WhichMealKit| Service | Meals a delivery | Six meals | Order once | Longer break |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Splendid Spoon Prepared meals | 6, 12, 18 | from $59.94 $9.99 a meal, before shipping | No | Skip a week; no pause stated |
| Factor Prepared meals | 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 | $65.94–$83.94 $10.99–$13.99 a meal, before shipping | No | Deactivate, then reactivate when you are ready |
| CookUnity Prepared meals | 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 | $72.33–$88.13 $10.39–$12.69 a meal, with shipping | Yes | Pause up to 8 weeks |
| Purple Carrot Ready to Eat (beside its kits) | 6 | $90.00–$120.00 $13.00–$18.00 a meal, with shipping | No | Pause for 6, 8 or 10 weeks |
| Marley Spoon Balance (beside its kits) | 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 | In its cart | No | Pause; length not stated |
How many meals a week
Every meal is one serving, so count meals, not boxes: two people eating three dinners need six. Factor sells 4 to 14 meals in steps of two, CookUnity 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16, and Splendid Spoon 6, 12 or 18 items. Purple Carrot’s Ready to Eat comes six at a time, and Marley Spoon’s Balance line runs from 6 to 18 meals. Splendid Spoon counts drinks as items, so a plan of six is not always six dinners.
Ordering once, and taking a break
CookUnity is the one prepared service here that also sells a one-time order. It pauses for up to eight weeks, then restarts on its own. Factor treats deactivating as a pause you end when you choose; Splendid Spoon lets you skip a week, and some first plans carry a commitment of several weeks that you can skip but not cancel. Each service’s steps and cutoff are on its own page: Factor, CookUnity, Splendid Spoon.
Prepared meals inside a kit box
If you cook most nights, three kit services add single meals to the same order: HelloFresh’s Ready-Made Meals, Home Chef’s Heat & Eat meals and Sunbasket’s Fresh & Ready. They are extras in a kit box, not plans of their own. Home Chef also runs Tempo, a separate prepared-meal service with its own plans, which is not compared here.
Heating or cooking
A prepared meal arrives cooked and portioned: you heat it in a microwave or oven. A kit arrives as ingredients and a recipe card, and you cook. The trade is time against choice of portion and freshness of cooking: meal kits vs prepared meals.
Compare
Factor vs CookUnity sets the two largest prepared ranges side by side. Purple Carrot vs Splendid Spoon compares the two plant-based services, and HelloFresh vs Factor a kit against prepared meals from the same company.