By clicking a retailer link you consent to third party cookies that track your onward journey. If you make a purchase, Which? will receive an affiliate commission which supports our mission to be the UK's consumer champion.
Cheapest UK home phone landline deals for 2024
Need to stay connected but no need to be online? We look into some of the best
deals and call packages for landlines
As the UK government pushes further with its Digital UK strategy, you'd be forgiven for thinking that landline-only deals and home phone calling packages are a thing of the past.
Figures from telecoms industry regular Ofcom show that time spent on landlines has halved since 2013, but despite this, it still accounted for more than 44bn minutes of call time in 2020.
For people who have no need for the internet, or mobile phones, a landline can still be the go-to way for people to stay in touch with their family and friends.
BT is the only major provider that still offers landline-only home phone packages, other providers only include landline packages in a combined deal with broadband.
The cheapest are usually pay-as-you-go (PAYG) also known as pay-as-you-talk (PAYT), where you only pay the cost of line rental and any calls you make. The most expensive deals tend to be packages that give you unlimited landline calls at any time.
While you pay more upfront for anytime call packages, the table below shows why it may be in your best interests to take out a call plan over pay-as-you-talk, even if you only make a single one-hour phone call per week.
Your main decision will be around whether you want unlimited calls only on evenings, weekends, both, or won't use the landline enough to justify the extra cost.
It's important to note with evening and weekend call packages, what times the providers consider to be evening and weekend.
BT class evening time as falling between 7pm-7am.
Generally speaking, unless you're a very light user, the analysis shows that a call plan is more likely to be cost-effective.
What other costs are associated with landline-only packages?
There are optional extras that you can add to your landline-only plan. These range from withholding your number for calls to three-way calling and voicemail. These often come with a cost for customers with landline-only packages.
These costs can range from nothing to around £15 per month. BT offers call feature 'packs', which allow you to save by bundling together call features.
If you're interested, consider the cost of taking out these optional features and whether they are worth spending extra money on as they can significantly raise the cost of monthly call plan.
We put all cordless phones through a strict test regime to see how easy they are to use, which offer clear conversations and which can combat a range of different types of nuisances calls. Read more about how we test cordless phones.
Switch to mobile for even more savings
If you want to cut the cord and go for voice calls over the internet, you can save yourself even more money when compared with a landline.
Mobile contracts have never been cheaper, with Sim-only providers now offering unlimited minutes for as little as £5 per month. Use Which? Switch Mobile to find the latest deals.
One advantage is that there is no differentiation between landline and mobile calls, which are almost always both included in an unlimited package, whereas landline packages, as mentioned earlier, often charge separately for mobile calls.
Check out our latest reviews for the best and worst mobile networks to find out how customers rated brands such as EE, Vodafone and Tesco Mobile for network reliability, speed and value for money among other scores. You can also read our guide to the best cheap mobile phones.
