Trifecta and Factor are both meal delivery services focused on healthy eating and healthy lifestyles. We’ve compared them head to head in categories including dietary options, meal prep, ingredient quality, taste, pricing, and more. Which did we choose as our favorite based on the results? Read on to find out!
Each meal delivery service has something unique to offer its customers. Factor and Trifecta share a common platform of offering healthy meals that help customers like you achieve their dietary goals and eat healthily. When comparing the two against each other, these are the main pros & cons that we found of each.
Table of Contents
Trifecta
Pros
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals
- Meals are preselected for ease
- Great for those with food allergies and sensitivities
- Great packaging materials
Cons
- Pricier than Factor
- Don't choose your own meals
- No ability to opt-out of breakfast with the smallest meal plan
- Less variety of flavors
Factor
Pros
- Organic, non-GMO ingredients
- Sustainable ingredient sourcing and grass-fed meats
- Incredible flavor and generous portion sizes
- One of the best meal delivery services for healthy eating goals
- Good choice for meal plan options
Cons
- Fewer options if you have dietary allergies
- No breakfast options available
Dietary Options
Trifecta
Diets
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Paleo
- Keto
- Whole30
- Mediterranean
- Gluten-Free
- Dairy-Free
- Diabetic-Friendly
- Weight Loss
Factor
When eating healthy is the goal, the dietary options offered by a meal delivery service are key. Maybe you’re only interested in paleo meals, or you need meal options that are gluten-free or dairy-free. Here is a rundown of what each company offers in terms of dietary options to help you compare.
Factor offers a rotating weekly menu and does a good job of offering meals for a number of popular dietary categories. They primarily focus on keto meals, calorie-smart meals for weight loss or weight maintenance, and both vegetarian and vegan meal selections.
Factor’s weekly menu offers more than thirty nutritious meals, but not all of them check off the same boxes for dietary preferences. A sample week might include a dozen or so keto options, twelve to fourteen-calorie smart meals, and a small handful of vegan and vegetarian meals (not their strongest point).
With the exception of vegetarian and vegan meals, you’re not going to find many meal options that are dairy free with Factor. All of their meals are prepared in a facility that handles major allergens, including dairy, gluten, soy, eggs, and nuts. You can look at the ingredients for each meal individually if you want to avoid certain ingredients, but if you have a food allergy, know that there is a risk of cross-contamination with Factor meals.
It also feels important to note that while Factor is a good meal delivery service for eating healthy, “healthy” means something different to each of us. Factor offers calorie-smart meals that come in as low as 350 calories. This is great (and delicious!) if calorie restriction is your primary goal. On the other end of the spectrum are keto dishes which can pack in as many as 900 calories per meal, much of which comes from healthy fats.
Keto followers seldom worry about calories, so this is something to be aware of if you think you’re ordering a classic meal, but really it’s designed with keto macronutrients in mind.
Trifecta Nutrition also offers several different categories of meal options that are created with specific dietary needs and preferences in mind. Trifecta’s categories of meals include paleo meals, keto, clean eating, vegan, and vegetarian.
When you order from Trifecta’s a la carte menu, they state that all of their meals are gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free. They focus most specifically on these three categories of food allergens. However, if you choose one of their dietary plans, Trifecta chooses the meals for you, so you want to be more careful if you have food allergies. For example, if you need dairy-free meals, your best bet would be to go the vegan or paleo route.
Dietary Options Winner
Meal Variety
Trifecta
- (Only Classic Meal Plan)
- 25
- 5 Meals Plus Breakfast or 7 Meals without Breakfast
Diets
- Choose Your Own Meals
- Number of Meals Available
- Minimum Order
Factor
- 30
- 4 Meals for 1 Person
The next area we looked at when comparing Trifecta vs Factor is how easy the meals are to prepare and how much variety you get each week. There’s nothing worse than paying money to get stuck in a rut with the same meals week after week!
