Plusnet vs EE broadband

EE is best known for their mobile services, but are also being positioned as BT's premium broadband brand.

Plusnet, also owned by BT, is the complete opposite, targeting the budget end of the market, with straightforward no-frills, yet, low cost broadband plans.

While EE offer more services and extras, Plusnet are hard to beat on price alone, they also have better customer service and reliability metrics than EE does.

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At a glance: Plusnet vs EE

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Price

Winner: Plusnet offer cheaper broadband plans than EE does at all speed levels.

Plusnet and EE both offer part and full fibre broadband plans across the Openreach network, with 98% and 50% coverage of the UK respectively.

Both providers also offer gigabit broadband plans, while EE also offers a 1.6Gb option, while this is currently priced at just under £70 per month.

Despite the similarities then, Plusnet manage to offer their broadband plans for £3 to £7 per month less than EE across all plans.

The cheapest entry-level full fibre plan from both providers offers average download speeds of 150Mbps at peak times:

Plusnet is £3 per month cheaper than EE here, yet, on faster packages, Plusnet gets even cheaper still, with customers saving up to £7 per month with the budget-brand:

Setup is currently free with Plusnet, while EE charge £11.99 for their full fibre broadband plans.

In terms of annual price rises within contract periods, both Plusnet and EE raise prices by £3 per month on March 31st of each year. So, customers opting for Plusnet's cheaper prices, will find their prices remain cheaper over the course of the contract as well.

There are some reasons why EE is more expensive than Plusnet, although these features may not be worth the extra cost for many households simply looking for a straightforward plan.

EE include the Smart Hub Plus router, which is an upgrade over Plusnet's Hub Two, which is based on the Smart Hub Plus' predecessor the BT Smart Hub 2. EE's router supports WiFi 6, while the Plusnet router only supports up to WiFi 5. However, to benefit, customers will also need new devices that support WiFi 6 too.

It's possible to add a home phone line with EE, while all plans are data-only lines with Plusnet, although EE charges an extra £5 per month.

As well, while EE customers can add a WiFi guarantee, it also costs an extra £7 per month, so customers aren't exactly getting these extra benefits at no extra cost, they're just available to add.

Overall, Plusnet beat EE hands down on price, with their broadband plans coming in between £3 and £7 per month cheaper.

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Broadband packages

Winner: EE offer customers more options to customise their plans than Plusnet, although be prepared for the monthly cost to increase with each add-on.

EE offers a lot more extra services and options to customise their broadband packages than Plusnet does, although for each additional service the monthly price will go up.

Customers who opt for EE broadband will be able to choose from add-ons including:

• Smart WiFi Plus - a WiFi booster device to extend coverage at £7/mth
• EE Cyber Security - anti-virus powered by Norton for up to 15 devices, at £5/mth
• WiFi Enhancer - boost connection speeds on work apps like Zoom and Teams, or when gaming, with dedicated traffic lanes for specific apps, at £5/mth
• Smart Hybrid Connect - automatic 4G mobile broadband back-up if the fixed-line broadband service goes down at all, at £7/mth
• Smart Hub Pro & Smart WiFi Pro - router upgrade to WiFi 7 with a WiFi booster included, at £10/mth

It's also possible to add a digital home phone line to EE broadband too:

• Pay per call, at £5/mth
• Unlimited calls, at £18/mth
• Unlimited & International calls, at £22/mth

All of these add-ons make for nice extras, however, as you can see, adding one or more of them will increase the monthly price of EE broadband quite rapidly.

It should be said though, that none of these features are available with Plusnet, so customers won't even be able to add a home phone line. It would be possible to add a third-party WiFi booster system, as well as access Norton anti-virus directly, but the services wouldn't gain any support from Plusnet themselves.

In terms of the standard packages, both EE and Plusnet do offer a full array of full fibre broadband speeds to choose from:

Plusnet and EE both exclusively use the Openreach network, so availability between the two providers will be identical. For those who've yet to be passed by Openreach FTTP - which is so far in excess of 16 million premises, or 50% of UK homes - both Plusnet and EE also offer a part fibre plan:

Plusnet and EE both offer 24 month plans across all packages, while EE also offer customers a 12-month option, but this costs around £5 extra per month. Plusnet also offer free setup, while EE does not.

Overall, Plusnet are easily the cheapest option for broadband compared to EE, and they also offer a comparable range of broadband download and upload speeds with the same availability across the UK.

That said, where customers are looking for something extra from their broadband, EE presents a number of customisable options which can be added to their packages on a monthly rolling basis, just expect prices to rise quickly for added extras that are mostly 'nice haves' rather than necessities.

Read more about Plusnet broadband.

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Broadband speed

Winner: EE offer a 1.6Gb option, while Plusnet broadband tops out at 900Mbps. However, most homes will find Plusnet's broadband speed options more than adequate.

As we've mentioned, both EE and Plusnet are retail broadband providers for the Openreach wholesale network of superfast part fibre and full fibre connections.

That means they both offer similar download speed options, coupled with the similar asymmetrical upload speeds supported by the Openreach network.

While EE offers Openreach's fastest broadband plan, which delivers 1.6Gbps on average at peak times, Plusnet has faster average speeds across plans, especially for uploads, which suggests their connections may run slightly faster in real world tests.

EE offer the following broadband speeds:

Plusnet offer these broadband speeds:

These advertised average download speeds must be received by at least 50% of a broadband provider's customers during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm when the network is busiest. As such, they're a reliable measurement of how fast a connection is likely to be.

So, while similar, it's interesting to note that Plusnet seem to offer slightly faster upload speeds on average compared to EE, despite using the same underlying wholesale network.

Actual speeds are likely to vary depending on location, but full fibre broadband is generally much more reliable as the delivered speed is no longer affected by the distance between a property and the nearest exchange or street cabinet.

