Planning for a meal is time-consuming as you have to take a lot of efforts to find and curate the ingredients from different sources. Although you know what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you may not have the time to prepare.

Meal delivery services offer you the best of both worlds. You can try fancy recipes without having to worry about the ingredients as they will be cut, prepped and portioned for you to simply put everything together and cook.

The average cost per serving is less than what you will spend in the market while buying and rationing ingredients.

Before you subscribe to a meal delivery service, ask yourself the following questions; does the service have any vegan options? Do the best meal delivery services offer nut-free and dairy-free portions? What will be the average preparation time for one meal?

Here are the five best meal delivery services that are worth subscribing in 2018

HelloFresh
The meal service offers up to six options a week. You can easily set up an account with HelloFresh online and place orders during the day or at night. The service ensures packaging is of premium quality with recyclable boxes and reusable ice sheets for the meats. HelloFresh offers three basic subscriptions for the service including classic, veggie, and the family plan. The classic and veggie meals offer two to four servings depending on the type of meal. The family plan can feed four people in total and all subscriptions cost under $10 per meal. You can find ingredients for popular recipes like the Thai pork stir fry, oven baked corn and tomato risotto, and crispy chicken parmesan salad.

Blue Apron
One of the best meal delivery services, Blue Apron is an excellent choice for two people. The service offers fresh and seasonal produce from the local farms and is one of the few services that has wine pairings with your meal. The service only delivers three days a week making availability a big issue. Blue Apron is still a decent alternative you can consider for under $10 per meal. Note that there are limited options when it comes to vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Plated
With over 20 recipes per week, Plated offers more meal options than some of the best meal delivery services in the country combined. The service is also one of the affordable meal services as you will be spending less than $50 per week. Enjoy some of the best chef-designed recipes that can be easily made with preportioned ingredients. You will spend less than an hour preparing for the meals as Plated guarantees more cooking efficiency in comparison to some of the best meal delivery services in the market, for the price.

Sun Basket
One of the best meal delivery services that offer sustainable, gluten-free, paleo, and vegetarian recipes. Sun Basket also has a wide range of selections in produce for 18 different recipes every week. The average spending per week is slightly higher owing to the special requirements for a paleo diet and gluten-free sustainable products but otherwise is a decent option if you are planning to go lean and green. On top of the price, you will have to pay extra delivery charges that are mostly waived off by other popular meal delivery services.  You may subscribe to Sun Basket’s basic meal delivery service that will cost you $11.99 per serving.

Home Chef
A premium service for an affordable price true to their motto , your price, your schedule, your way. With Home Chef, you have the option of choosing from 13 different easy to follow recipes for the calorie and gluten conscious not to mention the carb conscious appetites. The Home Chef smartphone app allows you to adjust and make changes to your delivery schedule, meal choices, and extras with ease. Home Chef is among the affordable meal delivery services with the average cost of just under $8 per meal. You can plan meals up to five days in advance and sit back, relax and enjoy the free delivery to your doorstep.