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What’s the best seafood delivery service for 2025?
Seafood is particularly tricky to shop, but you don’t have to make a trip to the coast or get frozen fillets at your local supermarket anymore. Seafood delivery services will bring fresh fish, shellfish, and more straight to your doorstep, letting you skip a trip to the store altogether. As CNET’s food expert, I tested several top services, and my top pick of the best seafood delivery service is Fulton Fish Market, which stands out for its impressive selection, including sushi-grade tuna that’s hard to beat.
You can find both familiar and rare species of fish online.
Fulton Fish MarketWhether you’re craving tuna, fresh oysters, or wild-caught salmon, these services offer an impressive variety that beats shopping at your local grocery store. Instead of the regular frozen seafood you’re used to, these services either flash-freeze their seafood at peak freshness or have truly fresh catches delivered on ice. Using these services can elevate your healthy dinner routine with a regular supply of great seafood. We’ve tested tons of top seafood delivery services to find the best places to buy fish online. Your options include traditional online fish markets, along with seafood subscriptions. And some even combine their seafood offerings with other proteins like beef, pork and chicken for a complete home cooking experience.
After testing dozens of services, we’ve identified the best seafood delivery options for every type of home cook. Here are our top picks for 2025.
Best seafood delivery services for 2025
Fulton Fish Market has some of the best fish and seafood the internet has to offer.
Joey Skladany/CNETWe analyze each services overall menu and seafood selection, although more options isn’t always better. Quality is weighted more heavily than quantity, especially considering some services specialize in a particular variety such as salmon, sushi-grade fish or fresh lobster. We note how easy the seafood selection is to navigate and how simple the ordering process is. We also take into consideration the level of transparency provided about the fish and seafood including those relating to sustainability. Some services offer detailed tracing of their products while others provide sparse information on the origin of the fish and seafood.
Testing seafood delivery services is largely anecdotal, but we’ve ordered at least one shipment of fish from every service on this list, often two or three deliveries. The biggest concern is freshness, so we take care in smelling, cooking and tasting every piece of fish sent from every service. If there are any sub-par pieces of seafood we’ll note them. We also look for any signs of insufficient packaging.
We look to see if the fish is still frozen (if it’s meant to be) and that there is no leaking or cross-contamination.
Joey Skladany/CNETPremature defrosting, ice melting and cross-contamination are big concerns with shipments of seafood so we look for well-sealed fish that is fully frozen upon arrival. If it’s a delivery of fresh seafood, we ensure that the ice packs or frozen cooler bag has not melted or damaged and that the fish is still cold to the touch.
What type of seafood can you order online?
Online fish marketplaces stock everything from crab cakes to shellfish including prawns for your favorite grilled shrimp recipe or clams for salty New England clam chowder. You’ll be able to order a fresh haul of salmon, tuna, cod, sea bass, halibut, crab, mussels, mahi mahi, swordfish, lobster, smoked fish and caviar, even if you don’t live anywhere near the sea. You’ll also get harder-to-find species of fish like monkfish, rockfish, wahoo, king crab, sablefish and grouper.
Is the seafood from seafood delivery services fresh?
Except for select species like lobster, most seafood you order online ships and arrives frozen or, in some cases, partially thawed. If that gives you pause, remember that much of the “fresh” seafood you’re buying at a grocery store has already been frozen and defrosted before being laid out on the ice or wrapped in plastic. It’s also important to know that frozen fish is just as good for you as fresh fish, provided it’s handled and packaged properly.
Is fish from a seafood delivery services fresher than a fish market?
If you live near a great fish market that sells actual fresh seafood (not frozen and thawed) and also has a high turnover, then that might be the freshest fish available to you. I don’t have that luxury and neither do many others who are landlocked or miles from a reliable seafood shop. That means the freshest fish for us is probably what you’ll find online from a reliable seafood vendor that flash-freezes each filet immediately after it’s caught.
How do seafood delivery services ship seafood?
Most seafood purchased online is flash-frozen, carefully packaged with dry ice and delivered to your door as a one-time order or in a recurring subscription. Every box I ordered from each vendor on this list arrived with all the fish still fully frozen, which is exactly what you want. The rare exception is live shellfish including lobster and crab which are sometimes shipped fresh overnight. Freshness and transparency are key when buying seafood and many companies are finding innovative ways to ensure both while supporting sustainable seafood fishing practices. Many retailers provide detailed records of exactly where the seafood came from, when it was caught and even how far it traveled.