BT vs Sky broadband: the same Openreach line, and two opposite bargains on the price

Which one to choose

Direct answer: If you will stay the full two years and you want a number you can budget against, BT, because it publishes every price in the contract before you sign. If you would rather keep the right to walk away, Sky, because its prices are variable and a rise lets you leave without penalty. On the headline alone Sky is cheaper at £23 against £26.99. On a low income, BT, by a distance.

That is the whole answer, and the rest of this page is the working. It is worth saying at the top that this is a narrower choice than the advertising on either side suggests. Both run over the same Openreach line to the same house, so the cable in the ground is not what you are choosing between. The speed, the reliability and the engineer are Openreach's on both. What you are actually choosing is a price, a contract and a customer service department.

One thing neither company will tell you, and the reason the third card is there at all. These two are the best known names on an Openreach line, not the only ones and rarely the cheapest. On our own hand-checked table of 373 deals from 28 providers, read on 1 September 2026, the entry prices ran between £23 and £34 a month with a median of £28, and the cheapest was £13.50 a month (4th Utility, 150 Mbps on CityFibre). A head-to-head page is a useful way to think and a poor way to buy.

Run your address through our comparison before you decide between two brands, read our full BT review and our full Sky review for either one on its own, and how we rank deals explains why we compare on the average across a term.

What each one costs today

Direct answer: Sky advertises one broadband package publicly, 150 Mbps at £23 a month, and that price is marked as available until 23 September 2026. BT advertises six, from £26.99 for Fibre Essential to £31.99 for Full Fibre 900, and prints two future prices beside each one.

On set-up, the two are closer than the marketing suggests. BT's activation is £10, cut from £30 and shown on the price list as a saving. Sky advertises no set-up cost, and then its own small print says: Set-up fee of £9.95 router delivery plus £10 activation fee may be required. Budget twenty pounds either way.

Sky's public price list is short for a reason worth knowing: everything except the entry package sits behind a postcode check, so the only Sky prices anyone can quote you without entering an address are the ones above. We have left Sky's Full Fibre 300 out of this table deliberately. It was advertised at £28 with a price available until date of 16 September 2026, that date has passed, and the package is not on Sky's public deals page today, so quoting the old figure at you would be worse than leaving a gap.

Our price and contract checker totals any deal across its term, our hand-checked deals table carries every figure with the date it was verified, and out-of-contract prices covers what happens when a term ends across the market.

The difference that should decide it

Direct answer: BT writes the increase into the contract as a cash amount and prints the next two years' prices beside every plan on its own price list, so you can read the whole path before you sign, and an in-term BT customer has no right to leave when it lands, precisely because the amount was set out in advance. Sky sets its increase afresh each year and announces it six to eight weeks ahead, so there is no future price to read at the point of sale, and because the price is variable Sky must let you go when it changes it. One sells you certainty and keeps you; the other keeps its options open and lets you go.

This is the one genuine difference between buying the same Openreach line from these two companies, and almost nobody writes it down. Start with BT, because BT's side is the easy one to verify: open BT's price list and under every monthly price you will find two more, a price from 31 March 2027 and a price from 31 March 2028. Nothing is hidden, nothing is indexed to inflation, and the figure is the same £4 a month whichever package you buy.

The part BT does not print beside those figures is what disclosing them costs you. Ofcom's rules require a provider that builds a future increase into a contract to state it in pounds and pence up front. Having stated it, the increase is a term you agreed to rather than a change imposed on you, which means there is no right to leave when it arrives. You bought certainty, and the price of certainty is that you are held to it.

Read that twice, because it is doing two things at once. It is a warning, in that Sky is telling you it has not committed to any future price and will decide each year what to charge you. And it is a promise, in that the same variability hands you an exit: 31 days from the notification to cancel a package you are still tied into, with no early termination charge. For a household that might move, might switch, or simply might change its mind, that is worth real money.

