Meal delivery services, a la Dinnerly and Home Chef, are peaking in popularity. It’s not surprising when you consider that most families have to contend with work, school and childcare before putting dinner on the table. In fact, dinner prep oftentimes takes more than an hour—and most of us simply don’t have that much time in a day. If you’ve done any research into these time-savers, you’ll quickly realize there are tons of meal delivery services out there. Two of the most popular are Factor and HelloFresh.
While the differences between some meal services like Home Chef and HelloFresh are rather minimal, Factor vs. HelloFresh is a much broader comparison. Sure, both services offer fresh, filling meals in under an hour. However, one focuses on ready-made meals, whereas the other is something more akin to a meal prep kit that requires cooking, cutting and stirring. We tried both services to get the full experience—and we realized that these are two different animals entirely.
What’s the difference between Factor vs. HelloFresh?
While both meal delivery services put dinner on the table, they are far from the same. Whereas HelloFresh has a number of cooking kits available that require prep with step-by-step instructions, Factor75 falls more into the “heat-and-eat” category. While the meals aren’t frozen, they arrive prepped, cooked and chilled ahead of time. This means that making dinner is as simple as popping them in the oven or microwave.
Cost and Plan
HelloFresh focuses on filling their customer’s carts with anywhere from two to six meals per week, each with two, four or six servings. You can also add additional meals for an extra charge. Because these meals offer multiple servings, this is a good meal service for families. The price of each week’s box depends on many different factors, including the number of meals, servings, customizations and add-ons chosen.
Factor75 offers as few as four meals per week or as many as 36, which is great if you want to substitute both lunches and dinners. All meals are single-serving and arrive in their own oven- and microwave-safe tray, so there’s no need to dirty any dishes. Factor’s meal kits also cost a bit less per meal than HelloFresh, though keep in mind that servings are smaller.
Recipe Variety and Dietary Options
HelloFresh offers around 60 meals each week in its rotating menu, including a few gluten-free meal kits. It also offers the following labels for meals: Calorie Smart, Carb Smart, Protein Smart, Easy Prep, Veggie, Family Friendly, Easy Clean-up, Quick and New. While its dietary menu isn’t expansive, it has a comparable number of options to a service like Gobble. With HelloFresh, customers can also alter most recipes by swapping out or adding proteins and doubling up servings, if desired.
Factor doesn’t offer recipe customizations like HelloFresh since the meals are already prepped. However, its keto meal kits are some of our favorites. Factor sorts its meals into the following categories: Calorie Smart,