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- One of the cheapest providers out there
- Highly rated for reliability
- Backed up with strong customer service
- You won’t find the fastest connection speeds here
- No mobile/TV bundles on offer
Plusnet is in many ways the strangest member of the BT family, which of course also includes BT Broadband and EE. It doesn’t offer the gigabit speeds its sister companies offer; it’s still sending out routers that are at least two generations behind the latest Wi-Fi technology; and you won’t find any cheap bundle deals including mobile phone contracts or TV packages on Plusnet. And yet customers seem to love it.
One reason for that is price: Plusnet is cheaper than most other providers, and that’s why it’s picked up the Best Value award in our 2026 broadband survey (earning it a spot on our roundup of the best broadband providers). That’s not its only strength, because it pairs those good value tariffs with decent service, collecting this year’s Customer Service award, too.
And even though it doesn’t offer the gigabit speeds that are offered by all the other six providers on test here, it is still highly rated for the performance of its connections by its customers: only Vodafone and Virgin Media were more highly rated in our survey.
Reliability is closely linked to performance, of course. It doesn’t matter how fast your line is if the connection is falling over every time the wind changes, and Plusnet claims our Most Reliable Provider award for 2026, too.
Indeed, it’s a strong all-round showing from Plusnet for 2026, pipped only by Vodafone in this year’s overall rankings.
Packages and pricing
Fibre
Like many other providers, Plusnet labels its cheapest connections “Fibre” even though they’re not 100% fibre. They’re the slower fibre-to-the-cabinet lines, where the data travels over the old copper wires for the final stretch. Hence, speeds are limited to an absolute maximum of 74Mbits/sec, and only a fortunate few will get that top speed on such lines.
Sensibly, and unlike other providers, Plusnet has only the one fibre-to-the-cabinet tariff, which is priced more cheaply than most other providers.
Full Fibre 74, 145, 300, 500 and 900
Plusnet’s faster speeds are on offer to the 63% of the population that live within reach of Openreach’s full-fibre network (as of Jan 12, 2026). Unlike providers such as Vodafone and Sky, the BT-based providers only offer connections provided by the Openreach network, limiting the availability of the very fastest connections.
Another hallmark of the Openreach network is that upload speeds are much slower than downloads. That’s not ideal, particularly for those who work from home and need to regularly upload large files.
Plusnet is one of the few providers not to offer gigabit-grade speeds. Its fastest connection is 900Mbits/sec – plenty fast enough for the average family, but avid gamers or those who regularly download large files may want to look elsewhere.
The good news is that these connections are keenly priced, often a pound or two cheaper per month than those from the overall winner Vodafone. Bear in mind that price rises are baked into the contract, meaning prices will increase by £4 per month every April.
Coverage
Plusnet relies entirely on the Openreach network for all its connections. Openreach now offers full fibre to around 25m premises, which is roughly 63% of the country. The vast majority of the remainder will be on fibre-to-the-cabinet, which as discussed above, limits download speeds to 74Mbits/sec, and often much slower.
If you want a faster connection and you’re not in a full fibre area, it’s worth considering rivals such as Vodafone and Sky, who have deals with multiple fibre providers and might be able to offer faster speeds in areas not yet connected to Openreach’s full-fibre network.
Performance and customer satisfaction
Plusnet’s overall performance in our 2026 broadband survey was second only to Vodafone’s, and it ran the leader very close indeed.
Value is clearly one of Plusnet’s strong suits: it’s cheaper than both its BT stablemates and many other providers. A solid 88% of the Plusnet customers we surveyed were satisfied or very satisfied with the value on offer, and only 2% were dissatisfied.
More often than not, having cheaper prices leads companies to cut corners on customer service, but that’s not the case here. Nine out of ten (90%) Plusnet customers were satisfied with the company’s customer service, putting it a distance clear of any of the other six providers on test here.
Reliability hasn’t suffered, either. It may not have the fastest connections on the market, but Plusnet is streets ahead on reliability, with 80% of customers satisfied with the drop-out rate of their broadband. The next closest (EE) scored 63%, by comparison – a long way behind.
And even if the headline speeds offered by Plusnet can’t match those of its rivals, customers remain largely impressed with the performance of their connections. A healthy 88% were satisfied with the speed on offer.
Should you choose Plusnet Broadband?
Plusnet isn’t a flashy provider. It doesn’t boast the headline-grabbing speeds or offer customers cutting-edge equipment. It just does the basics of reliable broadband backed up with great customer service very well indeed, and it does so at a price that’s cheaper than many of its rivals.
Survey methodology
Our survey, conducted in September 2025, targeted a representative sample of 1,544 UK residents aged 18 and over.
Across 14 questions, our survey captured data on 8 broadband providers. To ensure the integrity of our analysis, we applied a minimum sample size of 50 respondents, which qualified 7 of these for analysis.
Analysis Brands:BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE, Zen Internet
Eligibile brands: BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE
