The 8 Best Grocery Delivery Services to Use in 2024

See at Hungryroot

hungryroot

Best grocery delivery for curated groceries and meal kits

Hungryroot


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See at FreshDirect

freshdirect

Best grocery delivery for those in the Northeast

FreshDirect


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See at Instacart

instacart

Best grocery delivery service to buy from local markets

Instacart


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See at Shipt

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Best grocery delivery for weekly deals

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CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

There are chores, menial things that nobody likes but do anyway, and then there’s grocery shopping: the mother lode of chores. It’s a tedious task that can be a real headache, especially if you’re shopping for more than one person. And most of the time, you have to shop in small quantities to avoid waste. This sounds great at first, but that means frequent trips and overall less time for yourself, and nobody wants that.

This is where a grocery delivery service can be a game changer. You’ll get everything you need, from various categories, delivered right to your doorstep. Whether you want to start cooking at home more or spend less time running errands, a grocery delivery service may just be the solution you’re looking for.

Using online grocery services has many benefits, such as same-day delivery. The delivery fees are often more reasonable than the time and effort you would have to put into your grocery runs, too. With the ease of using the services search bar, you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for without having to comb the shelves and risk missing what you need. You can also buy almost any food item from any retailer without having to hop on the subway or into your car.

Using online grocery services doesn’t mean you have to ditch your local store altogether. Many of the most popular grocery delivery services even deliver items from the local stores of your choice, meaning you can still get your go-to foods and pantry essentials while supporting locally. Some services can also ensure specific food preferences are satisfied. You can still get healthy foods, organic produce, or sustainable options for those passionate about reducing food waste.

To save you time and make it easy to pick the right one, we did some research and price matching to find the best grocery delivery service for your needs in 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. Other retail services offer grocery discounts and deals, then there are those that source and deliver from local supermarkets, plus super-speedy grocery delivery services that can get the goods to you within an hour (or less).

To curate this list, I tested a flurry of popular options such as Amazon FreshGopuff 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. 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

household products, so you can bang out most of your typical supermarket run in one delivery. In addition to delivery, Amazon Fresh offers in-store pickup for certain ZIP codes. You can also make use of the Summer store these days, where you can find seasonal items and everything you need for summer celebrations at a discount.

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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, it’s 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 household products, so you can bang out most of your typical supermarket run in one delivery. In addition to delivery, Amazon Fresh offers in-store pickup for certain ZIP codes. You can also make use of the Summer store these days, where you can find seasonal items and everything you need for summer celebrations at a discount.

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. The specialty items here support 90+ lifestyle and dietary needs, so there is something for everyone.

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~ Wide selection of ethically responsible products
~ Eco-friendly packaging and shipping” dislike=”~ No fresh produce or dairy
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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. The specialty items here support 90+ lifestyle and dietary needs, so there is something for everyone.

full review of Misfits Market.

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~ Cheap shipping starts at $6 depending on your location
~ Good selection of ethically responsible products
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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 Market 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.

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.

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~ Unique and interesting groceries
~ Fun and easy interface” dislike=”~ A bit more expensive than some other services
~ The overall grocery selection is limited
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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.

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 and home and paper products. There are definitely fewer total items than in a brick-and-mortar supermarket, but 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.

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. Instacart is available for most grocery chains — Publix, Aldi, Stop & Shop and Costco — but the store options will vary depending on your location. You can view the estimated delivery time for each store before choosing one.

The downside is that you have to pay 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.

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 (sometimes even around 15 if all goes well) 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 micro fulfillment centers.

Target-owned Shipt is similar to Instacart, offering personal shoppers who will secure your desired list from local supermarket chains and wholesale outlets, including Target. 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.

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.

hungryroot groceries

Here is everything I received in my Hungryroot delivery.

David Watsky/CNET

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.


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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.

misfits market tomato

Some of the produce from Misfits Market was bruised. But one bad tomato does not spoil the bunch.

David Watsky/CNET


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What are the advantages of buying groceries online?

The most obvious perks to buying your groceries online are the convenience of not driving to the store, wandering through aisles and waiting in checkout lines. Another bonus for shopping online is the ability to compare prices easily. If you see a box of Cheerios for $5, you can quickly compare that price to other stores and decide if it’s a good price. Before placing your order, you can see the total tab, which is a luxury that in-person shopping doesn’t afford.

Shopping for groceries online also allows you to carefully read the nutritional information and search for any ingredients that may be unfamiliar or read reviews of a product you may not be familiar with. Online grocery services often have reviews of products to help you decide on the best stuff.


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Are grocery delivery services cheaper than buying in the store?

This all depends on which grocery delivery service you purchase from. We did some calculations and buying groceries online is very similar in price to buying in person from a midpriced supermarket. If you shop using one of the discount or bulk retailers such as Boxed.com, you’re probably getting a better deal than you would at the local grocery store.


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Is grocery shopping online easy?

We found using nearly all of the grocery delivery services we’ve tested very easy and intuitive. Services such as FreshDirect, Amazon Fresh and Boxed.com are as simple as any other online shopping experience where you build a cart, select a delivery day, pay for it and that’s it.

Other services with live shoppers such as Shipt and Instacart require a bit more attention and time since you have to respond to your shopper in real-time when items are out of stock and confirm or deny replacements. Those services also typically require you to be home when the driver arrives, whereas other services don’t.


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