HelloFresh Alternatives in the UK: What the Kits Cost, and When to Skip Them
By Alex Fahey, founder of Chop it. Last updated 16 August 2026. All kit prices were taken from each company's own checkout on 5 August 2026, at the standard rate rather than the introductory offer.
A meal kit solves two problems in one purchase. It decides what you are eating, and it does the shopping. Those are the two jobs that actually stop people cooking on a Wednesday, so the kits earn their popularity honestly.
What they charge for that is between £4.65 and £7.62 a portion. If you are looking for a HelloFresh alternative because the weekly total crept up on you, the useful question is which of those two jobs you actually need buying. A planning app solves the deciding, leaves the shopping to you at supermarket prices, and costs a few pounds a month rather than a few pounds a meal. I compare the main UK meal planning apps here, with prices checked the same day as these.
I build one of those apps, so weigh the last section accordingly. The prices are the prices.
What the three big kits cost
Standard rates, taken from each checkout on 5 August 2026:
| Kit | Box checked | Portions | Box price | Per portion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gousto | Two-person box | 10 | £46.49 | £4.65 |
| HelloFresh | 3 meals for 2 people | 6 | £32.99 + £4.99 shipping | £5.50 |
| Mindful Chef | 4 recipes for 2 people | 8 | £60.95 | £7.62 |
Mindful Chef sits highest because it is a different proposition: smaller portions of higher-spec ingredients, no refined carbs, and per-recipe pricing rather than a flat box rate. Its own recipe pages price individually, so a Creamy Pomodoro Risotto for two comes to £13.80, or £6.90 a serving, while another recipe the same week costs more or less.
The number on the page is not the number you pay
Every one of them advertises a first-box price that is roughly half the real one.
- HelloFresh: £2.75 a serving instead of £5.50, box £16.49 instead of £32.99, shipping free instead of £4.99.
- Gousto: £2.32 a portion instead of £4.65.
- Mindful Chef: £5.33 a portion instead of £7.62, via 30% off your next four orders.
Those are real offers and worth taking. They are not what a kit costs. Comparison articles that quote them are either careless or hoping you will not check, and it is the single most common way this category gets written about dishonestly. Budget on the standard rate, because that is what lands in week three when the discount runs out.
Take the numbers above at face value and a household eating five kit dinners a week for two people is spending between £46 and £76 a week on ten portions, before anything else in the fridge.
What the premium actually buys
Three things, and it is worth being clear about which you need.
The decision. Somebody chose five dinners that work, balance across the week and do not repeat. This is the part most people underestimate. Deciding is genuinely the hard bit.
The shopping. No list, no trip, no standing in front of the herbs trying to remember whether you have cumin.
The portioning. Exactly 30g of pine nuts, so nothing rots in the cupboard. For a two-person household buying at supermarket pack sizes, this is a real saving that partly offsets the premium, and anyone comparing kits to a shop who ignores it is being unfair to the kits.
What you are not buying is better ingredients than a supermarket sells. Gousto and HelloFresh source from the same wholesale market everyone else does.
The alternative: buy the decision, not the groceries
Split the two jobs and the economics change. A planning app decides the week for you, merges the ingredients into one list and hands you the shop. You pay for the decision once a month rather than once a meal.
The apps in that comparison run from free to £59.99 a year. At the top of that range you are paying less annually than two weeks of Mindful Chef.
I am not going to invent a supermarket figure to beat theirs. What you spend depends entirely on where you shop and what you buy, and any article that quotes you a precise saving per portion has made it up. Do this instead: take the Mindful Chef risotto above at £6.90 a serving, look at what is in it (risotto rice, sundried tomato, aubergine, rocket, cashew butter, sunflower seeds), and price that basket at your own supermarket for two people. The gap you find is the convenience premium, and it will be different for Aldi than for Waitrose. That number is the one that should decide this for you, not mine.
The trade you are making is real: you get the shopping back. Somebody has to write the list and go. The apps do the first half.
When a kit is still the right answer
Plenty of the time, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
- You genuinely will not shop. A plan you never buy for is worth nothing. £5.50 a portion beats a takeaway.
- Waste is your actual problem. If half your veg drawer goes in the bin, per-gram portioning may save you more than the premium costs.
- You are learning to cook. The kits teach technique with no risk of buying the wrong thing.
- You want the decision gone entirely. No list, no shop, no thought.
Mindful Chef deserves specific credit on one point. Its recipe pages label a plant count and a fibre fraction on each dish, so that risotto shows seven plants and a third of your daily fibre before you commit to it. Whether that matters to you is your call, but the labelling is more transparent than most of the category manages, and it is a fair reason to pay more.
If you want to switch
Keep the week structure the kits taught you. Four or five planned dinners, not seven. The gap is for leftovers and the night you do not cook.
Start from what you already own. Kits assume an empty kitchen. You do not have one, and building a week around the rice and half a cabbage you already have is where the saving actually comes from.
Repeat the recipes you liked. Kits rotate constantly because novelty is the product. You are allowed to cook the same good dinner three weeks running.
Write one merged list. Four recipes wanting onions should give you one line with the total, which is the whole point of a decent shopping list feature. Shop once.
A set of quick weeknight recipes or a batch-cooking week is a reasonable place to start, since both replace the same weeknight slot the kits fill.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest meal kit in the UK? Of the three checked here, Gousto at £4.65 a portion on a two-person box, then HelloFresh at £5.50 a serving plus £4.99 shipping, then Mindful Chef at £7.62 a portion. All three advertise first-box prices around half that, which is not what you pay ongoing.
Is HelloFresh cheaper than a supermarket shop? Almost never on ingredient cost, because you are paying for the recipe selection, the delivery and the exact portioning on top of the food. It can work out cheaper than your current spending if you currently waste a lot or order takeaways you would replace. Price one of their recipes at your own supermarket to see your real gap.
What can I use instead of HelloFresh? A meal planning app plus your own supermarket shop covers the same two jobs, the deciding and the list, from free to about £60 a year. Gousto and Mindful Chef are the direct kit alternatives if you want the ingredients delivered.
Do meal kits save money on food waste? They can. Pre-portioned ingredients mean no half-used bunch of coriander going soft, which is a genuine saving for one or two-person households buying at supermarket pack sizes. Whether it covers a premium of several pounds a portion depends on how much you currently throw away.
Can I cancel a meal kit after the discounted boxes? All three run as rolling subscriptions you can pause or cancel, and the introductory offers are designed around you staying past them. If you are only after the cheap first box, note the date the standard rate starts.
Kit prices taken on 5 August 2026 from each company's own checkout: Gousto, HelloFresh and Mindful Chef. Standard rates are quoted throughout; introductory offers are shown separately where relevant. Mindful Chef per-portion is calculated from its quoted box price of £60.95 across eight portions. Kit pricing changes often, so check the current checkout before ordering.