As far as meal prep goes, it really doesn’t get any simpler than what both of these companies offer. Both Trifecta Nutrition and Factor offer fully prepared meals that require nothing more of you than simply heat and heat. Prepared meals are great to have on hand for those busy nights when there’s no time to cook dinner and also for when you want to grab something quick to bring into the office for lunch. Convenience is a huge plus with both Trifecta Nutrition and Factor.
So, in this category, the differences really come down to who offers the most variety. Factor meals come with about thirty or more choices per week, and the menu rotates weekly. We also like that there’s a ton of variety in Factor’s menu. They offer a wonderful selection of classic meals that everyone (including picky eaters) loves and new, interesting meals with bold flavors. The only area that Factor falls short in variety is with their vegan and vegetarian meals, and that’s because there are only a couple offered each week.
Trifecta offers more than twenty-five meals each week, including meals that are suitable for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, you don’t get to choose which of those meals you get to enjoy. Trifecta Nutrition does that part for you. They do give you to option to exclude certain ingredients, including shellfish and nuts, which is important if you have an allergy. So, when you order from Trifecta, you get a variety of meals that are packed with nutritional value. You just don’t have much control over what arrives in your weekly box.
Meal Variety Winner
Ingredients
Trifecta
Diets
- Non-GMO
- Organic
- Grass Fed
- Wild-Caught
Factor
When it comes to wonderful tasting meal delivery dishes, the quality of the ingredients is super important. Most of us also like to know that the food we use to nourish our bodies is high quality and maybe even sourced using ethical standards.
Factor exceeds expectations when it comes to quality ingredients. They’re committed to using the absolute freshest ingredients, which really shines through with their premade meals that are delivered to you fresh, and never frozen. Factor also uses non-GMO ingredients and shuns artificial preservatives. We also love that they work with local farmers and source organically grown produce, and are invested in sustainable farming practices. This means that you’re going to get mostly organic meals when you choose Factor as your meal delivery company.
For the carnivores out there, Factor requires that any meats used in their meals are ethically produced. With Factor, this means that all meats should fall into the categories of grass-fed, pasture-raised, and antibiotic-free.
Trifecta Nutrition has ingredient standards that are closely aligned with those of Factor. They use organic ingredients for mostly organic meals whenever possible, and they have exceptionally high standards when it comes to sourcing their premium quality ingredients. They also use grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and ethically sourced and sustainable seafood.
Ingredients Winner
Taste & Sample Meals
Trifecta
Factor
Next up, we looked at how the meals from each of these meal delivery services taste. After all, if your palate and tummy aren’t satisfied, it’s just a waste of money.
Because Trifecta Nutrition chooses the meals for you, they tend to lean more toward classic meals with familiar tastes that are well received by most people. They’re not going to jump too far out of the box in terms of bold, exciting flavors. That said, their meals are solidly tasty every time.
Some examples of Trifecta meals include a keto-style Mediterranean salmon that’s served on a bed of greens and low-carb vegetables, vegetarian teriyaki tofu, grilled steak with mixed vegetables, and Whole30 chicken with walnut pesto.
Factor, in comparison, does a wonderful job of infusing each meal with the type of flavor you might think only comes from a home-cooked meal. They offer a nice variety of flavors and pay attention to details, like sauces that actually taste homemade rather than processed.
Some sample meals from Factor include a keto chorizo chili, chicken a la vodka, vegetarian green chili tostada bake, a peanut Buddha bowl, and horseradish shredded beef.
Taste Winner
Pricing
Trifecta
MEALS PLANS | PRICE PER SERVING 7 Entrees | PRICE PER SERVING 10 Entress | PRICE PER SERVING 14 Entrees |
Clean Eating | $15.86 | $15.80 | $15.71 |
Whole30 | $15.86/ | $15.80 | $15.71 |
Paleo | $15.86 | $15.80 | $15.71 |
Keto | $15.86 | $15.80 | $15.71 |
Vegan | $14.28 | $13.50 | $12.86 |
Vegetarian | $14.28 | $13.50 | $12.86 |
Factor
MEALS PER WEEK | PRICE PER SERVING |
4 | $15.00 |
6 | $12.83 |
8 | $12.38 |
10 | $11.99 |
12 | $11.50 |
18 | $11.00 |
One of the biggest questions when choosing meal plans is how much it’s going to cost you. Very few of us have a “the sky’s the limit” food budget, so cost is important.
