Meal kits make dinner a snap, but are they also a good deal in 2024? If you're considering Blue Apron, HelloFresh or another handy meal subscription to save time and effort, we've crunched the numbers to see how expensive -- or cheap -- these subscriptions really are in 2024.

I've tested all of the meal kit services available and I have my favorites in terms of taste and ease-of-execution. In this exercise, I'm analyzing the value of three popular services against buying the same groceries at a local supermarket. 

To find the real cost of meal kits, I priced out the same groceries you would need to make meal kits from three of my favorite services: HelloFresh, Blue Apron and EveryPlate. I then looked at the cost for the groceries needed to make each serving against what those services are charging you.

It turns out that not only are meal kits affordable in 2024, but some are actually cheaper than grocery shopping. That's particularly true depending on the service you enlist. 

How I did the math

To see how much Blue Apron, HelloFresh and EveryPlate meals cost to make, I priced out the ingredients for two real recipes that are included in a standard subscription. 

When choosing groceries, I used the cheapest version of the same or similar ingredient I could find at Shop-Rite, a budget-friendly grocery store in my area. Because meal kit recipes include only the amount of ingredients needed, I prorated the cost by how much you would actually use for a recipe, not the full price of the bottle, jar, box or bag. 

I chose basic, non-organic items unless it was otherwise specified on the meal kit recipe card or website. 

How I picked the recipes

If you're looking to meal kits as a value proposition, you'll have to be smart about which recipes you choose. Steak, chicken and fish tend to be more expensive to cook at home than plant-based meals, so I specifically chose recipes featuring those proteins. (I also recommend you take advantage of them if you're signing up for a service).

Not all services include steak recipes without a surcharge, but HelloFresh and Blue Apron do. Blue Apron typically offers at least one fairly high-end beef cut like sirloin steak with no added charge. 

HelloFresh offers one or two beef recipes per week, but it's usually a cheaper cut like chuck steak. Seafood options are limited with a basic HelloFresh, but I found a barramundi recipe on this week's menu, in addition to the ranch steak with Caesar salad. 

Budget-friendly services including EveryPlate don't usually offer steak or seafood, which is how they keep consumer prices down. For my EveryPlate analysis, I chose a cherry beef meatball and pork chop recipe.

Blue Apron presents the best value

Blue Apron has the most high-end recipes of the three I chose to analyze. I picked a recipe featuring sirloin steak and another with fresh filets of steelhead trout.

When I priced out the groceries to make these meals, they clocked in at $11.26 and $8.23, respectively, with an average price of $9.75 per serving. Both meals proved more expensive to buy at the supermarket than the $8 per-serving cost for the largest (cheapest) Blue Apron plan. 

As good as that sounds, Blue Apron's largest plan is a whopping five meal kits per week with four servings each, and likely practical for most people. If you choose a more reasonably sized plan -- let's say three meal recipes with four servings each -- the price per serving jumps to $9.50. That's still cheaper than the cost of buying the groceries, but only by a little. 

Add the $11 weekly shipping cost and the Blue Apron creeps over the cost of buying the groceries, but only slightly. When you consider the convenience a meal kit provides, it's hard to argue that Blue Apron isn't a good value in 2024.

HelloFresh was the worst value of the three

HelloFresh might be the most popular meal kit service, but it was also the worst value of the three. I chose a barramundi recipe and chuck steak meal kit to compare with local grocery prices. 

By my calculations, HelloFresh meal kits would cost just $6.55 per serving to buy the groceries and make the meals yourself. That's about $3.50 cheaper than HelloFresh's cheapest meal plan of $10 per serving, and that's all before factoring in your weekly delivery cost of $11. If you were to spread that shipping fee out across two or three meal kits, the actual per-serving cost is more like $11 to $12. 

HelloFresh may have one of the largest weekly menu of meal kits and user-friendly ordering interface, but as it turns out, the popular service doesn't offer as good of a value as some other meal kit companies in 2024. 

EveryPlate is a good deal, about the same as buying groceries

EveryPlate's two meal kits cost $4.98 and $5.82 when purchased a la carte at the grocery store, which averages out to $5.40. That's just 60 cents less than the per-serving price of EveryPlate's meal kits, which cost $6 per serving no matter which plan you choose.

Add the $10 shipping cost per box and the meal kit cost creeps up a bit, but it's still around the same price as buying all the groceries yourself.

EveryPlate's meal kit menus don't feature much in the way of steak or seafood so you can expect more budget-friendly proteins such as chicken, ground beef and pork chops. EveryPlate meals are also easy to make and satisfying, making it our top pick best cheap meal kit service in 2024.

To get the most out of your meal delivery, see my guide to hacking a meal delivery subscription in 2024.