Sunbasket vs. Home Chef 2024: Which Is Best?

You're deciding between Sunbasket and Home Chef. You want a meal delivery service that's worth your money, tastes good, and has meals that are easy to prepare. It's tough to know which to pick when you don’t know all the details.

I've looked closely at both Sunbasket and Home Chef. I checked out the menus, looked at the prices, and saw how customizable the recipe options are. You deserve to know which one will give you the best meals without any stress.

I decided that Home Chef is the better choice. Its meals are cheaper, you can adjust them more to your liking, and they're simple to put together. Keep reading, and you'll see why Home Chef is my winner.

At a Glance: Who Won Each Category?

Menu Variety: Home Chef Offers a More Diverse Menu

Home Chef has a wider menu variety than Sunbasket. When it comes to meal choices, Home Chef consistently outshines Sunbasket. Both services offer a range of meals, but Home Chef's offerings are more extensive and diverse. From standard American dishes to tantalizing Mexican and Asian cuisines, the menu is both broad and versatile.

The versatility of meal kits is a standout feature for Home Chef. While both services have their unique kits, Home Chef steps up the game with oven-ready, microwave-ready, and grill-ready meals. Such options not only provide variety but also cater to the convenience you might seek on busy nights or lazy weekends.

Home Chef offers more than just dinner options. It has extras like bulk meat, sides, breakfasts, and snacks. This means all your mealtime bases are covered, from morning to night. You can also make extra savings with bundle options like the Three Cheese Demi Loaf & Nana Jude's Chicken Soup.

Sunbasket does have a few extra options in addition to meals. These are more limited than Home Chef. For example, you can order a couple of snack options, and there are a few deli and grocery items. However, you can find a good range of proteins including organic options. See the Ingredient Quality and Nutrition section for more on this.

Both Sunbasket and Home Chef understand the importance of cook times. You can find prepared heat-and-eat meals, ensuring that there are options for those who prefer swift preparation. If you enjoy a longer cooking experience, there are meal kits with varied cooking levels, from easy to difficult.

Families will appreciate Home Chef's focus. While meals from both services can appeal to kids, Home Chef specifically tailors a family-friendly menu. This makes it easier for parents to ensure that meals are not only nutritious but also appealing to younger palates.

Sample Meals

The Sunbasket menu is easy to search and filter. You can see the different menu options listed down the side of the page. Plus, you can easily filter dishes for special dietary requirements such as dairy-free, gluten-free, diabetes friendly, and more. Here are some top meal options I found.

• Best low-calorie dish: Mediterranean Turkey Meatballs with Chard and Red Pepper-Cashew Crema

• Best gluten-free dish: Quinoa and Chickpea Pilaf with Kale and Tahini Goddess Dressing

• Best easy prep dish: Korean Rice Bowls with Sticky-Sweet BBQ Chicken Skewers and Kimchi

• Best prepared meal: Peruvian Fried Rice with Duck Confit, Poblano, and Pineapple

• Best top-rated dish: Fresh Pappardelle Verde with Sweet Pea Pistou and Sugar Snap Peas

I love that Home Chef now has a family-friendly recipe menu. This makes it really easy to find something everyone will enjoy. It’s great that you can see the menu for 6 weeks to help with meal planning. You can easily filter the menu by low-prep dishes, calorie-conscious, carb-conscious, or vegetarian. These are some of my favorite meal options.

• Best low-calorie dish: Spicy Piri Piri Turkey Stuffed Peppers with Creamy Cucumber Sauce

• Best gluten-free dish: Middle Eastern-Style Chickpea Rice Bowl with Garlic Crema

• Best easy prep dish: Sunday Beef Pot Roast with Rockefeller Mashed Potatoes

• Best prepared meal: Southwestern-Style Cheesy Chicken Chowder

• Best top-rated dish: BBQ Pulled Pork with Smoky Bacon Mac and Cheese and Creamy Poppy Seed Slaw

Meal Customization: Home Chef Lets You Swap Proteins

Home Chef's customization options surpass Sunbasket. Home Chef stands out with its Customize It feature. This allows you to change the proteins in most of the meal kits. For example, you can order the Sliced Pork Noodle Bowl with Impossible burger, shrimp, chicken, steak, or pork. This gives you endless flexibility for a variety of meal options.

