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Trying to decide between Green Chef and Hello Fresh?
Here’s a dirty little secret: They’re owned by the same company! Hello Fresh acquired Green Chef in March of 2018.
That said, there are some significant differences between the two brands.
Hello Fresh is a less expensive option, specializing in balanced, family-friendly meals.
Green Chef is a certified organic company that uses significantly more organic, non-GMO ingredients in its meals. It also offers a wider selection of dietary plans, including gluten-free, paleo, keto, and vegan, making these popular eating approaches easier to stick with.
In this head-to-head review, we’ll help you find the choice that’s right for you.
Here’s how the two services stack up in a few key areas.
Green Chef vs Hello Fresh: Big Picture Comparison
| Green Chef | HelloFresh | |
|---|---|---|
| Menus | Omnivore, Carnivore, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan, Paleo, Keto | Classic, family, vegetarian |
| Cancel anytime? | Yes | Yes |
| USDA Certified organic company? | Yes | No |
| Price | $10.99 – $12.99 per serving | $6.99 – $9.99 per serving |
| Avg. U.S. customer review on Trustpilot. | 9.3/10, 363 reviews. | 8.4/10 – 13,786 reviews. |
| Promo Codes | Save $80 on Green Chef. | Save $80 on HelloFresh. |
Below you’ll find detailed reviews for each of the two brands with answers to lots of common questions.
HelloFresh Overview
hellofresh.com
HelloFresh makes dinner time less stressful and more delicious by shipping easy-to-follow recipes and fresh, pre-portioned ingredients right to your door.
Founded in 2011, it was one of the first meal kit delivery services, and today, it’s one of the largest in the world.
Unlike Green Chef, and many of its competitors, HelloFresh operates in 10 different countries, with delivery available in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, Austria, and Switzerland.
In addition to their classic menu, HelloFresh also offers a family plan with more “kid-friendly” meals, which are less exotic and spicy. They also offer a vegetarian plan.
A common question many people have is “Can I pick my meals with Hello Fresh? On the Classic or Family Plan, the answer is yes!
Here’s a walkthrough provided by HelloFresh showing how to select your meals. (If you’re a new customer, you’ll need to complete the signup process first.)
And, of course, if you think trying new meals sounds fun and don’t want to spend time choosing your own, HelloFresh is happy to make the decision for you.
If you need to skip a delivery for any reason, you can totally do that. And you can cancel your membership at any time.
HelloFresh Health and Sustainability Info
(I added corn to this HelloFresh recipe — and there’s more chicken under the mashed potatoes)
Unlike Green Chef, the bulk of HelloFresh’s ingredients are not organic. The service focuses on helping people easily prepare affordable, well-balanced meals at home.
HelloFresh’s meats are all natural. Poultry suppliers have certified their animals are both antibiotic and hormone free. And pork suppliers have certified their animals get the best treatment possible and are all hormone free. HelloFresh works with the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch program to ensures that all of their seafood is rated either “Green/Best Choice” or “Yellow/Good Alternative.”
You can not substitute ingredients in HelloFresh shipments, but the opportunity to choose your meals gives you some opportunity to work around food allergies. Ingredients are also packaged and labelled separately, making it easier to omit or substitute unwanted ingredients at home.
You can recycle HelloFresh’s packaging materials with the instructions they provide on their website.
HelloFresh Pricing
HelloFresh offers three plans you can choose from.
Classic Plan Options — serves 2 or 4 people.
Shipping is $6.99 – $7.99 depending on the number of recipes you choose. It’s built into our total costs below.
