Blue Apron vs Green Chef: Which is Right for You?

Both Blue Apron and Green Chef have their pros and con. In fact, they scored nearly identically in our full reviews. Let’s find out which one suits your needs the best.

Pricing

Winner: Blue Apron

While both Blue Apron and Green Chef are on the higher end of pricing, Blue Apron is ultimately a little less expensive. However, depending on the Green Chef plan you choose and the amount of meals you order in your kit, you could wind up paying the same price per meal as you would with Blue Apron. 

Though, Blue Apron will always be a little cheaper because they offer free shipping. Whereas, with Green Chef, you’ll pay $7.99 per box, no matter which meal plan you choose. 

Though, it should be noted that Green Chef is what you’d consider justifiably more expensive. More on that in the following section.

Plans

Winner: Green Chef

Remember how we said Green Chef is justifiably more expensive? Well, their plan selection is what makes this true. Green Chef offers a:

• Plant Powered Plan
• Balanced Living Plan
• Carb Conscious Plan
• Keto 

 Each of the plans are available in the following sizes:

• 3×2 Box: 1 box contains 3 dinners for 2 people (6 meals/servings total per box).
• 2×4 Box: 1 box contains 2 dinners for 4 people (8 meals/servings total per box)
• 4×2 Box: 1 box contains 4 dinners for 2 people (8 meals/servings total per box)

Conversely, Blue Apron mostly has meals that cater to a regular diet. They do have vegetarian options, but their selection is limited by comparison.

Food variety

Winner: Green Chef

Green Chef’s plan selection speaks to their food variety. They have keto meals and vegan meals and gluten free meals. 

Yet, Blue Apron primarily caters to those who follow a standard diet. They have certain recipes that they label “carb conscious” or “Mediterranean,” but they don’t have full menus that support these dietary preferences.

Aside from this, primarily both services offer a variety of meals that have a “chef-y” vibe to them, but Green Chef does mix in a few recipes that are more comfort food style. For example, here are the first three meals on each service’s menu this week:

Blue Apron:

1. Mexican Strip Steaks & Jalapeño-Cilantro Sauce with Chile-Lime Vegetables & Toasted Pepitas

2. Harissa Squash & Chickpea Bowls with Arugula, Beets & Labneh

3. Seared Salmon & Salsa Verde with Farro, Kale & Pickled Peppers

Green Chef:

1. Panko Chicken with Lemon Aioli Toasted pearl couscous with sun-dried tomatoes, roasted broccoli

2. Homestyle Meatloaf & Gravy Creamy garlic mashed potatoes, roasted carrots with pecans

3. Italian Sausage Puttanesca Spaghetti, olives, capers & Parmesan cheese, roasted broccoli

Green Chef’s recipes might have fancy sounding names, but basically those meals are breaded chicken and veggies, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and spaghetti. They’re probably quite similar to meals you’ve made before. 

Accommodate dietary restrictions

Winner: Green Chef

Green Chef is the winner by a long shot when it comes to accommodating dietary restrictions. While the menus may be a bit on the smaller side, they’ve gone out of their way to cover almost every dietary restriction you may have. 

They’ve got the vegans and vegetarians covered. They’ve got well balanced paleo meals. They’ve even got certified gluten free meals that are appropriate for those with celiac. The only issue I take with their specialty menus are with their keto meals. 

This was touched on in our original full review of Green Chef, but their Keto plan isn’t really keto friendly at all. Typically, the accepted carb intake on keto is about 20g net carbs per day. 

However, some of their keto meals have a max of 35g net carbs, while the majority of the meals actually hit that 20g net carb mark. Only a few are what I would consider keto friendly at less than 10g net carbs. 

Basically, this means if you are trying to stay in ketosis, which is the point of doing keto, the majority of these Green Chef dinners aren’t going to work for you. Your Green Chef meal is either going to be the only thing you get to eat or it’ll knock you out of ketosis all together.

Even with that little hiccup, Green Chef is still way more inclusive than Blue Apron. Blue Apron only offers 11 weekly recipes and they’re mostly suitable for those who don’t follow a specific diet. Though, Blue Apron does have some vegetarian options.

Ingredient quality

Winner: Green Chef

Overall, both these meal kit delivery services both have really excellent ingredients. As far as the ingredient quality goes, the critiques we had were pretty trivial. The zucchini in one of the Blue Apron meals was a bit banged up and the scallion in one of our Green Chef meals was a bit wilted.

What set these services apart was the ingredient packaging. Unfortunately, one of the packages of meat in our Blue Apron kit leaked. It was due to this that we named Green Chef the winner for ingredient quality.

Ease of use

Winner: Blue Apron

We almost picked Green Chef as the winner for ease of use because they send some of their ingredients pre prepped which is a huge time saver and does make things easier. 

However, Blue Apron does something that really sets them apart, not just from Green Chef, but other meal kit services, and that’s having tutorials you can follow along with for all of their meals. This makes Blue Apron meals an option for even novice cooks. As long as you can take direction, you can make these meals. 

Ordering experience and packaging

Winner: Green Chef

As far as the ordering process goes, these services are neck and neck. The websites are easy to navigate and the apps are super handy. The only issue I took is that Green Chef doesn’t offer their app to Android users at this time. 

You may be wondering why Green Chef is the winner in this category if we had a problem with the fact they don’t offer an app for android users. This is problematic, but we found a bigger issue with Blue Apron.

The bigger issue with Blue Apron is the fact that they sent us a package of meat that was leaking. That could have compromised the freshness and quality of the protein. This is inexcusable and makes Green Chef the winner for this category.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to Blue Apron versus Green Chef, Green Chef is the clear winner in food variety and accommodating dietary preferences. This is reflected in our side by side comparison, so if you have specific dietary restrictions, your choice is a no brainer.

However, that doesn’t mean Blue Apron just sucks. In fact, they’re one of the better meal kit delivery services we tried. They’re the only service that offers free shipping. They’re one of the few services that has a phone app that anyone can use. 

Plus, their menu can be quite fun. It’s not everyday you get to try recipes created by Chrissy Teigan or Amanda Frietag. However, Blue Apron makes this possible, and if you’re an amateur cook, they offer tutorials that will walk you through the whole cooking process. 

So, unless you have specific dietary restrictions, you should try both kits because both services have a lot to offer.