Best 12 month broadband deals 2024: Get a year of superfast speeds with these offers, based on the results of our annual customer survey
Don’t want to sign up for a two-year contract? We’ve rounded up the best 12 month broadband deals, using the results of our customer survey
It’s easy to see why the popularity of 12 month broadband deals is rising in the UK. Rather than tying you down for two years, they give you the flexibility to shop around and dodge any pesky price rises. Even better, they’re no longer pricier than longer contracts too, with many lesser-known internet service providers (ISPs) and Expert Reviews favourites such as Now Broadband offering attention-grabbing plans.
To help you find the 12 month broadband deal that closest fits your needs, we’ve collected all of the best tariffs below, complete with context and links to our full, in-depth reviews. It isn’t an exhaustive list, but rather the offers that we’re happy to recommend after researching them and weighing them up against the competition. Happy shopping!
Bag a terrific 12-month offer from Now Broadband
This one-year broadband deal from Now Broadband gets you an average download speed of 63Mbits/sec for £23/mth, with £10 to pay upfront. That’s the best-value 12-month plan, but bear in mind that the price quoted above may change during your contract.
The best 12 month broadband deals you can buy in 2024
1. Now Broadband: The best 12 month broadband deal overall
Price: £23/mth | View deal at Now Broadband
Now Broadband has made waves over the past few years with its simple, eminently affordable plans, which start at just £20/mth. However, while we once gave the ISP four stars out of five and an Expert Reviews Recommended award, our latest Now Broadband review resulted in three stars, primarily for its poor reliability and comparatively slow speeds.
Still, unusually for a major provider, Now Broadband offers 12 month broadband deals, rather than the standard two years, and this one is its best: an average download speed of 63Mbits/sec, which is enough bandwidth for a handful of devices to connect wirelessly at the same time, for £23/mth on a one-year contract, with just a £10 deliver fee to pay upfront. That’s an outstanding offer.
There’s another caveat, though: the monthly price will increase each April by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation plus 3.9%, which is something that all of Now Broadband’s ISP rivals are doing too.
Read our full Now Broadband review
2. Hyperoptic: The best 12 month broadband deal for speed
Price: £40/mth | View deal at Hyperoptic
In our most recent Hyperoptic broadband review, we awarded the ISP four stars out of five and an Expert Reviews Recommended award for its compelling mix of blistering speed and excellent customer service. It may not be one of the big names, but it punches well above its weight when it comes to value. There is a caveat, though: at the moment, it only reaches 1.4 million homes in the UK, meaning wide areas of the country aren’t covered at all.
If you’re one of the lucky few, you can take advantage of Hyperoptic’s terrific 12-month offers: here, we’ve highlighted the all-singing, all-dancing Hyperfast plan, which nabs you a stunning average download and upload speed of 900Mbits/sec for £40/mth on a one-year contract, with £19 to pay upfront.
Read our full Hyperoptic review
How to pick the best 12 month broadband deal for you
Finding the best 12 month broadband deal can be tricky in a market where lots of potentially confusing terms and numbers get thrown around. To help cut through the noise, we’ve rounded up the most important considerations below.
Can you get full fibre?
In recent years, brand-new networks have been popping up across the UK to offer full-fibre connections – instead of the far-slower copper cables. This wealth of competition has also driven down broadband prices, which is great news for consumers.
If you live in an urban area, you’ll likely have access to a full-fibre connection, but that doesn’t mean you should write one off if you live in the countryside. To see what you can get, simply select one of the dazzling deals above and use the internet service provider’s tool to see what’s available at your home address.
What’s the best speed for you?
There’s a massive range of different plans to pick from and you don’t want to end up paying for speeds you simply don’t need. As a handy rule of thumb, we’d say that a download speed of around 100Mbits/sec should be enough for the majority households, which you can step up to 300Mbits/sec or even 500Mbits/sec if there are lots of devices under one roof or you regularly do intensive tasks such as downloading game updates.
Gigabit speeds (1,000Mbits/sec) should only appeal to a minority of power-user homes and, at the other end of the scale, a download speed of 36Mbits/sec should only really be for those who browse the web or do an occasional spot of streaming from a couple of devices. If you work from home and have regular video meetings, it won’t be enough.
Will the price rise during your contract?
Unfortunately, the answer to this is increasingly likely to be “yes”. Many of the major ISPs have decided to hike up their prices every March or April by the Consumer Price Index rate of inflation plus an additional 3.9%. We’ll always flag when this is the case on our lists of deals, however, and there are some exceptions to the rule such as our top provider Zen Internet.
How much will you have to pay upfront?
The days of having to pay extravagant setup fees are past and it’s unlikely that you’ll have to pay more than a £30 one-off fee. In fact, many of the ISPs like to waive the payment entirely as an extra incentive for signing up.
There are a couple of exceptions, though: one-month rolling broadband plans, which are still rare, tend to come with far larger upfront costs, as do broadband and TV deals. We’ll always mention if a 12-month offer comes with an upfront cost.