2 people:
| Recipes per week | Price per serving | Total cost per week |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $9.99 | $47.95 |
| 3 | $8.99 | $60.93 |
| 4 | $8.99 | $78.91 |
| 2 | $8.99 | $78.91 |
| 3 | $7.49 | $96.87 |
4 people:
| Recipes per week | Price per serving | Total cost per week |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $8.99 | $78.91 |
| 3 | $7.49 | $96.87 |
Family Plan — serves 4 people, “more kid-friendly,” $6.99 shipping (included below)
| Servings | Price per serving | Total cost per week |
|---|---|---|
| 2 recipes per week | $7.87 | $69.95 |
| 3 recipes per week | $7.49 | $96.87 |
Vegetarian Plan — $6.99 shipping (included below)
2 people
| Recipes per week | Price per serving | Total cost per week |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | $8.99 | $60.93 |
4 people
| Recipes per week | Price per serving | Total cost per week |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | $8.99 | $78.91 |
| 3 | $6.99 | $90.87 |
Green Chef Overview
greenchef.com
Green Chef was founded to make healthy eating easier to stick with. It was the United State’s first certified organic meal kit company.
Another big difference of Green Chef vs Hello Fresh is the number of plans it offers. Whereas HelloFresh only has 3, Green Chef offers 7 different menus, including:
- Omnivore
- Carnivore
- Gluten-Free
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Paleo
- Keto
People trying to stick to one of these diets know that sometimes the hardest part is just finding good recipes and high quality ingredients. Green Chef handles that for you, and it speeds up the cooking by pre-measuring and even pre-prepping many of the ingredients.
Although you can’t mix and match meals from the different plans, you can change your plan as often as you like. This gives you the chance to try new meals and eating approaches to find the ones that work best for your tastes and health goals.
As with HelloFresh, you can skip GreenChef deliveries or cancel your subscription anytime before the weekly cutoff.
Green Chef Health and Sustainability Info
greenchef.com
Green Chef is a USDA “certified organic company”. They also have a Gluten-Free Certification through the Gluten Intolerance Group’s Gluten-Free Food Service program, which applies to their Gluten-Free, Keto, and Paleo meal plans.
The company balances 100% of its carbon emissions through sustainable offset programs.
They’ve helped save trees in the City of Arcata Community Forest, and they even invested in the construction of a large wind farm.
You can recycle Green Chef’s packaging materials by following these easy-to-follow instructions.
Green Chef Pricing
Here are the prices for the various plans and menus.
Shipping and handling is $5.99 per box. We’ve included that in our price per week column below.
Two-Person Plans (Three dinners per week).
| Plan | Price per serving | Price per week |
|---|---|---|
| Vegan | $11.99 | $77.93 per box |
| Vegetarian | $11.99 | $77.93 per box |
| Omnivore | $11.99 | $77.93 per box |
| Carnivore | $11.99 | $77.93 per box |
| Gluten-free | $11.99 | $77.93 per box |
| Paleo | $12.99 | $83.93 per box |
| Keto | $12.99 | $83.93 per box |
Family Plan (Serves four people. Two dinners per week.)
| Eating Plan | Price per serving | Price per week |
|---|---|---|
| Family Omnivore | $10.99 | $93.91 per box |
| Family Carnivore | $10.99 | $93.91 per box |
Only the omnivore and carnivore menus are offered through the Family Plan. But you can still feed a family on one of the other menus by simply ordering multiple boxes of a two-person plan. To do that, go to the “Your Plan” tab in your account and click “Edit Plan.” There you can select 1, 2, or 3 boxes/week (additional shipping fees may apply).
HelloFresh vs Green Chef: Which is the right choice for you?
Now that we’ve compared Green Chef vs HelloFresh, let’s summarize the key differences.
HelloFresh is a more affordable meal delivery service that’s great for people looking for convenient ways to eat more balanced meals at home.
Green Chef offers a wider variety of menus, more organic ingredients, and a gluten-free plan.
According to Trustpilot, Green Chef has higher customer reviews than HelloFresh, but HelloFresh is also well-reviewed by customers.
We hope this head-to-head review has helped you find the best choice for you and your family. Either service can help you save time, experience new recipes, and enjoy delicious home-cooked meals.