The Best High-Protein Meal Delivery Services (2026)

We are in the midst of a high-protein craze. Every week I get dozens of protein-packed pitches to my inbox, and I’m sure you’ve seen the protein bars plastered all over subway cars, protein-ified menu items at fast-casual chains like Starbucks and Sweetgreen, and protein versions of classic products (protein pasta, protein crackers, protein…yogurt?) lining practically every aisle at the grocery store.

“I generally recommend spreading protein intake evenly throughout the day with about 20–30 grams per meal (of course, depending on your specific needs),” explains Yasi Ansari, MS, RDN, CSSD, a registered dietitian based in Los Angeles. If you’ve ever attempted to adopt the protein-maxing lifestyle, you’ll know that this can actually be quite difficult to do, especially if you’re trying to prioritize whole foods over bars and powders. That’s where high-protein meal delivery services come in. These kits and ready-to-eat meals are an excellent way to ensure you’re getting ample protein throughout the day, without feeling like you need to meal prep 12 chicken breasts and six pounds of ground beef every week.

Our top picks

• The best high-protein meal kit for most people: HelloFresh
• Best prepared high-protein meal delivery: Factor
• Best for people who live to eat: CookUnity
• Best high-protein meal delivery for people with big appetites: Fresh Meal Plan
• Best for vegans: Purple Carrot
• Best high-protein meal delivery for people who love to grocery shop: Hungryroot

Of course, we are live-to-eat people here at Bon Appétit, so we looked for services that consistently delivered on both the protein and flavor fronts. Every service we tested had a “high protein” (or equivalent) menu filter, which typically meant that those meals had at least 15 grams of protein per serving (though most were in the 30–40 gram range). Read on for all of the high-protein meal delivery services we’d actually order from again.

The best high-protein meal kit for most people: HelloFresh

Tested and reviewed by: Brittany Loggins, contributor

About HelloFresh: HelloFresh has been in the meal kit game for a long time, and the company had reached a staggering 74% market share as of 2022. While it’s known for its meal kits, it also offers a variety of heat-and-eat and grocery items.

What we love: HelloFresh is one of the most well-known brands in the meal kit space for a reason: Its meals are consistently tasty and well-thought-out, and the sheer number of menu options each week means there’s truly something for everyone. As for the high-protein items, I counted a whopping 156 on an upcoming week’s menu, which seemed to all have over 30 grams of protein per serving.

When contributor Brittany Loggins tested the service recently, she was thoroughly impressed. “After a week of cooking, I ended up with several meals I loved enough to make again on my own. Along the way, I picked up a few new tricks—easy ways to add flavor and texture with spices, sauces, and garnishes I wouldn’t normally reach for, but now absolutely will,” she writes. Some favorite high-protein meals from her week of testing included a crispy Parmesan chicken with garlic scallion couscous and lemony roasted carrots, chicken sausage and spinach ricotta ravioli with tomatoes and lemon, and one-pan beef stir-fry tacos with tangy slaw, crispy fried onions, and sriracha mayo.

What we’d leave: A number of BA contributors and staffers have tested HelloFresh over the years, and one common complaint is that product quality or longevity can be a bit hit or miss.

Click here for our full review of HelloFresh.

The best prepared high-protein meal delivery service for most people: Factor

Tested and reviewed by: April Benshosan, contributor; Alaina Chou, commerce writer

About Factor: Factor’s line of premade microwavable meals are ready after a quick zap in the microwave. They’re dietitian-approved, according to Factor’s website, and marketed toward the health and wellness-minded.

What we love: Microwaveable tray meals are hard to execute, and after years of testing by multiple staffers and contributors, our consensus is that Factor makes excellent prepared meals. Most Factor dishes follow a protein plus starch plus veggie format that, while simple, means the meals feel both balanced and satisfying. Proteins tend to be well-cooked and nicely seasoned, and dishes are flavorful across the board. When contributor April Benshosan tested the service recently, she was shocked by “how juicy and well-cooked the chicken breast was in every single Factor meal.” When I tested the service for two weeks, I found the same to be true—in fact, the poultry dishes I, Alaina, ordered (namely the Green Chile Chicken and Homestyle Turkey and Gravy) turned out to be my favorites.

But of course, there are plenty of tasty prepared meal delivery services out there. The thing that sets Factor apart is the sheer number of high-protein options available each week (I most recently counted over 60). “High protein” means something different for every service on this list, but Factor seems to reserve this label for meals with 30 or more grams of protein (though I spotted a decent number of offerings with over 40 grams).

