Boost Mobile Review: Is This Low-Cost Cell Service The Best Bang For Your Buck?

The days of years-long cell phone contracts and subsidized devices have passed. Cell service providers face sufficient competition now to know they can’t lock us into complicated, overpriced deals.

Boost Mobile is a well-known name for anyone seeking affordable service — but is it your best option among the newer companies that have sprung up in the past two decades?

Here’s everything you need to know about using Boost Mobile, including how it stacks up with newer competitors.

Boost Mobile is a long-time player in the low-cost cell service field, with service in the United States since 2001. It was one of the earliest services to offer unlimited talk, text, and data on a wireless plan starting in 2006.

The company offers low-cost, no-contract, prepaid cell phone plans and discount smartphones, including iPhones and Android phones, as well as a basic flip phone. It’s available to users all over the U.S. through retail stores and online.

Boost runs on the T-Mobile (formerly Sprint) network and DISH service as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), which means it connects you to service but doesn’t operate the network itself.

Boost was originally founded in Australia in 2000 and still runs there on the country’s Telstra network.

To sign up for a Boost Mobile plan, you first have to have a compatible phone. You can either buy a phone from Boost — it offers Apple and Android phones in a range of prices — or bring your own and buy a SIM kit to make it compatible.

Once you set up your old phone or receive your new phone from Boost, you can go to the website and click “Activate” to start your plan. You’ll choose whether to use a new phone number or port an existing one.

Then you’ll go through the sign-up process to set up your account, select your plan, and make your first payment to activate your device and your plan.

Boost doesn’t charge an activation fee, so you’ll just pay your first monthly price to get started. Note: if you’re using a certified pre-owned device, you’ll pay an upfront $10 fee but also get a credit to your account for $10 to offset the charge.

Boost Mobile offers two unlimited phone-and-data plans, plus two main limited-data plans you can mix and match to create a family plan.

It also offers plans at various price points to certain customers, and its Shrink It plan starts at $45 per month and drops the price after six months of on-time payments.

Boost Mobile plans

Not sure what kind of data you need? Here are some examples of typical data usage:

• Music streaming – Listen to 24–35 hours of music at normal quality with 1GB.
• YouTube – About 24MB per minute (1.5GB per hour), but it varies significantly depending on your video quality settings.
• Netflix – About one hour of standard definition uses 1GB; one hour of HD uses 3GB.
• Social media (Facebook and Instagram) – 8+ hours per 1GB with autoplay off. Watching videos uses more data.

Phone prices

You can’t lease your phone with a Boost Mobile plan. You can either bring your own and buy a SIM card (to make it compatible with Boost’s network), or buy a discounted Apple or Android phone for an upfront, flat payment.

Boost offers a range of smartphones, from a $35 Wiko to the latest iPhone at $1,000+.

Add-on services

Add features to your Boost Mobile phone or service plan for additional monthly fees.

Boost Mobile offers fairly standard features for a low-cost cell phone carrier: no contracts, unlimited talk and text, and access to high-speed data nationwide.

No service contract

You won’t sign a one- or two-year contract to use Boost Mobile. All plans are month-to-month, so you can cancel at any time.

Order and activate your plan online

You can set up your Boost Mobile plan entirely online — no need to go into a store. You can bring your own phone and order a SIM card, or order a new phone through Boost. Once it arrives, you can activate your service plan online and start using your phone right away.

Mobile hotspot

All Boost Mobile plans include the option to use your phone as a mobile hotspot — so you can not only use your phone’s data on your phone, but also connect it to your laptop or tablet to use like Wi-Fi.

Unlimited plans include a hotspot limit — 12GB or 30GB, depending on your plan, which is pretty significant for most typical users. With limited-data plans, your hotspot usage counts against your data allowance.

Unlimited talk and text

Like almost every cell service provider, Boost includes unlimited talk minutes and texts with all plans. That excludes international calling and texting, which will cost you $5 to $10 more per month as an add-on service.

4G and 5G LTE

Boost Mobile operates on the Sprint (T-Mobile) network, as well as an Expanded Data Network it accesses through its parent company, DISH.

That means you’ll generally have the coverage you’d expect with a Sprint plan, which is nationwide, but spotty in many cities and rural areas. And customers with compatible phones (most are) get access to the Expanded Data Network, which should make up for some of the spottiness of Sprint’s network, though not for calling and texting (unless you use data for those).

Boost Perks

T-Mobile is the most well-known cell carrier to offer customer perks, but many competitors are in the game, too. 

