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Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity – Tested Hands-On

Verizon 5G Home Internet is rapidly growing in both coverage footprint and popularity. Millions of people are fed up with their current home internet service provider and looking for any opportunities to make a switch. Xfinity (Comcast) is the largest internet service provider (ISP) in the United States. They are also hated by many for a variety of reasons.

Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity
Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity

I was curious what it would be like to make the switch from Xfinity to Verizon 5G Home Internet. I decided to test them both out simultaneously. I also decided to see how Verizon 5G Home Internet performance varied between peak and off-peak hours. I then collected and analyzed the data to make the ultimate Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity showdown. Is Verizon 5g internet better than Xfinity?

TL;DR Answer: Xfinity offers much faster download and upload speeds than Verizon 5G Home Internet. Xfinity also offers better connection stability and consistency than Verizon 5G. Verizon 5G Home Internet is less expensive than Xfinity in most cases. If you value low cost above all else, Verizon 5G Home Internet might be a better choice for you than Xfinity. For most people, Xfinity is worth the additional cost.

Verizon 5G vs Xfinity (Comcast) Home Internet Price Comparison

Verizon 5G Home InternetXfinity Internet
Price with qualifying Verizon cell phone plan$25 per month—————
Price without a Verizon cell phone plan$50 per month$25 – $300 per month
Modem rental feeIncluded$15 per month extra
Taxes and service feesIncluded$5 – $15 per month extra
Verizon 5G vs Xfinity (Comcast) Home Internet Price Comparison Table

Verizon 5G Home Internet is priced very competitively at $50 per month on its own or $25 per month with select Verizon cell phone plans. This is truly disruptive pricing at its finest. Verizon is aggressively trying to get people to cut the cord with their cable companies and switch to 5G Home Internet.

When compared to other internet providers, Verizon offers outstanding pricing on its 5G service. Taxes and fees, plus the modem rental, are all included at the advertised $25 or $50 price points.

This is similar to what T-Mobile is offering with their T-Mobile Home Internet plans. When it comes to price, Verizon 5G Home Internet is generally less expensive than Xfinity and most other ISPs. It is also worth mentioning that with Verizon 5G Home Internet, you get unlimited data.

Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Gateway Rental Fee
Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Gateway Rental Fee

Xfinity offers several popular internet plans ranging from $24.99 to $299.95 per month. Taxes and fees are not included in the price with Xfinity (Comcast). Modem rental with Xfinity will add an additional $15 per month to your bill.

However, as with most cable internet services, you can easily avoid paying for this by using your own modem. Most people should strongly consider getting their own modems.

Another difference between Verizon 5G Home Internet and Xfinity is the use of promotional pricing. Xfinity frequently runs promotions where you can get your first 6 months, first year, or even first two years at a reduced price. After that period ends, your price goes up to the standard rates, which are oftentimes hidden in the fine print.

Most Xfinity plans come with a data cap of 1.2 TB, but Xfinity offers unlimited data in some service areas. They also allow people to upgrade their plans to unlimited data for an additional fee. Most people will not come close to using 1.2 TB of data and will not be impacted by the data cap at all.

Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Data Caps
Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Data Caps

While it is technically possible to get a basic Xfinity plan for less than Verizon 5G Home Internet, once you factor in taxes, fees, and modem costs, Verizon is generally less expensive. This is especially true if you opt for a more expensive Comcast Internet plan, such as their gigabit service, and upgrade to unlimited data.

Price Winner: Verizon 5G Home Internet

Service Availability

Verizon 5G Home Internet and Xfinity are both available to millions of subscribers across North America. As with all ISPs, coverage regions will vary greatly, and depending on your service address, you may have one or both options available to you.

Xfinity currently has service in select areas of 40 US states. Xfinity focuses primarily on urban areas and the suburbs surrounding those urban areas. They do offer services in some rural areas, but not that many overall. Click to learn if Xfinity offers service at your service address.

Xfinity Home Internet Boston Area
Xfinity Home Internet Boston Area

Verizon also focuses more on urban areas with its 5G Home Internet Service. However, the wireless nature of the service means that it is available to some areas that can’t get cable or fiber-based internet.

Verizon is focusing much of its attention on millimeter wave 5G deployments using much higher frequencies than what T-Mobile is using for much of its 5G deployments. This has two impacts. Generally, speeds are faster with Verizon 5G Home Internet, but the range is significantly shorter. Real-world data shows that the effective range is significantly shorter.

