Xfinity vs. Frontier: Which Internet Provider Is Best for You?

Compare Xfinity and Frontier head to head

Frontier’s fiber plans provide the most bang for your buck with fast speeds, unlimited data, and symmetrical bandwidth. Xfinity is a great choice if you’re looking for more budget-friendly plans or don’t have access to Frontier’s fiber network.

If you can’t get cable or fiber internet, Frontier’s DSL has your back.

Pros and cons: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Plans and pricing: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity and Frontier offer two very different internet connection types. Frontier’s fiber internet brings crazy-fast speeds up to 5,000Mbps and symmetrical bandwidth. But Xfinity’s cable internet is no slouch, also packing multi-gig speeds up to 2,000Mbps. If choosing between the two, we recommend Frontier, you get more internet speed for the money and the peace of mind of a fiber internet connection.

We only recommend Frontier’s DSL internet if you don’t have access to their fiber plans or Xfinity’s cable internet. DSL has a hard time keeping up with modern internet needs.

Xfinity plans and pricing

Xfinity has a leg up on Frontier when it comes to budget plans with its very affordable Connect and Connect More plans. There’s no benefit to purchasing more internet speed than you need, so you if you have light to average bandwidth needs, one of Xfinity’s cheaper plans may be your best bet.

Frontier plans and pricing

Frontier’s fiber plans bring a ton of value with blazing speeds at super-low prices. For example, the Frontier Fiber Internet 500 plan is one of the best deals we’ve seen, delivering 500Mbps speeds for just $39.99 per month; Xfinity doesn’t have anything comparable in the same price range. The trend continues with all of Frontier’s fiber plans, always coming in about $15-$20 cheaper than Xfinity plans with similar speeds. If you’re looking for the most bang for your buck, Frontier is the way the go.

Frontier recently introduced its Fiber 5 Gig plan to better compete with Google Fiber and AT&T. Xfinity’s one fiber plan, Gigabit Pro, tops out at 6 Gbps, but its availability is extremely limited. Frontier aims to offer up to 10 Gbps in the coming years—Xfinity is already working on 10 Gbps using existing cable connections.²

Extra fees: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity has a shorter list of fees, charging the standard installation and rental fees. The fee for unlimited data is optional and could be your cheaper route if you usually spend more than $30 in overage fees each month.

With Frontier, there’s no overage fee or an additional charge for unlimited data. But subscribers must pay a monthly surcharge that applies to network maintenance and other costs associated with Frontier’s infrastructure.³ Frontier also offers self-install for some fiber plans. 

Customer ratings: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity earned high rankings in our annual customer satisfaction survey, overtaking Frontier in every category. In fact, customers rated Xfinity’s speeds higher than any other national ISP—93% of Xfinity customers said their internet speeds meet their needs.

While Frontier didn’t perform as well as Xfinity in the survey, we think that was largely due to ratings of Frontier’s DSL internet service. When we isolated Frontier fiber customers, ratings dramatically improved. Frontier’s fiber ratings for speed and overall satisfaction are almost as high as Xfinity’s.

If you have access to Frontier’s fiber internet service, it’s certainly a tougher call, but our data suggests customers are happier with Xfinity, overall.

Best TV and internet bundles

All TV and internet bundles provided by Frontier are with YouTube TV.  When customers sign up for a qualifying plan they get a $10 monthly discount for an entire year.

Xfinity offers many Double Play bundles across its coverage areas. Some bundles include Netflix or Max, like the X1 Premier Pro+ Double Play package with 185+ channels and fiber-based 1,200 Mbps download speeds.

Internet types: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity is one of the largest cable companies in the US, delivering internet through the same coaxial cables used for cable TV. Even though Xfinity is a cable ISP, it operates on a hybrid-fiber-coax network, meaning its coaxial cable network is backed up by extremely powerful fiber-optic lines that act as internet super highways.

