7 Best Cheap Business Cell Phone Plans 2024

Let’s look at the best cheap business cell phone plans available today. As a freelance writer, my “office” is wherever my laptop happens to be open. And my “business phone,” is the same phone that I use for personal phone calls and texts, or checking Facebook and Twitter–my cell phone.

In my case, I only have my own cell phone bill to worry about. But if you’re a growing small business owner, your employees may rely upon their cell phones just as often as I do mine.

In fact, in many service-oriented businesses, it’s a necessity for you and your employees to be “on-call” at all times. For all these reasons, you may need to purchase a business cell phone plan.

We recommend you skip the big three carriers and check out these lesser-known, but lower-cost business cell phone plans.

To find the low-cost business cell phone plan that’s right for you, you’ll want to compare things like high-speed data allotments, coverage, phones, and multi-line discounts.

Each company has its own unique structure, for example, Ting offers a pay-only-for-what-you-use model, while Mint Mobile gives discounts for paying months in advance. Knowing what you need will allow you to make the best choice.

What are the Best Cheap Business Cell Phone Plans?

You don’t need to pay an arm and a leg for a business cell phone plan. Below, we review seven of the best cheap business cell phone plans available today and discuss the pros and cons of each.

1. Mint Mobile

What sets Mint Mobile apart from other carriers is that you can save extra money by paying your phone bill in advance. You can pay for 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month plans. The longer the term, the bigger the discount.

No matter which plan you choose, unlimited talk and text are automatically included. Mint Mobile will also give you a free SIM card.

Plans and Pricing

Here are Mint Mobile’s normal rates per line for each plan tier:

3-Month Plans

• $25 per month (3 GB)
• $35 per month (8 GB)
• $45 per month (12 GB)

6-Month Plans

• $20 per month (3 GB)
• $25 per month (8 GB)
• $35 per month (12 GB)

12-Month Plans

• $15 per month (3 GB)
• $20 per month (8 GB)
• $25 per month (12 GB)

But here’s the amazing part. As you can see below, Mint Mobile is currently offering their 3-month plans for the same price as their 12-month plans.

That’s an awesome deal. That means you could cover six lines with 3 GB of data EACH and unlimited texts and minutes for $90.

Now, keep in mind, you’ll have to pay three months upfront. So, in reality, your first payment would be $270. But, in exchange for paying in advance, Mint Mobile is also able to offer you a screaming deal.

It should be noted that the data allotments you see listed on the screenshot above are per month. For example, with the basic 3 GB plan, you’d get a new 3 GB to use each month. You don’t have to stretch the 3 GB over the entire three months.

See if Mint Mobile is right for you.

Coverage and Devices

While some carriers push for you to buy a new device from them when you move to their service, Mint Mobile heavily advertises their Bring Your Own Phone (BYOB) program.

But if you do want to bring your device with you, it will need to be a GSM-network phone. Here are a few popular GSM carriers:

• AT&T
• T-Mobile
• Cricket Wireless
• Simple Mobile
• Straight Talk
• MetroPCS

If you bought your phone from any of these carriers (and it’s unlocked), you should have no problem bringing it with you to Mint Mobile.

However, if you’re phone came from Verizon or Sprint, you may not be able to bring it with you since they use a different type of network called CDMA. If you have one of the more recent phones from Apple or Samsung, though, there’s a good chance that you may have a universal device that can work on both GSM and CDMA networks.

As far as coverage goes, Mint Mobile happens to be using T-Mobile’s towers. In years past, T-Mobile’s network wasn’t as strong as ATT&T’s, but they have vastly improved over the past 5 years. In some areas, T-Mobile’s data speeds are actually faster than ATT&T’s.

In most areas, you should be very happy with your coverage. But we definitely recommend that you check out their coverage map before making any moves.

Summary of Mint Mobile

If you’re willing to pay ahead, Mint Mobile may be one of the most affordable business cell phone plans available today. You may also like the fact that each of your employees would have their own data allotment and your bill wouldn’t vary month to month like it would on a “pay for what use” plan.

But if you don’t like the idea of paying your cell phone bill several months in advance or you don’t have a compatible phone, then Mint Mobile may not be the right business cell phone plan for you.

Let’s Go! Try Mint Mobile.

2. Ting

If you’re looking to save a lot of money on your business cell phone plan, Ting could be a great choice. Here’s what you need to know about Ting.

Plans and Pricing

Ting is different than many cell phone companies in that they don’t have any “plans” whatsoever. Instead, you pay for what you use.

Here’s how it works. First of all, you pay a flat $6 fee per line.

After that, you pay for however many minutes, texts, and data you use each month. Ting doesn’t allow you to choose a per-line allotment of minutes, texts, or data. Instead, they’re all shared.