Generally, you have to be within 2,000 feet or less of a suitable 5G tower to be eligible for Verizon 5G Home Internet Service. This means that rural coverage is less than with T-Mobile Home Internet.

Overall as of right now, Xfinity has a wider coverage footprint. However, the wireless nature of 5G means that Verizon will be able to more quickly add additional coverage. The availability of both services is strong but far from universal. There are many regions lacking the availability of either home internet service.

Availability Winner: Xfinity

Verizon 5G Internet vs Xfinity Download and Upload Speeds

Fast internet is something that virtually every internet user wants. However, many people have different ideas of what they consider to be “fast.” I tested the most popular Xfinity plans and compared them to the single-speed tier offered with Verizon 5G Home Internet.

Interestingly, download speeds with Xfinity were higher than with Verizon 5G Home Internet. This is not surprising when you consider that Xfinity is a cable or fiber-based internet service, whereas Verizon 5G Home Internet is a fixed wireless internet service. However, given the reports of ultra-fast 5G speeds, I was a bit underwhelmed.

ISP Average Speed

Verizon 5G Home Internet Download Speeds

Unlike Xfnity and most ISPs, Verizon 5G Home Internet is only offered as a single tier of service. Verizon is also much less specific about the kind of speeds you can expect to get. They describe their download speeds in approximate terms.

I followed the installation instructions that came with the Verizon gateway carefully and optimized my placement near a window as recommended by Verizon. I was getting full signal bars on my 5G gateway.

Most of the time, I saw speeds between 80 Mbps and 185 Mbps. I never got more than 200 Mbps, which I only got on a few occasions during off-peak hours. During peak hours, download speeds of 50 Mbps – 120 Mbps were the most common.

Verizon 5G Home Internet Upload Speeds

In my testing, speeds of 10 Mbps – 30 Mbps were typical. The highest upload speed I saw with Verizon 5G Home Internet was 35 Mbps. During peak hours, 15 Mbps was typical, and sometimes my upload speed dropped to 5 Mbps or less.

It was most often during peak hours that I experienced issues with low upload speeds. Unfortunately, this is also when I needed the bandwidth the most.

Xfinity Download Speeds

On Xfinity’s lowest-tier plan, which is advertised as 100 Mbps, I consistently saw speeds of 105 Mbps – 120 Mbps. This speed was consistent at all hours of the day. 100 Mbps is about what I was averaging with Verizon 5G Home Internet. The consistency was much better with Xfinity.

I also tested the 400 Mbps plan with Xfinity and was equally impressed. I consistently saw speeds of 410 Mbps – 475 Mbps. This was great to see, especially with so many internet providers over-promising and under-delivering. Comcast is known to over-provision their modems by 20%, this is why getting higher than advertised seeds is common with Xfinity Internet.

Finally, I tested the Xfinity 1,200 Mbps plan. I already knew that the gigabit ethernet I was using was limited to about 950 Mbps and that I would be unable to test speeds higher than that properly. However, after 14 days of thoroughly testing things, I consistently got 947 Mbps – 951 Mbps on every internet speed test.

Comcast Xfinity Speed
Comcast Xfinity Speeds

Xfinity Upload Speeds

Xfinity, as with most other DOCSIS-based cable internet providers, provides an asymmetrical connection. Upload speeds are a fraction of download speeds. For most people, this is not a huge issue as most people download far more than they upload.

Xfinity upload speeds are advertised as maxing out at 35 Mbps on their traditional cable-based service plans. Some of their lower-cost plans only offer 20 Mbps upload speeds. They offer fiber upload speeds that are 1,000 Mbps or higher. This is typical as most fiber internet services are symmetrical with equal download and upload speeds.

Based on my testing with Xfinity, I was consistently getting between 35 Mbps and 42 Mbps in upload speed with their higher-tier plans. With the lower tier plan, which is advertised as having 20 Mbps upload speeds, I was consistently getting 22 Mbps – 24 Mbps.

The consistency of the upload speeds was really impressive. Unlike with 5G, I did not see any meaningful variations from day to day or from hour to hour.

Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity Speed Comparison

Average speeds were significantly higher with Xfinity. For this comparison table, I used the gigabit Xinity plan and the only speed tier offered by Verizon 5G Home Internet.

