As much as half of the US population participates in some form of online grocery shopping, according to reports. There are now dozens of places online to buy your weekly provisions and have them come directly to your home. Much like meal kits and meal delivery services, these companies provide competitive prices, lightning-fast shipping and major convenience in hopes of earning a slice of your weekly food budget.
To save yourself time and hassle, an easy grocery delivery service can take one of your big weekly tasks off your hands and allow you to carefully curate your grocery haul from the comfort of home. To help you pick the right one, we’ve set out to test all the top players to find the best grocery delivery service for 2024.
What’s the best online grocery delivery service?
If you live in the Northeast, FreshDirect is the best grocery delivery service to try, but the brand has been slow to expand to other parts of the country. For most people, Amazon Fresh is the best way to get fresh produce, meat, pantry staples and other supermarket goods sent to their door. But there are other retail services that offer grocery discounts and deals, those that source and deliver from local supermarkets, and super speedy grocery delivery services that can get the goods to you within an hour — sometimes less.
To curate this list, I tested a flurry of popular options such as Amazon Fresh, Gopuff and Instacart, as well as some smaller upstarts such as Misfits Market and Hungyroot to see which operations excelled with variety, quality brands, fair prices, and easy and timely delivery. All this to help you pick a perfect grocery delivery service and shave one weekly errand off your to-do list with just a few clicks.
If it’s just fruits and veggies you’re after, these are the best places to get produce delivered. I also tested to find the best online butchers and seafood markets too. But to knock out the entire list — or most of it — in one place, these are the best online grocery delivery services for 2024.
Best grocery delivery services in 2024
Amazon Fresh has a massive selection of groceries at low prices to choose from and speedy delivery for Prime Members. You’ll find just about anything you’d see at your local supermarket. Because Amazon owns Whole Foods you’ll also have access to that store’s proprietary brand, 365, which has quality goods at below-average prices. The Amazon Fresh website is well-organized and the ordering platform is easy to use. You can schedule deliveries for the same day in most cases.
A few food categories are somewhat limited: I couldn’t find fresh chicken thighs, for instance, which are a staple on my weekly grocery list. For seafood, there was no option for fresh shrimp, so you’d have to choose frozen. The fresh produce selection is solid but mostly just the staples you’d expect and nothing more. All the food I ordered arrived looking fresh, with no spoiled or overripe fruits and vegetables.
Amazon Fresh also offers a wealth of
What we like:
- Good selection of fresh and shelf-stable groceries
- Competitive prices
- Free delivery for Prime members
What we don’t like:
- There were some grocery items we couldn’t find
- Shipping fees for non-Prime members
Coverage area: Available in 42 cities across eight states and Washington, DC.
Fees and pricing: $15 per month or $139 per year. Delivery orders with two-hour delivery windows from Amazon Fresh include a service fee of $4 for orders worth $100 to $150, $7 for deliveries $50 to $100, and $10 for deliveries under $50.
Minimum order: $35
For a monthly or yearly membership fee, Thrive Market members can shop via the platform primarily for pantry and frozen staples, which come with a low-price guarantee. The platform also includes other household staples such as beauty, bath and body, vitamins and supplements and even wine. We found that the selection at Thrive was more than sufficient to provide a lot of great options for pantry staples, including its own proprietary brand of more than 700 items, snacks, and especially frozen proteins and meals.
What we like:
- Good for ordering pantry and protein staples
- Wide selection of ethically responsible products
- Eco-friendly packaging and shipping
What we don’t like:
- No fresh produce or dairy
- Must buy into a membership in order to browse
Coverage area: Available for all contiguous US addresses.
Fees and pricing: Annual membership for Thrive Market is $60, which you pay upfront. Memberships billed monthly are offered for $12. At more than twice the cost, the annual membership is really worth it, especially since it works out to only $5 per month, which you will easily save in one order. Based on my experience, you may save $5 with just two items.
If you don’t mind the occasional oddly shaped orange or citrus that’s fully usable but has a bit of browning on the peel, Misfits Markets offers low prices on produce. Misfits may have made a name by selling cheap, ugly produce that is deemed unfit for grocery store shelves, but it’s evolved into a full-service grocery operation with meats, fish, baking supplies and pantry staples.
