Plusnet broadband vs EE broadband

EE is BT's premium broadband brand, offering faster top speeds, Wi-Fi 7 routers and a wider range of bundled services.

Plusnet, also owned by BT, focuses on straightforward, lower-cost broadband and has a stronger reputation for customer service.

For most households, the choice comes down to whether you want the latest hardware, add-ons and faster speeds from EE, or the cheaper prices Plusnet is known for.

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At a glance: Plusnet vs EE

Top picks: Plusnet and EE broadband deals

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Price

Winner: Plusnet offer cheaper broadband plans than EE at most speed tiers.

Plusnet and EE both offer part and full fibre broadband over the Openreach network. Plusnet undercuts EE at most speed tiers - but the gap closes as speeds increase, and at 900Mb it disappears entirely.

At the entry level, the difference is most pronounced. Plusnet's 74Mb plan comes in at £21.99 a month, while EE's comparable 74Mb plan is £24.99 - £3 more for a similar real-world connection. The more popular 150Mb tier follows the same pattern: £22.99 with Plusnet, £26.99 with EE.

That £3 saving with Plusnet adds up to £72 over a 24-month contract. That said, EE includes a Wi-Fi 7 router as standard - a significant step up from Plusnet's Wi-Fi 5 Hub Two. For families or larger homes with multiple modern devices, that hardware difference could justify the premium even at the entry level.

At 500Mb, Plusnet is still cheaper, though the gap is smaller.

At this speed level, both providers are offering a connection fast enough for even the most demanding households. EE's extras - home phone, WiFi guarantee, 4G backup - are all available as optional add-ons here, which gives customers the flexibility to build up the package they need, even if it pushes the monthly cost higher.

At 900Mb, the monthly price is currently identical across both providers.

With pricing equal at this tier, the choice comes down to what surrounds the connection. EE's newer hardware and optional add-ons carry real weight when cost is no longer a differentiator.

Setup is currently free with both providers. Both also apply an annual price rise of £4 per month each March 31st, starting in 2027 for new customers. Since Plusnet's base prices are lower, customers will still pay less over the contract term even after the rise is applied.

Plusnet is clearly positioned as BT Group's low-cost entry point. At lower speeds it represents strong value for straightforward households. But from 500Mb upwards, EE starts to look like the intended destination - better hardware, more options, and at 900Mb, the same price.

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Broadband packages

Winner: EE offer more ways to customise a broadband package than Plusnet, though each add-on comes at an extra monthly cost.

Plusnet's proposition is straightforward: pick a speed, sign up, and that's largely it. EE takes a different approach, offering a base broadband plan that can be built out with a range of add-ons depending on what a household actually needs.

Those add-ons cover a lot of ground:

• Smart WiFi Plus - Wi-Fi booster to extend coverage, £10/mth
• EE Cyber Security - Norton antivirus for up to 15 devices, £6/mth
• WiFi Optimiser - dedicated traffic lanes for Zoom, Teams, and gaming apps, £5/mth
• Connectivity Backup - automatic 4G backup if the fixed line drops, £10/mth
• Smart Hub Pro + WiFi 7 booster - Wi-Fi 7 router upgrade with booster included, £15/mth

For the right household, some of these are worth serious consideration. The 4G backup is particularly valuable for anyone working from home, where an outage has real consequences. The Wi-Fi booster and router upgrade matter more in larger properties where signal reach is a problem. For most households, these are conveniences rather than essentials - but it's useful to have the option.

A digital home phone line can also be added, which isn't available with Plusnet at all:

• Pay per call, £5/mth
• Unlimited calls, £18/mth

For customers who still need a landline, this makes EE the only realistic option of the two. Costs do stack up quickly though - adding even two or three extras can push EE's monthly price well above Plusnet's.

Both providers cover the same ground when it comes to full fibre speeds, running over the same Openreach network with identical availability across the UK.

The range of speeds on offer is comparable, and at 900Mb the monthly price is the same. Where the two providers differ is in what comes with that connection - and at higher speed tiers, EE's add-ons and hardware start to carry more weight than the price difference alone.

For properties not yet reached by full fibre, both providers offer a part fibre alternative.

Part fibre is increasingly a stopgap rather than a long-term choice, but it's available from both providers at similar speeds. EE is slightly more expensive here too.

EE also offers a TV service, built around NOW memberships and available as an optional add-on to any broadband plan. Customers can choose between the EE TV Box Pro or an Apple TV 4K, and currently get six months of Apple TV+ free. Plusnet has no TV option - customers would need to look elsewhere for a streaming or TV bundle.

Ultimately, Plusnet is the cheapest broadband option of the two by a clear margin. But the gap between the providers isn't purely about price - it's about what kind of service a household needs. For a no-fuss connection at a low monthly cost, Plusnet delivers. For those who want room to build on that - a phone line, better coverage, TV, or a reliability net - EE is the more capable platform.

Read more about Plusnet broadband.

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Broadband speed

Winner: EE offer a 1.6Gb option unavailable with Plusnet, and stronger minimum speed guarantees across most tiers.

