T-Mobile vs. Verizon Review: Which Service Is Better?

If you’re looking for a no-frills talk and text plan with limited data, then T-Mobile has you covered with its prepaid Connect plans. Connect by T-Mobile offers plans from $15 to $35 per month. Plans come with unlimited talk, text, and data from 5GB to 12GB data depending on your plan.

Verizon’s prepaid plans aren’t as affordable. Verizon prepaid plans cost $35 to $60 per month, but they do get more data from 15GB to 50GB of high-speed data.

But let’s move on to the main event, the star of the show, the feature picture: unlimited plans. Here’s a look at what Verizon and T-Mobile are serving up for all you data hogs.

Unlimited talk and text come included with most cell phone plans—what you pay for your cell phone plan will largely depend on data. Check out our data guide and make sure you don’t pay for too much data (or too little).

Is T-Mobile cheaper than Verizon? It depends on the plan. T-Mobile takes the prize for most affordable unlimited plan with its $55 Essentials Savers plan. This plan offers a cheap(ish) way to get unlimited talk, text, and data from one of the country’s most robust wireless networks. We recommend checking out Visible or Xfinity Mobile for cheaper unlimited plans, or check out our guide to lowering your T-Mobile cell phone bill to find more savings.

The biggest downside to this plan is that your data can be deprioritized during times of congestion. Basically, that means the company will slow down your speeds to give service to more important customers (i.e., people who give them more money).

If you want to be one of those people who give T-Mobile more money to get full speeds all the time, then you can get the Experience Beyond or Experience More plan.

The $105 Experience Beyond plan comes with some extra perks, like access to Satellite service until July 2025, unlimited mobile hotspot included, international texting, and in-flight Wi-Fi. But before you jump on the T-Mobile bandwagon, check out Verizon’s unlimited plan that runs at a similar price.

Similar to T-Mobile’s cheapest unlimited plan, Verizon Unlimited Welcome customers can experience data deprioritization when the network is busy. And for the record, we think that’s pretty bogus for a $65 (with AutoPay) plan.

But Verizon tries to make up for deprioritization with some perks to choose from, like extra storage or more hotspot data. You'll also find add-on options for streaming and music like Verizon's Disney Bundle, an Apple One subscription, or a subscription to Walmart+. Not to mention that Verizon operates the best mobile network in the country (we’ll talk about that more in a minute).

When you start looking at the higher-tiered plans from Verizon and T-Mobile, the main benefits you find are increased high-speed data caps (or unlimited premium data) and better streaming quality.

Both Verizon’s Unlimited Plus and T-Mobile’s newest Experience More and Beyond plans will give you HD video streaming.

But T-Mobile is the clear winner when it comes to the high-speed data cap, giving truly unlimited high-speed data for its Experience Beyond and Experience More plans, no matter how much data you use. Compare that to Verizon's 50 GB, and you’ll see why some people may want to pay a few extra bucks for a T-Mobile plan.

Here’s a cost-saving tip—you can get the same reliable cellular coverage as you would from AT&T or T-Mobile when you sign up for a much cheaper wireless plan through an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator). MVNO carriers operate over the same cellular towers, but let you save big with a simpler plan.

Looking for a Verizon plan? Try out Visible—you get 5G coverage, unlimited talk and text, and endless premium data for just $35 or $45 a month. Verzon’s stellar network coverage keeps you connected wherever you go, and the unlimited mobile hotspot is an extra bonus.

Or, if Visible isn’t a good fit, Verizon also has several other MVNOS:

• Cox Mobile
• CREDO Mobile
• Lively
• MobileX
• Page Plus
• Red Pocket
• Spectrum Mobile
• Straight Talk
• Total Wireless
• TracFone
• Ting
• Twigby Mobile
• US Mobile
• Wing
• Xfinity Mobile

Looking for a T-Mobile plan? Pick Mint Mobile instead—you get unlimited data, mobile hotspot access, and 40GB of premium 5G data over for just $30 a month, and you have the option to get plans for as low as $15 a month. That’s a seriously thrifty way to access to the best 5G in the country.

Other T-Mobile MVNOS include:

• Boost
• Consumer Cellular
• Gen Mobile
• Good2Go Mobile
• Google Fi
• Hello Mobile
• Reach Mobile
• Red Pocket
• Straight Talk
• Tello
• TextNow
• Ting
• Ultra Mobile
• Unreal Mobile
• Wing

Bundling your mobile plan with an internet plan from your cellular provider can save you hundreds of dollars every year, especially since you're already paying for both services. Both Verizon and T-Mobile offer fast and reliable internet services that get great customer reviews.

Verizon offers two main types of internet plans: Verizon 5G home internet with 100 to 300Mbps or 300 to 1,000Mbps download speeds, depending on your area for $50 to $70 per month. Where available, it offers its ultra-reliable Verizon Fios fiber internet plans from 300Mbps to 2Gbps symmetrical speeds for $50 to $109.99 per month. This also gets a $15 to $25 discount when you're a Verizon mobile customer.

Verizon Fios is especially great because of its low latency, perfect for gaming, Zoom calls, and pretty much anything you want to do on the internet. "I’ve never had to call them for an issue," says Thomas H., a Verizon Fios customer for seven years. “From reliability to performance, it’s everything you can expect,” he says. 

