Home Chef vs. Green Chef 2024: Battle of the Chefs

Home Chef and Green Chef look very similar at first glance and even have a similar name. But looks can be deceiving, as these 2 highly-ranked meal delivery services aim towards very different markets. Home Chef is a well-loved SUV that can take your family anywhere they want to go. Green Chef is a sleek luxury sedan that drives you to dinnertime in style. 

Green Chef’s organic ingredients and sustainable proteins gave it my vote. But Home Chef is less expensive and more likely to win the hearts of picky eaters. And Home Chef has a larger menu and more opportunities to swap ingredients. This was a tight race indeed, and one that others might call differently.

You really can’t go wrong with either of these services. Both Home Chef and Green Chef will save you shopping time and help you put tasty, nutritious meals on the table. To help you decide the winner, I’ve performed an in-depth analysis that’ll help you decide which best meets your needs. 

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety: Green Chef Has a Bigger Menu

With 45+ entrees and over 30 Green Market items each week, Green Chef wins this round. Home Chef offers over 30 entrees and 18 add-ons, so there’s plenty to choose from with both services.

The Mexican-influenced Chili-Spiced Tilapia is a great example of Green Chef’s vibrant flavors. The rice has a hint of lime to balance the earthy and umami flavors of the beans and roasted red peppers. Mild tilapia is kicked up with ancho chili powder, cumin, and paprika, and accented with avocado crema, spicy toasted corn, and crunchy pepita seeds.

Green Chef’s menu features many international cuisines, including North African, Mediterranean, Korean, Middle Eastern, and Indian recipes. Classic American recipes typically get a sophisticated twist with unusual sauces or seasonings. This is great for foodies but may not be suitable for those with less adventurous palates.

Green Chef offers 8 different meal plans, but no matter which you choose, you can order any item on the menu.

• Keto

• Protein Packed

• Plant Based

• Quick & Easy

• Mediterranean

• Calorie Smart

• Gluten-Free

• Gut & Brain Health

The Protein-Packed Chili-Spiced Tilapia above has 45 g of protein and just 5 g saturated fat. Calorie Smart meals come in under 650 calories and Quick & Easy meals are ready in 25 minutes or less. Green Chef also offers a good selection of vegetarian and vegan meals with its Plant Based plan. And most Green Chef recipes (including the Chili-Spiced Tilapia and the majority of the keto menu) are gluten-free.

All Green Chef produce and eggs are organic unless specified otherwise. All proteins are sustainably harvested and free of GMOs, antibiotics, and hormones.

Home Chef’s menu tends more toward family-friendly comfort food, with lots of pastas and burgers. While there are some more complex gourmet meals offered in the Culinary Collection, Home Chef aims at more mainstream eaters. This may not be ideal if you’re a foodie, but it’s great if you’re feeding children who turn their noses up at every unusual ingredient from arugula to za’atar.

There aren’t many meals for specialized diets at Home Chef. There are menus for Carb-Conscious, Calorie-Conscious, and Vegetarian entrees, but that’s a much smaller selection than Green Chef. But where Home Chef really shines is in its selection of easy prep and easy cleanup meals.

The Baked Chicken Parmesan pictured above is a Home Chef Oven-Ready meal. Soften the vegetables in the microwave, load them in the provided pan, then add the marinara sauce, chicken, and coatings and bake for 23-28 minutes for a delicious and easy hot supper.

Home Chef has its own market just like Green Chef. It’s a little smaller but still offers a good choice of salads, proteins, desserts, side dishes, and even juices and canned lattes.

Meal Customization: Home Chef Lets You Swap Proteins

Home Chef’s Customize It feature wins this round. With Customize It, you can swap or double up on proteins on most meals. For some examples, you can replace ground beef with veggie Impossible Burger, swap shrimp for chicken breasts, or add an extra portion of sliced strip steak. Green Chef doesn’t offer customization on any entrees.

When you sign up, Home Chef lets you exclude certain ingredients. For example, if you want to avoid tree nuts, Home Chef won’t include any ingredients containing tree nuts in your recommendations. Green Chef doesn’t offer this filtering capability. It provides an ingredient list for all its recipes, but you’ll need to read each carefully to see if it suits your needs.

Since Home Chef processes all recipes in the same facility, there’s a risk of cross-contamination and those with severe allergies may want to look instead at our list of the best allergy-friendly meal delivery services.

But when scoring this section, I also look for meals and menus for specific dietary preferences. Vegans will feel left out in the cold by Home Chef’s menu – but there are a solid number of options for keto and gluten-smart dieters. Home Chef also has some Carb-Conscious meals with under 35 g of carbs per serving.

Home Chef has a good selection of vegetarian meals. Although you could make some vegan-friendly ingredient substitutions at home, vegans will do better with Green Chef or 1 of the other companies on our list of the best vegan meal delivery services. Home Chef aims at a mass market audience and is really not a good fit for those who have specialized dietary needs.

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing: Green Chef Offers More Delivery Days

In another close race, Green Chef squeaks out a win by offering 6 delivery days to Home Chef’s 5. When I entered my New Jersey address, Green Chef let me choose any day between Monday and Saturday. Home Chef gave me options for Monday through Friday. Weekend deliveries can be very helpful for working cooks, so I gave Green Chef this round.

Both services deliver nationwide, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Green Chef is also unable to deliver to some parts of Louisiana.

Home Chef’s minimum order is 2 meals for 2, while Green Chef has a 3 meals for 2 minimum. Both services offer 6-serving meal kits, so both are well-suited for larger households. You can order up to 4 meals for 6 with Green Chef. With Home Chef, you can order a whopping 6-pack of 6-serving meals!