What we’d leave: While Factor offers dozens of high protein options, the samey-samey format can become repetitive if you’re eating them for weeks at a time. Benshosan also notes that the meals can be pretty high in sodium, with some containing more than 20% of the recommended daily value. “That wasn’t a deal-breaker for me because each meal made up about a third or a fourth of my total daily calories (and I like to think I need the extra electrolytes since I sweat out a lot of sodium at the gym), but it’s something to keep in mind depending on your dietary needs,” she writes.

Click here for our full review of Factor’s high-protein meals.

The best high-protein meal delivery service for people who live to eat: CookUnity

Tested and reviewed by: Noah Kaufman, senior commerce editor

About CookUnity: In all our years of testing meal delivery services, CookUnity has always produced the most culinary prepared meals. The company signs up chefs to develop meals, many of them big names like Pierre Thiam, Jose Garces, and Michelle Bernstein. Meals come to your door fresh (as opposed to frozen or half-frozen like lots of other prepared meal delivery services).

What we love: Making heat-and-eat meals is so, so hard to get right. Precooked proteins rarely have taste and texture anywhere close to what you could make if you prepped them fresh. But CookUnity nails this. The chicken was impressively juicy, and, even more unexpectedly, the eggs in the breakfast burrito weren’t at all dry. Speaking of that breakfast burrito, it held together tightly after coming out of the microwave, a feat lots of premade microwave burritos fail to accomplish. I take all those as signs of well-prepared food.

The flavors were also bold across the board. The spice mixtures used on the chicken and swai fish popped, and the sauces and dressings included to drizzle over top added nice acidic tang.

The range of choices, even within the high-protein category, is wide enough that I had no problem finding a week’s worth of interesting meals.

What we’d leave: For all the accolades I give CookUnity for how it pulls off precooked chicken and eggs, the rice I had in my taco bowl was undercooked and a bit crunchy.

Also, while there are a number of high-protein options, the filter for them is a bit hard to find. On the ordering page, you’ll need to click the Diet and Lifestyle drop-down menu and scroll down until you find Protein, under which there’s an option to check off a Protein Boost box (to filter for meals the include 30-plus grams of protein), or use a slider to select a minimum and/or maximum amount of grams per meal.

Click here for our full review of CookUnity.

The best high-protein meal delivery service for people with big appetites: Fresh Meal Plan

Tested and reviewed by: Alaina Chou, commerce writer

About Fresh Meal Plan: Fresh Meal Plan specializes in microwaveable tray meals that are, as the name would suggest, fresh rather than frozen. The meals are also dietitian-approved and “chef-crafted” according to the brand’s website. With meal labels like Keto, Paleo, Vegan, and Lean & Mean, this is a service that feels targeted toward wellness-heads with specific health goals.

What we love: Everything about Fresh Meal Plan’s website gives gym bro, from the copy to the (not very stylized) imagery, so my expectations were low when I set out to test the service. I was pleasantly surprised with how tasty the meals I ordered were. Nearly every dish tasted fresh and perfectly seasoned, portions were ample, and I was particularly impressed with how well some of the vegetable sides retained their texture even after three minutes in the microwave. As someone who loves a simple, well-executed, balanced meal, I particularly enjoyed the juicy lemon thyme chicken with sweet potato and asparagus.

I was also impressed by how high in protein Fresh Meal Plan’s offerings were across the board. The majority of the meals (of which there are typically over 60 on a given week) have more than 30 grams of protein, many have more than 40, and there are even a few options with 50-plus grams for those really looking to protein load. I also loved that I could make any meal “XL” for an added $3—a major plus for anyone who often finds themselves still hungry after a standard microwaveable tray meal.

What we’d leave: There was one major miss among the meals I ordered—namely, a piece of cod that was tough and fishy and came with some green beans that were truly on their last legs. I’ll also note that Fresh Meal Plan’s menu offerings aren’t exactly exciting. Most could be categorized as classic American fare, with some Italian American and Mexican-inspired dishes sprinkled in.

The best vegan high-protein meal delivery service: Purple Carrot

Tested and reviewed by: Alaina Chou, commerce writer

About Purple Carrot: Purple Carrot has been our favorite vegan meal kit for years, so it’s no surprise that it’s also our top pick for vegans looking to eat a high-protein diet. Every menu item the brand offers is entirely vegan, from the meal kits to the grocery selection.

