EveryPlate Review: Is This Low-Priced Meal Delivery Service Right for You?

What to know about EveryPlate

EveryPlate is a meal delivery service that may be ideal for older adults seeking lower-cost meal kits that are easy to prepare. The service offers simple recipes with few ingredients and easier-to-manage cooking techniques through its weekly rotating menu of about 35 options. It’s a subscription-based service, meaning your payment method will be automatically charged each week for the meals in your upcoming delivery. You can skip weeks or cancel your subscription at any time.

Although EveryPlate offers some heat-and-eat options that you can add on to your order, such as empanadas, egg white bites and garlic bread, its weekly meals are not pre-made. Instead, its meal kits include fresh, pre-portioned ingredients that are packed in an insulated box. 

In testing, the average total preparation and cooking time for our testers ranged from 25 to 30 minutes for each meal, and they rated their overall cooking experience as near-perfect.

While meals arrived with enough food to fill the plan’s designated portions, testers said organizing the ingredients took extra work. That’s because loose ingredients for multiple meals were packed in the same box with no bags to separate them. One tester, 60-year-old Donna, said that it made her feel like she was opening a box with fresh veggies from the farmer’s market. If you value organization in a meal kit, that may be a drawback to consider. But if budget is your main concern, you may be willing to look past an unorganized box of ingredients. 

Testers also said the company has fewer recipe options and dietary specializations when compared to other meal delivery services they had tested. When selecting meals, our testers said they had some customization options, such as swapping proteins or adding extra servings. Select recipes could be altered further by changing sides, though this option wasn’t always available. In terms of dietary selections, EveryPlate has no dedicated gluten-free, vegan or low-sodium meal kit options. However, it does offer a handful of meal plans to choose from, including what the company calls:

• Meat and Veggie: Meals with vegetables and meat or seafood
• Nutrish and Delish: “Calorie-smart” dishes with 650 calories or less
• Quick and Easy: Meals that can be prepared and fully cooked in 20 minutes
• Veggie: Meat-free dishes prioritizing vegetables
• Family Faves: Familiar kid-approved, comfort-food meals

In addition, each meal kit comes with a physical recipe card, with recipes also available online. That physical and online access can make it easy to reuse recipes. For instance, when AARP Smart Picks surveyed 300 older adults about meal delivery services in April 2026, 60 percent of the respondents who were EveryPlate subscribers said they had used a recipe again “several times” after making it for their meal kit, and the other 40 percent said they had used a recipe again “once or twice.” 

Meal kit testers also said they appreciated that EveryPlate’s recipes are clearly labeled with nutrition facts, prep time, allergens and cooking tips — and that recipes include pictures and other descriptors such as “easy cleanup” or “quick prep.” Lastly, lab testers said the cancellation process was easy and it only took them about a minute. If you’re trying a meal delivery service for the first time, that ease could help instill confidence that if the service isn’t right for you, you can cancel quickly.

How we tested and reviewed meal delivery services

To identify the strengths and weaknesses of popular meal delivery services, we recruited testers ages 50 and older — including members from AARP’s The Ethel community — to test these services and share unbiased feedback. Our lab team and older adult testers then ordered and cooked their meals in their homes or in our AARP Smart Picks test kitchen and shared their thoughts on key factors such as food quality, portion size, taste, customization options and ease of preparation. 

In addition, we paid close attention to the delivery process, including the number of delivery updates each service provided and the quality of the packaging, such as whether the box was well insulated, easy to open and organized. We also reviewed the cancellation process for each service to determine how long it takes and whether any challenges might arise before a subscription is paused or canceled. 

For more details, you can see our meal delivery service testing methodology page.

How much does EveryPlate cost? 

EveryPlate has a starting price of $6.99 per dinner serving. This price makes it one of the most affordable meal kit delivery services we’ve tested. If you sign up for this service, your total cost would depend on the number of servings and recipes you choose, as well as any customizations, such as premium meal upgrades.

Is EveryPlate right for you? 

If you’re interested in a meal delivery service, you have many options. But which service is best? 

Johannah Katz, a registered dietitian in Orlando, Florida, advises choosing a service that matches your needs and lifestyle. “For someone who enjoys cooking and has the energy and ability, a meal kit can be a wonderful bridge to more home-cooked meals. For someone with limited energy or who is overwhelmed by cooking, a higher-quality prepared meal may be the more supportive option.” 

To this point, remember meal kits — which can save time in the food shopping and cooking process — also can require some effort, such as standing by the stove, chopping ingredients and managing multiple cooking steps. If you’d rather skip these tasks, you may want to consider a meal delivery service that provides prepared “heat-and-eat” meals, such as those offered by Factor. 

However, if you’re interested in doing more prep, you may wonder which meal kit service could be a fit. If you’re wondering if EveryPlate could work for you, you may want to think about the following questions.

Is budget your primary consideration? 

Cost was the number one reason our survey respondents canceled a meal delivery subscription, with nearly 63 percent citing that reason. So if you’re looking for a budget option — and you want to make simple recipes at home — EveryPlate could be a good fit, since it offers competitive pricing and is one of the most affordable meal kit delivery services we’ve tested. 

Do you want large portions?

If so, this service may be worth considering. While some meal delivery companies may skimp on quantity in an effort to cut costs, testers said EveryPlate did not. In our evaluation, testers gave both their two-serving meals perfect portion scores, saying they were more than enough for two people. 

Do you have specific dietary needs or preferences? 

If you have certain dietary restrictions or preferences, this service may not be the best fit. That’s because its meal kits don’t offer specified dietary filtering, at least not to the same extent as other meal delivery services. Per our testing experience, while some vegetarian options were presented each week, there were no options that directly catered to common diets like keto, gluten-free or vegan diets. But other meal delivery services we’ve tested either offer these specific diets outlined as meal plan options or cater to specific dietary needs. For example, Purple Carrot is a meal delivery service that offers fully plant-based, vegan options. Green Chef is another service that offers dedicated meal plans for multiple types of diets, including gluten-free and keto. So if you want to sign up for a meal delivery service but have a special diet, you may want to consider another company. 

FAQs

Questions or feedback? Email us at AARPSmartPicks@aarp.org.