T-Mobile vs. Verizon Cell Phone Plans: Why We Think T-Mobile Is Better

First things first, let’s compare T-Mobile vs. Verizon prices and value for postpaid plans. Both carriers have three main unlimited plans: 

Below, we take a closer look at each of the plans in comparison to the equivalent plan from the other carrier:

Looking at the higher-tier plans, Brenna thinks Verizon offers a slightly cheaper price than T-Mobile, but T-Mobile is a better overall deal. “T-Mobile Experience More is definitely a better deal than Verizon Unlimited Plus. You could even consider the $5 a month price difference as the price of Netflix and Apple TV+, which is a steal!” 

Brenna is on the Unlimited Plus plan and thinks it’s only a good deal because she gets a multi-line discount with her family, which cuts the price down to $45 per person. “Any pricier and I would consider shopping around,” Brenna explains. “Verizon has been not bad enough to switch, but not good enough that I would stay on it if I got kicked off my parents’ plan.”

The only situations where I would say T-Mobile Experience Beyond and Verizon Unlimited Ultimate are worth it is are if you use international data every single month or if you get on a family plan.

Brenna agrees–“I am of the belief that in 2025, almost nobody needs the highest tier of a phone plan, especially when most middle-tier plans from major carriers include unlimited premium data and plenty of hot spot,” she explains.

T-Mobile stands out for multi-line discounts—you get a third line "free," so for three lines or higher, you get a better deal with T-Mobile than Verizon. I’m on a T-Mobile family plan with seven people, and we each pay about $20 monthly (saving $30 per line compared to a single-line Essentials Saver plan).

Brenna's plan, Unlimited Plus, usually costs $80 for one line—but with six people on a family plan, the price goes down to $45 per person.

The table below shows the discounts you can get with T-Mobile or Verizon:

Both T-Mobile and Verizon offer cell phone deals for iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel. Most of the deals from both carriers involve a trade-in of your older device and signing up or switching to the highest-tier unlimited data plan. The full value of the phone is then paid out over a term of monthly credits. 

Brenna and I stay away from phone deals because you run the risk of having to end up paying for your phone if you don’t meet the contract terms. “I just strictly buy used phones. I'm not really interested in the monthly deals for a new phone. I'd rather just have it all paid off,” Brenna shares.

T-Mobile includes Netflix and Apple TV+ for free with the Experience More plan, plus Hulu when you get the Experience Beyond plan. 

Brenna isn’t impressed with Verizon because you have to pay an extra $10 per month per perk, such as a streaming service bundle with Netflix and HBO. “The hassle of doing it through them is almost not even worth the benefit,” she tells me. “Yes, it's only ten dollars, but that's not a big enough incentive to do it through them.”

T-Mobile and Verizon both offer nationwide coverage, but according to the research I undertook for my Best Cell Phone Coverage article, T-Mobile has the largest 5G coverage and Verizon has the largest 4G LTE coverage. Typically this means that people who live in urban or suburban areas can access T-Mobile’s fast 5G speeds, but Verizon can reach more rural areas and provide fair speeds in those locations. I definitely feel like this is the case for me, because I’ve noticed that I get fast speeds in my area. But on a road trip, I have experienced my phone cutting out completely.

Brenna thinks that Verizon’s coverage is pretty good, but it could be better. “In the 2010s, Verizon was the only carrier that was able to get reliable service where I grew up in a super rural Utah town,” she explains. “My parents have been loyal customers for close to two decades because of Verizon's robust rural coverage, but are considering switching now that competitors are showing better service in some areas.” That’s saying something, and Verizon will have to show an improvement in their plan terms or coverage in order to maintain their advantage in coverage.

Now that Brenna lives in a suburban area, she occasionally experiences dead spots, but most of the time, there are no issues.

One of the rising features of cell phone plans is satellite texting, which ensures greater coverage in outdoor areas where there are no cell towers. Both T-Mobile and Verizon offer it, but while it’s free with the Experience Beyond plan, it costs $10/month on T-Mobile’s Essentials Saver and Experience More plans.

Verizon, on the other hand, offers this service free of charge to all MyPlan customers (unlimited postpaid plans) with eligible phones. “My dad’s phone got satellite service to work when we were camping in Oregon in the summer. He was able to text us when we were coming up the mountain,” Brenna shares.

All T-Mobile plans come with unlimited data, with the cheapest plan getting at least 50GB of high-speed data. For me, this works really well and I never run out. As for Brenna, she can only connect to 4GLTE, which typically gets slower speeds, but she gets similar speeds to me, even though I connect to 5G Ultra Capacity. 

Brenna and I took a few speed tests to see how T-Mobile and Verizon compare when it comes our data use. At our workplace in Draper, Utah, we pretty much got the same results–16Mbps. Our office building is quite large and has thick walls, so we think there’s a good chance that interference was causing our download speeds to be slow. Even though the test showed a lower speed, it’s not a big deal in terms of our browsing experience when we use data. “I don't notice a difference in speeds when I'm at work compared to home. Plus, I don't even connect to the Wi-Fi at work, so it's impressive that it's so reliable, despite not having 5G capability,” Brenna says.

At home, my T-Mobile service tested around 148Mbps. This is a middle of the road speed for my cell phone plan. The typical range listed on T-Mobile’s broadband facts is 79Mbps to 357Mbps.

Brenna’s Verizon service tested around 95Mbps—an impressive speed considering that Brenna has an iPhone 11, which isn’t compatible with 5G. The test showed faster speeds than the typical range expected for 4G LTE, which is listed in Verizon's broadband facts as 11Mbps to 75Mbps.

Brenna and I don't have many interactions with customer service, mostly because once we set up our plans, we've not experienced many issues. We take this as a pretty good sign that our service gets the job done. 

For me, I have found it annoying that T-Mobile requires a conference call with customer service in order to set up a family cell phone plan where you change account owners. It's pretty swift of a phone call, but it's still an extra hassle. 

As for Brenna, she finds that Verizon's apps and chat services work well, but you do need to call and wait on a line to get connected to a real person. "To speak to a real human, I had no choice but to schedule a call—which I admit is a convenient feature—or else suffer through some jazzy tunes on hold," Brenna explains.

Verizon still offers good value: For one line, the higher-tier plans are cheaper than T-Mobile's. For multiple lines, T-Mobile is cheaper. However, we think the main reason someone should pick Verizon over T-Mobile is because it has more rural coverage, if that's important to you. 

One thing for sure, neither of us think T-Mobile and Verizon are perfect. “I wouldn’t not recommend Verizon, but I am definitely not passionate about it being the best service ever,” says Brenna.

As for me, I do recommend T-Mobile, but I also live in an area with 5G Ultra Capacity coverage. This means that I get fast speeds, but that isn’t the case everywhere. So I highly recommend first signing up for T-Mobile or Verizon with a 30-day free trial, which is available to anyone who wants to try it out first.