Top T-Mobile and Verizon Plans Compared

We'll dive into the details to help you compare and pick the T-Mobile or Verizon unlimited plan for you. Before we get into specifics, let's talk about the balance between price and value.

A great monthly price is a big part of the value equation, no question about it. But so are features and capabilities. It's the combination of the two. Understanding your own needs is the most important aspect of finding the plan that offers you the best fit and overall value.

But if you don't feel like reading into the details, we compare T-Mobile and Verizon in great detail below. We compare:

• Entry-level plans: lighter-data users who still want unlimited data for a great price
  
• Middle-of-the-road plans: for users who want the best of both entry-level and premium plans.
• Premium plans: for those heavy users (i.e., families with gamers and streamers and those who use their phone for business) who want the very best network all of the time, along with a wide variety of features and perks.

Would you rather visit a dentist or find a new wireless plan? Tough one, huh? Sometimes it feels like you need an advanced degree in wireless phones, plans, and networks to figure out what to do.

The good news is you've simplified part of the journey. You've decided to look at the differences between just two carriers: Verizon and T-Mobile. But you are still confronted with figuring out how much premium data you need; how much hotspot data you need; whether T-Mobile or Verizon have perks and features you want that could save you money; and whether being on a certain plan makes you eligible (or not) for smartphone promotions—sorting through all that can be understandably overwhelming and just plain tiresome.

Navi is here to help!

When shopping for the best phone plans, the trick is to have an idea of what matters most to you before you start comparing. The clearer your idea of what you need, the faster you can sort through all of the options and figure out what to do.

T-Mobile and Verizon are two of the premier wireless carriers in the United States and for good reason. They each have great networks and service plans that include options for value seekers, top-of-the-line data users looking for the very best data experience all the time, great hotspot bandwidth, and tons of add-ons and included streaming services.

First, let's take a look at the most important things to consider when you're looking for a new phone plan:

Unsurprisingly, how much a phone plan costs is super important. But there's more to it than that. Here are some other things to consider:

Does a plan get more affordable than others as you add more lines?  In the case of Verizon and T-Mobile, their plan pricing (across all their plans) drops by $5-10 per month for each additional line up to 5 lines. So, if you are just one person who subscribes to T-Mobile's Essentials plan, you will pay $60 monthly. But, if you are a family of five, that same T-Mobile plan will cost you $24 per line per month or $120 monthly.

Does your plan price include taxes and fees?  T-Mobile's Go5G and Go5G Plus plans include taxes and fees. That's a big deal and saves you as much as 10-12% depending on your state and city.

Does subscribing to a certain plan allow you to take advantage of lucrative smartphone promotions? Some plans, like Verizon's Unlimited Welcome plan and T-Mobile's Essentials Savings plan, do not allow subscribers to take advantage of lucrative smartphone discounts and promotions. All other plans generally do.  

Do a plan's perks and add-ons save you money in other areas of your family budget?  In the case of T-Mobile and Verizon, their Middle of the Road and Top of the Line plans offer a variety of streaming services, like Apple TV+, Hulu, Netflix and others, that save you as much as $10-20 per month (by canceling your stand-alone subscriptions if you have them).

When comparing Verizon and T-Mobile, T-Mobile generally has lower per-month pricing. But the point here is that you need to understand plan pricing in context to get the right plan for you at the best price!

Let's start with Cellular Data, which is a complicated component of wireless service plans.  Verizon and T-Mobile only offer unlimited data plans.  Unfortunately, not all unlimited data plans are created equal. Here's why:

T-Mobile and Verizon's Top of the Line unlimited plans offer what they call "premium data" 100% of the time.  That means your calls, text messages and data bytes will get the very best treatment the carrier can offer ... and will never be what they call "deprioritized," even in times of heavy network congestion. But that's not true for Entry Level plans.  Your data is technically unlimited for Entry Level plans, but you might be "deprioritized" when networks get busy.  But, fear not, being "deprioritized" is very different from being "capped" (which was the standard practice ten years ago).  95% of users will not recognize that they are being "deprioritized." And, as you might expect, Middle of the Road unlimited plans offer a combination of premium and deprioritized data.

Your most important decision in selecting a plan is figuring out whether you are in the 95% category and can live with being "deprioritized" occasionally.

