HelloFresh vs Goodfood: Which meal kit service offers the best value?

Meal subscription kits like HelloFresh and Goodfood can be a great way to spice up your cooking. Recipes are relatively straightforward, making it less intimidating to experiment with new recipes. Plus, you do not need to worry about food waste since you are only sent enough of each ingredient to make your chosen dish—and the ingredients are delivered straight to your doorstep, maximizing convenience. Depending on your credit card provider, you may even be able to earn higher grocery cashback rates. At the end of the day, HelloFresh and Goodfood boxes are full of perks—it is hardly a surprise that they have become popular.?

That being said, products that make life easier can be expensive. It is always a good idea to compare brands before ordering to ensure that you get the best deal possible. Still, it can be hard to tell which subscription is a better deal just by looking at each company’s website. To help settle the debate between HelloFresh versus Goodfood, I recently ordered trial boxes from both companies. Below, I will be comparing what I received (and some of the choices that I came across) to figure out which subscription kit is the best deal.?

Both HelloFresh and Goodfood offer different sized boxes depending on how many recipes and servings you would like to receive. When ordering my boxes, I opted for 3 different recipes and 2 servings per meal. I also stuck with non-premium recipes (or, recipes that did not require a surcharge) to keep the comparison as simple as possible. My HelloFresh order cost $32.99; my Goodfood order cost $29.56. Both prices include introductory promotions.

Before we get into the comparison, I just want to be very clear that any opinions expressed below are 100% my own. Similarly, the orders were not sponsored or gifted by HelloFresh or Goodfood. I did receive a partial refund from Goodfood’s customer service, but this was due to a moldy ingredient (and they did not know that I would be writing about their service). Also, please note that if you make a purchase through one of Hardbacon’s links, we may earn a small affiliate bonus.

HelloFresh vs Goodfood: Dollar Value of Ingredients

For a meal kit to offer a good value, it needs to send out valuable ingredients for a reasonable price. To that end, I made a list of which ingredients I received with each recipe, then noted how much you would have to spend to buy the same ingredient at a Canadian supermarket.?

Since you cannot buy most ingredients in precise quantities, I included both the price for a whole supermarket item (e.g. a full bag of rice) and the equivalent cost for the portion of the ingredient that would be used in the recipe (e.g. ? cup of pasta). The ‘price for portion needed for recipe’ columns reflect the value of the amount of an ingredient needed in a recipe. The ‘price for entire grocery package’ columns reflect how much it would cost to purchase a single unit or item in the grocery store, regardless of how much will be leftover once the meal has been prepared.

HelloFresh Ingredient Cost Comparison

As mentioned above, my trial HelloFresh box cost $32.99 for 3 recipes and 6 servings. Without a promotion, it would have cost $82.99.?

If I wanted to purchase enough of each ingredient to replace what I received in my HelloFresh order, I would have to spend approximately $105.62 at the supermarket. This works out to 127% of the cost of the full price box and 320% of the cost of the introductory box. However, keep in mind that you would not be able to purchase the exact quantity of each ingredient that you need at the supermarket. The $105.62 bill assumes that you are buying every single ingredient and does not account for making additional meals later.?

If you used every single leftover ingredient in another dish, the groceries that you would have received from HelloFresh would only account for $33.26 worth of your grocery bill.? This works out to 100.8% of the trial box’s cost and 40.8% of the valuation of the regularly priced box.

Ultimately, you end up getting the best value out of a meal subscription kit if you opt for recipes with ingredients that you do not usually purchase. HelloFresh and Goodfood both list their recipes’ ingredients on their websites, but I have also created breakdowns of the equivalent grocery store cost for everything that I received in my boxes. You can find the HelloFresh breakdowns below.

This article is the shortened version of an article originally published on Hardbacon.ca by Athanasia Demetra N. under the title "HelloFresh vs Goodfood: Which meal kit service offers the best value?".