Martha & Marley Spoon vs. Blue Apron: Our Full Meal Kit Rundown 2020
Marley Spoon
Marley Spoon is a flexible subscription service. As their client, you will get amazing recipes and pre-measured ingredients for meals of your choice every week. You will be able to choose the dishes you like from the weekly menu, decide how many people will be joining you and how many meals you wish to receive.
- Shipping Cost: $0
- Average Price Per Meal: $9.55
- Delivery Area: most of the contiguous US
Blue Apron
Blue Apron is a company that offers its customers chef-designed recipes that include quick top-rated favorites, one-pan dinners, and delicious Mediterranean meals. These dishes are delivered in insulated boxes where their freshness are guaranteed.
- Shipping Cost: $0
- Average Price Per Meal: $9.99
- Delivery Area: All locations in the continental United States
Meal Options
Marley Spoon
- Dairy Free
- Gluten Free
- Traditional
- Vegetarian
- Kid Friendly
Blue Apron
- Vegetarian
- GMO-free
- Family Friendly
- Gluten Free
- Omnivore
- Hormones Free
Plan & Pricing
Marley Spoon
- Two-person Box $12.00 / serving
2 servings per week for 2 people
- Family Box $9.50 / serving
4 servings per week for 2 to 4 people
Blue Apron
- Two-Person Plan $47.95
Offers two meals per one week for 2 people
- Four-Person “Family” Plan $71.92
Provides two meals per one week for 4 people
*Each Two-Person plan can be upgraded to 3 meals per week while the "Family" plan can be set up up to 4 meals
Flexibility
Popular Meals
Marley Spoon
- Braised Black Bean Stew with Cheesy Grits and Crispy Shallots
- Buffalo Chicken Skewers with Celery Salad & Ranch Dressing
- Chile-Lime Shrimp with Jasmine Rice and Spinach
- Creamy Pesto Lasagna with Spinach & Roasted Red Peppers
- Broiled Chicken and Tomatoes with Mashed Potatoes & Pesto
Blue Apron
- Spicy Soy-Glazed Chicken Thighs with Green Beans & Jasmine Rice
- Oregano Chicken over Farro with Feta, Olives, and Lemon-Garlic Dressing
- Shrimp over Tomato-Jalapeño Rice with Avocado and Cabbage Slaw
- Italian Beef & Cheese Sandwiches with Garlic Mayo and Roasted Potato Wedges
- Crispy Chickpea Grain Bowl with Currants, Harissa-Glazed Carrots, and Almonds
Our Comparison
Meal Options
You can’t decide which meal kit service you should order food from? Well, it isn’t hard to tell what you should look for in meal service. Firstly, you should look for the options which are offered by a particular service. This is what separates good meal services from bad ones. There is a lot of meal services out there to choose from. However, we choose to talk about Marley Spoon and Blue Apron. They can be counted as one of the best meal kits you can find.
Marley Spoon can provide you with their meals through two plans – Two-person Plan and Family plan. Both of those plans are consisting of two to four meals a week. It depends on a particular week how many of them you are going to be offered. Also, Blue Apron has two plans, and they have same names as the Marley Spoon’s. When it comes to Blue Apron’s two-person plan, you can choose from two to three meals per week. Family Plan consists of two to four meals a week.
Surely, you can find something for you in both of these services. Choosing a winner in this category is not an easy task. The reason is that both of these services have very similar plans for their customers. So, without going into too many details, we are going to call it a draw.
Check out our complete lists for best rated family meal kits in 2020.
The Quality of Ingredients
Of course, you can’t have a quality meal without having high-quality ingredients. It is highly important for meal kit service to set up a standard when it comes to the quality of meals they are offering to the customers. This is something that their business depends on. Now, let us take a look at how quality is the ingredients Marley Spoon and Blue Apron have at their disposal. Also, we think that we should point out the sizes of portions you are going to get.
Blue Apron offers somewhat small portions; however, the quality of those portions makes up for it. Blue Apron as a meal kit service guarantees that meat they have in their dishes has no hormones added. Furthermore, some of their vegetables and fruits are organic, and of course, fresh. When it comes to Marley Spoon portions, they are somewhat bigger, in comparison to Blue Aprons. Still, the quantity is not always the quality. If we are talking about the quality of ingredients, we can say that they are top notch. All of them are picked from farms, which were specially selected in order to create a proper network.
