Verizon offers the best network, and Visible gives you access to Verizon’s network for a fraction of the price. Xfinity Mobile gives you surprisingly good discounts if you bundle your cell phone plan and TV together. US Mobile is one of the few smaller carriers that offers family plan discounts, allowing you to get down to $20/mo. for unlimited talk, text, and data. Mint Mobile offers one of the cheapest unlimited plans on the market today. When it comes to data speeds, T-Mobile reigns supreme.
See? That wasn’t so hard. Now you have everything you need to find the best cell phone plan, right? Nope! There’s definitely more details to know before committing to any cell phone plan, and we’ve narrowed down everything you need to know. For example, right now Mint Mobile is offering an exclusive buy-six-get-six deal that gets you six months of cell service for free.
Know how much data you need: It’s essential to know how much data you need as many carriers will base their plans on this figure. Not everyone needs an unlimited data plan, so don’t overpay for what you don’t need. Read our handy guide to see how much high-speed data you actually need. Compare prices: With so many options available, we want to make sure you get the best price for your needs. Use the price-comparison tools, like the charts in this review, to make sure you’re getting the best deal available. Watch out for extra fees: Not all cell phone plans are straightforward. Many, especially the cheaper plans, have plenty of devils in the details (like data slowdowns and price increases). We’ve highlighted some of those details to help you out in your search. Make sure your area is covered: Not all mobile providers have stellar service in every part of the US. So to avoid having to sit by the window and wait for bars to appear, check out our coverage maps in this review or read our cell phone coverage guide to see which cell phone service gives you the best coverage.
All right, let’s talk plans, beginning with the most powerful. Fun fact: Verizon actually owns Visible. This is a good thing because you can expect Visible to get preferential treatment over other carriers that piggyback on Verizon’s network. Take a look at this coverage map to see just how extensive Verizon’s network is. The catch is that your hotspot data caps at 5 Mbps with Visible. That’s enough speed to connect your laptop to the internet and send Slack messages back and forth, but you’ll probably have a rough time streaming a Zoom meeting. As a Visible user, you might find that you can’t refresh your Instagram feed at a crowded stadium, or can’t stream a podcast during rush hour traffic. When the network gets congested, Verizon will give priority to its own customers. Your mileage may vary on how often you experience this, but know that it’s something that can pop up at the most annoying times. On the plus side, Verizon owns Visible, so its possible that Visible customers will experience less data throttling compared to other smaller carriers on Verizon’s network (like US Mobile). Spectrum Mobile’s unlimited plan gets you unlimited everything for $40/month, and uses Verizon’s awesome network to provide coverage. You only get a 30GB data cap every month with this unlimited plan, meaning if you use over 30GB in a month, your data speeds will slow down. As long as you keep below that data cap, Spectrum Mobile offers a nice value unlimited plan for Spectrum customers. We call this a bundle because you cannot get Xfinity Mobile as a standalone service. Even though Xfinity Mobile is sorta exclusive, we like its unlimited plan, and here’s why. Yes, there are other small carriers with lower prices for an unlimited plan, but Xfinity Mobile is cheaper than all of the Big Three—Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. To get the most out of that, you need to have a 5G smartphone and to live in an area with 5G infrastructure. If you meet that description, then Xfinity Mobile says it can deliver download speeds of around 450 Mbps and upload speeds around 50 Mbps.2 Why would ever need to, but that means you can download a movie off Netflix in under a minute! If you’re ever in a bind and can’t get access to the internet, an Xfinity hotspot could make all the difference, but don’t be surprised if your speeds feel slow while connected to it. Be sure to read more in the Customer Service section of our full Xfinity Mobile review. The default streaming resolution for non-5G devices on Xfinity Mobile’s unlimited data plan is only 480p, which is just standard definition (SD). But if you’re on the 5G network, you’ll get the best possible video resolution. That’s basically the difference between Batman Forever and The Dark Knight. Both are Batman movies, but one is clearly more advanced than the other. Go with 5G. That’s our best advice when it comes to Xfinity Mobile. With a 5G device on a 5G network, you’ll enjoy 4K streaming. Roar! If you’re still in a 4G LTE situation, don’t despair—you can still buy HD streaming for any line, which gets you 720p resolution for smartphones and 1080p for tablets. We already did the math (you’re welcome), and it’s pretty straightforward: If you use more than 3 GB of cellular data per month, then Xfinity Mobile’s unlimited plan is probably a better deal for you. Here are Xfinity Mobile’s plans so you can compare them for yourself. Here’s what we love about the budget-friendly Mint Mobile unlimited data plan. While Mint users won’t get premium treatment (your speeds will slow down before T-Mobile customers see any changes), you will get full use of T-Mobile’s 4G and 5G networks. That means Mint customers should see better data speeds than many other customers on discount plans. Deprioritization is a wily issue to have. You never know quite how much it will affect your service. You might have super fast data speeds all day, then see them trickle to almost nothing in the evening. Or, you might have slow-ish but manageable speeds (think 5–15 Mbps) all