Jill Duffy
I’ve been contributing to PCMag since 2011, at times as an analyst and currently as deputy managing editor for the software team. My column, Get Organized, has been running on PCMag since 2012. It gives advice on how to manage all the devices, apps, digital photos, email, and other technology that can make you feel like you’re going to have a panic attack.
My latest book is The Everything Guide to Remote Work, which goes into great detail about a subject that I’ve been covering as a writer and participating in personally since well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
I specialize in apps for productivity and collaboration, including project management software. I also test and analyze online learning services, particularly for learning languages.
Prior to working for PCMag, I was the managing editor of Game Developer magazine. I’ve also worked at the Association for Computing Machinery, The Examiner newspaper in San Francisco, and several other publications.
Follow me on Mastodon at mastodon.social/@jilleduffy. I’m currently on hiatus from Twitter @jilleduffy, but maybe I’ll be back. Who knows?
My Areas of Expertise
Remote work, work life
Personal productivity and organization
Project management software
Language-learning apps and software
Fitness and consumer health apps
Wearable consumer technology (not medically necessary) for health and fitness
The Technology I Use
I put off buying new hardware until I’ve squeezed every last bit of usage out of the devices I already own. I use both macOS and Windows, iPhone and Android.
My life is organized by Todoist, my notes live in Joplin, and I prioritize my work tasks with Asana. Where would I be without Dashlane as my password manager? Probably locked out of all my many online accounts—I’m just shy of 1,000 of them.
When I give out my contact information, it’s an excruciatingly long list of phone numbers, messaging apps, and email addresses because it’s important to stay flexible but also mysterious.
The Best Prepared Meal Delivery Services for 2022
Our top tested and tasty picks will have you heating and eating in no time.
In 2013, I started my Ziff Davis career as an intern on PCMag’s Software team. Now, I’m an Analyst on the Apps and Gaming team, and I really just want to use my fancy Northwestern University journalism degree to write about video games. I host The Pop-Off, PCMag‘s video game show. I was previously the Senior Editor for Geek.com. I’ve also written for The A.V. Club, Kotaku, and Paste Magazine. I’m currently working on a book about the history of video games, and I’m the reason everything you think you know about Street Sharks is a lie.
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OUR TOP TESTED PRODUCTS
Fresh N Lean Meal Delivery Service
Balanced Bites Meal Delivery Service
Factor Meal Delivery Service
Mosaic Meal Delivery Service
Veestro Meal Delivery Service
Daily Harvest Meal Delivery Service
NutriFit Meal Delivery Service
Splendid Spoon Meal Delivery Service
Sprinly Meal Delivery Service
Trifecta Meal Delivery Service
Everyone needs to eat, but unless you’re fortunate enough to have a personal chef, making food takes time and energy. Think about how much effort goes into shopping for, cooking, and eating food. And with in-person family gatherings much safer to coordinate this holiday season, there are lots of mouths to feed. Subscribing to a meal-kit delivery service may help you cut down on lengthy grocery trips, but if you want even less work, feast your eyes on the top prepared meal delivery services we’ve tested.
Fresh N Lean Meal Delivery Service
Best Variety
Why We Picked It
Fresh N Lean is a prepared meal-kit delivery service, which means that the food arrives fully cooked, ready for you to heat and eat. Its well-rounded menu appeals to all diet types. Other prepared meal services target particular groups with specific dietary needs, but Fresh N Lean is an excellent option for everyone thanks to its varied, high-quality menu.
Who It’s For
Fresh N Lean is for everyone curious about prepared meals, regardless of diet. It’s one of the best gateways to this particular meal-kit category. What you lose in freshness, you gain in sheer convenience. Fresh N Lean also lets you create custom subscriptions with a la carte items, which is a nice touch.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh n Lean | $7.93/per serving | $7.93/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Balanced Bites Meal Delivery Service
Best for Keto and Paleo Diets
Why We Picked It
Balanced Bites carefully crafts high-protein meals that are so good you would never believe they come fully prepared. Boxes are more expensive than many competing services, but you have many options for customizing your food deliveries.
Who It’s For
Balanced Bites is for people who want weekly keto and paleo boxes (each meal contains meat, so it’s not for vegetarians). If you’re on board with the company’s focus, you’ll find a lot to like with this low-carb meal-kit delivery service.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced Bites | $16.99/per serving | $16.99/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Factor Meal Delivery Service
Best for Hello Fresh Fans
Why We Picked It
Factor is a prepared meal-kit delivery service owned by HelloFresh, an Editors’ Choice pick for traditional meal kits. Factor is similarly excellent, selling delicious rotating dishes that are incredibly convenient to prepare.
Who It’s For
If you want more variety in your prepared meals, Factor is a great overall option. You must subscribe to the service (it lacks an a la carte option), but the menu is varied enough to accommodate all diets. Plus, you can purchase add-ons for your weekly meals to round out your deliveries.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Factor | Visit Site | Visit Site | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Mosaic Meal Delivery Service
Best for Vegan and Vegetarian Diets
Why We Picked It
Mosaic offers surprising variety despite focusing on vegetarian diets. Its prepared meals include soups and bowls for individuals, as well as pies designed to feed an entire family.
Who It’s For
Mosaic is for people who want choice in their healthy, prepared vegetarian meals. This flexibility also extends to the service; it lets you choose between cheaper, smaller items and larger, more expensive ones as you craft your subscription.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mosaic Foods | Visit Site | Visit Site | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Veestro Meal Delivery Service
Most Flexible Purchase Options
Why We Picked It
Prepared meals are especially useful for vegan and vegetarian diets, as they remove the hassle that makes it so hard to form healthier eating habits. Veestro offers many vegan meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that taste great and don’t require much prep time.