Remember that T-Mobile's Essentials plan offers deprioritized data up to 50GB.  Beyond 50GB, T-Mobile says the user will experience further speed reductions. It is unclear what that means ... but it is something less than "deprioritized" data speeds. That said, 50GB is a huge amount of data and should be sufficient for the vast majority of users.

One of the most important considerations when comparing Verizon to T-Mobile is one you've no doubt thought of already... which carrier offers better coverage in your area. Unfortunately, when comparing coverage, there isn't a quick and easy method to getting an accurate assessment. Network quality is very, very localized. So localized that one side of your home could have terrific network performance and the other side of your home miserable network performance. Coverage maps don't help with that!

Great network quality and coverage depend on a combination of factors that determine what kind of experience you will have. These factors include such things as (1) your proximity to the nearest cell tower; (2) whether your carrier offers 5G technology on high band frequencies in your area; (3) the number of other customers your carrier serves in your immediate neighborhood; and (4) the materials your home is made of. And there are other factors, too.  As such, measuring network quality and coverage quality is no simple task. From a technical perspective, measuring network quality (meaning your download speed, the number of dropped calls, presence of dead zones, etc.) is a function of the following jargon. Sorry in advance.

• Signal Strength (i.e., "bars" on your screen): Is your smart phone receiving a strong signal from the nearest cell tower?  As you know, poor signal reception means poor service.
• Signal Congestion: How much cell phone traffic is in your neighborhood?  The more people near you on your carrier's network, the worse it is for you.  You can have super signal strength but poor service, which is usually the result of excess network congestion.
• Frequency Band: Your carrier generally has 4-6 frequency bands that your phone can attach to at any time. So, what frequency band is your carrier putting you on most often?  Certain frequency bands are like a highway with very high data throughput.  Other frequency bands are more like a country road with slower data speed but better at penetrating walls and other heavy structures.  
• Reselection: With many frequency bands available, carriers often switch you back and forth depending on various factors (like network congestion).  Sometimes this is good, but a lot of the time this is not good.
• 5G: All carriers are rolling out 5G, the latest wireless technology.  Carriers have generally integrated 5G technology onto their higher frequency bands.  But, if your phone isn't within range of one of these higher frequency bands, you will not have access to 5G service.  So you know, T-Mobile's 5G-enabled high frequency band is band n41 (at the 2.5GHz range).  It is the most ubiquitous 5G deployment as of the moment.  Verizon is playing catch up and is currently deploying 5G on band n66 (at the 2.1GHz range); band 261 (at the 28GHz range); band 260 (at the 39GHz range); and band n77 at the (at the 3.7 GHz range).

Considering all of the above factors, measuring coverage is tricky and varies from person to person and location to location.  For this reason, Navi is hard at work developing a first-of-its-kind tool to compare coverage from different carriers simultaneously in the locations that matter most to you.  Check back at www.yournavi.com in the weeks ahead.  But until we launch this service later in 2023, here are a few tips:

• Compare services with friends and family that have different carriers.  Invite them into your house and run speed tests in different locations.
  
• Check out blogs and forums in your area to find out what other people are experiencing on different carriers.
• Check out carrier coverage maps (but this is only useful for trying to anticipate generally areas with poor coverage).
  

Carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon offer different packages of international calling features.  If you are a frequent foreign traveler or frequent foreign caller, look carefully at the fine print because it could save you or cost you a lot per month. Last but not least, there is video quality. Top of the Line plans have better video quality/streaming speed; generally 2160p.  Entry Level plans generally have video quality/streaming speed of 480p.

Our picks for best phone plans in each category focused on overall value. We took into account all of the features mentioned above to give you the best plans that fit your needs.

If price is your number one priority, T-Mobile's Essentials and Verizon's Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle are good starting points. T-Mobile’s offering in this category is cheaper than Verizon’s, but Verizon Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle may be a better fit if you’re looking for more data and are willing to pay for it.

T-Mobile's Essentials plan is less expensive than Verizon's Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle plan ... at $60/month for a single line compared to Verizon's $75. But, as mentioned earlier, T-Mobile's Essentials plan only offers 50GB of deprioritized data before your speeds are slowed "further." Verizon's Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle plan guarantees unlimited deprioritized data with no threshold for further slowdowns. Neither plan has any useful hotspot capability.

