The best subscription boxes to buy
Treat yourself or a loved one with regular deliveries through the post
We all love a surprise delivery from the postman. When you can make that surprise a regular occurrence, all the better! Subscription box deliveries are booming, and with good reason: they’re more convenient than going shopping, they offer a sampling of products you might not otherwise have tried, and they’re often good value for money. If a subscription feels too extravagant or not worth it then you can always cancel after the first delivery. It’s a win-win!
But with so many companies offering subscriptions nowadays, where do you start? Prices can vary considerably depending on what products you’re ordering, and you can sometimes get caught out with rolling subscriptions. To help you decide, we’ve reviewed the best options here, along with a guide for choosing the perfect subscription box for you.
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Best subscription boxes: At a glance
How to choose the best subscription box for you
How often will my subscription box be delivered?
Many subscription box services adhere to a monthly plan for their customers, but depending on the product involved you can receive a subscription weekly or even daily. In terms of the length of the subscription package itself, you can often sign up for a three-, six-, or 12-month period, or simply subscribe to a rolling contract that allows you to pause certain delivery dates or cancel when you want to. Sometimes you’ll be able to order one-off deliveries, but reading the small print is always a good idea – just in case you get charged for a second delivery.
Can I choose my delivery slot?
A busy lifestyle means you may not want a costly delivery box waiting on your doorstep until you get home, so it’s worth checking whether deliveries are made through a courier service. Depending on which courier the company uses, you might have access to a range of delivery options: timeslots, dates and the chance to reschedule if necessary. Some enterprising subscription companies offer letterbox-sized delivery, eliminating the need to be at home – although of course this only works for small or narrow products.
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How much should I spend?
That depends on your budget and the products you’re after. The subscription boxes on our list start at £5 and go up to £36, but if you’re looking to treat yourself or others with gourmet, tailored, or hand-picked products, there’s every chance they’ll be more costly. That said, most subscription companies are trying to make their products a tantalising option, and the value you get from a subscription box will typically be better than buying products individually. Signing up for a longer subscription will usually mean a reduction in cost, too.
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The best subscription boxes to buy in 2023
1. Bloom & Wild: Best flower subscription box
Price: from £20 per delivery | Buy now from Bloom & Wild
Bloom & Wild is well known for its gorgeous bouquets, and its letterbox-sized subscription deliveries are no different. We love how carefully packed the flowers are: the blooms arrive individually protected in wraps of netting, come with sprigs of foliage, and stay fresh for a long time.
Customers can choose from ten different subscription options: a regular monthly delivery of classic blooms is £20 while seasonal flowers are £25, but you can also set up a limited subscription for 3 months (£65), 6 months (£125), or a year (£235). Another nice touch is the ability to add a card into any box, which is great when you’re sending them as a gift!
Key specs – Subscription rate: Monthly; Subscription duration: 3, 6, 12 months and ongoing; Delivery charge? No; Cancellation: Any time
2. Gousto: Best recipe kit subscription box
Price: from £25 per box | Buy now from Gousto
Gousto is one of the UK’s best-known recipe boxes. There’s a wide range of recipes available on the rotating menu each week: customers can choose from meat, fish, vegan, and gluten-free options, along with speedy 10 minute meals and everyday favourites.
When setting up a subscription, you can opt for a 2-person or 4-person box, then pick two to four recipes for your order and schedule your deliveries to arrive weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Each box comes with photo-illustrated recipe cards and measured ingredients so there’s no food waste, and you receive alert texts on the day to ensure you don’t miss the delivery – although boxes include insulating ice packs in case you’re not home.
Our favourite aspect of the Gousto subscription is the option to either change your delivery day or skip an order altogether using the easily navigable website. Gousto sends out emails reminding you to choose your recipes, but it will also select meals based on your previous choices if you forget.
Gousto’s lowest price is £25 for a delivery of two meals for two people, while the highest is £48 for four meals for four people, which averages to between £3 and £6 per serving. There are also Gousto discount codes all over the internet, so do a quick search before signing up.
