Subscriptions and Prices
Because they’re part of the same family of meal subscription services, Green Chef and HelloFresh share similar subscription models.
The biggest differences between the two are their price points, the number of meals and servings they offer, and the lifestyles they cater to. Green Chef is better for those who prefer to eat organic and those with dietary restrictions, whereas HelloFresh is more affordable and offers family-friendly plans that deliver more weekly dinners.
Green Chef
Just like most meal subscriptions, Green Chef allows you to select the number of servings and meals you want per week. Because they use organic ingredients, their prices are overall higher than HelloFresh’s, and like many subscriptions, they’re set on a sliding scale depending on how many weekly servings you order. Their plans and starting prices are as follows:
- Two people, three meals per week: $13.49 per serving
- Two people, four meals per week: $12.99 per serving
- Four people, two meals per week: $12.99 per serving
- Four people, three meals per week: $12.49 per serving
- Four people, four meals per week: $11.99 per serving
- Six people, three meals per week: $11.99 per serving
- Six people, four meals per week: $11.99 per serving
Green Chef is a meal kit service that delivers boxes filled with fresh ingredients on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis to make chef-curated meals. Diet and allergen friendly options, are one of the reasons I love Green Chef. Save big with $250 off and enjoy free shipping using code VENT250
Not many meal subscriptions offer plans with six servings per meal, which makes Green Chef a great option for larger families. One thing to keep in mind is that the prices above are starting prices. Green Chef has a lot of weekly add-ons available, as well as premium meals (labeled “Chef Select”) that cost extra.
Green Chef will also ask about your lifestyle preferences when you sign up. You’ll be asked to choose one or more from the list below:
- Plant-Based
- Gluten Free
- Mediterranean
- Protein Packed
- Calorie Smart
- Quick and Easy
- Delicious Discoveries
- Keto
Regardless of which lifestyle preferences you choose, you’ll be able to view and select meals from the entire menu each week. Setting preferences only affects the order in which meals are shown to you and which meals are automatically sent to you if you don’t select them yourself on a particular week.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh’s meals are also priced according to how many servings you order per week. They only offer plans that serve two or four people, but you can choose to receive up to six meals per week on one plan, which makes HelloFresh an excellent option for people who are too busy or don’t want to plan the majority of their meals themselves each week.
Provided you also order add-ons for breakfast and lunch (or are accustomed to eating those meals out anyway), you could almost replace grocery shopping entirely with HelloFresh meals—though you’re still going to need to make the occasional run for staples like oil, butter, and salt.
HelloFresh is one of the more affordable meal subscriptions on the market and is an exceptionally good value for the quality of their meals. Their plans and prices are below:
- Two people, two meals per week: $12.49 per serving
- Two people, three meals per week: $9.99 per serving
- Two people, four meals per week: $9.79 per serving
- Two people, five meals per week: $9.79 per serving
- Two people, six meals per week: $9.79 per serving
- Four people, two meals per week: $9.79 per serving
- Four people, three meals per week: $9.49 per serving
- Four people, four meals per week: $9.29 per serving
- Four people, five meals per week: $9.29 per serving
- Four people, six meals per week: $8.99 per serving
Just like with Green Chef above, these prices don’t include any add-ons, premium meals (called “Premium Picks”), or upgrades (more on that below) that you may choose to add to your subscription.
HelloFresh also lets you set your preferences when you sign up, but they’re more focused on lifestyle and less geared toward specific diets than Green Chef’s. Just like with Green Chef, you’ll be able to view and choose from the full menu each week, regardless of the preferences you set. You’ll be asked to select one or more of the following:
- Meat and Veggies
- Veggie
- Family Friendly
- Fit and Wholesome
- Quick and Easy
- Pescatarian
HelloFresh delivers weekly meal kits with delicious, prepped ingredients and easy-to-cook recipes directly to your door. Take the guesswork out of meal planning and cook delicious food for you or your whole family. Unlock 16 free meals and enjoy complimentary breakfast for life with code VENTURE16FB
Selection and Meals
Both companies focus primarily on meal kits, which are shipped as a package of raw ingredients and a corresponding recipe. Both subscriptions also have a wide selection of add-ons available each week.
