We Tried Factor Meals: Here’s Our Review (2024)

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A meal delivery service can make life much easier if you’re busy with work and don’t have time to cook, or if grocery shopping and meal prepping isn’t always feasible. With a meal delivery service subscription that sends ready-to-eat meals right to your doorstep, you don’t have to skimp out on healthy, high-quality meals. Factor offers fresh and nutritious, never-frozen meals that are chef-crafted and designed by dietitians.

You may have heard of Factor by its former name, Factor 75, and if you haven’t, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with its parent company, HelloFresh. Whether you don’t like cooking or simply want pre-portioned, healthy meals available on a whim, Factor is a meal kit service that requires no cooking skills and just two minutes to heat up food.

Many customers hail Factor as one of the top healthy meal kit services thanks to its great taste, but is it really the best on the market? Three of our SI testers gave Factor a go to see if the service’s meal options, order and delivery process and overall taste live up to the hype. Here’s our Factor meals review and our take on whether or not it’s worth signing up for a subscription.

This content is meant to be informative, but should not be taken as medical advice. It is not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention or treatment of health problems. Always speak with your doctor before starting any new supplement or exercise regimen.

Factor Meals At a Glance

• Fresh, not frozen meals that stay fresh in your refrigerator for seven days
• Rotating weekly menu with 35 choices per week
• All meals are designed by registered dietitians
• Microwaveable meals are ready in two minutes
• Formerly Factor 75 and acquired by HelloFresh in 2020

Factor Meals Pros

• Diverse menu options
• Includes vegetarian, gluten-free and keto meal options
• No cooking skills or prep work required
• Add-ons include desserts and smoothies
• Nutritional information is disclosed for every meal

Factor Meals Cons

• Expensive compared to other meal kit services
• Meals are single-serve and not the best choice for a family
• Plant-based menu choices are limited

How Factor Meals Delivery Works

Signing up for a Factor subscription service is a fairly straightforward process. In fact, our product tester Kayla noted a quick sign-up that was “very smooth and easy.” We’ll take you through exactly how Factor meal delivery works and what to expect when signing up.

Create your first box

First things first, you’ll create your first Factor meals box. You’ll start by selecting one of five plans: Chef’s Choice, Keto, Calorie Smart, Protein Plus or Vegan & Veggie; then you’ll choose how many meals you want delivered per week, with options to choose between six and 18.

Some of the plans, like Keto, are self-explanatory, while others have specific features. Chef’s Choice, for example, includes a variety of balanced, gourmet meals that will give you the most diverse menu options. Calorie Smart, on the other hand, is a weight-loss specific program with low-calorie meals that are around 550 calories or less per serving. While Factor itself isn’t necessarily a weight loss meal delivery service, the Calorie Smart plan has a calorie-restrictive diet that can be used to achieve weight loss goals when paired with regular exercise.

If you’re an active individual, or you’re simply looking to increase your protein intake, Protein Plus is a great plan to choose. On the Protein Plus menu you’ll find high-protein dishes like Smoky BBQ Chicken Breast, Turkey Chili and Zucchini, and other grass-fed or pasture-raised protein sources. Some meals fall under multiple plan categories (like Keto and Protein Plus), so you won’t be limited to specific choices if you opt for a plan other than Chef’s Choice.

Like most prepared meal delivery services, Factor will give you more bang for your buck with a volume-based pricing system. That means the more meals you choose per week, the lower your price-per-meal becomes. Depending on the promotions available when signing up, you may be able to take advantage of special deals. At the time of writing this article, for example, Factor offered a total of $135 off for your first five boxes, with the first box 50% off.

Enter delivery information

Once you choose your plan and how many meals you’d like delivered per week, you go on to entering your delivery information. There, you can leave notes for couriers about food delivery specifics. Depending on where you live, Factor partners with various couriers, but meals are always delivered in temperature-regulating packaging that includes ice packs. All orders incur a flat-rate shipping fee of $10.99, which can tack on cost quickly if you’re ordering weekly.

Choose your meals

Once your delivery and shipping information is locked in, you’ll move on to the most fun part of the process: actually choosing your meals. Remember that Factor offers a rotating weekly menu, so what you see today won’t be the same as meals that are available next week. You can browse the entire Factor Meals menu at once, or use filters to narrow down your choices.

Luckily, Factor’s menu does a great job of thoroughly explaining each meal choice. You’ll be able to view full nutritional information, ingredients and of course, a photo of the cooked meal, which can be extraordinarily helpful if you follow specific diets like gluten-free. Once your choices are locked in, you’ll submit your order, and your meals should arrive in two weeks.

