In the world of meal kits and meal delivery services, it can seem like there are endless options. To narrow it down, my colleagues and I have spent months (even years) testing the most popular companies to determine which are best for different needs. Two that often get compared because of their smoothies, wellness shots and oat bowls are Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest.
As a vegetarian of 21 years who often eats vegan meals, I have personally tested both Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest and can say that the companies differ in certain respects, despite their similar vegan, gluten-free beverage and breakfast offerings. However, if you’re struggling to decide between the two, I’ve done all the research for you, comparing prices, variety, how each company works, eco-friendliness and more.
By the time you finish reading, you’ll have a clear idea of whether Daily Harvest or Splendid Spoon is the right service for you.
How they work: The subscription-less winner
With the dairy-free, gluten-free, certified organic Daily Harvest, a subscription is optional, and you can build your box à la carte with at least six items. However, with a subscription, you get discounted pricing: 15% off your first box and 10% off each box thereafter.
If you choose a Daily Harvest subscription, you can receive your box every week, every two weeks or every four weeks. You’re able to customize, skip or cancel your subscription any time from the brand’s website or app. Plus, with a subscription, you receive a free smoothie essentials kit (normally $20) that includes a reusable cup, a pouch and straws.
Daily Harvest’s smoothie ingredients come frozen in cups. You pour the contents into your blender with your preferred liquid, blend, pour the mixture back into your cup and drink with a straw using the built-in hole in the cap. The oat bowls can be made in the microwave.
The Daily Harvest elixirs come with frozen cubes made from blended fruits and veggies that can be used to make a smoothie or a hot or cold beverage with milk or water. It’s like a wellness shot, but frozen, and can be combined with other liquids. The brand’s organic pea protein powder can be blended into your smoothies or oat bowls, too.
Daily Harvest’s smoothies, elixirs and oat bowls.
As for the 100% plant-based, gluten-free Splendid Spoon, it is a subscription service, and you can choose from three plans: six, 12 or 18 items. The more you order, the more you save: $10 off 12 items and $20 off 18 items, both include free shipping. Then, you choose your first delivery date and whether you get your box delivered every week, every two weeks, three weeks or four. You can change, pause or cancel your subscription at any time on the website under the Account tab.
No subscription is required for Splendid Spoon’s Five-Day Detox, which is $300 for 25 offerings across breakfast, lunch, dinner and daily snacks. You also get five superfood shots.
Splendid Spoon’s three plans for six, 12 and 18 items.
All of Splendid Spoon’s offerings come frozen. The meals and oat bowls can be heated in the microwave, while the premade smoothies and shots are ready to defrost and drink.
Since Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon have different offerings, it’s tough to compare them. Yet, since you don’t need a subscription with Daily Harvest, it’s a winner in our book.
Winner: Daily Harvest
Best for people on a budget
Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest offer different products, but both companies have smoothies and oats. To save on these categories, go with Splendid Spoon.
Compared to Daily Harvest’s $1.06/oz for classic smoothies and $1.28/oz for protein smoothies, you’ll save with Splendid Spoon’s $0.62/oz for its smoothies.
However, Daily Harvest’s high-protein smoothies have 20g of protein, while the most protein you can get from one of Splendid Spoon’s offerings is 10g with the strawberry chocolate smoothie. If protein is important to you, then Daily Harvest may be worth the extra cost.
For oats, the best price you get with Daily Harvest is $1.44/oz, while Splendid Spoon’s oat bowls are priced starting at $0.63/oz. But again, you do get more protein, up to 17g, with Daily Harvest. The most protein you can get from one of Splendid Spoon’s oat bowls, the blueberry almond power oats, is 11g.
Winner: Splendid Spoon, unless you’ll pay more for extra protein
Splendid Spoon’s pricing
Product | Price | Size (oz) | Price/ounce |
Smoothies | $19 | 16 | $0.62 |
Soups | $12.50 | 14 | $0.89 |
Noodles | $13.50 | 12.9 | $1.05 |
Dishes | $13.50 | 12.8 | $1.05 |
Oats | $5.50 | 8.7 | $0.63 |
Shots | $4.25 | 3 | $1.42 |
Note: This is as of March 2026.
Shipping is $10 per box, but it’s free when you order 12 or more items. You can add optional package protection for $4.
To determine the price per ounce, I chose the product with the most ounces in each category to find which would offer you the most bang for your buck. The price per ounce increases as the size decreases. Smoothies, soups and shots are all the same size, while noodles, grain dishes and oats have different serving sizes.
