The Best Internet Plans in Switzerland for 2024
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These days, everybody needs an internet connection. And we can agree that we all want to pay as little as possible to connect to the web. Although your internet plan may have been the cheapest when you started using it, it may not be the case anymore. New deals may have appeared.
To save money on your internet plan, you must compare offers and keep updated with the latest offerings.
In Switzerland, there are many internet providers. And each of them has many different subscriptions.
In this article, I compare all the ways to access the Internet in Switzerland.
Maybe you do not need an internet plan?
Have you ever wondered if you could get rid of your internet subscription at home?
I am not saying that you do not need access to the web at home. Most people need access to the Internet at home.
But many people have access to unlimited and fast Internet on their smartphones. And smartphone can share their access by becoming a WiFI hotspot. This feature is a feature that every recent smartphone has (at least in the last five years).
Like this, you can connect any other appliances through your smartphone. This tip will, of course, only work if you have unlimited access from your phone. You should avoid doing that if your access is limited to some bandwidth.
If you do not use the Internet on your other appliances a lot, this could be a great option. And, of course, this will only work once your smartphone is at home. Some people, like me, have servers at home that require online access all day. In that case, you will need a proper internet connection.
Using your smartphone as a hotspot is not much different than the WiFI access from your web provider. That way, you can save a lot of money since you only have to pay for your phone plan, not your internet subscription.
For more information on phone plans, find out about the best phone subscriptions in Switzerland.
Drop the landline phone
To save money on your subscription, you can drop the support for a landline phone. Many subscriptions still include a home-line phone.
The chances are that you have a mobile phone yourself. And the chances are that you do not even use your landline. Do you need both?
You will not save much money by doing so, maybe 5 CHF or 10 CHF a month. But this is much better than paying for something you do not need.
Be careful with activation costs.
You must be cautious about activation costs when you change your internet subscription.
Many providers will charge you some amount of money to change their plans. Several providers will not charge you anymore. But for those that charge you, you will pay anything between 50 CHF and 100 CHF for the first year. Paying that can make a difference in your budget if you do not account for it.
Make sure you consider this activation fee when you choose a new subscription.
Be careful with one-year offers
If you change to a new internet provider, you will ideally keep the same plan for several years. Therefore, you need to consider long-term savings when you compare different subscriptions.
For this, you should be careful about offers that offer a discount in the first year. Some providers will offer up to 50% in the first year. But then, after that, they can be costly.
So, when you compare different offers, you should only consider the monthly costs, excluding the first-year offer. If you only need a plan for one or two years, it may be worth considering one-year offers. But otherwise, be careful about them.
Do not fall for speed
Over the last decade, internet speed has increased very significantly. These days, it is straightforward to get a connection of 100Mbps. And with fiber optic, you can get a much faster connection.
But have you ever wondered whether you need these speeds? Likely, you do not need very fast internet speed.
Of course, providers and sellers will tell you that a higher speed is always better. But past a certain point, this is not true anymore. If you browse the Internet, you will not see any difference between 50Mbps and 500Mbps.
I lived with 50Mbps for two years. And I have had zero problems. And I consider myself a heavy user. I watch and download videos a lot. And I have five computers at home. Most individuals will never need anything faster than 50Mbps. Then, Swisscom upgraded us freely to 100Mbps, and we have mostly not seen any difference.
There could be some exceptions:
- If you are running a home business with several machines that need excellent access. In that case, you may need faster access. But this may not even be the case.
- If you are streaming in very high quality. Here, I am not talking about 1080p HD youtube. For this, 50Mbps would be more than enough. But if you are streaming 4K videos, it may not be enough anymore.
- If you need to download large assets over the web. For instance, you may receive raw videos if you are editing videos. These files can be huge. A higher speed will be necessary if you do not want to wait too long.
Ultimately, deciding which speed you want is only up to you. You can choose between different subscriptions once you know how much you want.
If your Internet is too fast for your needs, you could change to a slower speed and save some money every month!
And be careful about high-speed offers. With fibers, operators have started offering 10Gbps Internet. The problem with these offers is that the bandwidth is shared with many people (not only your household). So, if you have many neighbors, you cannot get the full bandwidth. And sometimes, even without neighbors, operators cannot reach that speed.
Furthermore, even if you get 10Gbps Internet, the link up to the websites is unlikely 10G. If there is a single 1G link between you and the website you use, you have already lost 90% of your speed. High-Speed Fiber Internet is mostly marketing.
Finally, you need to know how much speed is available at home. Providers generally have a tool to let you know the speed available at your home address.
At our home, I can get access to up to 475Mbps. This speed is almost ten times more than what I am using. And this is also significantly more than a few years. Operators have been increasing their capacity a lot these last few years.
So pay only for a speed you can reach in your home.
Internet Plans
We will compare the available plans for different internet speeds.
