Vodafone Broadband vs NOW Broadband

Vodafone offer low-cost budget broadband deals with a WiFi 6 router and options to upgrade to premium extras, like WiFi boosters and a WiFi 6E Ultra Hub.

NOW Broadband, on the other hand, are specifically focused on the budget end of the market, with some of the cheapest packages in the UK.

Ultimately, the best option may depend on availability, but Vodafone's optional upgrades give them the lead on NOW Broadband's low prices.

At a glance

Best deals

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Full Fibre 75	75Mb average	£22	Free	24 months
	Offer: Free setup
Go	Full Fibre 74	73Mb average	£24	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

Price

Winner: NOW Broadband ultimately have the cheapest broadband prices compared to Vodafone, yet, Vodafone may offer better value for money.

NOW Broadband's cheapest package starts at just £23 per month, while Vodafone's cheapest deal is £24 per month.

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Full Fibre 75	75Mb average	£22	Free	24 months
	Offer: Free setup
Go	Full Fibre 74	73Mb average	£24	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

Both providers offer low-cost entry-level full fibre and part fibre plans, with these low £23 and £24 prices also applying to their equivalent superfast part fibre packages.

For slightly faster speeds in full fibre enabled areas, NOW Broadband's Full Fibre 100 plan is also marginally cheaper than Vodafone, although Vodafone offer slightly faster speeds as their next tier up:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Full Fibre 100	100Mb average	£24	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable
Go	Full Fibre 150	150Mb average	£26	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

For customers who really just want the cheapest option, NOW Broadband is a clear winner to Vodafone, however, there are other variables that many may want to consider.

Customers who have a Vodafone pay monthly mobile plan will be able to save an additional £2 per month on the listed prices, which could make a difference where they are so close in cost already.

In addition, there are other 'value for money' factors to take into consideration. NOW Broadband include Sky's Broadband Hub, a decent router which supports up to WiFi 5. Yet, all Vodafone plans include the newer Power Hub which supports the latest WiFi 6 standards and will provide a faster experience for those with compatible devices.

NOW Broadband customers can upgrade to the WiFi 6 Sky Max Hub, but this costs an extra £3 per month, pushing up the price above Vodafone. That said, Sky WiFi Max also includes a WiFi guarantee, which costs £8 more with Vodafone.

Both providers include line rental in their monthly prices and their home phone service comes with pay as you go calls that can be upgraded with optional call plans.

Vodafone offers a cheaper anytime call package at just £8 per month, compared to £16 with NOW Broadband. Out of allowance call charges are also cheaper with Vodafone.

Finally, both Vodafone and NOW Broadband implement annual price rises, but where Vodafone include a simple £3 per month increase in April of each year, NOW Broadband are less specific. They say 'prices may rise', and in 2024 also increased prices by £3, but this could vary in future.

Overall, NOW Broadband are cheapest at the headline price, but Vodafone could work out better value for money where customers also want to use their home phone line or who have a Vodafone pay monthly mobile plan and are eligible for Vodafone Together discounts.

Broadband packages

Winner: Vodafone have a much wider selection of broadband package with various optional upgrades, where NOW Broadband is more limited to basic entry-level deals.

While Vodafone and NOW Broadband are similar when looking at low-cost entry-level deals, Vodafone provides far more options, including gigabit and multi-gigabit packages.

Here are Vodafone and NOW Broadband's entry-level packages side-by-side:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Full Fibre 75	75Mb average	£22	Free	24 months
	Offer: Free setup
	Full Fibre 74	73Mb average	£24	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
	Full Fibre 100	100Mb average	£24	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable
	Full Fibre 150	150Mb average	£26	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

NOW Broadband customers can opt for Sky's WiFi Max add-on for £3 per month, which upgrades the router to a WiFi 6 model and also includes their WiFi guarantee with up to three boosters.

All Vodafone broadband packages come with the WiFi 6 enabled Power Hub, but they too can upgrade this to a WiFi 6E Ultra Hub with the Pro II add-on, or just access a WiFi guarantee with Super WiFi which costs an extra £8 per month.

Both providers include line rental and a home phone line with pay as you go calls, with evening and weekend and anytime call plans available, which we look at in more detail below.

