Best broadband providers January 2024 UK: From only £20 a month up

RESEARCHING current deals when it comes to broadband is definitely worth the effort, as the money you can save with the best broadband providers can be substantial when added up over a two-year contract.

Look for companies offering the speed you want, whether you're happy with a standard connection or you require ultrafast fibre to cater for a large household, free connection, no upfront fees and any extras, such as gift cards or free TV channels.

Plenty of providers throw in additional perks with their packages, so a bit of time spent browsing their websites can prove profitable.

We've rounded up the best broadband providers below to help see if you could improve your service or get a better price.

Best broadband deals

• Hyperoptic: 50Mbps, £25pm -
• NOW Broadband: 11Mbps, £20pm -
• EE 4G broadband: 37Mbps, £30.99pm -
• BT: Fibre 2 at £35.99/month with £50 virtual reward card & £0 upfront -
• Vodafone: 37Mbps, £24pm -

Vodafone

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• Vodafone -

Vodafone offers two separate fibre options: Fibre 2 and Pro II Fibre 2. The offers we can see provide 37Mbps and 73Mbps at £24pm and £37pm, respectively. The Pro II Fibre 2 offer does come with some perks, including a top-of-the-range WiFi hub, an internet booster and a 4G backup, which is pretty comprehensive. See Vodafone's broadband offers for you, .

Hyperoptic Broadband

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• Hyperoptic -

Hyperoptic is a rare, rare thing: an internet provider with a good rating on Trustpilot. Customers love the service they get from this provider (including the author of this piece!) Unfortunately, Hyperoptic is only available in areas with a fibre connection, but, if you can sign up, Hyperoptic is easy to recommend. Hyperoptic's packages start at £25pm for 24 months, which gets you 50Mbps. But you can go right up to 1Gbps for £45pm, which is more speed than most people could feasibly exceed - and currently you receive the first three months free. Check out all of Hyperoptic's broadband packages .

Click on the link below, and enter your postcode to see what's available in your area.

• Compare broadband with usave - 

Co-op broadband

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• Co-op broadband –

Co-op broadband offers a range of packages and currently its cheapest deal is on its Superfast broadband and that costs from £28 per month. For busier broadband households though, its Ultrafast broadband is currently £43 and with that you can expect download speeds from 100Mbps up to 900Mbps.

You’ll be tied into a 24-month contract and there’s no set-up fee, or you can opt for  a 12-month contract and pay a £30 set-up fee.

If you’re a Co-op member you’ll collect points when you sign up and currently you’ll receive 500 points when you renew your tariff or take up a new one, and 500 points for every year you stay with the provider.

Check out all Co-op broadband deals

Three broadband

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• Three broadband –

When you sign up to Three Broadband you don’t even need a landline, which if you don’t have a home phone is good to know, and there’s also no setup fee. Currently Three is offering 12 months half-price then £22 per month after that on its 24-month contracts.

With their 5G Home Broadband, this gets you average download speeds of 150Mbps – though this may be impacted by where you live and the number of users – and 4K streaming. Three says this is ideal for those of us who work from home. Their 4G Home Broadband is also currently on offer at the same price – 12 months half-price then £22 per month.

Check out all Three broadband deals

Virgin Media Broadband

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• Virgin Media broadband -

Virgin offers an extensive range of broadband packages to suit any user. Depending on the availability in your area, Virgin can offer browsing speeds of a whopping 1Gbps if you have a direct fibre connection in your home. There's also a range of media packages you can get with your broadband, including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema and BT Sport. Check out all of Virgin Media's broadband packages .

Community Fibre

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• Community Fibre Broadband -

Community fibre offers unbeatable speeds with some of the fastest wired download speeds out there. They offer speeds up to 1Gbps for as little as £25 a month. Better yet, there's no hassle as they'll switch you over in as little as two days without you losing internet.

Furthermore, Community Fibre also promises no peak-time slowdowns, so no matter how many people are streaming across the country, you'll still be getting your top connection speeds.

Sky Broadband

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• Sky broadband -

At the time of writing, Sky has a number of standalone broadband packages, including 36Mbps for £29pm for 18 months and 145Mbps for £38pm for 18 months. But with Sky, you might be able to find some decent value if you combine your broadband deal with a TV package. There's too much to write down here, but you can see every deal Sky has to offer .

Plusnet

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• Plusnet Broadband -

As of writing, Plusnet currently has an online exclusive deal that provides you with their Full Fibre 500Mbps connection for nothing upfront and £39.99 a month on a 24-month contract. If you need even more from your broadband, you can upgrade it to their 900Mbps package that will also cost nothing upfront and £49.99 per month.

Now Broadband

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• Now Broadband -

Now Broadband offers a range of packages for its users on minimum 12-month contracts. Its fastest fibre package gets you an average speed of 63Mbps for £24; its mid-range package costs the same at £24 for 36Mbps, and its cheapest package costs just £20pm for 11Mbps. Now Broadband doesn't have an activation fee, but it will charge you £10 for the delivery of your new modem. Check to see if Now Broadband is available in your region .

EE Broadband

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• EE broadband -

EE could be a godsend if you're area hasn't been converted to fibre broadband yet, but you can get a 4G connection. Via EE's mobile network, you can get a home broadband router that provides 30Mbps on a 100GB plan or 40Mbps on a 300GB plan. The plans are on 18-month contracts. Check out which of EE's packages are available in your area .

BT Broadband

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• BT broadband - 

BT offers some decent-value broadband packages on 24-month contracts. Its Fibre Essential package gets you 35-36Mbps at £31.99pm, 49-50Mbps at £32.99pm and 72-74Mbps at £35.99pm. As an added bonus, there's no postage and packaging fee and no upfront cost. You can add TV packages to your broadband and there's usually special offers available. Currently when you sign up for selected full fibre packages you'll receive an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate free for up to one year, which gives you access to 100+ Xbox games and is worth up to £120. Check out all of BT's broadband packages .

How to compare the best internet providers

There are lots of comparison sites out there to help you compare providers, and there are some tips and tricks you can use to help yourself compare when shopping around.

Your first step should be to see what is available in your area, such as whether you can get fibre broadband or not. Once you’ve done that, you can check on the specific speeds available to you on one of the many speed checkers available.

When you have a list of providers, you should compare their prices and speeds to find the best of the bunch, and to save you the hassle, we have done that for you in this roundup.

What is superfast broadband?

You may have also seen the term superfast broadband in your deal hunting and wondered what makes it so good. Well, simply put, it is any speed that exceeds 3o0Mbps, which you may also see referred to as Ultrafast or Hyperfast.

Compared to the standard broadband package of 30Mbps, it will give you a much speedier connection, but of course, it comes at a premium, and not everyone will need it. However if you’re a gamer or there’s lots of people in your household streaming movies, playing games, watching TV or working at the computer, it could be useful to you.

What should I look for in a broadband provider?

There are a few things you should look for in a broadband provider. We reckon the first thing is fast, good-quality internet access.

You want internet that gives you enough bandwidth for what you need, whether that's streaming films on Netflix or more demanding applications such as downloading games to a games console.

Once you've got that, you want to compare prices. The price of broadband can vary greatly from person to person, as some shoppers can save on their broadband when they buy it as part of a bundle with their TV or mobile phone subscription.

Finally, you want good customer service to round it all off. Hopefully, signing up for broadband will be a painless experience throughout, and you'll never run into any issues with your service. But should your speeds start to drop, or you have an issue with your router, you want a company that will help you get back up and running quickly.