Who It’s For
Veestro is for people who want to really commit to eating vegan. You must buy many meals upfront, but they last a while in the freezer. A la carte and subscription plans give you plenty of flexibility when choosing meals.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veestro | $11.70/per serving | $11.70/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Daily Harvest Meal Delivery Service
Best for Unusual Ingredients
Why We Picked It
Daily Harvest helps you eat more vegetables throughout the day thanks to its breakfast and lunch options, along with soups and smoothies. Even the packaging is good for the planet. Note, though, that the company has recently recalled (Opens in a new window) some menu items that caused sickness.
Who It’s For
Even if you aren’t vegan, adopting a more plant-based diet improves your health. And who doesn’t want faster cook times? Daily Harvest is an especially good choice if you want a variety of vegetables in your prepared meals.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Harvest | $7.99/per serving | $7.99/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
NutriFit Meal Delivery Service
Best for Comprehensive Meal Planning
Why We Picked It
NutriFit doesn’t just prepare meals for convenience. It prepares meals to help you lose weight, recover from a pregnancy, get ready for a sport, or achieve some other body-related goal. The system tailors its menus to the health data that you put input into the site.
Who It’s For
NutriFit is explicitly designed for people looking to accomplish health goals. The company’s offerings are meant to replace your non-NutriFit meals, which is why it’s so expensive. In short, it’s for customers willing to fully buy into the system.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NutriFit | Visit Site | Visit Site | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Splendid Spoon Meal Delivery Service
Best for Soups and Smoothies
Why We Picked It
We already enjoyed Splendid Spoon’s healthy breakfast and lunch menu items, especially the tasty soups. The recently added high-protein meals make it an even more appealing prepared meal-kit option.
Who It’s For
Splendid Spoon reminds you that healthy, prepared meals don’t have to sacrifice flavor. Some meals are better than others, but overall we enjoy the company’s fun and interesting meal selection.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Splendid Spoon | $13/per serving | $13/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Sprinly Meal Delivery Service
Best for Fresh Flavors
Why We Picked It
Some prepared meal kits struggle with the logistics of providing fresh meals. The timing is too tricky. That’s not the case with Sprinly. Its plant-based meals arrive fresh, and you can absolutely taste the difference.
Who It’s For
Anyone looking to add more veggies to their diet. Sprinly is an excellent example of a plant-based, prepared meal delivery service. The food is not only flavorful, but quite filling. You don’t always have many options to choose from, but the available options won’t disappoint you.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprinly | $18/Per Meal | $18/Per Meal | See It (Opens in a new window) |
Trifecta Meal Delivery Service
Best for Fitness-Focused Meal Prep
Why We Picked It
Getting in shape requires a proper diet and regular exercise. Trifecta helps you achieve both. Its meal plans ensure you put the right food in your body, while its fitness app encourages you to move your body.
Who It’s For
Trifecta is for people who want to incorporate meal planning into their overall fitness routine. The food could use more flavor, but you have many customization options. And even without the meals, the free app is an excellent fitness tool.
| Sold By | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRIFECTA | $12.33/per serving | $12.33/per serving | See It (Opens in a new window) |
What Is a Prepared Meal Delivery Service?
A traditional meal-kit delivery service sends you a box full of ingredients. When you sign up for Editors’ Choice picks, such as Blue Apron, HelloFresh, Hungryroot, Green Chef, or MisenBox, you’ll get everything from raw meat to whole produce to spice packets. Using the included instructions, it’s up to you to then assemble and cook those separate ingredients into a complete meal.
Prepared meal delivery services, however, send you complete meals. You must reheat them, whether it’s in a microwave, in an oven, or on a stovetop. Still, the bulk of the work is already done before the box arrives at our doorstep. You can spend less time planning and more time eating, the true appeal of food in the mail.
Fortunately, this doesn’t limit the types of food you’ll find with these services. If anything, chefs are free to get more creative with their meals since they aren’t asking you to cook. Our top picks offer everything from BBQ beef with mashed parsnips, tomato flatbreads, breakfast frittatas, healthy smoothies, and complex soups. Sometimes, you don’t need to heat the food; you can eat the cool salad or frozen dessert straight from the box.
These meals come already prepared, so they tend to last longer in the fridge or freezer compared to raw ingredients. These services also pack far more meals into a single package. A traditional meal-kit box may have three meals at max, while a prepared meal box has ten.
Are There Any Vegan Prepared Meal Delivery Services?
You can find prepared meal delivery services to suit all kinds of tastes and diets. Balanced Bites and Trifecta offer meaty, protein-heavy cuisine perfect for keto. NutriFit tailors its meals to help reach specific health goals. Mosaic, Sprinly and Veestro make it easier than ever to go vegan. Factor’s menu has a little something for everyone, as does our Editors’ Choice pick Fresh N Lean.
Is It Cheaper to Get Meal Kits Than Prepared Meals?
There are a few reasons why prepared meal services may not be best for you. These services go through the extra work of cooking the food beforehand, so each prepared meal tends to cost more compared to a traditional meal-kit box. For example, HelloFresh costs about $9 per meal, whereas Balanced Bites costs $17 per meal. You’re paying for that chef’s labor.
Traditional meal-kit delivery services also provide culinary education that you won’t receive with prepared meals. Even if you’re just following instructions, when you cook your own food, you’ll learn how to cook. With prepared meals, you have far less room to customize.
Flavor can also suffer compared to truly home-cooked meals. The least appetizing meals we ate through meal services, such as bistroMD, Daily Harvest, Freshly, and Splendid Spoon, reminded us that these are pretty much rebranded frozen TV dinners. The best services make sure to prepare meals fresh just days before they arrive on your doorstep.