Using Ting’s Bill Estimator

To get an idea of what a Ting bill would really look like, I used their Bill Estimator. I gave Ting the following parameters: 6 lines, 1,000 minutes (shared) 2,000 texts (shared), and 6 GB of data (shared). As you can see below, Ting estimated that this would cost me $122 per month or $20.33 per line.

That’s a fantastic price. It’s also important to point out that if your team used less than these estimates, your bill would be smaller. With Ting, your bill will be different each and every month because you literally only pay for what you use.

See if Ting will work for you.

What If You Need More?

Some businesses may need more lines, minutes, texts, or data than these initial tiers. Ting can accommodate that. Here’s what businesses pay for anything additional that they need:

• 1.9¢/min
• $10/gb
• 0.25¢/text
• $6 device/month (this stays the same no matter how many lines you add)

Coverage and Devices

Having a cheap business cell phone plan won’t do you a lot of good if you can’t get any coverage. And if you can’t bring your phone with you, it also may make a move impractical.

Thankfully, neither of these things should be a problem with Ting. Ting works on both GSM and CDMA networks. This gives you the freedom to pick whichever network has better coverage in your area. To get an idea which network would work better in your area, check out Ting’s coverage map.

As long as your phone is unlocked, you should be able to bring it over with you, no matter the carrier you bought it from originally.

Summary of Ting

Ting could save you a lot of money on your business cell phone plan. In fact, they say that a business with 11-20 phones saves an average of $440 per year.

One concern that you may have with Ting is the fact that one “data hog” (i.e. one employee who decides to stream the entire season of Stranger Things with their wi-fi turned off) could blow up your bill. The good news is that Ting allows you to set alerts and data caps to keep this from happening.

The only other thing to consider is that there is no true “unlimited” tier with Ting. So if you and your team use an unusually high amount of data per month, Ting may not be able to save you as much money.

3. Freedom Pop

Freedom Pop is a company that initially made a splash by being one of the first to offer “free” internet and cell phone service. And to this day, they still offer free tiers on their mobile plans.

But unless you and your employees use the bare minimum of minutes, text, and data, you’re probably going to need a paid plan.

Freedom Pop’s service also comes with a few bonus perks:

• WiFi calling and texting from anywhere
• Free Unlimited calling & texting between FreedomPop phones
• Free international calling from over 60 countries
• Access to over 8 Million hotspots with nationwide roaming

Freedom Pop is able to offer most of these features because they are a VoIP service. This means they use the internet–or the data network–to make and receive calls and text messages. More on that later.

Plans and Pricing

Freedom Pop’s free plans come in two different varieties: one for CDMA devices and one for GSM devices.

• If you have a CDMA device, you can get 500 MB of data, 2oo minutes, and 500 texts for free.
• With GSM phones, you can also get 200 minutes and 500 texts for free, but you’ll have a lower 200 MB per month data cap.

Customers can also sign up for FreedomPop’s prepaid phone plans. Here’s a chart that shows all the options available within the prepaid cell phone plans from FreedomPop: 

FreedomPop Prepaid Plans

So six lines and 2 GB of data per line would cost you $83.94 a month, or $251 for the full three months. That’s a little bit cheaper than Mint Mobile’s 3-month plan. But you’d also only be getting 2 GB of data per month, compared to the 3 GB that you get with Mint Mobile’s basic plan.

Available Discounts

You may be able to qualify for a discount if you are adding several lines to your Freedom Pop business plan. Freedom Pop advertises a multi-line discount for families (up to 10 members.) And while they don’t publish actual prices, it would appear that they do the same for business accounts.

Add-ons

While the prices above look competitive, you may actually need to pay more for your Freedom Pop service. That’s because Freedom Pop plans don’t automatically come with certain features that most of us have come to expect from a phone carrier like MMS Texting, Visual Voicemail, and the fastest 4G LTE speeds (Freedom Pop caps speed at 5 Mbps). This is because Freedom Pop defaults to using VoIP to make calls and send texts, as we discussed earlier.

To get access to those “extras,” you’ll need to pay for the Freedom Phone Premier Plus bundle which costs $7.99 a month. It should be noted that several of these features are bundled for free on family plans, so you may be able to get these features for free as well.

One more thing–if you hit your data cap with Freedom Pop, you’ll be charged a $20 Top Up fee. To avoid incurring the Top Up fee, you’ll need to pay $6.99 a month for the Freedom Safety Mode Service.

Coverage and Devices

With Freedom Pop, you can choose to run on either the Sprint or AT&T network. Having that flexibility is nice. Check out Freedom Pop’s coverage in your area. You should also be able to bring over most unlocked devices from any of the Big Four networks.

Summary of Freedom Pop

At first glance, Freedom Pop looks like a viable option for a business cell phone plan. But as you dig deeper, more “gotchas” and extra fees seem to “pop” up.

