The reference box
What Bean Box costs and includes
If you're weighing companies like Bean Box, start with what it sends. Bean Box is a Seattle coffee subscription that has been shipping since 2014. Its curator, Maryna Gray, is a Cup of Excellence juror who picks each bag from more than 600 specialty coffees made by independent US roasters, many of them in Seattle. You choose a taste profile and a schedule, and a different coffee arrives each time. The plan we compared is the Solo Sipper: one 12 oz bag per delivery.
- Contents
- One or two 12 oz bags (or 2 lb bags), whole bean or ground. Profiles run from Curator's Choice and Single Origin to Light & Bright, Medium & Cozy, Dark & Toasty, Espresso, Decaf, and Cold Brew.
- Price and billing
- $19.50 a 12 oz bag ($21.50 on Single Origin), plus $5.45 flat shipping per delivery. Billed a week before each shipment.
- Delivery
- Every 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 weeks. All 50 states, US territories, and military addresses.
- Customization
- A Friday email previews your next coffee, and you can swap it for free. Skip, pause, or cancel from your account.
- On Cratejoy
- Not sold here.
Bean Box also sells gifts that don't renew: prepaid Coffee of the Month plans for 3, 6, or 12 months, and Discovery Samplers of two to four bags built around one theme. Details are on Bean Box's gift page.
Compare the boxes
| Box | Best fit | Cost and commitment | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bean Box Solo Sipper Reference box |
A curator's pick from dozens of independent roasters | $19.50 a 12 oz bag plus $5.45 shipping. Skip, pause, or cancel anytime. | Every 2 to 6 weeks. All 50 states. |
| MyBean Monthly | Two single origins to taste side by side | $33 a month for 12 oz total. | Monthly, first week of the month. US only. |
| Bell Lap Coffee | One roast you choose, roasted to order | $13 a month for a 12 oz bag. | Monthly. Roasted Tuesday, shipped Wednesday. US, Canada, UK, Australia, Switzerland. |
| Puppy Paws Cup of the Month | Coffee, a small surprise, and a rescue donation | $26 a month for a 12 oz bag. | Monthly, between the 10th and 20th. |
| Tayst coffee pods | Keurig brewers who want a sampler | $31 a month for 30 compostable pods. | Monthly. First box ships the day you order. US only. |
| Trade Coffee | The biggest roaster menu, matched by quiz | $17 or $22 a 10.93 oz bag, plus $3.99 shipping unless prepaid. Cancel anytime. | Every 1 to 6 weeks. US only. |
| Driftaway Coffee | Tasting first, then a subscription built from it | $22 a 12 oz shipment, with an optional five-coffee tasting box first. Pause or cancel anytime. | Weekly to every 4 weeks. |
The four Cratejoy boxes bill month to month with shipping added at checkout, and each also sells 3-, 6-, and 12-month prepaid plans at a lower price per box.
The alternatives
Closest match on Cratejoy
MyBean Monthly vs Bean Box
Best for: The Bean Box subscriber whose favorite part was tasting one origin against another.
MyBean, a veteran-owned seller, sends two single-origin coffees each month, 12 oz between them, with tasting notes, brewing tips, and a few fun facts about where the beans grew. One subscriber's first box paired Ethiopia with Kenya.
What feels familiar
Bean Box's Single Origin plan and its sampler gifts are built around comparing origins. MyBean puts that comparison in every box.
What changes
Two coffees share 12 oz, so you get less of each, and the price per ounce runs higher than Bean Box's single bag. You don't choose a roast profile, and boxes ship once a month instead of on a schedule you set.
Costs less than Bean Box
Bell Lap Coffee vs Bean Box
Best for: Drinking one reliable roast every morning for a lower monthly price.
Bell Lap roasts to order and ships within 48 hours of roasting. Order by 6 pm Central on a Monday, and your coffee roasts Tuesday and ships Wednesday. Pick a French roast, a Vienna roast, a medium, a light, the roaster's choice, or a Swiss Water decaf.
What feels familiar
Choosing a roast works much like picking Dark & Toasty or Light & Bright on Bean Box, and both ship coffee within days of roasting.
What changes
It's one roaster with a set lineup, so the new-coffee-every-time part of Bean Box goes away unless you choose Roaster's Choice or change roasts. Bell Lap grinds coarse, medium, or fine, where Bean Box's ground option uses one all-purpose grind.
A gift that gives back
Puppy Paws Cup of the Month vs Bean Box
Best for: Gifting coffee to someone who'd like the purchase to help animal rescues.
Each box holds a 12 oz bag, whole bean or ground, flavored or not, plus a small extra the seller calls a lagniappe. Puppy Paws Coffee & Tea Company donates 10% of every purchase to animal rescue.
