Marley Spoon is a popular meal delivery service in Australia, delivering millions of meals every year. They rank highly in our yearly meal kit survey and have grown massively over the past few years.
However, as a regular consumer of meal kits, I understand that Marley Spoon’s service simply isn’t perfect for everyone. In particular, they suffer from having meals that aren’t too exciting and recipes cards that can be quite hard to follow. They also featured nowhere near the top of our investigation of the cheapest meal kits in Australia.
Therefore, I want to share with you the best Marley Spoon alternatives available in Australia.
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Top Marley Spoon Competitors
- Type: Meal Kit
- Price: $8.25 - $11.67 / Serving
- Delivers To: Australia-Wide
- TopFeature: Restaurant-quality food.
- Type: Prepared Meals
- Price: $9.00 - $11.50 / Serving
- Delivers To: Australia-Wide
- TopFeature: Ready to eat, delicious meals.
Types of Meal Delivery Service
When considering a new alternative to Marley Spoon, it’s important to start by thinking about whether your top priority is having fresh, home-cooked meals.
Meal Kits
Meal Kits are a fantastic opportunity to learn new cooking skills, discover new ingredients, and generally explore the world of food.
All the services available in Australia offer a weekly selection of different meals, delivering all the ingredients to your house with associated recipes. All the ingredients are ready to use and in the right quantity so you can eliminate food waste almost entirely.
Prepared Meals
In contrast, if your priority instead is convenience then it’s worth giving Prepared Meals services a try. These services deliver fresh (or frozen) fully prepared meals to your front door, meaning you can just chuck your dinner in the microwave for a few minutes and eat straight away.
Perfect for anyone who finds themselves with limited time in the evening or hates cooking. Want to know more? We have an awesome guide covering the best meal delivery services in Australia.
Now, on to the best alternatives to Marley Spoon.
HelloFresh – Most Similar to Marley Spoon
Type: Meal Kit
The most similar service to Marley Spoon in Australia is definitely HelloFresh. This makes them the best direct alternative if you’re getting a bit tired of the Marley Spoon meals.
What makes them different? Well, HelloFresh offer a selection of more considered recipes that produce incredible meals. Whilst your selection is definitely more limited, every single dish is incredibly high quality with recipes that are each to follow. I also find the HelloFresh website slightly easier to navigate and select your recipes each week.
The overall quality of HelloFresh’s service and meals are very similar to Marley Spoon, leaving it very much down to personal preference which one you like more.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $68.00 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $160.00 + Shipping
Delivers To: Most Metro & Regional areas across Australia.
Best For: Date nights, delicious meals, quality experience
My Muscle Chef – Delicious No Prep Meals
Type: Prepared Meals
Maybe Marley Spoon wasn’t right for you because needing to cook every night simply took too long, or you’re looking for a backup when you don’t feel like cooking. In these scenarios, having some prepared meals in the fridge is always a great option.
We highly recommend giving My Muscle Chef a try. Despite the name, they aren’t just for ‘muscle’-heads who hit the gym every day. Their menu offers a wide range of 50+ meals that allow you to choose calorie/carb amounts that suit your dietary needs.
The main reason we recommend My Muscle Chef is because most of their meals taste amazing. In my opinion, they are on par with the kind of taste you get from Marley Spoon meals, without any of the hassle cooking!
Of course, this service is more suited to people purchasing dinners for 1 or 2 people. If you’re buying for your family, check out our next two options!
Cost: Individual meals cost between $9.55 โ $11.40 + Shipping.
Delivers To: Over 4,200 postcodes across Australia, including all major towns and cities
Best For: Saying “this is too good to be a microwave meal”, meeting fitness goals.
Get Up To $120 Off Your First 6 My Muscle Chef OrdersClick this link and use code SAVE120
EveryPlate – Affordable and Simple
Type: Meal Kit
EveryPlate is a budget option owned by HelloFresh, offering meals as cheap as $2.99 per portion. EveryPlate offers fewer meal options each week, with each recipe comprising of just 6-8 ingredients.
The fact that EveryPlate comes in at over 30% cheaper for the same overall quantity of food which makes it an incredible bargain. I have found that the simpler recipes are quicker to cook and easier to get family members (kids especially) to help out. This all means you can have food on the table within 40 minutes.
