NOW broadband vs Plusnet broadband

Plusnet is BT's budget broadband brand - straightforward, no-frills, and consistently one of the cheapest options in the UK.

NOW Broadband plays a similar role for Sky, but comes with a few more extras - including a home phone line as standard and the option to upgrade to a WiFi 6 router.

Plusnet edges ahead on price and speed, but which is the better fit depends on what else a household needs from its broadband.

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At a glance: NOW Broadband vs Plusnet

Top picks: NOW and Plusnet broadband deals

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Price

Winner: Plusnet is cheaper than NOW Broadband at every speed tier.

At entry level, Plusnet's Full Fibre 74 costs £19.99 per month against NOW's Full Fibre 75 at £23 - a gap of just over £3 per month, or around £75 over a 24-month contract. For two services that are broadly similar at this tier, that's a meaningful difference.

Here are both providers' entry-level plans:

The gap widens at higher speeds. Plusnet's Full Fibre 300 costs £24.99 per month against NOW's equivalent at £30 - £5 per month more for identical speeds.

Plusnet's Full Fibre 500 also comes in cheaper than NOW at £27.99, meaning customers can get considerably faster broadband from Plusnet for less than NOW charges for 300Mb.

Both providers are on 24-month contracts. Plusnet offers free setup while NOW charges £5, though that fee is refunded against the first bill, making the two equivalent in practice.

The routers are broadly comparable - both supply a WiFi 5 hub as standard, with Plusnet providing its Hub Two and NOW customers receiving Sky's Broadband Hub. Where they differ is in what's available beyond that.

NOW customers can upgrade to the WiFi 6 Sky Max Hub through the WiFi Max add-on at £6 per month, which also includes a WiFi speed guarantee and up to three mesh pods. Plusnet offers no upgrade path - the Hub Two is the only option.

It's worth noting that the same WiFi Max add-on costs £4 per month with Sky broadband. Sky's plans start slightly higher than NOW's, but once WiFi Max is factored in, Sky often works out cheaper overall. Read more in our Sky vs NOW comparison.

One area where NOW has a clear advantage is the home phone. NOW includes a digital landline with pay-as-you-go calls as standard. Plusnet is now a broadband-only provider with no home phone option at all - so for households that still use a landline, the choice is straightforward.

On in-contract price rises, the two providers work differently. Plusnet applies a fixed £4 per month annual increase every March - it's built into the contract, and there's no exit right when it lands. For new customers signing up now, that first rise doesn't hit until March 2027, but it will come.

NOW operates on "prices may rise" terms, which would normally give customers a 30-day penalty-free exit window if and when a rise is confirmed. The exception is 2026 - NOW's £3 per month April rise is being disclosed at the point of sale for new customers signing up from February 2026, so there's no exit right for that specific increase. Beyond that, future rises remain unconfirmed - and if they happen, customers will have the option to leave.

Plusnet is cheaper across the board, and by a margin that's hard to ignore. NOW's home phone inclusion and router upgrade option add genuine value for some households, but for straightforward broadband, Plusnet is the better deal.

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Broadband packages

Winner: Plusnet offers faster speeds and cheaper prices - but NOW includes more as standard, with a home phone line and router upgrade options that Plusnet doesn't offer.

The key differences between Plusnet and NOW Broadband's package line-ups are:

• Speed ceiling - Plusnet goes up to 900Mb; NOW tops out at 300Mb
• Price - Plusnet is cheaper at every equivalent tier
• Home phone - NOW includes a digital landline as standard; Plusnet doesn't offer one
• Router upgrade - NOW customers can upgrade to WiFi 6 via WiFi Max; Plusnet has no upgrade option
• WiFi guarantee - available with NOW via WiFi Max add-on; not available with Plusnet

Everything else - the Openreach network, the contract length, the basic router spec - is broadly the same.

Full fibre

Both providers offer full fibre broadband over Openreach's network, but Plusnet's line-up extends considerably further.

Plusnet offers five full fibre tiers - 74Mb, 145Mb, 300Mb, 500Mb and 900Mb - while NOW offers three, topping out at 300Mb.

For households that want faster speeds, NOW isn't an option; the only route is to look at parent-company Sky instead.

At the tiers where they do overlap, Plusnet is cheaper at every point - and by a margin that grows as speeds increase. Here are the full fibre plans side by side:

NOW's plans include a digital home phone line with pay-as-you-go calls, Sky Broadband Shield parental controls, and access to the WiFi Max add-on. Plusnet's plans include none of those. For households that just want broadband, the extras won't matter - but for those that do, NOW is the only option between the two.

For faster speeds, Plusnet also offers these plans - with no NOW equivalent:

Plusnet's 900Mb plan costs £29.99 per month - less than NOW charges for 300Mb. For households that need or want faster broadband, Plusnet is the clear choice.

