Skip the Store: These Are the Best Grocery Delivery Services for Every Budget

Getting my Whole Foods Market haul delivered is one of those times when I marvel at the abundance available to me in today’s world. I can always count on this market for a wide variety of healthy products, and getting them delivered in two hours is the icing on the cake. What’s more, Whole Foods Market is the whole package. Unlike competitor Thrive Market, it carries fresh produce, not just shelf-stable and frozen items. Unlike sister store Amazon Fresh, it’s entirely focused on healthy products. And unlike some specialty online grocers, it has all the personal care, household, and supplement products I need.

The quality is always excellent, especially the produce. While it’s not exactly cheap ($5 for a cheese stick pack is a bit much), you still get some bang for for buck. My haul took care of most of my breakfasts for a week (fruit, veggie, and yogurt smoothies, and some root vegetable hash browns for a weekend treat), plus five meals, snacks, herbs, and tea. My meals included a delicately flavored scallops and risotto dish, so I could hit at least half of my seafood targets for the week, stir-fries with fake meat crumbles and veggies, and a few chicken salads.

I was very comfortable on the Amazon website (who isn’t nowadays?), so navigating the virtual aisles was seamless and familiar. Beyond speed, the delivery experience was excellent. I could pick from a multitude of two-hour delivery options — and see when my driver left and where they were on a map. Plus, unlike some other services, no one called to ask me to let them in (Amazon delivery people are so ubiquitous, they probably have their own code to my complex). As a result, the entire shopping experience was fast and convenient from start to finish, the way it should be.

If I could pick one delivery service on this list to use again and again, Instacart would probably be my go-to. Since it isn’t just a grocery delivery service, you have a much wider variety of options to choose from. I loved that I could order from Sprouts, one of my favorite natural food stores, alongside chains like Grocery Outlet, Albertsons, Target, and Costco. You can order from multiple stores for one delivery too, eliminating the frustrating and time-consuming hassle of making multiple stops on shopping days. That said, I was sad to see that my beloved Trader Joe’s wasn’t an option, and of course, Whole Foods Market has its own service.

I opted for a Sprouts haul and was pleased at how much I could get for my $110 budget. Not only did I take care of my breakfast smoothies for a week — I also got seven full meals for myself and one for me and a few family members. I am obsessed with Sprout’s pumpkin seeds, cranberries, and walnuts, which I combined with organic Tuscan kale, farro, and goat cheese for a delicious salad. The wild-caught salmon I received was giant — enough for three meals — and looked like it came right off a boat. My pork chops looked fresh, pink, and high-quality. The prices were affordable enough for me to include a second seafood protein (mussels) in my haul, which I wasn’t able to do with any other service.

Instacart can also be incredibly fast — in theory. In some cases, you can request a 30-minute delivery. I chose two hours, but at the end of that window, I received a call from a customer service agent saying that my driver couldn’t find me and was asking if she could call me. Then I spent 20 minutes on the phone with my irritable and lost driver and had to walk out and guide her to me from the street. This may have been a fluke, but I read similar reviews from other customers, so keep that in mind if you opt for this service.

If you’re pretty flexible about what types of items you’ll eat, Amazon Fresh can be a great pick. As long as you’re not shopping for organic, non-GMO, grass-fed, or wild-caught fare, the prices are more affordable than the competitors on this list. I saw a pound of chicken breast for $6, 32 ounces of Amazon-brand greek yogurt for $3.60, and a pound of ground turkey for $4, for example. Those items easily cost several dollars more when shopping with competitors. Plus, Amazon Fresh has the convenience of shopping on a familiar platform.

If you’re super picky like me, Amazon Fresh probably won’t save you much, though, and you’ll have a smaller selection of healthy items. While it was great to see health brands like Alexia Foods and Amy’s Kitchen available, those items were comparably priced to places like Sprouts and Whole Foods Market, but with a smaller selection. Additionally, the only organic chicken thighs on offer were sold out. That was the only cut I was looking for, so I opted for beef instead. I was happy that I could get organic, 100 percent grass-fed beef, but I paid $12.99 for it — around the same as at another grocer.

I did well with my haul, however. I got enough for fruit and veggie breakfast smoothies all week, six meals for myself, and a delicious and hearty beef stew with carrots and potatoes for a few family members and me, plus leftovers. I loved the mussels in white wine sauce with fragrant rosemary fries, meatless crumbles that I paired with veggies and rice, and my Amy’s Kitchen frozen meal.

If you’re a very discerning eater, picky when it comes to additives, or have special dietary needs, Thrive Market just might be your oasis. The brand is committed to using non-GMO and organic ingredients whenever possible, its products are sourced from ethical and sustainable supply chains, and it has banned over 1,000 ingredients, including high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, antibiotics, and parabens. Additionally, you can search the virtual aisles based on special diets, like gluten-free or paleo; health and ingredients, such as dye-free or non-GMO; and health concerns, such as thyroid health (note that most items for health concerns are herbs or supplements).

Thrive Market also offers price matching and says it offers discounted prices on healthy name-brand products. I didn’t find this to be entirely true: It was still expensive — comparable to Whole Foods Market. But my haul did get me breakfasts for the week, six meals for myself, and one meal I shared with my mom and brother, which was about the same number of meals I got everywhere else. The large pack of delicately flavored, delicious cod I received was enough for a family meal, a meal for myself, and leftovers. So that gave me two seafood dishes in a week. My favorite item, though, was the incredibly scrumptious almond flour-based ravioli with spinach and ricotta.

