Dinnerly Alternative: Simple Meals Without the Box

Dinnerly built its brand on a smart premise: not everyone needs truffle oil and heirloom tomatoes in their meal kit. Strip out the fancy ingredients, use digital recipe cards instead of printed ones, keep recipes to 6 ingredients or less, and pass the savings on. At $5–7/serving, it's one of the cheapest meal kits on the market.

The problem is, "cheapest meal kit" is a bit like "cheapest luxury car." You're still paying a premium for the format. Those 6 ingredients in your Dinnerly box? They cost $1.50–2.50 at the grocery store. You're paying double for someone to bag them separately and ship them in a box with ice packs. If you liked Dinnerly's simplicity but want to stop overpaying for it, here's the move.

Still more expensive than cooking from scratch. Dinnerly's whole pitch is affordability, but $5–7/serving plus $9–10 shipping adds up. A couple doing 3 dinners/week spends $70–95/month. A family of four hits $130–180/month. That same money buys 2–3 weeks of full groceries at Aldi — for every meal, not just 3 dinners.

Very limited menu. Budget cuts come at a cost. Dinnerly typically offers 16–20 recipes per week with no dietary-specific filters. Compared to HelloFresh's 30+ options with calorie-smart and protein-smart tracks, Dinnerly feels barebones. After a couple months, the recipes start blurring together.

Simplicity becomes monotony. Six-ingredient recipes are great for beginners. But after 8 weeks of one-pan pastas and sheet-pan proteins, you want something with a bit more range. The simplicity that initially attracted you starts feeling limiting.

Same packaging problem as every kit. Budget pricing doesn't mean less waste. Every Dinnerly box has the same insulated liner, ice packs, and individual plastic bags as a HelloFresh box. The carbon footprint per meal is essentially identical.

Dinnerly proved something important: people don't need complicated recipes to eat well. Simple, quick meals with common ingredients are exactly what most households want. What's For Dinner delivers exactly that — simple, personalized meal plans with straightforward recipes — without the box, the shipping, or the per-serving markup.

Every week, you get an AI-generated meal plan built around your dietary preferences, household size, and cooking ability. The recipes are designed to be practical — most take 20–30 minutes with ingredients you can find at any grocery store. A consolidated grocery list comes with every plan.

What you get:

• AI-personalized meal plans covering breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks — all 7 days
• Simple, practical recipes with common ingredients (no truffle oil required)
• A consolidated grocery list for one efficient shopping trip
• Full dietary support — keto, vegetarian, gluten-free, halal, or any restriction
• Fresh original recipes every week — never the same plan twice
• $7.99/month total — less than 2 Dinnerly servings

What you give up:

• Pre-portioned ingredients delivered to your door
• Not having to go to the grocery store
• The convenience of someone else doing the shopping

If you chose Dinnerly because you wanted easy, affordable meals — not because you specifically needed someone to bag onions for you — WFD is the logical next step.

Price: Dinnerly costs $5–7/serving + $9–10 shipping ($70–95/month for a couple). What's For Dinner is $7.99/month + groceries at regular prices (~$1.50–3/serving).

Personalization: Dinnerly has 16–20 rotating options with no dietary filters. WFD generates unlimited original meals tailored to your exact preferences and restrictions.

Dietary support: Dinnerly has no dietary-specific plans. WFD supports any dietary restriction — keto, vegan, halal, FODMAP, allergy-safe, or any combination.

Convenience: Dinnerly delivers ingredients to your door (you cook ~30 min). WFD requires a grocery trip + 20–30 min cooking, but covers all meals for the entire week.

Environmental impact: Dinnerly ships insulated boxes with ice packs and individual packaging weekly. WFD generates zero extra packaging waste.

Coverage: Dinnerly covers 3–5 dinners/week. WFD covers every meal, every day.

Shopping around? Here are a few other options in the budget meal space:

• EveryPlate — Dinnerly's closest competitor at ~$5/serving. Owned by HelloFresh, slightly more variety. See our EveryPlate alternative comparison.
• HelloFresh — More variety at $9–12/serving but 2x the price of Dinnerly. Read our HelloFresh alternative guide.
• Mealime — Free meal planning app with basic recipes, but limited personalization and no AI. See our Mealime alternative.