The best family cell phone plans help groups manage data usage and payments for several lines under a single account. If your family (or group of friends) wants to stick to a major carrier, a family plan is also a convenient way to reduce monthly bills with multi-line discounts and savings on streaming services.
Overall, Verizon's myPlan is the top option among the best family cell phone plans in our extensive testing. It lets you add varying plans to fit individual needs under one account, and Verizon offers the most comprehensive coverage and perks. On the opposite end of the budget spectrum, Tello Mobile's Build Your Own Plan is a worthwhile option with customizable limited-data plans that start at an astonishingly low $5/month.
Our top picks for the best family cell phone plans
Best overall: Verizon myPlan - See at Verizon
Best value from a major carrier: T-Mobile Essentials Plans - See at T-Mobile
Best budget: Mint Mobile Modern Family Plan - See at Mint Mobile
Best true budget: Tello Mobile Build Your Own Plan - See at Tello Mobile
Best overall
Thanks to significant multi-line discounts, Verizon's unlimited myPlan options constitute our top pick for families, especially for larger groups of four or more. Verizon's extensive nationwide coverage, plan flexibility within an account, and perks set it apart from other major carriers in the US.
What we like
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Our top cell phone plan for families, Verizon's myPlan, offers the flexibility of picking different plans for individual lines within an account. This feature means the account won't be hamstrung by any user's needs, giving families or groups the potential to pay less if any user has demanding needs.
For example, one user who needs a lot of mobile hot spot data can opt for Verizon's Unlimited Ultimate plan, while another user with basic needs can run on the less expensive Unlimited Welcome plan.
Adding additional friends or family to your plan will save you more, as the cost per line is higher with fewer lines. Here's a price breakdown (including auto-pay discounts) for a four-line account with varying plans as an example:
- Line 1: Unlimited Ultimate for $55/month
- Line 2: Unlimited Plus for $45/month
- Line 3: Unlimited Welcome for $30/month
- Line 4: Unlimited Welcome for $30/month
- Total: $160/month before taxes and fees.
Even if all the lines in an account run on the same plan, we favor Verizon as a premium carrier option due to its extensive coverage in the US and excellent perks, like discounts on streaming service bundles for Netflix and Max or Disney-owned streamers. Indeed, our top overall pick among the best cell phone plans is Verizon's Unlimited Plus plan for its generous unlimited amount of premium data, unaffected by network congestion.
While multi-line discounts can considerably reduce a monthly bill, Verizon is still among the more expensive options. If it's pricier than your budget allows, we recommend more value-forward options below.
Best value from a major carrier
T-Mobile’s Essentials and Essentials Saver plans constitute the most affordable premium plans among the major carriers. It’s a downright bargain with four or five lines on a single plan and includes 50GB of premium monthly data per line before T-Mobile slows down your data speeds. Just note that Essentials users may experience slower speeds than higher-paying T-Mobile customers during heavy network congestion.
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The family cell phone plans with the best value for their cost among major carriers are undoubtedly T-Mobile's Essentials plans. They offer a generous 50GB of premium data per line for a price that other major carriers can't match. This is especially tempting for accounts with three lines or more, as T-Mobile frequently runs promotions, like a third line for free or a four-line offer for outstanding value.
Below is a current pricing breakdown of T-Mobile's Essentials plan on a per-line basis, starting with at least two lines, including T-Mobile's auto-pay and Essentials Saver discounts for the lowest prices:
- 2 lines: $80/month ($40/line)
- 3 lines: $90/month ($30/line)
- 4 lines: $100/month ($25/line)
- 5 lines: $120/month ($24/line)
While T-Mobile's 4G LTE and 5G coverage for the Essentials plan is competitive with or even superior to Verizon in cities, towns, and highways, it drops quickly further away from populated areas, as its rural coverage is lacking compared to other major carriers. You should check that T-Mobile adequately covers your family through the network's coverage map and anecdotal experience from local friends, neighbors, or online forums.
Even if T-Mobile's value is tempting, the savings are not worth it if the network doesn't cover the areas you frequent well enough. However, if T-Mobile does cover you, but your family can get by with relatively limited or deprioritized data, we recommend a few worthwhile budget carriers backed by T-Mobile below.
Best budget
While Mint Mobile's Modern Family plan doesn't include multi-line discounts, the carrier's already affordable pricing means you can save significantly on multiple lines relative to major carriers and most MVNOs. New customers can try the carrier for three months at low rates, starting at $15/month.
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It's hard to beat T-Mobile's Essentials plan for value in a family plan with multiple lines, at least if several lines require unlimited data. However, Mint Mobile allows you to spend less under certain circumstances for comparable service.
