Blue Apron vs HelloFresh

Now that I've tried both Blue Apron and HelloFresh, I can give you the ultimate comparison!

This may sound like a cop out, but I liked them both. The biggest difference is that HelloFresh's recipes are fancier while Blue Apron's are more adventurous. (That probably isn't evident from my review because I only chose tame recipes from Blue Apron; ha ha. But they offer a lot of food based in other cultures and with unusual ingredients.) Oh, and Blue Apron seems like it's more about teaching amateur cooks while HelloFresh seems like it's more about getting a mostly-homemade meal on the table in record time.

In terms of ease, Blue Apron's recipes were better-written and easier to follow, while HelloFresh's individual recipe bags made it easier to find ingredients. Both came with multiple ice packs and other packaging that were a real time suck to recycle and throw away, although Blue Apron's was marginally less of a hassle.

HelloFresh had more recipes I was excited about during their two weeks than Blue Apron did. Though I've checked the Blue Apron menu since then, and it looks like they're offering things I really like right now. So maybe my Blue Apron recipe weeks were just duds. It's unclear. Both had delicious food, though! Even when a dish wasn't my favorite, I was still able to consume it.

The biggest problem that I have with both these services is their business model. Not the subscription box aspect! I love that. It's that while Stitch Fix is opt-in (I only get a box when I schedule one), these services are opt-out. Both of them will automatically charge your credit card for a box each week unless you manually choose to skip the shipment. I want to keep both my accounts in case of future windfall or time necessity, but they make that reeeeaaaally hard by being so inconvenient about it! I know in my heart that eventually I'll just straight-up cancel them both, but right now I'm dragging my feet about it.

Okay, now that I've said all that, I'd have to say that overall I enjoyed Blue Apron just a smidge more. I'm just a sucker for a well-written recipe, I guess!

A fun thing is that both Blue Apron and HelloFresh let you send a certain number of free boxes with food to other people. (They're free for the recipient—except for about $10 in shipping—or so I've been told by people who've received them. I felt scammy about offering them to my friends and family, like I was tricking them somehow! But it ended up being legit...just awkward.) I have a few more HelloFresh ones right now, but apparently they're available at random intervals, so there's not much rhyme or reason to sharing them.

I also have a referral code for HelloFresh that allows the user $40 off a first box (which should be the cost of a box of two meals for two people; it just doesn't cover shipping) and gives me $30 in referral credit. If you're tempted to try HelloFresh for yourself, I'd love it if you use my link.

Blue Apron doesn't do referral links. However, for reasons I'm not quite sure of, they gave me an okay discount on three more weeks of boxes. So later this summer, I'm getting three more weeks of Blue Apron. Most of the recipes I chose are pretty unusual, and I'll probably tell you all about them afterward!

I'm curious now, and I want to try more food subscription box services, but cooking multiple times a week gets pretty tiring, so I'm not trying any new services for a couple of months. I have my eye on a few, though: an Indian food subscription box and an "exotic" meal subscription box with recipes you'd more likely find at a restaurant. I'm hoping these will help in my quest to make the ultimate homemade curry recipe. Also a Southern food subscription box (that one just sounds fun!).

Anyway, I'm set to recreate a food box recipe for the first time next week. I'm making the chicken with mushroom gravy and couscous from HelloFresh. With broccoli instead of arugula, of course. Can't wait!