Verizon vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Compare Verizon 5G Home Internet vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet head to head

Verizon and T-Mobile both offer excellent deals on 5G home internet service. Both providers sell you solid speeds for a flat rate of just $50–$60 a month, and you get unlimited data and no extra fees for installation or equipment. But if you had to decide, we say T-Mobile’s 5G Home Internet is the way to go, because our reviewer has had a much better experience with its speeds and service.

Although Verizon offers tons of awesome deals and discounts, T-Mobile mostly gets better customer satisfaction ratings, although both rank at the very top of our customer satisfaction survey. We’ve found T-Mobile to be much more reliable in our experience using it, but different Verizon customers may have a better experience.

Pros and cons: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

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

Jump to:

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

Plans and pricing: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Verizon 5G Home Internet plans and pricing

Verizon’s 5G internet offerings stand out in significant ways. Unlike T-Mobile, Verizon has two plans to choose from—5G Home Internet and 5G Home Internet Plus—both of which advertise faster speeds than T-Mobile 5G Home Internet.

Another advantage is that you can get them for half the normal price when you also have a qualifying Verizon 5G wireless plan. You really can’t beat getting home internet for $25 a month—and T-Mobile doesn’t have any bundle offers that compare.

T-Mobile 5G Home Internet plans and pricing

T-Mobile has five 5G home internet plans, and they are a pretty simple offer. You don’t get the stupendous advertised speeds you would from Verizon, but top download speeds of 415Mbps are still excellent for most people, especially small- and mid-sized households. T-Mobile also doesn’t have the same bundle offers as Verizon, but you can get $20 monthly off your bill when you pair this plan with two or more lines of the Magenta MAX phone plan.

Other than that, you get a similar deal as Verizon. No data caps and no extra fees for equipment or installation.

HighSpeedInternet.com’s experience: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

HighSpeedInternet.com’s experience with T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

A different HighSpeedInternet.com writer tried out T-Mobile 5G Home Internet for several months in 2022 and had a much better experience.

Although T-Mobile advertises speeds between 72 and 245Mbps, experienced speeds rarely dropped below 100 Mbps—and often exceeded 200 Mbps. These speeds were enough to cover his and one other person’s online activities, including remote working, streaming, and online gaming. There weren’t any drops, consistent lag, or slow updates. No issues with latency either, even while playing time-sensitive online games like shooters and racing sims.

There was one major hitch, though. Instead of a traditional cable TV provider, he uses a live TV streaming service, which uses his IP address to authorize his account. T-Mobile changed his IP address every week or so, and every time that happened, he would need to make a long call to his streaming TV provider to authorize the new IP.

HighSpeedInternet.com’s experience with Verizon 5G Home Internet

A HighSpeedInternet.com staffer used Verizon 5G Home Internet for a month or so in 2022. He liked it at first, but recurring technical issues ended up being a dealbreaker. He soon returned to his original cable internet provider.

At first, the service was fast and reliable. But a few weeks after signing up, he started to experience regular outages on phones and computers—his internet dropped out without warning, sometimes even in the middle of Zoom calls. Every time this happened, he had to restart the 5G modem/router that came with his package, which was quite the hassle considering the frequency.

He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but we’ve read about these disconnect issues happening with other Verizon 5G internet users as well. It seems Verizon has some technical kinks that it still needs to work out.

Take a speed test before signing up for 5G home internet

Take a speed test on your phone before signing up for 5G home internet

Keep in mind that our staffers’ experiences can’t be seen as entirely reflective of what you get from these services—the wireless nature of 5G internet means that customers can get different speeds and performance based on a wide range of factors, including the quality of the cell service in their area and even where they place their 5G gateway in their home.

In general, 5G home internet seems to work best for customers who live in areas that have fast and reliable cellular service in general. If you have a 5G phone, take a speed test on it before you sign up for one of these services to get an idea of the speed and consistency of the cell service in your area. Then you can better predict how things will work out with a 5G home internet setup.

Best Verizon 5G Home Internet deals and promotions

Data effective 10/19/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Verizon has an ever-changing lineup of deals each month, but you should focus on the promo bundle offers for wireless customers. If you have a 5G Play More, Do More, or Get More phone plan, you can get half off your monthly 5G Home or 5G Home Plus plan. That’s quite a discount, and T-Mobile doesn’t have any bundles that compare.

Best T-Mobile 5G Home Internet deals and promotions

Data effective 10/19/2023. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

T-Mobile has some great deals for cord-cutters. When you switch to T-Mobile Home Internet you get a $50 Virtual Prepaid Mastercard® for one month of service.

