Short on Time? Here’s a Quick Summary of Which Meal Kit Service We Think Is Best:
While both Blue Apron and Sun Basket offer delicious and convenient meal kits, we crown Blue Apron the overall winner for 2024! Blue Apron strikes a fantastic balance between affordability and culinary creativity. You’ll enjoy exciting and flavorful meals at a price point that won’t break the bank. Blue Apron offers a wide variety of fun, upscaled cuisines and dishes.
However, Sun Basket remains a strong option, particularly for those who prioritize health-focused meals or follow specific dietary restrictions like gluten-free, low-carb, and vegan diets.
The meal-kit industry is booming, with improved options constantly emerging. From exciting menu innovations like adding breakfast and pre-made sides and meals, to diverse dietary support, competitors are continually upping their game. Choosing the best service for your needs can feel overwhelming with so many choices available.
That’s why we are dedicated to providing up-to-date and comprehensive comparisons of leading meal kit services. We constantly stay on top of the latest trends and offerings by experiencing the entire process firsthand, from signing up and selecting meals to cooking and tasting them. We try various dishes to assess the overall quality, flavor profile, and ease of preparation. Moreover, we consider additional aspects like ingredient quality, sustainability practices, and customer service.
By combining real-world experience with in-depth research, we aim to empower you with the best knowledge to make an informed decision. This 2024 update ensures our comparisons reflect the latest offerings.
This review compares two of the most well-established meal kit companies in the US, Sun Basket and Blue Apron, so it’s a real battle of the giants. Both offer a meal kit service, but there are some major and important differences between the two, so let’s get started! Sun Basket vs Blue Apron – who will win the battle?
What Is Blue Apron?
Blue Apron delivers meal kits with pre-portioned ingredients and recipes for convenient and elevated home cooking. The service offers diverse and flavorful meals at competitive prices, catering to various tastes. The service also updated its menu with a prepared meals section and a few tasty add-ons like salads and desserts.
While not entirely organic, they prioritize quality by using USDA-certified organic ingredients whenever possible and maintaining high sustainability standards.
What Is Sun Basket?
Sun Basket focuses on healthy and convenient meal kits, featuring organic ingredients whenever possible and catering to specific dietary needs like gluten-free-friendly, diabetes diet, vegan, keto, and more.
Their menu emphasizes clean eating with many breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options, but it comes at a slightly higher price than most of its competitors.
Pros & Cons
Blue Apron:
Pros:
Exciting menu with more than 80 options that regularly changes
Delicious meals!
Humanely sourced animal products
Healthy options, Lower-calorie, wellness & vegetarian choices
Can combine meal kits & heat-and-eat meals
Lower price point compared to Sun Basket
Cons:
Limited diet support compared to Sun Basket
Limited organic ingredients
Sun Basket Pros & Cons
Pros:
Healthy focus with organic, clean-eating ingredients
Dietary support: Gluten-free, Mediterranean, Paleo, Keto, and more
Customization: many add-on options
Cons:
Higher cost, not for every budget, especially for families
Unique flavors that may not suit more common taste profiles
Subscription Plans
Blue Apron Meal Plans:
Blue Apron offers customizable meal plans to suit your lifestyle and preferences. The diverse menu includes vegetarian, family-friendly, wellness, low-calorie, and quick options, letting you cater to specific needs. You can further personalize your box by swapping proteins for plant-based alternatives in many recipes.
Besides their classic meal kits, Blue Apron also offers a selection of pre-made meals requiring only heating, perfect for busy schedules and fast lunches. You can choose between meals for 2 or 4 people at a frequency of 2, 3, 4, or 5 meals delivered weekly.
Sun Basket Meal Plans:
Sun Basket offers many plan options, focusing on plans catering to dietary and lifestyle needs. Some requirements they cater to include vegan, vegetarian, low-calorie, Mediterranean, quick and easy, diabetes, Paleo, and more. It’s important to note that their menu is very flexible, so you can choose the basic classic plan but still mix and match meals as you wish.
The classic menu provides 2 to 4 weekly recipes for 2 or 4 people. Sun Basket also offers a family-friendly plan, with meals that are a little cheaper and well-suited to both kids and grownups. This plan includes 6 recipe choices from which you can order 2 to 4 meals per week for 4 people.
