What is the cheapest meal delivery service?

By published per-serving price, EveryPlate and Dinnerly, each from $5.99 a serving as of September 2026. Add EveryPlate's flat $10.99 shipping per box and a small order costs more per plate. For ready-to-eat meals, CookUnity's $10.39 to $12.69 per meal is the lowest range we could verify.

Is meal delivery cheaper than groceries?

Rarely per meal. Even the cheapest kits cost more than most home-cooked dinners once shipping is included, and prepared meals cost more still. What you buy is time saved and less food waste. Our cost-per-meal guide works through the sums.

Is shipping included in the price per serving?

Usually not. EveryPlate says shipping is a flat $10.99 per box on top of the per-serving price, and Territory Foods charges a delivery fee per delivery. The advertised per-serving number almost never includes it, so add it before you compare.

Are first-box discounts worth it?

They lower week one, not week five. EveryPlate advertises $2.99 per meal on the first box, but the standard price applies afterward. Judge a service on the ongoing price and on how easily you can cancel after the promotion ends.

Which prepared meal service is cheapest?

From the figures we could verify, CookUnity at $10.39 to $12.69 per meal, with a lower rate at higher meal counts. Territory Foods starts at $10 a meal plus a delivery fee. Factor shows its price only after you enter a zip code, so we did not rank it.

Cheapest Meal Delivery Services in 2026: What You Actually Pay

Headline per-serving prices hide shipping fees, minimums and first-box promotions. We compared the published prices of budget meal kits and prepared-meal services as of September 2026 and worked out what a typical week really costs.

The sticker price on a meal delivery site is the price of food. The price you pay adds shipping, and sometimes a minimum order. This guide ranks services by what a normal week costs, using only the figures each company publishes. Prices move, so everything here is “as of September 2026,” and we did not order from any of these services.

The comparison at a glance

Service	Type	Published starting price	Extra costs to add
EveryPlate	Meal kit	From $5.99 per serving	$10.99 flat shipping per box
Dinnerly	Meal kit	From $5.99 per person	Shipping fee applies
Home Chef	Meal kit	From $7.99 per serving	Shipping after first box; $50.95 weekly minimum
CookUnity	Prepared	$10.39 to $12.69 per meal	Check at checkout
Territory Foods	Prepared	From $10 per meal	About $9.99 per delivery
Snap Kitchen	Prepared	Varies by location	Delivery from $6; Snap Pass 5% off
Factor	Prepared	Shown after zip code	Shipping fee

Two ways to be cheap

Meal kits and prepared meals are not the same product. A kit sends raw, pre-portioned ingredients you cook in about 20 to 30 minutes. A prepared meal arrives ready to heat. Kits win on price per plate; prepared meals win on time. Our guide to meal kits vs prepared meals explains the trade.

Budget meal kits

EveryPlate says it is the lowest-priced home-cooking box, with plans from $5.99 per serving and a flat $10.99 shipping fee per box. It advertises $2.99 per meal on the first box for new customers, but treat that as a one-week saving. On the standard rate, a two-person box with three recipes is six servings: about $35.94 in food plus $10.99 shipping, or $46.93, which works out to roughly $7.82 per serving. That is the number to compare, not $5.99.

Dinnerly also says its meals start at $5.99 per person. A shipping fee applies; the amount depends on your address and we could not confirm it from the plan page, so check at checkout before assuming it matches EveryPlate.

Home Chef sits a rung up. It says kits start at $7.99 per serving and that standard meals average $9.99 per serving depending on the menu and order size. Its site states a minimum weekly order of $50.95 including shipping on the standard plan, and that shipping applies after the first box. If you cook for two or more, see our Home Chef review.

For a fuller look at kits, read best meal kits.

Cheaper prepared meals

Ready-to-eat services start near $10 a meal, so the gap to kits is real.

CookUnity publishes a per-meal price that falls as you order more: $12.69 at four meals a week and $10.39 at sixteen, according to pricing data on its site. That makes it the lowest verified range for fully prepared meals. See the CookUnity review.

Territory Foods says meals start at $10, with a delivery fee on top, and a minimum of three meals per delivery. Six meals at $10 plus a $9.99 delivery fee is about $69.99, or roughly $11.67 each, and the per-meal cost falls as the order grows. See the Territory Foods review.

Snap Kitchen does not publish one national per-meal price. Its Snap Pass is free and takes 5% off weekly orders, and delivery fees start at $6 and rise with distance. Buying in a store or at Whole Foods avoids the delivery fee. See the Snap Kitchen review.

Factor shows its price only after you enter a zip code, which is why we do not rank it here on cost. Read the Factor review for what it publishes.

Fresh n’ Lean, sometimes still listed in older “cheap prepared meals” roundups, closed in July 2024 and is not an option.

How to actually spend less

Add shipping before you compare. A flat fee per box punishes small orders. Ordering more servings per box lowers your cost per serving, as the EveryPlate arithmetic above shows.
Judge promotions by the second month. First-box discounts end. The number that matters is the standard price after the offer.
Read the minimum. Home Chef’s minimum weekly order and Territory’s three-meal minimum can push a small household over what it wanted to spend.
Skip weeks you do not need. Most services let you skip, and skipping costs nothing. The routine is in how to cancel or skip meal delivery.
Pick the right cost per meal for your life. If a service replaces takeout, the comparison is different than if it replaces groceries. Our cost per meal guide walks through both.

Who should pick what

Cooking for two, tightest budget: EveryPlate or Dinnerly, ordering a larger box to spread the shipping fee.
Kits with a bit more choice: Home Chef.
No time to cook, want the lowest verified prepared price: CookUnity at higher meal counts.
Local, diet-filtered meals: Territory Foods, if you can absorb the delivery fee.
Gluten-free, or want to buy in a store: Snap Kitchen.

If you are shopping for one person, see meal delivery for one person. For the broader ranking, use best meal delivery services.

Reading a price table without being fooled

Three habits catch most of the distortion in advertised prices. First, look for the word “from” or “starting at”: the cheapest plan on the cheapest recipe is what is being quoted. Second, check what the quoted number leaves out. Shipping is the usual omission, and minimum orders are the second. Third, ask whether the price is a promotion. A first-box price is a marketing cost for the company, not a preview of your grocery bill.

Two sample weeks, using only the figures above, show the effect. A couple buying EveryPlate’s six-serving box at the headline rate pays about $46.93 including shipping. The same couple buying six Territory Foods meals at the starting price pays about $69.99 including a delivery fee. The second is more expensive, but it also replaces cooking, which is what you are paying for. If time is the constraint, the prepared figure is the fair comparison; if money is, the kit is.

Caveats

Prices vary by plan size, zip code and promotion, and companies change them without notice. Treat the figures above as a snapshot, verify at checkout, and read the terms before you enter a card. This guide is not nutrition or medical advice; if you manage a health condition, talk to a doctor or registered dietitian. Our method is at how we review.