# Instacart 24 Hacker News commenters recommended Instacart and 51 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. **Verdict:** People recommend it for saving time, quick delivery, and making shopping easier for busy, traveling, or less mobile people. Critics say prices differ between shoppers and service quality has become inconsistent. ## Why people recommend it - Cheaper than many alternatives (4 comments): "I can get food delivered for less than it costs to actually go to the mainstream grocery stores" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46201318)) "it's cheaper and higher quality than most other options" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48054239)) "their prices are generally better than Amazon groceries" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50289250)) - Saves time spent shopping (2 comments): "DoorDash and Instacart are godsends for families on the go who don't have time to do all this stuff anymore." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291264)) "I judge that the 30 minutes it can take to do groceries is better spent doing other things with my life." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291258)) - Quick delivery within the hour (2 comments): "you can avoid the in store experience if it isn't for you, and in fact get the stuff you want delivered to your door in a short period of time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48779193)) "when something looks good, I can have the ingredients to make it delivered within the hour" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46592137)) - Essential for people who cannot drive (2 comments): "I rely on Instacart as I live alone and can't drive anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50288624)) "Don't know what I would do without Instacart." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48786737)) ## What people warn about - Prices differ between customers (2 comments): "roughly 75 percent of the items in identical Instacart baskets purchased at the same time varied in price from one shopper to the next" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49898679)) "some grocery prices differed by as much as 23 percent per item from one Instacart customer to the next" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205106)) - Higher prices and extra fees (3 comments): "In my experience its significantly more expensive for groceries: up to 20% for items + service fee + subscription + tip." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290504)) "True, but at higher prices (and with delivery fees), which somewhat defeats the purpose of the cost savings at Costco." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48779376)) "the FULL invoice (very hard to locate!) show a mysterious service fee of $3-6." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47000084)) - Quality declining, shoppers inconsistent (3 comments): "I stopped using them when they switched to instacart -- the instacart shoppers really don't care about service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50294554)) "I have been thinking recently that I will stop using it based on the decline in quality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50297781)) "the person doing the shopping frequently didn't know where something was" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46208495)) - Worker pay and contractor status (3 comments): "spends hundreds of millions to block minimum wage pay regulations in any municipality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50298727)) "pit laborers and consumers against each other rather than improving the system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48528823)) "Every one of them classified as an independent contractor by companies" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47122683)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [DoorDash](https://hackerapproved.com/p/doordash.md): 34 recommend - [Amazon Fresh](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-fresh.md): 21 recommend - [Costco delivery](https://hackerapproved.com/p/costco-delivery.md): 7 recommend - [Ocado](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ocado.md): 6 recommend - [Tesco grocery delivery](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tesco.md): 5 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.instacart.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Instacart", https://hackerapproved.com/p/instacart/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).