Methodology

How the real cost is calculated

A monthly headline price is not what you pay. For every plan we compute the total over 12 and 24 months using this formula:

• the promotional monthly price, multiplied by the number of months it applies (if the plan has a promotion);
• plus the standard monthly price for every remaining month of the period;
• plus any activation fee, charged once;
• divided by the number of months to give an average monthly cost.

Taxes are not included unless the provider states that they are, because US mobile prices are normally quoted before tax. Each plan card says explicitly whether taxes are included and whether the price requires autopay.

Where the prices come from

Prices are recorded from public sources: provider plan pages, partner feeds, or information supplied directly by a provider. Collection is automated and runs on a schedule, but nothing is published automatically.

A collector only queries a page after checking that the site’s robots.txt allows it. If a price disappears, if a page becomes unreachable, or if a variation looks implausible, the plan is removed from the public comparison and flagged for review instead of being displayed with a figure we cannot stand behind.

Data quality labels

Every plan carries a label that tells you how much the figure can be trusted:

• Tariff verified — a person confirmed the price against the provider’s own page.
• Collected from the provider — the price was read automatically from an authorised source and passed the consistency checks.
• Pending verification — something changed or looked inconsistent. The plan is not part of the public comparison until it is checked.
• Illustrative data — demonstration data used while a source is being validated. It is not a live tariff and must not be used for a purchasing decision.

Prices change — and we show it

Each plan page lists its price history: the date of every recorded change, the previous price and the new one. Where an offer was withdrawn altogether, the plan is removed from the comparison rather than left online at a stale price.

How the editorial score is calculated

Plan pages carry a score out of 5. It is an editorial assessment written by our team, not a customer rating, and it is computed from the same published data as the rest of the page: nothing is entered by hand and no score is bought.

• Cost position, 50 % — the plan’s real cost over 24 months, activation fee included, ranked against every plan we track. The cheapest plan scores 5, the most expensive 1.
• Data allowance, 30 % — the size of the allowance ranked against the catalogue. Unlimited plans score 5.
• Flexibility, 20 % — no fixed-term contract, no forced autopay and no upfront months each add to the component.

The three components are combined and rounded to one decimal. The score is recalculated on every page load against the current catalogue, so adding or removing plans can move it. It is never a statement about network quality or customer service, which we do not measure.

How this site is funded

This site is free to use and supported by advertising. Advertisers have no say in which plans appear, how they are ranked, or the price shown. We have no affiliate agreement with the operators listed here. A link to an operator website is a plain reference: it carries a nofollow attribute and we receive nothing if you sign up through it. If a commercial agreement is ever added, the affected links will be labelled as sponsored before they go live. Prices are recorded from public sources and each offer displays the date it was last verified. Offers marked as illustrative are demonstration data used while a source is being validated; they are not live tariffs and must not be relied on for a purchasing decision.

Advertising is served by third parties and is labelled as advertising wherever it appears. The ranking of plans is computed from the price data alone; there is no field in that calculation for a commercial relationship. Outbound links to provider websites carry a nofollow attribute and, if a paid agreement is ever signed, a sponsored attribute as well.

Corrections

If a price on this site is wrong or out of date, tell us at the contact page and we will check the source and correct or unpublish the plan.

What this site is not

We are not a provider, a broker or a financial adviser. We do not sell mobile service. Information here is for comparison only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy a specific plan.