Best Cell Phone Plans Under $30

So you’ve set your limit: you’re not going to spend over $30 a month on your cell phone plan. Good for you! Way to budget! And don’t worry, you won’t lose much in terms of quality if you choose your plan carefully.

There are phone plans under $30 for data lovers, international callers, rural folks, city slickers, families, and pretty much everyone else. Read on for the details about our favorite plans (and some alternative options).

The best cell phone plans under $30:

• Best value: Mint Mobile’s Unlimited Plan
• Best network coverage: Twigby’s Unlimited Talk and Text + 5 GB plan
• Best no-data plan: Gen Mobile’s Unlimited Talk & Text Plan
• Best family plan: Visible Wireless’s Unlimited Plan with four lines

If you want an unlimited plan for cheap, Mint Mobile offers the cheapest unlimited plan in the industry. For $30, you’ll get unlimited everything. Plus, it’s owned by Ryan Reynolds.

That’s right, Deadpool (or Green Lantern, if you prefer), owns Mint Mobile. This doesn’t necessarily give the company superpowers, but we thought we’d mention it. Anyway, on to the stuff we like about Mint!

You can kiss your data anxiety goodbye when you get an unlimited data plan. That means no stressful texts from your carrier saying you've reached your data allotment for the month. No need to worry about extra fees for going over your data limit. You get unlimited everything with Mint Mobile, and it's basically the same you would pay for a limited-data plan with another carrier.

When you’re looking at prepaid phone plans under $30, unlimited talk and text aren’t a given. But you’ll get all the minutes and messages you could ever want with Mint’s Large plan. That includes calls to Mexico and Canada. How aboot that, amigo?

Mint Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). That’s just a very futuristic-sounding way of saying that Mint piggybacks on another company’s wireless network. In this case, that company is T-Mobile.

T-Mobile’s network is ranked second in the nation for both 4G speeds and 4G coverage.¹ That means you should have no issues with streaming, gaming, or scrolling using your favorite apps. It also means you should see full bars in most metropolitan and suburban areas.

Sorry, Ryan Reynolds, we love you, but we still have a few complaints.

As we mentioned above, MVNOs like Mint use another company’s network. That means you get awesome coverage for less, but it also comes with a drawback: when the network is busy, your data speeds can be slowed down.

This happens because the network owner (T-Mobile) wants to prioritize the speeds of its own customers, which makes sense given, ya know, money and competition.

Mint Mobile doesn’t let you add lines to its plans. So if you’re looking to get the whole family onto a single plan, you might want to look elsewhere (may we suggest checking out Twigby below or Visible Wireless, which offers a four-line unlimited data plan for $25 a line).

If you’re looking for a cheap plan with a lot of data, but you just really don’t like Ryan Reynolds (or T-Mobile’s network or whatever), then check out these other options.

Cheap plans with lots of data

Twigby is another MVNO that’s looking to take a slice of the discount-wireless cake. The company has several prepaid cell phone plans under $30, but the one we like the most is the Unlimited Talk and Text plan with 5 GB of data. Here’s a closer look at its pros and cons.

Verizon has the best overall coverage in the nation. You’ll get lightning fast download speeds, awesome 4G availability, and coverage in pretty much every nook and cranny of this huge country. Just look at this map.

Of course, as with any MVNO, you could experience slowdowns on your Twigby plan due to deprioritization. But Verizon’s robust investment in its network should make this a relatively rare occurrence.

If you’ve got long-lost family in other parts of the world, get ready to reconnect with them. With Twigby, you’ll get unlimited free texts to 180+ countries, like Malaysia, Mexico, India, and Norway. Maybe it’s time to brush up on those foreign language skills.

Twigby’s Unlimited Talk and Text plan with 5 GB is a pretty great deal. But the biggest issue we have with it is right there in the title.

You’re not going to find a truly unlimited data plan for under $30 a month. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need your YouTube fix.

You’ll be able to meet some of your data needs with this Twigby plans, but heavier users will hit that 5 GB cap pretty quickly. If you’re willing to tack an extra $10 onto your monthly bill, you can upgrade to Sprint’s Kickstart unlimited plan.