Frontier offers fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) internet connections, bringing a super fast fiber-optic connection directly to your home, whereas Xfinity uses coaxial cables as a sort of middleman between your home and its fiber-optic lines. FTTH is the fastest and most reliable internet connection you can get. It also carries the benefit of symmetrical bandwidth, which means your upload speeds and just as fast as your download speeds.

Frontier’s DSL service is the slowest of the three connection types. Frontier acquired its DSL and fiber lines from Verizon starting in 2009 and renamed the fiber service from Frontier FiOS to Frontier FiberOptic in 2020. Now it’s called Frontier Fiber Internet as of February 2022.

Data caps: Xfinity vs. Frontier

What separates these two providers is Xfinity’s 1.2 TB monthly data cap. To get unlimited data from Xfinity, you must pay a $30 fee each month. Otherwise, you’re charged $10 for every 50 GB used beyond the monthly data allowance.

Frontier doesn’t enforce a data cap, nor does it charge an extra fee for unlimited data like Xfinity.

Contracts: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity plans typically require a 1-2 year term agreement. You may be able to get a month-to-month agreement for an extra monthly fee.

Most of Frontier’s plans are month-to-month. Frontier doesn’t appear to have contracts for DSL, but its three fiber plans have an optional 1-year contract when you sign up for the Visa Reward Card. Discounted pricing for the 500 Mbps plan ends after a year, while the Fiber 1 Gig discount ends after three years—there’s no discount for the 2 Gbps plan. Frontier’s TV and internet bundles require a two-year agreement.

Installation: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Frontier charges $85 to install DSL service and $50 to install fiber. Frontier also offers self-install for some fiber plans.

Xfinity’s Getting Started Kit ships within three to five business days at no additional cost. If you can’t wait, priority shipping will see the kit arrive within one to two business days for $29.99. You can also choose the “Self Install Plus” option if you don’t want to bother with shipping, which has a technician deliver the kit and check all connections outside.

Availability: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Take a look at the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband map, and you’ll see that Xfinity serves approximately 34% of the American population as of October 2023—Frontier has a smaller footprint of around 5% with its fiber and DSL networks combined. Moreover, a closer look shows that they mostly overlap in certain parts of the Northeast, Florida, and around the Great Lakes.

Xfinity’s biggest coverage area resides in the Northeast. It trickles into the edges of North Carolina and down through Tennessee to reach customers in the South. Other large coverage areas surround Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Nashville, Memphis, Houston, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, and Seattle.

Frontier serves around 11.7 million copper (DSL) lines and approximately 3.6 million fiber lines across 27 states as of August 2021.¹ Its Frontier Internet DSL service covers the Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest. Its Frontier Fiber Internet network resides in portions of California, Florida, Indiana, and Texas, although the California market is expected to grow to 350,000 locations by 2026.⁵

Methodology

Our HighSpeedInternet.com editorial team bases our analyses on customer input from our annual customer satisfaction survey, our speed test tool results, and proprietaryhttps://www.highspeedinternet.com/tools/speed-test 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 Xfinity and Frontier

• AT&T vs. Xfinity
• Verizon vs. Xfinity
• CenturyLink vs. Xfinity
• AT&T vs. Frontier
• CenturyLink vs. Frontier
• Spectrum vs. Frontier

Sources

1. Frontier Communications, ”Frontier (FYBR) Investor Day Presentation,” August 5, 2021. Accessed. September 15, 2021.
2. Comcast, “Comcast Reaches 10G Technical Milestone Delivering 1.25 Gig Symmetrical Speeds in Trial Over a Live, All-Digital HFC Network,” October 8, 2020. Accessed September 15, 2021.
3. Frontier Communications, “Answering Your Questions,” Accessed September 15, 2021.
4. Comcast, ”We’re Giving Our Northeast Customers More Time,” February 18, 2021. Accessed September 22, 2021.
5. Frontier Communications, “Before the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California,” December 24, 2020. Accessed May 4, 2021.