Verizon Fios vs. Cox: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?
Fantastic fiber versus competent cable—two internet giants go head to head. HighSpeedteck.com uses our proprietary data and expert insights to compare these internet service titans.
Best for speed
- Customer rating: 3.8
- Price: $39.99–$89.99/mo.
- Speed: 200–940 Mbps
- Internet type: Fiber, DSL
- Data cap: None
- Contract: Month to month
Best for wide availability
- Customer rating: 3.7
- Price: $49.99–$109.99/mo.
- Speed: 100–1,000 Mbps
- Internet type: Cable
- Data cap: 1.25 TB
- Contract: Annual (month-to-month options available)
Compare Verizon and Cox head to head
You really can’t beat Verizon. The fiber provider offers extremely fast internet service at an extremely fair price—our only qualm is Verizon’s limited availability. Cox has much better availability throughout the US and great customer service ratings, but it will also hit you with higher price hikes and annoying extra fees.
Pros and cons: Verizon vs. Cox
Pros:
- Fast upload speeds
- No data caps or annual contracts
- Affordable prices on most fiber plans
Cons:
Cons:- Limited availability
Pros:
- Wide availability
- Excellent customer service ratings
- Solid bundle deals
Cons:
- High price hikes
- Data caps on all plans
Plans and pricing: Verizon vs. Cox
Verizon offers a handful of fiber internet plans that all deliver superior speeds at affordable prices—you need only decide how deluxe you want to get, since you’ll get excellent service no matter what. Cox offers a more standard set of cable internet options, starting at plans that are slow but cheap and culminating in a top-shelf gigabit plan.
Verizon plans and pricing
| Package | Price | Speed | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internet 200/200 | $39.99/mo.* | 200 Mbps/200 Mbps | |
| Internet 300/300† | $39.99/mo.* | 300 Mbps/300 Mbps | |
| Internet 400/400 | $64.99/mo.* | 400 Mbps/400 Mbps | |
| Internet 500/500† | $64.99/mo.* | 500 Mbps/500 Mbps | |
| Fios Gigabit Connection | $89.99/mo.** | Up to 940 Mbps/up to 880 Mbps |
* w/ Auto Pay + taxes & equip charges
** w/ Auto Pay + taxes
†Only available in the New York City metro area.
Verizon gives you more bang for your buck than Cox. Its slowest offered speed is 200 Mbps, and that plan costs $10 less per month than Cox’s 150 Mbps plan. All of Verizon’s plans also come with unlimited data and don’t require an annual contract, unlike Cox’s.
Most internet users will be very content with 200 Mbps download and upload speeds, and Verizon’s 200 Mbps plan comes at an extremely fair price—it’s really the best option of the bunch here. But we recommend one of Verizon’s faster plans if you live in a larger household and spend a lot of time doing bandwidth-heavy stuff like streaming video in 4K or hosting livestreams.
Cox plans and pricing
| Package | Price | Speed | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internet Essential 100 | $49.99/mo.* | 100 Mbps/3 Mbps | View Plans |
| Internet Preferred 250 | $59.99/mo.* | 250 Mbps/10 Mbps | View Plans |
| Internet Ultimate 500 | $79.99/mo.* | 500 Mbps/10 Mbps | View Plans |
| Gigablast | $109.99/mo.* | Up to 1,000 Mbps/35 Mbps | View Plans |
*for 12 months with 1-yr. term agreement. $10 more per mo. w/out annual contract
Cox won’t wow you on speed or price in the same way that Verizon does, but you can still get a solid internet setup for a fair deal. Its offerings are pretty much in line with what you can get from most cable internet providers, with lots of options to choose from and exponentially higher prices for faster speeds.
Unlike Verizon, Cox has annual contracts (which you can avoid by paying $10 more on your bill every month) and data caps (albeit fairly generous ones of 1.25 TB per month). Cox also has steep price hikes that hit 12 months after you sign up for service—depending on your plan, expect your bill to go up anywhere from $15 to $26 per month. Definitely check the fine print before signing up.
One additional plan we find intriguing is Cox’s StraightUp Internet. Billed as a kind of no-frills budget option, it gives you 50 Mbps speeds at a flat fee, with equipment and installation included. You don’t have to deal with a term agreement or credit check. Except for the relatively slow speed, we love this plan—if only all of Cox’s offerings worked the same way!
Cox low-cost internet plans
Cox has two great low-cost internet plans for individuals and families receiving government assistance:
ConnectAssist package : up to 100 Mbps for individuals receiving government assistance.
Connect2Compete package : up to 100 Mbps for families with children K-12 receiving government assistance.
Deals and promotions: Verizon vs. Cox
Contracts: Verizon vs. Cox
| Contract length | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Verizon | Month to month | |
| Cox | 1 yr., month-to-month option for $10/mo. extra | View Plans |
Verizon doesn’t do annual contracts. You don’t need to agree to any term limits up front, and you can quit any time without facing early termination fees.
Not so with Cox, which imposes annual contracts on all its plans. You can opt out of a contract by paying $10 more per month for your plan. If you have a yearly commitment and you need to cancel before the 12 months is up, you’ll need to fork over $10 for every month left on your bill—so either way, you’re paying more if you want to leave. Go with the contract option if you think you’ll be on Cox for at least a year.
Installation: Verizon vs. Cox
| Installation options | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Verizon | $99.00 (waived when you order online) | |
| Cox | $100 for professional install; free for self-install kit | View Plans |
Verizon charges $99 for professional installation, but you can get the cost waived by ordering online. Cox will ask for $100 if you need a professional technician to come by and set up your internet. But installing the internet yourself with one of Cox’s self-install kits is free.
Availability: Verizon vs. Cox
Verizon has a relatively small footprint—its Fios internet services are available in 10 states (mostly on the East Coast), including New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Cox has a larger reach overall with availability in 29 states across the East Coast, West Coast, and South.
Final call: Verizon vs. Cox
You just can’t top Verizon in this contest. Any one of its fiber-optic plans will give you superb speeds at a reasonable price, and you won’t have to deal with data caps or contracts, either.
Cox’s offerings come with some extra baggage, including steep price hikes after a year. But it has much wider availability than Verizon and offers some solid, lower-priced plans and bundle deals. And you can’t beat Cox’s customer service, which gets excellent ratings in our latest customer satisfaction survey.
Methodology
Our HighSpeedTeck.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, results from our speed test tool, and proprietary internet provider data on speeds and pricing. To strengthen our research, we look closely at provider contracts to get hard-to-find information on price hikes, data caps, and extra fees, and we keep tabs on the latest news reports and online reviews. When applicable, we also rely on our personal experiences testing these services.
More about Verizon and Cox
- Fastest Internet Providers 2022
- Which Internet Service Providers Have Data Caps?
- Verizon vs. Xfinity
- Cox vs. AT&T
Disclaimer
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