Note that some of these offers will have activation fees. But these fees do not matter in the long term.
10 Mbps Internet
We start with a low-speed internet connection.
It may be slow for some users of the Internet. But if you only surf the web, it will be fine. It will not be enough to watch high-quality movies online. But most Youtube videos will load fine. This speed will not be as bad as people think.
Here are the cheapest offers for this speed:
- iWay Internet DSL 20 (20Mbps Download, 20Mbps Upload): 29 CHF per month
- Monzoon Prepaid DSL (20 Mbps, 4 Mbps): 29 CHF per month
- Teleboy Internet 25 (25Mbps, 5Mbps): 35CHF per month
You can get a subscription for a very low price with low-speed Internet. For only 29 CHF per month, you can access the Internet.
Such subscriptions are much cheaper than most people pay for their internet subscription.
Please note that I have never tried any of these providers. From what I have found online, iWay and Monzoon have mostly satisfied customers. But Teleboy has mostly negative reviews online. So, you may want to avoid it or try to find more information before you use them.
50 Mbps Internet
If you want more speed, 50Mbps should work for almost everybody. 50Mbps is the speed I have had for many years, and it is perfectly fine.
Here are the cheapest offers for this speed:
- SolNet Expert 50 (50Mbps, 50Mbps): 36.65 CHF per month
- iWay Internet DSL 100 (100Mbps, 100Mbps): 39 CHF per month
- Monzoon Prepaid DSL (50 Mbps, 10 Mbps): 39 CHF per month
For only 36.65 CHF per month, you can already get 50Mbps Internet at home. Going faster than 10 Mbps will cost less than 10 CHF per month.
The cheapest is SolNet here. But for less than 3 CHF extra, you can get the iWay offer that doubles the speed. I would use iWay here since it seems to have good reviews online and double the speed of SolNet and Monzoon.
Again, I have never used SolNet services. I have found almost no reviews online. The only one I have seen was positive. But this does not mean much.
100 Mbps Internet
If you need more speed, you could get 100Mbps Internet. Most homes in Switzerland will have access to these speeds.
Here are the cheapest offers for this speed:
- iWay Internet Economy DSL 100 (100Mbps, 100Mbps): 39 CHF per month
- Teleboy Internet 100 (100 Mbps, 20 Mbps): 39 CHF per month
- green.ch Internet Flex 100 (100 Mbps, 20 Mbps): 39.90 CHF per month
- Monzoon Prepaid DSL Ultra (100 Mbps, 20 Mbps): 44 CHF per month
Even for 100 Mbps, you can find very affordable internet subscriptions. For 39 CHF per month, you can already get high-speed access to the web. In this case, I would go with iWay again since it is the cheapest and has symmetric speed.
We find one new contender on the list this time. Reviews on green.ch are mixed.
1 Gbps Internet
Some people want 1 Gbps Internet. As I said, this is probably useless for most people. And this is probably useless for most people who claim they need it. Nevertheless, people can still find affordable offers if they want such speed.
The problem with comparing these offers is that some fiber plans are only available in some places. For my comparison, I took Fribourg as the base address.
Here are the cheapest offers for this sped:
- SolNet HOME (1Gbps, 1Gbps): 44 CHF per month
- iWay 1000 (1Gbps, 1Gbps): 49 CHF per month
- green.ch Internet Flex 10000 (1Gbps, 1Gbps): 49.90 CHF per month
- Salt Fiber (10Gbps, 10Gbps): 49.95 CHF per month
I have to say that I am astonished by the prices of these offers. You can even get 10Gbps for less than 50 CHF per month. This price is much lower than I expected. However, I would be surprised if they can get a consistent speed over all their users with this price.
In this scenario, the Salt Fiber offer looks great. And the Solnet and iWay offers are also quite good.
I still think that this speed is not necessary. But it will not break your budget to get such an offer.
4G Routers
Since the improvements in the mobile network, we have another option for the Internet: 4G routers.
Usually, you get your router connected to the Internet through the cable or fiber from your internet provider. But with a 4G router, you get Internet directly from the mobile Internet (4G or 5G). In that case, you get a SIM card into your router, which then acts as a WiFi router for all your devices.
For that, you first need a router with a SIM card. You can get tons of routers on Galaxus. You will have to browse because there are many options with different speeds and SIM cards and options.
Once you get your router, you will also need a mobile internet plan. In this case, you only need Internet in your plan, nothing else. Some very cheap offers are available, but you will need to look for the proper speed and price again.
Fortunately, there are also some complete offers. For instance, Twifi offers a 4G or 5G router with a good speed, starting at 29 CHF monthly.
One advantage of that system is that you often get no contract duration with some of these plans. This can be practical if you only need Internet for a few months. Another advantage is that you could take your router with you on vacation.
One disadvantage would be that you get higher latency in these plans than with cable internet. But that only matters if you are going to play video games (or other activities that need low latency).