the time. It really depends on where you live and how you use your phone. As it stands right now, no other carrier can beat US Mobile’s family plan deals for unlimited data. Here’s the proof: But, to be honest, data deprioritization is a problem with every small carrier (and even the cheaper plans from big carriers). So, you’re going to have to deal with it unless you’re willing to shell out a lot more than $20 per line. While some of its previous issues persist—specifically poor 4G coverage in rural areas—it has managed to outperform the competition where it matters most: 4G LTE data speeds, data allotments, and 5G coverage. And it has done all of this while still being cheaper, on average, than Verizon and AT&T. Here’s everything we love about T-Mobile’s premier Magenta MAX plan. When it comes to 5G speeds, OpenSignal’s latest report says, “T-Mobile wins the 5G Download Speed award for the fifth time in a row, increasing once again its lead on Verizon and AT&T … this time T-Mobile places at least 93.9 Mbps ahead of its competitors …”3 This is one of the biggest reasons that T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan stands out. The Magenta MAX plan gives you 100 GB a month of high-speed data before deprioritization. If you want the best speed, here it is. That might not sound like much, but it’s far more than AT&T customers, who were only connected to a 5G network 25% of the time (in just six states) and Verizon users, who were connected just 17% of the time (in just one state).1 This network makes T-Mobile the most “future-proof” carrier around, since 5G technology will become the new standard for mobile networks in the years to come. You can get an unlimited plan from a discount carrier, like Visible or Mint, for less than half that price (although the data will be much slower and you’ll have worse perks)! In short, T-Mobile knows this is the most powerful plan in the industry right now, so they’re not afraid to stick to a high price. And it’s still totally worth it for those who want performance above all else. It is true that this $20 price tag includes a temporary discount that goes away after six months. But if you’re worried about that, US Mobile has plenty of other data plans that cost less than $20 a month. If you’re still not convinced, check out how US Mobile compares to other super-cheap data plans. In terms of data performance and coverage, Verizon and T-Mobile are the two best networks in the game. So, whichever network you end up on you should be pretty happy. Check out this family plan that we built on Twigby that includes four data plans for a total sum of $45/month.
Best overall coverage: Visible Wireless uses Verizon’s awesome network, but charges a fraction of the price for unlimited talk, text, and data plans. Best bundle: If you’re already paying Comcast Xfinity internet, then you should look at Xfinity Mobile. It gets you on Verizon’s 5G network for less than $50 a month. Best budget unlimited data plan: Mint Mobile offers a perfectly good unlimited data plan for a ridiculous price. Your data speeds may not be the fastest, but your wallet will thank you. Best family plan deal: US Mobile will hook you and your loved ones up with an unlimited plan for as little as $20 per line. Yes, it’s a very good deal. Best overall performance: The T-Mobile Magenta MAX plan is simply the most powerful plan on the market, offering truly unlimited data, the fastest speeds, and plenty of cool perks. Best under $20: If you’re just looking for the cheapest, most bare-bones plans, then we suggest checking out US Mobile. A crisp twenty will get you up to 25 GB of data.
That’s all we’ve got to say about the best cell phone plans. We hope we’ve been helpful (you can always yell at us in the comments if we haven’t been). For this article we looked at data from over 100,000 mobile customers to determine mobile data speeds. We used the latest reports from OpenSignal and other groups to understand the status of carriers’ 5G networks. And we used comparison tools from sites like WhistleOut.com to help understand pricing and features. Most of all, we trust the users. So we’ve also looked at customer reviews from each carrier to better understand what they do right, and where they could improve. So, the best way to figure out which carrier has the best deals right now is to read our cell phone deals page that we update every month. In short, there isn’t a single carrier that’s clearly the best. But if you read about the five plans we’ve featured in this article, then you’ll probably find something that’s a great fit for you. The easiest way to figure out which network is best for you is to look at coverage maps. You can see maps for all three major carriers and read all about their performance in our up-to-data network coverage analysis. But there are plenty of other great unlimited data plans that cost less. Visible Wireless has an incredible deal on unlimited data family plans, while Mint Mobile probably has the best deal on an individual unlimited plan. Just be sure to look at the fine print of every unlimited data plan or mobile deal that you consider. You will often find that there are data caps (unlimited isn’t really unlimited) and data deprioritization on the cheaper plans. T-Mobile has the biggest and fastest 5G network right now, and the other two networks (AT&T and Verizon) aren’t very close to catching up.3 This means that T-Mobile will likely be on top for the near future when it comes to overall performance. We put the three top carriers to the test for price, coverage, and speed, Check out how each stacks up in our Verizon vs. AT&T review, AT&T vs. T-Mobile review, and our T-Mobile vs. Verizon review. But the market is flooded with cheap cell phone plans right now, so it’s worth shopping around for the very best deal. Just be aware that cheaper isn’t always better. There are usually drawbacks hidden in the fine print, like data deprioritization, price hikes, and coverage gaps.
