Best Family Cell Phone Plans

There are dozens of cell phone companies out there with hundreds of family plans to choose from. Here are some things to look for to help you narrow down your search.

• Cost: Does it cost less per line than an individual plan?
• Data: Is data shared between lines or does each line have its own data cap?
• Parental controls: Can the parent account control the data usage and apps of other phones on the plan?
• Bill pay: Are prices all bundled together in a single bill or does each line pay separately?
• Perks: Are there any special features or perks for adding extra lines?

We’ll talk about these factors and others in our detailed review of the best family cell phone plans.

Mint Mobile is a prepaid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), operating on T-Mobile’s network. MVNOs are smaller carriers that use another company’s network to provide service to customers. This allows the company to offer cheaper prices (but it also can mean slower data speeds).

We love Mint Mobile for its super affordable but still robust family plan. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

A single line on Mint Mobile’s basic unlimited data plan is just $15. You won’t save any extra money when you start bundling multiple lines together. But for four lines of unlimited talk, text, and data, you’ll pay just $60 per month. That’s the price of just one unlimited phone line from a major carrier. 

Currently, no other carrier comes close for price comparison. Look at how much Mint Mobile undercuts other “affordable” carrier for a 4-line family plan:

Because Mint Mobile is a prepaid carrier, you’ll pay in three-month increments, making your bill $180, paid in a lump sum every three months.

If you’re into the prepaid way of mobile plans, check out our lineup of the best cheap cell phone plans, where we review a few more MVNO carriers.

As we stated above, Mint Mobile is an MVNO that uses the T-Mobile network. If you want to see how good coverage is in your specific area, take a peek at this coverage map.

You don’t end up with a plan this cheap without cutting the fat somewhere. As we mentioned above, the biggest problem with Mint Mobile’s family plan is data speeds.

MVNOs like Mint Mobile rent mobile bandwidth from other networks. In this case, US Mobile uses T-Mobile’s network, and that means T-Mobile customers get priority when it comes to data speeds.

So Mint Mobile customers may notice data slowdowns when the network is “congested.” You might experience deprioritization on your commute home from work for example, when everyone else is streaming podcasts on their drive. Generally, the more crowded an area you’re in, the more likely your data speeds can get throttled.

View Mint Mobile Wireless Plans | Read Full Review

Choosing a restaurant that everyone in the family likes can be tough. It’s the same with cell phone plans. Some want tons of data while others would prefer hotspot capability. With T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX family plan, you don’t have to choose.

This plan has pretty much everything. Sure, it costs a pretty penny, but you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck.

You don’t want to waste your precious time arguing with your brother about how much data he uses. And there are more important things to fight about over Thanksgiving dinner than the number of texts your niece is sending. So skip the drama by going unlimited.

T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan has enough talk, text, and data for everyone in the family. Each line comes truly unlimited high-speed data. No soft caps here. That’s more than enough to stream every single episode of Breaking Bad! You also get 40GB of high-speed hotspot data for each line.

T-Mobile has taken great strides in recent years. It used to be the sort of backwater of the mobile industry, a smaller company that couldn’t keep up in terms of coverage or data speeds. Not anymore.

Since T-Mobile acquired Sprint in a historic mobile merger, its coverage improved. It’s also upped its data speeds significantly. In fact, we surveyed over 120,000 mobile customers and found that T-Mobile’s data speeds are the fastest in the industry.

One other way that T-Mobile has built up its network recently is with the widespread implementation of 5G technology. The company claims that “with [its] Extended Range 5G, [it has] America’s largest 5G network—covering over 8,300 cities and towns. That’s more than twice the 5G coverage area of Verizon or AT&T.”

Sure, this plan covers all the basics. But that’s not all. There’s plenty that the Magenta MAX plan has to offer. Here’s a look at a few of the best perks that you’ll get with this family plan.

• 40GB of high-speed 5G mobile hotspot data, plus unlimited hotspot at 3G speeds
• Unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi on domestic flights
• A free Netflix Standard with Ads subscription
• Unlimited minutes international texting in over 210 different countries, plus data and calling benefits in Canada and Mexico
• Free weekly giveaways and discounts with T-Mobile Tuesdays

We love the Magenta MAX plan (obviously), but no one is perfect. Here are a few of the flaws we found when researching this family plan.

A single line on T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX Plan will cost you $85 a month. If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is a lot. But the plan actually gets cheaper when you add lines. For two lines it’s $140, or $70 per line. Once you get up to four lines it’s just $200, or $50 per line.

Paying $200 a month may seem steep, even if you are getting a premium plan with four lines. And it is significantly pricier than the cheapest plans on the market, like this one from Mint Mobile, which costs just $60 a month for four unlimited lines.

T-Mobile’s data speeds may be the fastest. But the company’s coverage range is less impressive. Of the three large networks, T-Mobile actually has the worst 5G coverage.

That said, the company’s coverage map still looks pretty good. Check it out.

If you live in a metropolitan or suburban area, you should get full bars most of the time with T-Mobile.

