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Head-to-head

TalkTalk vs NOW Broadband: Which Budget Provider Is Better?

TalkTalk and NOW Broadband are two of the cheapest mainstream options in the UK.

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The quick answer

TalkTalk and NOW Broadband are two of the cheapest mainstream options in the UK. The real question is whether you want the absolute lowest entry price, a shorter contract, or the lesser compromise on customer experience.

Updated 21 June 2026·Reviewed by BroadbandPicker editorial team

Quick Verdict

NOW Broadband is often the better fit for pure entry-price buyers thanks to its lower starting price and shorter contract, while TalkTalk can appeal if you want a broader budget proposition and some price-lock positioning.

TalkTalk vs NOW Broadband: customer-review evidence

These signals are shown separately because they measure different things. Ofcom complaints record serious escalations, surveys measure experiences across a sample, and public reviews reflect self-selecting recent sentiment. We never combine them into an invented trust score.

TalkTalk

NOW Broadband

Missing a metric does not mean a provider performed badly. Some providers are below Ofcom’s reporting threshold or were not named in a comparable survey. Read our evidence dashboard and review methodology.

TalkTalk

Fastest
Best for: Low-cost shoppers wanting broad availability
From
£25.00/mo
Max speed
900 Mbps
Coverage
96%
Trustpilot
1.5/5
  • One of the cheapest big-name full-fibre ranges in the UK, from £25 a month
  • Full Fibre 900 is TalkTalk's fastest package, with unlimited data and no traffic management on every tier
  • Named the most complained-about broadband provider by Ofcom for the third quarter running, in the regulator's Q1 2026 report
Get Deal →Read TalkTalk review

NOW Broadband

Best value
Best for: Very cheap entry pricing and shorter contracts
From
£23.00/mo
Max speed
300 Mbps
Coverage
95%
Trustpilot
1.2/5
  • Owned by Sky, running on the same Openreach network, but a noticeably weaker customer service record than its parent brand
  • No longer a budget or flexible-contract option: every current package is a standard 24-month term from £23 a month
  • A £5 advance fee is credited back to the first bill, so it is not a genuine extra cost if the credit is applied correctly
Get Deal →Read NOW Broadband review

At-a-Glance Comparison

MetricTalkTalkNOW Broadband
From price£25.00/mo£23.00/mo
Max speed900 Mbps300 Mbps
Setup feeFree£5
Typical contract24 months24 months
Coverage96% of UK homes95% of UK homes
Trustpilot1.5/51.2/5

Pros and Cons

TalkTalk

  • Genuinely low entry prices across both part-fibre and full-fibre ranges
  • Runs on the Openreach network, the same physical lines used by BT, Sky and Plusnet
  • Unlimited data with no fair-use clause hidden in the terms
  • Every scheduled price rise is disclosed upfront to April 2028, not sprung on customers later
  • Named the UK's most complained-about broadband provider by Ofcom for three consecutive quarters
  • Trustpilot rating sits at 1.5 out of 5 from over 50,000 reviews, in Trustpilot's "Bad" band
  • Standard router is WiFi 5, a generation behind what most full-fibre rivals now include
  • Two scheduled price rises are already built into every 24-month contract, in April 2027 and April 2028

NOW Broadband

  • Full Fibre 100 undercuts Sky's own equivalent full-fibre tier by around £1 a month
  • Voucher credits worth £70-£75 are commonly available at sign-up
  • Runs on the wide-reaching Openreach network, like its parent brand Sky
  • Very low Trustpilot score, around 1.2 out of 5, and an Ofcom complaints record that is also genuinely poor rather than just self-selected review noise
  • No longer offers the shorter, flexible 12-month contracts it built its early reputation on; every package is now a 24-month term
  • New contracts disclose a scheduled £3 a month rise in April 2027 and again in April 2028, a more predictable structure than Sky's open-ended "prices may rise" wording
  • Customer service, especially around cancellation and the auto-renewal process, is the most consistently cited weakness

Key Differences

Entry price

NOW Broadband starts lower in the current dataset and is one of the cheapest national options available.

Contract length

NOW Broadband offers a shorter 12-month term, while TalkTalk leans on longer 18- and 24-month contracts.

Setup fee

NOW Broadband has a small setup fee, while TalkTalk is currently free to set up in the dataset.

Customer trade-offs

Neither brand wins on premium support, but TalkTalk has a weaker customer perception overall while NOW’s key attraction is simply being very cheap.

How We Think About This Matchup

This is one of the highest-intent low-cost comparisons in the category because buyers usually arrive here already knowing they want cheap broadband. They are trying to decide which compromise is easier to live with.

That means the answer is rarely about headline technology alone. It is about contract flexibility, setup cost, service expectations, and how much customer support risk you are willing to tolerate.

Final Verdict

Choose NOW Broadband if your main goal is the lowest possible mainstream monthly cost and you value a 12-month term.

Choose TalkTalk if you want a broader budget-market option and are comfortable trading some service quality for price competitiveness.

Check TalkTalk at my postcodeCheck NOW Broadband at my postcode

Frequently Asked Questions

Editorial and Source Notes

We review provider comparisons against the same published methodology used across our provider reviews, then add source links where they help verify pricing context, methodology, and trade-offs.