You can get $30 off your monthly bill when you combine 5G Home Internet with a Magenta MAX phone plan featuring two or more lines. That’s not quite as impressive as Verizon’s bundle offers, but it’s still a sweet deal.

Extra fees: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Neither Verizon nor T-Mobile tack on extra fees for equipment, installation, or anything else when you sign up for their respective 5G home internet plans. You get a modem/router gateway with your plan, and you can install everything yourself with a kit.

The fact that you don’t have to shell out for hidden fees makes 5G home internet especially enticing for college students and other budget-minded users. You can’t beat a no-fee internet plan—especially since most providers still charge fees for a router and installation.

Customer ratings: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

T-Mobile gets a slight edge on Verizon in some categories in our annual customer satisfaction survey, but both providers get top rankings.

In an upset victory against much bigger internet providers, T-Mobile swept to the lead in our survey this year, taking the lead ratings for price, customer service, and overall satisfaction. But Verizon is hot on T-Mobile’s heels, taking second place for overall satisfaction, tying with T-Mobile for speed, and taking first place for reliability.

You can’t fairly compare the two providers’ ratings because Verizon falls into a different category than T-Mobile. We ranked Verizon among national providers, and our survey covers all the provider’s services—including fiber internet as well as 5G home internet. On the other hand, T-Mobile offers only 5G home internet and no other residential internet type.

Even when you factor in these caveats, T-Mobile’s performance in the survey is unequivocally stellar—suggesting that customers are very happy with the carrier’s 5G internet services. Then again, Verizon’s performance in the survey is also top-tier. According to the people using these services, you can’t go wrong either way.

Best 5G and mobile bundles

Although both internet providers also operate as cellular carriers, only Verizon gives you a discount on service when you combine 5G home internet with a single-line phone plan. And what a discount it is—you get literally half off the monthly price of 5G home internet when you combine it with 5G Get More, 5G Do More, or 5G Play More (Verizon’s premium unlimited phone plans).

As for T-Mobile, you get $20 per month off 5G Home Internet when you combine it with two or more lines of T-Mobile’s flagship Magenta MAX cellular plan. While it’s not as good a deal as Verizon’s bundles, it’s still a healthy discount for two excellent services.

Internet types: What is 5G home internet?

5G home internet is a Wi-Fi connection that runs over a 5G cellular network. Unlike fiber or cable internet—which rely on networks of cable buried underground—5G internet relies on wireless signals beamed from cell towers and transmitters.

This technical setup makes 5G a bit less stable and more prone to fluctuating speeds and outages compared to traditional internet types. It also limits the service’s reach to cities and metropolitan areas, where 5G transmitters (which have a smaller range than 4G cell towers) can reach a higher number of customers.

Verizon and T-Mobile both compensate for 5G’s technical limitations by offering fixed rates and low prices while cutting out the extra fees that get tacked onto most internet bills.

Data caps: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Neither Verizon nor T-Mobile have data caps on their 5G home internet plans. You can stream, game, download, browse, post, and video call as much as you like without worrying about overage fees or throttled speeds.

Contracts: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Here’s another good thing about 5G home internet—there are no contracts. Whether you choose Verizon or T-Mobile, you can cancel at any time with ease. You don’t have to shell out for early termination fees or deal with any other penalties. (Just make sure to return your modem/router.)

Installation: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Installation is easy peasy for both providers. After you sign up, you get a gateway (a combination modem and router) in the mail to install in your house. The equipment comes free, and installation takes about 15 minutes. This is a wireless service, so you don’t have to deal with networking cables, and you can manage your system over Verizon’s app or via the LED panel on T-Mobile’s gateway.

Availability: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

Verizon and T-Mobile have both been rolling out 5G internet across the country. It’s mostly available in large cities and metro areas, but the list of cities gets longer each month. Search your zip code below to see if either of these 5G home internet services is available where you live.

Final call: Verizon 5G Home vs. T-Mobile 5G Home Internet

We like T-Mobile 5G Home Internet the best out of these two providers. Although Verizon has better promotions and bundle packages, T-Mobile is just a better service in our experience, with better reliability and a lower chance of outages. T-Mobile also gets stellar ratings in our annual customer satisfaction survey, suggesting that other customers have similar experiences.

That said, Verizon 5G Home Internet is also a great deal and also gets superb ratings. It’s well worth trying out if that’s the only 5G home internet option in your area.

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.

More about Verizon and T-Mobile

• 4G vs. 5G: What’s the Difference?
• How Fast Is 5G Home Internet?
• What Is C-Band 5G and Why Does It Matter?
• The Truth Behind 5G Conspiracies