I’m a Vancouver-based mom and writer who loves to cook. Hope you enjoy!There’s no denying that meal kits are all the rage right now; they reduce time spent grocery shopping, make meal planning easy, let you try beginner-friendly recipes and they’re sustainable (some more than others).
The most difficult thing about meal kits is choosing the right one for your household! I’ve tried both and can attest to the benefits (and weaknesses) of both meal kit companies.
HelloFresh vs Goodfood: the true gauntlet for Canadian meal kits. They’re the nation’s leaders when it comes to meal kit services, so after extensive research and delicious taste tests, we’ve assessed where both companies stand. Let’s dive in!
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| Meal Kit Service | HelloFresh | Goodfood |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Variety | Affordability Local farmers |
| Delivery areas | USA & Canada | Certain provinces in Canada |
| Diets | Low calorie Vegetarian | Low carb Vegetarian Dairy free Gluten free |
| Household size | 2, 3, or 4 | 2 (Couple) 4 (Family) |
| Price per plate | $9.69 to $11.49 | $9.46 to $12.45 |
| Shipping costs | $9.99 | Free |
| Introductory deal | Get $150 off & Free shipping | 6 free meals |
| Visit Site | Visit Site |
Goodfood
$9.46Per Serving
| Delivers to: | Canada |
|---|---|
| Dietary Plans Available: | Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Low-carb, Vegan, Vegetarian |
| Dinners for: | Two (Couple), Four (Family) |
| Price per Plate | $9.99-$15.49 |
| Free Shipping? | Yes |
| Intro Deal: | Yes |
| Sustainability | Recycling |
| HQ Location | Montreal |
HelloFresh
$11.49Per Serving
| Delivers to: | Australia, Canada, Europe, United States |
|---|---|
| Dietary Plans Available: | Low-calorie, Vegetarian |
| Dinners for: | Two (Couple), Four (Family) |
| Price per Plate | $10 to $15 |
| Free Shipping? | No |
| Intro Deal: | Yes |
| Sustainability | Recycling |
| HQ Location | Germany |
Availability
HelloFresh ships across Canada and the United States (and nine other countries). In Canada, HelloFresh and GoodFood share the same delivery area; Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Maritimes. In GoodFood’s case, if you’re far from urban areas, you should check if you’re within their delivery range by contacting their support team via email.
Affordability & Plans
GoodFood has 5 plans, the Easy Prep Basket, Classic Basket, Vegetarian Basket, Clean15 Basket, and Family Basket. The Easy Prep basket reduces your cooking time with pre-chopped veggies—ideal for busy people! The Clean15 Basket contains high protein, low carb 15-minute meals, seemingly targeted toward active people or athletes. The Family Basket only comes with 4 servings for bigger households.
You can customize the plan to suit your household’s needs by selecting 2-4 recipes and servings for 2 or 4 people.
HelloFresh has 6 meal plan options; Meat & Veggie, Veggie (vegetarian), Pescatarian, Quick & Easy, Smart Meals, and Family. The Smart Meals kit from HelloFresh contains either less than 650 calories in total or 50g of carbs per serving. Their Family kit offers some 20-minute recipes to bring down the cook time for parents. Regardless of which plan you choose, you then pick either 3 or 4 recipes, and servings for 2 or 4 people.
Is HelloFresh cheaper than Goodfood?
Hate to break it to the HelloFresh fans, but on average, Goodfood is the slightly cheaper option.
The average price for HelloFresh is $9.69, and is calculated depending on the number of recipes and servings – so there’s no savings on the vegetarian plan, which is where it differs from Goodfood. Goodfood calculates their rate based on plan, servings, and recipes discounting the serving price for larger orders. Since there is more customization in servings and recipes with Goodfood, their serving prices tend to be lower compared to equivalent plans from HelloFresh.
Your delivery from Goodfood is always free, whereas HelloFresh has a $9.99 shipping fee.
Winner: Goodfood
Menu options
Variety is the spice of life—and HelloFresh wins by a landslide.
Goodfood offers 18 new recipes each week, organized by plan for easy selection. You can review recipes up to 4 weeks in advance. They offer more meat variety than HelloFresh, especially when it comes to seafood!
HelloFresh has more choices at 32 recipes every week to choose from with tons of international influence. No matter what type of food you regularly cook, you’ll be able to try entirely unique recipes. You can review the menu up to 6 weeks in advance, and review past recipes in their Cookbook. You can even search for specific recipes depending on country of origin or dietary requirements. Their recipes have more variety in terms of flavor profile and overall ingredients.
Winner: HelloFresh
Health & Dietary restrictions
Both HelloFresh and Goodfood have their own health-conscious meal plans; the Smart Meal plan and Clean15 Basket, respectively. The Smart Meal plan has a mix of low calorie and low carb meals, whereas the Clean15 basket focuses on low carb, high protein meals.
Between HelloFresh and Goodfood (for the weeks I could see), HelloFresh had more than twice as many vegetarian options available—Goodfood only had 3 vegetarian recipes for the week I checked.
While HelloFresh doesn’t have meal plans customized for different dietary needs and preferences, their website states that there are plenty of meals that can be customized to your diet by contacting their customer service or simply eliminating the ingredients you can’t consume. This isn’t a great solution considering you’re still paying for all the ingredients.
Goodfood is essentially the same, however, they have plenty of keto meals in their archives — hopefully, they bring them back soon!