Variety Of Meals
Blue Apron Variety
Customers of Blue Apron can select from more than 80 options per week, including meal kits and prepared meals for the microwave. These dishes include options to satisfy vegetarians and families with picky eaters, gourmet meals, and low-calorie meals for wellness. Plus, the menu has a section with many add-ons like desserts, salads, proteins, and breakfast options.
Sun Basket Variety
When it comes to variety, Sun Basket has the upper hand, with an amazing number of over 40 dishes to select from in their weekly menu. These dishes include options for people with special dietary requirements, such as vegan, vegetarian, Mediterranean, pescatarian, gluten-free, and more.
Additionally, Sun Basket offers many add-on options to its customers. These extra choices can be added to your box to enhance your healthy Sun Basket experience throughout the week. Some add-ons include healthy shakes, farm-fresh snacks, protein packs, amazing fresh pasta, and more.
Style and Complexity Of Dishes
After cooking and tasting several Sun Basket and Blue Apron meals, we found that most dishes tasted delicious and were genuinely satisfying. However, we noticed a difference between the two services in terms of meal style:
Sun Basket Meal Style
We got the impression that Sun Basket is more focused on creating recipes that are more “new age” California style, with a great deal of health focus. It does not suit a more common or regular taste palate. Some examples include Green Goddess Chicken Salad, Lettuce Cups with Potato Wedges, or Kung Pao Bowl with Plant-Based Chicken and Brown Rice.
Sun Basket states that most of their meals only take 30 minutes to prepare, using easy-to-follow recipes. In addition to its regular menu, the company offers a selection of speedy meals designed to be ready within 20 minutes.
Sun Basket appears to be focused on bringing healthy dinners to the table, whereas the offerings from Blue Apron include more classic dishes with lovely chef touches.
Blue Apron Meal Style
Blue Apron delights adventurous and familiar palates alike. Their diverse menu offers mouthwatering dishes that cater to a variety of tastes. Are you craving a classic? Savor a juicy New York Strip Steak with Chimichurri Sauce and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes.
Would you prefer something more casual? Bite into a Gourmet-Style Cheeseburger with Caramelized Onions and Truffle Aioli on a Brioche Bun. Feeling adventurous? Dive into Pan-Seared Shrimp with Spicy Harissa and Roasted Vegetables inspired by global Mediterranean flavors.
Generally, the feeling is that Blue Apron creates meals that are meant to elevate your everyday meals, transforming them into restaurant-worthy experiences you can create at home.
Other Popular Meals To Try
To tempt your tastebuds, here are some of the best recipes from the Sun Basket and Blue Apron menus:
Blue Apron Meals
- Chicken Milanese with Pizzeria Salad
- Tamarind-Honey Chicken Breasts with Roasted Carrots & Mashed Potatoes
- Ribeye Steak & Gochujang Pan Sauce with Sushi Rice, Romanesco & Crispy Onions
- Creamy Tomato Pasta with Mushrooms, Sweet Peppers & Parmesan Cheese
- Korean-style Beef Bowls with Yu-Choy & Gochujang Mayo
Sun Basket Meals
- Huli Huli Chicken with Pineapple-Celery Slaw
- Stuffed Bell Peppers with Turkey and Black Beans
- Mediterranean Garlic Shrimp with Spanish Rice
- Incan Sweet Potato Stew with Beans, Quinoa, and Chipotle in Adobo
- Vegan Salt-and-Pepper Tofu Stir-Fry with Glass Noodles, Edamame, and Spinach
Diet Support
Blue Apron Diet Support
Blue Apron understands that dietary needs are diverse, so the menu offers a wide range of options to fit different nutritional goals. Whether you’re looking for low-carb meals emphasizing protein and vegetables, high-protein selections to fuel your workouts, low-calorie options for mindful eating, or delicious vegetarian dishes, you’ll find something satisfying on their menu. Plus, many recipes allow you to swap proteins for plant-based alternatives, providing even greater flexibility to cater to your specific dietary preferences.
