Comparison
The best meal kit for families in the UK
We track the real prices and weekly menus of every major UK meal kit. Here's which box gives families the best mix of cost per head, choice for fussy eaters, and box size — worked out from the numbers, not guesswork.
Short answer: for most UK families, Gousto is the best all-rounder. It's the cheapest of the fixed family plans at £4.44 a meal (before offers) and has by far the biggest menu we track — around 276 recipes a week — so there's the best chance of finding something everyone, fussy eaters included, will actually eat. HelloFresh is the close runner-up (£4.99 a meal, ~172 recipes) and usually has the biggest new-customer sweetener — though, as the numbers below show, Gousto is cheaper at every box size.
"Best" for a family really comes down to three things: cost per head (you're cooking several nights a week, so a few pence a meal adds up fast), menu choice (more recipes = more chance of a crowd-pleaser), and box size (does it feed four, and can you scale it up on busy weeks). Here's how the boxes stack up.
Family boxes compared: price, choice and box size
Prices are the standard, undiscounted cost of a 4-person, 2-recipe box (8 servings) divided into a per-meal figure, captured by hand from each brand's own live plan selector. Menu size is the number of recipes on the menu the week we checked. Offers are read from each brand's homepage.
| Brand | £ / meal (standard) | Recipes on the menu | Family box | New-customer offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gousto | £4.44 | ~276 | 4-person, pick 2–5 recipes | 50% off box 1, 40% off box 2, 20% off boxes 3–8 |
| HelloFresh | £4.99 | ~172 | 4-person, pick 2–5 recipes | 50% off first box + free treats for 2 months |
| Riverford | £4.38 | à la carte | Feeds-4 recipe boxes, ordered individually | Free chopping board over £35 (code CHOPTOIT) + free delivery |
| Green Chef | £6.25 | ~105 | 4-person, 3 recipes (12 meals) | 40% off |
| Mindful Chef | £6.59 | ~28 | 4-person, pick recipes | 30% off first 4 boxes + free delivery on box 1 |
| Grubby (plant-based) | £7.50 | ~79 | 4-person, pick recipes | 30% off box 1 + free brownies, then 15% off boxes 2–6 |
Prices: Gousto and HelloFresh re-verified live 17 Sep 2026 (4-person, 2-recipe box, standard rate); the other brands captured 6 Aug 2026 from their own plan selectors. Menu sizes: week 2026-W38. Offers: checked 17 Sep 2026. Green Chef only sells a 4×3 box, so its per-meal figure is off a bigger 12-meal box. Riverford has no fixed subscription — its £4.38 is two "Easy Evenings" feeds-4 boxes ordered together (face value, before any multibuy saving), a different proposition to a weekly plan.
Our pick for families
Best all-rounder — Gousto. It's the cheapest of the proper family subscriptions and has the widest menu by a distance, which is exactly what you want when you're feeding kids with opinions. A 4-person box lets you pick 2–5 recipes a week, so you can flex it up on the weeks you're home more. After the intro offer your first box lands around £2.22 a meal.
Close second — HelloFresh. A bit dearer per meal (and the gap grows on bigger boxes — see below), but a large menu and typically the most generous new-customer deal — currently 50% off the first box plus free treats for two months. If Gousto's menu doesn't grab you one week, this is the like-for-like alternative.
Why Gousto wins for most families
Two things make it the safe family pick. First, price: at £4.44 a meal it's the lowest of any fixed weekly plan we track, and when you're cooking three, four, five nights a week that gap compounds into real money over a month. Second, choice: ~276 recipes a week is more than double HelloFresh's menu and roughly ten times Mindful Chef's — so on any given week there's far more chance of landing a dish the whole table will eat, plus simpler "kid classic" style recipes alongside the more adventurous ones. You choose the recipes yourself each week, so nothing lands that you didn't pick.
Why HelloFresh is the strong runner-up
HelloFresh is the most recognisable family brand for a reason — reliable, well-portioned boxes and clear, quick recipes — and its menu (~172 recipes) is smaller than Gousto's but still large. It's a little dearer per meal than Gousto (around 55p more on the smallest box, and more as you scale up — see below), but its new-customer offer is usually the headline-grabber. If you're trying a box for the first time, the big first-box discount can make HelloFresh the cheapest way to simply give meal kits a go.
Does it get cheaper if you order more recipes?
