Best Family Cell Phone Plans

Unlike Verizon, T-Mobile includes more goodies baked into its plans, such as free streaming services, in-flight Wi-Fi, and T-Mobile Tuesdays weekly offers. T-Mobile consistently ranks at the top of the list for its high-speed 5G coverage, but if I could sum up what makes T-Mobile family plans worth it, it’s the perks. You don’t have to pay extra to access these perks, and if you haven’t heard of T-Mobile Tuesdays, you need to know about it. You get access to free goodies, discounts, and other benefits every Tuesday!

A T-Mobile family plan involves choosing from four T-Mobile plans (all offer a third line for free). You cannot mix and match your plans with T-Mobile—you have to choose one plan for everyone. But if you add four lines in a T-Mobile family plan, you unlock an exclusive plan called the Essentials 4 Line Offer. If you put all four lines on the cheapest plan called the Essentials 4 Line Offer with no extra add-ons, the total comes out to about $100 per month. All of T-Mobile’s plans come with a five-year price guarantee and a free app to track your kid’s activities.

Explore T-Mobile plans on our T-Mobile Cell Phone Plans and Deals.

A couple years ago, I was still on a T-Mobile family plan, sending my brother $60 per line for my husband and me every month (more if we went over our data allotment). I pay literally half that bill with Mint Mobile and still get access to T-Mobile’s fast and reliable 4G LTE and 5G networks. A Mint family plan is great for people like me who don’t care about paying for fancy add-ons and a big name. You even get mix-and-match options, which isn’t available on T-Mobile. A small monthly bill for excellent service—it’s mint to be.

Typically, the more lines you add to a family plan, the bigger the discount. A Mint Mobile family plan is different—all lines are $15 per month when you pay 12 months upfront for your plans. You can choose to pay for three or six months, but 12 months has the biggest discount. Included in all plans is unlimited talk and text on T-Mobile’s 5G and 4G LTE network, free mobile hotspot, and free international calls to Mexico and Canada. Once the high-speed data is used up, your speeds get reduced to 2G for the remainder of the cycle. But you can always add more data throughout the month (from 1GB to 10GB).

Explore Mint Mobile plans on our Mint Mobile Cell Phone Plans and Deals.

Out of the Big Three carriers, Verizon is the king of coverage. When you look at the bars on your phone, you’re likely to have more bars with Verizon wherever you go. Calvin Longhurst tells me, “I almost never have trouble getting a signal.” To avoid dead zones, Verizon wins over your money and your sanity every month.

The Verizon Wireless family plan allows you to choose from three Unlimited Verizon plans (all have a three-year price guarantee). You can mix and match plans for different users on your family plan, making it extremely flexible and customizable. This means that you can pick different plans and perks for each line rather than stick to one plan for all lines. The cheapest plan is called Unlimited Welcome, and it is $30 per month per line with four lines.

With each line, you can also add $10 monthly perks such as streaming packages, new phone deals, and job discount add-ons (such as military, first responder, nurse, teacher, and student discounts). So that base price could change significantly by the time you’re checking out.

Explore Verizon Wireless plans on our Verizon Cell Phone Plans Review.

A US Mobile family plan gives you the power to build each line in your plan from scratch. Families have access to all three major networks—Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T—meaning that depending on the coverage that’s most available in your area, you can pick and even switch between the networks. Even better, each family member can choose a different network. This is perfect for families looking for specific network coverage based on school areas, work areas, or places they know family members will be. And while there are no built-in family safety features, you can add streaming and gaming perks when you have three or more lines on an Unlimited Premium plan.

US Mobile offers three options to customize your US Mobile plan. The Unlimited Flex plan is perfect for families who need more high-speed data and want to lock in a low annual price. The Custom Plan allows you to build the plan you want down to the minutes, text, and data. And the Pooled Data plan is unique as it allows an entire family to share data amongst themselves. From the group of US Mobile customers that spoke to me, 12GB seems to be the sweet spot for families of three to four users.

Explore US Mobile’s plans on our US Mobile Cell Phone Plans Review.

A Tello Mobile family plan provides a highly flexible and inexpensive way for a group to manage multiple lines under a single account. While it relies on one shared bill, you don’t have to share data with other members on a Tello family plan. Tello is probably one of the cheapest plans you can get with some of the lowest starting prices at $5 per line. A Tello family plan is perfect for the budget-conscious family that still wants access to the T-Mobile network and doesn’t care about streaming services or extra freebies tacked on.

On a Tello family plan, you may have to deal with data deprioritization, lack of premium data (once you’ve used your high-speed data, data stops working with no ability to add data mid-cycle), no data rollover month to month, and no freebies. The hard data cap would especially affect someone who has fluctuating monthly data use. Once you run out of data, you’re stuck unless you upgrade your plan mid-month.

Where do you start when you’re looking into picking a family plan? Consider these items below and you’ll know exactly how to start:

You may like Verizon, but if it doesn’t offer good coverage in your area, save yourself the headache. See our Best Cell Phone Coverage guide for a rundown of where in the United States each carrier offers the best network coverage. Find out exactly what’s available where you live, work, or travel, and go from there. Also consider things like where your kids go to school if it’s not close to home.

It’s true that typically the more lines you add, the cheaper your monthly bill gets. However, each carrier’s family plan adds up to something different—Verizon easily adds up to over $100 for four people and Tello charges under $40 for the same amount of lines. If you have a tight budget, consider a prepaid carrier like Mint Mobile, US Mobile, or Tello.

Are the members on your family plan data hogs? Does your overall data usage fluctuate? Are there some members who need more data than others? If this is the case, look for carriers that allow you to customize each line for each member. For example, T-Mobile does not offer this (you have to choose one line for everyone). US Mobile allows you to customize each line down to the unique network each member prefers.

Some family plans are more expensive because you get access to extra things like free streaming subscriptions, new phone deals, international features, and mobile hotspot capabilities. If this isn’t your jam and you’re not interested in these extra things, consider more straightforward carriers (typically, prepaid carriers) who will charge you less for less stuff.

The good news is that you really can’t go wrong. Each carrier offers unique features and benefits, and there’s truly not one family plan that rules them all. Find the one that’s right for your family and “family.”