Sun Basket Diet Support
Sun Basket raises the bar for healthy eating with a menu designed to cater to many dietary needs, including Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean, and even diabetes. The list is endless. Almost any existing diet can be catered to beautifully with the Sun Basket menu. Sun Basket offers many menu add-ons that can be included in your delivery box, including fresh pasta, signature sauces, healthy veggie snacks, and more.
Optional Add-Ons
Blue Apron Add-Ons
Blue Apron’s offerings extend beyond just the core meal recipes. The meal delivery kit service provides optional add-ons to personalize your meal kit experience and cater to individual preferences. The add-ons include protein options like Grilled Shrimp, Seared Ahi Tuna, or Plant-Based Meatballs, salads, tempting desserts like Coconut-Vanilla Cake with Toasted Coconut Chips, and breakfast options like Blueberry Overnight Oats
with Peanut Butter or Eggs with Grits
Sun Basket Add-Ons
Sun Basket offers many menu add-ons that can be included in your delivery box, including fresh pasta, signature sauces, healthy veggie snacks, proteins, and healthy snacks.
Quality Of Ingredients
Blue Apron Quality Of Ingredients
Blue Apron states that all its meat products have no added hormones, all vegetables are farm fresh and, where possible, organic, and their seafood is sustainably sourced.
From our experience, the ingredients that arrive in the Blue Apron box are superb – from CENTO tomato sauce to Vermote creamery cheese or fresh pasta, the quality is notable.
You can get the all the information regarding the Blue Apron supply chain here.
Sun Basket Quality Of Ingredients
Sun Basket is a proudly certified organic handler, making it unique in the industry. This means that you will only receive the best organic produce, antibiotic-free and hormone-free meats, and sustainably sourced seafood. This is a promise that we love, but it does come with a price tag!
You can read more about the Sun Basket ingredients standard here.
The Delivery Box
Your meal kits from both companies arrive in a well-designed and labeled box. Inside the box, both companies ensure that proteins are placed on the bottom of the box with enough ice so that the box can remain outside for a few hours without immediate refrigeration.
There’s a difference between the two companies when it comes to how the ingredients are arranged within the box. The ingredients of Blue Apron are loose and unsorted within the box.
Very few of the ingredients have been labeled, and the ingredients of each specific meal kit are not separated. The only item wrapped separately is a small bag of spices and seasonings. As a result, Blue Apron customers have to sort the ingredients of each meal kit they have ordered.
Sun Basket, on the other hand, ensures that the ingredients of each dish are wrapped in separate and labeled bags.
Is Sun Basket Box Eco-Friendly?
Regarding the eco-friendly issue, Sun Basket focuses on using recyclable materials in all its packaging. The company uses 100% recyclable and compostable packaging in all its deliveries. This includes the box itself, insulating materials, plastic and paper bags used for wrapping the ingredients, and the ice packs that can be recycled after emptying the non-toxic gel contents into the trash.
Is Blue Apron Box Eco-Friendly?
Many of the rigid plastic cups, trays, and lids used by Blue Apron can be recycled in curbside recycling. The Blue Apron boxes and inserts are all curbside recyclable. As for plastic bags, bottles, and trays – most of them can be recycled. Look for the #1, #2, #4, and #5 symbols, and check and confirm what your municipality accepts.
Some Blue Apron packaging, like the metallic bubble insulation, cannot be easily recycled at home and should be taken to the garbage.
You can see the recycling information regarding Blue Apron’s box here.
Website & App – Ordering & Canceling Process
Both companies offer appealing, well-organized, and easy-to-use websites and apps so that you can manage your account from your laptop, desktop, iPad, and mobile phone.
Using the website or app, you can register, select your plan, choose your desired dishes for current and future weeks, define your eating preferences, change your payment methods, update your personal details, and complete anything else you need to do to manage your subscription. This can all be done online in a straightforward and user-friendly way.
As for canceling your account, both Blue Apron and Sun Basket subscriptions offer a straightforward process. You can either Log in to your account settings and choose “Pause/Cancel Subscription or email a request to customer support (the first option is much easier). You’ll receive confirmation once your cancellation is complete. Do note that any already processed or shipped orders will still be charged and delivered, so cancel your account at least six days before your next delivery.
Sun Basket and Blue Apron Flexibility Of Subscription
- Both companies offer their meal kit service as a subscription option. Sun Basket recently added the option for one-off ordering with no subscription needed.