Neither side of that table is the better deal in the abstract, which is why this page does not declare a winner in it. A household that knows it is staying for two years should want BT's arrangement and should use it: total the commitment, compare it honestly, and hold BT to the printed number. A household that is less sure should want Sky's, and should treat the annual notification as a diary entry rather than a letter to file, because the window is short and it is the only free exit either contract offers.

Our guide to in-contract price rises covers which providers raise prices before a contract ends and how, and leaving a contract early explains what an exit charge may and may not include.

What 24 months actually costs

Direct answer: BT's 24-month cost can be worked out to the penny before you sign, because every price in it is published: BT Full Fibre 500 comes to £825.76 across the term, an average of £34.41 a month against an advertised £29.99. Sky's cannot, because only the first year of it has been published. On our illustration, applying Sky's last rise twice, Sky Full Fibre 150 comes to £624, an average of £26.

Take BT first, because the sum is real rather than illustrative. Full Fibre 500 advertises at £29.99. You pay that until the March after you sign, then £33.99 for twelve months, then £37.99 for the rest of the term, and £10, cut from £30 and shown on the price list as a saving on top at the start. Totalled across the 24 months that is £825.76, or £34.41 a month. The advertised price is £4.42 a month lower than what you will actually average, and every figure in that sum came from BT.

Now Sky, and the honest version of the same sum. Full Fibre 150 advertises at £23. What it costs in month 13 depends on a decision Sky has not made yet and will announce about six weeks before it takes effect. Our table applies £3, which is what Sky last raised prices by, twice: that gives £624 across the term and £26 a month. Treat those two figures as an illustration and nothing more. They are the best estimate anyone can make, and they are not a quote.

One caveat on both columns, and it applies to every provider in this market. The 24-month arithmetic assumes the rise lands where it usually lands relative to your start date, six months in. Sign in February rather than October and BT's first increase arrives within weeks, which makes the average higher than the table shows. Sign in April and you get almost a full year at the advertised price. The month you order is worth more than most people realise.

Our price and contract checker does this sum for any deal and any start month, and the cheapest deals ranks the whole market on the average across a term rather than on the headline.

What happens when the contract ends

Direct answer: Both step up, and unusually for this market both publish the step. Sky: £5 on top of the price you were paying. BT's tariff guide says the price after a contract ends will increase by no more than £5 on a standard package. On Sky's Gigafast 900 the standard price is £52, which is what an out-of-contract customer pays.

This is the part of a broadband contract that costs people the most money and gets the least attention, and it is the one place where these two are genuinely similar. Neither will let you drift at the price you signed at. Both will write to you. Both will re-contract you at something close to a new-customer price if you ask, and neither will do it if you do not.

The practical advice is identical on both sides, so it is worth stating once and plainly: on the day you order, put the contract end date in your calendar with a reminder a month before it. That single action is worth more than any difference between these two companies, because a year out of contract at a standard price costs more than the gap between every package on this page.

On leaving early, BT is the clearer of the two. Its early termination charge is the remaining amount you would have paid up to the end of your minimum period, which is the ordinary formula and easy to check against a final bill. Sky does not publish a single formula in the same place, though the same principle applies. And on Sky there is the exit the previous section covered: if a price rise is notified while you are in your term, you have 31 days to leave without any exit charge at all.

Our guide to out-of-contract broadband prices covers what every provider charges once a term ends, and exit fees and setup fees compares the cost at both ends.

Same line, different bill: what you get

Direct answer: The largest difference in this table is the one neither company advertises. Sky includes a landline and calls at no charge on every package. BT includes no call service at all unless you pay for Digital Home Phone, and says so in terms worth reading in full.

Here is BT's own wording, because a summary would soften it: Unless you have added Digital Home Phone, there is no call service included when you purchase home broadband. You will have no dial tone and will not be able to make or receive calls, including calls to emergency services. For most households that is fine, because most households stopped using the landline years ago. For a household that keeps one for an elderly relative, or as the phone the children know to use, it is the single most important line on this page, and it is not on any advertisement.

