Verizon vs. Cox

Compare Verizon and Cox head to head

You really can’t beat Verizon. The fiber provider offers extremely fast internet service at an extremely fair price—our only qualm is Verizon’s limited availability. Cox has much better availability throughout the US and respectable customer service ratings, but it will also hit you with higher price hikes and annoying extra fees.

Pros and cons: Verizon vs. Cox

Jump to: Plans and pricing | Deals and promotions | Extra fees | Customer ratings | Bundles | Internet types | Data caps | Contracts | Installation | Availability

Jump to:

• Plans and pricing
• Deals and promotions
• Extra fees
• Customer ratings
• Bundles
• Internet types
• Data caps
• Contracts
• Installation
• Availability

Plans and pricing: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon plans and pricing

Verizon gives you more bang for your buck than Cox. Its slowest offered speed is 300 Mbps, and that plan costs the same as Cox’s 100 Mbps plan. All of Verizon’s plans also come with unlimited data and don’t require an annual contract, unlike Cox’s.

Most internet users will be very content with 300 Mbps download and upload speeds, and Verizon’s 300 Mbps plan comes at an extremely fair price—it’s really the best option of the bunch here. But we recommend one of Verizon’s faster plans if you live in a larger household and spend a lot of time doing bandwidth-heavy stuff like streaming video in 4K or hosting livestreams.

How much speed do you have?

Download our speed test app to see what kind of Wi-Fi firepower you have with your current home internet network. If it isn’t fast enough for you, then consider upping your Mbps to a better speed.

How much speed do you have?

Run a speed test to see what kind of Wi-Fi firepower you have with your current home internet network. If it isn’t fast enough for you, then consider upping your Mbps to a better speed.

Cox plans and pricing

Cox won’t wow you on speed or price in the same way that Verizon does, but you can still get a solid internet setup for a fair deal. Its offerings are pretty much in line with what you can get from most cable internet providers, with lots of options to choose from and exponentially higher prices for faster speeds.

Unlike Verizon, Cox has annual contracts (which you can avoid by paying $10 more on your bill every month) and data caps (albeit fairly generous ones of 1.25 TB per month). Cox also has steep price hikes that hit 12 months after you sign up for service—depending on your plan, expect your bill to go up anywhere from $15 to $26 per month. Definitely check the fine print before signing up.

One additional plan we find intriguing is Cox’s StraightUp Internet. Billed as a kind of no-frills budget option, it gives you 50 Mbps speeds at a flat fee, with equipment and installation included. You don’t have to deal with a term agreement or credit check. Except for the relatively slow speed, we love this plan—if only all of Cox’s offerings worked the same way!

Extra fees: Verizon vs. Cox

Data as of 03/02/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Verizon and Cox both have fairly standard extra fees for things like late charges. Verizon includes the ONT (fiber modem) in the plan price but charges $18 per month for a rental router. Cox lets you rent a modem and router (combined into one piece of equipment known as a gateway) to get your Wi-Fi connection going. Or you can use your own modem and router to avoid paying rental fees.

Both Verizon and Cox also charge for installation—but there are ways to avoid paying for it. With Verizon, simply order online and the $99 installation fee will be waived. In Cox’s case, opt for self-installation instead of professional installation and you can get a self-install kit to set everything up yourself for free.

Should you rent a router or buy one?

If you think you’ll have the same internet service for at least two years, we recommend buying your own router or gateway instead of renting one from the provider. Doing so saves you money in the long run and also gives you more flexibility about the type of equipment you can use. But the details look a little different for each of these ISPs.

Since Verizon is a fiber service, you can’t purchase your own ONT, which serves a function similar to a modem. Verizon provides the ONT free of charge, but the ONT doesn’t emit a Wi-Fi signal; for that, you’ll need a router. Verizon offers router rentals starting at $18 per month, which is pretty expensive compared to other ISPs. We admit that the router Verizon provides is top-notch, but whether you’ll appreciate its advanced capabilities and features is another matter. Most customers are probably better off purchasing their own router.

