The real fee and speed differences between the delivery apps, and the nights a meal kit is actually the smarter call than ordering in.
Compare delivery apps ↓"Order delivery" isn't really one decision anymore — it's at least two. The first is which app, since DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub charge noticeably different fees for what's often the same restaurant. The second is whether delivery is even the right call tonight, since a meal kit can land somewhere between cooking from scratch and ordering in, at a genuinely different price and time cost.
This covers both, with real numbers rather than marketing claims.
| App | Best for | Typical fees | Avg. delivery time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grubhub | Lowest total cost | Lowest of the three — no small-order fee | ~40 min |
| Uber Eats | Speed, bundling with rides | Mid-range | ~33 min (fastest) |
| DoorDash | Restaurant selection | Mid-to-high | ~38 min |
DoorDash covers the most restaurants — over 390,000 — and tends to have the best suburban and small-town coverage, which matters if you're not in a dense city. Grubhub is consistently the cheapest on fees; in one head-to-head test the same order came out to $37.20 on DoorDash, $31.85 on Uber Eats, and $28.50 on Grubhub. Uber Eats wins on raw speed and pairs naturally with Uber's ride and reservation features if you already use those. None of the three wins outright — the fastest, cheapest, and most available option changes by restaurant and by night, which is why checking two apps before ordering the same meal is a genuinely useful habit, not just extra effort.
DashPass, Uber One, and Grubhub+ all run about $9.99 a month and reduce or waive delivery fees on qualifying orders. The math is simple: if you order from that specific app four or more times a month, the subscription usually pays for itself. Fewer than that, skip it and just compare apps per order — loyalty to one platform costs more than the convenience is worth at low order volume.
The largest weekly menu of the major kits — 30 to 40-plus recipes a week — at roughly $9–$11 per serving plus shipping. Strong vegetarian selection and generally the easiest recipes to execute on a weeknight. The default recommendation if you're trying exactly one meal kit.
Leans into more ambitious, restaurant-style recipes at a similar per-serving price to HelloFresh — but plan on 30–50 minutes of active cooking rather than a quick assembly. The better choice if the point is getting better at cooking, not just getting dinner on the table fastest.
The most beginner-friendly of the three, with oven-ready options for nights you don't want to cook at all alongside its standard recipe-kit meals — useful if different people in the household want different levels of effort on the same night.
Factor ships fully cooked meals that reheat in a few minutes rather than raw ingredients to cook yourself. It's the right pick if the honest goal is "I don't want to cook tonight," not "I want to cook something without planning." Comparing it directly to HelloFresh or Blue Apron on recipe quality misses the point — it's a different category solving a different problem.
If you're going to cook regardless, a meal kit removes the planning and shopping without adding much cost over a grocery run. If you weren't going to cook at all tonight, delivery is the honest comparison — and Grubhub is worth checking first for total cost, with DoorDash as the fallback when Grubhub doesn't cover your restaurant. Neither replaces the other; most households that use both end up choosing per night, not picking one system permanently.
All three cost about $9.99 a month and reduce or waive delivery fees on qualifying orders. They pay for themselves if you order at least three to four times a month from that specific platform — fewer than that, and you're better off paying per-order and comparing apps each time.
Delivery apps stack several separate charges on top of the food itself: a delivery fee, a service fee (often a percentage of the order), a small-order fee below a minimum, and the tip. Individually each looks minor; together they can add 40-50% or more to a modest order, which is why checking two apps before ordering the same meal is worth the extra minute.
Per serving, most meal kits land around $9-$12 plus a flat shipping charge, which is usually less than a comparable restaurant delivery order once fees and tip are included — but more than cooking from a grocery run. The honest comparison isn't meal kit versus grocery store, it's meal kit versus delivery app on a night you weren't going to cook from scratch anyway.
A meal kit (HelloFresh, Blue Apron, Home Chef) ships pre-portioned raw ingredients and a recipe card — you still cook it, typically in 30-45 minutes. A prepared-meal service like Factor ships fully cooked meals that just need reheating, usually in under five minutes. Pick a meal kit if you want to cook but not plan or shop; pick a prepared-meal service if you don't want to cook at all.
None of these is a permanent choice. The households that get the best value treat delivery apps and meal kits as tools for different nights rather than picking one system and sticking to it — delivery when you're not cooking at all, a meal kit when you want to cook but not plan, and a real grocery run the rest of the time.