As detailed in our Mint Mobile review, the carrier is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) owned by T-Mobile that piggybacks on T-Mobile's infrastructure and network. It offers the same coverage area as T-Mobile, with data subject to deprioritization behind the higher-paying customers of its parent company.
Mint Mobile's Modern Family Plan allows you to select and manage varying plans within an account, but doesn't offer multi-line discounts like major carriers. Still, you can spend significantly less than T-Mobile at certain data tiers. For a comprehensive comparison, see our guide to Mint Mobile vs. T-Mobile.
For smaller families of two, Mint Mobile offers unlimited data for $30/month on each line (or $20/month with a limited-time discount, constituting the best unlimited data plan for budget value) compared to T-Mobile's Essentials Saver price of $40/month each. Families of two can save even more with Mint Mobile's 20GB, 15GB, or 5GB plans.
With Mint Mobile's standard pricing, families of three to five will need to pick limited data plans to see any real savings over T-Mobile's Essentials. Mint Mobile's 15GB tier offers the best value and makes the most sense on average, but you can get decent savings with an even mix of its limited data plans.
Notably, Mint Mobile's lowest prices come with its 12-month plans. A prepaid annual plan is inflexible compared to T-Mobile's offerings, which are paid monthly and let you change carriers with no early termination fees if the service doesn't work out for you.
However, Mint Mobile has an excellent introductory promotion for new customers, which constitutes our top pick among the best cheap cell phone plans; it offers the carrier's three-month plans at discounted rates, starting at $15/month.
Beyond its savings, Mint Mobile has an excellent app and website for easily managing your account and lines or seeking customer support. It stands out among the supporting platforms of other carriers for its user-friendliness.
However, if T-Mobile's standard network inadequately covers you, your family or group will be better served by an MVNO backed by other major carriers.
For instance, Visible Wireless, a Verizon-owned MVNO, offers relatively affordable three tiers for truly unlimited data, including prioritized data speeds starting at $30/month with a current discount on the Visible Plus plan. Read our Visible Wireless review and see our Mint Mobile vs. Visible guide for a comparative breakdown.
Best true budget
Backed by T-Mobile's network, Tello's unique Build Your Own plan allows you to customize your data and voice minutes to your specific needs and offers a low base price of $5/month.
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Tello Mobile, another MVNO on T-Mobile's network, lets you manage up to four exceptionally inexpensive lines under a single account.
As detailed in our Mint Mobile vs. Tello guide, Tello's low minimum costs make it an even better "true budget" option than Mint Mobile for the least expensive access to T-Mobile's network.
Tello's Build Your Own Plan lets each line in a family plan pay for what it needs and ditch what it doesn't, which can lead to outrageously low monthly bills as low as $5/month for a line — the lowest rate among the best prepaid phone plans.
For example, if you don't talk on the phone much but use a decent amount of data, you can opt for a plan with 100 voice minutes and unlimited data for $25/month. That's the lowest standard price for unlimited data in this guide. Each family member can also fine-tune their own line for data based on their anticipated usage.
As detailed in our Tello Mobile review, the MVNO's Build Your Own Plan can also be a good option for families with younger kids; data limits could be used in addition to on-device parental controls to limit online activity. Likewise, the customizable plan is among our best cell phone plans for seniors using limited data.
How we test family cell phone plans
Building on the standardized testing we implement to select the best cell phone plans broadly for coverage and data speeds, our testing procedure for family cell phone plans also involves closely evaluating each carrier's best features for multi-line groups and then breaking down options by their suitability for family use and value relative to pricing.
We also collectively assess family-centric carrier options based on long-term and varied personal experiences from our staff, including the author and others, for plan management, customer service, and overall value with major carriers and MVNOs.
What to look for in a family cell phone plan
Coverage is the one constant feature you need to look for in a family cell phone plan. An otherwise perfect plan for you and your family won't make sense if its backing carrier doesn't adequately service your area and the places you visit often. It won't matter that you're saving money if you can't use data or make reliable phone calls due to limited coverage.
Beyond that, the best family cell phone plan offers the data you need while fitting your budget. Major carriers tend to lower monthly costs when adding more lines to a single account. Sometimes, those multi-line savings can be so good that you'd consider a major carrier when you hadn't before.
Budget-oriented MVNOs typically do not lower the monthly cost for multiple lines in an account. However, their single-line prices are often already the equivalent of or a better value than major carriers' multi-line deals.
Another important aspect is the ability to individually manage each line on the account, whether through a website or a mobile app. Luckily, nearly every carrier offers account management per line, but the ease of use of carriers' supporting platforms varies widely.
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Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at reviews@bjinnox.com.