Both EE and Plusnet run their broadband over the Openreach network - the UK's largest, passing over 20 million premises and covering around 60% of UK homes with full fibre. Because both providers use the same network, availability is identical - if one can serve your address, so can the other.

What sets them apart is how they've packaged their plans, and crucially, what they guarantee when things don't perform as expected.

EE's full speed range is as follows:

Plusnet's range covers:

The options are closely matched from 150Mb through to 900Mb - the speeds the vast majority of customers will actually choose. One detail stands out: Plusnet's upload speeds appear marginally faster than EE's at several tiers in the averages, despite using the same network.

It's not necessarily that Plusnet runs uploads faster - it could simply be that their network is less congested at the point these figures are measured. Advertised averages reflect what customers actually receive at peak times, which is shaped by how much demand is placed on the network at that moment. Plusnet's more budget-focused customer base could place less demand on upload capacity at peak times, which would push those averages higher.

EE's range does extend further, with a 1.6Gb plan that Plusnet doesn't offer. Faster speeds are worth considering for larger households with many devices, or heavier users who stream, game, and work from home simultaneously - but overkill for most.

These advertised average download speeds must be received by at least 50% of customers during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm - the most demanding point of the day for any network. That makes them a meaningful measure of real-world performance, not just a best-case figure.

Full fibre also has a reliability advantage over part fibre: because the connection runs on fibre all the way to the property, speed isn't degraded by the distance to the nearest street cabinet.

Both providers are signed up to Ofcom's code of conduct on broadband speeds, which means customers get a minimum guaranteed download speed at sign-up. If speeds fall below that floor for three consecutive days, the provider must attempt a fix - and if they can't resolve it within 30 days, customers can leave penalty-free.

It's a meaningful consumer protection, and how the two providers compare on these guarantees is where things get interesting.

Testing one location, the minimum speed guarantees across full fibre plans are as follows:

EE's floors are stronger than Plusnet's at most tiers, and the gap widens considerably at higher speeds. At 500Mb, EE guarantees a minimum of 425Mb - Plusnet guarantees just 275Mb on the equivalent plan. At 900Mb, EE's floor is 700Mb versus Plusnet's 500Mb.

In practical terms, that's the difference between a connection that stays fast under pressure and one that could drop to half its advertised speed before a customer has any contractual grounds to act. The one exception is the 300Mb tier, where Plusnet's 165Mb guarantee nudges ahead of EE's 150Mb.

Day-to-day, most customers on either provider will see similar speeds - they're drawing from the same network. But EE's stronger minimum guarantees provide meaningfully better protection if performance dips, particularly on faster plans where the stakes are higher. For households where a reliable, fast connection genuinely matters, that reassurance has real value.

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Router

Winner: EE supply a Wi-Fi 7 router as standard, compared to Plusnet's Wi-Fi 5 - a two-generation gap.

Plusnet supply all customers with the Hub Two - a rebranded version of the BT Smart Hub 2. It's a capable enough router for most homes: dual-band Wi-Fi 5, seven internal antennae, and four 1Gb Ethernet ports for wired connections. It does the job, but it's hardware that's now two generations behind.

EE, by contrast, supply the Smart Hub 7 Plus as standard - a Wi-Fi 7 router across all full fibre plans. Customers who want to go further can upgrade to the Smart Hub 7 Pro, which adds a third 6GHz band, eight antennae, and 2.5Gb Ethernet ports, included as standard on the 1.6Gb plan or available as a paid upgrade on others.

Here's how the three routers compare:

The table makes the gap between Plusnet and EE clear. Beyond the Wi-Fi protocol jump, there are two differences worth highlighting for practical use.

First, mesh support: both EE routers support mesh networking, while Plusnet's Hub Two doesn't - despite the identical BT Smart Hub 2 supporting it, due to differences in firmware. Plusnet customers can add a third-party mesh system via an Ethernet port, but it won't be supported by Plusnet - and without that support, there's no access to a whole-home Wi-Fi guarantee covering minimum speeds in every room.

Second, security: both EE routers use WPA3 encryption, while the Plusnet Hub Two uses the older WPA2 standard.

The Wi-Fi 7 headline is worth some context. To get the most from Wi-Fi 7, connected devices need to support it - and while adoption is growing, many household devices don't yet. The iPhone 16 series, Google Pixel 9, and Samsung Galaxy S25 all support Wi-Fi 7, but most laptops, smart TVs, and games consoles outside of the PS5 Pro do not.

Importantly though, Wi-Fi 7 routers are fully backwards compatible - devices that support Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 5 will still connect without issue, and will benefit from the improved network management that Wi-Fi 7 brings even if they can't access its fastest speeds.

The Smart Hub 7 Pro goes further still, adding a dedicated 6GHz band via Wi-Fi 6E support, which reduces congestion in homes with a large number of devices.

For a smaller home with modest device demands, Plusnet's Hub Two is adequate. But for larger homes, households with lots of connected devices, or anyone who wants their setup to remain capable for the length of a 24-month contract, EE's hardware is the stronger foundation.

