Verizon vs. Xfinity: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Pros and cons: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Compare Verizon and Xfinity head to head

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 vs. Xfinity

Verizon plans and pricing

Fiber providers have been competing a lot to deliver fast and affordable plans, and Verizon Fios seems to be stepping up its game even more. All of its fiber plans get you excellent speeds at a solid price. Best of all, you’ll get upload speeds that match your download speeds with most plans, ensuring you have a robust connection even if multiple people use your Wi-Fi to attend video meetings and upload video content at the same time.

Verizon doesn’t have data caps on any of its internet plans, so you can spend as much time streaming or playing games as you want without worrying about going over. Also, you can cancel any time without having to pay early termination fees.

Verizon’s DSL plan—called Verizon High-Speed Internet—is not as good of a deal. Its upload and download speeds won’t be nearly as fast as any of Verizon’s fiber plans and costs more than many rival DSL plans. But it’s worth considering if your other option is satellite internet.

Xfinity plans and pricing

Xfinity’s plans vary slightly in name and price based on where you are, which explains why this list is so long. Most of these plans have excellent speeds and fair prices. The only drawback is that you won’t get the same bouquet of perks as you would on Verizon Fios plans.

The upload speeds will be slower and you’ll have a 1.2 TB data cap. That’s not ideal, but it’s also not necessarily a deal-breaker—most internet users won’t notice sluggish upload speeds anyway and 1.2 TB is still a lot of data.

We’d be remiss not to mention Xfinity’s Gigabit Pro plan, which maxes out at a ridiculously fast 2,000 Mbps. Honestly, that’s way more speed than the majority of internet users need. And it’s so expensive that we’re not sure it’s worth it. Also, availability is limited, so don’t get too distracted with that one.

Extra fees: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Verizon’s router and Wi-Fi extender are included with the Fios Gigabit Connection package. On other plans, Verizon lets you rent a router, or you can buy Verizon’s router upfront. Buying the router means you won’t be stuck paying rental fees until the end of time. Still, $299.99 is a lot for a router.

So, if you’re going to buy a router, we recommend shopping around a bit to see what other options you can find. We have great recommendations in our guides to the best Wi-Fi routers, the best long-range routers, and the best routers for streaming.

Xfinity also lets you rent a combined modem and router—known as the xFi Gateway. These crucial pieces of equipment support the internet signal in your home and provide Wi-Fi access for a range of devices, so you’ll need to rent a modem and router or buy your own Xfinity router, no matter what.

Should you rent a router? Or buy your own?

It’s easier just to rent a router since then there’s no need for shopping around. But we recommend buying your own if you can. Having your own modem and router could save you some money and give you more flexibility when it comes to speed, security settings, and more.

Customer ratings: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Customers quite like Verizon, according to our annual customer satisfaction survey. The provider comes in second place out of 12 providers for speed, reliability, price, and overall satisfaction.

A full 89% of Verizon customers said in our survey that their internet speeds “usually” (51%) or “always” (38%) meet the needs of their household. And 35% said they’re “very satisfied” with the price of their internet service.

Xfinity didn’t rate as high, getting below-average scores in most categories. But we looked closer at the data and found customer responses were actually not too shabby: 87% of Xfinity’s customers said their speeds usually or always meet their household’s needs, while just 42% of customers reported being hit with unexpected fees or price hikes. That’s pretty much average in comparison to other providers.

Best TV and internet bundles

* w/ Auto Pay + taxes & equip charges

** w/ Auto Pay + taxes

Xfinity is a leading cable provider, so it can get you a solid bundle deal on both internet and TV service. We really like the Starter Pro Plus Double Play package because it gives you excellent speeds and a lot of channels for just under $100 a month.

Verizon has Fios TV, a streaming TV service that runs over Verizon’s fiber-optic lines. It gives you excellent video quality and cool options—you’ll choose your five favorite channels and Verizon recommends the best TV plan for you based on your preferences. We recommend the 200 Mbps Internet + Your Fios TV package because it lets you build out your own channel lineup based on your favorite channels. It’s also affordable and comes with solid speeds.

Internet technology types: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Fiber internet is the fastest and most reliable internet you can get, capable of hitting speeds up to 2,000 Mbps and delivering the fastest upload speeds possible. Cable doesn’t have the same fast upload speeds, but it’s much more widely available and tops out at 1,000 Mbps download speeds. DSL is the slowest of these three, topping out at around 100 Mbps. Most DSL plans are much slower—Verizon’s DSL speeds hit a max of 15 Mbps.

Data caps: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Verizon doesn’t have data caps on any of its internet plans. You can use as much data as you like without having to worry about exceeding a monthly allowance.

Xfinity imposes a 1.2 TB data cap on all of its internet plans. That’s not ideal if you have the Gigabit or Gigabit Pro plan—most gigabit plans come with unlimited data. You can get unlimited data for an extra $25–$30 per month. Otherwise, you’ll be charged $10 for every 50 GB that exceeds your cap.

Contracts: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Verizon’s internet plans don’t come with any annual-contract obligations. You can quit any time and you won’t be charged an early termination fee—simple as that.

Xfinity offers plans with annual contracts. The Gigabit and Gigabit Pro plans require 2–year contracts, while most other plans come with 1–year contracts.

Canceling Xfinity internet service early means you have to pay $10 for every month left on your bill. You can choose a no-contract arrangement, which in most cases would be great. But with Xfinity it kind of makes no difference with price in the end since the no-contract option costs an extra $10 per month.

Installation: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Verizon charges $99.00 for professional installation, but you can have the price waived by ordering online. You won’t always have the option to do self-install with Verizon. Fiber internet isn’t always wired directly to the home, so sometimes you need a technician to come over and set it up from a curbside network node.

Xfinity does let you pick a self-install option—it’ll mail you a kit for no extra fee. If you’re in a hurry, you can pay $29.99 so it arrives in one to two business days instead of three to five. Xfinity also has the $39.99 Self Install Plus option, where a technician comes over with your self-install kit and verifies that your connections are working as you set it all up.

Availability: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Xfinity has a large nationwide network, available to 130 million people in 41 states. Verizon has a smaller footprint, with a network that can reach 59 million people in 10 East Coast states.

Type in your zip code below to see whether Verizon and Xfinity are available in your area. Let’s see what you can choose from when it comes to packages, prices, and speeds.

Final call: Verizon vs. Xfinity

Verizon is the slam-dunk pick here—its Fios plans give you superb speeds, fast uploads, and no data caps. And you don’t even have to sign up for an annual contract. The only catch is that the best Verizon plans might not be available in your area. It’s far less widely available than Xfinity.

We’re not so keen on Xfinity’s contractual obligations or data caps, but those are fairly common things you see from other internet providers and not deal-breakers by any means. You can get excellent speeds at a fair price on an Xfinity plan. And Xfinity has some nice bundling options, too, if you’re looking for cable TV.

View Verizon Plans

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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.

More about Verizon and Xfinity

• Verizon 5G Home Internet
• Which Internet Service Providers Have Data Caps?
• Xfinity Flex Review
• Self-Install or Go Pro? Your Guide to Xfinity Installation
• The Best Routers and Modems for Xfinity

Disclaimer

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