The 8 Best Grocery Delivery Services to Use in 2024

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.