Part fibre

Both providers still offer a part-fibre superfast option over Openreach's FTTC network, with average speeds of around 66Mb. It's the cheapest entry point for both, though full fibre is available at comparable prices for most addresses and offers better speeds and reliability.

Plusnet is cheaper here too. For customers where full fibre isn't yet available, Plusnet remains the better value option.

What's included

Both providers run on 24-month contracts. Plusnet offers free setup; NOW charges £5, refunded against the first bill.

NOW includes a digital home phone line with pay-as-you-go calls as standard. Optional call plans - evenings and weekends or anytime calls - can be added for an extra monthly fee. Plusnet has no home phone option at all.

NOW customers can also add the WiFi Max add-on at £6 per month, which upgrades the router to the WiFi 6 Sky Max Hub, includes a minimum speed guarantee of 10Mbps in every room on plans up to 100Mb and 25Mbps on faster plans, and provides up to three mesh pods. Plusnet has no router upgrade or WiFi guarantee available.

Sky Stream TV can also be added to a NOW package at checkout, giving access to live Sky channels and on-demand content. Again, Plusnet offers no TV add-on.

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

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Broadband speed

Winner: Plusnet - faster speeds at every tier, and a broader range of plans up to 900Mb.

Both providers use Openreach's network, but that doesn't mean the experience will be identical - each manages their own backhaul and network traffic differently, which can affect real-world performance. The gap is likely to be more pronounced here than between NOW and Sky, where the two services share much of the same underlying infrastructure.

Where they differ most clearly is in range. Plusnet goes up to 900Mb, while NOW tops out at 300Mb. On equivalent tiers, Plusnet's average speeds tend to edge ahead too.

Here are NOW Broadband's available speed tiers:

And Plusnet's, which extends considerably further:

These are the speeds that at least 50% of each provider's customers actually receive during peak hours - 8pm to 10pm - making them a more meaningful benchmark than headline figures.

On equivalent plans, Plusnet's averages edge ahead. Its part-fibre plan averages 66Mb download against NOW's 67Mb - similar, but Plusnet's upload speed is notably faster. At full fibre level, Plusnet's Full Fibre 145 is the closest equivalent to NOW's Full Fibre 100, and is faster on both download and upload.

Minimum guaranteed speeds

Both Plusnet and NOW are signatories of Ofcom's broadband speeds code of conduct, which means they provide a minimum guaranteed speed at sign-up. If a customer doesn't receive that speed for three consecutive days, and the provider can't fix it within 30 days, the customer can leave penalty-free.

We tested two locations - one part-fibre, one full fibre - to compare the estimates and guarantees side by side:

One interesting detail: NOW's minimum speed guarantees are higher than Plusnet's on equivalent full fibre plans - NOW guarantees 90Mb on its Full Fibre 100, while Plusnet guarantees 80Mb on its Full Fibre 145, despite that being the faster plan. In practice most customers will comfortably exceed the minimum, but it's a notable difference.

For households who want more than 300Mb, Plusnet is the only option between the two - and at prices that undercut what NOW charges for slower plans.

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Router

Winner: The standard routers are closely matched, but NOW customers can upgrade to WiFi 6 and mesh networking - Plusnet offers no equivalent option.

Both providers supply their parent company's hardware. Plusnet customers get the Hub Two - a rebranded BT Smart Hub 2 - while NOW customers receive the Sky Broadband Hub. Both support WiFi 5 on dual-band channels with WPA2 security, so at headline level they're comparable.

The Sky Broadband Hub has a marginal edge in spec - 8 internal antennae against 7, and 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports against 3. But neither router supports mesh networking as standard.

The Plusnet Hub Two uses the same underlying hardware as BT's Smart Hub 2, but Plusnet's firmware doesn't enable mesh support. Plusnet customers can use third-party WiFi extenders, but these connect via an Ethernet port rather than working as a seamless mesh system.

Where NOW pulls further ahead is the upgrade path. Adding the WiFi Max add-on at £6 per month upgrades the router to the WiFi 6 Sky Max Hub with WPA3 security, proper mesh support, and up to three Max Pods with a room-by-room speed guarantee. Plusnet has no equivalent - what customers get in the box is what they keep.

For most households the standard routers will be sufficient, but NOW's upgrade path gives it a clear advantage for larger homes or those with more demanding WiFi needs.

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Broadband extras

Winner: NOW Broadband - it includes a home phone line as standard and offers add-ons that Plusnet simply doesn't have.

Plusnet is a straightforward broadband-only service. There are no extras to add, no TV bundles, no WiFi guarantee, no home phone. For households that just want broadband, that simplicity is fine - but for those that want more, NOW is the only option between the two.

Home phone

NOW includes a digital home phone line with pay-as-you-go calls as standard with every broadband package. Plusnet no longer offers a home phone line at all, and there's no option to add one.