When you select meals from either meal kit service, you’ll find vegetarian, keto, and gluten-free options, but they aren’t always labelled as such.
Winner: HelloFresh (barely)
Beginner Friendliness
Most Goodfood recipes range from 15-30 minutes cooking time, while HelloFresh can range from 20-40 minutes.
While Goodfood may have the shorter posted prep times, many reviews say it takes far longer to make than advertised, so it’s unclear which is really more time-consuming. My suggestion is to read through the recipes to get a better sense of how long they’ll take to prepare.
Both meal kit companies claim their recipes are easy, and with the use of recipe cards that is relatively true! The images on the card give you a better expectation of what each step will look like leading to the end result. For both services, there are definitely some meals that are not beginner-friendly, like the Corn & Pancetta Risotto from Goodfood or the Hearty Steak and Potato Hash from Hello Fresh.
I like HelloFresh more for beginners because when you select recipes on their website you can clearly see the difficulty level and prep time estimate, which tend to be more accurate than that of Goodfood. This doesn’t mean that Goodfood meals are by any means difficult or you should avoid them if you’re a novice! I wouldn’t let this category be the deciding factor.
Winner: HelloFresh
Delivery
HelloFresh delivers Sunday through Thursday from 8am to 8pm. Your delivery day options depend on your postal code, so check your account settings to see which days are available to you. You can have your meal kit delivered to your workplace or leave instructions if you can’t be there to accept a home delivery. You aren’t required to be there when it’s dropped off—they’ll leave it at your doorstep or as otherwise directed.
Goodfood delivers every day of the week, and even offers same-day delivery for its Goodfood WOW members, or (in certain areas) if you order before 11:30am. Their delivery hours are until 5pm for offices and 8pm for private residences. However, their Afterhours program allows for deliveries between 6pm-10pm (area-dependent).
Winner: Goodfood
Packaging
Both companies use insulated cardboard boxes and disposable ice packs to ensure freshness. They also advise that all perishables be placed in the fridge upon receiving your meal kit delivery.
Goodfood states on its website that meal kits should stay fresh for 24-48 hours in their box, including transit time. HelloFresh mandates that your box will remain fresh up to 48 hours after your expected delivery date. HelloFresh also tracks weather patterns to ensure that adequate packaging is provided to keep your food cool and fresh.
I would still select Goodfood as the winner for this category since they guarantee 24 hours freshness, whereas HelloFresh’s policy allows for more variability.
Winner: Goodfood
Sustainability
HelloFresh and Goodfood both contribute positively to a reduction in food waste, a significant problem for grocery stores and consumers. There is nothing more frustrating than throwing out wasted food! Both companies also offer sustainable packaging options.
HelloFresh claims that their meal kits reduce food waste by 36%, although it’s unclear how they came up with that number. They do have a detailed annual sustainability report you can review on their website which outlines their carbon emissions among other metrics for sustainability.
The HelloFresh box is insulated and comes with 100% water ice packs, making it safe for the drain. HelloFresh meals come in their own compostable or recyclable paper bags to keep ingredients organized. Most of the packaging is recyclable.
HelloFresh is also the first meal kit company to be 100% carbon neutral. They offset all carbon emissions made by their internal offices and shipping by working with their partner Planetly. They’ve invested in carbon offsetting products around the world and locally here in British Columbia!
While Goodfood may not promote the same scope of initiatives for sustainability, its packaging shares sustainability features. The cardboard box, insulation liner, bags, and bottles are made of recycled materials and may be entirely recyclable depending on your location.
Their ice packs are made of a saline solution that gets colder than ice to preserve all perishables. The plastic bags containing this solution are recyclable, however, the liquid itself should be discarded in the garbage.
Goodfood offers a Box Pick-up Program and a Reusable Box Program which you can use if available in your region. Both programs allow you to place your Goodfood box outside for collection by their delivery team. In order to opt in for either program, you need to contact their support team via email to ensure it’s available in your region. Both programs are currently suspended due to COVID-19.
Winner: HelloFresh
Apps
The two meal kit companies have apps you can use to place orders, select meals, skip a week, and get recipes.
With the Goodfood app, you’ll receive notifications when your delivery is shipped (it’s unclear if HelloFresh’s app has the same feature).
In terms of design, both apps are user-friendly and are consistent with their websites. I prefer the Goodfood app because you can track orders in the app and easily add groceries to your meal kit order.
Winner: Goodfood
Ease of Cancellation
Canceling a HelloFresh subscription takes a few clicks (albeit several “Are you sure?” pop-ups). HelloFresh will ask you why you’re canceling the subscription for their own feedback purposes then you’re good to go. Goodfood, by comparison, requires emailing their customer service and you may get charged depending on how close you cancel to your delivery date.
Winner: HelloFresh
Which Meal Kit is Better: HelloFresh or Goodfood?
When it comes down to it, both meal kit companies offer unique benefits, so the best option for you depends on your priorities.
Goodfood is the cheaper option with free delivery! They offer more flexibility when it comes to your delivery time and their packaging programs make it easy to be sustainable. However, a lot of their benefits are postal-code dependent, so it’s hard to tell what’s available to you until you subscribe and contact their support. Lastly, Goodfood doesn’t just offer meal kits, they have an online grocery store with food products and ready-to-eat meals.
HelloFresh is definitely the choice if you’re looking for variety, quick preparation, and sustainability in your meals! They’re the leading global meal kit company and will likely keep getting better over time.
