Best Family Cell Phone Plans
Finding the right cell phone plan for your family is key to keeping costs down. We scoped out the best family cell phone plans in several categories. Prices don’t include phones, taxes, fees or other charges, such as insurance.
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Best family plans: family of four
- Plan name: Boost Mobile Unlimited
- Price (monthly, four lines): $120
- Plan at a glance: Unlimited talk, text and data, plus 30GB of mobile hot spot
- Why we like it: An unbelievable prepaid deal that’s too good to last. This limited time offer from Boost is available for new and existing customers.
- Plan name: Sprint Unlimited Basic
- Price (monthly, four lines): $160; $140 with autopay discount
- Plan at a glance: Unlimited data, minutes and text messages
- Why we like it: An affordable, entry-level unlimited plan with bonuses like Hulu and 500MB of hot spot access per line. New customers can score additional discounts.
THINGS TO KNOW
Best family plans: two people
- Plan name: MetroPCS 5GB
- Price (monthly, two lines): $70
- Plan at a glance: Unlimited talk and text; 5GB of data per line
- Why we like it: Each line gets its own data package, for a total of 10GB, plus mobile hot spot access and unlimited music streaming from select services
- Plan name: Sprint Unlimited Basic
- Price (monthly, two lines): $110; $100 with autopay discount
- Plan at a glance: Unlimited data, minutes and text messages
- Why we like it: An affordable, entry-level unlimited plan with bonuses like Hulu and 500MB of hot spot access per line. New customers can score additional discounts.
THINGS TO KNOW:
» MORE: Best unlimited data plans
Best family plans: prepaid
- Plan name: Boost Mobile Unlimited
- Price (monthly, four lines): $120
- Plan at a glance: Unlimited talk, text and data, plus 30GB of mobile hot spot
- Why we like it: An unbelievable prepaid deal that’s too good to last. This limited time offer from Boost is available for new and existing customers.
- Plan name: Cricket Wireless Basic (with Group Save discount)
- Price (monthly, four lines): $110
- At a glance: Unlimited talk and text, 5GB of data per line
- Why we like it: Cricket’s Group Save discount makes for four inexpensive lines with just the right amount of data.
Things to know:
» MORE: Best prepaid cell phone plans
Best family cell phone plans: summary
| Carrier | Details | Get started |
|---|---|---|
| Plan: Boost Mobile Unlimited Best for: Family of four Monthly cost: $120 (four lines) | |
 | Plan: Sprint Unlimited Basic Best for: Family of four Monthly cost: $160; $140 with autopay discount (four lines) | |
 | Plan: MetroPCS 5GB Best for: Two people Monthly cost: $70 (two lines) | |
| Plan: Sprint Unlimited Basic Best for: Two people Monthly cost: $110; $100 with autopay discount (two lines) | |
| Plan: Boost Mobile Unlimited Best for: Prepaid family plan Monthly cost: $120 (four lines) | |
| Plan: Cricket Basic with Group Save – 5GB per line Best for: Prepaid family plan Monthly cost: $110 (4 lines) |
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METHODOLOGY
We evaluated more than 200 cell phone plans offered by the following carriers: AT&T, Boost Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Cricket, GreatCall, Google’s Project Fi, MetroPCS, Net10, Republic Wireless, Sprint, Straight Talk, T-Mobile, TracFone, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile. To determine the best plans, we looked at the monthly plan price before taxes and fees, the price per gigabyte and features such as unlimited video streaming or rollover data. We considered only national carriers, which ruled out regional providers like U.S. Cellular. For family plans, we looked at plans with at least 6 GB of data and calculated pricing for a family of four.
