Here at Monthly Subscription Boxes, we know how confusing it can be to pick the perfect subscription box to fit your needs. We find meal prep subscription boxes to be one of the most valuable time savers in our kitchen.
To help you determine which meal prep subscription boxes are the most popular, we scored 8 of the highest market share subscription boxes. To calculate which subscription boxes were the most popular, we developed our Monthly Subscription Boxes popularity score which is explained at the end of this post. The general idea is we measure popularity based on market share, website traffic, website bounce rate, and social media following.
Most Popular Meal Prep Subscription Boxes
According our popularity score metric, the most popular meal prep subscription boxes are:
| 1. Blue Apron |
| 2. Hello Fresh |
| 3. Home Chef |
| 4. Sunbasket |
| 5. Plated |
| 6. Gobble |
| 7. Marley Spoon |
| 8. Green Chef |
The top meal prep box was is Blue Apron, followed closed behind by Hello Fresh. We'll call this group Tier 1. These, notably, are generally the most affordable meal subscription boxes offering meals at ~$60/week with 3 meals for 2 people.
The next group of most popular meal prep subscription boxes are Home Chef, Sunbasket, and Plated. We'll call this group Tier 2. This tier is in the higher price range offering meals at ~$72/week with 3 meals for 2 people.
Tier 3 consists of Gobble, Marley Spoon, and Green Chef. This group of boxes range in price from $62-$90/week with 3 meals for 2 people.
You'll notice that the popularity score ranking of subscription boxes generally follows the Market Share Score, but not always!
Also, we think that online engagement is very important, which Sunbasket and Gobble get high marks for given their phenomenal bounce rate metric. This means that people who visit thier websites (~80% of visitors) stay on the site for at least another click.
Other notable comments are that Plated has a pretty massive Twitter following compared to its market share – it has 22K Twitter followers at the time of this posting.
Why People Love these Meal Prep Subscription Boxes
Here's the list of most popular meal subscription boxes, ranked in order of our Monthly Subscription Boxes Popularity score, and why people love them:
1. Blue Apron – $66 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Blue Apron partners with farmers to provides farm-fresh, seasonal produce. Its meat doesn't contain added hormones and they have sustainably sourced seafood.
Deal: You can get your first week of Blue Apron for only $36! (3 meals for 2 people)
2. Hello Fresh – $60 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Hello Fresh provides high-quality ingredients sourced straight from the farm. Each meal comes a brown bag that you can throw in your refrigerator. You can even print Hello Fresh recipes from their website!
3. Home Chef – $60 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Home Chef lets you mix and match meals to your preference with easy-to-follow recipe cards and fresh, pre-portioned ingredients. Meals can be made in about 30 minutes.
Deal: You can get your first week of Home Chef for only $30! (3 meals for 2 people)
4. Sunbasket – $72 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Sunbasket provides organic produce and clean ingredients. You can choose from Paleo, Lean & Clean, Gluten Free, and Vegan meal plans. Meals can be made in about 30 minutes.
5. Plated – $72 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Plated offers a weekly menu of 20 dinners and even dessert! Plated's meat is raised without antibiotics and doesn't have added hormones. They catch sustainably caught fish and source organic, seasonal produce whenever possible.
Deal: You can get your first week of Plated for only $54! (3 meals for 2 people)
6. Gobble – $72 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Gobble provides gluten free, dairy free, low carb, and vegetarian options. What we like about Gobble is you'll have dinner on the table in 15 minutes! Wowza!!!
Deal: You can get your first week of Gobble for only $22! (3 meals for 2 people)
7. Marley Spoon – $62 for 3 meals, 2 people per weekCook Martha Stewart's best recipes with Marley Spoon. Marley Spoon has 10 new recipes to choose from every week, including customer favorites, healthy eats, and kid-friendly recipes.
8. Green Chef – $90 for 3 meals, 2 people per week
Green Chef is a USDA-certified organic meal kit company and they strive for at least 90% organic ingredients. Each dinner is packed with veggies. Green Chef offers Gluten-Free certified, vegetarian, palo, keto, and vegan meals.
Deal: You can get your first week of Green Chef for only $40! (3 meals for 2 people)
Our Recommendations
Given these deals, we would highly recommend trying the $50 off promotion offered by Gobble to get your first week for only $22. Also, Home Chef offer of your first week for $30 and Blue Apron's offer of your first week for $36 are pretty good deals too!
The Math
Our Monthly Subscription Boxes score is based on the following 5 factors:
- Market Share Score – this is based on recode.net's market share analysis from Fall 2017.
- Website Traffic Score – this is based on Alexa's estimated website traffic.
- Bounce Rate Score – this is based on Alexa's estimated bounce rate. Our metric is an inverse score of traditional bounce rates.
- Facebook Following Score – this is based on the number of Facebook Likes a subscription box has.
- Twitter Following Score – this is based on the number of Facebook Likes a subscription box has.
All of the above scores were normalized and each of the factors above were weighted equally. While the weights are debatable, we believe units sold, online engagement, and social followings are pretty decent measures of brand popularity.
What do you think of this list? What are your favorite meal prep subscription boxes?