Thrive Market does have some limitations. First, it doesn’t have fresh foods like produce and eggs. Options are limited to frozen and pantry items, and those come in separate shipments with separate shipping costs (see below for pricing). Additionally, there are some minimum item count requirements on certain items (like some frozen produce and snacks). Because of the shipping policies, fees, and minimum item requirement, I think Thrive Market is great if you’re buying in bulk and placing large orders all at once.

If you’re passionate about reducing food waste and its impact on the environment, Imperfect Foods is the brand for you. It rescues foods like tricolor quinoa that don’t have a good enough color ratio to be sold at a store, strangely shaped meat scraps, and “too small” onions. They either repurpose them into products (such as chocolate-covered broken pretzel bites) or sell them as is — they’re all perfectly edible and tasty. In each order, customers save about five pounds of food from being used as animal feed, composted or juiced, sitting in a field, going to a landfill, or other outcomes that are less beneficial than being sold as food.

I like that the brand also sells regular products, so I could still get certain items I needed even if they weren’t rescued (though Imperfect Foods doesn’t sell frozen produce). I got all I needed for breakfast smoothies, plus a dozen eggs for omelets; snacks; four individual meals; and two family meals with my order. I loved my fajitas made with name-brand Beyond Meat’s fake steak tips; roast pork with apples, onions, and celery; and tasty ravioli made with rescued cheese. All the produce looked high quality and the prices were very reasonable.

One thing to note is that I couldn’t pick my delivery time, and my box arrived at 8 a.m. I’d slept in that day, so the box sat out for a few hours. Of course, the meats were all kept cold with gel packs, but if they’d been out there for too much longer I would have worried a bit. Also, everything came in one big box, which I had to drag to get inside. If you have porch steps, you might need to enlist some help. Finally, your cart is automatically filled and shipped with random items each week unless you remember to skip delivery weeks or edit your cart.

If you’re horrified by factory farming (like I am), ButcherBox will be a big relief. This online butcher sells meat exclusively from animals that are never confined to a feedlot or crate. Most have continuous access to a pasture. In fact, according to its website, “ButcherBox is the only B Corp certified meat and seafood brand to source only from partners with third-party animal welfare certifications.” All its seafood is ethically and sustainably caught or farmed. Finally, its animals are fed natural diets (grass, vegetarian feed) and aren’t pumped with hormones and antibiotics.

The thought of eating cooped-up chickens has had me seriously considering my diet, so picking cuts for my classic-sized box on the “Custom” plan (a flat $169 for six items of my choosing, plus a free gift) was a lot of fun, since I knew I was eating ethically. Following Del Coro’s recommendations, I was sure to include seafood and limit red meat to just a few of my picks. I chose flat iron steaks (four 6-ounce steaks) chicken thighs (3 pounds), cooked chicken cubes (1.5 pounds), pork loin (1 pound), wild-caught shrimp (1 pound), and wild-caught scallops (1 pound), plus 2 pounds of free ground beef. This was enough meat to last me for a while in the freezer.

So far, everything has been delicious: The pork loin was moist, the steaks were perfectly tender, and the ground beef tastes nothing like the cheap kind you get in regular markets. Just note that ButcherBox isn’t really a budget option. You’ll pay $169 for a box that includes 9 to 14 pounds of meats of your choice, or $306 for a box of 18 to 26 pounds. To reduce costs, get a “Curated” plan, which means the company chooses the cuts for you from a limited selection of meats (beef and chicken plan; beef, chicken, and pork plan; pork and beef plan). This costs $146 to $269.

If you like the idea of reducing food waste but hate going to the grocery store, Misfits Market may be the service for you. Of course, if this business model sounds familiar, that’s because it is — Imperfect Foods merged with Misfits Market in 2023. Like Imperfect Foods, Misfits Market works to buy up the “undesirable” foods that grocery stores might reject for reasons that don’t impact the quality of the product, such as an irregularly shaped apple or a package with outdated branding. Oftentimes, these items are destined for a landfill, but Misfits Market helps ensure that doesn’t happen.

One of the aspects I liked most about Misfits Market is the large variety of snacks and pantry items, similar to what you might find at Trader Joe’s. While the service offers plentiful organic options, picking up a package of overnight oats or a bag of pretzel bites is nice. However, I felt the real test would be to order a variety of items that were either easily damaged (eggs, berries) or more prone to leaking or spoilage (chicken breasts, yogurt).

I was pleased to find that all my items arrived packed with care. I’ve had grocery delivery services that included a package of loose berries rattling around the box, broken eggs, or even (on one memorable occasion) spoiled meat. Misfits Market impressed me with the care it took to package my items. My carton of eggs was securely cocooned in bubble wrap, and my blueberries remained safely in the plastic clamshell packaging. Some boxed items, such as my oat milk, suffered minor dings in transit, but everything ultimately arrived on my doorstep fresh, cool, and undamaged.

Misfits Market’s selection is large enough that I could order a good balance of fresh items and pantry staples. One night, I made a simple dinner of grilled organic chicken breasts accompanied by a green salad and roasted sweet potato. I also enjoyed quick, healthy breakfasts using premade high-protein overnight oats and organic blueberries. Being a bit of a lazy snacker, I also appreciated the convenience of a tray of precut veggies and containers of grass-fed Greek yogurt.

While I was very happy with my order overall, two things stood out. One is that some of the produce seemed to spoil more quickly than I anticipated, so you’ll want to be sure you’re storing your food correctly. Another is that if you think you can let items sit in your cart while you think about it, you would be incorrect — you have a three-day window to edit your orders, and after that deadline passes, your box will ship. Your shipments are easy to monitor via the app or website, but this aspect took me by surprise.