The winner = Virgin Media
These two broadband giants aren’t the cheapest options, but they both regularly offer run time-limited promotions and deals that new customers can benefit from. They are similar to each other in price, but broadly speaking, Virgin Media offers better speeds for slightly less.
We compared their cheapest packages. At the time of writing, Virgin Media’s lowest cost plan starts at £25 per month for a 132Mbps average download speed, which is actually very good value for such fast broadband.
BT’s cheapest plan is £28.99 and this is for a 36Mbps speed, so a much slower plan.
Virgin Media prices
BT rewards
BT’s prices may be higher, but it is one of the most generous with free gifts. Its deals often come with some kind of incentive reward, normally a pre-paid credit card with a value around £50-£100.
Virgin Media rewards
Virgin Media broadband does occasionally offer rewards as incentives, but these differ from the cashback reward cards. Instead they either run a form of sale, offering lower monthly bills than the standard price. Or, they offer cashback in the form of a bill credit. The money then gets simply taken off your bill.
The winner = Virgin Media
Both BT and Virgin Media offer ultrafast fibre broadband. But at this moment in time, Virgin Media can officially claim to be the UK’s fastest widely available broadband. It can offer everyone that can access its network (currently about 50% of UK properties) its fastest package of an incredible 1130Mbps Gig service. This is because it uses its own cabling network rather than like the majority of others who rely on Openreach. In comparison, BT’s fastest available speed is 900Mbps.
BT’s partial fibre plans (available to 96% of the UK) are: 36Mbps, 50Mbps, 67Mps. And for those who can access its full fibre network (currently about 57% of the UK) BT can supply ultrafast speeds of 150Mbps, 500Mbps and 900Mbps.
In comparison, Virgin offers: 50Mbps, 100Mbps, 200Mbps, 350Mbps, 500Mbps and 1130Mbps.
So currently you can get more choice of quicker speeds for lower prices with Virgin Media if its network is available to your home.
The winner = BT
BT uses Openreach network to deliver its service. Just about anyone in the UK has access to this. It doesn’t mean you can necessarily get the fastest speeds yet as some of this network is still partial fibre (speeds of 30 - 70Mbps), but it does mean that most households can access at least a very satisfactory 64Mbps. This is growing every day and they’ve pledged to deliver full fibre to 25 million homes and businesses by 2026.
The Virgin Media network is entirely separate. Its installed, operated and owned entirely by Virgin using different tech to all the other providers. So while the advantage is that it can deliver much faster speeds, the flipside is that it is available to far less. Currently its network is available to about half of homes in the UK.
The other disadvantage of Virgin Media being on an entirely separate network is that if switching to or from, you’ll probably need to have an engineer visit rather than just being able to plug a router in.
Winner = Virgin Media
Both offer a great wide range of packages to choose from. But as discussed, Virgin Media is currently slightly better value for the speed you get.
Virgin Media also wins on flexibility. All BT’s contracts are 24 months, but Virgin Media’s minimum commitment is 18 months and it also offers short-term solutions of one-month, rolling contracts. Although these shorter term plans will always be on the pricier side.
Both providers offer broadband with no landline rental for those who really don’t have any requirements.
All packages from BT and Virgin Media are truly unlimited. This means you really can use the internet as much as you like without being deliberately slowed down or incurring any extra charges.
Have a look at the latest Virgin Media packages here:
Compare these with BT broadband’s latest offers:
Winner = BT
Virgin Media performed fairly poorly for customer service in a recent Which? survey.
It received a disappointing satisfaction score of 38 (out of a possible +100) for overall customer service. Its scores for technical support and the ease and speed of getting in touch weren’t great either, with a 34 and 26, also out of 100.
The latest Ofcom report also shows that Virgin Media could do better in this department. Recording the lowest overall mark for ‘satisfaction of complaint handling’ with a score of 46% (industry average 51%), 66 complaints per 100,000 subscribers to Ofcom (industry average 44) and an average call waiting time of 3:07 (industry average 2:37).
In contrast BT scored 51% for ‘satisfaction with complaint handling’, had 22 complaints per 100,000 subscribes to Ofcom and an average call waiting time of 2:45.
Winner = Virgin Media
Both providers offer a great range of additional services. Virgin has the advantage though, thanks to its brilliant set top box and flexible phone service.