Sky's position is the opposite and equally plain: All our broadband services are inclusive of landline rental and Sky Pay As You Talk (£0pm) as standard. Pay As You Talk means you pay per call rather than a monthly rate, so the line is there and the dial tone works whether or not you ever use it.

Two rows in that table are worth more than they look. Sky's switching credit is real money, £200 on broadband alone, but it is a reimbursement you claim rather than a discount applied: you pay your old provider first, send Sky the evidence, and wait. And BT's support hours are finite where Sky's are not, which matters if what breaks does so on a Sunday evening.

Our guide to switching broadband covers One Touch Switch on both sides, and broadband with a landline covers which providers still include a phone line.

What each one promises about speed

Direct answer: Both have signed Ofcom's voluntary code of practice on broadband speeds, so both owe you a guaranteed minimum figure at the point of sale and a right to leave if it is not met. BT publishes its guaranteed figure on the plan card: 150 Mbps on Full Fibre 300, 425 on Full Fibre 500, 700 on Full Fibre 900, 25 on Fibre 1, 34 on Fibre 2 and 32 on Fibre Essential. Sky words its promise differently, and the difference is worth reading.

BT's is the more straightforward of the two. Every plan carries a guaranteed minimum download speed printed next to the headline, and the promise attached to it is the Stay Fast Guarantee: BT publishes a guaranteed minimum speed on every plan and calls the promise its Stay Fast Guarantee: if speeds are not back to normal within thirty days it will let you leave without an early cancellation fee. A thirty-day cure period is not instant, but a published right to leave a 24-month contract for nothing is a real remedy and the figure it is measured against is on the card you bought from.

Sky's wording is this: We guarantee the broadband speed to your hub will not fall below your Guaranteed Minimum Download Speed for at least 3 days in a row in a 30-day period. Read it carefully, because the test is a run rather than a level. A connection that drops below the guaranteed figure every other day, indefinitely, never triggers it; one that drops for three consecutive days does. That is a narrower promise than BT's on the same underlying line, and it is the sort of clause that only matters on the day it matters.

Both providers sit inside the safety nets that most of the smaller networks we cover sit outside, and that is worth saying plainly because it is a genuine reason to prefer either of these two over a cheaper altnet. Both are in Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme, so a missed appointment, a delayed repair or a delayed start pays out without you asking. The rates are the scheme pays £10.34 a day for a delayed repair, £32.31 for a missed appointment and £6.46 a day for a delayed start. Neither of the two here has to be chased for that money; it arrives on the bill.

Our speed test records what you are actually getting with a timestamp, which is what a speed complaint needs, and minimum guaranteed download speeds explains what each provider's promise is worth, and whether poor speeds let you leave early covers the remedy.

The social tariffs, where the gap is widest

Direct answer: BT wins this outright, on both price and access. BT Home Essentials is £16.50 a month and BT Home Essentials is open to anyone on the qualifying benefits, whether or not they are already a BT customer. Sky Broadband Basics is £20 a month (or £24 a month if taking Sky Full Fibre 75 or Broadband Superfast 80 from 17 September 2026), and Our Sky Broadband Basics offer is only available if you already have Sky Broadband with us. The gap at the entry price is £3.50 a month, £42 a year.

The price gap is the smaller half of the story. The larger half is the eligibility rule, and it is worth quoting Sky directly: Our Sky Broadband Basics offer is only available if you already have Sky Broadband with us. A household on Universal Credit that is currently with any other provider cannot buy Sky's social tariff. They would have to join Sky at a full price first, and then ask to move onto it. BT has no such condition: if you qualify on the benefit, you can order Home Essentials as a new customer.

Note the bracket in Sky's own price, because it is a recent change and it is easy to read past: £20 a month (or £24 a month if taking Sky Full Fibre 75 or Broadband Superfast 80 from 17 September 2026). Sky is clear that existing contracts do not change, so this affects new sign-ups to the tariff rather than people already on it.