When you order from Trifecta Nutrition, the weekly price you pay depends on which meal plan you choose. The first decision you make is if you want to choose the keto, clean eating, paleo, vegan, or vegetarian meal plan. The meal plans are priced the same, with the exception of the vegan and vegetarian options, which are more economical.
Next, you choose how many meals per week you’d like to receive. Choose from five, seven, ten, or fourteen entrees per week. You can also choose to add five breakfast entrees per week to your plan. If you choose the smallest five entree plan, there isn’t an option to opt-out of the additional breakfast meals. Seven meals per week are the minimum amount of entrees to order if you want to skip the breakfast altogether.
The price of Trifecta’s seven-meal plan averages out to about $15 to $16 per serving. The cost per serving is pretty consistent regardless of what size plan you choose. Unlike other meal delivery companies, Trifecta Nutrition doesn’t offer a significant discount for ordering more meals per week.
With Factor, you also get to set your meal preferences before choosing a meal plan, but you can choose more than one preference if you prefer. For example, you can select Calorie Smart and Chef’s Choice and have access to meals in both categories.
With Factor, you can choose 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 18 meals per week, and the cost per serving goes down with the more meals you order. The four-meal plan costs $15 per serving, which is similar to Trifecta Nutrition. However, their larger meal plans are set at very reasonable prices. You can choose eight meals per week for a little over $12 per serving or pay only $11 per serving if you order eighteen meals.
Pricing Winner
Packaging & Recycling
Trifecta
Factor
The last thing you want to deal with when unpacking your box of delicious meals is a bunch of excess packaging. While the packaging is important for protecting the quality of your meals during transit, there should also be an awareness of how much and what type of packaging material is used.
Factor states on its website that they’re committed to minimizing the amount of packaging that they use in its shipments. They’re continually looking at new packaging technologies to improve their packaging standards. Factor also uses a special type of atmospheric packaging, which helps to ensure your meals taste their absolute freshest once they arrive at your door.
Trifecta meal service is equally committed to effective and responsible packaging. Nearly 98% of Trifecta’s boxes are recyclable and are made almost entirely from plant-based materials. Their packaging insulation is also plant-based, and their ice packs can be added to your compost pile.
Packaging Winner
Customer Service
Trifecta
- (Up to 4 Weeks)
- (7 Days Advance Notice)
Diets
- Skip a Week
- Pause
- Cancel
Factor
Winner
Factor
In our battle of Trifecta vs Factor, we crown Factor as the winner. We absolutely love the quality and homemade taste of their meals, and the variety they offer is nothing short of excellent. Even though Factor is our winner, we would still enjoy a Trifecta meal anytime. They’re both good options when you’re looking for a great meal delivery service.
Still, a little stumped on which one to choose? Consider this before signing up.
Choose Trifecta If:Â
- You have a dairy allergy or are looking for gluten-free meals
- You like the idea of someone else doing the hard work of meal selection
- You want the option to include breakfast
- You are looking for vegan or vegetarian options
Choose Factor If:Â
- You love variety and homemade taste
- You follow the keto lifestyle or have weight loss goals
- Appreciate ethical ingredient sourcing
- Prefer organic, non-GMO ingredients
- You like a little more flexibility in the size of your plan
I would like to see a “complete” list of all the meals that Factor offers. So far I can only find a few here and there. Please let me know how I can do this without having to commit to purchasing first. Thank you
While the Factor Meals menu changes each week, they do have tons of options. I’ve included the next two weeks of meals in these images. You can always go to https://mealplanpros.com/go/factor-60off/ and click on “Weekly Menu” at the top.
