Dan Howdle | October 19th, 2024
There are a decent number of people who know exactly what they want out of a new broadband deal, and exactly how to find it using our broadband comparison tools. For others, it's just a dizzying array of providers, packages, options, and speed numbers for which you have no point of reference. Which provider should you choose? Which speed? And how do you know? We have all the details.
There are several major factors you'll need to consider when choosing a new broadband deal. The price, obviously, but also the speed you'll get, the provider and its reputation, how long you'll be tied into the contract and more. Here we'll take a look at those factors in more detail.
How much you pay should begin with understanding how much you're prepared to pay. Most of us will come to this with a budget in mind, but what you pay ultimately is tied to six main factors:
There are various ways of determining the right speed for you and your household. None of them will ever be dead accurate however, since getting the right speed is more art than science. That's because for most households, there will be long periods of the day and night where you could happily get by with 10Mbps, and others where you're hitting upper limits no matter how fast your broadband is – when downloading a new game, for example.
Broadly, our advice is to get the fastest thing you can get, if you or members of your household regularly download videogames, and for the budget conscious, get the fastest thing you can afford. For everyone else, the following rough guide should help.
Broadband users | Type of broadband | Speeds |
---|---|---|
1-2 people | ADSL or Fibre | 10-60Mbps |
3-4 people | Fibre or Full Fibre | 100-300Mbps |
5+ people | Full Fibre | 150-500Mbps |
Gamers or streamers | Full Fibre | 300-1Gbps or more |
There's a lot less variety when it comes to the length of your contract than there used to be, with almost no 12-month contracts now available, a smattering of 18-month contracts still out there, and a wealth of 24-month contracts, with the latter becoming the new normal. BT started this trend of two-year contracts a couple of years ago, and extended it to the other brands it owns: EE Broadband and Plusnet. Subsequently, brands like Sky Broadband, NOW Broadband and Vodafone Broadband have followed BT's lead.
Suffice it to say we are not fans of these very long contracts becoming the norm, because there are no tangible benefits to you, the customer. Longer contracts are better only for providers, and that's that.
Obviously, being able to provide the speed you need at the right price, with a good quality router and reputable customer service are all factors connected to the provider you choose. Rather like the price you should be paying, choosing a provider is connected to every other factor in this section of the guide – or more to the point, understanding what you need out of your broadband package should help you choose a suitable provider.
These are well worth keeping your ear to the ground for. You can see all the offers on right now by selecting the 'Deals with rewards and offers' filter in our comparison table. You'll usually see a range of different offer types.
Vouchers are just that: money-value tickets you can spend in specific stores – quite rare these days. Gift cards are the same, but come in the form of a card or electronically via a code. Cashback is usually supplied in the form of a 'reward card', which is essentially a pre-paid Mastercard you can spend anywhere. And finally, bill credit is where a designated amount comes off your first bills, so £100 bill credit on a £25 per month package would mean you get the first four months free.
An exclusive and rarer category, but you do still see deals like this pop up from time to time – usually on broadband and TV bundles. A free TV or games console have been the most recent of these, though in the past there have also been various smart home devices – Ring doorbells, smart speakers, bluetooth headphones and the like.
On Black Friday (the last Friday of November wherever that happened to sit), some providers will roll out their very best deals and offers. Is it worth waiting for Black Friday to choose a new broadband deal? No. Not really. The offers are sometimes marginally better, but not enough that sticking with an expensive or inadequate package while you wait is going to be offset. If you happen to be switching broadband provider around the end of November though, your chances of finding a great deal are going to be higher.
If your primary motivation for switching is to find a cheaper deal, but you're pretty happy with your current provider, calling them up to renegotiate a new contract at the end of your existing one can be a good idea. Here's what you need to do.
"If you’re new to the world of broadband it can be a dizzying experience both understanding your own needs and matching those against the many, many packages available from a huge quantity of providers. If I were to offer one tip though it’s this: Get the fastest speed you can comfortably afford and you will never be far wrong."
Dan Howdle, Broadband and mobile expert
Each provider attempts to find its own space in the market by angling their products in a specific way and with a specific aim. For example, Sky wants to be (and is) king of broadband and TV bundles, while EE Broadband is all about raw speed, gaming features and super-advanced routers. Here's a very brief rundown of the main providers you can compare on Cable.co.uk and what makes them unique.
It's never been simpler. So simple, in fact, it only needs this tiny section to take you through the entire process: Sign up to your new provider using our broadband comparison and literally every other aspect will be taken care of, including informing your existing provider you're leaving, setting an activation date, and providing you a more detailed take on the speeds you will get at your address.
So much of the process is automated these days and you won't suffer much or any downtime during the switching process. Your old provider will likely want their router back though, so be prepared for them to ask. And all of it starts with entering your postcode at the top of this page and finding out what you can get.
Many broadband providers now offer speed guarantees. These can be a little confusing from the outside because the terminology is so closely blended with so-called Wi-Fi guarantees. The two go hand-in-hand quite often, but they are different.
Providers like BT and Sky offer to guarantee a minimum speed your home will be getting at any given time. The minimum will depend on how fast your package is and how fast your connection is (connection speed and advertised speed are often not the same since advertised speeds are an average). The speed guarantee will pay out compensation if you find yourself below your minimum for a give period (usually a few days).
This is a promise to provide a minimum Wi-Fi speed in every room of your home, and is often an optional add-on. The add-on will usually provide you mesh Wi-Fi extenders to ensure your whole home is covered. Like the speed guarantee, if your provider fails to meet the minimum it sets you'll get some sort of cashback or bill credit as compensation.