However, they do offer service on two different networks. And you may be able to eliminate some of the fees by signing up for a business plan. But either way, expect to put in some extra legwork to get your business cell phone plan up and running with Freedom Pop.

Read our FreedomPop review or check out the plans now.

4. Pure Talk USA

Pure Talk USA is another discount carrier that could save you a lot of money on your business cell phone plan. Here’s what you need to know about Pure Talk USA.

Plans and Pricing

Pure Talk USA owes their name to the fact that they are owned by a U.S. veteran and they partner with numerous military organizations.

Their plans are pretty straightforward. Every plan comes with unlimited talk and text and you pay for however much high-speed data you want per month, from 500 MB to a max of 10 GB per month.

They don’t charge any overage fees either. If you hit your data cap, Pure Talk USA will simply throttle you down to lower data speeds until your next billing cycle begins.

Here’s what you’ll pay per month with Pure Talk USA depending on the high-speed data plan that you select:

• $20 (5oo MB)
• $25 (1 GB)
• $30 (3 GB)
• $35 (5 GB)
• $45 (10 GB)

Those are competitive prices, but you can save even more as you add lines to your plan.

As the image above shows, you’ll get 10% off your total bill when you add a second line, 15% off when you add a third line, and 20% off your bill once you’ve added at least a fourth line.

So for six lines and 3 GB of data per line, you’d be paying around $144 per month (taking that 20% discount into account) or $24 per line.

See if Pure Talk USA is right for you.

Coverage and Devices

Pure Talk USA operates on the AT&T network, so coverage should be strong in most areas. In fact, Pure Talk USA says that 99% of the nation is covered. Check out their coverage map to see what kind of a signal you can expect in your neck of the woods.

Pure Talk USA has a wide variety of phones that you can choose from their store. But you can also bring your own device and they’ll only charge you $3.00 for a SIM card. Again, you may have a hard time bringing over a phone from Verizon or Sprint since they are a GSM-only carrier.

Summary of Pure Talk USA

Pure Talk USA strikes a nice balance between affordability and convenience. They’re not on the bleeding edge when it comes to pricing, but you also don’t have to pay for several months in advance or deal with variable monthly bills.

If you’re currently with one of the major carriers, you may be perfectly happy with the savings you could get by switching to Pure Talk USA. Plus, you’d be helping support the members of our armed services, which is a great bonus.

5. Boost Mobile

Boost Mobile is another discount carrier that could save you money on your business cell phone plan. Here are a few perks that come with every Boost plan:

• Unlimited data (yes, you read that right)
• Taxes and fees included in your bill
• Mobile hotspot
• Unlimited talk and text

Boost is one of the few discount carriers that truly offer unlimited data plans. By this, we mean that they won’t slow your speeds down after you’ve reached your data allotment for the month.

Instead, they differentiate their unlimited plans by charging more if you want HD streaming or a larger monthly allowance of mobile hotspot data.

Plans and Pricing

Boost Mobile does offer one plan that doesn’t come with unlimited data. It costs $35 a month and it comes with 3 GB of data and unlimited talk and text. After you used up your 3 GB in a given month, you’ll be slowed down to 2G speeds until your plan cycle ends.

Here’s what you’ll pay and what you’ll get if you choose one of Boost Mobile’s three unlimited plans:

• $50/month (mobile-optimized streaming for videos, gaming & music; 12 GB of hotspot data)
• $60/month (HD video; 30 GB of hotspot data)
• $80/month (HD video, music, and games; 50 GB of hotspot data)

Boost Mobile does offer slight multi-line discounts. Below, you’ll see what it would cost to add five lines on each of the Boost Mobile plans.

If you’re looking to add over 10 lines to your business cell phone plan, it’d probably be worth your while to talk to a customer service representative over the phone to see if they can offer you an even bigger discount.

But in general, you should probably expect to pay more for Boost Mobile than some of the other carriers that we’ve covered in this review.

See if Boost Mobile is right for you.

Coverage and Devices

Boost Mobile runs on the Sprint network, which is often considered the weakest of the Big Four networks. In most cities, you shouldn’t have any issues. However, if you happen to live in a rural area, you may have a problem. You’ll definitely want to check out Boost Mobile’s coverage map before you switch.

If you’re wanting to bring your own device, it will need to be an unlocked CDMA-compatible phone (i.e. from Verizon or Sprint) or a universal phone.

Summary of Boost Mobile

Boost Mobile isn’t going to be your cheapest options. But if you’re looking for a plan that offers unlimited data, Boost could be a great choice. You’ll also want to make sure that you live in an area that gets good Sprint network coverage.

6. Sprint

Sprint follows a very similar model to Boost Mobile. Each of their plans automatically come with unlimited talk, text, and data. But you’ll pay more for perks like HD streaming, extra hotspot data, and free access to premium subscription services.