Our product tester Kayla recommends ordering sooner than later for this reason, especially if you’re looking to receive your Factor meals quickly. She also offers some more advice: “Every week, you’ll get a notification to change or edit your meals by Wednesday, or Factor will preselect meals for you.” Kayla says she received a delivery notification text, which allowed her to quickly pull her meal kit off her porch after it arrived (a helpful feature in hotter states).

Are Factor Meals Any Good?

While ordering and choosing meals may be a straightforward process, is Factor really as great as it sounds? Here’s what our product testers Ellie and Kayla have to say about the process, the actual meals and their overall experience using the gourmet meal kit service.

Taste

Both Ellie and Kayla agree that Factor Meals aces the taste test. “Factor Meals are some of the tastiest I have ever had from a meal delivery service,” Ellie explains. “The portions are generous and the recipes are creative so you don’t feel like you are eating the same thing all the time.” Ellie and her husband particularly enjoyed the Italian-inspired dishes, especially the Sundried Tomato Chicken, which she says “arrived in a very decadent, flavorful pink sauce.”

The pair also enjoyed the Southwest-inspired dishes, which they said always had a great spice amount without being overwhelming. “Factor Meals touts itself as being a meal delivery service that’s chef-prepared, and you can definitely tell in the dishes,” she says. In fact, Ellie says every single Factor Meals option that she and her husband sampled were better than takeout, and many were even “night-out, restaurant-quality.”

Kayla says prepping the meals was very easy. “I just threw them in the microwave for two minutes and they were ready to go,” she says. Kayla particularly enjoyed a Chicken Alfredo with Broccoli meal, where she says the broccoli was steamed, but didn’t get soggy. “It still had a nice crunch to it,” she explains. “With other delivery meals, I usually notice the vegetables are frozen and will get soggy after heating them up.”

As for the taste of the alfredo pasta itself, Kayla was a little disappointed. “The sauce tasted canned to me,” she says. “I am definitely a sauce snob and always make mine from scratch, so that is really a personal preference to me.” Overall, however, she enjoyed this particular meal.

Menu variety

Ellie says Factor Meals’ menu variety is a “huge selling point” for she and her husband because they maintained a low-carb diet ahead of their wedding, which is when they tried the service. “Factor had a ton of delicious keto- and low-carb-friendly options that helped us stay full and on-target with our goals without feeling like we were sacrificing taste,” she says. “It was much easier to maintain our diet when we had fresh meals in the refrigerator instead of having to prepare something from scratch in-between meetings or on busy weeknights.”

Ellie also appreciates that Factor accommodates various nutritional needs and offers meals for people who follow vegetarian or gluten-free diets. Still, Factor lacks options for a few specialty diets. There are little-to-no choices for dairy-free eaters, and the plant-based meal choices, while available, are still on the limited side. There’s also no specific plan for paleo eaters, although you can choose low-carb meal options like Ellie did.

Ingredient quality

Ellie and Kayla were both fans of the ingredient quality used in Factor meals (with the exception of the alfredo sauce). The animal proteins used in Factor meals are from grass-fed or pasture-raised animals, and are free of antibiotics, hormones and GMOs (or genetically-modified organisms).

Ease of cooking

Ellie found Factor Meals simple to prepare. “The food was never overcooked and always came out as if it was just made in a restaurant kitchen, which is better than virtually all other delivery services I’ve tried,” she says. Each meal requires just two minutes in the microwave to be heated all the way through. While some meal kit services provide ingredients that you need to assemble or cook, Factor meals are ready to go and only require a little unwrapping.

“Some meals arrived with a component that was intended to be taken out before you microwaved the meal, such as a salad or a sauce, but the instructions were always clear,” she adds. Kayla also says the meals were very filling and the “perfect” amount of food. “With other meals I have tried in the past, the portions always left me hungry,” she explains, “but not with Factor. I felt full, not stuffed.”

Factor Meals Pricing

One downside to Factor is the cost, which falls on the premier side of meal delivery services. While you pay less for higher volumes of food, you can still expect to pay anywhere from around $11 to more than $13 per meal, which can add up very quickly. Plus, you’ll have to pay a shipping fee with each round of delivery.

“The main reason we moved away from Factor meals was cost,” Ellie says. “It’s a bit pricey compared to simply cooking at home.”

While you can certainly find more budget-friendly meal services, you may not get the same gourmet quality of food and freshness of ingredients, which are free of preservatives and hormones.