T-Mobile offers 5G home internet plans with download speeds between 72Mbps and 245Mbps for $50 to $70 per month. When you have an existing T-Mobile cell phone plan, you can get up to a $25 monthly discount on your internet portion of your plan with AutoPay. “It’s worked pretty well for me. The speeds feel a little up and down sometimes, but it generally does everything I need it to,” says Rick Francis, a T-Mobile 5G Home Internet customer we interviewed who lives in rural Charlottesville, North Carolina.

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet simple set-up and straightforward bills are a great fit for rural residents, students, seniors, or small families. Plans include router equipment, unlimited home internet data, and there are no extra fees every month. Plus, new customers can often get a sweet sign-up deal or bundle discount. And don't forget T-Mobile's new 5-year price guarantee that locks in the base price of your internet (or mobile plan) for five solid years.

Data caps refer to how much data you can use in a given month before your speeds start to slow down. Here’s how the data caps break down between the two providers:

• All T-Mobile plans (except for its Experience More and Experience Beyond plans) have a 100 GB data cap.
• Verizon plans range from 15 GB to 50 GB (Unlimited Plus)

If you frequently stream on the go or obsessively play Hearthstone (like my fellow writer here at Reviews.org does), you’ll run through data pretty quickly. Having a higher data cap means you can expect the same speeds for a longer amount of time.

Coverage matters a ton. According to OpenSignal's U.S. Mobile Network Experience report, Verizon leads the wireless pack in terms of 5G experience, although T-Mobile users experience faster download speeds.  WhistleOut also reports that Verizon’s 4G coverage has reached 70% of the nation, while T-Mobile comes second with 59% 4G coverage.

Let’s compare the coverage maps for Verizon and T-Mobile to see just where the two differ.

Suddenly that 11% difference between Verizon's and T-Mobile's coverage areas makes a big difference, right? Especially for those of you living in Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada, or Arizona. In more rural areas, 4G coverage is crucial to staying connected.

If you happen to live in one of those states, you’ll enjoy much more reliable coverage with Verizon’s network than you would with T-Mobile’s network.

Verizon wins the coverage battle over T-Mobile’s network, but then again, Verizon wins the coverage battle against every provider. However, know that coverage depends on your area, so what is great in the majority of places might not be best for your area.

You’ll find the latest devices from Apple, Samsung, Google, and other brands with both Verizon and T-Mobile. The main differences you’ll see between these two are in the temporary deals they are running on new devices.

Here’s a list of some of the most popular phones that T-Mobile is currently selling.

And here’s a look at some phones that Verizon’s selling.

Seriously though, check out the deals that Verizon is running. Sometimes they offer wild, off-the-wall stuff like buy-one-get-one iPhones.

If you're looking to switch to either T-Mobile or Verizon, you'll need to know what each carrier requires to unlock your device. To unlock a phone through T-Mobile there are a lot of requirements needed to be eligible, Verizon makes unlocking your device a bit easier. 

Both Verizon and T-Mobile offer some extra features, like wireless mobile hotspots. But they each have unique perks to sway you in one direction or the other. Here are some of our favorite T-Mobile perks:

• 5-year price guarantee on mobile and internet services
• Netflix subscription included with the Experience More and Experience Beyond plan
• Apple TV+ included with the Experience More and Experience Beyond plan
• Promotions like coupons and vouchers through the T-Mobile Tuesdays app
• Full-flight texting and Wi-Fi with streaming with T-Mobile's Experience More and Experience Beyond plans.
• Unlimited texting and data in most countries

Verizon's perks are bundled into $10 add-on packages. You can add as many or as few as you like, and Verizon even lets you change them up whenever you want.

• Disney Bundle: Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+
• 100 GB mobile hotspot
• 3 TravelPass Days
• 2 TB cloud storage
• Smartwatch data & safety
• Walmart+ membership
• Apple Music Family
• Apple One

We think the advantage goes to Verizon for perks, but it really comes down to what you prefer: NFL PrimeTime, Apple Music or in-flight service.

Out of the postpaid plans, T-Mobile's Experience More plan is the best pick in terms of best dollar value and all the features you want in a mobile plan. You get a 5-year price guarantee, unlimited premium data, free streaming networks, 60GB of high-speed mobile hotspot data, and full-flight texting for $90 per month. Oh, and don't forget that your third line is free.

Verizon's Unlimited Plus is more expensive, but you might want to pay a little more to get on Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband. Verizon's Unlimited Plus plan costs $80 for unlimited talk, text, and data.

Although unlimited data plans seem to be the future of wireless service, it may still be overkill for some users (like your kids or your parents). If you know you aren’t an unlimited-data kind of user, then you might want to go with Verizon or check out these cheaper plans.

The main thing you should take away from this is that both providers are excellent and you can’t go wrong with either. But there are a few reasons it might make sense to choose one over the other:

• Budgeters: Pick T-Mobile. T-Mobile offers cheaper unlimited plans than Verizon at every tier of service. If you’re looking for a non-unlimited data plan, then Verizon is actually better (we would also recommend these plans).
• Data hogs: Pick T-Mobile. T-Mobiles Experience More and Experience Beyond plans have no data cap, which obviously beats out Verizon's 50 GB data cap. You can go nuts with data on T-Mobile.
• Travelers: Pick T-Mobile. Both carriers give you unlimited text and data in most countries, but with T-Mobile, you'll also get free in-flight texting and Wi-Fi.
• Country dwellers: Pick Verizon. Verizon does a much better job covering rural areas across the country.
• Speed lovers: Pick T-Mobile. T-Mobile currently offers faster download and upload speeds than Verizon.