In the noodles category, the Brussels bolognese and green carbonara have the largest serving size per container (12.9oz). For grain dishes, it’s the naked burrito bowl (12.8oz) and for oats, it’s the cherry berry oats (8.7oz).
Splendid Spoon’s Five-Day Detox offering is $300 for 25 products and five superfood shots. This comes out to about $10 per product.
Daily Harvest’s pricing
Product | Price | Size (oz) | Price/ounce |
Protein smoothies | $9.50 | 7.4 | $1.28 |
High-protein oat bowls | $7.80 | 5.4 | $1.44 |
Elixirs | $13 | 16 | $0.81 |
Classic smoothies | $8.50 | 8 | $1.06 |
Organic pea protein powder | $33 | 15.8 | $2.09 |
Note: As of March 2026.
Shipping is $10 per box, but it’s free when you order 12 or more items. There is a minimum of six items per order, though.
I applied the same method I used with Daily Harvest to calculate the price per ounce, using the product with the largest serving size in each category. Elixirs and the protein powder have the same price across the board.
For protein smoothies, nutty banana has the largest serving size (7.4oz), while the apple cinnamon oat bowl (5.4oz) is the largest for oats. Strawberry peach (8oz) has the largest serving size for classic smoothies.
Daily Harvest also offers dietitian-curated Nutritoon Support Boxes, starting at $63 for seven items and going up to $121 for 14 items. Both come out to about $9 per item.
Modifying or cancelling your subscription
Splendid Spoon asks that you make any changes to your subscription before you’re charged for your next box. You can see this “edit by” date under your account’s Your Plan tab. The brand also sends reminder emails that will alert you to your order editing deadline.
Daily Harvest states that you can edit your next order up to three days before your estimated delivery day. At least 24 hours before your order cutoff, the company will send you a reminder email so you can log in to your account to make any adjustments. To alter or cancel your subscription, go to the My Plan tab on the website or app.
As a reminder, a subscription is not required for Daily Harvest. However, when comparing subscriptions, both companies allow you to edit or cancel your order by a certain date and even send reminder emails. For that reason, the two services tie in this regard.
Winner: It’s a tie
Best for variety
While Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon share two categories (smoothies and oat bowls), each brand has distinct product lines. Splendid Spoon has wellness shots, soups, noodle dishes and grain dishes, while Daily Harvest offers elixirs and its own protein powder.
Smoothies | Oat bowls | Shots | Soups | Noodles | Dishes | Elixirs | |
Daily Harvest | 14 | 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 2 |
Splendid Spoon | 15 | 6 | 5 | 17 | 7 | 10 | N/A |
Daily Harvest is gluten-free, dairy-free and certified organic. It also offers plant-based Whole30, paleo, Mediterranean, diabetes-friendly and GLP-1 options, among others.
Splendid Spoon is gluten-free, vegan, GMO-free, made of 100% plants and whole food ingredients and doesn’t contain artificial sugar. 95% of the brand’s smoothies and wellness shots are organic. For all other products, you can see what’s organic on the label. You can also filter by higher fiber, higher protein, lower calorie, lower fat, blood sugar friendly and more.
Daily Harvest (left) and Splendid Spoon (right) have different filters for dietary restrictions, preferences and benefits.
Both services would be good for anyone with a vegan or gluten-free diet who aims to prioritize organic ingredients. However, since Splendid Spoon offers more variety, it wins this round.
Winner: Splendid Spoon
Best for families
At the full price, you get a better price per ounce with Splendid Spoon. Also, with Splendid Spoon, you get more variety, including soups, noodles and grain bowls.
Yet, for both Daily Harvest and Splendid Spoon, there is only one serving per meal or beverage. Because of that, I don’t think either would make sense for a family of three or more. I think these services would be better suited to one or two people who want a few vegan, gluten-free smoothies, oat bowls or other prepared dishes on hand.
Splendid Spoon’s various offerings, including oat bowls, smoothies and grain dishes.
Instead, I would recommend a meal kit service with vegan offerings, such as Sunbasket (up to four servings), HelloFresh (up to six servings), Green Chef (up to six servings) or Purple Carrot (two servings, but you can add as many as you want). For a prepared meal service with a few vegan family meals, there’s also Mosaic Foods, which offers up to four servings.
Winner: Neither
Most eco-friendly with recyclable materials
Splendid Spoon ships its meals frozen with dry ice, which will evaporate on its own in a well-ventilated area (just don’t touch it with bare hands!), and recyclable Climacell insulation. The brand’s boxes, bottles, dishes and bowls are 100% BPA-free and recyclable. However, you’ll want to check with your curbside recycling company to see what it accepts, so you may need to recycle some packaging at your local recycling center or via in-store drop-off.