Both Home Chef and Green Chef offer apps that let you reschedule deliveries on your phone. You select View Order Summary and then Account, Account Settings, and Subscription to change your Home Chef weekly delivery date. With Green Chef, you go to Your Plan and then change your default date with Edit Subscription or your upcoming order with Edit Order.

Both Green Chef and Home Chef send their meal kits to arrive bagged and labeled. This makes cooking a lot easier, as you don’t have to rummage through the refrigerator to find what you need. Packaging for both companies is entirely reusable or recyclable. However, both companies use a lot of plastic to keep their ingredients sorted, which is less than ideal.

Meal Prep: Home Chef Has More Quick Prep Options

Home Chef has a better selection of quick meals, so it wins this round. Green Chef has some 10-Minute Lunches in its Market and a few 25-minute recipes, but Home Chef can keep you supplied with a regular supply of quick meals suited for all occasions.

Home Chef’s Express Meal Kits provide quick recipes for busy nights. The Oven-Ready Kits provide pre-portioned ingredients you assemble and cook in the oven. Fast & Fresh Kits also come with pre-prepped ingredients that require minimal cooking time.

Express Plus meals use many of the ingredients used in Home Chef’s Culinary Collection meals but can be ready in 30 minutes or less and require minimal cleanup. These are great if you want a special occasion meal on a busy weeknight. You can even sign up for Home Chef’s Fresh and Easy subsidiary, which specializes in quick meals.

Most Green Chef recipes can be prepared in 25 to 35 minutes. Considering the artisanal recipes it offers each week, that’s not bad at all. The premade sauces speed the cooking process up considerably. When I tried Green Chef at home, I found the sauces and clear recipe cards made producing restaurant-quality meals astonishingly easy.

Customer Support: Green Chef Offers a Free Consultation

Green Chef’s free 20-minute consultation with a registered dietitian gives it this round. Both services offer stellar customer service, but the consultation is a very nice perk. Green Chef’s dietitians can help you set nutrition-related goals or simply choose the best Green Chef meals for your dietary needs.

Green Chef is a subsidiary of German meal delivery giant HelloFresh. HelloFresh is known for its customer service, and Green Chef continues in this tradition. You can contact customer support by phone or through live chat. Green Chef's live chat team is available every day from 9 am to 7 am EST. You can reach phone support from 6 am to 11 pm EST on weekdays and from 7 am to 7 pm EST on weekends.

You can cancel your Green Chef subscription in just a few steps. Log into your account, go to Settings, scroll down to the account section, and click Deactivate your Plan. Our step-by-step explanation of how to cancel Green Chef will answer any questions you may have.

Home Chef’s Help Center addresses common queries and provides useful self-help options. With a quick search, you can locate the answers to most of your questions. If the Help Center doesn't have the required solution, Home Chef's customer support is available on weekdays from 9 am to 6 pm CST and on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm CST.

The Home Chef chatbot directs you to relevant FAQ entries. However, you can request a human agent or send an email for further assistance. And if things don’t work out, canceling your subscription is easy. See our detailed guide on how to cancel Home Chef for complete instructions.

Pricing: Home Chef Is Cheaper per Serving

A Home Chef subscription costs less per serving than a Green Chef subscription. Organic ingredients are more expensive than standard farm-raised vegetables, and antibiotic and hormone-free meats come at a premium versus factory-farmed meat.

Green Chef’s prices start at $9.99 per serving when you take into account current discounts. The minimum order of 6 servings (3 meals for 2) will cost you $13.49 per serving.

Home Chef’s prices start at $9.99 per serving. Home Chef charges by the specific meal with some meals being several dollars more than others. This differs from most other services that charge based on the number of meals ordered. Some meals cost as much as $11.99 per serving, but most are around $9.99.

Both services charge a flat $10.99 shipping fee.

Home Chef vs. Green Chef – Quick Overview

And the Winner Is: Green Chef

Green Chef is my preferred choice. After thorough evaluation, I give this narrow victory to Green Chef. Having experienced its meals firsthand, I can vouch for the quality and flavor that organic produce brings to the table. It's not just about health benefits; the taste is distinctly superior.

Home Chef has its unique appeal. For those whose palate leans more toward nutritious and family-friendly comfort food, Home Chef might be more suitable. Its menu is curated to offer a comforting dining experience.

Cost is another factor to consider. It's important to highlight that Green Chef tends to be pricier. If you're managing a strict budget, this could be a deciding factor.

Both brands are commendable in their own right. It's worth noting that both Green Chef and Home Chef feature on the list of best meal delivery services, Each has carved out a niche and offers a distinctive experience.

The best judgment comes from personal experience. While reviews and recommendations are useful, trying out both services might be the most insightful way to decide. Don’t forget you can save more with our discount codes when you order and both services are easy to cancel if things don’t work out.

FAQ

Is Home Chef organic?

Home Chef occasionally offers a few organic ingredients. With Customize It, you can swap in organic boneless skinless chicken breasts on some meals. But most Home Chef ingredients come from conventional agricultural sources.

Is Green Chef organic?

All Green Chef produce and eggs are USDA-certified organic unless indicated otherwise. All proteins are sustainably sourced and of the highest quality. Green Chef ingredients contain no synthetic pesticides, artificial ingredients, growth hormones, antibiotics, or GMOs.

Are Home Chef meals fully cooked?

All Home Chef meals will require at least some preparation. Home Chef offers a selection of quick meals that require minimal prep and even some that arrive ready to cook. But if you’re looking for fully cooked meals that you just reheat and eat, you should look at our list of the best prepared meal delivery services.