Best No-Contract Internet Providers for 2024 - Broadlink Data Services, LLC.
August 21, 2024
Our picks
Why we chose these providers
Best overall no-contract ISP (if you can get it)
$70 – $150 per month
Best promo pricing
$20 – $80 per month
Best for DSL value
$55 per month
Best no-contract cable internet
$50 – $80 per month
Best alternative for rural areas
$40 – $70 per month
Best for fiber coverage
$55 – $250 per month
Best for customer satisfaction
$50 – $120 per month
7 Internet providers
Speed range
1,000 – 8,000 Mbps
Price range
$70 – $150 per month
Our take – At first glance, Google Fiber plans seem expensive. There are five options: the cheapest at $70 per month and the most expensive at $150 monthly. These plans offer speeds from 1 gigabit (1,000Mbps) to 8 gigabits (8,000Mbps), so the actual cost per Mbps is 7 and 2 cents, respectively, which is excellent. You’re getting a fast connection for your money. On top of that, your equipment is included in your monthly price, which is a great deal.
Or call to learn more: (833) 851-5339
Speed range
1,000 – 8,000 Mbps
Price range
$70 – $150 per month
Speed range
100 – 1,500 Mbps
Price range
$20 – $80 per month
Our take – This cable internet provider boasts some of the best pricing out of the gates. It has quite a range of pricing across its various markets — including Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle and others. Still, it has an aggressively competitive average cost of 5 cents per Mbps for the promo price. In many markets, you’ll find a 300Mbps plan for $20 per month. That’s excellent. That tough-to-beat price for cable internet falls closer to the pack after your introductory period, as the average cost jumps to 30 cents per Mbps. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better price for your initial years of service.
Or call to learn more: (844) 361-8884
Speed range
100 – 1,500 Mbps
Price range
$20 – $80 per month
Speed range
10 – 140 Mbps
Price range
$55 per month
Our take – There is no need to worry about cancellation fees on any CenturyLink plan — none of them come with any contractual commitments. The value is pretty strong with CenturyLink too — the company’s DSL plans offer a fixed value rate of $55 a month, which is hard to beat among DSL offerings.
Or call to learn more: (855) 223-6405
Speed range
10 – 140 Mbps
Price range
$55 per month
Speed range
300 – 1,000 Mbps
Price range
$50 – $80 per month
Our take – Spectrum is as straightforward as you can get when looking at cable internet providers. There are three plans: 300Mbps, 500Mbps and 1 Gig, and all are free of contracts and data caps. Across all three, the average cost per Mbps in the first year is 12 cents, which is quite good for cable internet. Perhaps more impressive, the second-year jump isn’t too steep (for an ISP, anyway), up to an average of 20 cents per Mbps.
Or call to learn more: (888) 291-4257
Speed range
300 – 1,000 Mbps
Price range
$50 – $80 per month
Speed range
100 – 1,000 Mbps
Price range
$40 – $70 per month
Our take – In many suburban and rural areas where it often competes with satellite providers (most of which require a two-year contract), Kinetic by Windstream sets itself apart by ditching term agreements altogether. You can get either DSL (a majority of its footprint) or fiber service (currently about one-fifth of its network) for an average cost of 12 cents per Mbps during the first year.
Or call to learn more: (877) 399-8571
Speed range
100 – 1,000 Mbps
Price range
$40 – $70 per month
Speed range
300 – 5,000 Mbps
Price range
$55 – $250 per month
Our take – Available to approximately a third of its footprint, AT&T Fiber plans provide excellent value. Five different plan options (300, 500 and 1,000Mbps, as well as 2 and 5 gigabits) range in price from $55 to $245 per month, with no data caps or contracts. Altogether, AT&T’s fiber plans average just over 10 cents per Mbps, which is solid. Even more spectacular are the multi-gigabit plans, which average out to under 7 cents per Mbps, which is excellent.
Or call to learn more: (877) 391-7418
Speed range
300 – 5,000 Mbps
Price range
$55 – $250 per month
Speed range
300 – 2,000 Mbps
Price range
$50 – $120 per month
Our take – Verizon Fios, the company’s fiber-optic internet option, doesn’t require contracts for its home internet plans. Additionally, it scores high customer satisfaction marks in every ISP survey. It nabbed the top spot in a recent broadband survey and always does well in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index report, scoring 77 out of 100 points, six points above the industry average. Verizon Fios did equally well in the 2023 J.D. Power ISP study by grabbing the highest score in the East region for the 10th consecutive year.
Also, look into the type of internet connection offered by the ISP. While some households — especially those in underserved or rural areas — may not have many options, the general rule is that satellite internet is better than DSL, cable internet is better than satellite and fiber internet trumps them all. 5G home internet, which has made significant strides, is also becoming a legitimate option for many nationwide.
How we evaluated the best no-contract providers
Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information, drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.
It doesn’t end there: We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of publication.
Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:
Does the provider offer access to reasonably fast internet speeds?
Do customers get decent value for what they’re paying?
Are customers happy with their service?
While the answer to those questions is often layered and complex, the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend.
To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.
What’s the bottom line on no-contract ISPs?
Sometimes, it feels like you must sign away your firstborn child — or at least the next two years of your life — to get internet service in your area. It’s easy to be swayed by slimmed-down introductory prices, but lurking behind that first-year cheer can be a hefty bill increase and unrelenting extra fees if you dare change your mind or (shudder!) have to move.
Thankfully, that’s changing. Competition is brewing among internet service providers as we become more dependent on broadband connections. That’s one reason why some ISPs have dropped their contract requirements. You may even find internet deals offering to buy you out of your contract to get you to switch. That’s good news for anyone looking to effectively explore their home internet options.
No-contract internet service FAQs
What does “no-contract internet” mean?
We get this question quite often, as many assume they must pay for Wi-Fi separately from their internet service. That’s not the case, generally. You often get Wi-Fi when you sign up with an internet provider, as many will provide you with a gateway. That’s a combination of a modem (which connects your home to the internet) and a router (which takes that internet signal from the modem and broadcasts it wirelessly to the other devices in your home). Even if your ISP only provides the modem, you can rent a router or use your own. If you can get an internet connection at your address without signing a contract, you should have options to have Wi-Fi at your home without committing to a contract.
It may sound like a cop-out, but the best no-contract internet provider for you is the one that’s serviceable at your address. As we’ve mentioned many times in our ISP reviews, all things being equal, if you can get fiber internet at your location, that’s the way to go. It’ll give you the best performance of all the internet connection types — you’ll get symmetrical download and upload speeds — and will often be the most affordable in terms of cost per megabit per second. Google Fiber, which includes all equipment costs and fees in your monthly rate, is the cheapest, averaging just over 4 cents per Mbps. Its availability pales compared to the fiber plans of AT&T, for example. If you live in one of the metro markets where it offers service, Google Fiber is an easy choice, but AT&T Fiber might be everyone else’s top option.
Unfortunately, none of the major internet providers offer buy-now-pay-later plans. However, you can turn to ISPs like Xfinity and Cox, which offer plans that are free of contract through prepaid internet or low-cost internet plans.