Sunbasket doesn't allow any customization of its meal kits. You do have the option to replace or exclude ingredients when you cook, but this isn’t ideal.

With Home Chef, you can easily opt for low-calorie, low-carb, and vegetarian dishes.  A noteworthy mention is Home Chef's recent inclusion of keto-friendly meals, broadening the appeal of its menu for different dietary preferences.

Sunbasket does well to cater to niche diets like paleo, vegan, and gluten-free. However, it falls short when filtering for multiple dietary needs. If you're dairy-free and soy-free, for instance, navigating Sunbasket's filters can be a tad challenging.When signing up with Home Chef, you're given the option to exclude certain ingredients. This means you can remove dishes containing ingredients like pork, shellfish, and peanuts. Sunbasket also allows you to exclude recipes with specific ingredients, but the customization options simply aren’t as good as Home Chef’s.

Ingredient Quality and Nutrition: Sunbasket’s Ingredients Are Top-Quality

Sunbasket excels in ingredient quality over Home Chef. Sunbasket is renowned for its high-quality ingredients that are both seasonal and responsibly sourced. This includes wild-caught seafood and meat that is not only free from antibiotics and hormones but also sourced from free-range or pasture-raised animals.

In contrast, Home Chef provides limited details on its product sourcing. While I found that its salmon is sustainable, the shrimp comes from India, and it works with suppliers to ensure animal welfare standards, I’d like to see more transparency regarding ingredient standards.

Sunbasket has organic offerings and is a certified organic meal delivery service. Home Chef does give you the option to upgrade to organic proteins, albeit at an extra charge. Sunbasket, however, takes the lead with its organic certification, as 98% of its ingredients are organic.

Sunbasket allows you to access nutritional details for all meals by clicking on each recipe, even shedding light on sodium content, which can be invaluable for diabetics.

Home Chef also displays nutritional information on each recipe, but goes a step further. When you click on this information, it expands to reveal detailed insights that are clearer and easier to read compared to Sunbasket's presentation.

I prefer Home Chef’s nutritional information, but Sunbasket wins on ingredient quality. Its transparency in terms of ingredient sourcing is definitely something to recommend.

Ordering, Delivery, Unboxing: Home Chef Is More Flexible

Home Chef's delivery service wins with more flexibility and reach. Neither Sunbasket nor Home Chef delivers to Alaska or Hawaii, but Home Chef extends its service to 98% of the US, leaving Sunbasket behind as it doesn't deliver to parts of Montana, North Dakota, or New Mexico.

Home Chef offers more delivery days than Sunbasket, whose delivery schedule is limited to Sunday through Thursday. Rescheduling a delivery with Sunbasket can be done online, but Home Chef takes user-friendliness a step further, allowing rescheduling through its app as well. Home Chef also scores with its flexibility in mixing and matching serving sizes within 1 order.

Ordering from both Sunbasket and Home Chef is a straightforward process. Both platforms feature an easy-to-use website and uncomplicated signup. If you need to change an order, you can conveniently manage your orders online with either service. As for the minimum order, both Home Chef and Sunbasket set the same standard at 2 meals for 2 people per week.

Unboxing a Home Chef order shows attention to detail and environmentally friendly practices. Home Chef's box is neatly organized with clearly separated ingredients for each recipe, while Sunbasket's items require examination of the packaging for storage details.

Sunbasket's meals can be stored in the fridge, and some can be frozen. Just check the packaging. Home Chef advises against freezing its meals to maintain freshness, though protein packs can be frozen and defrosted before use. 

As for sustainability, Sunbasket impresses me with the fact that most of its packaging is recyclable. Home Chef, while also recyclable, tends to use more plastic.

Meal Prep: Home Chef Has More Easy-To-Prepare Meals

Home Fresh takes the lead here with its wider selection of easy prep choices. However, both Sunbasket and Home Chef deliver meals that are easy to prepare. Sunbasket's prepared meals come fresh, allowing for refrigerator storage with some options for freezing.

Home Chef's prepared lunches are also delivered fresh and are microwave or oven-ready. What's more, with Home Chef, you get items like smoothies and snacks that are instantly edible. 

