PlateJoy Vs. eMeals Comparison
PlateJoy and eMeals are among the most popular digital meal planning services in America. They provide healthy recipe recommendations based on your dietary needs and desires and allow you to plan your meals and trips to the store for weeks in advance. They are both highly convenient, but they are far from identical. If you are trying to decide between these two services, our helpful PlateJoy vs. eMeals comparison can steer your decision-making process in the right direction.
Highlights
- Price Range: $$
- Average Price Per Meal: $9.99
- Shipping Cost: $0
- Delivery Area: 44 states
- Price Range: $
- Shipping Cost: $0
- Delivery Area:
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- Submitted By Cassandra on 05/23/2018This really does nothing more than charge you 70 dollars every 6 months for 4 weekly recipes that you can easily find on Google for free. It really doesn't focus on exercise at all. There are much more helpful apps out there if you want assistance with weightloss.
- Submitted By Hailey Foster on 11/13/2017Saves me so much time each week meal planning compared to when I used to do it by hand. Since it coordinates ingredients between recipes it also cuts down on food waste and costs better too. I also, love that it allows you to customize your preferences and change them week to week. I do wish I could import recipes to bring in family favorites, but I hear this feature is coming soon!
- Submitted By Sarah on 11/08/2017Love that it chooses recipes for me, minimizes waste, and provides a KOSHER option! I've been cooking much more frequently because I make my menu for the week, shop once, and then I have everything I need on hand when I get home from work during the week. The recipes are healthy and taste good and provide variety in what I'm eating (choosing what to make has always been the hardest part of meal planning for me). The app and website are easy to use and you can easily change the number of meals and other preferences from week to week. Totally worth the cost.
- Submitted By Valerie on 10/23/2017Five stars if this was more affordable. So useful but the price is very high for families on a tight budget. Maybe it saves money for people with a larger budget, but for us we didn't spend less on groceries. However, it is very handy and the recipes are great especially for whole30. I wish we could justify the very high cost of this service but we can't.
- Submitted By Matt on 05/25/2019It was not for us. We wanted to be able to pick and choose individual meals each day, not just a meal plan for the week.
- Submitted By MD on 08/24/2018I didn't expect much from emeals (tried them out with the free trial), but I was pleasantly surprised with what they provide for just 10 bucks per month. I hope they do add more recipes in the future, though.
- Submitted By Ruth Pearse on 08/11/2018Emeals makes my life easier, but 7 recipes per week is just not enough.
- Submitted By Jessie on 08/01/2018Hard to find info on how to cancel. Once I did a few searches and found contact numbers, both numbers were “down for maintenance” the first time I called. Tried back a few times and finally reached someone who cancelled my account without a problem. But the difficulty in cancelling, no online cancellation capability and hidden contact numbers were really aggravating. The recipes were pretty good for the first 6 months (a little low on flavor, but decent), but then started getting pretty repetitive. Would have given 3-4 stars had the cancellation method not been so sketchy.
Winner
PlateJoy is an innovative service that does not provide meals but instead offers fully personalized meal plans based on your preferences and needs. It helps you eat better, stop wasting food and money, and plan all your meals in advance, taking the stress out of everyday cooking. Read our objective PlateJoy review and find out: Is PlateJoy worth it?
Meal Options
With PlateJoy, you can get breakfast, lunch, dinner, batch meal, snack, and dessert recipes. You can choose from low-carb, clean eating, vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, allergen-free, keto, Paleo, pescatarian, gluten-free, batch cooking, and kid-friendly options.
eMeals offers standard dinner meal plans and additional breakfast and lunch plans. The options include 30-minute, budget-friendly, clean eating, diabetic, gluten-free, heart-healthy, kid-friendly, low-calorie, low-carb, Mediterranean, Paleo, quick and healthy, slow cooker, vegan, vegetarian, and keto meals.
Variety
As a PlateJoy subscriber, you have unlimited access to the company’s cookbook. The service suggests about 60 options for your monthly menus, based on your dietary and cooking preferences. You can select the meals you want to cook and remove the ones you do not like.
eMeals brings you 7 dinner recommendations per week, customized to your needs and taste. If you get the additional breakfast and lunch plans, you also get 7 breakfast recommendations and 7 lunch suggestions. You can choose the recipes you like and discard the rest.
Nutritional Value
Since PlateJoy and eMeals leave grocery shopping to you, the nutritional value of the meals you cook with them depends on the foods you purchase. The recipes you receive are selected based on your preferences in regard to calorie count, carb content, and other related factors.
Portion Size
PlateJoy offers recipes that can yield both adult-size and kid-size portions while eMeals focuses on adult-size portions. However, with both services, you only get recipes and buy the ingredients yourself, so you can adjust serving size depending on your appetite.
Flexibility
PlateJoy lets you change your dietary preferences, pause your subscription for 1-2 months, and cancel your subscription whenever you wish. However, it is important to note that the service offers 6-month and 12-month subscriptions. While you can state your decision to cancel at any time and end your subscription directly through your account, you cannot receive a refund for unused services.
eMeals allows you to switch between meal plans, pause your subscription for 1, 2 or 3 months, and cancel your trial or opt out of subscription renewal. The service offers 3-month and 12-month subscriptions. You can cancel by calling the company’s customer service. You cannot get a refund for unused services if you decide to cancel before the end of your subscription period.
Price
With PlateJoy, subscriptions start at $8 per month and you can try it for free for 10 days. eMeals subscriptions start at $5 per month and the service offers a 14-day free trial for new customers. There are no additional costs with either of the services since they do not deliver physical goods.