Verizon 5G Home InternetXfinity Internet
Average Download Speeds (Peak Hours)65 Mbps947 Mbps
Average Download Speeds (Off Peak Hours)115 Mbps947 Mbps
Average Upload Speeds (Peak Hours)10 Mbps41 Mbps
Average Upload Speeds (Off Peak Hours)20 Mbps42 Mbps
Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity Speed Comparison Table

If download and upload speeds are an important factor in your decision, Xfinity is probably the better option for you. Verizon 5G Home Internet was not able to match the speeds seen with Xfinity, especially during peak hours when you likely need your internet connection the most.

Speed Winner: Xfinity

Latency (Ping) and Stability

In all of my testing, Xfinity offered stable and consistent ping of 20 ms or less virtually all of the time. This was consistent across all of the Xfinity packages I tested. Rarely would I see a spike of 50 ms or less. When this did happen, it was usually while I was downloading a large file.

Stability was also excellent with Xfinity. I did not have any issues with online gaming or videoconferencing via Zoom. I conducted multiple online webinars using Zoom and Microsoft Teams with absolutely zero issues at all. I was actually very impressed at how stable and reliable my Comcast internet was.

For people who work from home or play online games, Xfinity is a great option. I found no issues related to latency, ping, jitter, or stability. This is not surprising to me; cable-based internet connections generally outperform 5G in connection stability. Most objective peer reviewed data points to this conclusion as well.

Xfinity Latency

Verizon 5G Home Internet was all over the place in terms of latency and stability. There were times when latency was respectable, and there were other times when ping was over 200 ms on every request with some timeouts.

During off-peak hours when the cell tower was not congested, latency was generally much lower. I saw pings in the 35 – 70 ms range most of the time during off-peak hours. This is pretty respectable for a cellular-based internet service. However, comparing it to Xfinity and other cable/fiber internet services leaves much to be desired.

The real problem, though, with Verizon 5G Home Internet was what happens during peak hours when the cell tower is crowded. Of course, this is probably when you care about the quality of your internet connection the most. Over the course of several minutes, pings tended to swing widely all the way from 40 ms all the way up to 500+ ms. 

Gaming, videoconferencing, VoIP, and other latency-sensitive applications were essentially unusable during peak hours during my testing. In fairness to Verizon, it is possible that the particular tower I was connected to was more overcrowded than most. However, the issue of high latency with 5G home internet services appears to be pretty common based on feedback from other users.

Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity Ping and Jitter

Verizon 5G Home InternetXfinity Internet
Average Ping (Peak Hours)150 ms13 ms
Average Ping (Off Peak Hours)60 ms13 ms
Average Jitter (Peak Hours)60 ms2 ms
Average Jitter (Off Peak Hours)35 ms1 ms
Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Xfinity Ping and Jitter Comparison Table

Xfinity offers much lower latency and much better stability than Verizon 5G Home Internet in my testing. I was not impressed by the amount of jitter that was present on the Verizon connection. I was also not impressed when a Verizon support tech told me that these numbers were normal.

In contrast, Xfinity was solid as a rock and had little to no jitter at all. VoIP applications sounded natural, and gaming was smooth.

Latency (Ping) and Stability Winner: Xfinity

Verizon 5G vs Comcast Internet Gaming Performance

Xfinity and Verizon 5G Home Internet both advertise being “good for gaming.” Is this just marketing speak, or are they really good for gaming? I tested them side by side in the ultimate gaming showdown.

Cable vs. 5G, which is better for gaming performance. On multiple nights I played competitive games, including Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Halo. I tested performance on PS5, Xbox Series X, and on PC via Steam.

Gaming on Xfinity was generally a great experience. I did not have any issues joining multiplayer matches, as my NAT Type was Moderate. With some basic port forwarding, I was able to change my NAT type to open with ease. Xfinity provides you with a publicly routable IPv4 address, this makes port forwarding possible, as well as allows for UPnP to work as designed.

Latency was always 35 ms or less and generally under 25 ms. This is great for gaming as it reduces the amount of lag between you and the people you are playing with. Stability was good, and I had no issues with getting kicked from matches or dropped from lobbies.

Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Gaming Performance
Xfinity vs Verizon 5G Gaming Performance

Gaming on Verizon 5G Home Internet was good some of the time and not so good others. If you like to game during peak hours from about 5:00 PM – 11:00 PM, I would steer clear of 5G home internet. Verizon 5G Home Internet struggled with gaming during peak hours, much like how T-Mobile Home Internet also did.

Latency and stability were the biggest issues I had with Verizon 5G Home Internet for gaming. During peak hours, my ping would frequently spike to 500+ ms. For online gaming, this is generally going to cause major headaches. The other issue was getting dropped from matches. This was due to a combination of connection drops, packet loss, and NAT-type issues. .

