The Best Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services 2023
![The Best Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services 2023](jpg/the-best-plant-based-meal-delivery-services-20236e1c.jpg)
If you follow a plant-based diet, you know how much time can go into meal prep.
Luckily, plant-based meal delivery services are on the rise. Around the globe, the plant-based meal kit market is expected to reach an impressive value of more than $2.528 million by 2032.
With more and more options to choose from, it’s essential to know which plant-based meal delivery services are the best for your priorities and goals.
In this article, we examine seven of the best plant-based meal delivery services to help you choose the one that works best for you and your dietary needs.
At the end of the day, a good meal delivery service should do two things.
First, it should deliver incredibly delicious food!
Second, it should support your “why” for eating plant-based, whether it is health-related, environmental, or some other concern.
These services should be about more than mere convenience, they’re about helping you live your best life!
So, join us as we dive into this comparison of different plant-based meal delivery services!
The 7 Best Plant-Based Meal Delivery Services 2023
When comparing one meal delivery service to another, it’s crucial to know what distinctions matter the most. We are measuring seven different services against each other based on five factors:
- The quality and sourcing of ingredients
- The diversity and customization of menu options
- The range of meal plans and pricing
- The delivery options and availability
- The customer service and support
With this in mind, let’s begin our comparison of the 7 best plant-based meal delivery services in 2023.
1. Whole Harvest
Whole Harvest is a whole food plant-based meal delivery company focused on helping clients eat delicious, healthy foods that are also good for the environment.
Their core mission is to help people live happier, healthier lives through easier access to whole food, plant-based meals.
All the meals from Whole Harvest are created by their in-house, executive Chef Will Harris to support individuals who want to reverse heart disease with delicious meals.
Here is an overview of what Whole Harvest has to offer:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: All meals provided by Whole Harvest are made from scratch using only whole foods and no processed ingredients. In fact, their core promise is 100% whole food plant-based meals. This is a promise many meal delivery services are unable to make, as they often take at least small short cuts with processed ingredients. The 100% commitment truly makes Whole Harvest stand out in the industry. Additionally, their ingredients are organic and sourced from local farmers whenever possible.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Each week at Whole Harvest, a brand new menu is created filled with delicious, satisfying, and healthy meals. The foods and recipes included can range from salads and stews to plant-based burgers and noodles. They have become known in the industry for offering a combination of innovative, cutting-edge recipies, international flavors, and reimagined comfort foods. Whole Harvest is also one of very few delivery services using oil-free cooking techniques, making them an ideal service for people recovering from a cardiac event or disease.
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Meal Plan Pricing: At the time of writing, Whole Harvest offers three variations of meal plans — 3-day ($149 per week), 4-day ($179 per week), and 7-day ($329 per week) plans. The 3-day plan provides 6 total meals and 3 snacks, the 4-day plan provides 8 total meals and 4 snacks, and the 7-day plan provides 14 total meals and 7 snacks. The meals are designed to function as either dinners or lunches, leaving you flexibility in how you use them throughout the week. Though their pricing sits near the higher end of the market, their restaurant-quality meals justify it. Also, their dogged commitment to 100% whole foods and the the time they save by delivering ready-to-eat meals add to the value of the service.
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Delivery Options & Availability: Whole Harvest meal packages are shipped fresh overnight (never frozen) and packaged in eco-friendly materials. Everything is chef-prepared and ready-to-eat out of the box! Currently, Whole Harvest ships to most U.S. states, excluding Hawaii and Alaska.
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Customer Service & Support: Whole Harvest is praised in customer testimonials for its convenience and tastiness. In terms of customer support, the Whole Harvest team is fast to respond and can be reached via the Live Chat feature on the website, by filling out the contact form online, or by calling (816) 272-1128.
Three new developments since we originally published this blog post with Whole Harvest:
- Whole Harvest is leading the meal delivery industry with vacuum-sealing tech that gives customers maximum freedom and flexibility in how they enjoy their entrees.
The biggest challenge with ready-to-eat meal delivery service is receiving a box full of food that needs to be eaten fast.
Most meal delivery services send meals in standard plastic or paper trays with lids. This gets the food to its destination safely, but from the moment the food is prepared, a clock starts ticking on the freshness and flavor of the entree.
This is especially challenging with whole food plant-based meal prep for fresh meal delivery. In WFPB cooking, the preservatives and other “cheats” chefs can use to extend freshness aren’t allowed!
Whole Harvest wanted to find a better way to serve customers and help them make the most of their investment in Whole Harvest’s meal delivery service.
