My life has recently fallen apart, and I’m starting over from scratch. My best friend just sent me this care package!

A care package is a group of small treats and comforting items that have been put in a box and mailed to someone. Care packages are sent to mark both sad and happy events in a person’s life, like getting engaged or having a baby. But whether you have time to run to a few places, pick up a few things, and send it all shouldn’t be a factor in whether or not you send someone a care package. With the help of a care-package service, you can put together the best mix of items without having to worry about the logistics. We looked at 13 of these services and put five of them to the test to find the ones with the best products, the biggest selection, and the easiest buying process.

Who this should go to: Someone who doesn’t have much time but wants to send something unique but doesn’t want to spend too much time on the details. Why it’s great: When you customise a Care Crates package, you can add just the right amount of gifts to make it your own. Also, the personalization process is carefully planned so that you get a well-balanced mix of tasty, soothing, and fun-to-play-with gifts.

Even though the contents—Haribo gumdrops, Dolly Parton stickers, patterned socks, and leather notebooks—aren’t expensive, they’re nice enough to feel like a thoughtful gift. The price is also set, and the items inside are not overpriced. You can’t just put things in Care Crates for no reason. That’s a good thing. Instead, you choose from a series of drop-down menus that are loosely organised by theme, such as wearables and mini-snacks.

When the Care Crates box showed up, it was nicely put together. The bright yellow box was pretty and fun to look at. It didn’t feel as high-end as the glossy, ribbon-wrapped BoxFox item, though. Also, it didn’t have a surprise as exciting as the Small Packages package. One $50 Care Crates box came with a nice candle that didn’t smell too sweet, some soft socks, a bath bomb, a sticker, and a chewy-crunchy chocolate almond bar. We added up the costs of each item and found that the total would have been about $42. But the process was much easier than having to buy everything separately. The package came with a hand-made card that fit the theme. A medium box cost $9 to ship, and it got there in less than a week, just like they said it would. Another good thing? The price of a Buy One, Get One Free box goes up by $4. Through partners in Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Oakland, California, the company will send an extra box to someone in need.

Care Crates has some flaws, but they aren’t deal breakers. For example, it’s hard to match the dozens of product photos on the site to the language descriptions in the drop-down menus because the photos aren’t labelled separately. We had to be able to tell the difference, for example, between a “gold link necklace” and a “gold herringbone necklace.” Also, Care Crates doesn’t give a lot of information about each gift. So, if you want to know more about what the socks are made of or what’s in the candy, you’ll have to use Google. This is especially hard to do if the person you’re buying for has allergies.