They also both offer 24-month minimum term contracts, and similar annual price rise policies, as we've seen above.

Where the providers differ however is in terms of premium and faster broadband packages, with NOW Broadband's top speed only 300Mbps, compared to up to 2200Mbps with Vodafone.

Vodafone also offer their Pro II broadband range, which combines the latest WiFi 6E router, with boosters and a 4G broadband back-up device. These deals cost around £10 to £13 more than the standard package prices.

So, in terms of faster speeds, NOW Broadband and Vodafone also offer these packages:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Full Fibre 300	300Mb average	£29	Free	24 months
	Offer: Free setup
	Full Fibre 500	500Mb average	£30	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
	Full Fibre 910	910Mb average	£36	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
	Pro II Full Fibre 1.6	1.6Gb average	£70	Free	24 months
	Offer: £4 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

Vodafone broadband can also be bundled with an Apple TV based service, providing customers with an Apple TV 4K box and a 24-month subscription to Apple TV+, plus anytime calls, for an extra £14 per month.

Of course, NOW Broadband can also be bundled with Sky's new Stream TV service during the checkout process, although discounts for bundling are limited and much better when taking Sky broadband instead.

Overall, we'd have to say Vodafone beat NOW Broadband for broadband packages, simply as they offer more choice of speed and additional premium add-ons.

Read more in our full reviews of Vodafone broadband and NOW Broadband.

Broadband speed

Winner: Vodafone easily beat NOW Broadband for speed as they offer up to 2.2Gbps symmetrical speeds, while NOW Broadband top out at just 300Mbps.

NOW Broadband and Vodafone both use the Openreach full fibre network, as well as offer superfast packages on their part fibre connections.

However, Vodafone also make use of CityFibre's full fibre network, which means in some locations they offer customers up to 2.2Gbps symmetrical broadband speeds.

Vodafone also offer faster broadband speeds than NOW Broadband in Openreach areas, with speeds now available up to 1.6Gbps.

Here are Vodafone's advertised average broadband speeds in Openreach enabled areas:

Customers living in CityFibre areas will receive symmetrical upload speeds on all Vodafone's plans as covered here:

And those of NOW Broadband:

These advertised average speeds must be received by 50% of each provider's customer base during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm in the evening when the network is busiest.

Minimum broadband speeds

Both Vodafone and NOW Broadband promise customers an absolute minimum download speed, which if they don't deliver speeds at least this fast the customer is allowed to cancel their contract and walk away penalty free.

It's a good layer of extra reassurance, though as above, most customers should receive the advertised average speeds or faster.

We looked at two locations for Vodafone and NOW Broadband, one with Openreach full fibre, and one with Openreach part-fibre, and received the following minimum speed guarantees:

It's worth noting that exact speeds will vary depending on location, but this gives some comparative information to see that NOW Broadband offer faster minimum guaranteed download speeds than Vodafone does on similar speed packages.

In fact, NOW Broadband's slower Full Fibre 100 promises faster minimum speeds than Vodafone's Full Fibre 150 plan. However, as we've said, minimum speeds are just that and in most cases users won't need to rely on these guarantees.

For more on the minimum speed guarantees for faster Vodafone broadband packages see our full review of Vodafone broadband.

Overall, Vodafone beat NOW Broadband hands down on broadband speed, with both gigabit and multi-gigabit options over a wide footprint of more than 18.8 million premises. However, don't rule NOW Broadband out entirely, as they also perform strongly for entry-level plans.

Router

Winner: Vodafone broadband customers can upgrade to a WiFi 6E router, while NOW Broadband customers can only upgrade to a WiFi 6 router, which Vodafone provides as standard.

Vodafone broadband now comes with the Power Hub, a WiFi 6 enabled router released in early 2024.

It supports dual-band wireless up to the WiFi 6 protocol (802.11ax), as well as WPA3 security and intelligent mesh. Customers can upgrade to receive up to three WiFi 6 boosters with the Super WiFi add-on for an extra £8 per month.

It's also possible for Vodafone customers to upgrade to the Ultra Hub with Pro II, this uses the latest WiFi 6E technology to transfer data over the 6GHz frequency and deliver even faster speeds.

