Cheapest Broadband Deals in the UK 2026

The genuinely cheapest full-fibre broadband in the UK right now is Community Fibre's Essential 35 at £12.50 a month, where its network reaches. Among providers available nationwide, Plusnet and toob-style regional altnets undercut the well-known budget names, and NOW Broadband, often assumed to be the cheapest option, has moved to £23 a month for a usable speed. “Cheapest” also is not always “best value”: compare the total cost over the contract term, not just the first month's bill.

The cheapest broadband deals in the UK right now

Full reviews: Community Fibre, toob, Trooli, Zzoomm, Hyperoptic, Plusnet, EE, NOW Broadband, BT, Sky and Vodafone.

Community Fibre: the genuinely cheapest full-fibre deal, if it reaches you

Community Fibre's Essential 35 package, £12.50 a month for 35 Mbps symmetrical, is the lowest full-fibre price of any provider covered on this site, and it comes from a provider with one of the strongest customer-satisfaction records in the UK: around 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot and 92% customer satisfaction in Ofcom's 2025 data. The catch is coverage: this is a London-centred network with only recent, partial expansion into Surrey and Sussex, so it simply is not available to most UK addresses.

toob: the cheapest symmetrical full fibre, where it reaches

toob's entry Home 150 package, £19.50 a month for 150 Mbps symmetrical, undercuts every national Openreach reseller on this page while including a WiFi 7 router and no mid-contract price rise. It began in Southampton, where BroadbandPicker's SO14 broadband deals guide covers district-level Ofcom coverage and toob's own network story in more depth, and has since expanded to around 290,000 premises across 29 towns in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire. As with Community Fibre, this is a regional network, so check the exact address before assuming coverage. toob has also recently arrived in the West Midlands, partnered with CityFibre; BroadbandPicker's CV1 broadband deals guide covers what that means for Coventry specifically. toob confirmed a launch on CityFibre's network in Leicester in October 2024; BroadbandPicker's LE1 broadband deals guide covers what that means locally.

NOW Broadband: not as cheap as its reputation suggests

NOW Broadband, part of the Sky group, is widely assumed to be the default cheapest option, and it was, historically. Its current entry-level Brilliant Broadband package runs on older, slower ADSL-style technology, and its more usable Full Fibre 75 package starts from £23 a month on a 24-month contract, not meaningfully cheaper than Plusnet or EE's full-fibre entry tiers. Its Trustpilot score sits around 1.2 out of 5 from over 14,000 reviews, with reviews commonly citing long activation waits and slow support. Check the actual current price before assuming NOW is automatically the cheapest option; it frequently is not.

Social tariffs: the cheapest broadband most eligible households have never claimed

If you or someone in your household receives Universal Credit or certain other means-tested benefits, a social tariff is very likely the cheapest genuinely reliable broadband available, and it is not subject to the mid-contract price rises standard contracts now carry. Ofcom estimates around 4.2 million UK households are eligible, yet only around 532,000 were actually taking up a social tariff as of its most recent published data, a large, well-documented gap between eligibility and uptake.

Social tariffs typically run on rolling monthly terms with no exit fee, so there is little downside to switching to one if eligible, even as a temporary measure. Read our full guide to broadband social tariffs for eligibility and how to apply with each provider.

How to get an even cheaper deal

• Negotiate with your current provider. Call and ask if they can match a competitor's advertised price; retention teams often have unpublished offers not shown on the public website.
• Check for cashback or a reward card. Several providers currently attach rewards to selected offers, but only a successful claim lowers the real cost. Use our cashback broadband deals guide and comparison before treating a card as part of the saving.
• Switch once you are out of contract. New-customer pricing is almost always better than what an existing, out-of-contract customer is quietly paying.
• Check whether a local altnet has launched since you last looked. Community Fibre, toob, Trooli and Zzoomm have all expanded meaningfully in 2026; a postcode that had no altnet option a year ago may have one now.
• Check if a TV bundle actually works out cheaper. If you already pay for streaming or pay-TV separately, a combined package can undercut buying broadband and entertainment apart. See our broadband and TV deals comparison.

Watch out for scheduled price rises

Since Ofcom banned inflation-linked, percentage-based price rise terms in all new contracts from 17 January 2025, every major national provider now discloses a flat, pounds-and-pence rise upfront instead, typically £3 to £4 a month each year. BT, EE, Vodafone and Plusnet all currently apply this. Several altnets, including Community Fibre, Zzoomm, toob and Zen Internet, currently apply no scheduled rise at all on their published range, which can make a slightly higher headline price the actually cheaper option over a full contract term. Always add the disclosed rise to the headline price before comparing two deals.