Xfinity vs. AT&T Internet Review 2021

Debating between Xfinity and AT&T internet? We dug through all the fine print for pricing, contracts, and speed to help you figure out which of these two internet service providers (ISPs) is best for you.

Long story short: Xfinity is a great choice for low promotional prices, and you’re more likely to get its service since it covers a wider area. But AT&T Fiber offers an excellent fiber internet connection for a low price, plus you get unlimited data. You’ll just need to live in an AT&T Fiber–connected city to get it.

Need to know more? Let’s dig in and shine a light on how these two ISPs stack up.

Xfinity vs. AT&T: Prices

AT&T Fiber’s gig plan steals the show with its value-packed price.

Take a quick look at AT&T and Xfinity internet plans and you’ll quickly see that Xfinity has more options to choose from. Also, Xfinity’s promotional prices are all over the place.

That means internet packages like its 200 Mbps Performance Pro Plus plan are a better deal than the slower 25 Mbps Performance Starter Plus plan. So make sure you check and double-check the prices on the plans you’re interested in. But given that most of us need more download speed versus less, that should be a good thing.

If you glance at the fine print, you’ll also notice that Xfinity’s two oddly priced plans, Performance Starter Plus and Performance Select, come with no contract. That’s likely why these two plans are at a higher price—but if you plan to move soon, it may be well worth paying extra for no contract.

The Xfinity Performance Pro Plus plan also comes with no contract, but its promotional pricing lasts for only one year. That makes it a better deal than the AT&T Fiber Internet 100 plan—at least for 12 months.

Otherwise, AT&T Fiber’s promo prices are cheaper than what you’ll find with Xfinity.

AT&T Fiber offers some of the lowest prices out there, especially for its gig internet (940 Mbps) plan. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a lower price for similar speeds.

The only catch is, AT&T Fiber is limited to certain cities in the US only, which we’ll cover in just a second. So if you live in a suburban or rural area, you might be left out.

Xfinity vs. AT&T Fiber: Availability

Since AT&T discontinued its DSL internet service, its service area became a bit smaller. Luckily, AT&T Fiber internet service extends to a number of major cities and their suburbs. You can check the AT&T site for a full map of locations with AT&T Fiber service.

Here are some of the major US cities where AT&T Fiber is available.

AT&T Fiber cities

Take each city listing with a grain of salt, though. For example, my aunt lives in Burleson, Texas, which is listed as having AT&T Fiber service. But the fiber lines are still getting installed in her neighborhood.

The easiest way to check if AT&T Fiber or Xfinity is available in your area is to enter your zip code in our tool below. We’ll pull up all the ISPs available in your area—and it takes only a few seconds of your time.

Xfinity vs. AT&T: Internet speed

Xfinity internet speeds kept pace while AT&T lagged behind. But we bet AT&T Fiber speeds improve.

Sometimes it’s hard to gauge how much internet speed you need, but whatever your online activities are, both Xfinity and AT&T Fiber likely have a plan that keeps you connected.

High pricing aside, we still wouldn’t recommend Xfinity’s 25 Mbps internet plan simply because that’s the bare minimum download speed for doing almost anything online.

Sure, you might see speeds of 3 Mbps required for streaming Netflix, but that required speed doesn’t take into account your other connected devices or other people using your internet.

Instead, both AT&T Fiber’s 100 Mbps plan and Xfinity’s 200 Mbps plan are great places to start. And, luckily, both of those plans come at a pretty good intro price.

We also looked at actual internet speed performance in our latest report on the fastest ISPs.

After looking at thousands of internet speed tests from 2019, we found that Xfinity speeds stayed zippy while AT&T lagged behind. Of course, part of the reason AT&T scored much lower than Xfinity is because of its DSL internet performance. (DSL technology is just slower than cable or fiber internet, there’s no getting around it.)

However, because fiber internet is a newer and typically faster technology, we bet you’ll see reliably fast download and upload speeds from AT&T Fiber.