TV
They both have great TV packages that provide entertainment, sports and films from all the big content providers. And as well as free-to-air channels, they both let you add TNT Sports and NOW TV memberships.
Both offer flexibility with your TV plans. You can add or subtract channels and streaming subscriptions whenever you please. BT lets you switch between its five flexible TV packages every 30 days.
However, Virgin Media can’t be beaten on its set top boxes.
BT’s YouView TV Box is good. It lets you record up to 300-600 hours of content, record, pause and rewind live TV for up to two hours and record remotely via its app.
But Virgin Media’s 360 box has the edge. Its 4K-ready, gives you 500 hours of content and lets you record up to seven channels at the same time. It also has seamless multi-screen viewing. So, you can start watching a show in one room then transfer to another screen and pick up in exactly the same place.
Phone
Both providers give the option of not having to take out a home phoneline.
If you do choose to, BT gives a pay-as-you-go call package as standard. If you make regular calls, it’ll probably be wiser to pay extra for one of its inclusive addons. BT offers a selection of these that includes anytime calls to UK landlines and mobiles, as well as cheap international calls.
Virgin Media gives its 'Weekend chatter package' as standard, which gives you unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines. Like BT, you also have the option to upgrade your plan and select an inclusive package as an addon.
The winner = Draw
We just can't pick! Virgin Media's premium hub is the better of the two, but this is only for selected gigabit customers. Plus, Virgin Media aren't clear on who gets what hub and when, so we've had to call it a draw.
Virgin Media routers
Bear with us on this, as it can all get slightly confusing…
Virgin Media broadband comes with one of four routers, either the Hub 3, the Hub 4, the Hub 5 or the Hub 5x. However, Virgin Media don’t actually tell you which router goes with which plan. Most packages come with either the Hub 3 or the Hub 4, and to which you get seems to come down to availability at the time of order.
Anyone taking out Virgin’s fastest Gig1 and Gig2 packages will be sent the latest routers, the Hub 5 and 5x, both which support Wi-Fi 6.
So, in the interest of fairness, we’ll compare the most common router, The Hub 4, as this currently goes out to the majority of new Virgin customers.
BT broadband routers
BT is easier to explain. If you go for any of its fibre broadband deals you'll be greeted with the advanced Smart Hub 2. Standard broadband packages – its 10Mbps ADSL plan – and you'll receive the more basic Home Hub 4. So the majority will get its more advanced hub, which is what we'll concentrate on for this review. There is also an upgrade option too which we'll compare against the Virgin Media option too.
Sky router Vs BT router
There is actually very little to choose from between the BT Smart hub 2 and the Virgin Hub 4. Both routers are on 802.11ac Wi-Fi (also known as WiFi 5). This is a standard that’s now a few years old and delivers reasonably fast connectivity. Both connect to up to 64 devices at once and they both have four gigabit ethernet ports so you can connect up to four wired devices directly to get the optimum speed. They also both have dual-band wireless with seven internal antennae, offering similar coverage.
Extra coverage options
When it comes to concerns about your Wi-Fi signal, both providers offer an upgrade solution. Virgin Media’s WiFi Max is the provider's new Wi-Fi guarantee, promising minimum speeds over wireless of up to 30Mbps in every room. The technology is run by mesh boosters and WiFi pods that can be plugged into power outlets. This costs around an extra £8 a month (or free with Giga packages).
BT offers its Complete Wi-Fi system for those needing extra coverage. This is run via an extra disc that boosts your signal by creating a local network. One noticeable difference here is that where Virgin’s WiFi Max promises minimum download speeds in every room, BT Complete only promises a ‘strong’ signal. This service comes at an additional price of £10 a month.
It was a difficult decisions, but we had to pick one. These broadband titans were close in all categories.
They are both brilliant choices, but Virgin Media swung it due to its excellent TV options and better value for the same speed prices.
Don’t disregard BT though. Especially as you might well not be able to access a Virgin network in your home. Reliable BT can get solid partial fibre speeds to most of the UK and has a good customer service reputation if you ever need help. From time to time you can also grab yourself a BT Reward Card when switching over that effectively offers you cash back straight to your pocket, which can swing the overall price to their favour.
