Giffgaff review

Giffgaff is a low-priced mobile provider offering a range of great-value Sim deals. How did its customers rate it?

Before signing up for a new phone deal, read our review of Giffgaff to see how it did in our regular mobile phone satisfaction survey.

Discover which mobile network providers impressed their customers most in our latest survey, which reveals the best and worst mobile networks. 

What Giffgaff's customers told us

• 'They are the best on the market, with the lowest prices, which you can change every month if it doesn't suit your needs.'
• 'Good value for money and very easy to deal with them.'

Giffgaff mobile provider review

Customer score: 80% (3rd out of 17). Which? members can also read our full review, including how its customers rated it for key factors, such as customer service and network reliability.

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• Which? Verdict

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What network does Giffgaff use?

Giffgaff is a virtual provider, which means it uses another provider's infrastructure – in this case, the O2 network. It offers 3G, 4G and 5G coverage.

How good is Giffgaff's mobile coverage?

You can check coverage where you live by using an interactive mobile network coverage map. Simply enter your postcode into the map and it will tell you how good O2's signal is in your area, as well as comparing it with the other providers.

Giffgaff's deals and incentives

Giffgaff works in a different way from most networks. It doesn't offer traditional phone contracts – instead, it sells monthly pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Sim cards that you top up with credit or bundles of texts, minutes and data (it calls these 'goodybags').

Goodybag prices start at £6 a month, giving you 2GB of data with unlimited minutes and texts. Spending more gives you more minutes, texts and data. Costs outside your monthly allowance are reasonable – 25p a minute for calls to UK mobiles and landlines (free to other Giffgaff numbers), and 10p per text and MB of data – although the cost per minute has continued to creep up over the past couple of years.

You're free to change to a different goodybag each month, or stop completely. Customers receive a monthly email summarising their recent usage and recommending the best goodybag to buy for the next month. You can do this online or by buying a voucher in selected shops, and you can set up goodybags to automatically recur each month.

Giffgaff has also launched what it calls 'Good Contracts' – 18-month Sim-only deals – which are their first contract of this type. There are a variety of data options from £8 for 6GB of data, to £25 for unlimited data, or medium data deals such as £15 for 40GB. All deals come with unlimited calls and texts, and 5GB of free EU roaming. The contracts are flexible, so you can move the data included up or down without needing to haggle or switch plans, and changing the amount won't reset the contract. 

You can also buy a phone from Giffgaff – but again, this works in a different way from normal. You buy an unlocked, Sim-free handset that you pay for on a monthly basis through a finance deal, and then combine this with a goodybag of your choice. But, as the phone is unlocked, you're free to switch to a deal from another provider at any time.

Compare the best Giffgaff Sim-only deals and see how much you could save.

Does Giffgaff increase its prices each year?

As Giffgaff offers rolling 30-day Sim-only contracts, customers are not hit by costly inflation-based mid-contract price increases. Before the end of the month, you will be able to check what the price to renew is. 

If it does increase or is too expensive, you can simply switch to a different network with no penalty.

Alternatively, their 'Good Contracts' have a commitment to not increasing prices for the duration, as explained above. 

For more tips on how to avoid costly inflation-based price increases, read our guide to 10 ways to save money on your mobile phone bill.

Giffgaff stores

Giffgaff is an online-only provider and doesn't have any of its own shops. If you need any help or advice, then you need to get this via the FAQs or forums on the Giffgaff website.

Find out how other providers fared in our guide to the best and worst mobile networks. 

Recommendations you can trust

Which? is independent – we work for you, the consumer, so you can be sure that our recommendations are only influenced by our test and survey results. We're not swayed by third parties and we don't accept freebies from product manufacturers or retailers. We buy all the products that we test ourselves, so our advice helps you to make the right choice first time and avoid costly mistakes.