Regarding 5G network access, T-Mobile's Essentials plan offers more than Verizon's Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle plan (measured on a nationwide average). Regarding overall network coverage, Verizon's Unlimited Welcome with Feature Bundle plan has better overall coverage and network access than T-Mobile's Essentials plan (again measured on a nationwide average). But, be cautious because nationwide-wide averages say nothing about what you might experience in your home.

Entry Level plans generally contain fewer international features. However, Verizon and T-Mobile customers who opt for less expensive plans can still maintain some connectivity while traveling abroad (and have features to accommodate calling from the United States to foreign countries). All Verizon Unlimited Welcome users get unlimited talk, text, and up to 2GB of high-speed data daily while traveling in Canada and Mexico. Verizon's Unlimited Welcome plan also includes talk and text to Mexico and Canada while you are in the United States and unlimited international texting to 200+ countries also while you are in the United States. One of the available feature bundles is 3 TravelPass days per month, which will run you $10/month but provides talk, text, and 2GB of high-speed data connectivity while you’re traveling in most countries worldwide.

T-Mobile's Essentials plan includes unlimited texting in 215+ countries worldwide and flat-rate calling at $0.25 per minute in most countries while users travel abroad. T-Mobile's Essentials plan includes unlimited talk, text, and 3G data while users are traveling in Mexico and Canada.  Essentials also offers unlimited international texting from home, and the same low flat rate for international calling while you're at home but need to make calls elsewhere.

Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome plan offers a suite of feature bundles that are all available at a cost of $10 per month on top of the advertised bottom line price. There are nine feature bundles total, including Apple Music Family, Walmart+, 3 TravelPass days per month, and 100GB of mobile hotspot, among others. The advertised single line price above - $75 per month - assumes that the user adds one feature bundle, but subscribers are welcome to add as many as T-Mobile's Essentials plan does not currently offer any additional streaming services.

If you want to pay even less because you don't need any bells and whistles except talk, text, and data, consider stepping down to T-Mobile's Essentials Savings plan and Verizon’s Unlimited Welcome with no feature bundles plan. At $50/month for single lines, Essentials Savings comes with 50GB of deprioritized data, while Unlimited Welcome -- priced at $65/month for single lines; comes with unlimited deprioritized data.  Neither plan has useful hotspot capability.  Neither plan allows subscribers access to lucrative smartphone promotional offers.

Suppose you're going to be traveling abroad. In that case, Verizon's Unlimited Welcome plan includes talk, text, and 2GB of high-speed daily data while traveling in Mexico and Canada. In contrast, T-Mobile's Essentials Savings plan has comparatively little international connectivity. Essentials Savings includes no perks or additional add-on services.

So, the bottom line on these very low-end plans: if you want a cheap unlimited plan but also want a few more features (and are willing to pay for them), Verizon's off-the-shelf Unlimited Welcome plan may be a better fit. If you're looking to save and are comfortable compromising on data allotment and additional features, T-Mobile's Essentials Savings plan might be a better fit.

If you're a heavy data user (i.e., a streamer, gamer or big time business user) and need a top of the line wireless service plan with a ton of connectivity and add-on features, then you're likely to prefer the best of the best which is Verizon's Unlimited Plus with Feature Bundle plan and T-Mobile's Go5G Plus plan. But these plans differ in some important ways, so let's break down those differences so you can decide which one is right for you.

Price is the first factor to consider, and while both top-line prices are the same, T-Mobile's Go5G Plus just narrowly wins out due to its inclusion of taxes and fees in the price. Both come in at $90 per month for a single line. T-Mobile also frequently runs a "third line free" promotion for its Go5G Plus plan, meaning you get three lines on your account but only the two-line rate. Check on this promotion because it changes frequently.

If hotspot data usage is a focus, T-Mobile’s Go5G Plus offers 50GB of LTE/5G hotspot compared to just 30GB on Verizon’s Unlimited Plus with Feature Bundle. Keep in mind that 30GB is more than enough for all but the most prolific of hotspot users, so the difference between 30 and 50GB for the average wireless customer is actually quite small (because they won’t use anywhere close to 30). If you’re in the absolute highest tier of hotspot user, keep in mind that one of the feature bundles available with Unlimited Plus is an extra 100GB of mobile hotspot connectivity, raising your total allocation to 130GB per month. That’s a staggering amount of hotspot data, but it’s there if you need it!