Magenta MAX is a powerful plan. But it’s not the only one. One of these other premium family plans may be even better for you.

View T-Mobile Plans | Read Full Review

I’ll let you in on a little secret: this AT&T plan (or some variation of it) is what my family and I have been on for years. I just Venmo the money to my dad every (well … almost every) month, and in exchange, I get more data than I could ever realistically use.

Let me tell you everything that I (and my family) love about this plan.

All unlimited data plans give you unlimited data, right? Well, not really. If you read the fine print you’ll see that most unlimited data plans come with one of two caveats: either your data can be deprioritized at any time, or there’s a hard cap on how much full-speed data you can use.

With most unlimited plans the data cap is somewhere between 25–50 GB. That’s enough data to stream about 25–50 hours of video (in standard definition). That may sound like a lot, but for many gamers, serious working professionals, and influencers, it’s chump change.

So how much data does the Unlimited Premium plan come with? Try truly unlimited, high-speed 4G LTE data (or 5G data where available). You couldn’t use it all up if you tried.

AT&T may not win the gold medal when it comes to coverage or data speeds. But it does take the silver medal in both of those categories, which is nothing to scoff at. I’ve personally never had issues with coverage or data speeds on this plan. I often have more bars than my friends in remote areas.

If you want to see how AT&T’s coverage stacks up in your area, zoom in on this interactive map.

AT&T’s Unlimited Premium plan gives you more than just talk, text, and data. Here are a few of the perks you’ll get:

• 60GB of mobile hotspot data per line
• Unlimited 4K streaming

There’s one glaring problem with this plan that you probably already noticed: it’s expensive.

$85.99 a month for one line is pretty steep. That makes this the priciest plan on our list. Plus, you don’t get any free perks or add-on options. It costs as much or more than other top-tier cell phone plans, so it’s probably only worth it for those families that really do want all the data.

For family plans with four lines, AT&T’s Unlimited Premium plan is just $50.99 a month.

Let’s take a quick look at some other family cell phone plans that offer tons of data.

View AT&T Wireless Plans | Read Full Review

Phones can be amazing tools for kids. A phone can help your little ones learn, build friendships, and have fun. Having a phone also means your kids have no excuse not to call you.

But phones can also be a bit of a Pandora’s box for your kids, opening them up to a whole big world that they’re not ready for. This is why parental controls exist, and Verizon’s Smart Family add-on has some of the best parental controls in the industry.

The Verizon Smart Family program allows you to pick your kid’s contacts, block inappropriate content, reduce access to chosen apps, and even track phone locations.

You can use the Verizon Smart Family app to control these filters and settings from your own phone. That way, you don’t have to confiscate your kid’s device to make sure they aren’t getting up to no good.

With the Verizon Smart Family add-on, you can stop worrying about what your kid is looking at on their phone and instead concentrate on the more important questions, like why your kid keeps saying weird words like “slay” and “snatched.”

Verizon has no mobile plans specifically for kids, but you can add a Verizon Smart Family plan to any one of Verizon’s plans: Unlimited Welcome, Unlimited Plus, or Unlimited Ultimate.

All three plans offer unlimited data. Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Ultimate offer unlimited premium data, while Unlimited Welcome offers unlimited standard data. 

Of the three major networks, Verizon’s has the biggest reach. That means your kid should never have an excuse for not calling you. They’d basically have to be in the middle of the Grand Canyon to lose service.

Just look at this service map.

There are a few significant drawbacks to this plan, which mean that it won’t be perfect for every family. Here are the things we don’t love about Verizon’s Smart Family plans.

Unfortunately, you can’t just sign your kids up for this plan on their own. Instead, the kids’ lines need to be connected to an existing unlimited data plan from Verizon. If you’ve already got one of those, it shouldn’t be a problem. If you don’t, you can easily sign up for one. Here are the options.

At $180 for four lines, Verizon’s family plans aren’t the priciest on this list, but it’s definitely not the cheapest either.

View Verizon Wireless Plans | Read Full Review

We hope that this detailed review has helped you find the best cell phone plan for your family. If you got bored and just skimmed it, we understand. Here’s the TL;DR recap for you.

• Best value: Mint Mobile only charges $15/line for unlimited talk, text, and data if you get up to four lines on the same family plan. That price beats out every other carrier. You also get access to Verizon’s awesome network. 
• Best performance: If you want a powerful, well-rounded plan that will please everyone in the family, then check out T-Mobile’s Magenta MAX plan.
• Best for data hogs: If you’ve got a family of gamers, streamers, and other data hogs, then AT&T’s Unlimited Premium plan is the way to go.
• Best for kids: With the Verizon Smart Family add-on, you can use parental controls to keep your kids focused on the right things.

The experts at Reviews.org looked at dozens of different cell phone plans before deciding which ones would make the cut for the best family plans. We evaluated each plan based on its price, data speeds, data caps, network coverage, and other factors. Our speed test data comes from our own independent survey of more than 100,000 mobile users.