Just a quick note: those weighted scores aren’t actual download speeds.

Rather, they’re a combination of the average download speeds, upload speeds, and latency. And to put things in perspective, our top-scoring ISP, Google Fiber, earned a score of 75.6 out of 100.

Xfinity vs. AT&T: Data caps

If data caps make you cringe, AT&T Fiber is your best bet. It offers unlimited data on all of its plans.

Xfinity, on the other hand, might seat you on the struggle bus with its 1.2 TB data cap. Granted, you can get unlimited data with Xfinity, but it requires you to pay $11–$30 extra a month.

Xfinity vs. AT&T: Contracts and fees

Neither ISP lets you dodge contracts completely, but Xfinity offers a few no-contract plans in the Northeast.

Unfortunately, both AT&T and Xfinity require you to sign a contract to get internet service. In general, both ISPs require a one-year contract, though there are a couple of exceptions from time to time.

For example, Xfinity offers a few no-contract plans to customers in the Northeast, and its Gigabit plan typically requires a two-year contract.

What a contract means is that, if you need to cancel your Xfinity or AT&T internet service before the contract is up, you’ll pay an early termination fee (ETF).

Here’s how Xfinity and AT&T ETFs compare:

• Xfinity early termination fee: Xfinity doesn’t list exact amounts, but you can expect to at least pay the monthly price for the time remaining on your contract.
• AT&T early termination fee: $15 for each month left on your contract—up to a total of $180.

The early termination fee is typically prorated by a certain amount depending on how many months you’ve already paid for service. For example, AT&T’s ETF is $180, but if you paid for three months of service, your fee is prorated to $150.

Xfinity vs. AT&T: Customer service

Neither Xfinity nor AT&T amaze us with customer service, but AT&T is better by a slim margin.

Let’s face it: internet service providers aren’t known for exceptional customer service experiences. And, sadly, Xfinity and AT&T aren’t an exception to this unwritten rule.

In the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report, both AT&T and Xfinity scored slightly higher than the internet industry as a whole.² But neither scores would be considered a passing grade if these two ISPs wanted to graduate the school of customer service.

• Xfinity: 66 (61 in 2019)
• AT&T: 68 (69 in 2019)
• Industry overall: 65 (62 in 2019)

It’s nice to see that both Xfinity and AT&T improved their scores from the last ACSI report. But if that doesn’t make you feel better about calling either ISP, here are a few tips for dealing with internet customer service.

Recap: Which is better, Xfinity or AT&T?

It’s a hard call to say whether Xfinity or AT&T is better since both ISPs are fairly similar. But we’d say AT&T Fiber is your best bet thanks to its low prices and fiber internet technology.

That’s not to say Xfinity doesn’t bring a few perks to the table too. It offers fast internet speeds and low prices as well. Plus, the chances that Xfinity is available in your neighborhood are high since this ISP almost blankets the whole US with internet service.

• Pricing: Both Xfinity and AT&T offer low promotional prices to new customers. But if you need gig speeds, go with AT&T Fiber. Its Fiber Internet 1,000 plan is one of the lowest-priced gig-speed plans we’ve seen.
• Internet speed: Xfinity internet speeds hold up better than AT&T’s speeds, but we bet AT&T’s DSL internet plans are to blame. That said, we think AT&T Fiber internet speeds might leave Xfinity in the dust. (And AT&T Fiber offers unlimited data.)
• Contracts: Both internet providers require a contract, though Xfinity has a few no-contract plans if you live in the Northeastern US.
• Customer service: AT&T. Neither company is outstanding, but slightly higher customer satisfaction scores make us lean toward AT&T.

Sources

1. Catherine McNally, Reviews.org, “The Fastest Internet Providers,” December 2020. Accessed January 2021.
2. American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), “ACSI Telecommunications Report 2019–2020,” June 2020. Accessed January 2021.