Regarding 5G network access and overall network coverage, however, T-Mobile offers better 5G network access (measured nationwide), and Verizon offers better overall coverage and network access (again measured nationwide).

Verizon's Unlimited Plus with Feature Bundle plan and T-Mobile’s Go5G Plus plan also offer international capabilities when traveling abroad. If international capabilities are a priority, T-Mobile wins here because it offers up to 5GB of high-speed data per month while traveling in 215+ countries. T-Mobile Go5G Plus also offers 15GB of high-speed data per month while traveling in Mexico and Canada. Another great T-Mobile feature includes GoGo in-flight WiFi, which allows you to stay connected on an airplane. Verizon's Unlimited Plus with Feature Bundle offers up to 2GB of high-speed daily data while traveling in Canada and Mexico. One of the feature bundles available with Unlimited Plus is 3 TravelPass days per month, which provides 2GB of high-speed data in nearly every country worldwide and unlimited 3G data afterward. TravelPass days accrue monthly; you can bank them if you don't use them. That's a pretty cool feature if you're planning a two-week vacation abroad but don't travel internationally much aside from that.

Add-ons and perks can be important to many people. T-Mobile's Go5G Plus plan includes Apple TV+, Netflix, and a 1-year subscription to AAA. Verizon's Unlimited Plus with Feature Bundle plan provides optional access to a host of features including Hulu, Disney+, ESPN+, Apple Music, 2TB of Verizon Cloud storage, and others. So if additional perks and features are something you want to bundle alongside your wireless plan, Verizon offers a ton of additional capabilities, with the caveat that you’ll need to pay extra for each new feature.

If you want to balance between a great price and the right set of features, this plan category is the one for you! Middle-of-the-Road plans to strike a great balance between competitive pricing, some premium data and hotspot allocations, and a modest number of add-on services like perks or streaming services. So if your goal is somewhere between saving money and a rich set of features, Verizon's Unlimited Plus and T-Mobile's Go5G plans are for you. In this section, T-Mobile’s Go5G is the cheaper option, so we recommend it if you’re comparing these two plans on the basis of price. Verizon’s Unlimited Plus has better data, though, so if you’re looking for primetime connectivity and are willing to pay extra for it, go with Unlimited Plus.

T-Mobile's Go5G plan wins on price in the middle category for users who need more features but can't flex their budget upwards too much. At $75/month for one line, including taxes and fees, subscribers reap significant savings over time compared to Unlimited Plus, which starts at $80/month for a single line, not including taxes and fees. T-Mobile Go5G plan customers also benefit from T-Mobile's frequently offered "Third Line for Free" offer, making its multi-line pricing especially competitive. Please check that this promotion is available when considering T-Mobile's Go5G plan.

T-Mobile’s Go5G plan includes 100GB of premium data. Unlimited Plus has truly unlimited premium data, meaning you’ll never get slowed down when the network is busy, regardless of how much data you use. So, if you’re in the top echelon of cellular data users and really need high-speed connectivity, all the time, no matter what, you should go with Verizon here. If you fall outside of that highest echelon of users (an average data user’s consumption is probably closer to the range of 5-10GB per month), then T-Mobile’s Go5G and the savings it will afford you may be the better fit.

Verizon's Unlimited Plus offers 30GB of mobile hotspot on its 5G and 4G networks compared to only 15GB with T-Mobile's Go5G plan. 15GB again is enough for most users, but if you’re in that top tier of hotspot users and need that 30GB, you should go with the Verizon option. Verizon’s Unlimited Plus also allows you to purchase a staggering 100GB of extra mobile hotspot for $10/month, so if you use a ton of hotspot data and 30GB may not even be enough, that option is also available to you.

5G network access and overall coverage are the same across all plan categories: T-Mobile offers better 5G network access (measured nationwide), and Verizon offers better overall coverage (again measured nationwide average).

International features also vary across the offerings in this category. T-Mobile's Go5G plan leads the way here, offering 5GB of high-speed data connectivity in 11 European countries per month and 10GB in Mexico and Canada. Meanwhile, Verizon Unlimited Plus offers great connectivity in North America: up to 2GB of high-speed data per day while traveling in Canada or Mexico. Verizon customers may also purchase three monthly TravelPass days for $10/month, which remain usable for 12 months after accruing.