Plans and Pricing

As you can see below, Sprint offers three different versions of their unlimited plans.

With each tier that you move up, Sprint throws in more perks, like extra hotspot data and free membership to services like Amazon Prime, Tidal, and Hulu.

Where Sprint really shines, though, is in the multi-line discounts that they offer. With Unlimited Basic, you’ll pay $100 per month where you have two lines or five. That gets things down to about $20 per line. And, yes, that means that lines three through five are essentially free on Sprint Unlimited Basic plans.

Five lines will set you back $150 a month on Unlimited Plus and $200 a month on Unlimited Premium.

Business Discounts

As the visual below shows, for teams that have less than 10 members, the cheapest option available to you is Unlimited Basic.

But if you have more than 10 team members who would be covered on your business cell phone plan, you could be eligible for a “Business Share Plus” plan.

As you can see above, these plans come with rock-bottom pricing. They’re even price-competitive with some of the cheapest discount carriers.

See if Sprint is right for you.

Coverage and Devices

Coverage and device limitations for Sprint are going to be pretty much exactly the same as Boost Mobile.

It should be noted, though, that you can buy or lease just about any phone with Sprint. In fact, Sprint points out on their small business cell phone plan page that you can have both the Samsung Galaxy S10 and Unlimited Basic service for as low as $34 a month.

Summary of Sprint

Sprint offers a “comfort” factor that some of the other discount carriers can’t. You probably have a Sprint store in your town if you ever have a problem and need help. And you shouldn’t have to worry that Sprint may decide to “close up shop” one day, as could happen with a scrappy upstart.

But that comfort factor comes at a price. Unless you’re going to be adding more than 10 lines to your Sprint plan, you’ll probably pay a little more per month than you would with one of the other carriers on this list.

7. Tello

This one is for the sole business owner wanting flexibility in a service plan. Here is what you need to know about Tello.

Plans and Pricing

Tello provides its service with no contracts, no fees, and a low starting price point of only $5.00. This service is strictly for individuals. You are not able to have multiple phones on one plan.

It just added an Unlimited Data option for all newcomers to its service.

You can mix and match data and minutes to suit your needs. There is also a pay as you go option if you are not interested in monthly billing.

For newcomers to Tello, there is a special promotion running that will give you unlimited data, talk, and text for only $39 a month. As long as you keep the plan active, you can have this plan forever.

See if Tello is right for you. 

There are ready-made plans available for you to purchase. Below are the four options to choose from.

If one of these does not suit your needs, you can mix and match your plan. Here are just a few of the picks.

• Unlimited Minutes and Free Text:
  • 500MB – $9.00 a month
  • 1GB – $10.00 a month
  • 2GB – $14.00 a month
  • 4GB – $19.00 a month
  • 6GB – $24.00 a month
  • 8GB – $29.00 a month
  • Unlimited Data – $39.00 a month (option only for newcomers to Tello)
  • No Data – $8.00 a month

• No Minutes – Only Data
  • 500 MB – $5.00 a month
  • 1GB – $6.00 a month
  • 2GB – $10.00 a month
  • 4GB – $15.00 a month
  • 6GB – $20.00 a month
  • 8GB – $25.00 a month

The no minutes, only data option does not allow for unlimited data.

There are several ways you can put the minutes and data together to get what is just right for you.

If you would rather pay as you go, Tello gives you this option starting at only $20.00. The rates depend on where you want to call and how you want to spend the money. Credits can be used for minutes, texts, or data. You pre-pay the amount you are willing to spend, and the credits stay as long as some have been used in the last three months. If not, you will lose what is remaining.

Coverage and Devices

Tello uses the Nationwide Sprint Network and boosts the 4G LTE for fast downloads and streaming. 

You are able to bring your own phone which is really nice so you don’t have to go out and buy a new one. Tello runs on CDMA phones. As long as your current phone is compatible and contract-free, you can use it.

If you discover that your phone is not compatible, you can purchase one through Tello. They have many phones to choose from starting as low as $25.00. You can use any of the phones with any of the plans and there is Free Shipping. 

Summary of Tello

Tello is a great option for sole business owners just starting out. They offer low starting points, no contracts, no fees, mix and match data and minutes plans, and even pay as you go options. The Unlimited Data feature is a huge benefit for newcomers.

Double-check your area coverage and your phone’s compatibility before you get started.

The Bottom Line

If you feel like you’re paying too much for your business cell phone plan, you probably are!

Finding the right cell phone plan can take some research, but we recommend starting with our partner, Mint Mobile.

Find the plan that’s best for you.

If you have any other ideas for saving money on business cell phone plans, let us know in the comments!

Don’t feel like a new business cell phone plan? Try negotiating your current plan using one of these services.