Key specs – Subscription rate: Weekly, fortnightly, or monthly; Subscription duration: Ongoing; Delivery charge? No; Cancellation: Any time
3. Beer52: Best beer subscription box
Price: £24 | Buy now from Beer52
Beer aficionados will love Beer52, the UK’s largest craft beer discovery club. Each month you’ll get eight beers (£24), ten beers (£29) or twelve beers (£34) plus a fun snack and a copy of its 100-page Ferment magazine. The magazine is surprisingly in depth, with background info about each beer and the breweries they hail from.
Subscriptions have two options: ‘light beers’, which is all IPAs and pale ales, or ‘mixed beers’, which also includes stouts and porters. Because Beer52 sources its cans and bottles from all over the world, you’ll never get the same beer twice – but if there are particular beers you’re keen on, Beer52’s online shop also caters for one-off orders.
Key specs – Subscription rate: Monthly; Subscription duration: Ongoing; Delivery charge? No; Cancellation: Any time
4. Abel & Cole: Best vegetable subscription box
Price: £14 | Buy now from Abel & Cole
If you’re finding it hard to hit your weekly veg quota, an Abel & Cole subscription is a no-brainer. There are lots of different boxes available, offering a mix of all veg, all fruit, or a 50-50 split, and all produce is organic and locally sourced.
The cheapest option is the ‘Small Very Veggie’ box, which is £13.25 and contains eight varieties of vegetables, while the ‘Large Very Veggie’ box has ten different varieties and costs £24.75. Of course, if you need to space out the deliveries you can: pausing is easily achieved on the website, as is tailoring your box to your tastes, which is fantastic for picky eaters. You can even set up your ‘dislikes’, so a maximum of three fruits and seven vegetables will never be added to your future boxes.
One downside to Abel & Cole is the rigid scheduling. There’s a set delivery day each week depending where you live, and you can’t choose delivery time slots – although the benefit is that it’s set up like this to minimise carbon emissions and food miles. There’s also a delivery charge of £1.50 for each box that arrives at your doorstep.
Key specs – Subscription rate: Weekly; Subscription duration: Ongoing; Delivery charge? £1.50; Cancellation: Any time
5. Bokksu: Best snack subscription box
Price: £36 | Buy now from Bokksu
For the serial snacker, you can’t go wrong with a regular supply of salty and sweet deliciousness, particularly if your snacks hail from stores you’d simply never track down on your own.
A Bokksu subscription contains around twenty snacks from across Japan, all adhering to a different monthly theme – but instead of the typical snacks found in a Japanese convenience store, they’re hand-selected from the country’s artisanal snack makers. All first time subscribers start off with a Seasons of Japan box which contains snacks like Hiroshima Seaweed Tempura Chips and Kyoto Matcha Chocolate Cakes, then the monthly cultural themes kick in (past themes have included ‘Mochi Madness’ and ‘Sakura cherry blossom season’). Bokksu also includes a tea pairing along with a Culture Guide magazine that tells you the origins of each snack in your box.
Plenty of customers say the quality of the snacks they’ve received has been exceptional and, from an added cultural perspective, Bokksu provides a unique way to learn, taste, and experience Japan from the comfort of home, particularly for younger members of your family.
Key specs – Subscription rate: Monthly; Subscription duration: 3, 6, 12 months & ongoing; Delivery charge? No; Cancellation: 24 hours before renewal date
6. Smol: Best cleaning subscription box
Price: £5 for 24 tablets | Buy now from Smol
It may not sound like the most exciting subscription service, but Smol has a pretty ingenious system. After answering an online quiz about your laundry and/or dishwashing habits, Smol sends out a regular pack of 24 super concentrated capsules at a cost of £4.50 (19p per wash). Frequency of delivery is up to you, based on how often you put on a load of laundry each week, and subscriptions can include laundry detergent, dishwashing tablets, fabric conditioner and surface sprays, as well as a starter kit that includes each of these products. We particularly like the surface spray refills that come in tablet form and just need dissolving in warm water in one of Smol’s ‘bottles for life’.
Smol’s biggest draw is the environmental aspect: the company uses recyclable plastic-free packaging for all deliveries, and the concentrated formula for its products apparently saves over 350 tons of chemicals per year.
It’s worth noting that Smol products are only sold online and are only available for regular deliveries, so no one-off orders are available.
Key specs – Subscription rate: your choice; Subscription duration: Ongoing; Delivery charge? No; Cancellation: 24 hours before renewal date
