Skip to main content

Cell phone plan comparison: The best deals at every price level

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check out our picks for the best Verizon phonesbest T-Mobile phonesbest Sprint phones, and the best AT&T phones.

Choosing a cell phone plan has never been simple, but lately every carrier seems to be claiming to have the best deals on plans and features. We’re here to set the record straight. We’ve compared the four carriers in three separate use scenarios: an entry-level user who just walks to talk, an experienced cell phone user who wants to step up to a smartphone as cheaply as possible, and an advanced user who needs all the minutes and data providers will offer.

Keep in mind that this doesn’t account for factors like which carrier offers the best phone selection, coverage and customer service — just which offers the most features for your hard-earned dollar.

Just the minimum, please

You would just assume keep using a land line for a couple of bucks a month, but those goons you call friends and family insist on being able to reach you at all times. You’re ready to relent with a cell phone, but want to keep price to an absolute minimum — and you know how to keep a conversation short.

Best Deal: Sprint

If all you’re looking for is a cheap plan with no features, Sprint has the best deal, by far. Beating out the competition by about 25 percent, Sprint offers fewer “anytime” minutes, but still offers nights and weekends beginning at 9 p.m. Unfortunately,Sprint offers no 200 minute plans available for users seeking texting or data. AT&T is the runner up here due solely to its inclusion of rollover minutes, which can be accumulated for up to 12 months before expiring.

 

Price:

$39.99 $39.99 $29.99 $39.99
Minutes: 450 minutes 450  minutes 200 minutes 500 minutes

Dabbling with a smartphone

That creaking Motorola Razr is starting to show its age. You’re ready to shell out a little more every month for a smartphone, but not knowing how much you’ll really use it, you don’t want to spend too much.

Best Deal: Sprint

When looking for a bare-bones smartphone plan, Sprint isn’t the cheapest, but it is the best value. Though $69.99 is $10 more than AT&T and T-Mobile, the inclusion of unlimited (your bandwidth may be choked after 5GB) of data is huge compared to the competition, which offer puny 200MB packages. These are virtually useless if you actually browse the Web or use data-intensive apps more than a few times a month. Downloading few or less podcast episodes of a single radio show will eat through 200MB of data alone. To add unlimited data to a 500 minute T-Mobile plan, it’ll cost you $79.99. AT&T doesn’t even offer plans that reach 5GB, though another $10 on AT&T would get you 2GB of data, which is enough for many users.

 

Price:

$64.99 $74.98 $69.99 (Everything Data Plan) $59.99 (Even More 500 plan)

Plan Breakdown:

       
Minutes: $39.99 for 450 minutes $39.99 for 450 minutes 450 minutes 500 Minutes
Texts: $10 for 1000 texts $5 for 250 texts unlimited texts unlimited texts
Data: $15 for 200MB data $29.99 for unlimited (5GB) data unlimited (5GB) data 200MB data

Running a life without wires

Your phone is an appendage. You have 40-minute conversations with relatives on your commute, text nonstop with friends, and whip out your phone to stream your favorite YouTube videos without hesitation, gobbling up data with reckless abandon. You’re the user cell phone companies dread, but you’re willing to pay for the all-access key to the kingdom.

Best Deal: Sprint & T-Mobile

For those who love their smartphones and do a lot of texting, talking, and data using, an unlimited plan is what you want. It’s here where underdogs Sprint and T-Mobile truly shine. Verizon and AT&T both cost $15 to $20 more than the competition, and in AT&T’s case, you get less than half the data for the price. Cuts in texting and talk time are needed to bring Verizon and AT&T’s plans to comparable prices with Sprint and T-Mobile. Now, if only the two carriers had the phone selection of the big guys.

 

Price:

$114.99 $119.98 $99.99 $99.99

Plan Breakdown:

       
Minutes: $69.99 for unlimited talk $69.99 for unlimited talk Unlimited talk Unlimited talk
Texts: $20 for unlimited texts $20 for 5000 texts unlimited texts unlimited texts
Data: $25 for 2GB data $29.99 for unlimited (5GB) data unlimited (5GB) data unlimited (5GB) data

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
AT&T plans explained: 5G, pricing, and deals
att plans explained at amp t

T-Mobile phone plans may have gotten all the attention as the first carrier to launch a nationwide 5G network coverage, but AT&T has since followed suit. Now, we are seeing a rapidly expanding AT&T 5G network, and the carrier offers 5G access in the majority of its phone plans.

Speaking of plans, AT&T offers a few of them. Between its unlimited data plans, its prepaid plans, and other plans, there's a lot to consider if you're thinking about switching to AT&T or switching your plan within AT&T. There are other major 5G carriers to choose from.

Read more
The Galaxy S24 just got a big camera update. Here’s what’s new
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in Titanium Orange and in Titanium Silver.

Samsung Galaxy S24 owners just received some great news. Samsung recently released an April software update that addresses various camera issues. Unfortunately, this update is only available in South Korea, but according to information posted on the Samsung Korea forum, it is expected to be released in other regions soon.

Firmware version S928NKSU1AXCA is almost 800MB in size. It includes improvements for lowlight images and image colors in Samsung's Expert RAW app, improved text clarity when zooming in photo mode, and support for 480 x 480 resolution when recording Instant Slow-Mo videos. The Galaxy S24 update for April builds on the improvements from the previous February release, which included enhanced zoom, portrait mode, night mode, and rear camera video capture capabilities.

Read more
Apple just announced the dates for WWDC 2024
WWDC 2024 banner.

Apple has just announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024. WWDC will take place from June 10 through June 14, 2024. A special event will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on June 10, and we expect to see the reveal of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2.

WWDC will be free for all developers online. Developers will be able to access a variety of online sessions and labs that will showcase the latest advancements in software across all of Apple’s hardware.

Read more