For Splendid Spoon, rinse the bowls and liners before recycling. The liner usually requires in-store drop-off, while the plastic film covering the food can’t be recycled curbside and requires contacting your recycling center to see if they’ll accept it.
What Splendid Spoon looks like when it arrives.
Daily Harvest also ships its products with dry ice, but in a plastic bag that can’t be recycled curbside and may require in-store drop-off. The box, liner and divider are recyclable, but again, check with your recycling provider first. Some of the company’s product packaging can be recycled, while other components go in the trash. This is what can be recycled from each line:
- Smoothies: The lid
- Boosters: The scoop
- Elixirs: Not recyclable
- Oat bowls: Not recyclable
Daily Harvest’s packaging when it arrives.
Based on this comparison, it seems that Splendid Spoon has more packaging that can be recycled — especially curbside.
Winner: Splendid Spoon
Best for people who hate cooking
As both Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest are prepared or ready-to-make meals that come frozen and can be blended or heated in the microwave, either would be great for people who don’t like cooking. If you want easy, healthy smoothies and elixirs, then I’d go with Daily Harvest. However, if you’re looking to cut back on cooking lunch and dinner specifically, Splendid Spoon would be the better option, as it offers soups, noodles and grain dishes. Both have oat bowls for breakfast.
Again, it’s tough to compare the two because of their different product lines, but since Splendid Spoon also offers meals other than oat bowls, it would be my winner here.
Winner: Splendid Spoon
Discounts for new customers
As of March 2026, Daily Harvest is giving new customers 15% off their purchase with code GO15. With an optional subscription, you get 15% off your first box and 10% off after that. However, these discounts cannot be combined. You also get free shipping if you order at least 12 items, which is the same as Splendid Spoon.
Students and teachers also get 15% off every order of 12 items or more. Daily Harvest also has a loyalty program: If you place at least one order per month, you get a free smoothie with every subsequent order. Plus, if you share Daily Harvest with a friend who isn’t a current customer and they complete the registration process and place an order, you both get $25 off.
Splendid Spoon offers $10 off for orders of 12 items and $20 off for orders of 18 items. Both have free shipping. If you refer a friend and they order a box, you both get $20 off.
In order to get $10 off your Daily Harvest order with a 15% new customer discount, you’d need to spend $67. To get $20 off with a 15% discount, you’d spend $133. With a 10% Daily Harvest subscription discount, to get $10 off, you’d have to spend $100. Get $20 off when you spend $200.
Daily Harvest (left) showing the price for 12 smoothies with a new customer subscription discount and Splendid Spoon (right) showing the price for 12 smoothies, but you should also get $10 off when you check out.
Given that Daily Harvest’s new customer discount works with just six items, instead of Splendid Spoon’s 12, it wins there. Daily Harvest also offers discounts for students and teachers, and the referral discount is $5 more than Splendid Spoon’s. Plus, there’s a free smoothie loyalty program.
The best new customer discount will depend on how much you spend with either company. However, with Daily Harvest’s additional discounts, it wins here.
Winner: Daily Harvest
My final thoughts
As someone who has tested both Splendid Spoon and Daily Harvest, I can attest that they have distinct product lines, but each is vegan and gluten-free, and offers smoothies, wellness shots and oat bowls. When it comes to taste and texture, I thought both were delicious, but I preferred more of Daily Harvest’s smoothies, even though I had to blend them myself. Daily Harvest also has more high-protein offerings, if that’s important to you.
If you want to save, Splendid Spoon may be the better option in terms of price per ounce, but keep in mind that new customer and subscription discounts could affect how much you pay in the end. A subscription also isn’t required with Daily Harvest.
For those who don’t want just smoothies, wellness shots or oat bowls, you may prefer Splendid Spoon for your meals. The brand also has a Five-Day Detox program that includes 30 products to help with intermittent fasting. I’ve tried all the dishes and enjoyed them, but you should always check with your doctor first before starting any sort of detox or new diet.
To summarize the winners above:
- How they work: Daily Harvest
- Best for people on a budget: Splendid Spoon
- Modifying or cancelling: Tied
- Best for variety: Splendid Spoon
- Best for families: Neither
- Most eco-friendly: Splendid Spoon
- Best for people who hate cooking: Splendid Spoon
- Best for new customer discounts: Daily Harvest
While Splendid Spoon appeared to be the winner, I want to emphasize that the different product lines of both companies make them difficult to compare. As a result, I would take a close look at each brand’s specific product offerings to see which appeal most to you. Perhaps you go to Daily Harvest for your smoothies and Splendid Spoon for your prepared meals.