Boost Mobile customers get access to rotating perks, special deals, and giveaways from partners including Papa John’s, AMC, Circle K, Sam’s Club, Avis, Tidal, and more.

Privacy Premium

Protect your data from identity theft with the Privacy Premium bundle for an extra $5.99 a month. The bundle includes:

• Secure Wi-Fi – Encrypt your data, regardless of the Wi-Fi network.
• Call Screener Premium – This service identifies and blocks spam calls.
• Premium Visual Voicemail – This upgrade transcribes all voicemails to text and automatically forwards them to your email.

Boost Shield

Add phone insurance from Brightstar Device Protection and McAfee security for your data for $7 a month. Boost Shield covers cracked screens, water damage, loss, theft, and out-of-warranty problems with your phone.

The McAfee feature, Mobile Security, protects your phone against things like viruses, malware, and phishing. It’ll help you find, lock, and wipe personal data from your phone if it’s lost or stolen, and gives you 2GB of backup for contacts, photos, and videos.

You have to buy Boost Shield within 30 days of purchasing your new phone from Boost or bringing your own device to Boost.

BoostUP!

Existing Boost Mobile customers may qualify for BoostUP!, which offers 18-month financing for smartphones included in your monthly service bill. 

To qualify, you have to be a Boost Mobile customer with a monthly plan of $35 or more and have made 12 consecutive on-time monthly payments. Once you’re eligible, you’ll see the option noted in your account next time you want to purchase a new phone.

My Boost App

Customers can manage their accounts entirely through the My Boost App for iOS or Android. The mobile app lets you make payments, track your data usage, see your plan details, and connect with customer support, right from your phone.

Support

Boost Mobile’s website has a thorough FAQ section and community forums to help you find answers to most of your account- and product-related questions. If you still need help, you can talk with a customer support rep directly via:

• Live chat – Available online Monday through Friday 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific, and Saturday and Sunday 4 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Phone – Call 866-402-7366 during business hours, Monday through Friday 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific, and Saturday and Sunday 4 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Getting set up with Boost is super easy for anyone with internet access — or, if you want a sales rep to help you set everything up, a store nearby. Without the draconic complications of a service contract or even a device lease, set-up is straightforward.

Pick a phone, pick your plan. That simplicity is refreshing.

The drawback is that you have no way to roll the cost of a smartphone into your mobile service plan, a nice convenience you can get from the major carriers. You either have to pay for your phone upfront (if you don’t already have one) or lease it directly from the company, like Apple or Samsung.

Boost’s other drawback is the major issue carriers compete on: coverage. It’s on Sprint’s network, which offers nationwide coverage and will very likely promise coverage in your town, but it can be spotty. And coverage is sparse in rural areas in the western U.S., including huge parts of California, Washington, and Idaho. 

Low data users

Boost’s lowest costs come in exchange for limited data. You can get service for as little as $10 per month, but that only gets you 1GB of data — which you could use in about a week with an hour per day on social media.

But if you spend most of your time at home and work with your phone connected to Wi-Fi — or you just don’t browse the internet or apps on your phone much — low data limits won’t be a problem.

If you’re a low data user, you’re better off with a low-cost plan from a carrier like Boost than a high-cost, high-data plan from a major carrier, where you’ll pay for access to data you’ll never use.

Anyone who wants to keep their phone

If you want to change carriers but keep your phone for a few more years, Boost is a great deal for you. You could get a low-data plan for $10 or $15 per month. You can also get $10 off the price of unlimited plans for six months if you bring your own phone.

Families with children

Boost offers complete flexibility to build the “family plan” that works for your household, so you can get all the coverage you need — without paying for extra — with one monthly bill.

On Boost, you’ll just pay per line you add based on how much data each line needs. So you can get an unlimited plan for yourself and bring on others — the kids? Grandma? — on a much cheaper line. You can also boost plans with extra monthly data, so you can easily adjust and grow plans as your family’s needs change.

Frequent travelers

Low-cost carriers tend to be on less-ubiquitous networks — e.g. Sprint — and, on top of that, they get deprioritized service when there’s a high demand on the network in an area. That means a high potential for spotty cell and data coverage.

If you know the network is solid in your area, Boost Mobile might be fine for you. But if you frequently travel outside of your surrounding area — even within the U.S. — you might want to opt for a more reliable network, like Verizon.

Lovers of the latest iPhone

If you’re a must-have-it kind of person when it comes to the newest devices, you might not love Boost.

It offers the latest phones, which is a leg up on some low-cost competitors, but it doesn’t offer financing plans. You’ll have to pay upfront (or go to the manufacturer directly) when you want to upgrade to the newest model.