What feels familiar
A 12 oz bag a month is the same shape as Bean Box's Coffee of the Month gift, and Puppy Paws sells prepaid 3-, 6-, and 12-month plans for gifting too.
What changes
The seller picks the coffee, and there's no preview-and-swap before it ships. The first box goes out within seven days of ordering, then between the 10th and 20th of each month.
For a Keurig
Tayst coffee pods vs Bean Box
Best for: A Keurig household that still wants to try several coffees.
Tayst makes Keurig-compatible pods that are compostable and contain no plastic, filled with Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee. The Bold, Medium, and Flavor Samplers and the Variety Pack mix several blends in one box, in sizes from 30 to 240 pods.
What feels familiar
Bean Box sells sampler sets of two to four bags as gifts. Tayst's sampler packs bring the same try-a-few idea to a single-cup brewer.
What changes
Bean Box plans come as whole bean or ground, so pods are the reason to switch here. You trade bags from many roasters for pre-ground blends from one.
More roasters to meet
Trade Coffee vs Bean Box
Best for: The Bean Box fan who wants an even longer list of roasters, matched by a taste quiz.
Trade Coffee matches you with coffees from independent US roasters, with more than 450 on its Signature plan and 100-plus on a lower-priced plan of classics. Each order is a different coffee unless you set a favorite to repeat.
What feels familiar
This is the closest outside match: many small roasters, picks based on your taste, and an email a few days before each order so you can make changes.
What changes
A standard Trade bag holds 10.93 oz, a little less than Bean Box's 12. Shipping is $3.99 per bag when you pay as you go and free on prepaid bundles of 3, 6, or 12 bags. Each roaster ships on its own schedule, so timing varies. We compared Trade with other subscriptions in our Trade Coffee alternatives guide.
A tasting flight first
Driftaway Coffee vs Bean Box
Best for: Learning what you like before you settle on a profile.
Driftaway Coffee, a Brooklyn roaster, lets you open a subscription with an Explorer Box: five coffees, 4 oz each, from light to dark, plus a free virtual tasting you can join live or do on your own. Afterward you pick your favorite profiles, and shipments rotate through them.
What feels familiar
Bean Box's Discovery Samplers do the tasting-flight part. Driftaway builds your whole subscription from one.
What changes
Everything comes from one roaster, so the variety is in origins and roast levels, not different roasting companies. Deliveries can run as often as weekly, a faster schedule than any Bean Box plan.
The honest part
When Bean Box is still the better fit
Stay if meeting a new roaster every few weeks is the point. Each Cratejoy box here comes from a single seller, and only Trade matches Bean Box's roaster roll call. Bean Box also keeps the edge on flexibility (a swap before every shipment, five delivery schedules), on gift plans that end on their own, and on shipping to US territories and military addresses.
How we chose these boxes
We went through the coffee subscriptions on Cratejoy, kept those open to new subscribers, and matched each to a reason people pick Bean Box: comparing origins, choosing a roast, gifting, or brewing pods. Among Bean Box competitors, Trade works the same way, drawing on many independent roasters, so we added it along with Driftaway for the tasting-flight start. For a wider list, see our guide to coffee subscription boxes. The photo at the top is Bean Box's own image of its World Coffee Tour gift box and coffee bags.
Questions before switching
What's the closest thing to Bean Box on Cratejoy?
MyBean Monthly, if you liked tasting origins side by side. Each box holds two single-origin coffees, 12 oz in total. For Bean Box's many-roaster variety, Trade Coffee is the nearest outside match.
Which option costs less than Bean Box?
Bell Lap Coffee has the lowest box price, $12.95 a month for a 12 oz bag before shipping, against Bean Box's $19.50 a bag plus $5.45 shipping. Trade's lower-priced plan is $16.99 for a 10.93 oz bag plus $3.99 shipping.
Is there a Bean Box-style sampler I can give as a gift?
Driftaway's Explorer Box, five 2 oz coffees for $33, works as a one-time tasting flight. On Cratejoy, MyBean, Bell Lap, Puppy Paws, and Tayst each have a Give as a Gift option and prepaid 3-, 6-, and 12-month plans.
Can I get a coffee sampler for a Keurig?
Yes. Tayst sells compostable Keurig-compatible pods in Bold, Medium, and Flavor Sampler packs, plus a Variety Pack. Bean Box's plans don't come in pods.
Do any of these ship outside the US?
Bell Lap Coffee ships to Canada, the UK, Australia, and Switzerland as well as the US. Bean Box plans ship to all 50 states, US territories, and military addresses.