Green Chef’s meals feel a bit more elevated than HelloFresh’s, and HelloFresh’s meals are more family-friendly. I think of Green Chef’s meals as restaurant-style and HelloFresh’s as homestyle. Both companies add a ton of flavor to their meals with their signature spice blends and sauces.
Green Chef
From the ingredients to the flavors and even the photos on their website, Green Chef’s meals feel a bit more sophisticated than HelloFresh’s.
While there are certainly family-friendly meals to be found each week, Green Chef does seem to cater more to an adult palate. That being said, the meals aren’t overly complex or fussy.
All of Green Chef’s meals are USDA-certified organic, and you’ll be able to choose from a selection of almost 50 each week. Many of the meals are customizable, with options to swap out one protein for another or upgrade to a more premium cut of meat. It’s easy to sort by any of the dietary restrictions listed in the section above, and unlike most meal kits, Green Chef’s gluten-free meals are actually certified gluten-free.
Green Chef also has a selection of add-ons, including quick breakfasts, lunches, snacks, canned lattes, and ready-to-cook proteins that can be added to your subscription.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh has a larger selection than Green Chef. Not only are there more meals to choose from, but they also offer more variety in terms of both cuisine and preparation methods.
In addition to meal kits, they also have ready-to-heat meals (these are listed right alongside their other meal options, as opposed to in a separate category like with some competing meal subscriptions) and “family dinners,” which are essentially double-portion meal kits meant to be served family-style—think casseroles and slow-cooker meals.
HelloFresh is definitely the more family-friendly option of the two, especially if you have picky eaters. There are a ton of quick and easy meals that can be prepared in 25 minutes or less, and they even have “15-minute kids lunches” meal kits.
The meals are a mix of American-style comfort foods and worldly cuisine. You’ll find “meat and sides”-style dishes, grain bowls, flatbreads, tacos, sandwiches, stir-fries, and pasta dishes.
There are over 50 meals to choose from each week (sometimes as many as 75+), so it’s pretty likely that even the pickiest person will find something they love. Just like Green Chef, you’ll have options to upgrade or swap the proteins and even some sides for many of the meals.
HelloFresh has plenty of options for anyone following a low-carb or low-calorie diet, vegetarians, and pescatarians. However, other than that, they don’t really cater to any particular diets. If you’re doing keto, for example, you might be able to find meals that meet the criteria for your diet, but you’ll have to sort through each recipe’s nutritional information to do so.
HelloFresh also has an extensive list of add-ons, including snacks, breakfasts, proteins, and even produce. One thing that is a bit annoying is that you have to be a HelloFresh subscriber to browse their add-ons (called the HelloFresh Market), unlike Green Chef, which allows you to browse add-ons alongside meals.
Delivery and Packaging
Since Green Chef and HelloFresh share a parent company, it’s not surprising that their shipping methods and packaging are almost exactly alike. They both deliver across the continental United States, though HelloFresh also delivers to select zip codes in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska.
Both companies ship their meal kits in cardboard boxes with recyclable insulation. The meal kits are bundled into paper bags using as little plastic as possible, but some ingredients will be packaged in plastic for food safety reasons. Both websites state that their plastic bags are recyclable, but in most areas, they will need to be taken to a facility to be recycled.
They can’t just be dropped in your curbside bin (and in those cases, how often are people actually going to recycle this plastic). That being said, I like that they both at least use paper bags to bundle their kits rather than plastic, like some other companies.
Cooking the Meals
Both subscriptions include large, full-color recipe cards along with their meal kits. The cards have an image of the final dish, its ingredients, and nutritional information on one side and step-by-step instructions and images for how to prepare the meal on the other.
Their recipes are simple enough that even inexperienced cooks won’t have much trouble following along, and neither service’s meals are more challenging to prepare than the other, at least when it comes to their standard meal kits. Where they do vary is the different levels of prep difficulty each subscription has available.
Green Chef
Most of Green Chef’s meals are their standard dinner kits, which take about 25 to 40 minutes to prepare. You’ll need some basic kitchen tools, like a knife, cutting board, measuring cups, pots, and pans, to cook these recipes.
The most complicated recipe I tried called for a food processor but included instructions for those who don’t have one (lucky for me, since mine is in a storage unit more than three hours away).