Who Factor Meals Is Best For

• Busy individuals who don’t have the time or desire to cook, but want to eat healthy, nutritious meals without the prep work
• People who work from home and juggle a lot of meetings with just a few minutes to spare to pop a meal in the microwave
• Office workers looking for a healthy lunch option without splurging on carryout.
• Those who manage a large household and just don’t have time to go to the grocery store or cook (though costs may run high as meals are single-serve)

Who Factor Meals Is Not Best For

• Those who eat a completely dairy-free diet
• People seeking out budget-friendly meal kits.
• Those not committed to choosing their meals on a weekly basis (Factor will preselect meals for you that might not always be foods that you want)

What Customers Are Saying About Factor Meals

Overall, customers give Factor Meals a 3.9/5-star rating on Trustpilot, a digital platform that allows customers to review a business or service. Many customers agree that taste is a standout quality, with some even noting how surprised they are by the restaurant-like quality. While a few customers complain about certain ingredients—small portions of vegetables, for example, or strange-tasting olive oil—the flavors encourage them to keep a subscription. One of the biggest complaints is simply the price. If you have the budget, customers say Factor meals are worth the expense, but those looking to save money will want to opt for cooking at home or a less pricey meal delivery service.

About Factor Meals

Factor Meals is an Illinois-based meal kit service that was acquired by meal kit giant HelloFresh in 2020. Each week, Factor (formerly Factor 75) offers a rotating menu with around 35 meal options that span a variety of cuisines and flavors. Depending on your dietary needs, you can choose one of several meal plans and the number of meals you’d like delivered each week.

Factor Meals is known for delivering gourmet foods made with clean ingredients and five-star quality. Since its founding in 2013, Factor Meals has stayed true to its mission of offering chef-inspired dishes created by registered dietitians and science-backed nutritional data.

Factor Meals vs. Diet-to-Go

Diet-to-Go is a diet meal delivery service that offers pre-portioned meals for those trying to lose weight. Its plans include a traditional weight loss menu, a diabetes menu, a ketogenic and low-carb menu, a Mediterranean menu and a vegetarian menu. Depending on the volume of meals you order, you can expect to pay around $10 or $11 per meal, which is slightly less expensive than Factor Meals. While Diet-to-Go may come with a slightly more affordable price tag, the meals are flash-frozen and low-calorie, which may not be the best fit for customers not in a caloric deficit or customers who prioritize freshness.

Factor Meals vs. Nutrisystem

Nutrisystem is one of the most popular meal delivery services on the market. Similar to Diet-to-Go, Nutrisystem offers nutrient-dense, low-calorie meals designed to promote weight loss. Nutrisystem plans start at $9.99 per week and go up depending on how many meals you choose. It also offers nine meal plans that cater to different needs and interests. Still, while Nutrisystem plans have more variety, some customers report that meals are bland and textures don’t always stand up well to reheating, which is where Factor meals take the lead.

Factor Meals FAQs

How do I cancel Factor meals?

If you’re wondering how to cancel your Factor meal subscription, cancellation is fairly straightforward. You’ll simply need to call Factor Customer Care at (888) 573-5727 and request a cutoff of your subscription. You can also email help@factor75.com with a note that you want to terminate your account, along with your full name and registered email address that you use for Factor.

Can you lose weight with Factor meals?

Factor isn’t a meal delivery service designed for weight loss, but it offers a Calorie Smart plan with pre-made meals that are lower in calories and can be used to achieve weight loss goals.

Are Factor meals frozen or fresh?

All Factor pre-made meals are fresh, meaning they need to be stored in a fridge. Typically, the meals will stay fresh for seven days after they arrive. While you can technically freeze Factor pre-made meals, the company doesn’t recommend doing so.

Are Factor meals processed?

Every meal offered by Factor is free of hormones, GMOs, antibiotics and artificial preservatives, which means the meal delivery service’s food choices aren’t processed.

Where are Factor meals shipped from?

While Factor doesn’t disclose where their meals are shipped from, the meal delivery service is based in Illinois and is owned by meal kit powerhouse HelloFresh.

Takeaway: Is Factor Meals Worth It?

If you’re looking for healthy, gourmet meal kits that fit with a wellness lifestyle, Factor is one of your best bets. “Overall, we loved Factor meals and would definitely recommend it for anyone interested in meal delivery services,” says our product tester Ellie in her Factor meals review. While the cost may be higher than other services, Factor meals are unparalleled in terms of taste and freshness. “We definitely plan to use Factor again during particularly busy seasons of life.”

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any diseases.

Prices are accurate and items in stock as of publish time.