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Customer service

Winner: Plusnet have significantly lower complaint figures than EE, according to the latest data from industry regulator Ofcom.

The most recent quarterly complaints figures, published by Ofcom in February 2026, cover Q3 2025. Plusnet recorded just 5 complaints per 100,000 customers - the lowest of any major broadband provider in the UK. EE recorded 10, placing it among the highest alongside TalkTalk and Vodafone, and above the industry average of 8.

That's a two-to-one ratio between providers who share the same parent company and the same underlying network.

That result wasn't a one-off. In Q2 2025, Plusnet recorded 4 complaints per 100,000 - again the lowest of any major provider. EE recorded 10 in the same quarter, the highest of any major provider across broadband, landline, and pay TV simultaneously.

Ofcom attributed EE's complaints primarily to faults, service quality, and provisioning issues - problems getting customers connected, keeping services running, and resolving outages and slow speeds.

The gap hasn't always been this pronounced. Until around mid-2023, EE sat comfortably below the industry average for broadband complaints - a position Plusnet now occupies instead. The reversal has been gradual but consistent, and sustained across multiple quarters.

Complaint volumes tell one part of the story. Ofcom's Comparing Customer Service report, published in 2025 and covering 2024 data, adds the broader context of how customers actually experience each provider day to day.

The satisfaction scores are closer than the complaint volumes suggest - which is worth understanding rather than glossing over. EE edges ahead on speed satisfaction and complaints handling by a single percentage point, effectively level. That tells you that when EE customers do interact with the service, they're broadly satisfied with how it goes.

The issue is that more of them are having to interact with it in the first place. 23% of EE customers had a reason to complain in 2024, compared to just 17% of Plusnet customers. Fewer problems reaching the surface means fewer formal complaints - and Plusnet's lower volumes reflect that.

Call waiting times add another dimension. Plusnet averages around 50 seconds; EE takes nearly three minutes. It's worth noting Plusnet's wait times did spike to over two minutes in Q2 2025 before improving again - so this isn't a fixed gap, but the trend favours Plusnet.

Both providers operate call centres exclusively in the UK and Ireland, following BT Group's consolidation between 2018 and 2020. Plusnet's teams are based in Sheffield.

The overall picture is of two providers that perform reasonably well on satisfaction when customers engage with them, but diverge significantly on how often those interactions become necessary - and how often they escalate into formal complaints. By both measures, Plusnet has the stronger customer services record, and the data across multiple quarters confirms it isn't a fluke.

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Verdict: Plusnet broadband or EE broadband?

Overall winner: Plusnet for entry-level broadband on a budget, EE for households wanting faster speeds or more from their connection.

Despite being owned by the same company, Plusnet and EE are clearly targeting different ends of the market. Plusnet is BT Group's budget play - straightforward, no-frills broadband at a lower monthly cost. EE is the premium proposition, built around newer hardware, more add-ons, and a wider range of services.

That positioning means the choice between them is less about which is objectively better, and more about what a household actually wants. For certain customers, Plusnet delivers a capable, reliable connection at a price that's hard to argue with - and backs it up with the stronger customer service record.

Where EE becomes the more logical choice is in certain circumstances. Customers who need a home phone line have no option with Plusnet. Those who want a supported Wi-Fi guarantee, 4G backup, or a TV service will find EE the only route without going to a third party.

On speed tiers, the case for EE gets stronger the faster you go. At 500Mb and above, the price difference between the two providers is minimal - and at that point, EE's Wi-Fi 7 router starts to matter more. Plusnet doesn't offer Wi-Fi 6, let alone Wi-Fi 7, which means the hardware gap isn't one generation - it's two. For households streaming across multiple devices, working from home, or simply wanting a setup that remains capable for the length of a 24-month contract, that gap is hard to overlook.

Plusnet is the right call for customers who want simple, entry-level broadband at the lowest possible monthly cost - particularly those on 150Mb or below, who aren't pushing the connection hard, or who plan to use their own router anyway. For anyone stepping up to 500Mb or faster, EE's combination of better hardware and comparable pricing makes it the stronger choice.

Choose Plusnet if:

• You want the lowest possible monthly cost
• You only need entry-level speeds of 150Mb or below
• You don't need a home phone line, TV, or supported Wi-Fi extras
• Your devices are older and won't benefit from Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 (or you plan to use your own router)
• Customer service track record matters to you

Choose EE if:

• You want speeds of 500Mb or above, where EE's hardware justifies the price
• You need a home phone line
• You want a Wi-Fi guarantee, 4G backup, or TV as optional add-ons
• You want Wi-Fi 7 as standard, or the option to upgrade to a tri-band router
• You need multi-gigabit speeds - EE offers up to 1.6Gb, Plusnet tops out at 900Mb

Both providers are part of BT Group, and it's worth comparing EE vs BT broadband and Plusnet vs BT broadband before deciding - particularly as pricing across the three can vary, with EE often coming in at or below BT's equivalent plans.