The convenient subscription service doesn’t require you to pay any subscription fees and has cheap shipping. The one catch is that the inventory changes fairly drastically from week to week. That’s how they keep prices low, but it also means you’ll have to actively curate orders or you might receive items that you don’t like. Here’s our full review of Misfits Market.
What we like:
- Low prices and no membership fees
- Cheap shipping or free with orders over $60
- Good selection of ethically responsible products
- Eco-friendly packaging and shipping
What we don’t like:
- Inventory is inconsistent
- Some produce arrives a little past its prime
- Must actively curate your order each week
Coverage area: Available for all contiguous US addresses.
Fees and pricing: There are no membership fees but you’ll have a minimum order. There’s also a $6 fee for shipping on orders less than $60.
Minimum order: $35
Hungryroot (full review here) is a grocery subscription service that makes weekly suggestions based on a quiz you’ll take to gauge your eating habits and dietary preferences. One of this service’s unique features is that it offers simple and flexible meal ideas with the necessary groceries to make them. It’s somewhere between a meal kit and a grocery delivery service and is great for those looking for breakfast, lunch and dinner inspiration.
The online grocery market stocks a good amount of quality, organic and specialty items including meat, seafood, produce, snacks and pantry items, but you won’t find as many options as vendors such as Amazon Fresh or FreshDirect.
Once the initial suggested list is formulated, you can remove any grocery items and add others based on a credit system. I priced out a full list from Hungryroot and compared it to an average grocery store. By my calculations, Hungryroot is about 8% to 10% more expensive. The interface and ordering platform are both intuitive and even fun to use.
What we like:
- Creative and simple recipe suggestions
- Unique and interesting groceries
- Fun and easy interface
What we don’t like:
- A bit more expensive than some other services
- Overall grocery selection is limited
- Requires a subscription and minimum weekly order
Coverage area: Most ZIP codes in the continental US and Washington, DC.
Fees and pricing: Hungryroot plans start at $65 a week for meals that net about six servings. The cost per serving gets significantly cheaper if you order more food. Plans under $70 are charged another $7 per delivery. Plans over $70 receive free shipping. You can pause or cancel without penalty at any time.
Minimum order: $65
With competitive prices, great selection and timely deliveries, FreshDirect is actually my favorite grocery delivery service to use, but because it’s currently only available in the Northeast, it’s hard to tap as the No. 1 overall pick.
FreshDirect has a wide-ranging selection of fresh produce, meats, fish, prepared foods, pantry items, home and paper products. While there are definitely fewer total items than in a brick-and-mortar supermarket, I found just about everything I would normally buy on a trip to the grocery store. FreshDirect stocks plenty of organic and specialty items at similar prices to Stop & Shop or Wegmans.
FreshDirect’s website is easy to navigate and deliveries are almost always on time, in our experience. Customer service is also great and if anything is missing or damaged, they’ll replace it in the next delivery or credit your account — no questions asked.
What we like:
- Great selection of groceries
- Quality meats and fresh produce
- Competitive prices on par with midrange grocery stores
- Timely delivery and good customer service
What we don’t like:
- Only available in the Northeast
- The occasional missing item from an order
Coverage area: Most of the New York City metropolitan area, parts of northern New Jersey and southern Connecticut.
Fees and pricing: A one-time delivery charge is typically $6. Memberships for unlimited deliveries (DeliveryPass) start at $39 for six months or $6.50 per month.
Minimum order: $30
Instacart is a local grocery delivery service and operates differently than the first two on our list. This third-party service hires shoppers to head to a local store of your choosing, buy the items and deliver them to your door. The good news is you’ll get to order from your favorite local grocery store if you have one you like. Instacart is available for most grocery chains — Publix, Aldi, Stop & Shop and Costco — but the store options will vary depending on your location.
The downside is that you have to be at attention and check the app for messages from your shopper while they’re shopping in case certain items are out of stock. The shopper will typically send photos of potential replacements in real time for you to approve or reject. It can be a little bit stressful and time-consuming but it’s still a time-saver over going to the store yourself. You can also track the grocery delivery in real time via the mobile app to see when it will arrive.