In comparison, NOW Broadband comes with the Sky Broadband Hub as standard, a dual-band WiFi 5 router, with WPA2 encryption. Customers can upgrade to a WiFi 6 router, the Sky Max Hub and WiFi boosters for an extra £3 per month.

Here's how the standard routers look side-by-side:

And the specifications of the routers customers can upgrade to:

Ultimately, Vodafone are in the lead for routers over NOW Broadband, as they offer a better standard router across all broadband packages, as well as the option to upgrade to an even more advanced one.

We also like the flexibility they've created with their new Super WiFi plans, which allow customers with the new Power Hub to access WiFi boosters without having to upgrade to the more expensive Pro II plans.

TV

Winner: NOW Broadband customers can bundle Sky TV, but Vodafone only offer a deal with Apple TV+.

While NOW Broadband is being sold powered by Sky, which means customers can't currently bundle NOW TV Memberships, they can add Sky Stream when they sign up instead.

	Package	TV	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Full Fibre 74 Xtra	1	73Mb average	£34	Free	24 months
	Offer: 24 months Apple TV+ + £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
Go	Full Fibre 75 + Sky TV	150	75Mb average	£59	Free	24 months
	Offer: Save £9/mth on Sky TV + Free setup

However, deals are similar to those available separately, so Vodafone broadband customers could also sign up to Sky Stream TV for a similar price.

Vodafone on the other hand offer a TV bundle called Xtra in partnership with Apple TV. Customers get a 4K Apple TV box and a 24-month subscription to Apple TV+, along with anytime calls for £14 per month.

It's a reasonable offer, but again, customers could access Apple TV+ with a Sky box for £8.99 per month as well, so it's not in any way particularly exclusive.

Overall, we'd pick NOW Broadband for TV over Vodafone, as Sky TV offers a more comprehensive service, although customers won't see the same discounts that are available with Sky broadband.

Customer service

Winner: NOW Broadband have fewer complaints than Vodafone broadband, although they too have slipped down in the rankings as of late.

Over the course of 2023 NOW Broadband collected 58 complaints per 100,000 customers, while Vodafone attracted more at 70 complaints.

However, in the last two quarters of 2023, Vodafone's complaint levels declined, while NOW Broadband's complaint levels increased, and were the second most complained about provider in Q4 2023 after Virgin Media. Then, they became the most complained about provider in Q1 2024.

NOW Broadband entered Ofcom's quarterly complaints charts in early 2022, and up until recently maintained a low complaint record, often coming in below the industry average. In contrast, Vodafone have a longer history of high complaints.

It's not clear why NOW Broadband complaints spiked toward the end of the last year, but in mid 2024, the provider has relaunched as "powered by Sky", their parent company.

Sky are one of the UK's best broadband providers for customer service, so with Sky taking a firmer reign on their budget brand it's hopeful their complaint levels will come down too.

Overall, while Vodafone look to be improving as of late, we'd pick NOW Broadband for customer service, though the reputation of their parent company Sky plays a part.

Verdict: Vodafone or NOW Broadband?

Overall winner: Vodafone offer a much more comprehensive broadband service than NOW Broadband, with faster speed options and more premium features, however, now powered by Sky, NOW Broadband will win some customers on price alone.

Vodafone offer the best range of broadband deals, with options for faster ultrafast, gigabit and even multi-gigabit speeds. They also offer low-cost prices on their standard plans, which also now come with an up to date WiFi 6 Power Hub.

In comparison, NOW Broadband offer cheaper prices than Vodafone, but focus on entry-level deals, with the speeds only available up to 300Mbps. Their recent relaunch to offer deals more aligned with parent company Sky helps though, as customers now receive a better router as well as options to upgrade it and access a WiFi guarantee.

For those looking for straightforward budget broadband, either provider is a good choice, but NOW Broadband offer the best savings.

Larger households, or those more reliant on their broadband connection, will want to look at Vodafone's range of plans, including their resilient Pro II option. Vodafone also offer cheaper home phone plans than NOW Broadband, if that's important.

Overall, it's a tough call when looking at entry-level deals because NOW Broadband does offer exceptional value for money. Yet, Vodafone offer a broader service, with more choice for the latest broadband speeds and equipment, as well as discounts with Vodafone pay monthly mobile plans.