Now, we have to say which one of these two is better in this category. Before that, we must say that both of those services are offering high-quality food. So, naturally, the ingredients are at the same level. But we must decide which one is better. The winner… Blue Apron. Although the portions are smaller than Marley Spoon’s, we must say that their ingredients are slightly better in quality.
Read more: Best Rated Organic Meal Kit Delivery
Nutritional Value
It’s not only important to have tasty food. A proper meal should be made of ingredients with a high nutritional value. As we said earlier, both of these meal services are selecting only the best ingredients for their meals. Naturally, if you have high-quality ingredients, there is only one possible outcome. There is a high possibility of you increasing your food standards for good.
Marley Spoon guarantees that their ingredients are of the highest quality possible. They claim that they are very careful when picking the right ingredients for their dishes. It is all about choosing the right ranches and farms. They are mostly small, family farms that have a great tradition in producing a certain ingredient. Blue Apron cannot guarantee that all of their vegetables are organic, but they can say that for most of them.
When it comes to meat, they claim that the meat they are buying from ranchers doesn’t have any additives or hormones. Deciding which services has ingredients of higher nutritional value is not an easy job. So, in order to avoid further unnecessary complications, we will call it a tie.
These meal kits are suitable for weight management, find out more.
Recipe Variety
Of course, before we started to write this article, we tried some of the dishes that can be found on Marley Spoon’s and Blue Aprons menus. We can say that they are really tasty. It is important that meal service has a high level of diversity when it comes to recipes. Marley Spoon offers a menu with pretty usual dishes, but with an addition of vegetables which are highly tasty and healthy. Of course, all of those dishes are really easy to prepare, and it doesn`t take up too much of your time. We would like to point out the best dishes from Marley Spoon, tortellini casserole and chicken breast.
Blue Apron offers a wide range of different meals to its customers. They are ranging from classic home cooking dishes, made with some alterations, to highly advanced meals. Their recipes are really simple, and you can make them pretty easily. It is required about an hour to prepare most of their meals. Like with Marley Spoon, we will point out some of the tastiest meals. Meals like Faro salad, roasted vegetables, and a Parisian stake. Deciding which service is better in this category isn’t easy. However, we are going to stay with Blue Apron.
Both meal kit services offer plans for Seniors and Kids (top meal kits suitable for picky-eaters here).
The Packaging
Marley Spoon provides its customers with innovative packaging that pre-portions food for each meal. These unique boxes include recyclable paper and plastic, and ice packs that will keep the ingredients fresh and cool.
The company delivers in most of the contiguous US. Every customer can check the delivery days and time in their town by choosing a plan and entering a zip code.
Blue Apron is all about the fresh, high-quality ingredients, convenience, good organization and best delivery of their delicious recipes. Their packaging is insulated and eco-friendly.
Also, the food you have ordered will be fresh when it arrives at your doorstep, thanks to the package that includes ice packs. This meal delivery service delivers nationwide to the contiguous United States.
Customer Support & Service
Marley Spoon
- Switching plans – Marley Spoon allow its clients to switch between the 2-person and 3-4 person plans whenever they want.
- Cancellation – If you don’t like what’s on the menu, you can skip a delivery or cancel your subscription at any time.
- Refunds – This Company offers a quality and freshness guarantee that is good for four days after you get your order.
- Gift – Marley Spoon doesn’t offer gifts.
- Free Trial – The Company also doesn’t provide clients with free trials.
- Customizable – Weekly menus can be customized.
Blue Apron
- Switching plans –Blue Apron lets its customers switch or change their meal plans up for the next week.
- Cancellation – If your order is shown as processed you will not be able to cancel it. But, otherwise, you can skip the delivery or cancel it.
- Refunds – This company offers its customers full or partial refund if they aren’t satisfied with food that you ordered.
- Gift – Blue Apron offers gift cards from time to time.
- Free Trial –Sometimes, Blue Apron can offer your free trials.
- Customizable – The meal delivery service allows its clients to choose which ingredients they want more of, which they want to change or to avoid.
Final Verdict
After going through all the categories, and looking at all the advantages and disadvantages of both Marley Spoon and Blue Apron, it is the time to come up with a final decision. And the winner is Blue Apron. They have more options when it comes to recipes, and the quality of ingredients for their meals is slightly higher.