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Compare the Best No Contract Broadband Deals

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For those who don’t want to be tied to a contract for 12 months or more, no contract broadband is available from certain providers. It’s not as commonly available as we might like, but a handful of amenable ISPs do offer one-month rolling deals alongside their long-term contracts. We’re going to take you through what it is, why you might want it and where you can get it.

What is no contract broadband and why would I want it?

No contract broadband, in practice, is a contract offered by a few providers for one month of broadband which automatically renews if you don’t cancel it.

You may say, then, that its name is a little misleading, but it’s called no contract broadband because you can cancel it at any time and that month’s bill will be your last - with no termination charges or having to pay for the rest of the year.

You might be interested in no contract broadband if:

  • You’re only living at an address for a short period of time.
  • You want a temporary deal while you wait for a special offer.
  • You want to try out different providers’ services.
  • You just don’t want to be tied down to a long-term contract.

Essentially, if flexibility is what’s most important to you in considering home broadband packages, a no contract deal should definitely be on your radar. There are a couple of downsides to these packages, however, as we’ll see later on: Providers aren’t keen to incentivise them when it comes to price, and upfront costs tend to be particularly high.

Students need not fork out for no contract broadband

If you’re a student, you might need to sign up for broadband for less than a year, and a normal 12-month deal would have you paying for three months of internet you don’t need. You might not, however, have to pay the extra for a no contract deal. Some providers, including BT, offer student broadband deals that last 9 months. Head over to our guide to find out more about them.

Which providers offer no contract broadband UK deals?

Not all providers offer no contract deals, as we’ve already said, with Virgin Media being the best-known of the major providers to offer them. Smaller providers that offer no contract broadband include Hyperoptic and Direct Save Telecom. In this section, we’re going to take you through each of these providers’ no contract offer.

Not sure which speed you need?Head to our broadband speeds page to find out everything you need to know or use our broadband speed checker to test the speeds you’re currently getting.

You should be careful in weighing this much higher cost against your need for flexibility - we don’t want you paying so much more if you don’t really need to!

Virgin offers broadband-only contracts - which don’t include line rental - and you could get one of these on a 30-day rolling deal as well and save yourself some money if a landline isn’t essential to you.

Hyperoptic no contract broadband

Niche provider Hyperoptic offers no contract broadband deals in a similar way to Virgin. With no ado whatsoever, let’s take a look at them:

Fast Superfast Ultrafast Hyperfast
£26 per month £32 per month £42 per month £52 per month
50 Mbps avg. download speed 150 Mbps avg. download speed 500 Mbps avg. download speed 900 Mbps avg. download speed*
5 Mbps avg. upload speed 150 Mbps avg. upload speed 500 Mbps avg. upload speed 900 Mbps avg. upload speed
£29 upfront cost £29 upfront cost £29 upfront cost £29 upfront cost

Prices and Details last updated on 23/04/2021. These prices and details are provided for illustrative purposes only.

*900 Mbps is not achievable with WiFi - for this, you’ll need a wired connection.

There appear to be no areas in which Hyperoptic doesn’t have Virgin beat in terms of its no contract broadband deals. It’s at least £18 cheaper per month and costs £60 less upfront, offers faster speeds, offers symmetrical download and upload speeds on all but its slowest package.

Direct Save Telecom no contract broadband

Budget provider Direct Save Telecom offers no contract equivalents for all of its broadband deals. Let’s take a look at each of these:

Fast Broadband Fast Fibre Broadband Superfast Fibre Broadband
£27.95 per month £34.95 per month £39.95 per month
11 Mbps avg. download speed 35 Mbps avg. download speed 63 Mbps avg. download speed
1 Mbps avg. upload speed 9.5 Mbps avg. upload speed 17 Mbps avg. upload speed
£24.95 upfront cost £24.95 upfront cost £24.95 upfront cost

Prices and Details last updated on 23/04/2021. These prices and details are provided for illustrative purposes only.

Direct Save’s deals come with line rental but no inclusive calls package added to the bargain, without offering any sort of saving over Hyperoptic’s no contract deals. In fact, Direct Save’s two cheapest deals are both slower than Hyperoptic’s slowest, and both will set you back more per month (while not offering inclusive calls and costing slightly more to set up).