Cox’s situation is more straightforward. You can either rent a Cox gateway (modem/router combo) or buy your own. Purchasing your own gateway will save you money if you stick with the service for more than a few years. But keep in mind, renting does add a layer of convenience: if anything goes wrong with a rental router, the ISP will fix it.

We’ve got all the details on the best Wi-Fi routers, the best long-range routers, and the best routers for streaming. But if you really want to know the best router to get of them all, we say go for Google Nest Wi-Fi. This two-band mesh router delivers excellent speeds over a range of up to 2,200 square feet.

Data as of 1/5/2022. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Amazon.com Price (as of 1/6/22 10:15 MST). See full disclaimer.

Customer ratings: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon gets better ratings than Cox in our annual customer satisfaction survey. But Cox does great in the survey as well.

Verizon’s scores are top-notch across the board, but customers say especially great things about Verizon’s reliability and speed: the fiber and 5G provider ranked first in both categories.

Although Cox lags behind Verizon in the survey, it still gets above-average rankings for speed and customer service. Cox consistently ranks in the top half for all other categories as well.

Best TV and internet combos

Cox has a ton of package options to choose from, with its highest-tier Contour TV plan giving you access to 250 channels. And while Cox is a cable TV provider, it also offers up-to-date digital features like cloud DVR and access to Netflix. The obvious downside is that Cox’s bundles are quite expensive compared to Verizon.

Verizon doesn’t offer a traditional discount when pairing services. Instead, you can add TV, streaming services, and other perks to your internet service at any time. Verizon’s list of perks includes a Walmart+ membership (with Paramount+), Unlimited Cloud Storage, and more.

Internet types: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon offers fiber internet, while Cox specializes in cable internet. Fiber runs over fiber-optic wiring, using light signals to deliver an incredibly fast and reliable internet connection. It can deliver max speeds of up to 2,000 Mbps and is the only type of internet capable of delivering symmetrical upload and download speeds.

Cable internet runs on the type of coaxial cabling normally reserved for cable TV. It’s slower than fiber, but it still delivers consistent speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps. Cable internet is also much more widely available than fiber, making it the most common option for high-speed internet among American Wi-Fi customers.

Data caps: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon doesn’t have data caps on its internet plans. You can use as much data as you want all month long without having to pay any extra fees or experience internet slowdowns.

By comparison, Cox imposes a 1.25 TB data cap on all of its internet plans. While we’re not thrilled about any data cap, 1.25 TB is a lot of data—more than enough for most internet users. But if you exceed your cap, a $10 fee will be automatically added to your bill for every additional 50 GB you use.

Contracts: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon doesn’t do annual contracts. You don’t need to agree to any term limits up front, and you can quit any time without facing early termination fees.

Not so with Cox, which imposes annual contracts on all its plans. You can opt out of a contract by paying $10 more per month for your plan. If you have a yearly commitment and you need to cancel before the 12 months is up, you’ll need to fork over $10 for every month left on your bill—so either way, you’re paying more if you want to leave. Go with the contract option if you think you’ll be on Cox for at least a year.

Installation: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon charges $99 for professional installation, but you can get the cost waived by ordering online. Cox will ask for $100 if you need a professional technician to come by and set up your internet. But installing the internet yourself with one of Cox’s self-install kits is free.

Availability: Verizon vs. Cox

Verizon has a relatively small footprint—its Fios internet services are available in 10 states (mostly on the East Coast), including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Cox has a larger reach overall with availability in 29 states across the East Coast, West Coast, and South.

Final call: Verizon vs. Cox

You just can’t top Verizon in this contest. Any one of its fiber-optic plans will give you superb speeds at a reasonable price, and you won’t have to deal with data caps or contracts, either.

Cox’s offerings come with some extra baggage, including steep price hikes after a year. But it has much wider availability than Verizon and offers some solid, lower-priced plans and bundle deals. And you can’t beat Cox’s customer service, which gets excellent ratings in our latest customer satisfaction survey.

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Methodology

Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.

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