NAT Type was a major issue for me with Verizon 5G Home Internet. It was strict, and I was unable to successfully change my NAT Type to even moderate. On Xbox Series X, I kept getting the Double NAT Detected warning. This is not surprising. Unlike Xfinity, which assigns its customers a publicly routable IP address, Verizon assigns its 5G Home Internet customers private IP addresses via Carrier Grade NAT (CGNAT).

Xbox Series X Double NAT
Xbox Series X Double NAT

CGNAT is bad for gaming as it results in a double NAT environment and doesn’t allow for incoming connections. This means no port forwarding is possible.

If you care about online gaming, I would hesitate to recommend Verizon 5G Home Internet or any 5G Internet service, for that matter. It is simply not competitive with cable and fiber-based internet connections for gaming and other real-time applications.

One positive thing about Verizon 5G Home Internet is that it is free from pesky data caps. Xfinity currently has a data cap of 1.2 TB (in most areas), whereas Verizon 5G Home Internet comes with unlimited data.

Xfinity allows you to purchase more data if needed and also offers the ability to pay an additional charge to upgrade to unlimited data. However, 1.2 TB of data is more than enough data for almost any modern internet user.

Online Gaming Performance Winner: Xfinity

Internet Connection Reliability

Let’s face it, the only thing worse than slow internet is no internet at all. We all want a reliable connection to the internet. Not all internet providers are created equal, and reliability varies greatly from provider to provider.

Based on my testing, Verizon 5G Home Internet and Xfinity Internet are reliable very overall. I did not experience any reliability issues with Xfinity in the 30 days I was testing it out. Verizon 5G was pretty reliable as well. However, it was less stable. While not technically “down,” Verizon 5G Home Internet had a tendency to drop more packets.

For this reason, Verizon Home Internet may not be the best choice for anyone who needs an absolutely rock-solid internet connection. You would not want to be on a Zoom call with your boss and have this happen to you. If you need a really reliable internet service provider, Xfinity is a better option than Verizon 5G.

Reliability Winner: Xfinity

Customer Service

Most internet providers are notorious for offering bad customer support. Just how bad is the support for Verizon and for Comcast? I tested calling support for both providers multiple times for both account and technical-related issues.

Based on my experience, I would rate both ISPs about a 5 out of 10 for technical support and a 6 out of 10 for billing support. Both companies were able to answer questions I had about my account. They both varied widely in how long it took to get through to a support rep.

I did not find Verizon or Xfinity to be better than the other. Their support was quite similar, nothing to write home about, but not as bad as some people claim.

On the tech support time side, I found that, on average, Verizon was faster to get on the phone than Xfinity. However, some of the tech support reps for Verizon appeared to be going off a script. When something unexpected took place, they did not know how to effectively handle the issues.

Xfinity tech support reps came across as more knowledgeable, in my experience. They also tended to provide better solutions that led to faster resolutions of issues.

The biggest challenge with Xfinity occurred when I went to cancel my service. They transferred me multiple times and made the process as difficult as possible. The total process took over an hour from the time of calling to the time of being canceled.

Verizon 5G Home Internet was easier to cancel but still took 30 minutes or so and multiple phone transfers. T-Mobile Home Internet was much easier to cancel than either Verizon or Comcast.

Overall I would say my customer service experiences with Comcast and Verizon were both less than perfect but not the worst I have seen by a long shot.

Customer Service Winner: Tie

Overall Ratings

Based on my objective rating system Xfinity is the better home internet service. However, there were definitely pros and cons to both services. There are also other internet providers that you should consider.

Xfinity InternetVerizon 5G Home Internet
Price6/109/10
Speed9/105/10
Stability7/103/10
Latency8/104/10
Gaming Performance7/104/10
Zoom Call Performance7/104/10
Reliability9/107/10
Availability6/106/10
Customer Service5/105/10
Ease of Canceling Service5/106/10
Overall Score69/10053/100
Verizon 5G Home Internet vs Comcast Overall Comparison Score

Verizon 5G Home Internet: Overall Score 53/100

Xfinity Internet: Overall Score 69/100

Overall Winner: Xfinity Internet

Alternatives You Should Also Consider

There are several alternatives to Verizon 5G Internet and Xfinity that you should also consider. Of course, you may not have access to all of these services at your service address. Depending on where you live, you will likely have access to one of these alternatives.