NOW customers can add a call plan for an extra monthly fee. Here are the current options:

Both plans cover calls to UK landlines and mobiles. For households that still rely on a landline, it's a straightforward inclusion that Plusnet simply can't match.

WiFi guarantee

All NOW broadband customers get Sky's Wall-to-Wall WiFi Guarantee included as standard at no extra cost. It promises a minimum of 3Mb/s in every room - and if that isn't achieved, customers can claim one month's broadband subscription back. It's a modest bar, but it's a meaningful baseline protection that Plusnet doesn't offer at all.

Customers who want more can upgrade to the WiFi Max add-on at £6 per month. Here's how the two tiers compare:

WiFi Max is the more meaningful upgrade for larger homes or those with thick walls - but it commits customers to a 24-month add-on term. The free Wall-to-Wall guarantee is useful reassurance for everyone else. Either way, Plusnet offers neither.

Sky TV

Plusnet no longer offers any TV service - it was removed for new customers and has since been closed to existing ones too. Customers who want TV alongside BT-network broadband would need to look at BT or EE instead, both of which come at a higher price.

NOW customers can add Sky TV at checkout, though it's worth being clear about what that means in practice. Sky Essential TV is available to add, but at the same price as taking it separately - there's no bundling discount for NOW customers. Sky Ultimate TV isn't offered at checkout either, though customers can sign up for it independently through Sky.

Here's how NOW broadband and Sky TV bundles currently look:

Sky broadband customers, by contrast, do receive discounts when bundling Sky TV - making Sky the better option for those who want both broadband and TV together. Read more in our Sky vs NOW comparison.

For NOW customers, Sky TV is still accessible - just not at a discount. Sky Stream Essential TV starts at £15 per month, with Sports, Cinema and Kids packs available to add separately.

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Customer service

Winner: Plusnet - consistently one of the least complained-about providers in the UK, with high customer satisfaction scores to match.

Both providers have strong customer service reputations by industry standards, but Plusnet has a clear edge in the data. In Ofcom's Q3 2025 complaints report, Plusnet recorded just 5 complaints per 100,000 customers - the lowest of any major broadband provider in the UK. NOW, now served by Sky's customer service teams, recorded 6 per 100,000. Both are well below the industry average of 8.

The picture is similar in Ofcom's annual satisfaction research. Here's how both providers compare on the key metrics:

Plusnet scores higher on overall satisfaction and complaints handling, and notably fewer customers have reason to complain in the first place - 17% against 26% for Sky. Sky answers the phone faster, but the gap is small.

The context behind NOW's figures is worth understanding. Before the 'powered by Sky' rebrand in June 2024, NOW operated its own separate customer service. That transition period was rocky - NOW became the most complained-about broadband provider in Q1 2024, a trend that continued into Q2 2024, largely due to poor complaints handling during the changeover. Legacy customers on the old platform bore the brunt of that.

New NOW customers are now served directly by Sky's teams, and NOW no longer appears separately in Ofcom's complaints data - its standalone broadband base has fallen below the reporting threshold. The figures above for NOW reflect Sky's current performance, which is considerably stronger.

One area where Plusnet has a consistent structural advantage is call centre location. Plusnet operates exclusively from UK-based call centres in Sheffield, which contributes to its strong satisfaction scores. Sky operates a hybrid model - some UK-based, some overseas - though this hasn't yet materially affected its complaints record.

Plusnet wins this category - but the margin is narrow, and both providers sit well above the industry average on complaints.

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Verdict: NOW Broadband vs Plusnet - who wins?

Overall winner: Plusnet - cheaper at every speed tier and faster too, though NOW includes more as standard for households that need it.

These are two providers that look similar on the surface - both budget brands, both on Openreach, both straightforward to deal with. But the differences are meaningful.

Plusnet is cheaper at every equivalent speed tier, goes faster, and has the stronger customer service record. For households that just want reliable broadband at a low price, it's difficult to argue against.

NOW has the edge on extras. A home phone line is included as standard, there's a WiFi guarantee built in, and the option to upgrade to a WiFi 6 router and mesh pods gives it an upgrade path that Plusnet simply doesn't offer. For households that need a landline or want more from their broadband setup, NOW is the more complete package.

TV is available to add with NOW through Sky Stream, though without the bundling discounts that Sky broadband customers receive. Plusnet has no TV option at all.

Choose NOW if:

• You need a home phone line
• You want the option to upgrade to WiFi 6 and mesh coverage
• You want to add Sky TV, even without a bundle discount

Choose Plusnet if:

• You want the lowest price for straightforward broadband
• You need speeds above 300Mb
• You don't need a home phone or router extras

For most households, Plusnet is the better deal. But for those who want more than just broadband, NOW covers more ground.