In addition to these average speeds, Plusnet and EE are also both signed up to Ofcom's code of conduct on broadband speeds, which means they both provide customers with a minimum guaranteed download speed when they sign up.

This minimum speed is the slowest speed a customer should receive before they're entitled to cancel their contract and leave the provider penalty free. Slow speeds must be experienced for at least 3 consecutive days and providers are allowed 30 days to try and resolve any problems.

Looking at one location, we receive the following minimum download speed guarantees for both EE and Plusnet full fibre broadband:

Despite Plusnet offering faster upload speeds on average than EE, EE offers faster minimum guaranteed download speeds across all of their plans, apart from the Full Fibre 300 tier, where Plusnet is faster by 15Mb.

Overall, it's likely that Plusnet and EE will offer similar speed experiences due to reselling the same network connections. However, customers have better reassurances with EE should speeds fall below the advertised averages, and real-world speeds can also be affected by routers and WiFi equipment, where EE also excels over Plusnet, as we look at in more detail below.

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Router

Winner: EE offer a more up to date router as standard than Plusnet, with options to upgrade to the latest WiFi 7 device as well.

Plusnet still supply all their customers with a rebranded version of the BT Smart Hub 2, called the Plusnet Hub Two.

The Plusnet Hub Two offers dual-band wireless up to the WiFi 5 protocol, or 802.11ac, using both 2.4GHz and 5GHz channel frequencies.

It has seven internal antennae, so wireless signal strength should be good around most average sized homes, and also houses three 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports for wired connections.

In contrast, EE are now offering the BT Group's latest router models, the Smart Hub Plus, which supports WiFi 6, as well as options to pay an extra £10 per month for the Smart Hub Pro, which supports WiFi 7.

While the updated specifications of the EE Smart Hub Plus and Smart Hub Pro are certainly attractive, it's worth bearing mind connecting devices need to support the latest WiFi protocols to benefit from any boost in performance.

So, while most modern devices purchased in the last couple of years are likely to support WiFi 6 (which launched in 2019), only the very latest models are going to support WiFi 7, as the protocol itself was only released in 2024.

For example, Apple iPhone 16 series smartphones, Google Pixel 8, Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, all support WiFi 7, while previous models will be limited to connecting over WiFi 6 or even 5.

None of Apple's latest Macs support WiFi 7 yet, and the only games console that does is the Sony PS5 Pro. Sky Stream supports WiFi 6, while Virgin Stream only connects over WiFi 5.

Plusnet's Hub Two doesn't support mesh, despite the identical BT Smart Hub 2 doing so due to differences in firmware. However, customers can still purchase third party mesh systems and connect these to the router via an Ethernet LAN port, so it's still possible to boost the wireless network with mesh if needed.

Overall, it's clear EE beat Plusnet in the router category, however, for most modest sized homes, potential customers shouldn't be completely put off by Plusnet's offering, as it will be adequate for most.

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Customer service

Winner: Plusnet have lower complaint figures than EE does, according to industry regulator Ofcom.

The latest quarterly complaints figures, published by Ofcom in November 2024, revealed EE had the most landline and pay TV complaints of all major providers, while they also gathered more than the average number of complaints for broadband.

EE received 14 complaints per 100,000 customers in Q2 2024, compared to just 6 complaints for Plusnet, against an industry average of 10.

Meanwhile, for landline services, EE received 15 complaints per 100,000 customers, while Plusnet only received 5, in line with the industry average of 5 for that quarter.

While Plusnet don't offer pay TV services, EE TV (previously known as BT TV), received 9 complaints per 100,000 customers, the same as Virgin Media, but more than Sky and TalkTalk who received just 1 and 2 complaints respectively.

Over time, while EE used to have low complaints figures for broadband, they've been steadily rising since around mid to late 2023, when they switched places with Plusnet, with Plusnet's performance improving as well.

In other areas of customer service performance, Plusnet have also outperformed EE, having 89% of customers satisfied with their overall service, compared to 85% of EE's customers.

Ofcom's research into customer satisfaction also found Plusnet customers were also more satisfied (83%) with the speed of their service compared to EE (81%), while EE customers were more satisfied with the way their complaint was handled and fewer customers had a reason to complain.

Both EE and Plusnet exclusively use call centres based in the UK and Ireland, thanks to a strategic move by parent company BT between May 2018 and January 2020.

Overall, while EE and Plusnet have similar levels of customer satisfaction, Plusnet are steadily reducing their complaint figures, while EE's complaints are steadily rising, which means Plusnet wins this round against EE.

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Verdict: Plusnet broadband or EE broadband?

Overall winner: Plusnet offer cheaper broadband prices and better customer service ratings than EE broadband does.

Despite being owned by the same company, Plusnet and EE are clearly being run to compete in different market categories, aiming their products and services at different ends of the spectrum.

Plusnet aim to offer straightforward no-frills budget broadband, while EE target the premium side of the market, tempting customers with more to spend with additional services and options to upgrade their package.

However, Plusnet still perform better than EE does for customer service, and their prices are noticeably cheaper, while customers can still choose 500Mb and even gigabit broadband speeds if they want to.

There are of course instances were only EE may suffice however, for example, where a customer needs to keep a home phone line (which isn't an option with Plusnet), or where they want to access supported WiFi devices to help maintain their connection, which, while possible with Plusnet, wouldn't be supported by their teams.

Ultimately, we'd pick Plusnet over EE broadband for price alone, with most households more than adequately catered for by their service. While nice, many of EE's extras aren't exactly necessary and will push the price up substantially.

It's also interesting to note, at the time of writing at least, all of EE broadband's prices are the same as with BT broadband, as are many of the optional extras, so going with BT directly, could also be an option.

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