Gousto or Hello Fresh?

I have both a Gousto cooking and Hello Fresh subscription, though at the moment both of them are paused because of Christmas and not getting round to selecting any recipes in early Jan. Having tried them both and worked with both companies last year, I wanted to do a comparison of the two because I see “which one?!” crop up alllllll the time. As I write this I would say that these two are the better known subscription boxes, and whilst I know there are others I have never tried them, so I can’t really throw them in the mix, but you’re welcome to comment or give me a heads up if you have tried other food subscription boxes that you’ve enjoyed. I’ve divided it down into categories and then summarised at the end, it helps to tie it all together but I think the subscriptions warrant a break down as they are so similar but, in my humble opinion, have so many differences.

So let’s jump into it: Gousto cooking vs Hello fresh, which is the best?

Quality.

Initially I wanted to say that I felt Gousto tipped this one but now I’m not so sure – there were pluses for both brands. Ironically I found that a few of the herbs in the Hello Fresh box weren’t actually that fresh but I think this was more the fault of the delivery service than the actual box itself because it was delayed. When it came to quality of produce, both boxes were on form – fresh, well produced and delicious.I couldn’t really place much fault with either, though I did not love that neither HelloFresh or Gousto had a wide selection of organic ingredients. The recipes that I ordered certainly had more veggies in the Gousto box, but that is because of the recipes I chose, there was more dairy in the Hello fresh box and I felt that both were top quality and delicious. So for me, both get top points for the their quality.

Packaging.

I really liked the way that Gousto box separated their meals, all of the ingredients for one meal would be in one sections and so on. For Hello Fresh, there were brown bags for certain parts for everything and it was slightly more disjointed however there was less packaging overall. With all subscriptions boxes, and indeed almost all supermarket shopping, there is a certain level of wastage when it comes to packaging. What I think Hello Fresh did really well was minimise the plastic packing inside their boxes, something that I felt they did better than Gousto Cooking, despite not separating as well. The recipes inside both boxes are on paper, each pack comes with ice blocks to keep the food well packed and cool so if your box is delivered when you aren’t around, there really is no reason to worry.

The Recipes.

Clearly the most important part isn’t it? Lord knows you wouldn’t be ordering the boxes at all if you weren’t after recipes, but for me, it depends entirely on what you actually want. I can cook, in fact, I’m a really good cook (toots horn) so for me, I found both Hello fresh recipes and Gousto Cooking recipes super easy to follow. Enter my husband, Adam, who turns the kitchen into a Faulty Towers episode and you have a very different person to trial recipes on. If you don’t like cooking then I feel like both Hello Fresh and Gousto Cooking are going to be a no for you. Yes, they make cooking easier with everything pre measured and in some instances pre chopped and prepared, but for the most part, you are buying a combination of supermarket delivery and cook book with step by step instructions. If you hate cooking, I don’t feel like either box will delight you – however if you are utterly rubbish at cooking but you don’t mind doing it or perhaps you are utterly rubbish and that is *why* you don’t like it, then these are both for you. The recipes for both boxes are incredibly easy to follow, not one thing is missed by either and they are evenly matched in tutorial prowess. For me, Hello Fresh cards are much bigger which I found useful for seeing the picture based steps from across the kitchen but the text wasn’t actually any larger.

The recipes themselves are lovely – they really are. Both brands have nailed it in very different ways, for me Gousto Cooking seemed to offer far fewer British inspired recipes than Hello Fresh and offered a larger selection of Asian inspired choices. This was spot on for me as I love Asian food, however for my mum she really isn’t keen so it became more difficult to please everyone – though that isn’t to say that everyone was easier to please with Hello Fresh, just perhaps that it was a safer choice and less likely to get us trying new things.

That is another aspect I LOVED about both recipe boxes, trying new things. We don’t really eat lentils but I have tried a few recipes that include them (from both) and it allowed us to have a meal without going and buying a big bag of something we might not try again.

I really love that I can select “family box” for Hello Fresh, Gousto have a family meals option but it’s all in one box. The split for Hello Fresh has it’s draw backs though – I have children that like to try new things (two, Edith doesn’t like food in general) so I think it’s nice to be able to see all of the recipes and make my choice from there, but then sometimes for speed, it’s easier to have a more narrow choice. Both have options for vegetarian meals, Gousto has a fine dining option too which is similar to the Premier recipes that you can add in Hello Fresh – both of which cost more.

Portion sizes were both large in my opinion (we ordered a box for 4 adults and fed 3 adults and 3 children – though my mum and two of the kids don’t eat much). For all but one or two recipes we had enough left over for a light lunch the following day – it really was impressively sized and bang for your buck.

Cost.

This is where Gousto shines a bit, though not by much. It is cheaper than Hello Fresh by around £10, but I’m not sure that this rules out trying Hello Fresh or mixing up the two especially when there seems to be such a different selection of recipes. For £55.99 I had 4 recipes from Hello Fresh for 4 people and from £43.99 I had the same from Hello Fresh. With both of the boxes you can preselect your meals a week before or you can leave it to chance and see what comes along if you aren’t fussy (don’t recommend it – there is a reason some of the recipes are left unselected and it’s because they simply aren’t that great.)

All in all, I feel like both Gousto and Hello Fresh are worth a try for yourself – I love both of them and rate them both highly. There is little difference in terms of quality and quantity, though there are differences that might make you choose one above the other. Overall, I love them and I highly recommend them both.