EveryPlate only launched in Australia in late 2020 and they are continually updating their offering. Since then, they have added at least 3 vegetarian meals per week which has helped add some much-needed variety to their weekly menu.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $38.94 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $99.80 + Shipping
Delivers To: Most major metropolitan and rural areas in NSW, VIC, WA ACT and QLD.
Best For: Budget conscious, simple family meals.
Dinnerly – Simple Family Meals
Type: Meal Kit
Dinnerly provide a very similar service to the previously-mentioned EveryPlate, offering prices that are over 30% cheaper than Marley Spoon. Just like EveryPlate is owned by HelloFresh, Dinnerly is the budget arm of Marley Spoon. You get the same quality of ingredients as Marley Spoon at a much cheaper price.
Think comforting, simple home-cooked meals on the table within 30 – 40 minutes. A lot of Dinnerly menus are one-pot cooks which make them very easy to make on a weeknight, especially with a busy family life. With less complex or unusual flavours, I find that Dinnerly meals are fantastic for picky eaters as well.
One major point of contention is that Dinnerly don’t provide recipe cards with their delivery. To access the recipes, you need to use their mobile app or their website. Some people find this to be a real dealbreaker However, I have always been able to get on just fine with their mobile recipes.
Cost: 2 People / 3 Meals at $43.50 + Shipping. 4 People / 5 Meals at $110.00 + Shipping
Delivers To: Most major metropolitan and rural areas across Australia, with no additional charge for regional areas.
Best For: A balance of price, quality and variety. Great for families and cooking with kids.
Lite n Easy – Healthy, Calorie Controlled Meals
Type: Prepared Meals
This a slightly left-field alternative to HelloFresh, designed for anyone who’s looking for calorie-controlled portions to support their dietary goals. Lite n Easy is a community of dieters who rely on their weekly delivery of Lite n Easy prepared meals.
Convenience is incredibly important when you’re on a calorie-controlled diet as it stops those impulses dead in their tracks. It’s very easy to get a takeaway if the alternative is cooking for 30-40 minutes, but it’s much more difficult when your meal needs just a few minutes in the microwave to be ready to eat. Whenever I’m craving a takeaway, I can solve it with a quick look in the fridge and picking up a Lite n Easy meal.
Lite n Easy offers 1200, 1500 and 1800 calories plans to suit every dieter, with an incredible community of users who can help when times get tough. Whilst they aren’t a direct alternative to Marley Spoon, it’s definitely worth considering Lite n Easy if weight loss is a major goal for you.
Cost: 10 Meals are $11.40 each (+Shipping) and 21 Meals are just $10.40 each (+Shipping)
Delivers To: 24-hour delivery to most places in Australia.
Best For: Weight Loss
Try Lite n Easy TodayDiscover weight loss meals with Lite n Easy
Making the most of Marley Spoon
There are plenty of reasons you might want to move away from Marley Spoon, although it’s also worth considering whether some minor changes to approach might make Marley Spoon work for you.
Marley Spoon for Singles – With meals being delivered for 2 or 4 people, it’s easy to be discouraged if you’re only cooking for yourself. However, I have found this to always be super helpful for meal kits as you can get away with cooking half as much. How? By making sure you’re cooking meals only once and reheating them for the next evening. Check out my article on the best meal kits for singles for more help on the best ways to do this.
Ingredient Problems – Unfortunately, fresh ingredients are tricky things to manage at a large scale for companies like Marley Spoon. The trick is to be aware of this and treat every ingredient with the respect it deserves. Get your meat and veggies in the fridge as quickly as possible, store the herbs right and use a cupboard/pantry that doesn’t get too warm. Discover my top tips for looking after meal kit ingredients.
Too Expensive – We can all tell that Marley Spoon is more expensive than grocery shopping, with our research showing that it’s roughly 30% more costly. Over the course of an entire year, this can add up to a significant amount of dollars. To save some money, we highly recommend using our Meal Kit Method that could save you over $1500 a year whilst still getting meal kits delivered every week. This method simply takes advantage of the regular offers that each meal kit service offers to existing customers.
Get onto Live Chat – I’ve had very few problems using Marley Spoon, so I’ve not had to contact their support team before. However, the feedback from regular users of Marley Spoon is that their Live Chat team are very responsive and supportive. They will often provide credit for any missing or incorrect ingredients. It’s not ideal, but if you’re not happy with any ingredients then make sure to jump on live chat with Marley Spoon!
After all that, if you’re still not happy with the service Marley Spoon is providing then we have a guide on how to cancel your Marley Spoon subscription.