Instacart also marks prices up on most groceries, sometimes as much as 14%. And there’s a delivery fee and suggested tipping associated with each order, making it one of the more expensive options on our list. In addition to delivery, Instacart offers in-store pickup for online orders at some stores.
What we like:
- Includes multiple stores from your local area
- A larger total selection of grocery items than most services
What we don’t like:
- Real-time shoppers require your attention for replacements
- Generally more expensive than other services
- Fewer deals and sales
Coverage area: More than 1,000 cities in North America.
Fees and pricing: Instacart delivery fee starts at $4 but varies based on retailer and region. There is also a suggested driver/shopper tip. A membership for unlimited deliveries costs $10 per month or $99 per year.
Minimum order: $10
Gopuff isn’t the one-stop-shop for groceries that some of these other outfits are, but it has one big thing going for it and that’s speed. Gopuff stocks mostly the essentials, including snacks, dry goods, household products, paper goods and pharmacy staples, and can have them to your door in as little as 30 minutes and almost always under an hour.
Gopuff is a great option if you need staples and need them fast but it won’t replace a run to the grocery store and has fewer options than say, FreshDirect or Instacart. You will find a scant selection of fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products and what you do find, is stocked fairly inconsistently. Gopuff has a large delivery footprint, operating in over 650 US cities via 500 regional microfulfillment centers.
What we like:
- One of the speediest grocery delivery services around
- Good selection of paper goods, household products and pharmacy staples
- Some specialty items
- Fair prices and no extra charge for fast delivery
- Delivers booze in certain cities
What we don’t like
- Limited options for most grocery items
- Very little fresh produce
- Limited meat and dairy options
- Inventory is inconsistent
Coverage area: More than 650 US cities.
Fees and pricing: Gopuff’s delivery charge varies by region but starts at $4 and goes up from there. You’ll also typically pay an extra $5 small order fee if your cart is under $12.
Minimum order: Varies by delivery area.
Target-owned Shipt is similar to Instacart, offering personal shoppers who will secure your desired list from local supermarket chains and wholesale outlets — Target included. Shipt focuses more on discount area retailers, including Costco, so you’ll find plenty of deals and bulk savings.
Besides the wealth of low prices, another big draw for using Shipt is having groceries delivered same-day, sometimes as quickly as an hour. Other services require you to schedule delivery times days in advance. This is great if you’re not the best at planning your weekly routine and often need groceries in a hurry.
You can also tack on far more than groceries, especially if your order is from Target. Need a pound of potatoes, a table lamp and a smartwatch? Shipt can bring it all to your door.
What we like:
- Tons of discounts and deals
- Same-day delivery
- Delivery from pharmacies, pet stores and home supply stores available
What we don’t like:
- Not as great of a selection of small, local grocery stores
- The website and app aren’t the best
Coverage area: More than 500 cities in North America.
Fees and pricing: One-time delivery fee is $10. A monthly membership for unlimited deliveries is $11 and a yearly membership costs $99.
Minimum order: None
To test each grocery delivery service, we placed an order from each with various, typical groceries including produce and meats (when available), dry goods, snacks and paper products. We noted how intuitive each ordering platform was and how good the selection was for various categories.
Here’s everything I received in my Hungryroot delivery.
We also took notice of delivery options since some grocery services allow for same-day and next-day delivery while others require you to schedule in advance. When the boxes of groceries arrived, we noted how well the items were packed, if everything was included and how fresh — or not fresh — the meats, produce, cheese and other perishable items looked.
While most of the fresh fruits and vegetables we received were fine, there was the occasional bruised tomato or apple. If you have a local market with a good selection of produce, you may want to pop in for those items and have the rest of your list delivered.
Some of the produce I received from Misfits Market was bruised. But it turns out that one bad tomato doesn’t spoil the whole bunch.
What are the advantages of buying groceries online?
Are grocery delivery services cheaper than buying in the store?
Is grocery shopping online easy?