Wallet with money

Direct Save’s 12-month contracts do compare well with the industry on the whole, but its no contract deals represent a sizeable jump in price. For Fast Broadband, subscribers pay £9 a month more for the flexibility of a rolling monthly deal, and for its fibre deals its a full £10 more every month.

Signing a year-long contract also lets users avoid the upfront cost, but prices do jump automatically by up to a fiver per month once your term has ended.

This is not to say that Direct Save’s no contract deals have nothing going for them - it does offer membership to its Loyalty Discount Club with both 12-month and rolling monthly deals.

This is claimed to be worth “at least £50”, providing discounts of up to 25% on famous shopping and travel brands. We don’t, however, see this as compensating so much that its no contract deals would rival Hyperoptic’s, though, if these are available to you in your area.

Is it worth getting a no contract broadband deal?

As we’ve already mentioned and you’ve seen above, the downside to taking out no contract internet is clear - the upfront cost is hefty and you’ll be paying more per month. For this reason, if you’re likely to be where you are for a year we would recommend finding a 12-month contract and saving in both upfront costs and monthly payments.

You could save a heap by committing to just a bit longer!Opting for a 12-month contract instead of a rolling one-month deal with Virgin M50 broadband, for example, would save you £16 per month and an £80 upfront fee. Don’t forget, it’s possible to move home and take your broadband deal with you.

Based on the providers we’ve compared, it definitely seems that Hyperoptic is the best option, offering rolling monthly deals that compare well even with other providers’ cheapest contracts with long-term commitments.

The only problem with Hyperoptic is that its deals are not widely available across the whole country - or at all outside of London, judging by the coverage map on its website.

Those not convinced and who have decided that flexibility is most important to them also have more options than just taking out a no contract deal. If you move around a lot and want to easily take your broadband around with you as you go, there’s another solution to consider which allows you to forgo fixed broadband connections altogether:

Is mobile broadband a good alternative?

Mobile broadband is a relatively new product which lets you carry a WiFi connection around with you, sourcing it from 4G and 5G networks rather than cables providing a fixed connection. Several mobile networks offer this service, which is often provided through a portable modem or dongle which can either connect you wirelessly or be plugged into your device.

Here are some of the providers to go to if you’re interested:

As an example, we’re going to run you through the types of mobile broadband offered by Three, which has one of the widest selections of mobile broadband products on the market:

Three Broadband

Three offers those interested in mobile broadband a number of options for getting set up with it. Each requires a Mobile Broadband SIM, which is an essential part of any mobile broadband deal and can be used on a pay as you go (PAYG) basis or on a contract, being placed into one of the following Three products to produce a WiFi signal:

  • Dongle: a small modem you can buy to carry around and put in USB ports to provide internet access.
  • Mobile WiFi: a slightly bigger portable modem that can be placed anywhere to produce a WiFi signal (better for sharing).
  • HomeFi: a portable modem you can put anywhere in your home which transmits further than Mobile WiFi and lets more devices get connected.
  • Tablet: alternatively, you can simply place the SIM in your tablet directly and use it as an internet source in itself.

As we’ve mentioned, you simply insert the Mobile Broadband SIM into any of these devices and it will connect either to Three’s 4G or 5G network in the same way you connect to internet data on your smartphone.

In the past, data restrictions and the limited reliability and speed of 3G made the idea of connecting via mobile networks inviable, but the increased availability of 4G and the rollout of a faster 5G network means that this is quickly changing.

For more information on Three mobile broadband, see our dedicated Three Broadband page, where you can find out more about each product, including pricing information on PAYG and pay monthly deals.

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Verdict

The long and the short of it is that you’re unlikely to find a deal at a reasonable price, but if you’re only after one for a couple of months then you might not mind paying up to a tenner a month more.

If you’re after the flexibility in the longer-term, we would recommend you give serious consideration to mobile broadband instead, which you can get either on PAYG or as a pay-monthly deal (which shouldn’t matter as you can take it with you anywhere hassle-free!).

The services and products mentioned on this website may only represent a small selection of the options available to you. Selectra encourages you to carry out your own research and seek advice if necessary before making any decisions. We may receive commission from selected partner providers on sales of some products and/or services mentioned within this website. Our website is free to use, and the commission we receive does not affect our opinion or the information we provide.

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