One thing to say for both of them, and against most of this market. A social tariff exists at all here, it is published on a page you can find, and the eligibility test is the standard one. Several of the providers we cover elsewhere publish no social tariff whatsoever, and a household on a qualifying benefit is better served by either of these two than by a cheaper altnet with nothing to offer them.

Our social tariffs guide lists every provider that offers one, with the price and who qualifies, and Ofcom keeps its own list too.

Two scoreboards that disagree

Direct answer: On Ofcom's complaints table Sky is ahead: 5 complaints per 100,000 customers against BT's 7, where the average is 6. On Trustpilot BT is ahead: 3.9 out of 5 against 2.7 out of 5. The two public scoreboards disagree, and it is worth knowing which is which before you lean on either.

Ofcom's figure is a rate per 100,000 customers, built from complaints people escalated to the regulator; Trustpilot is a self-selecting sample of whoever chose to write a review. That difference in method explains most of the contradiction. Ofcom's number counts only the complaints that got as far as the regulator, divided by how many customers the provider has, so it measures how often a relationship breaks down badly enough for somebody to escalate. Trustpilot counts whoever felt moved to write, which over-represents both the furious and the recently delighted, and moves with how hard a company asks.

On Ofcom's figures, one below the industry average of 6, behind only Plusnet (4) and ahead of EE and Virgin Media (6), BT (7), Vodafone (8) and TalkTalk (10), which puts Sky among the least complained-about of the large providers on both measures. BT sits one above the industry average of 6, behind Plusnet (4), Sky (5), EE and Virgin Media (6) and ahead of Vodafone (8) and TalkTalk (10), and its trend is the encouraging part: from 11 in Q1 2025 to 8 in Q4 2025 and 7 in Q1 2026. A provider moving in that direction over five quarters is doing something differently, and it is fair to say so.

Our reading, for what it is worth, is that Ofcom's table is the better guide to whether a provider will let you down badly, and Trustpilot is the better guide to what ordinary contact with them feels like. If you weight the first, choose Sky. If you weight the second, choose BT. If you weight neither, the previous four sections matter more than this one.

Our complaints and your rights guide covers the process end to end, and The Complaints Floor looks at what happens to customers of providers too small for Ofcom to table at all.

Who should choose which

Direct answer: BT for certainty, a faster line at the same money and a much better social tariff. Sky for a lower headline, a landline included, a free exit when the price moves, and the sharper TV bundle. Neither, if the postcode check turns up something cheaper on the same cable.

If none of those rows describes you, the tie-break we would use is the contract rather than the price, because the price gap between these two is smaller than the gap between either of them and the cheapest thing on your line. Ask yourself one question: would you rather know what you will pay in eighteen months, or be able to leave when you find out? That is the whole choice.

The third option this page would otherwise hide

Direct answer: On an Openreach line the choice is never only these two: the same cable carries a dozen other retailers, and the cheapest of them is usually cheaper than both. On our own table of 373 deals from 28 providers, read on 1 September 2026, entry prices ran from £23 and £34 a month with a median of £28, and the cheapest was £13.50 a month (4th Utility, 150 Mbps on CityFibre).

A head-to-head page has a built-in bias and it is worth naming rather than pretending otherwise. By setting two brands against each other it quietly asserts that those two are the choice, and on an Openreach line they are not. The same fibre into the same house is sold by BT, Sky, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Vodafone, NOW, Zen and a dozen more, all over 23.4 million premises as at 30 June 2026. Several of them undercut both providers on this page.

That does not make BT and Sky bad choices. Both are in Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme and both have signed the speed code, which several cheaper providers have not, and for a lot of households that safety net is worth the difference. But it should be a decision you make rather than one the page makes for you, which is why the comparison below is not filtered to these two alone.

Run the full comparison to see every provider at your address, or start from the cheapest deals, full fibre from every network or social tariffs.

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