Fidium vs Xfinity
Fidium vs Xfinity

It is always a good idea to look at multiple internet service providers when considering what to choose for your home. Of these ISPs, Verizon Fios, AT&T Fiber, and Fidium Fiber are the top performing based on my first-hand experience using them. However, Breezeline, Xfinity, and Spectrum also perform well for not being 100% fiber-based services. There are many solid choices when it comes to internet service providers.

Who is Verizon 5G Home Internet Best For

Verizon 5G Home Internet is best for people who do not have access to Xfinity or other cable/fiber Internet options. Listed below are a few indications that Verizon 5G might be good for your home internet needs.

  1. Your internet needs are relatively modest.
  2. You do not need a publicly routable IP address assigned to your router.
  3. You are an existing Verizon cell phone customer.
  4. You are not a gamer.
  5. You do not work from home or run a business from home.
  6. Saving money on your internet bill is your top priority.
  7. You are a cord-cutter.

If transparency of pricing is important to you, Verizon also scores favorably. Xfinity pricing is more difficult to understand, and they hit you with various taxes and fees. Xfinity also uses promotional pricing, which means that your price will jump up in 6 – 12 months.

Verizon 5G Home Internet is also best for cord-cutters. If you intend to have cable TV service with Xfinity, getting internet from Xfinity through a bundle discount is going to generally be cheaper than getting Xfinity TV and having Verizon for internet.

Who is Xfinity Internet Best For

Xfinity is likely a better option for people who need a fast, reliable internet connection that doesn’t slow down during times of peak demand.

For people that work from home or run a business from home and use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, or other online meeting applications, Xfinity is a significantly better choice than Verizon 5G Home Internet. 5G internet is just too unstable for real-time conferencing apps to work smoothly.

Listed below are a few indications that Xfinity Internet might be good for your home internet needs.

  1. You need a highly consistent and reliable internet connection at all times.
  2. You are a gamer.
  3. You plan to bundle your internet service with TV service.
  4. You want to use your own router.
  5. You want the fastest possible speeds.

Xfinity is a solid choice for most people’s home networks. The price to performance ratio with Xfinity Internet is pretty good overall.

My Testing Methodology

I tested Xfinity Internet and Verizon 5G Home Internet for 30 days and ran them through a variety of tests to see how they perform in the real world.

My testing was designed to collect objective hard data via a series of lab tests and to also use the internet services in my day-to-day life and collect qualitative data

Our lab testing measured the following attributes.

  • Download speeds
  • Upload speeds
  • latency
  • Jitter
  • packet loss
  • Reliability
  • Gaming performance
  • Videoconference performance

Additionally, I evaluated the customer support experience from both Xfinity and Verizon for both technical and billing-related issues. I rated my support experience based on key data metrics, including time on hold, time to problem resolution, number of call transfers required, and overall support experience.

Cable Internet vs 5G Home Internet

Ultimately, choosing the best home internet service is largely going to come down to availability, speed, price, and reliability. Generally, cable internet services do well in these categories. 5G home internet is offering some additional options in some areas.

Availability tends to be a bit more limited, but having the choice of multiple internet providers is now possible for millions of additional customers. Having multiple services available is good for the home internet market. It creates a level of healthy competition between internet providers when there is more than one company offering service in a given area.

5G home internet from providers including Verizon and T-Mobile and cable internet from internet providers including Xfinity and Spectrum are now forced to win over customers. This is great for customers as it tends to lower prices and increase speed.

Conclusion: Is Verizon 5G Home Internet Better Than Xfinity

Overall, Verizon 5G Home Internet is not better than Xfinity Internet. However, Verizon 5G Home Internet is a great service for a number of reasons, and it is also providing some much-needed competition in the home internet service space.

Verizon 5G Home Internet is a relative newcomer to the home internet market. They are doing a good job at shaking up the market and lowering prices on broadband internet. Verizon is also innovating new ways of delivering internet to millions of customers.

Xfinity is your typical love-to-hate cable company. They partake in practices that are anti-consumer, including charging hidden fees and using some shady pricing tactics.

However, Xfinity offers pricing that is pretty standard for the industry and performance that is better than what 5G can deliver in real-world conditions. You may also want to consider Xfinity Mobile, which is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) run by Comcast. The pricing is competitive when bundled with Xfinity Internet.

If you want the fastest speeds or need absolute stability for working from home or gaming, Xfinity is your clear winner. If your internet needs are more casual and you want to save some money, Verizon 5G Home Internet might be a good option to consider. Just note that performance with 5G is much less consistent during peak hours than a cable or fiber internet connection will be in most cases. Consider this when choosing your provider.