Wait for special offers
Another thing you can do to save money on your internet plan is to wait for special offers.
For instance, for its 2019 anniversary, Qoqa has run several attractive offers for Internet and phone subscriptions. You could get a 200Mbps Sunrise subscription for 29 CHF per month. This offer is quite good.
If you follow Qoqa, they may rerun this offer. Or you may find other offers with other providers.
If you need to change your internet subscription quickly, you will not have time to wait for an offer. But even if you have a good subscription, it is always good to keep track of these offers to save money in the future.
Comparators for Internet subscriptions
To search for more profiles, here are three comparators for Internet subscriptions in Switzerland.
The first good one I have found is the Internet comparator from moneyland. It is complete and can even do some searches based on your address. You can combine it with a Television subscription and/or a landline phone.
The other good one is the Internet plans comparator from besteabos. It is simpler than moneyland, and you will easily find the best plan for the most common profiles. However, there are fewer results.
The final one I would mention is internet-offer.ch. They are complete, available in English, and have Internet and mobile internet deals.
Sometimes cheaper is not better
For many people, their home internet is essential. I am one of them. I have several servers running all the time at home. And I rely on a good internet connection for my job and most of my hobbies. Therefore, for me, always having a good internet connection at home is essential.
For this, I have been using Swisscom for almost ten years. And I have never had any issues with it. I am using the 65 CHF per month plan with 100Mbps. I plan to continue on that plan. I could save about 30 CHF per month by changing. But I much prefer the quality of Swisscom over some small savings.
If you are not too worried about it, you can save money by avoiding Swisscom. But staying with them may be very interesting if you want something reliable.
Again, I am using the Internet all day, and so is my wife, and 100Mbps is more than enough. We have used 50Mbps for several years before that without any issues.
Conclusion
As we saw, there are many possible options for Internet plans in Switzerland. Which internet plan you will choose will depend on the speed you need. Be careful that you do not fall into the trap of speed. Most people will never need more than 50Mbps.
Overall, I would recommend testing the iWay Internet Economy DSL 100 offer. You will get 100Mbps for only 39 CH per month. This offer looks excellent and at a very reasonable price.
If you pay a significant amount for your Internet subscription each month, you may want to change your subscription and save money each month! Recurring expenses are an excellent way to reduce your budget. You will save money each month for years by doing the change once.
One thing you may have never thought of is to lower your internet speed. The chances are high that you do not need a high connection speed.
Another thing you can do is cancel your phone line if you are paying for one and not using it. And maybe you can even cancel your TV subscription if you do not use it much.
After saving money on your internet subscription, you may want to save money on your Television bill.
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Hi there, what makes you think that other providers do not do the same or have a worse service?
Some months back, the Fiber on the area where my sister in law lives had an issue with the Fiber, due to construction works they cut the line. Yallo sent a backup router with a 5G sim card all for free to give her continuity.
I think nowadays the level of service of the good companies are quite good compared to 10 years ago when there were more cuts, etc.
I had questions to iway and their support was brilliant each time. I cannot say the same with Swisscom actually when i had to call them multiple times to help negotiate the pricing of the small office I rent. I ended up cancelling everything and switching saving a ton of money even with a more reliable solution with 2 providers and failover.
Hi Fernando,
It may be better these days indeed.
In the past I dealt with Cablecom and it was a nightmare. I also dealt indirectly (for a friend) with Salt and was unimpressed at all.
But of course, I may have be unlucky with other providers and lucky with Swisscom just as you could have been unlucky.
I am surprised nobody mentioned Init7. So far I heard a lot of good feedback about them. On the other hand, my swisscom contract is about to expire soon and I checked Init7. At least where I live 1 Gbit/s internet is 48 chf/month(if you pay for the whole year) but there’s also activation fee of 77 chf. This in total gives 654 chf. I currently pay for 100 Mb/s at Swisscom 69 chf per month which is 828 chf per year. I am a bit unsure if I should change the provider for 174 chf savings(in first year). I need absolutely reliable Internet as I work mostly from home(no funny business with VPN). I believe in 2023 their Internet was a bit cheaper so they have adjusted prices again.
Hi Paul
It used to be in the article but then other products got cheaper than Init7 in my results.
If you need absolutely reliable internet and are happy with your setupl, I am not sure sure you should change.
Hey,
I have called Swisscom to tell them that I am resigning. They made a counter offer which is slightly more expensive than Init7 – by 2chf per month(still the reduction I managed to get is 16%). However I am spared of sending the router back and also possibility of having unreliable service. Given this I decided to stay with Swisscom.
Thanks for sharing and well done. I have heard from many people that this strategy works quite well!
Very surprised with Sunrise. I have been a happy customer for close on 20 years and my fixed contract ran out in December. Their new offer is 59chf / 1gbps when the market average is 39chf for the same bandwidth. And they are refusing to match.