There is so much detail beneath the surface when it comes to each provider and the unique things offered by each. That's why we've created full, detailed reviews of each provider and the service they're offering. If you really want to get to the nitty-gritty detail, reading our provider reviews is the way to go. You can read all of our broadband provider reviews here.
Ofcom keeps annual data on how the various providers are doing in terms of customer satisfaction. However, it only measures providers with more than 1.5% of the market share, and since the market is dominated by half a dozen or so major players, that means a lot of smaller providers are left out of the data. The following table shows how each of the main providers ranks in terms of overall satisfaction according to Ofcom, along with other notable details about the provider so you can compare them side by side.
Provider | Speed range | Customer service satisfaction | Extra features | Contract length |
---|---|---|---|---|
BT Broadband | 10Mbps to 900Mbps | 83% | Complete Wi-Fi, Digital Voice, Halo for extra features | 24 months |
Plusnet | 66Mbps to 910Mbps | 89% | Smart wireless, good range, family-friendly features | 24 months |
Sky Broadband | 61Mbps to 900Mbps | 82% | Wi-Fi guarantee, Sky Shield security, parental controls | 24 months |
TalkTalk | 67Mbps to 900Mbps | 78% | HomeSafe security, future-proof Wi-Fi 6 options | 18 months |
Virgin Media | 54Mbps to 2Gbps | 81% | Intelligent Wi-Fi, security features, child-friendly filters | 18 months |
Vodafone Broadband | 35Mbps to 1.6Gbps | 83% | Pro Broadband with mesh extenders, 4G backup | 24 months |
Customer satisfaction source: Ofcom
How reliable your broadband provider is, and its performance in terms of delivering the service promised largely comes down to the type of broadband they're supplying and the network being used. For example, BT recently stated that there are 60% fewer faults on its Full Fibre network compared to its Standard Fibre network. Full Fibre is simply more robust and reliable than Standard FTTC Fibre or (shudder) ADSL.
And likewise, Virgin Media is more reliable than Standard Fibre on Openreach, and less reliable than Full Fibre because it uses a hybrid technology that's somewhere in the middle. Uptimes on all networks are generally in excess of 97-98% though, so in terms of reliability there's really not much in it. Gone are the old days where you connection would drop out a few times a week.
Like reliability, availability comes down to the type of broadband you want. There are three types as far as most of us are concerned (more if you include mobile, satellite, and so on, but those aren't relevant to most of us). Those types are Standard Fibre, Full Fibre and Cable (Virgin Media). If you're wondering what's happened to ADSL, it's no longer offered by most providers, though BT and one or two others will supply it to you, they will only do so if you can't get anything quicker. We have more on these broadband types in their own section further down, but for now here's a quick overview of their availability.
Feature | Standard Fibre (FTTC) | Full Fibre (FTTP) | Cable (Virgin Media) |
---|---|---|---|
Speed | 30-70Mbps | 100Mbps-1.6Gbps | 50Mbps-2Gbps |
Reliability | Average | Very high | High |
Availability | 96% | 62% | 60% |
Price range | £22-£35/month | £22-£80/month | £25-£84/month |
There are now a wide variety of ways to get additional services with your broadband, but adding TV for example will narrow down the list of potential providers substantially, since only BT/EE (both offer EE TV), Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media offer TV bundles. There are other blends of services out there, though – it all depends on what you're looking for.
Checking your postcode for what providers are available comes down to something more fundamental that whether you can get Sky, TalkTalk or whichever provider takes your fancy. What you can get is determined by the different types of broadband that currently co-exist in the UK and whether you can get them at your address. This determines everything: Providers, speeds, everything. So it's just as well that we briefly cover what they are.
A social tariff is a low-cost, bare-bones broadband package for which you have to meet certain criteria as a benefits claimant in order to be able to buy. Most providers have one, but they don't go out of their way to advertise them.
To be eligible, you typically need to be receiving benefits such as Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), or Income Support. Each provider may have slightly different eligibility requirements, but these benefits are the most common criteria across offerings from providers like BT, Virgin Media, Sky, and Vodafone. Applications often involve verifying your benefits status with the provider.
The tools on this page allow you to select and filter by all of the criteria we've talked about thus far. If you're finding it confusing though, no problem. Here are some pointers:
Of course, not everyone comes into their search knowing what speed they need. Don't worry! We have a tool that'll help you find out. Just hit 'Get started' below:
We price check the best broadband deals from the top providers every day.
See all broadband providersThere isn’t a single ‘best’ broadband provider for everyone, as the best choice depends on what you're looking for. Virgin Media often ranks highly for its ultra-fast speeds but not so great for customer service, while Sky and BT are known for their reliable customer service and their TV bundles. For the fastest speeds, Full Fibre packages from providers like EE Broadband and Vodafone Broadband can offer up to 1.6Gbps.
TalkTalk, NOW Broadband, and Plusnet often offer some of the cheapest broadband deals in the UK, with prices starting around £18-£25 per month. Social tariffs, aimed at those on government benefits, can provide even lower rates, sometimes around £15 per month with providers like BT and Vodafone, but you will need to prove you're eligible.
Yes, all broadband deals include a wireless router, allowing you to set up Wi-Fi in your home. Providers such as BT, Sky, and Virgin Media supply routers as part of the package, with some offering advanced 'whole home' features like mesh Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi 6.
Switching broadband providers usually takes between 10 and 14 days. The exact time depends on your new provider and whether any equipment needs to be installed.
Most broadband providers will allow you to move your service to a new address if you’re still in contract, provided the same service is available there. If it's not, you should be able to exit your contract without any fees.