Yes — both brands' price per serving falls as you add recipes to a weekly box, but Gousto starts lower and drops faster, so it stays cheaper at every size. These are standard (undiscounted) per-serving prices for a 4-person box, verified live on 17 September 2026:
| Recipes per week | Gousto £/serving | HelloFresh £/serving | Gousto cheaper by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 recipes | £4.44 | £4.99 | 55p |
| 3 recipes | £3.94 | £4.49 | 55p |
| 4 recipes | £3.44 | £4.29 | 85p |
| 5 recipes | £3.20 | £3.99 | 79p |
Standard rates, 4-person box, box price ÷ servings, verified live 17 Sep 2026 with no new-customer discount applied. Delivery is on top for both: HelloFresh charges £4.99 a box; Gousto's quoted price excludes delivery (typically around £3.99). Even adding a delivery fee back to Gousto, it stays cheaper from 3 recipes a week upward.
The practical upshot for families: the more you cook from the box, the further Gousto pulls ahead. If you've heard HelloFresh is the cheaper one, that's usually its heavy first-box discounts talking — not its standard price.
The others, and who they suit
Riverford is the cheapest per meal on paper (£4.38) and organic, but it isn't a weekly family plan — you order feeds-4 recipe boxes individually, so there's no big rotating menu to keep kids interested week to week. Great for occasional organic cooking, less so as your default midweek engine. Green Chef only sells a larger 4-person, 3-recipe box (12 meals), so the total is higher even though it suits a family that wants more meals banked in one delivery. Mindful Chef is the priciest mainstream option at £6.59 with a small menu (~28 recipes) — its draw is that every meal is lighter and protein-led, not family value. Grubby is fully plant-based and the most expensive here, so it's a fit only if the household is cooking vegan.
A note on box sizes and portions
Every brand except Riverford sells a genuine 4-person box, and Gousto, HelloFresh, Mindful Chef and Grubby all let you choose how many recipes you get each week (typically 2–5). That flexibility matters more than it looks for families: you can drop to two recipes on a hectic week and bump up to four or five when you've got time, without changing your subscription. Portions are generous — a "4-person" serving comfortably feeds two adults and two younger children for most brands, and leftovers for lunch are common. Green Chef is the exception on structure: its smallest family box is 3 recipes, so you commit to more food per delivery.
If someone in the family avoids gluten
It's not the main event for most families, but if one of you eats gluten-free it's worth knowing Gousto also carries by far the widest gluten-free choice — around 138 of its 276 recipes the week we checked — so you can feed a mixed table from one box. HelloFresh labels only a handful most weeks, and Mindful Chef's whole (smaller) menu is gluten-free. One caveat: no UK meal kit is made in a dedicated gluten-free facility, so a "gluten-free" label means gluten-free ingredients, not a coeliac-safe guarantee — check directly with the brand if that matters. Our gluten-free comparison has the full picture.
How we worked this out
We crawl each brand's live menu every week and count the recipes ourselves, and we take prices from a manual check of each brand's real plan selector at the standard (undiscounted) rate — the Gousto and HelloFresh figures here were re-verified live on 17 September 2026 across 2–5 recipes a week, the others from a 6 August 2026 check. Offers are read from each brand's homepage weekly — last checked 17 September 2026. We don't track a "kid-friendly recipe" score because no brand publishes one honestly, so we won't invent it; the family case rests on price, choice and box size, which we do measure. Numbers move week to week, so we date everything — and we'd rather show no figure than a shaky one.
Common questions
What is the best meal kit for a family in the UK?
Gousto for most families — it's the cheapest fixed family plan (£4.44 a meal, before offers) and has the biggest menu we track (~276 recipes a week), so there's the best chance of finding meals everyone will eat. HelloFresh is a close second.
Which family meal kit is cheapest?
Of the proper weekly family plans, Gousto at £4.44 a meal (standard rate). Riverford is £4.38 but it's à la carte organic boxes rather than a subscription. New-customer offers make the first few boxes of any brand cheaper than the standard price.
Is HelloFresh cheaper than Gousto?
No — on standard prices Gousto is cheaper at every box size, and the gap widens the more recipes you order (Gousto is about 55p a serving cheaper at 2 recipes, rising to 80–85p at 4–5). HelloFresh's reputation for value comes from its big first-box discounts, not its standard price.
Do meal kits do a 4-person box?
Yes — Gousto, HelloFresh, Mindful Chef and Grubby all sell a 4-person box and let you pick how many recipes you get each week (usually 2–5). Green Chef's family box is 4-person, 3-recipe. Riverford sells feeds-4 recipe boxes individually rather than as a plan.
Are the portions big enough for kids?
A "4-person" serving comfortably feeds two adults and two younger children for most brands, and often leaves lunch leftovers. You can also add more recipes per week on busy stretches rather than change your plan.
Which family meal kit has the most choice for fussy eaters?
Gousto, by a wide margin — around 276 recipes a week, more than double any other box, including plenty of simpler "kid classic" style dishes alongside the adventurous ones. You choose the recipes yourself, so nothing arrives that you didn't pick.