- Celebrate flavor - Whole Harvest’s exclusive line of whole food plant-based sauces, dressings, and seasonings give you a whole new world of flavors to explore with your ready-to-eat meals and DIY creations. Everything is gluten free, and most products are SOS-Free compliant.
- Oil-free cooking – People often wonder how much they'll miss by giving up oil. Whole Harvest likes to think about what you gain. Cooking without oil offers incredible health benefits like: weight loss, healthier hearts, and unleashed natural flavors. It's interesting to see how Whole Harvest makes their meals without artery-damaging oils or other harmful stuff.
2. Purple Carrot
Purple Carrot is a delivery service offering both prepared meals and kits used to make your meals at home. This service aims to help people eat healthier, plant-based meals while also reducing prep time.
Let’s take a look at what the Purple Carrot plant-based meal delivery provides:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: The majority of Purple Carrot’s ingredients are organic and non-GMO. The groceries used in Purple Carrot’s meal kits and prepared meals are hand-picked for quality and to create balanced meals. While offering plant-based meals, they don’t maintain a 100% commitment to whole foods, leaning sometimes on processed ingredients.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Each week, Purple Carrot creates a variety of different meals to choose from for their prepared meal plans and meal kits. Examples of the meals served by Purple Carrot include mac n’ cheese and Thai peanut noodles. Purple Carrot does use oils in their cooking and recipes.
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Meal Plan Pricing: Purple Carrot meal plans are priced for both meal kits and prepared meals. At the time of writing, for meal kits, you can choose between 3 or 4 meals per week, while for prepared meals, you can choose between 6 to 10 meals per week. Pricing for meal kits runs between $79.50 to $132 per week and prepared meals run between $78 to $130 per week.
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Delivery Options & Availability: Purple Carrot offers nationwide shipping. Their prepared meals are delivered fresh and ready-to-eat.
- Customer Service & Support: In terms of customer support, Purple Carrot allows you to select the meals that best fit your preferences. The Purple Carrot team can best be contacted via email.
3. Thistle
Thistle is a plant-based meal delivery service that strives to provide greater convenience and accessibility when it comes to eating nutritious meals.
Here’s a breakdown of what Thistle offers to customers:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: Thistle uses gluten-free and dairy-free ingredients, and they buy organic ingredients whenever possible. Ingredients are sourced from local farmers when possible, and byproducts of Thistle’s meals and juices are given to local farmers for composting.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: As a nationwide service, Thistle offers two different weekly menus, the West Coast menu and the East Coast menu. You can also add a variety of pressed juices and side items to your meal plan, offering optimal customization. Thistle does use oil in recipes, and unlike many entries here, they are not fully devoted to plant-based meals. They also offer options with meat for most recipes.
- Meal Plan Pricing: Plans are completely customizable, meaning that pricing can vary depending on what type of meal plan you build. Your meal plan is based on which items you select and whether you include any special add-ons, like juices or side dishes.
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Delivery Options & Availability: As of March 2023, Thistle ships to the west coast of the U.S. and is working on expanding to the east coast. Thistle launched its east coast menu and shipping in the cities of Manhattan and Philadelphia in December 2022. Their meals are delivered fresh and ready-to-eat.
- Customer Service & Support: The customer experience with Thistle is exceptional for customers who want the freedom to design their own meal plans. In terms of customer support, the main way to get in touch with the Thistle team is through the Thistle Zendesk form.
4. Sakara
Sakara plant-based meal delivery is centered around building better nutritional habits and eating whole ingredients prepared with culinary expertise.
Here’s what you can get through Sakara meal delivery:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: Sakara buys from organic farms whenever possible, prioritizing suppliers with sustainable business and agricultural practices. The chefs at Sakara use nutrition science to craft meals that are as healthy as they are tasty.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Like most meal delivery services, Sakara offers a new menu each week comprised of a variety of recipes. Sakara does not offer very much customization but each meal is made to be well-balanced and colorful. They do use oils in their recipes.
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Meal Plan Pricing: Meal plans are available as 2, 3, or 5-day programs and can be purchased either as an ongoing subscription or a one-time purchase. Prices vary depending on which program you select, which meals you want to receive, and what add-ons you include.
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Delivery Options & Availability: Sakara currently delivers to all 50 states. To check whether Sakara ships to your exact city, enter your zip code online. Their meals are shipped fresh and ready-to-eat.
- Customer Service & Support: The Sakara customer support team strives to provide quick responses to any inquiries. Visit the Sakara contact page to find the email addresses and phone numbers of the Sakara team, or to fill out the online contact form.