Are you just not that into him (him being Twigby)? Well here are some similar plans from the competition.

Unlimited talk and text plans with at least 5 GB of data

If you’re asking yourself, “Are there any cell phone plans without data, like the one I had back 2002?” then the answer is yes. Say hello to Gen Mobile.

You’re reading this article because you want a cell phone plan that clocks in below $30. But what if you could get one that costs less than $10 a month? You could save that extra $20 and get a Netflix and a Disney+ subscription.

For $9 a month, Gen Mobile will give you unlimited talk and text, plus free international texting to over 100 countries.

This is a perfect plan for your tween who just needs a phone to coordinate rides to birthday parties and soccer practice. Just tell them to get good at connecting to those Wi-Fi networks if they want data!

It’s hard to be nitpicky about a $9 plan, but we’re going to do it anyway because that’s our job.

Gen Mobile runs on Sprint’s network. That means you’ll get great service in most metropolitan areas, but once you leave the concrete jungle, you might run into some issues. Take a look at those gaps in the Western half of the country.

So if you’re a city dweller through and through, you shouldn’t have any issues with Sprint. But if you live in a small town or just like to go on epic outdoor adventures, you might want to check out Verizon or one of the MVNOs that run on its network.

If you don’t love Gen Mobile for whatever reason, don’t worry. There are literally (but not literally) a million other options out there for dirt cheap, talk and text only plans. Check it out.

Talk and text only cell phone plans

Visible Wireless is one of the best prepaid providers in the business, hands down. Want to know why? Well, sorry. It’s a secret.

Fine, we’ll tell you. Here’s what we love about Visible Wireless.

In the huge crowd of MVNOs that have entered the industry recently, Visible Wireless tends to stand out. That’s because its one plan offers truly unlimited data—no caps, no gimmicks, no throttling. And, to top it off, Visible uses Verizon’s best-in-the-nation network.

So if you’ve got a family of gamers, streamers, and other data hogs, then Visible is the way to go.

If you just wanted one line, then Visible’s Unlimited Plan would be too pricey for this review ($40). But the price goes down for every line you add, up to four lines. Once you max out at four, each line will only cost you $25.

Worried about finding four family members to split your bill with? You’ll be happy to hear that Visible allows you to add anyone to your plan. That’s why it’s called Party Pay instead of Family Plan.

Bundle up with your roommate, your BFF, your boo, your D&D group, or the barista that just made your americano. You can each pay your bills separately using the Visible phone app.

It’s visible for all to see that Visible has a few issues. (Did you see what we did there?)

As we’ve mentioned above, all MVNOs come with the possibility of deprioritization. This happens when there are a lot of people connecting to cell towers and the parent network (Verizon) decides to prioritize the data speeds of its own customers.

This shouldn’t happen to Visible customers too often, but it’s always a possibility when you’re in heavily congested areas (i.e., sports matches, Disneyland, or Coachella).

If you’re not picking up what Visible Wireless is laying down, look into these other unlimited family plans that are around $25 a line.

Unlimited family plan with four lines comparison

There’s no shortage of $20–$30 cell phone plans out there. You want one with tons of data? No problem. You want rural network coverage? Check. You want a family plan? You got it. No need to settle for less.

Here’s a recap of our favorite cell phone plans under $30.

• Best value: Mint Mobile’s Unlimited Plan
• Best network coverage: Twigby’s Unlimited Talk and Text + 5 GB plan
• Best no-data plan: Gen Mobile’s Unlimited Talk & Text Plan
• Best family plan: Visible Wireless’s Unlimited Plan with four lines

If we missed your favorite cheap cell phone plan in our review, let us know in the comments section. Or, if you want even cheaper plan options, check out our breakdown of the best cell phone plans under $20.

If you came here because you want to know who has the least expensive cell phone plan, then you may not have found the answer above. The answer is … complicated.

The absolute cheapest cell phone plan is probably one of these $0 a month, pay-as-you-go plans. But most people will want something more than what these plans offer.

Very cheap cell phone plan comparison

Companies like Twigby, Good2Go, and GreatCall offer really cheap talk and text plans. If you want the cheapest unlimited data plan, then Sprint’s Kickstart Unlimited is probably your best bet.

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