What we love: I tend to eat some form of meat every day, so I wasn’t expecting to like Purple Carrot nearly as much as I did. In fact, in all of my years of testing meal delivery services, Purple Carrot is undoubtedly one my favorites I’ve tried. That’s largely because the meals are all genuinely interesting—so much so that I had a hard time narrowing down my choices during my two weeks of testing.

My main gripe with fully plant-based eating is that, as someone who prioritizes protein in her diet, I find it difficult to get my fill without the help of lean meats like chicken and fish. That’s why I was so impressed with Purple Carrot’s high protein offerings—there were over 30 options for one of the weeks I looked at when writing this review, which means plenty to choose from each week.

The preparation for each dish I made was straightforward and eating them felt satisfying, so much so that I never missed the meat. Some favorites were the BBQ Burnt Ends, which used a pulled mushroom protein to (very convincingly) mimic barbecued meat, and the Spicy Szechuan-Style Glass Noodles, which had a hefty amount of tofu that kept me full for hours.

What we’d leave: While many of the other services on this list set the bar for what’s considered “high-protein” at 30 grams, Purple Carrot seems to award the label to anything over 15 grams, which is a bit lower than I try to aim for with my lunches and dinners.

It’s also worth noting that for the most part, these are not designed to be particularly speedy meals. Most of the meals I tested took somewhere between 30–45 minutes, though I will note each meal was pretty accurate to the total cook time stated on the recipe card.

Click here for our full review of Purple Carrot.

The best high-protein meal kit for people who hate grocery shopping in person: Hungryroot

Tested and reviewed by: Alaina Chou, commerce writer

About Hungryroot: Hungryroot occupies its own category in our meal kit coverage. Think of it as an online grocery store that specializes in semi-prepared foods, which Hungryroot helps you mix and match to create a slate of easy-to-make meals.

What we love: Hungryroot is the most customizable service on this list, perfect for people who love the idea of grocery shopping but hate the process of actually going to the store. Instead of signing up for a set number of meals, you’ll sign up for a plan that includes a certain number of credits per week and then go about adding items to your cart until you reach your limit (though you can always tack on more things for an added charge). You can shop from the Recipes or Groceries section, the difference being that the former features meal kits made up of a few grocery items (think Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas made from a premade green chile sauce, fully cooked seasoned chicken, tortillas, and sour cream), and the latter is a way for you to add a host of individual items to your cart, including the ones you’ll find in the recipes.

Hungryroot has a staggering number of options for anyone looking to up their protein intake. You can easily filter for high-protein meals (which Hungryroot classifies as 25-plus grams per serving) and select your desired protein source from options like chicken, bison, or tempeh.

I particularly loved all of Hungryroot’s fully cooked chicken options. The individual packs of sous vide chicken were great for adding protein to salads or wraps, and the sous vide half chicken made for an easy weeknight dinner, requiring just a quick trip to the oven to warm through and crisp up. These sous vide packages also promised to stay fresh if refrigerated unopened for far longer than a piece of chicken I cooked myself would, which meant I wasn’t stressed about using everything up within a single week.

What we’d leave: If you suffer from decision paralysis, be warned: Hungryroot’s Recipes section is essentially a list of every possible combination of ingredients from its grocery selection, which means there are thousands of options to scroll through, and many of them are nearly identical. I found this overwhelming, and if I were to continue to use Hungryroot in the future, I would gravitate toward using the recipes solely as inspiration and instead adding my own selection of individual grocery items to my cart every week.

While Hungryroot recipes are extremely beginner-friendly, a bit of cooking intuition will go a long way in streamlining and elevating each meal. For instance, I saved myself some cleanup by combining veggies and proteins in a single oven-safe pan and roasting them together, instead of sautéing the vegetables on the stove while the protein baked.

How we tested high-protein meal delivery services

To test high-protein meal delivery services, we relied on years of testing experience to establish a list of prospects. Then we enlisted the help of BA staffers and contributors to test each service for at least a week. We took notes on the ordering process, number and variety of high-protein offerings available each week, and delivery and unboxing experience for every service.

Then it was time to eat. We cooked or reheated meals according to the instructions, then assessed them based on ingredient quality, recipe clarity, and, of course, taste.

Frequently asked questions

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