The contracts lady was very reluctant to discuss options with her supervisor but accepted without any issues my cancellation – really! Potentially my two mobile subscriptions from Yallo (a Sunrise company) will also move out of Sunrise if I take on a bundle offer.
I finally appreciate the value of MVNOs such as Yallo with “no minimum contract term” agreements. Why would anyone sign up for 2 year contracts if traditional providers are behaving in such unreasonable ways.
Beware also of the huge discounts. If one is not diligent to chase and renew near contract end, you get loaded with 2-3 months of full charges so the providers can easily send you additional invoices totaling e.g. 300chf for upper-midrange contracts.
Finally, although I pay for 1gbps, in reality I get about 0.5gbps (using ethernet to modem/router). Not sure that this is a Sunrise issue, but one should consider the last mile connection quality when subscribing. This being said, Zoom and Teams each need about 4mbps for a 1080p connection. So if we assume two simultaneous Zoom sessions plus 2 1080p streaming sessions we would be looking at a bandwidth requirement of about 16mbps. Doubling this for safety gives 32mpbs. 4k streaming would require more bandwidth at about 25mpbs. It seems a 100mbps connection could be considered the minimum and this is also quite easy to get on a mobile hotspot (however a mobile will not be so great at hotspot supporting multiple simultaneous connections)!
Thanks for sharing your experience, kkc.
Yes, short-term discounts are often a trap, because you would either have to cancel after N years or pay a much higher price. I have never liked these special offers.
The bandwidth issue is common, you don’t always get what you pay for. But I think that nobody needs much more than 100-200 mbps (even lower works well). 1G offers are pure marketing and they are often unable to deliver anyway…
I am using Sunrise 4G internet for 10CHF per month in a 4G router that has SIM card slot. Internet speed is not the best, but I work in IT and I work from home and it is enough for me. It is a shame that this cheap option is not mentioned above.
4G Routers are mentioned in the article.
I’ve been using Salt since they got fiber; it’s the cheapest solution on the market if you run your phone with them too. So, I got a subscription for 25 bucks (got a special discount from around 60, when I ‘threatened’ to leave ;) ), and then you get a discount of 10 on our fiber. The support is not perfect but efficient; they even provided me with a 4G router when I had a problem with the connection.
Well done on negotiating to 25! That’s a great deal.
I honestly think that Swisscom charges excesive amounts in 2023.
I just made my landlord at the office switch from Swisscom mobiles to Yallo Black plans and changing also the internet from Swisscom to iWay leveraging fiber and he is going to save 150 to 200 per month.
Swisscom should automatically adapt their costs over time, and not just let customers pay whatever they were paying for at the beginning.
I understand that the brand Swisscom is associated with quality in Switzerland since forever, but they should then have a fair costs policy too.
It’s true that they are expensive and have high margins. But every time you need support, there is always somebody available. And internet just works. As somebody relying on great internet, I would not want to switch to anybody else, I am very happy about their service and support. But it’s not the cheapest, far from it.
I work remote most of the time too, so my Internet connection requirements are very solid too.
Your own experience shows why Swisscom can charge what they charge, which I find it abusive nowadays.
Iway for instance uses exactly the same Fiber cables Swisscom would use in most cases. In my area the cabling is owned by the electricity company SWL I understand.
With the money you save, you not only can have iWay for a much better rate, but also an automatic fallback system to 5G if desired. I got a Yallo unlimited traffic plan for CHF 10 a month wich I will keep forever because its very convenient as a fallback, or when travelling for my son to watch netflix in the car, etc.
I think it would be a good experience for you to try different providers, especially when the savings could be quite sustancial, as it is the whole motto of your blog. Just my two cents.
Hi Fernando
I do agree that their prices are too high.
But it’s not only about the fibers, it’s also about the reliability and the support. Every time I had a question or needed a change in plan, I had excellent results. Whenever I changed plan or router, I did not experience any loss in internet and everything was done flawlessly. This is why I am willing to pay extra.
My time is extremely limited these days (barely have the time to keep up with the blog), so I definitely don’t have time to try internet providers.
Agree, never Swisscom. The article is biased. While on brokers a few franks difference seem to be highly important for thepoorswiss, the same one is willing to pay 30 to 40 franks per month MORE for a perceived quality difference in the fibre of swisscom which technically is the same for all providers. This is laughable and is consequential. Apparently 400 franks per year of additional expense is acceptable while paying 10 franks for an account is unacceptable in the reviews of banks…
Yes, I believe that paying 30 to 40 CHF more per month for internet which I use at least 10 to 12 hours a day at my home is definitely worth it. But paying 10 CHF per month for a bank account without any advantage over another bank for something I will use maybe 30 minutes at most per month is definitely not worth it. I have no problem with that statement.