I like the variety of easy-prep kits available from Home Chef. These include the Oven-Ready or Express kits that feature premade sauces and ready-chopped ingredients for quick assembly.

Sunbasket, in comparison, offers Speedy meal kits. These promise completion in 20 minutes or less. You can generally find around 10 of these on the menu each week.

Home Chef also leads with more versatile meal containers. The Oven Ready meals from Home Chef are designed to go directly into the oven. After your meal, you can recycle these containers, minimizing cleanup. Sunbasket's offering, while efficient with the Speedy meal kits, does not quite match the extensive range provided by Home Chef.

Customer Support: Home Chef’s Support Is a Bit Better

Home Chef's customer support outshines Sunbasket's in intuitiveness and information. Both services offer 24/7 online chatbots for immediate assistance.

I tried out both bots and found Home Chef's "Herb" to be more intuitive than Sunbasket's "Sunny B". Additionally, both services have the option for customers to call, text, or email them, so you’ve got plenty of options, whichever you prefer.

I tried to speak with an agent on the Sunbasket live chat. Unfortunately, I was informed that no agents were available and was asked if I could be contacted by text message instead.

I’m also very impressed with Home Chef's FAQ section. Not only does it provide a wealth of information, but its searchable feature for key terms makes it significantly more user-friendly compared to Sunbasket's offering.

Canceling either service is straightforward and can be done from your online account. You can also skip a delivery if you feel that you need a break but aren't quite ready to cancel completely.

Pricing: Home Chef Is More Affordable

In terms of affordability, Home Chef offers better value than Sunbasket. Diving into the specifics, Sunbasket's meal kits start at $11.49 per serving, with prepared meals priced at $9.99 per serving.

Be aware that the weekly cost can escalate depending on the selected recipes. I found some Sunbasket meal kits hitting a peak of $17.99 per serving. This variability makes budgeting unpredictable.

On the other hand, Home Chef begins at a consistent $9.99 per portion. The meals are priced individually, so the final amount you pay depends on the recipes you’ve chosen rather than the number of meals. This is why it’s good for families who need more servings a week. If you customize a meal, you may have to pay a bit extra.

For add-ons like protein packs or snacks, both services have varying prices. You can take a quick glance before finalizing your order. Prices for all available items are shown in your account when you edit your weekly order.

As for shipping fees, Home Chef charges $10.99 per delivery. Although this is slightly higher than Sunbasket's $9.99, when assessing overall cost-effectiveness, Home Chef emerges as the more budget-friendly choice.

Sunbasket vs. Home Chef – Quick Overview

And the Winner Is: Home Chef

Home Chef shines brighter in this comparison with Sunbasket. Among the 2, Home Chef provides a more diverse range of meals, exceptional customization features, and an intuitive website. Its dedication to customer support further enhances the overall experience it offers. Home Chef consistently delivers a more seamless and budget-friendly experience.

Cost-efficiency is another positive feature of Home Chef. Beyond the expansive offerings, Home Chef presents a more budget-friendly alternative without compromising on quality.

Sunbasket, however, does bring its own merits to the table. While it excels in providing quality ingredients, it struggles to match Home Chef's holistic offerings and cost-effectiveness.

Home Chef secures a prominent position on our rankings. If you're exploring top-tier meal delivery options, check out our top 10 meal delivery services list. It features Home Chef among other noteworthy contenders.

I believe Home Chef stands out as the preferred choice. Balancing variety, affordability, and quality, it is well-suited for those seeking a reliable meal delivery service.

FAQ

Which is better, Sunbasket or Home Chef?

Home Chef edges out Sunbasket in my comparison thanks to its wider variety, customization options, and excellent customer service. While Sunbasket offers high-quality ingredients, Home Chef provides a broader menu and a more user-friendly experience.

Which is healthier, Home Chef or Sunbasket?

Sunbasket often gets the nod for health-conscious meals. Its commitment to organic, responsibly sourced ingredients shines through. However, both brands offer nutritious options, so you'll find healthy meals with either choice.

Which is more affordable, Sunbasket or Home Chef?

Home Chef is generally more affordable when comparing base prices. Though Sunbasket starts at $11.49 per serving, some options can go up to $17.99. Home Chef begins at a more budget-friendly $9.99 per portion, but customizations can affect the final cost.