5. Mosaic Foods
Mosaic Foods plant-based meal delivery service offers frozen-meals that are made to satisfy your hunger and provide you with all the comfort of a home-cooked meal.
Here is what Mosaic Foods delivery has to offer:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: The ingredients used at Mosaic Foods are whole foods that are unprocessed and veggie-centric. Mosaic Foods is committed to reducing the environmental impact and uses entirely sustainable packaging and business practices.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Compared to other meal delivery services, Mosaic Foods offers more familiar items made in a more nutritious manner. This includes items like soups, oat bowls, and pizzas. They do use oils in their recipes.
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Meal Plan Pricing: Mosaic Foods’s pricing model can depend on how often you want to receive meals and what items you choose to add to your box. This makes it easier to achieve a flexible price that is always within your budget.
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Delivery Options & Availability: Mosaic Foods currently ships to most major metropolitan areas in the eastern and western U.S. You can also email the Mosaic Foods team at support@mosaicfoods to let them know what areas you want to see them expand shipping to. Their meals are ready to heat and eat, but unlike many options here, they are shipped frozen.
- Customer Service & Support: Mosaic Foods can be contacted via email or by phone. You can also fill out the online contact form to get in touch with the Mosaic Foods team.
6. Sprinly
Sprinly is not just a plant-based meal delivery service. It’s also a fully-vegan meal delivery service, offering meals crafted with zero animal by-products.
Let’s examine all that Sprinly provides through its meal delivery service:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: All ingredients are 100% vegan and never frozen. The ingredients are mostly organic with no refined sugar or artificial preservatives. Plus, all the ingredients used at Sprinly are 100% gluten-free.|
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Sprinly releases new meals to choose from on a weekly basis. Though the meals cannot be customized, you can choose which meals you want to be included in your box each week. They do use oils in their recipes.
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Meal Plan Pricing: Sprinly meal plans are available in three options — 6 meals per week ($109), 12 meals per week ($199), or 18 meals per week ($289).
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Delivery Options & Availability: Sprinly offers shipping to anywhere in the contiguous U.S., with shipments arriving on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Their meals are shipped fresh and never frozen.
- Customer Service & Support: Compared to other delivery services, Sprinly does not offer as many options for contacting their support team. The main method for getting in touch with Sprinly is by emailing them at support@sprinly.com.
7. Mamasezz
Update: Mamasezz has stopped their fresh meal-delivery service as of October 2023. Check this post for update.
For our final plant-based meal delivery service, we have Mamasezz. Mamasezz is another fully-vegan service that is also gluten-free, peanut-free, and oil-free.
Here is what you can expect from Mamasezz meal delivery:
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Ingredient Quality & Sourcing: Mamasezz strives to use organic ingredients whenever possible, sourced from local farmers and certified organic suppliers. Substitutions for organic ingredients only occur when organic is not available. They are committed to whole food plant-based recipes.
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Menu Diversity & Customization: Mamasezz’s meal plans are highly customizable and can even be ordered a la carte for those who live by themselves or are only ordering for one person. The actual meals are not customizable, though two substitutions can be made per order.
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Meal Plan Pricing: As the meal plans can be altered according to how much food you need, the prices can vary. All orders must be a minimum of $129.
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Delivery Options & Availability: Mamasezz offers free shipping in the continental U.S. Their meals are shipped fresh and not frozen.
- Customer Service & Support: Mamasezz offers fairly standard customer support and can be best contacted via email or by phone.
Final Thoughts: Which Plant-Based Meal Delivery Service is the Best?
Now that we’ve covered the basics of the top plant-based meal delivery services, it’s time to answer the core question — which service is the best?
Overall, Whole Harvest and Mamasezz take the cake for the best plant-based meal services. Both share a similar commitment to 100% whole food plant-based meals and healthy, oil-free cooking. Both deliver only fresh food (never frozen).
Whole Harvest stands out in particular for its mission to bring joy back to the dinner table. While Whole Harvest certainly offers great convenience and accessibility to healthy foods, it is the service’s commitment to creating inspiring and delightfully tasty meals that win it this top spot.
As for Mamasezz, this meal service is excellent for anyone with dietary restrictions. Being 100% vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free, and oil-free makes this service ideal for anyone who struggles to find meal delivery services that meet their exact dietary restrictions.
Ultimately, however, choosing the best meal delivery service for you comes down to your personal tastes. Take the time to compare each of the services above and decide which weekly menus leave you inspired and ready to eat while staying aligned with your dietary restrictions and preferences.