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

Compare Xfinity and Frontier head to head

Xfinity is a great choice if you want cable internet, which is known for being fast and reliable. Xfinity’s cable plans offer speeds up to 1,200 Mbps, which is probably more than what the average home needs but still nice to have.

If you want even faster speeds than that, we suggest a fiber plan from Xfinity or Frontier. Fiber is really where these two providers battle, but if you don’t have access to fiber or cable, Frontier’s slower (but widely available) DSL service has your back.

Pros and cons: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Plans and pricing: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity and Frontier mostly offer two very different internet connection types. Xfinity has various cable internet plans if you want speeds faster than Frontier’s DSL service. The fiber plans offered by both providers are limited and Xfinity is at a disadvantage with an even smaller footprint than Frontier.

Xfinity plans and pricing

While the list of Xfinity plans appears rather long, Xfinity doesn’t offer every plan across its service areas. Xfinity plan names and pricing changes based on three different regions: Northeast, Central, and West.

Frontier’s Fiber 1 Gig plan matches Xfinity’s Gigabit plan in terms of speed, but Xfinity can be the cheaper and faster option depending on where you live. For example, Xfinity’s slowest connection is cheaper than Frontier’s fastest DSL service if you can get cable internet in your area.

Frontier plans and pricing

Frontier has the advantage of offering DSL in areas where Xfinity’s internet can’t reach. But even if you live in an area where both providers overlap, Xfinity is the faster option than Frontier’s DSL plan.

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

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 are just as high as Xfinity’s, and the overall satisfaction of Frontier fiber customers is actually higher than Xfinity customers.

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. None of them include Xfinity’s Gigabit Pro connection, which in itself is expensive. 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. It relies on two unused TV channels to send and receive data: one for downloads and one for uploads. Its fiber internet works differently by sending LED or laser pulses across glass filaments. Fiber enables symmetrical internet speeds, whereas cable does not.

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. The only exception to Xfinity’s data cap is its 12-state Northeastern markets. Xfinity doesn’t plan to enforce a data cap in those areas until sometime in 2022.⁴

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

Contracts: Xfinity vs. Frontier

Xfinity has both monthly and contracted plans, but you’ll save money if you opt for the one-year or two-year agreement. For example, the Fast plan costs $34.99 per month for the first 12 months if you select the one-year agreement. Otherwise, the plan costs $55 per month. The Gigabit Pro plan requires a two-year agreement, however.

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 currently does not offer a self-install option for DSL or fiber.

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 36% of the American population as of June 2020—Frontier has a smaller footprint of 11%. 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 avoids North Carolina altogether and trickles 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.