- Both companies have the option to select your own meals or to allow them to choose your meal selection for you. With Sun Basket, the variety of meals per week is much larger.
- Both companies offer the option of putting your account on hold if you need to skip a week. You don’t need any explanations, and this service has no penalties.
- Regarding canceling your account, both Sun Basket and Blue Apron offer the convenient option of canceling your subscription online and receiving immediate approval.
- Both Sun Basket and Blue Apron offer flexibility when picking your delivery day.
- Both Sun Basket and Blue Apron offer some great deals for beginners to try their service. Unfortunately, neither offers a free trial.
What Do Customers Say About Blue Apron and Sun Basket?
Blue Apron Common Reviews:
The positive Blue Apron reviews often mention delicious and flavorful meals, diverse menu options, easy-to-follow recipes, and good value for the price.
merf78 said on reddit:
“I’ve been using Blue Apron the last few weeks. You pick a day for it to arrive, everything’s comes in a big cardboard box. Inside the box everything is sealed in plastic bags, and the meat is on top of a layer of sealed ice. As for the food, it’s been really good so far. A little over reliant on things like cabbage and rice for sides, but the recipes wind up being very good.”
Entanglemen said on reddit:
“We got it and are really happy with it. We live in NYC so it actually saves us money considerably. And as novice cooks, it is a great way to learn your way around the kitchen.”
Common complaints include limited customization options for specific dietary needs.
Sun Basket Common Reviews:
Blue Apron customers often praise the organic ingredients, focus on healthy and clean eating, and strongly support various dietary restrictions.
Some drawbacks include the higher price point compared to some competitors.
Michicade said on reddit:
“The meals were a decent portion size, had excellent quality ingredients, and had easy-to-follow instructions. There’s a big variety of meals, and you can customize most of them with different protein options (some with an upcharge, some without).I do not have dietary restrictions, but they do have options that fulfill your requirements. Most of the meals I had would have worked for you and I wasn’t even trying, so you should be able to find options.
You can order any combination of meal kits, fresh and ready meals, and their grocery options as long as you hit the weekly minimum purchase price, so you can mix and match whatever works for you. For me, it was fine but the meals just weren’t to my personal tastes for the most part. This is the subjective part of things, for sure. I’m sure a lot of people really like them and that’s great, it just wasn’t for me personally.”
Blue Apron and Sun Basket Customer Support
Both Blue Apron and Sun Basket have a dedicated FAQ section on their website, with answers to most of the questions you may have. If you have an issue with your account, both companies have helpful and responsive customer support teams. Their contact details are as follows:
Sun Basket Support Service:
- Text message to +1 408-669-4101,
- Phone number – (855) 204-7597
- Sun Basket also offers a live chat that you can access by clicking the ‘Chat’ button at the bottom right of the screen of the help center section
- You can also fill out a contact form that can be found in the Help Center section on their website
Blue Apron Support Service:
- Email – [email protected]
- Phone number – (646) 891-4349
- Blue Apron also offers a live chat on their website
Blue Apron and Sun Basket Delivery Area
Sun Basket Delivery Area
Sun Basket currently delivers to most of the continental United States, apart from AK, HI, and parts of ND, MT, and NM. Their deliveries can be scheduled from Monday to Thursday between 8am and 9pm, depending on your zip code area.
Blue Apron Delivery Area
As for Blue Apron, the company delivers its meal kits to the contiguous United States. Their delivery days can vary, depending on your zip code. When you register, you can choose from a list of available options in your area after entering your address.
Bottom Line – Sun Basket or Blue Apron?
Blue Apron Is Our Winner – The bottom line is that it’s more cost-effective and tastier!
In general, we think that both Sun Basket and Blue Apron are reliable and established meal kit services that appeal to quite different audiences. Blue Apron offers classic chef-designed dishes that usually include a tasty twist of some description.
Sun Basket offers meals that are more inclined to be healthy, organic, and new-aged. They also have great options for specific diets like Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, lean & clean, and diabetes.
Blue Apron is more affordable than Sun Basket, and the quality of ingredients – even though it’s not organic- strikes us as outstanding. Also, the meals are delicious, and we feel their offering is better in terms of taste and variety of interesting dishes per week.