Green Chef also includes a few ten-minute lunches on their menu each week. These are mostly quick-to-prepare sandwiches and salads. The closest thing Green Chef carries to prepared meals are some of their add-ons, like their ready-to-heat breakfast egg bites or boxed dumplings and spring rolls.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh has a wider range of prep levels than Green Chef, though their standard meal kits make up the bulk of their menu and take about as much time and effort as Green Chef’s.
In addition to their ten-minute lunches, which are similar to Green Chef’s, they have a selection of “Fast and Fresh” meals, which are meal kits that take about 15 minutes to prepare.
They offer a few ready-to-heat meals each week, which require no real effort other than popping them into the microwave or oven, and they even have a selection of quick, make-ahead lunches specifically designed for children’s lunch boxes.
Pros and Cons
Green Chef Pros
- I love that they use organic ingredients and are committed to sustainable farming practices.
- Their meal kits serve up to six people.
- They make it easy to sort meals based on your dietary restrictions.
- Their gluten-free meals are certified and processed in a separate facility from meal kits containing gluten.
- They cater to diets like keto and the Mediterranean diet.
Green Chef Cons
- They don’t carry any prepared meals.
- They don’t deliver to Alaska or Hawaii.
- Their meals are more expensive than HelloFresh’s.
- They don’t have any specifically kid-oriented meals.
HelloFresh Pros
- I love that you can browse six weeks’ worth of meals in advance.
- Their meals are super family-friendly, with family-style dinners and kids lunches.
- It’s a great value for the price.
- I love that they have different prep levels, like heat-and-eat meals and quick-prep meals.
HelloFresh Cons
- I don’t like that you can’t browse their add-ons in advance the way you can with Green Chef and other meal subscription services.
- Their meals are not organic.
- They offer a ton of family-friendly meals but, for some reason, cap their portions per meal at four.
Alternative Options
If you’re looking for an alternative option to Green Chef or HelloFresh, you might like one of these:
EveryPlate
EveryPlate is a budget meal kit subscription that also falls under the HelloFresh family umbrella, so it has a lot of the same qualities I like about both HelloFresh and Green Chef.
The meals are accessible and family-friendly, the recipes are easy to follow, and it’s one of the most affordable meal subscriptions on the market—meals start at just $5.99 per serving.
One thing I wasn’t super stoked about was the quality of the ingredients I received from EveryPlate. Nothing was spoiled, but one of the pieces of chicken I got looked like it had been torn apart.
Blue Apron
Like HelloFresh, Blue Apron is a meal kit subscription that’s been around for what feels like forever now. They have similar quality ingredients to Green Chef or HelloFresh, but their recipes are a bit more involved. Blue Apron is an excellent option for people who love to cook or want to get serious about honing their cooking skills.
Sunbasket
Sunbasket is another organic meal subscription, like Green Chef, but their menu looks a bit more like HelloFresh’s. The quality of their meals is similar to the other two companies, and their prices fall between the two. If you like Green Chef and HelloFresh but want to mix things up a bit, I recommend checking out Sunbasket.
FAQs
Question: How Much is Green Chef Monthly?
Answer: Depending on how many servings and meals your plan covers, a Green Chef subscription will cost you around $323.76 to $1,151.04 per month.
Question: Do You Refrigerate or freeze HelloFresh Meals?
Answer: You should keep your HelloFresh meals in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them.
Question: Is HelloFresh Monthly or Weekly?
Answer: HelloFresh is a weekly subscription, but you can pause it anytime you need to.
Final Thoughts
It shouldn’t be surprising that I like both of these subscriptions, considering they’re run by the same parent company. They both make high-quality, ingredient-forward meal kits that are easy to cook, flavorful, and exciting.
While I prefer HelloFresh’s price point, the fact that Green Chef uses organic ingredients makes me feel like I’m doing right by my body, so I’m sticking with them for now. That being said, I think that HelloFresh is an excellent alternative, especially if you have children at home.
Green Chef is a meal kit service that delivers boxes filled with fresh ingredients on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis to make chef-curated meals. Diet and allergen friendly options, are one of the reasons I love Green Chef. Save big with $250 off and enjoy free shipping using code VENT250
Continue reading:
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Green Chef vs Home Chef Compared: I Tried Both, Back-to-Back
Lauren is also a bona fide mixologist, bringing her professional bartending skills to the table as one of our resident drink testers. In Lauren's world, life is a celebration, and her home is the party hub.
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